A/N: Alright, so yes, there are kind of a lot of frequent updates based solely on the fact I'm trying to get as much of this story done before school starts as I possibly can. Thanks to: Sarnia Nereid, noodlesandcheese, Blood and Dark Chocolate, and Prunella7 for reviewing. Those of you who added the story to their alerts or favourites, I do love you guys as well, but I would love you even more if you reviewed. Plus, then you get your names put down in infamy at the beginning of the chapters!

Disclaimers: The lyrics to "Roll Away Your Stone" belong to Mumford & Sons. The lyrics to "Foreign Language" belong to Anberlin. Links to the songs can be found on my profile on the off chance that someone in the universe hasn't heard "Roll Away Your Stone" before...

Chapter Seven – Foreign Language

(Teddy)

"We'll be fine," Tom assured me, running his hands through his hair in a manner that suggested they would not be fine.

"No, seriously, don't worry about it," Logan recommended. "It's not like you have any room at your place for us for Christmas anyways."

"I do," Rian said. "Seriously guys. My parents like you both. If you don't want to stay here for Christmas, you're more than welcome to come stay with us."

"We'll be fine," Tom said. "We'll get up to trouble and it'll all work out. Just…go home. Have a great Christmas. And bring us shit tons of chocolate frogs."

"Yeah," Logan agreed. "We got Adrian to fix a laptop for us and jerry-rig it so we get internet. I think we're going to spend the entire break figuring out how to project YouTube videos onto parchment so we can screw with people and get extra credit in Muggle Studies."

"We are?" Tom asked.

"Just think about it – one day, all the Hufflepuffs pull out their parchment and suddenly 'Honey Badger' is playing on full volume," Logan said, spreading his hand across the air in front of him to demonstrate the brilliance of his idea.

"Good luck with that," I said. "You're sure you're going to be fine?"

"Yeah," Tom replied. "I mean, we'll be crashing at your house all summer whether or not you'd like us to, so do with that what you will."

"Why?" Rian asked.

"So we don't have to talk to our dad," Logan explained. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

Rian looked like she really did want to know, but we were about to miss the train to London.

"Well, we'll see you guys when we get back," she promised, hugging Tom and then going to hug Logan. They paused about a foot from each other and then awkwardly shook hands instead. Tom rolled his eyes.

"Bye," I said, clapping them both on the shoulder and following Rian out to the platform. Adrian caught up to us, huffing and puffing, while we found a compartment.

"Where are the McEwans?" he asked curiously, collapsing into a seat.

"They're staying at Hogwarts for Christmas," I explained. I had my guitar out before the train had left the station and Rian tapped out a beat on the table with a couple of books for a different sound than just the table.

We had been going like this for a few minutes when the compartment door slid open and three first year Gryffindor girls helped themselves to our compartment. I rolled my eyes.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded.

Their ring leader was tall – taller than me or Rian but a head shorter than Adrian – and vaguely resembled a pug. She walked with an air of self-importance. The last time I had seen her, her second-in-command was a quiet, mousy girl with pretty green eyes who was very slight and very good at keeping her head down and taking absolutely anything Bailey said to her as absolute gospel. Apparently, though, she had been demoted in favour of the strawberry blonde with a bad case of spots and thick glasses who I had known for my entire life.

"Hi Victoire," Rian said, smiling kindly at her. Victoire looked startled at being addressed, but smiled back.

"Hi Rian," she said. "Do you lot mind if we sit here?"

"Go ahead," Rian said. I grumbled and set my guitar in my lap, trying not to cringe when Bailey sat next to me.

"Can I help you?" I asked her.

"What were you playing on your guitar?" she asked curiously.

"Erm…it's called Roll Away Your Stone," I replied, hoping like hell she wasn't going to ask me to play it.

"You sing?" Victoire asked, sounding deeply confused.

"He's actually really good," Rian piped up. I shot her a pointed look that said she wasn't helping, but she either didn't get it or ignored me because she liked watching me suffer.

"Play for us," Bailey commanded. Normally, I would've thought of it as a request, but Bailey clearly thought of herself as a princess capable of commanding her "loyal" subjects to do what she wanted.

"Come on, Teddy," Rian said with an evil smile. I re-evaluated and decided she definitely just liked watching me suffer.

I grumbled slightly to myself and mumbled the spells that would make my guitar emulate several different instruments at once. Over the past four months, I had got pretty good at it.

Roll away your stone, I'll roll away mine.

Together we can see what we will find.

Don't leave me alone at this time,

For I'm afraid of what I will discover inside.

