So here's the new chapter! I don't have much to say this time, mostly because I got exams coming up and... yeah, pray for my ass (or laugh at my misery. That works too). Anyway, I gotta go back to studying now, so bye!(Someone save me!)
A cool breeze blew the player's hair out of their faces as the Slytherin and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams played against each other. With Christmas closing in on them – students who were planning to go back home for the holiday were scheduled to leave in two days - the weather was getting colder and colder by the second. At the moment, the sky was fully covered in clouds, giving the impression that the sky was white instead of blue. Magnus' nose felt as if it might break of- something he had learned could actually happen and he wasn't that keen on experiencing it.
Magnus, Halfborn, T.J and Conall were sitting at the stands and, much like them when Slytherin had played against Gryffindor last year, the latter was dressed in both teams' colors. Conall had been nervously looking around for a seat when Magnus saw him, clearly feeling out of place because of people looking at him. Magnus knew the feeling well; it was weird going to a Quidditch match dressed in both teams' colors, especially if it was the first time you did it.
"Hey, Conall!" Magnus had called out to him. "Come over here!"
The freckled boy had seemed extremely grateful to be taken out of the uncomfortable situation he had been in. He had walked over to where Magnus and his friends had been sitting and tried to make small talk. Magnus had made a point of being extra friendly- Conall was a friend of Alex, after all, so even if they hadn't talked much, that made him his friend.
The match had gone down like you'd expect a Quidditch match to go down. Both teams did their best to steal the balls and score points and the Seekers hovered above the court like hawks, scanning the space below them for any sign of the golden little ball that would guarantee them victory.
T.J was just as energetic as he always was during Quidditch games, easily cheering just as much as an entire cheerleader squad. With the addition of Halfborn, they were a sight to behold- they waved their scarves around and cheered with an almost religious fervor. With Halfborn's booming voice and T.J's enthusiasm, they were more than enough to make up for the entirety of the Slytherin stand – probably the Ravenclaw one too.
Magnus had been watching his friends go all out with an amused smile when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to Conall who was sitting next to him with a questioning look.
"Mm, what is it?"
"I, ah, I was wondering if you could help me with something," he said nervously. His hands were fiddling with the ends of his scarf and Magnus kind of wanted to tell him to stop doing that because he might completely ruin it if he kept at it.
"What is it?" Magnus asked.
"Well, um, I kind of-" Conall started. Realizing he was simply rambling on, he stopped and started over again. "Okay, so I have this friend and, well… I think I like her!" he said quickly.
Magnus was taken aback by the confession. He was expecting Conall to ask him about schoolwork or something like that. He wasn't expecting for the other boy to confide to him about his love life. He wanted to tell Conall he's better off asking T.J or Alex –even Sam- rather than him, but he was a sucker for helping people and he didn't want to disappoint him. He was already trying to get Halfborn and Mallory together – maybe he had some advice to give him. It might work.
His mind quickly went through all the girls he had seen Conall talk to more than once. There was Alex, obviously, but it couldn't possibly be him because he was a boy today (though maybe he didn't know, but it seemed unlikely it was Alex he was talking about). He tried to remember all the random people whose names he didn't know he had seen around Conall and he remembered a chubby girl with chocolate brown hair he had seen around the boy a lot. She recognized her from the Hufflepuff common room and he knew she was in his Herbology class. He remembered them working together often and laughing at Conall's bad jokes, so he felt confident she was the one he was talking about.
"Oh, okay. But what do you need my help for?" Magnus asked. He had a pretty clear idea what this was about, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions.
"Well, I, I think I like her, but… I'm not sure if I should tell her. I don't like hiding it from her, but I don't want things to be weird, so I'm not sure what to do."
Magnus nodded. Yeah, this is what he had been expecting. He thought back to the chubby girl. He had always though she was the giggly type of girl, mostly because he always remembered her giggling at one of Conall's joke, maybe a bit too much considering how bad they were (even if that was kind of the point). He had had random thoughts about how it looked like she had a crush on him, but he never entertained the thought too much, considering his habit of paring together people he didn't even know in his head.
"I think you should tell her," Magnus said. "Who knows, maybe she likes you back. And if she doesn't, just be mature about it and things won't be awkward." At least that's what they always say in TV shows.
