"Next tool! We need a wooden spoon." Mia directed the conversation by tugging them into a shady looking shop. Allie looked over the large, dark, paddle-like spoon that Mia haggled the owner into selling for cheap.
"Cool!" Mia looked at her with raised brows.
"Why are you so impressed by wooden spoons?" Allie sighed and scowled at the bottle she was holding.
"I'm not, I'm just trying to pretend that I'm okay with this."
"Fine, we'll return the vodka. But I want a gun." Mia's dead response startled Allie. Mia knew she knew what would happen if she got it. She laughed nervously.
"Vodka it is! But….I'll be taking the bottle. Do you like your penne spicy or cheesy?"
"I want to drink the vodka, Allie." Mia sighed. Did she not understand the kind of toll playing with strands of the universe took? When she touched that golden string, she saw thousands and millions of years. She was old, she was young, she suffered and caused suffering and it ripped her head in half. It made her want to die. Allie herself sighed.
"I know," she answered like the question had been out loud. The magic they were doing was powerful, but could be considered so wrong. Anytime she did those odd motions with her hands when her eyes blanked out, things happened. Allie didn't know what exactly the spells in the books did, but she knew that they did something to Mia. She had the strangest depressive episodes afterwards. She wasn't sure what went on, and it bothered her.
"So I will drink the vodka." Mia explained. Their faces were serious, so serious and almost sad that the boys lagging behind them were worried at the sight. Allie's face went back to normal.
"Fine. But only a bit," she huffed, thinking of how she paid the cashier to stick a vodka label on a bottle of sparkling grape juice without the knowledge of the other three.
"Well duh, I just wanna get tipsy. That won't take much," Mia said, casually holding a real bottle with the same label behind her back.
"I'll let you drink one shot of the real bottle hidden behind your back if we give the twins the grape juice one." Mia wouldn't put it past the other girl. But one shot wouldn't numb the pain that she needed to so badly.
"A glass of my choosing. What about that fake you're holding?" The lighter haired girl sighed, for the thousandth time that day. Her friend needed to stop doing those spells, or she was going to get addicted to something bad.
"Deal, as long as it's not bigger than 356 ml. The grape juice is for the twins. And you announce to the Great Hall that Allie is the most amazing person in the world."
"We already knew that?" Her statement came out as a question as though it were obvious. Allie flushed.
"Aww! Thanks! You'll drink after the spell." Mia gave her an incredulous look.
"Well duh, I don't want to die." Yet.
"Let's go to dinner," the Hufflepuff laughed.
"Okay. But these should go in my room." Mia nodded her head towards the bottles, serious expression back. Some of the students and teacher kept shooting the two looks. Allie yelped.
"No! I don't trust you not to drink it!"
"Puffs get room searches, and I can stay with you until nighttime when I'm going to bed," Mia reasoned. Allie frowned.
"That's why there's a hidden compartment in my trunk that only I can open. I am not leaving you with the vodka," Allie stated firmly, grabbing both bottles of vodka and sticking them in her bag. Mia gave her a serious look.
"So there's no way they can be found?" Allie grinned.
"Nope! Plus, if they ask, I can just open up the grape juice one and tell them it's a prank on you." Mia laughed, smiling for the first time in hours. When she wasn't doing things with the strings, enchanting, or doing things in that realm, she was happy. The silvery blue strings didn't hurt her. It was the different ones that messed with her mind. Especially the time strand. Yet she couldn't stop touching it. It shone like a cruel siren's song and she always found herself in front of it hand on the icy metal with her mind on fire.
"Then I'm cool with it. I have to head to the kitchen and get rock salt and the blood. It needs to mature overnight in a pewter bowl. Then we mix eggs and rock salt together. We set the hourglass in a magic rune circle made of the blood and pour the eggs on it-" Mia was cut off by Allie.
"The only reason I'm going along with this is to stop you from getting killed." Mia laughed.
"Plus you like-"
"Don't even finish that sentence. Goodnight Mia!" Allie said at lightning speed, running off.
Mia smirked. "Allie and-"
"MIA!"
(OvO)
_ ( )_
# #
"Just wear mine!" Mia called out when she heard Allie in her closet muttering about tearing. Allie poked her head out, unsurprised by Mia's calling.
"I don't know if you're aware of this, but I am quite petite." Mia rolled her eyes.
"Really, Allie, over eight years I've never noticed a thing."
"Point made." Allie laughed and disappeared for a few minutes before coming out in one of Mia's tee-shirts.
"Is that blood?" Mia gasped at the sight of her smaller friend's arm bruised and bloodied. Allie gave her a weak smile.
"No?"
"Allie that's not a question to be answering with another question. What happened?" Her voice was firm and Allie sighed.
"It was a Gryffindor boy. He tripped me and left before I could hex him."
"Name. Now." Mia looked livid, like the air around her was crackling with energy. Energy to hurt this boy.
"Eric Snow," Allie finally admitted. She rolled her eyes. "I tripped and fell into him and he got mad."
Mia left Allie to her own devices. She had some lion hunting to do.
"Eric Snow, right?" She finally found him. He was a sixth year, and she was not comfortable with how his eyes roamed her body.
"Ah, what do need?" Even his voice was sleazy.
"This," Mia said sweetly before landing a harsh punch to his face. With a sweet smile, she watched him spit out a tooth. She walked off before anyone said a thing, too stunned at her response. That bastard wasn't going to be trying anything anytime soon.
Later as Mia and Allie sat by Dumbledore's office, Mia was still holding his teeth. She'd be using them later. Allie hissed at her.
"This is your fault,"
"I hope so," her response made Allie gasp.
"What?!"
"Nobody lays a finger on my friends," Mia said simply before going back to fidgeting with the teeth.
"Now do you wanna tell me why you wanted teeth?"
Mia gasped, making a connection. "Wait that's what happened?"
"Duh," Allie giggled. "Honestly, Mia all he did was cast a tripping jinx on me. You should really start to recognize a glamour." Mia shot her a toothy grin.
"You seriously belong in Slytherin."
"The most Slytherin person is the one who isn't sorted into Slytherin," Allie said in response, sending the two into a laughter fit. The girls headed outside into the frigid weather.
"So what did you want with a tooth?"
"I'll tell ya later," Mia's face turned blank. Allie just shrugged.
(OvO)
_ ( )_
# #
The two had gone to bed early and boy were they regretting it now. The Great Hall was filled with whispers. There was talk about a break in. Mia waited for the authorities to call for quiet. As the room was dark and silent, Mia called out.
"SLEEP TIGHT, YA MORONS!"
The room erupted into whispers and giggles. Allie sighed and yelled out.
"SHUT UP! (and I say that with all love and affection,)" she added as Snape stormed towards her.
And the room was quiet again.