'Cause you told me that I would find a hole

Within the fragile substance of my soul

And I have filled this void with things unreal

And all the while my character it steals.

But darkness is a harsh term don't you think?

And yet it dominates the things I've seen.

It seems that all my bridges have been burned.

But you say that's exactly how this grace thing works.

It's not the long walk home that will change this heart,

But the welcome I receive with a restart.

And darkness is a harsh term don't you think?

And yet it dominates the things I've seen.

Darkness is a harsh term don't you think?

Yet it dominates the things I've seen.

I was peripherally aware of Rian drumming out a beat along with me. Also of all three girls and Adrian staring at me with some combination of shock and awe.

Stars hide your fires, these are my desires

And I won't give them up to you this time and so,

I'll be found with my stake stuck in this ground

Marking the territory of this newly impassioned soul

Hide your fires, these here are my desires

And I won't give them up to you this time around

And so I'll be found with my stake stuck in this ground

Marking the territory of this newly impassioned soul

And you, you've gone too far this time.

You had neither reason nor rhyme

With which to take this soul that is so rightfully mine.

"That was amazing," Hannah gushed before she clapped her hands over her mouth and resumed staring at her knees.

"Who's it by?" Bailey asked.

"Erm…they're called Mumford and Sons," I said.

"I've never heard of them," she replied, clearly getting ready to dismiss them as fictional because they didn't exist in her universe.

"Well, they're a Muggle band," Rian said with a shrug. "I think they're from London or something."

"Oh," Bailey said. "Well, that would explain it."

"Explain what?" I asked in a dark voice.

"Why they weren't very good," she said with a shrug. I saw Hannah and Victoire exchange indecipherable looks.

I smiled calmly at Bailey. "Get the fuck out of our compartment," I said.

"Excuse me?" Bailey asked, blinking in a very taken aback manner.

"I said get the fuck out of our compartment," I repeated, a slight tone of irrational anger slipping into my voice although the smile didn't fade.

She gave me an affronted look and stood up, tossing her hair indignantly. "Come on," she commanded, stalking out of the compartment.

Hannah jumped up immediately and followed her out. Victoire took a moment longer.

"What are you doing, Vicky?" I asked quietly.

Maybe it was because I called her Vicky, but all she did was give me an annoyed look before she left after Bailey and Hannah.

"Murder is still illegal right?" Rian asked after a moment.

"Yup," I replied glumly. "Although maybe if we gave reasonable justification in the form of baseless discrimination against Muggles they wouldn't charge us."

Adrian was silent for a long moment while Rian and I fumed.

"Why would the pug-faced girl be mean to people?" he asked finally.

"Because sometimes people are bitches," Rian replied, ruffling his hair.

"Yeah, but she's not pretty so no one's going to like her ever if she's mean," Adrian said, still looking confused. I laughed and went back to playing my guitar.

OOooOOooOOooOO

"Marks," Harry said before he even said hi. I handed him my end of term scores and he perused them quickly, then smiled and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "See, I knew you could do it."

"I'm very sorry that I got distracted last term," I said. "Can we go quickly?"

"We're giving Victoire a ride," Harry replied.

I groaned in exasperation and scuffed my shoe on the ground while we waited for Victoire to show up. Eventually, she appeared, thankfully without Bailey or Hannah in the immediate vicinity.

"Hi Uncle Harry," she said, hugging him with one arm since the other was wrapped around her very happy looking fox. Tentatively, I reached out to scratch his ears, but he growled at me and I retracted my hand.

"Shall we?" Harry asked, leading us off the platform towards the car. I jumped into the front seat before Victoire could say anything and was buckled in and ready to go before Harry had even opened his door.

He gave me a suspicious look and took Victoire's bag so he could toss it in the boot.

"Eager to get home?" he asked, climbing into the front seat and starting the car.

"Eager to get away from Victoire's 'friends,'" I replied, throwing air-quotes around the word friend. Harry raised his eyebrow.

"Not everyone can make friends as easily as you can, Teddy," Victoire mumbled, stroking her fox's head and staring at the floor.

Harry glanced sideways at me and then at Victoire in the rear mirror.

"It's not like you've ever had to sit alone in the Great Hall," Victoire continued. "Or on the train."

"No one sits alone on the train," I said, giving her a disbelieving look.

Inexplicably, her eyes brimmed with tears and her face turned red and she went back to staring at the floor. I rolled my eyes and stared out the window with my foot on the dash.

"Foot. Dash," Harry said, giving me a disapproving look.

I dropped it and chewed on my thumb instead.

"So tell me about your friends, Victoire," Harry requested, smiling at her in the rear-view mirror.