"Are you sure?" the boy asked. Magnus had to say, Conall had an amazing ability to make himself seem as tiny as possible. With the way he was sitting hunched over his knees and his shoulders pulled high as if to hide himself, he looked like a frightened kitten in human form.
"Of course. Don't worry about it too much. Just be honest, I'm sure she'll understand. And if she does like you back, you might even become a couple, so it's kinda worth the risk," Magnus said, putting what he hopped was a comforting hand on Conall's shoulder. "Of course, you don't need to rush. Just prepare yourself and do it whenever you feel ready."
There was a moment of silence as Conall took it all in but eventually he nodded. "Alright. Thank you for helping-"
It was at this moment that an ear-splitting roar went up through the crowd and Magnus realized that he had lost track of time as they were talking and someone had caught the Snitch.
"What happened? Who caught it?" he asked confused, getting up from his seat in hopes he could see over the crowd at what had happened. It was no use; everyone was standing up, cheering because of whatever amazing game had just taken place. He looked around quickly in order to figure out which students were losing their shit more.
With that scientific method, he deduced it was Ravenclaw who had won. The majority of the cheering crowd was dressed in blue and T.J and Halfborn seemed a bit disappointed.
"We won! We won!" an overenthusiastic Ravenclaw student said as he grabbed Conall by the shoulders and started shaking him back and forth as if he couldn't believe what had just happened. Poor Conall was left there wondering of what had just happened and why a kid he had never talked to was shaking him like a rug doll.
Regardless of what had gone down, the stands slowly emptied as students went to congratulate their friends who had won, consult their friends that had lost or simply leave because the match was done.
Magnus, T.J, Halfborn and Conall were standing by the door of the Slytherin locker room, waiting for their friends to come out. They were taking longer than normal for some reason.
Magnus couldn't help but remember what had happened here a year ago. The moment was still fresh in his mind as if it had happened yesterday; the smell of the stuffy locker room around him, the sports equipment lining the selves, Sam's comforting touch as he told her about his mother's death. The burning in his eyes as he cried the tears he had been holding back for so long, the hoarseness of his throat from the crying, the sorrow that had finally allowed to wash over him after keeping it back like water in a dam.
Still… Magnus had come a long way since then. He wasn't over the tragedy that had happened that summer night, not at all, but he had come to terms with it. He understood that grief wasn't something you forgot and moved on from but rather something you accepted and learned to live with. He still hadn't gotten the courage to visit his mother's grave, but he was getting there.
"Hey, Magnus, T.J? Can I talk with you for a sec?" Halfborn asked. There was something in the way he said it that made Magnus think this was about something important – maybe it was how uncertain the taller boy seemed about what he was saying, maybe it was that his eyes didn't quite meet theirs.
T.J and Magnus nodded. "Sure, of course," the Ravenclaw said.
There was a moment of pause as no one said anything before Halfborn coughed and said. "Um, it's private." He send a side glance at Conall, who was still standing near them and Magnus got the message.
"Oh, Conall, we'll be back in a while," Magnus said and he walked with his other two friends to the side of the locker room building where Conall wouldn't hear them.
"What's wrong?" T.J asked as soon at they were out of earshot.
"I, well, I wanted to talk to you about…" Halfborn started, but his words trailed off. He seemed almost as nervous as he was before an especially big exam – a rare sight because Halfborn was rarely nervous over an exam.
"About?" Magnus egged him on, doing a little 'keep going' gesture with his hand. It looked like he was cutting circles in the air with his hand.
"About… well, Mallory," the ox of a boy continued.
If there was one way to describe the smile that took over T.J's face at that exact moment it was shit eating. The most shit eating grin of them all. Magnus was half excepting him to say "you liiiiiiike her" in a silly voice. Fortunately for Halfborn's dignity, he didn't do that.
"What about Mallory?" he asked innocently instead. He might have asked the question with the innocence of a kindergartener but Magnus didn't miss the evil glint in his eye. Oh, he was enjoying this so much.
"Y-you know…" Halfborn said, his cheeks as red as the hair of the girl he was talking about.
"No, I don't. You need to tell me," T.J went on, clearly seeing how this was embarrassing his friend and clearly enjoying it.
"He's right," Magnus added. T.J wasn't going to have all the fun. "We can't read minds, we won't know what you're trying to say to us unless you say it."
