The next morning I woke up late, although I was in my own bed, so it was a short stop to my closet and I was ready to go.
Roxy is waiting at breakfast. "Hey," she smirks.
"Yeah, yeah whatever," I roll my eyes, before munching defiantly on my toast, and picking up the letter the school owl drops in front of me before flying away, noting it's from my parents and sliding it into my pocket.
"Hey, bitches," Lucy greeted, dropping herself onto the seat across from me.
"Hello," I grinned.
"Have I told you about Byron?" she giggled, tossing her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder as she leaned in to gossip.
"No," I smiled excitedly, my headache fading. "Is this someone I should know about?"
"Only the world should!" she smiled. "He's purely gorgeous. Like no, he has this amazing skin and it's so amazing. Flawless, as well. Not only that, but he's super athletic. I mean- he's in like Quidditch Club and on his house team and everyone knows he's just going to have to get captain."
"He sounds like quite the catch, babe," I grinned. "So he shown any interest?"
"Ugh, I don't think so," Lucy shrugged.
"Oh, please," Roxy laughed, her pink nails reaching out to toss her cousin an apple. "That boy is practically drooling."
Lucy showed her heritage of the Weasley reflexes as she managed to catch the apple and take a bite out of it. "Same difference."
I let out an appreciative laugh at that. "Hey, if he isn't prepared to show he likes you, he ain't worth it."
"He'll show me," she grinned, her pale painted lips curling up into a smile.
"You sure that top's practical?" Roxy asked, looking at Lucy's little lace singlet.
"It's cute," she shrugged. "Besides, what're you - my dad now?"
"I'm the thing your dad dreads," Roxy protested as she enlarged her eyes and made 'ghost hands' in Lucy's face as her cousin swatted it away.
"Well I have class- unlike you slackers." I stood up as the pair attempted to shoot confetti out of their wands at one another.
"Yeah, go study for us then!" Roxy calls, and I sling my book bag over my shoulder, before starting a run towards the DADA classroom.
To my luck, once I get there, there are still people waiting outside. "You're not trying to be late on purpose are you?" Fred asks, and kisses my cheek good morning.
"Haha," I screw my face up at him and stick my tongue out. "No."
"Really?" Mila cocks an eyebrow and winds an arm around my waist even as James throws his over my shoulders, and makes sure that they don't touch. "Because for the last week every time you have entered this room you've scowled, muttered about punching someone, and then gone on and acted like you're some badass."
"Shush," I roll my eyes. "I can hate Defence if I want to."
"That you can my dear," Freddy murmured distractedly, while eyeing Des Kumari.
"No Freddy!" I reprimand. "He's an asshole."
"Well, he's kind of cute," Mila cocks her head to the side.
"Do I need to write to your mum," I narrow my eyes convincingly at her.
"By all means go ahead," she waves a hand as Professor Lupin (Teddy) arrives, walking in front of the class and unlocking the room, causing all of us to pile in, myself making for he back, where sure enough, James, Freddy and Mila pile in. Mila takes out a red nail polish and goes about applying it, tapping the word Halal on the front at my questioning glance.
"Today class," Professor Lupin starts. "We will be working on our nonverbal shield charms. Please partner up."
Mila groans, and nods her head at Freddy, before finishing her nail polish and flicking her wand to dry it.
"James," I pout at him, even as he stands up and holds his hand out, pulling me out of my seat as I hold onto my wand. We make our way to the middle of the room, where the rest of the class is, Professor Lupin performing a spell to carry the desks into the adjourning room.
"Not going to go easy on you V," he smirks.
"And after all I've done for you?" I gasp in shock, and raise a hand to my heart. "Honestly, I'm- HEY!"
"What?" James smirks even as my legs start carrying me into an Irish Dance. I grimace, and flick my wand, performing the counter curse.
"Oh, it's on," I say. Secounds later, violet light exits my wand and flies towards James. Of course, he's a magical genius and simply deflected it back to me with a Shield Charm, causing me to duck. So I end up falling on my back, with James' wand jabbing into my throat. "Ugh," I said, clunking my head back to the floor.
"V," James smirks and pulls his wand away, holding his hand out and pulling me up.
"I always loose to you," I sigh deeply.
"That's because I'm pretty incredible," James flashes a grin.
"Or because you're a massive loser," Britney walks by, hair flashing.
"Just ignore her," James murmurs, wrapping an arm around my waist to speak into my ear. "She's just jealous of how incredible you are."
I relax my tensed jaw, and cock a brow at him. "How can that be when I don't even know how to produce a Shield charm efficiently?"
"Come on," James rolled his eyes, and motioned for me to hold my wand out. "You just aren't flicking it right. It's more side along than up and down," one of his hands grasps my wrist and makes the motion for me, going though the movement carefully.
I follow the movement through, and a later I perform the charm. James steps back slightly, and sends an auguamenti towards me, which harmlessly bounces off in front of me.
