Troublemakers
Mei pouted. "If you eat all the popcorn, there won't be any more to put on the tree!"
"Sorry," Aimi told her with a grin. Her fingers were still half buried in the bowl. Next to her was Sarah, one hand next to Aimi's own and the other holding a needle and thread. "To be honest, I didn't know people still did this for Christmas."
"We'll not many people have Do-Over Christmases either, so there." With that, Mei skipped back to the small jarred flame that Rose made. Al set another bag of kernels over it.
Aimi shrugged, swallowing another handful of popcorn. Considering Christmas morning was mostly spent sleeping off their wounds from Christmas Eve Invasion, she hadn't been surprised when Al murmured a suggestion to redo the holiday. When Scorpius returned, muttering about awful Aurors and a cheap inn, she figured his Christmas had been similarly as crappy. Thus this meeting of the Anti – Carnival Army was dedicated to Yule Tide. The aforementioned blond boy now wore a smile as he painted the bobbles and angels Rose made out of paper. Rose's grandfather also gave her a book of Muggle Christmas Carols as a gift. The witch managed to charm the book to sing its own songs, as a gift to the ACA.
"…and if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows…"
Sarah shot Aimi a look. Aimi snorted and hid her smile behind the bowl. "You can't still be mad?"
"I can, and will, still be annoyed." Sarah answered with a huff. "By the way, your prank still doesn't prove that Rudolph exists or existed."
"For all we know, Rudolph could be Father Christmas's Child." Aimi quipped. "Or Missus Claus at least."
"I'm so sure." A frown formed on Sarah's face. Well, Aimi thought, she usually did frown or snarl and the happiest expression her neighbor had given her before was a smirk. Still, Aimi couldn't help worry. Not that she'd show that either.
"What's up, doc?" Aimi asked. She made sure she had a light tone.
"How can you still joke about this Carnival stuff?" Sarah sighed. "The School Healer is dead, so is the Headmistress. Not to mention everyone is probably still lying to us."
"You think so?" Aimi blinked. "If anything, Al has the right idea. We should be celebrating. We won! Didn't we?"
The Ravenclaw's lips were thin. Aimi let out a loud sigh and tossed the rest of the popcorn on Sarah's lap. "W-What's that for?"
"You can be our Christmas Tree." Aimi said. Her heart sped, as it did when she was on the cusp of a truly brilliant prank. She then put the bowl over Sarah's blonde locks. "Now we'll save time on popcorn strings. Aren't I clever?"
"No, you're daft! You're a complete child –"
"Now all the reindeer loved him…" Aimi sang along with Rose's book. Speaking of which, Rose nearly cut herself making paper angels as she stared at the first year Gryffindor. Scorpius made a face and mouthed 'are you mental?' as if he were helping Aimi. Al waved his hands, again hoping to hint that Aimi was going too far. Mei murmured 'oh come on,' since she foresaw the Re-Do Christmas coming undone.
She smiled to herself, no one got it. No one got Sarah like Aimi.
"You are literally the worst Aimi Kurachi!" Sarah said. She rose and tossed the needle and bowl to the floor. Aimi jumped to her feet as well. She needed at least one more push.
"Now, Miss Ravenclaw, you ought to know you're not using 'literally' correctly…"
Sarah her grit. Her hands were doing a great impression of Alycone's metal talons. Aimi figured that her work was done.
"We'll be back in about an hour." Aimi said with a wink at the even-more-bemused Mei. Then she ran. There was a snarl, the voices of various ACA members, and Sarah's shrieks before Aimi managed to zip out the Come-And-Go-Room's door.
As if she was a balloon, once the last pants of hot air left Sarah, she collapsed on a desk in the History of Magic Room.
Aimi walked in, with none of Sarah's breathlessness. "I nicked this from Greengrass," She held up a glass bottle. "Augmenti." The bottle was filled with water instant. If Sarah were the Gryffindor in the situation, she'd be too busy glaring at Aimi to accept her gift. Instead, she glared for five seconds before snatching it from Aimi. "Feel better?"
"Better? I'm exhausted – and still miffed!" Sarah told her. Aimi snickered. Sarah remember that the glass was still half-filled with liquid and that she couldn't thump her neighbor with it. "What's so funny? What's wrong with you?"