"Ugh!" Halfborn let out a loud groan, literally pulling at his hair, before turning back to T.J and Magnus. "I like Mallory, alright? I like Mallory!" he hissed at them.
"What?" Magnus said, making his accent sound as over-the-top as bad American actors pretending they were British. "Why, I would have never even imagined it! Would you, T.J?"
"No, of course not, dear Magnus. This comes as such a surprise to me!" T.J said, mimicking Magnus' dramatic actions. "Why, next thing you know, you'll tell me the sky is blue or that water is wet!"
"Okay, I get it!" Halfborn said, red as a tomato. "Now can you stop being little shits and help me out? What am I supposed to do?"
"Ask her out," T.J and Magnus said in unison, faces completely straight.
"I-I—what? I-I can't do that!" Halfborn spluttered out. He looked around him suspiciously, as if he was afraid someone would hear the shocking revelation that he, a teenage boy, wanted to ask out a girl.
"Yes, you can," Magnus said. He momentarily though if he should think of it as weird that he was giving love advice to two different people when his own love life was nonexistent, but he pushed that thought to the side. "You just go up to her, use your words and ask her on a date."
"But I-"
"You're scared because this is something new and you don't know how to go on about it," T.J interrupted. "We get it, but come on! You're a Gryffindor, you can do this! You're supposed to be brave!"
Magnus nodded along. "Yeah, he's right. You've won so many Quidditch matches and will give up before something this small?"
"Although you figured out your feelings for Mallory a bit late, considering you're both leaving for home in two days, but better late than never!" T.J added.
Halfborn seemed to deflate at that, probably preferring to get this out of the way soon, rip it off like a bandage, instead of having to deal with his feeling for the entirety of the Christmas Holidays.
"But hey, this can still work out!" Magnus continued in hopes of cheering up his friend. "We're going to exchange gifts tomorrow, so you can ask her out on a date then. It'll just be after you come back to school, so you have the holidays to prepare."
Halfborn seemed to have mixed feeling about that. Magnus could tell by the look in his eyes that he wasn't against the idea, yet the mere prospect of going thought with it terrified him.
"Anyway, we better go back, lover boy. Your beloved and the others must have come out by now," T.J said. Magnus saw the blush on Halfborn's cheeks darken with every nod to his crush. He would have felt bad for the boy if he wasn't enjoying this so much.
Meanwhile, in our universe in the Slytherin locker rooms, Mallory was having a very similar conversation with the two metamorphmagus siblings.
"Um, Alex, Sam? Could I talk with you for a moment?" Mallory asked as her friends were gathering up their things to leave. Most players had left by now and the sweat-smelling room was empty but for them.
"Of course. What is it?" Sam asked.
"Okay, I'm going to tell you something but you have to swear not to make fun of me," Mallory stated. She had hardly said what she wanted to and yet she was already blushing as red as her hair.
"Who, me? Make fun of you? Oh, why, I would never!" Alex said in mock offence, making his accent as obnoxious as possible and holding a hand in front of his mouth like a lot of his mother's friends would do (he always hated those ladies).
Mallory glared at Alex, clearly done with the green-haired boy's bullshit. Sam rolled her eyes at her brother's antics and turned to Mallory. "We won't make fun of you, Mallory."
"I can't make any promises," Alex said mater-of-fact-ly. Sam gave him a sharp elbow to the side. "Ouch! I was being honest!"
"I won't make fun of you, and I'll make sure to hit Alex if he does," Sam corrected.
"These aren't good terms for me," Alex muttered, but his complaints went unheard as Mallory started talking.
"Okay, so remember when you said I have a crush on Halfborn?" The two siblings nodded. "You may… have been right."
Mallory's words may have been barely audible, but it was still enough for them to ring out in her friends ears. The smile that spread out on Alex's face at that moment would have been enough to land him the role of the Cheshire Cat in any adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Sam smiled like a mother proud that her child finally realized that it was being stupid and changed its ways.
"You know, if I was any less of a friend, I would tease you right now," Alex said. "But I'm a great friend, so I won't do that now that you told us about your crush on Halfborn."
Mallory rolled her eyes with a grunt and sat down at the bench- though perhaps a better word for it would be 'plopped down' or slumped'. "What am I gonna do?"