"I've only got two," she said quietly. "Bailey and Hannah."

"Well that's alright." He sounded kind about it. "I only had two friends for a very long time as well."

"Bailey hates Muggles and everything they touch," I supplied.

"Sorry, what?" Harry asked, his voice suddenly sharp.

"She doesn't hate them," Victoire argued. "She just doesn't understand since she's pureblood."

"So are you," I pointed out.

"I am not!" she insisted.

"No, right, you're one eight Veela," I said with an eye-roll. "I want to see Bailey sit through Muggle Studies without exploding. I think Professor Appleby would die. Except, no, I like Professor Appleby. I take it back."

"Victoire, does your friend try and convince other people that Muggles aren't equal?" Harry asked in a very serious tone.

"No, it's not like that," Victoire said. She sounded sort of desperate. "She's just never seen anything Muggle before."

"I dunno," I piped up. "She liked the song I played until I told her it was by a Muggle band."

Victoire opened her mouth to argue and then realised she couldn't and went back to staring at her knees.

"Victoire, I'm pretty sure your parents are going to agree with me on this, but I don't think any of us really want you associating with people who hate Muggles," Harry said gently.

"She's in my dormitory," Victoire protested.

"That doesn't mean you have to talk to her," I pointed out. "I don't talk to either of my dormmates."

Victoire stayed silent in the back of the car.

"Well, what about your friend Hannah?" Harry asked.

"She doesn't have a spine and does whatever Bailey tells her," I said.

"Shut up Teddy," Victoire insisted. "You don't understand."

"Understand what? That you have terrible taste in friends?" I asked.

"Teddy," Harry scolded softly. I huffed and looked back out the window.

Ginny was happy to see me and Victoire was really happy to get in the Floo and head back to her house. Harry was really insistent on questioning me about Victoire's friends and I realised belatedly that he was the head of the auror department and was trying to figure out if Bailey's family were Death Eaters. At that point, I felt sort of bad except that she was a stuck up bitch and whatever I said about Hannah not having a spine, Victoire was almost as bad.

"How's band practice going?" Ginny asked over dinner.

"Great," I replied. "We can play a few songs already and we're working on coming up with our own but we don't really have any inspiration yet."

"Well that's a nice start," she said. "Any girls on the horizon?"

"Erm…" I mumbled, starting to blush despite myself. I made sure my metamorphmagusing abilities covered it before it got too bad. All through the term, Tia Thompson had been taking every possible occasion to run into me at random moments, and ask me about my band, and compliment my family's bravery during the war.

"Oh," Harry said with a smile. "Do you have a crush on a girl? Is it Rian?"

"What?" I demanded. "No!"

"No you don't have a crush or no it's not Rian?" Ginny asked.

"No it's not Rian," I replied. "Rian is one of the guys. And she and Logan bicker way too much for that even to be a thing ever, so, no. It's not Rian."

"Who is it?" Ginny asked, sounding very enthusiastic about it.

"I don't even really have a crush on her," I insisted. "She's just got a crush on me."

"Is she pretty?" Harry asked.

"Erm…yeah, I guess kind of," I admitted. "I dunno."

"Do you like girls?" Ginny asked.

"Ginny," Harry said with a slightly annoyed look.

"What? It's a valid question," she replied. "Most of the time we really weren't sure about Percy, no matter if he had a girlfriend. I mean, now we know he's got laid at least twice but-"

"What's laid?" James asked.

Harry glared at Ginny. "See, now we have to explain," he said.

"No we don't," Ginny said. "Watch." She turned to six-year-old James. "We'll tell you when you're older."

"But I want to know now!" James insisted. Al looked up from his seat.

"What?" he asked.

"Hey James," Ginny said. "There are biscuits on the counter."

It was instantaneous. James slid out of his chair and Al chased after him and any talk about the owls and snitches was forgotten.

"I do like girls," I assured her. "I just – I dunno. Am I supposed to like girls that way yet? What do you even do with them?"

"When you're thirteen?" Ginny asked. She shrugged. "Hold hands?"

I considered this idea for a moment and realised I really wouldn't mind holding Tia's hand. She had sort of nice hands, now that I thought about it. They were small and looked soft unlike mine, which had got terribly calloused from my guitar strings.

"How old were you when you had your first boyfriend?" I asked.

"My first boyfriend? Erm…fourteen," she said. Harry glowered. "But I went to a dance when I was thirteen."

Harry kept glowering and grumbled to himself.

"My darling husband didn't have his first real girlfriend until he was sixteen," Ginny said. "Although he did date a girl in fifth year for about a month, sort of."

