"Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"
Delphine stood with her mouth slightly open as Cosima looked at her expectantly.
"I… I-"
"Delphine!"
Delphine and Cosima both looked in the direction of the voice as Cedric Diggory jogged up to the two of them. Cedric smiled at Cosima, "Hey, Niehaus."
"Hey Ced…ric…" Cosima trailed off as the Hufflepuff boy wrapped an arm around Delphine's shoulders.
"You ready for dinner?" Cedric asked Delphine, who had still been looking at Cosima.
"What?" Delphine recovered.
"You two, umm…" Cosima closed her eyes, touching her forehead, "You guys know each other?"
"Yeah, we're in potions together. She's been my study buddy for the past few weeks," Cedric said casually.
"Few weeks… Mmm." Cosima hummed, nodding her head. "Well I'll leave you to it."
"Wait, Niehaus. Uh… have you figured out anything with the egg?" Cedric asked hopefully.
"No."
"Oh, well if I find anything I'll let you know, since you helped me with the dragons and all."
"Yeah, sure. Thanks." Cosima said sincerely before walking off.
She had just turned down the hall before she heard her name being called.
"Cosima!"
Hearing the accent in her name made Cosima sigh and swivel around with a roll of her neck.
"I... I'm sorry," Delphine said.
"For what?"
"For… for ignoring you. It was wrong of me to do."
"You're right. It was."
Delphine was speechless. She wasn't exactly sure why she had run after Cosima, but something in her gut told her to.
"So you're going with him, I'm assuming," Cosima said.
"What?"
"To the ball."
"…Yes."
Cosima laughed bitterly.
"I didn't-" Delphine cut herself off.
"You… didn't? You didn't… what?"
"I didn't know… that you were going to ask me."
"Okay… What, were you gonna say yes if I asked earlier?"
Delphine stayed silent again, looking down at her wringing hands.
"When?"
Delphine looked up, "What?"
"When did he ask you?
"Last week."
"Before or after I talked to you?"
Delphine started playing with her hands again.
"Delphine."
Delphine slowly made eye contact with Cosima, who's glasses did nothing to hinder the ferocity of her gaze.
"Before or after?"
"…After."
Cosima sucked her lips between her teeth, chuckling softly.
"Cosima…" Delphine said sorrowfully
Cosima waved her hand, "Nope. Don't even worry about it. You were fair game, right? It's not like he knew."
Delphine couldn't count how many times she had been speechless tonight. Instead she just watched Cosima scratch at her dreads angrily.
"Welp, at least I didn't have to deal with the embarrassment of you turning me down," Cosima said with a tight smile
"Cosima, come on…"
"No, it's okay. Have fun with your new 'buddy'."
Delphine watched as Cosima briskly walked away. She knew she shouldn't have felt guilty. She did nothing wrong, Cosima was the one who didn't want to talk. So why did she feel so… sad?
Cosima approached the door to Ravenclaw Tower, feeling numb and emotionally exhausted. She knocked on the door before trying to open it, but it didn't budge.
"Whoever makes it, tells it not. Whoever takes it, knows it not. Whoever knows it, wants it not. What is it?" the bronze eagle knocker asked.
That was the one day that Cosima hated being a Ravenclaw. If only they could just use passwords like the Gryffindors.
"Dude, really? Can't you like just let me in? You know me."
"Whoever makes it, tells it not. Whoever takes it, knows it not. Whoever knows it, wants it not. What is it?"
"Come on. I'm totally not feeling it today," she said, getting irritated.
"Whoever makes it, tells it not. Whoever takes it, knows it not. Whoever knows it, wants it not. What is it?"
Cosima was at her breaking point. She started slapping the door, then punching it, then kicking it as her anger grew, "FUCK YOU KNOCKER! FUCK. YOU!"
Someone pulled Cosima back carefully away from the door, that had the unfortunate fate of being a door that day. "Cosima, hey calm down."
Cosima ripped herself away from the person who dared touch her. She calmed down slightly when she saw it was a familiar face. "Scott, get the door," she demanded.