Alex and Sam exchanged glances, a silent 'is she kidding us?' passing between them. It was times like this that Mallory wish they wouldn't do that. They were able to communicate well even without speaking and it kinda freaked her out (even though she knew she did the same with her own siblings).
"You ask him out?" Sam asked. Mallory knew for a fact the unspoken 'duh' at the start of her question would have been much more evident were this Alex asking. That wasn't the case with Sam, who was nicer about it.
"Yeah, but…" a string of incomprehensible grunts and gurgles left Mallory's mouth as she tried to explain what she wanted to say. "I'm embarrassed!" she finally relented, throwing her head back in frustration.
"Wow, she actually admitted it," Alex mused as he looked at his friend.
"I want to do something, but I don't know how!" Mallory said. "And I know that if I wait until after Christmas I'll chicken out!"
Sam sighed and sat down next to Mallory. "Okay, calm down. It's not all bad. You can ask him out before you leave and you can have your date after you come back."
"Yeah, she's right!" Alex proclaimed, having come up with an idea. "You can do it when we're exchanging presents!"
Mallory bit at her lip anxiously. "I don't know…"
"Come on, it'll be great!"Alex egged her on. "And we'll be there to support you. It's going to be fine unless you don't, like, throw up on his shoes." Alex seemed thoughtful for a moment before she said, "Now that I think about it, you might not want to eat before you ask him. Just to be on the safe side."
Sam sent Alex an annoyed glare, at which the boy just shrugged. It was valid advice.
Mallory sighed and got up, thought she looked so exhausted it was as if she had just run a marathon. "Anyway, we better get going. The others must be waiting for us."
They were, or rather, he was. When the three Quidditch players left the locker rooms, the only one waiting for them outside was Conall, who stood awkwardly against the wall. He was trying (and failing) to spin his wand with his fingers like T.J would often do. The three roommates happened to walk out just when his wand fell from his hands again and he bend down to retrieve it, cussing under his breath (though, knowing Conall, his cussing was most probably things like 'darn it' and 'so of a biscuit', Alex thought).
"Hey, Conall. Where are the others?" Alex asked. The Ravenclaw boy snapped up so fast it was a wonder he didn't lose his balance and fall over.
"Alex!" His cheeks were red and Alex found it typical for the boy (and kinda cute, though he refused to dwell on that one too long) to be embarrassed he was caught falling to do something as simple as spin a wand.
"Uh, Halfborn wanted to talk with them about something, so I stayed here to wait for you," the boy explained. "Oh, um… great game today. You did great. Y-you all did great!"
Alex smiled at the compliment -and at the fact that Conall's freckles made him look like a strawberry when he blushed. It was strangely endearing. "Thank you."
It was then that Magnus, T.J and Halfborn reared from behind the side of the locker rooms. There was a flush to Halfborn's cheeks and he wore a similar tired expression as Mallory. Alex assumed he had tired himself out cheering for them. The boy really did go over board when it came to Quidditch.
"Oh, you came out!" T.J said when he saw his sweaty Slytherin friends. "Come on, we better get going, we don't want to miss dinner."
The next day, the last day the majority of students would be still be at Hogwarts, the table 19 gang was in the library. Snow fell outside the window, small specks of white touching the ground and covering it in a thick white blanket that looked too soft to be made out of ice. Magnus could remember clearly when he was a child and hadn't seen snow up close, how he thought it must be soft and fluffy. With his intelligent five-year-old brain, Magnus had come up with the brilliant plan of flopping down on a mountain of snow like he would if it was a bed.
Yes, Magnus had been a stupid child.
The group of friends was gathered around one of the tables by the windows that overlooked the Quidditch field. It was covered in snow now too and it amazed Magnus how just yesterday it was clear enough to play. Then again, the weather was known to be unpredictable around this time of year and it wasn't as if it had never suddenly snowed this much before.
Magnus recognized the view from the window. They had somehow decided to sit at the table Magnus had been sitting at last year, when Professor Hearthstone came to talk to him about his mother – well, the teacher hadn't known it was about his mother at the time. It seemed a weird coincidence that they choose to sit here to exchange their presents, yet the familiar table didn't leave a bitter taste in Magnus' mouth.