I smile at James.
In the Common Room a few days later, I'm curled up against James, making my way through an essay and murmuring underneath my breath a song that'd been playing on the radio back home. "What's that?" James asks me.
"Just a song," I mutter, craning my neck to look at the plays James is scribbling. "I like the look of that one."
"That's the one you wrote to me about," James smirks.
"Oh is it?" I frown and bat my lashes. "I had no idea."
"Guys!" A cry alerted us of Dom's presence, as the group of cousins gathered around the fireplace turned around. "Something has gone wrong," she announced as she dumped herself beside me, flopping down.
"And what might that be exactly?" I frown at her, leaning to push her blonde hair back off her face.
"Jake Warner."
At the sound of the name, Fred, Lily, Lucy and Hugo nod in reply.
Jake and Dom are kind of known for having a one sided hate match. With Dom being the one who hated him. Jake, as anyone could see, was in love with her. That is, except Dom. And like most boys, he seemed to prefer the rather ineffective method of maybe if I try and beat her at everything she will be into me. It turned into a frantic battle for Dom to get better at everything than Jake, and she pulled everyone into it.
"So what did he do this time?" Lily raised a brow, braiding her red hair over her shoulder.
"Ugh," Dom slumps against the couch. "He cornered me in the library. Asked me to study with him. Does he think I'm an idiot? Like I wouldn't know that the only reason he was doing that was because he wanted to spy on me."
"Dom, honey," Lucy frowns, before pausing and calming her features. "I know you don't spend a lot of time with boys, but we really need to talk about the fact that just maybe, maybe, the boy does want to study with you. Maybe, just maybe, he wants to spend time with you."
Dom springs up off the couch and stares at Lucy. We all hold our breath.
"Merlin!" She finally calls out. "That's ridiculous!"
Lily hides her face in Freddy's chest and groans. Lucy sighs, and Dom stands up.
"Honestly Lucy, I thought you were good with boys! Warner wanting to spend time with me? Insane," she shakes her head and makes her way upstairs, no doubt to her dorm.
"What were we expecting?" James states, shaking his head.
That night when I go up, the letter from a couple of days ago is still on my night stand, my mothers hand writing perfect cursive, just like everything else in her life.
Dear Vestie,
Are you doing well at school? How are you? How are the girls in your dorm?
As always, all is well here. Your father is doing well at work, and is expecting a promotion soon, and is hoping to make it to the Championships! Your brother is doing well at school, although his English needs some work. His tennis is going well, and he is hoping to join the swim team as well this summer, so that should look very good on his resume.
Speaking of which, your sister has applied for a job all over town. She's also working an internship soon because she's in need of work experience, and the magazine is obviously good if she wants to pursue journalism.
I was thinking, perhaps this summer you could get an internship too? Or perhaps we could organise a sort of 'online' thing, where you could do some work for an organisation. We should look into it.
As always, love
Mum
"Hey V," Mila smiles as I slide into the seat next to her in Defence.
"Hey," I sigh, eyeing Britney Callow, who smirked at me, and raised an eyebrow, daring me to say something, do something. "What are we doing today?"
"Revision I think," Mila shrugs. "Where's James?"
"Hospital Wing," I shake my head. "Idiot got himself knocked off a broom in practice yesterday afternoon."
Mila shakes her head. "What was he doing?"
"Yelling at the beaters," I smirk, finding amusement.
Mila does as well judging by the smile on her face.
Of course, then Professor Lupin arrives, his hair pink. I smile at it even as Mila grimaces.
"Honestly, he'd look so much better with just dark hair," she screws her nose up.
"I like it," I say decisively.
"You would," Mila smiles.
And then Professor Lupin decides to partner us up. "Melissa Santaigo and Mila Lee," he calls out and I pout at Mila sadly, as she shakes her head, todays hijab in bright purple flicking to and fro.
Professor Lupin continues to mumble off pairings. And then he decides to call out my name. "Vestie Costa and Britney Callow," I sigh, and Mila raises her eyebrows in pity.
Making my way over to Britney, who stands flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder and twirling her wand.
"So. You ready to get beat?" She raises an eyebrow, thin and over plucked and too dark for her light hair.
I sigh, and raise my wand. I flick my wand, and a countdown charm sounds. Britney's eyes narrow, and I tense my body and lean forward and watch her body. And half a secound before the timer sounds, her body tenses, and a jet of light bursts from her wand. I duck and a wordless charm flicks out of my wand and heads towards her. Britney ducks and swivels, and a hex of green light hits my chest.
I flinch. And feel a horrible itch spread across my skin. "Familiar?" Britney asks.
"Remember in third year? Those pimples were not attractive."