"Why didn't you? I mean, most the time you're the person helping me with the door-"
"Just answer the fucking door, Scott!"
Scott flinched at Cosima's apparent anger, "Okay, jeez," he said as he knocked with the eagle.
"Whoever makes it, tells it not. Whoever takes it, knows it not. Whoever knows it, wants it not. What is it?"
Scott paused a second before turning back to Cosima, who was pacing behind him, "Really, Cosima? You didn't get this one."
"Scott…" Cosima growled.
"Okay, okay," Scott said with surrendering hands, "Counterfeit money."
The door pulled open and Cosima stormed inside.
Scott put his hand on her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. "Cosima, are you alright?"
Cosima just needed to make it to her room before she had a mental breakdown. "I'm fine, Scott."
"You just seem upset, you know you can talk to me if you want."
"Mm," Cosima hummed. She went to turn to go to her room before she backtracked. "Hey."
Scott looked at her.
"You didn't ask anyone to the Ball, did you?"
"…No?"
"Good. You're going with me," Cosima said before bounding upstairs to her room, leaving Scott speechless.
She walked into the empty dorm room and set down her bag before falling onto her bed. She laid there for a moment or two, staring at the ugly patterned ceiling above her bed. It wasn't until she felt something wet touch her ears before she knew what she was doing. She sat up, drew her bed curtains, and performed a muffliato charm on the curtains before she laid back down on her side and freely sobbed.
"I'm such an idiot."
"So, where's Cosima?"
"I dunno, I haven't seen her since she left the library."
"Did she say where she was going?" Alison asked.
"She said she was gonna- oh shite…" Sarah cursed.
Alison frowned, "What?"
"She said she was gonna ask Delphine to the ball."
"…Well? Did she say yes?"
"I don't bloody know alright? All I know is that Cosima is missing dinner. She never misses dinner," Sarah deducted, putting her hands in her hair, "This is bad…"
"Oh Jesus Murphy…"
"Mm."
"Hey, Isn't that her friend there? Will he know where she went?" Alison said, pointing to a Ravenclaw boy.
"Yeah, he might," Sarah said, swiveling out of her seat, approaching the boy with Alison, "Oi, Scott!"
Scott turned around to see familiar, yet unfamiliar faces, "Hey, uhh… can I help you?"
"Yeah, where's our sister?"
Scott blinked, "Cosima?"
"Yeah."
"Well she was acting really strange when I last saw her," Scott pondered, "She got the question wrong at the door and started hitting it and stuff when I came, then she told me she was going to the Ball with me. After that, I really haven't seen her around."
"Fffffuck…" Sarah said, running a hand through her hair. Alison put her hand up to her cheek with a frown.
"Yeah, usually she's at wizard chess club with us on Fridays, but she wasn't today. I don't know what's up."
"We have an idea. Do you think you can let us up to her room?"
"Uh… sure."
Scott escorted the girls up to Ravenclaw Tower answered the riddle for them, letting them up to the girls' dorms. Sarah knocked on Cosima's dorm room door, only for it to be answered by a small, platinum blonde girl.
"Hello," she said nicely.
"Er… hi," Sarah said as she looked around the room.
"You must be Cosima's sisters. She isn't here. She left about an hour ago."
"Do you know where she might have went?" Alison asked.
"Well, when she left she took a tin box with her. Usually when she leaves with that, she comes back smelling funny. When that happens, the wrackspurts that fly around her head multiply. It's an interesting sight," the girl said gently.
"Okay," Sarah drawled, "Thanks for your help, uhh…"
"Luna."
"Yeah, thanks Luna." Sarah said, walking back downstairs.
Alison quickly followed after her, "What was she talking about, what does that mean?"
"I'll tell you in a sec. We're going to the astronomy tower."
After the girls jogged up the tower stairs , Sarah stopped Alison.
"Ok, you're about to see something that you're really gonna wanna speak up about, but I'm gonna ask that you don't. Just don't. Let her do it. And let me do most of the talking, yeah?"