She looked like she was about to laugh, but Harry looked rather put out.

"Who was his first girlfriend?" I asked.

Ginny smiled. "Me," she said, winking at him across the table.

I wanted to ask about their first kisses but wasn't quite sure how. Ginny seemed to understand, however, without my saying anything.

"The trollop he dated was also the first girl he kissed," Ginny said. "He was fifteen."

"Thanks, Gin," Harry said, taking a deep drink from his beer bottle.

I did my best not to laugh at him. "What about you?" I asked.

"I was thirteen when I had my first kiss," she said with a shrug.

"Wait, what?" Harry asked. Apparently this was news.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "It wasn't even a real proper kiss," she assured him. "I just kissed Neville goodnight on the way back from the Yule Ball."

Harry's jaw dropped comically. "Neville Longbottom snogged a girl before I did?"

"Honestly Harry, we didn't snog," Ginny said dismissively. "I saved snogging until fourth year."

He kept glowering and wouldn't be dissuaded.

"So who's this girl, Teddy?" Ginny asked.

"Her name's Tia," I said. "Well, Celestia technically, but she goes by Tia."

"What house is she in?" Ginny asked.

"Ravenclaw," I replied. "Like me. She's sort of the only person in my year and house that I've talked to."

"But who do you hang out with at Quidditch games?" Harry asked. "When you're not playing, of course."

"Whichever of Rian, Tom, and Logan aren't playing," I replied. "Or when Gryffindor and Slytherin are playing each other, I hang out with Adrian."

"Who?" Ginny asked.

"Rian's little brother," I explained.

"What about Victoire?" Ginny asked.

"What about her?" I replied.

"You two don't ever talk to each other?" she asked, sounding concerned.

"Why would we?" I asked. Ginny didn't seem to have a good answer so she let it drop.

OOooOOooOOooOO

Christmas passed quickly and then suddenly we were back at school. I sat down at dinner the first night back with Rian and Adrian while we waited for Tom and Logan to show up. They did eventually, but they brought with them a gaggle of first years from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.

"Hey guys," Tom said, sitting down next to me, high-fiving Rian, and flicking Adrian in the side of the head by way of greeting.

"Who are your new friends?" Rian asked cautiously, nodding at the first years.

"Erm, this is Nick," Logan introduced, pointing at a short, short haired first year boy in a Ravenclaw tie. "And Michael." A gangly, wide-eyed Gryffindor. "David." Stocky, gigantic afro of hair despite being whiter than Tom and Logan. "And Katelyn."

Katelyn was tiny in every way and had dark brown hair and brown eyes and was probably less than five feet tall.

"We were all stuck here at Christmas together and we were the only six people here," Katelyn explained. "Who are you guys?"

"I'm Teddy, this is Rian, and Adrian," I said. "So, wait, you're in Victoire's dormitory aren't you."

Katelyn rolled her eyes. "You mean the Executive Suite of Queen Bailey and her disciples?"

"That's the one," I agreed. "I'm sorry."

"At least you don't know Tori and Ellie as well," Katelyn said. "Because oh my god it's awful. Why d'you ask about Victoire?"

"They grew up together," Rian explained.

Katelyn shrugged. "She's fine I guess, but she doesn't stick up for herself," she said. She took a bite of some of Michael's dinner and then considered for a moment. I noticed that she had a giant plate of food that probably weighed more than she did. "Well, no, she did stick up for herself once. And now Tori and Ellie hate her and tend to steal her stuff when we're in the showers."

I was suddenly stricken by the impression that I was a terrible human being. But it passed quickly and I moved on.

"Why the hell do girls do that sort of shit to each other?" Tom demanded, looking between Rian and Katelyn like one of them might have an explanation.

"Beats me," Rian said with a shrug.

"You jack my shit all the time," Logan said, glaring at him.

"Yeah, but not to be mean," Tom pointed out.

"Hey, so how did the Honey Badger thing work out?" I asked.

"You'll see," Logan assured me.

And I did see. The next morning at breakfast, every time a Hufflepuff looked at a piece of parchment, a voice would start up saying, "Honey badger don't care. Honey badger don't give a shit. It just takes what it wants. Oh look, it's eating a cobra. Oh look it runs backwards."

Fortunately, all the Hufflepuffs thought this was hilarious. From everything my gran had ever told me about my mum, I was pretty confident she would have found it funny as well. Professor Appleby even gave Tom and Logan extra credit in Muggle Studies for spending time on YouTube.

January passed quite excellently. We beat Hufflepuff at Quidditch even if we lost to Slytherin.