"You mostly," Aimi said cheekily. Sarah contemplated her glass again. "Rather, I'm upset that my best mate's upset."
Sarah blinked, and it was like anger left her as soon as her lids lifted. "Huh?"
"I wanted you to blow off some steam. It was obvious you were shaken up since Christmas, even before then. Why else would you raise your wand to Professor Michi?"
Several reasons, is what Sarah thought but didn't say. "So let me get this straight, you wanted to annoy me to death so I wouldn't be scared to death? That was your cunning plan? It's ridiculous! Insane! It's –" a giggle escaped her. The brunette in front of her grinned with all of her teeth. "No, no, don't you dare. The plan was completely idiotic. That was so stupid, it shouldn't work…" More giggles bubbled up her throat and came out. "It shouldn't have worked…" The rest of her rant was lost in the laughs. Aimi joined her, making goofy faces and waggling her eyebrows, making Sarah roll off her desk. Aimi gasped, caught her, but Sarah still chuckled.
A few minutes later Sarah settled. Her chest still had a few laughs in her and it made her heart hum, as if to music.
"Feeling better?" Aimi asked once more.
"Yes," Sarah admitted. "Begrudgingly, I feel a bit better."
"Good!" Aimi patted her shoulder. "We should head back, the other guys must think I've been tossed into the lake by now."
"Now, I wouldn't do that. Considering it's you, you'd just befriend the Lake Monster." Sarah quipped.
"Yup, I've been meaning too actually." They shared another giggle fit before they heard the door open. Unruly black hair poked from the door. "Jaime?"
"Aimi!" Jaime said. Sarah tilted her head. If she didn't know any better that tone sounded breathy, a bit shy in fact. "Professor Emiya told me to fetch you for detention. I'll make an excuse if you want, tell him you've gotten sick."
"Really, thanks!"
Sarah coughed. "You know the professors will hound you, or worse, sick Ishigami and her 'demon called youth' after you."
Aimi pouted. "Ick, I guess Emiya the merciful alternative." She turned to Jaime. "I've got detention with you, then ought to separate us."
A wicked gleam entered the hazel eyes. "I suppose they want us to blame each other for the lines we're stuck with. The don't suspect that we could still be planning some great scheme –"
"–or brilliant heist!"
"…you know April Fools is arriving soon."
"Do you still have the Early Birds, 'cause I have ideas…"
"Figured you would." He held out his arm. A long scar travelled along it, the remnants of Dark Magic. Dark Magic that Aimi, and the others, saved him from so his pleased tone made sense. The hand he gave out for Aimi to grab, however, made less sense to Sarah.
Unless, Sarah mused, unless his gratitude was transforming into something else…
"Go on, you two troublemakers." Sarah gave Aimi a shove towards Jaime. Aimi looked at her, her brown eyes casting confusion. "Go, you're not gonna get any less detention by stalling."
"Are you sure you're okay though?" Aimi asked, her tone dipped into concern. It wouldn't stay there, Sarah knew, since Aimi thrived on her role as a jokester, but Sarah could at least make her neighbor go into serious mode for a few moments.
"I'm fine, and I've got popcorn to sew."
"People still do that?" Jaime asked.
"Shoo." Sarah retorted to him. Jaime stuck out his tongue. Aimi snickered and let Jaime pull her along, hand in hand.
"Children." Sarah said. Lately, her twelve years felt like twenty, at the very least. That old-soul feeling must be side-effect of matchmaking, she decided.
She thought of her Gram who, with much noise and pushiness according to various aunts, paired her parents. Her now divorced parents still fought, their first fight was who should leave the neighborhood. They settled when her father found a place in the same suburbia. He was across from the Kurauchis and her mother was next door. If she was honest with herself, Sarah would confess that Aimi and her madness were better as constants than her folks.
Thus, Sarah had to put her own mad plan into action: she needed to shove Aimi into another's arms and get used to the distance. Aimi, her Most Important Person, depended on Sarah's success.
A/N: A bit of a filler but I needed to show more of Aimi and Sarah's relationship. For them, things are going to get troublesome soon. Speaking of Ravenclaws, Michi's gonna get some development in the next chapter, 'courtesy' of Sarah.