Alison looked at Sarah, not understanding what she meant, but nodded anyway.
"Good."
The girls turned the corner at the top of the astronomy tower, the smell of the air already confirming Sarah's suspicions. Looking out to the side of the balcony, the sight nearly broke her heart.
Cosima, who's head was turned away from them, was curled up, arms around her knees with no shoes on. Getting closer, she saw the ending of what looked like a messily wrapped joint between her fingers as she raised it to her lips, effortlessly taking a long drag, before releasing her breath several seconds later.
Sarah sat down next to Cosima, who showed indication that she was aware of her sisters' presence as she continued to robotically take another drag from the dying joint. Alison frowned, but did as she was told and said nothing.
"That's not very good for you, Cos." Sarah chastised casually.
Cosima chuckled once, rolling her head even more to the side, "Life isn't good for me, Sarah," she rasped.
Sarah stayed quiet for a moment as Alison sat next to her, heeding Sarah's advice.
"Cosima where hell are your shoes?"
Cosima lethargically pointed out towards the open, "They said they would fly," she said bitterly. "They fucking lied to me."
"You can't listen to shoes, Cos. Even I know that. They're bloody arseholes."
"I know right? Left was so friggin' mean. I'm glad he fell all the way to the bottom. He bounced too, the little bitch." she said as she went to take another drag.
"What about Right?"
"She was nice, but she was still a bitch," Cosima said as she exhaled.
"She was nice and a bitch?
Cosima shook her head, "She was bipersonality."
Sarah chuckled, "Bipolar, you mean."
"Nah, dude, she said she had bipersonality. She had two personalities. I asked her how that was even possible. And she said everyone has at least two," Cosima said as she rambled.
Sarah found it unnerving that she wasn't moving her hands at all. That was part of what made Cosima… well… Cosima. Sarah took a glance at Alison, who seemed almost scared of what Cosima turned into under the influence of that herb, but was impressed at Sarah's handling of the situation.
"So then I was like, 'do I have two personalities?' And she said 'yeah.' I said, 'well what's my second one?' She said 'you.' What the fuck does that mean?" Cosima asked seriously.
Sarah shrugged, "Maybe she meant the way you are now."
Cosima turned and made eye contact with Sarah for the first time, and what Sarah saw in her eyes scared her. She could easily see the hurt in her heavy-lidded eyes, plain as day. But there were so many other emotions in Cosima's makeup-less face that she couldn't even distinguish them. They were all mixed together like a big, brown, depressed smoothie.
"Does that mean I'm the second personality?" Cosima asked seriously.
"Yeah."
"Where did the other one go?"
"You have to find her."
Cosima turned back around, "Shit, man." Cosima took one last drag of her joint before stubbing it out on the concrete.
Sarah sat patiently, waiting for Cosima to talk again. She looked back over at her when Cosima started squirming beside her. She watched as her sister scrunched her face in an effort to dislodge the shoe that she had been sitting on. Cosima handed the shoe to Sarah.
Sarah looked at the shoe, it was the right shoe. "Why were you sitting on this?"
"'Cause she wouldn't shut the fuck up." Cosima said, taking out her tin.
"Woah, easy there champ. How many have you had?"
"Not enough," Cosima grumbled.
"Yeah, no Cosima," Sarah said, putting her hands on Cosima's.
The pleading look Cosima gave Sarah in that moment was even worse than the first delirious look that she received earlier. Sarah shook her head firmly "No, Cos."
"I just wanna feel good, Sarah. Please?"
"Did you feel good after two?"
"…No."
"Then what makes you think that you'll feel good after more?"
Cosima huffed and sat back, wrapping her arms tighter around her knees and resting her chin against them.
"Cos," Sarah began, moving in front of Cosima and holding her hands, "We're here. Okay?"
Alison took the hint and moved closer to Cosima, wrapping her arm around her shoulders.
"We're your sisters. We can make you feel good, yeah?" Sarah comforted.