Then one day I was sitting in Charms alone because Rian had the flu and Tom and Logan had ducked off to the toilet. While I waited for them to come back, Tia walked up shyly and sat down next to me. She didn't say anything, just sat there. Sat there and blushed when I looked at her.

Tom and Logan eventually showed up and sat down next to me with suspicious looks at Tia.

"What happened?" Logan whispered.

"I dunno," I whispered back. "She just sat down."

Class passed normally except for the fact I was hyperaware of Tia sitting beside me. She didn't say anything to me until the very end of class when she scooped up all her books and notes, burned bright red, and said, "You have nice handwriting."

Then she turned and ran out of the room.

"Erm…what?" Tom asked as the three of us stared after her in confusion.

"I don't even…" I mumbled.

"I have an idea for a song," Logan said.

He didn't let any of us see it for about a month while he fine-tuned the lyrics and the music parts that he would want us to play. He admitted that Tom and I knew a lot more about guitars than he did and that Rian knew more about drums, but he eventually came back with a general idea.

"I like it," Rian said when he finally showed us.

"Yeah me too," Tom agreed.

"We could try to play it," Logan suggested, suddenly bashful.

The rest of us nodded in agreement and set to work trying to figure out how we would do it. Eventually we got to a point where we were happy with it, and started to play.

Boys speak in rhythm and girls in code.

Do doo do doo, do doo do doo.

Tell it to me straight, give it to me now

Face forward, face forward

We had an instrumental break and then repeated the opening. It was coming along quite nicely.

Speak in foreign language, nothing I can translate

You speak in foreign language, nothing I can dictate

You speak in foreign language.

Boys speak in rhythm and girls just lie.

Tell me how you feel, come out of the dark

And we can head back home and I'll know where to start.

Speaking foreign language, nothing I can translate

You speak in foreign language, nothing I can dictate.

You speak in foreign language.

Nothing I can translate, you're speaking foreign language.

Where did we go wrong? We need medication for this miscommunication.

Where did we go wrong? Our conversation's weakened,

Conversation's weakened.

Boys speak in rhythm and girls in code.

Do doo do doo. Do doo do doo.

Boys speak in rhythm and girls just lie.

"So what inspired that?" Rian asked when we had played it a few times.

"Your entire gender being bloody opaque," Logan replied.

"Hey!" Rian insisted. "I'm not opaque!"

"Just sort of the colour of your eyes, really," I said.

Rian huffed at us and rolled her eyes. "Alright, how's this for opaque. Teddy, Tia would really like it if you would ask her to Hogsmead. Tom, I think every single girl you've talked to this year is in love with you, except for me because I don't count. Logan – actually, I don't have anything for you right now, but give me a bit and I'll bring you some paint thinner."

The three of us shuffled our feet awkwardly.

"But it was a good song, and it's a fun starting place," she said. "Also, I'm starving. Let's go for food."

"Yeah," the three of us agreed, following after her with sheepishness in our eyes.

The moment we opened the door to our practice room, however, Rian ran straight into the person standing on the other side of the door.

"I trusted you!" the girl, quickly identified as Tia, exclaimed.

"It's fine," Rian assured her with a flippant sidestep. She walked out into the hallway and dragged Tom and Logan with her, leaving me alone with Tia. She was bright red in the face and looked mortified.

"Erm, hi," I said. She just kept staring at me with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I – I was just walking by and heard you guys playing and thought I'd stick around and l-listen," she explained, her voice shaking slightly. She stopped staring at me and instead went to stare at her feet.

"Yeah, we should work on the soundproofing spells," I said, scratching the back of my head awkwardly.

"No!" she insisted, her head snapping up. "Erm, sorry, I just – if you soundproofed the room no one would be able to hear you play and – and I should go."

She turned and looked like she was about to run away screaming and never talk to me again, but I grabbed her elbow.

"Wait," I said. "Do you want to go to Hogsmead with me?"

Her face lit up. "Really? You're not just asking me because Rian told you I wanted to go to Hogsmead with you are you?"

I reasoned my way through her sentence and came to the conclusion it was partly true, but then again, I had liked Ginny's proposition of holding Tia's hand.

"No, I actually want to go to Hogsmead with you," I said.

"Okay!" she exclaimed, sounding very enthusiastic about the idea. "I suppose I'll see you next Saturday then?"

"Or, you know, in class…" I pointed out.

She blushed. "Oh, right," she said. "Class." She giggled to herself, smiled at me, and then ran away.

In that moment I decided Logan had been right in his song. Girls really did speak a foreign language.

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