At least, not a lot. His mother's death still hurt him a lot at times, but he was getting better at copping with it and he now knew he could go to others for comfort instead of dealing with it all on his own.
"Okay, who's gonna go first?" Alex asked. She was practically bouncing where she stood and she had a wide smile on her face like, well, like a child on Christmas morning.
"Me!" T.J raised his hand high, like he was trying to get a teachers attention because they were blind as a bat and he clearly knew the answer, unlike all the other dumb students.
T.J reached out in his backpack and pulled out small packages he gave to his friends. Inside them were small bubbleheads of their favorite Quidditch players for Mallory, Halfborn and Alex, a beautiful blue headscarf with colorful designs on it for Sam and a small tadris for Magnus. When the blonde opened its little door experimentally, it was like he had opened a duffel back instead of a keychain sized blue police box.
"Is this like Professor Blitzen's bags?" Magnus asked excitedly. His fanboy was coming through, he knew that, but he couldn't help it. This was so cool!
"Yep! I found it in a thrift store and thought you'd like it."
"Why would anyone ever throw away something like this?" Magnus asked in genuine confusion as he cradled the small gift in his hands.
"Your fanboy is showing," Alex said, barely holding back a laugh.
"I don't care."
The next one to give out their gifts was Sam, who handed each one a box or a bag. She might not celebrate Christmas, obviously, but her friends always felt weird to give presents to everyone else but her, so she ended up receiving gifts too. It only felt right to return the favor.
In Alex's bag was a pink and green argyle sweater, which she immediately put on and hugged it while it was on her body. "I'm never taking this off," she muttered, just a bit psychotically. Magnus thought it was equally amusing and adorable.
Mallory's gift was a cute little bracelet with little charms on it that looked like brooms and Quidditch balls. There was a Snitch dangling from it too, painted in gold metallic paint to look like an actual Snitch and not something made out of plastic.
Halfborn's gift was several of those cool fireworks they played with on the Hogsmeade visit from before Halloween. T.J unwrapped his gift to find it was a thick book- a mystery novel if the title was anything to go by. "Oh, nice," he said before immediately flipping the book over so he could read the synopsis. Inside Magnus' bag was also a book and Magnus recognized it as a horror novel he's been meaning to read.
Next was Halfborn with another book for T.J, an ugly sweater with the Doctor on it for Magnus, a box that screamed bloody murder if you opened it without tapping the correct rhythm on its lid first for Alex, a book on brooms and flying spells for Sam and a Valkyries shirt for Mallory.
"Oh mu god, this is amazing!" Mallory exclaimed when she realized what her gift was. "This is great! Oh, my sister will be so jealous!"
Magnus gave his presents next. He was close to giggling as he handed each of his friends their gifts and they noticed. They opened their bags with caution, as they should because inside their bags were some of the ugliest Christmas sweaters they had ever seen.
Sam's was plain hideous, with a giant reindeer stitched on it and a perturbing red nose that glistened. Mallory's had a Christmas tree on it with multicolored fuzzy balls stitched on its branches and the colored clashed terribly. T.J's had Jesus on it with balloons around him and a shirt that read 'Birthday Boy'. Alex's had a scowling Grumpy Cat wearing a Santa hat on it and the word 'NO' written in Christmas lights bellow it. Halfborn's was simple designs in red and white and three reindeers having a threesome right in the middle.
"Seriously?" Alex asked. It wasn't clear whether she found the sweaters funny or atrocious and Magnus thought it was safe to assume a bit of both.
"Yep. I got one too!" He pulled out another sweater and this one had Darth Vader on it wearing a Santa hat. 'I find your lack of cheer disturbing" was written underneath. "I plan to wear it around Professor Blitzen to annoy him."
The other teens silently prayed for their Charms teacher. He would probably have an aneurism if he had to see these sweaters for too long.
Next was Alex, who handed out bags to each of her friends. She looked so excited to be giving them their gifts that her friends were scarred to open their gifts. Please let it not be more ugly sweaters, Mallory prayed before opening her bag.
It wasn't more ugly sweaters, thank goodness, but rather a hat and a scarf. The same thing was in each of their bags, only the design and color of them changing between each friend.
"I knitted you scarves and hats!" Alex said enthusiastically. "I don't know how to make gloves yet, though."