Cosima's eyebrows twitched and her lip quivered as she struggled to keep the tears she thought she had long but shed at bay. "I'm an idiot."
Cosima and her sisters walked into the Gladrags Wizardwear shop in Hogsmeade the next week, shivering as they escaped the harsh cold of the Scottish winter.
Cosima shook out her dreads and brushed the snow off of her robes. Alison approached her from behind.
"Do you see anything you like?"
"I saw something earlier in the window. I sorta liked that one."
"What color was it?" Alison asked, looking around for what dress Cosima might have been talking about.
"Uhh… darkish red."
Alison went to go ask the lady at the desk if they had any dresses in red. Cosima looked around casually, seeing Sarah pick up a blue and black plaid scarf.
"More plaid, Sarah? Don't you have enough stuff like that at home?" Cosima teased.
"Piss off, I'll buy what I want."
Cosima scoffed, "And you call me a lesbian. You have something you wanna tell me, Sarah?"
Sarah glared at Cosima, who raised her hands and shrugged.
"When is thing at, anyway?"
"In four days, Christmas eve."
Sarah sighed, "We're so close to break, I can bloody taste it."
"Yeah, I can't wait to go back home."
"Speakin' of, do your folks even know what's goin' on?"
"Nope," Cosima said, looking at scarves. "I didn't think it was necessary for them to worry."
"Cosima!"
Cosima looked over at Alison approaching her with another woman that Cosima assumed was a worker.
"Hello," the lady said kindly, "I was told you were looking for a dress?"
"Uh, yeah. There was a dark red one in the window like a month ago. I was wondering if you still had that one."
"Well," the lady said with a smile, "fortunately for you, we have one more left in stock."
"Oh cool! That's awesome," Cosima said with a light smile. "Were the other ones bought by students like me, or…"
"No, there was a group of bridesmaids that purchased a few. No students bought this one," the lady reassured, leading Cosima to the fitting room.
"Good. I totally do not need any more identicals than I already have."
The lady laughed in understanding.
After trying on the dress, Cosima let her sisters into the fitting room.
Sarah cat-called, "Damn Cos, I'd do you in a heartbeat."
Cosima scoffed, "I don't know if that's incest or just masturbation."
"Oh hush, you two," Alison chastised, "This conversation is hardly appropriate for a fitting room."
"Whatever, she still looks good."
Cosima smiled and curtsied.
"Definitely go with that one, Cos. Done deal."
"Alright, alright."
Cosima purchased the (extremely expensive) dress, reminding herself to ask her dad for some extra galleons later.
"Alright, let's head to the Broomsticks." Sarah said to her sisters. Alison nodded in agreement.
"Um, I'll meet you guys there?" Cosima said hesitantly.
"Oh… okay," Sarah said. "Later then."
"Yup."
The two girls walked out of the shop while Cosima turned around and picked up what she saw earlier.
"Hi, I'd like to buy this too, please."
Delphine was eating lunch with Cedric when she was approached by a medium sized owl, carrying a package addressed to her.
"Who's owl is that? Yours?" Cedric asked curiously.
Delphine shrugged as she opened the package. In the small box was a card, and a light blue knitted scarf. She smiled at the scarf, feeling the soft material in her hands.
"Hey, that's nice," Cedric said from across the table. "It matches your robes well. Who's it from?"
Delphine took out the card, reading the small, loopy script:
Delphine,
I remember you saying that your birthday was today, so I felt compelled to get you a little something to keep you warm this winter. Those frilly little robes just don't cut it up here. I hope you like it, I heard blue was your favorite color :P
Happy birthday, mademoiselle.
:3
P.s. Darwin won't leave until you give him something to eat. He takes after mama :)
Delphine smiled and shook her head as she looked at the owl, that was still staring intently at her. She laughed as she took a piece of her turkey and gave it to him. Darwin the owl took the meat gratefully as Delphine pat him on the head, and ate it eagerly, flying away before Cedric could pet him.
"Strange bird," Cedric commented as he returned to his lunch.