I wince, and feel my face, where I can feel giant lumps - giants warts - on my face, extremely painful even when I just lightly brush them with my fingers. My lips curl up even as I feel my eyes water in pain and humiliation. Gently, I pull myself up from the ground, and return to my seat, even as Britney sneers, my wand raised as I try to think of reverse charms I knew of. Honestly, Britney could be a little more inventive. You'd think that I was worth a high school bitch with some intelligence. My head in my hand I watched the remaining duels, lights flashing and winced when they came too close.
Mila finished quickly, golden light exiting her wand and ropes tying up poor Melissa, who she quickly released and gave her a hug to show no ill will. I find myself wishing for James, even as Mila slid into a seat next to me. "Hey," she said, looking apologetic. "That was a nasty takedown."
"Whatever," I shrug, pulling my elastic out and let my hair fall onto of my face.
We sit in silence for a large amount of time and I watch the battles, my mind weary. Eva finds her way over to us, and I think offhandedly of how similar she and Mila are in terms of personality.
"You okay?" She frowns.
"Yeah," I mutter.
"Hey, Jen wanted to do her nails tonight," she says, smiling at Mila, who's in the process of writing a letter. "You should join us."
I know what she's proposing. A girls night. And strangely, I yearn for the act of the bitching and lusting that occurs. And so I nod and think back.
After dinner, I find myself sitting on my bed, with Jen and Em doing their nails and Eva, turning the earring perched at the top of my ear.
"I like it," Eva smiles, eyeing the turquoise stud I'd had her put in.
"You would," Em snorts, painting her big toenails sky blue.
"Of course she would. But it does look nice V," Jen smiles, raising a newly plucked brow. "It looks good."
"My parents are going to kill me," I say, screwing my face up and looking at it in the mirror.
"Not if you don't tell them," Eva teases.
I turn and raise a brow at her. "You clearly don't know them. My mother will be able to sniff it out within three seconds of me arriving home."
"So own it!" Eva announces, standing up, and flicking her long black hair over her shoulder, raising a thick brow. "Stand by it."
"Honey, you couldn't tell your mum you wanted a haircut," Jen smirks, and Eva sticks her tongue out, and somehow, in the midst of all of this, I manage to smile and keep calm and keep the words of Hufflepuff girls far from my mind.
"New bling," Mila nods, sliding into a seat next to me on Saturday morning, as I take a bite of my toast. "Digging it."
"Thanks," I grin.
"Have I shown you my new piercings yet?" Mila raises a brow, biting into a beach. "You should come to my dorm one day and I'll show you 'em."
"Sounds good," I reply, pulling my hair into a bun. "So what are you doing for the holidays?"
"Most likely shopping, going to a bunch of boring ass rich people parties, and eating their rich people food and being stared at," Mila cocks her head, looking thoughtful. "Fuck, I hate Christmas season."
"Yeah," I shook my head. "Not a big fan myself."
"And you know the thing is," Mila leans in, whispering conspiringly. "We only have holidays for Christmas. Like, hello? We aren't all Christians. And to be honest, the majority of people who are don't have any faith at all, and most of them don't even go to church. Like, hello, Christmas has just turned into this massive like agenda for rich people to just like throw balls and parties and shit and get presents."
. . .
"Mila, honey, you are rich," I commented, raising an eyebrow.
The train ride is nowhere near long enough, and I curl up on James' lap like I'm hoping he will be able to chase away the thought of home. He doesn't and all I can do is be glad as his fingers stroke through my hair as Mila and Freddy get into a small argument in one corner, with Jen and Em talking in the corner of the room.
"Gonna miss you," I murmur.
"V, it's only two weeks," James laughs.
"Still gonna miss you," I say, looking up at him.
"Hey, the offer still stands. If you want to Floo back early or something, you can come stay at my house whenever. Mum would love to you know, actually meet you."
"Haha," I screw my nose up. "You know how my parents are. They don't like the idea of me hanging out with a boy. And if they saw the way the girls at school hang around you . . ."
"Hey!" James exclaims.
"Just teasin'," I sing. "Seriously though, I'll meet your parents sometimes. Now just isn't it."
Mila sighs from across the room, and I know she feels sorry for me, but I push that to the back of my mind. The train pulls up, so quickly that my hearts aches because it's taking every secound away.
Sighing, I pull myself out of my seat on James and pull my suitcase down, the group of us making our way out into the corridor. I hug James goodbye, press a kiss to his cheek, and then turn to the others, hugging them goodbye and tell them all to write to me.
They return with promises and Jen murmurs that she will send my Christmas present in the mail. I smile, and shoulder my backpack, squeeze James' hand one last time before letting go and leaving the train, and the life I inhabited on it.
Next chapter: family drama and a reunion, that well, isn't easy. Then again, maybe that's why it's famous? Have a guess as to what I'm talking about. As always, I love you all. This chapter is being released on the day my favourite cousin got MARRIED to the love of her life, her beautiful bride, and I'd appreciate it if you keep them in your prayers! Much love always, Louisa (and do let me know what you think!)