"You made this?" Mallory asked as she held up her gifts. "They're amazing!"
They were, even more so because Alex had made them herself. She watched her friends try on her creations and turn them around in her hands, feeling the yarn. Magnus was pulling lightly at the sides of the scarf to see how the yarn was woven together and he looked strangely like a kitten. Sam tuned the hat in her hands before rubbing it against her face- Alex couldn't blame her, she had used a fluffy yarn. It was like touching clouds.
And last one to give out their gifts was Mallory. Inside the bags she handed each of her friends were sweatshirts. They looked pretty mundane until they actually pulled them out. Each and every one of them had a pun on it and the letters or little images moved on the fabric.
Alex's was dark green, the same green as her Slytherin tie, and the word "Can I Slytherin?" were typed on it in silver letters. There was even a small snake underneath that winked at them. Sam's said "I'm a wizard, don't talk to me" with little sparks going on and off around the words. T.J's was blue with a wand that was going back and forth and the words "Is that a wand in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" above it. Magnus' was Hufflepuff yellow with a cute little bagger on it and the words "Everyday I'm Huffling!"
" Oh, this is great!" Magnus said as he held the shirt against of his body to see if it would fit him.
Halfborn was the only one who hadn't gotten a gift. Mallory handed him his bag, but there was something hesitant in the way she did it. Her eyes were looking anywhere, everywhere, except at the boy next to her and her cheeks were flushed pink. Halfborn was confused by her behavior a bit, but didn't question it, instead opening the bag to pull out another shirt and –
"Oh my God!" Halfborn exclaimed when he saw that his gift was the Berserkers shirt he had tried on back before Halloween on their Hogsmeade visit. What's more, there was a black scribble near the bottom that Halfborn realized was the player's signature.
"I, um, remembered how you said you would like to buy this shirt, so I thought it was a good present idea," Mallory muttered, never looking Halfborn straight in the eye. "Do you like it?"
"I love it! Oh, this is amazing!" In his excitement, Halfborn reached out and hugged Mallory tight. The poor girl almost died from all the blood that rushed to her face. Thankfully, the hug didn't last long because Halfborn quickly realized what he had done and let Mallory go as his cheeks burned red.
"Um, this is really cool."
"Y-you're welcome," Mallory managed to get out, even thought she looked this close to having a seizure. "Oh, um, I think there's still a note in there."
Halfborn looked down into the bag and saw the note Mallory was referring to lying in its bottom. He pulled it out and unfolded the creased paper. In Mallory's neat, fancy handwriting (that Halfborn had a bit of trouble making out) was written "Would you like to go on a date with me once we come back to school after Christmas?"
Mallory had rehearsed how to ask him out in her head, but she never felt comfortable with what she came up with and she was to afraid she'd mess up to actually get a word out. She felt silly for having to resort to something as childish as asking him via note, but at least she didn't die while asking. (That said, it took her twenty seven drafts before she actually put the note in his present.)
Yet those few moments it took Halfborn to figure out what she had written on the paper (he had told her time and again he couldn't make out her writing easily) were absolute torture to Mallory. Did he think she was joking? Did he think she was silly or a coward for sending him a note instead of telling him? Was he not speaking because he was trying to find a way to let her down easy?
Mallory was snapped out of her thoughts when Halfborn cleared his throat. "I was meaning to ask you that, actually. I'd really like to."
Mallory's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Really? That's, um, that's good. Should I sent you an owl during the holidays so we can figure out when we're – we're going to do that project?"
Mallory was only able to save it at the last minute, but Halfborn still seemed very confused about what was happening. He opened his mouth to ask her what she meant when she sent a sideways glance to their friends. Sam and Alex might know that Mallory was asking Halfborn out, but she didn't want to put up with Magnus and T.J teasing her too.
"Ah, yeah," Halfborn said, understanding what Mallory was doing. "I'll send you a letter about our project."
"What is your project on?" Magnus asked cheekily. Halfborn wanted to punch him at that moment.
"It's for Potions," Alex said with an equally smug face. "It's on love potions."
Honestly, these two could be such little shits sometimes they should just get together (or maybe not, they would be an even worse combo).
Mallory might have been extremely happy about finally asking out Halfborn, but she silently vowed that one day she would pay back the green haired girl with her own coin.
