AN: written for jiara july AU day
first year
JJ was positive he was going to be packing his bags. Packing his bags and being shipped straight off back to his little corner of hell, because they'd finally gone too far. The teachers were already too lenient on him as it was, letting him even attend Hogwarts with his condition.
He'd lasted three months at his bullshit wizard school, as his dad would call it. He could picture Luke Maybank's lip curling into a snarl already.
Madam Pomfrey gave a swish of her wand, and suddenly Pope was sputtering, lake water splashing out of his mouth and across his chest. JJ still didn't know how the woman had managed to appear so suddenly, but he was grateful for her promptness. He vowed to send her a shipment of chocolate frogs at some point, if he could get his grubby little hands on them (He'd swipe the chocolate frogs from some snobby, undeserving Slytherin, of course).
"He's okay!" John B's fingers interlaced at the back of his neck and squeezed, hard enough that his knuckles turned white.
"Thank fuck," JJ breathed, and McGonagall's eyes flashed to him in a hawk-like glare.
"Mr. Maybank. Ten points from Gryffindor."
The gathering crowd of students oooohed, but JJ was too happy that Pope was not totally drowned to really be bothered. "My bad, McGonagall."
McGonagall's hands swept to her hips in a manner that would terrify any sane student, but JJ and John B didn't quite fall into that category. They stood shoulder to shoulder, their robes still drenched from where they'd waded into the Great Lake to fish Pope out. The water had been freezing, of course, and JJ was pretty sure icicles would be forming on his tie in no time.
"He's just fine, Minerva," Pomfrey said, one hand on Pope's back. He'd pulled himself into a sitting position, and he was staring up at McGonagall with bulging eyes. He looked like he was about to shit himself.
"What in Godric's name," McGonagall demanded. "Were you doing?"
JJ's lips were sealed. If he'd learned anything from his dad, it was to remain silent, and not risk giving any authority figure ammo to use against him. Even though McGonagall had done nothing but help him, he couldn't fully trust even her.
John B didn't have those reservations.
"Sorry. We just thought we'd try to… to surf."
"To what?" John B opened his mouth, like he was going to try to explain the muggle sport he'd seen people doing in his beach hometown, but McGonagall waved a hand. "Never mind. My office. Now."
"Look like a bunch of dirty pogues…" A whisper of laughter came from the huddle of Slytherins nearby. JJ didn't know what a pogue was, but he didn't like it. He did know he'd love to punch the amused look right off of Topper Thornton's face, though.
The three boys trudged behind McGonagall, robes dripping all the way into the castle until she apparently decided to take pity on them. She turned, flicking her wand in a rather complicated motion until a wave of hot air came out of the tip. It lingered over each one of them in turn, the water evaporating out of their garments as steam.
"Thank you, Professor," Pope muttered, gaze on the stone floor.
JJ really hoped Pope wouldn't get the brunt of whatever punishment was coming. He'd tell McGonagall that it was all his idea, or that he forced Pope into it, if he had to.
He and John B had gravitated towards one another right away. A best friend that seemed made for him was something JJ certainly never thought he'd get to experience. And at first, when the little nerdy kid in their dorm started tagging after them, JJ had felt a little resentment. Pope was nothing like them, and the last thing he needed was someone else to keep a secret from, someone to compete over John 's affection with. He couldn't believe he'd swindled it to begin with.
But Pope was loyal, and actually really really good at coming up with plans, even if he usually advised against following through with them.
McGonagall led them up a winding staircase that JJ frequented to get his monthly potions, and then they were in her office. He pretended to look around like the other boys, because he didn't need them knowing he'd been here multiple times already.
"Sit," she ordered, and they sat. "Now, please inform me why one of my students almost drowned today?"
"Okay, Professor, but is there a rule against surfing in the Great Lake? Because I've never seen one," John B reasoned. "If it was written down, maybe we would've known."
"So basically what I'm hearing is that expulsion is illegal," JJ agreed.
"Oh, my Dad's gonna kill me." Pope sunk in his seat, hands over his face.
"I'm not going to expel you today." McGonagall's tone was dry. They all looked up. "But for using magic unsupervised and being in the Black Lake without permission, that'll be thirty points apiece. And a detention."
She must've caught JJ's eye contact with John B, because she added, "You two will be separated."
Kiara had her first detention.
She wished she had an interesting story to go with it, like that she'd finally hexed Scarlet Johnson's mouth shut, so her nasty whispering would cease, but no. She'd overslept for her first period Transfiguration class three times, and even though she'd ran in just past the bell, McGonagall had quietly slipped her a detention slip at the end of Friday's class.
That was her. A total rebel with hardly any friends. Her mom would have a conniption.
Kiara had exchanged a few pleasantries with her dorm mates, but it didn't take her long to figure out that she didn't click with the other Gryffindor girls. Like, at all. It started with them giving her the side eye when she pulled out her mythical creature guidebook from the library and ended on them not bothering to shake her awake when the rest of them went down to breakfast.
So now here she was, scrubbing down the trophy room by hand. Not that she'd learned any cleaning spells yet anyway.
A job for house elves, her mom would say. They only had one elf, a sweet female named Bipsey, but Anna liked to make sure everyone knew it.
Another Gryffindor first year, John Routledge, had been forced to join her in cleaning the trophy room. He had a freckly smile and a head topped with messy chocolate curls, and there were many worse people she could've been working with, she supposed. She was also pretty sure he was a muggleborn, which meant he wasn't someone her mom had been whispering in her ear about trying to hang out with. Another point in his favor.
"So, what're you in for?" John asked, not long into detention. Filch had left them for the time being, and she wasn't surprised he felt the need to fill the silence. She could hear he and his friends jabbering in the back of pretty much every class, especially the Maybank boy.
"Being tardy," Kiara admitted. A cloud of dust tumbled out of the trophy she'd reached into, and she fought a sneeze. "What about you?"
"Surfing in the Black Lake. Basically swimming." He laughed, and she noticed that the shoulders of his robes had a thin coating of dust on them. She didn't want to imagine what her hair would look like by the time she was done, even though her curls were wrapped up in a bun.
"Surfing?"
"Oh, right. Muggle thing."
Kiara's dad, Mike, had a muggle father, but she still only knew the bare minimum about the muggle world from their visits. Regardless, her paternal grandparents were warmer than her mother's stuffy pureblood side of the family.
"Cool," she said. Because he was kind of nice to talk to, she added, "My grandpa's a muggle."
John broke off into a cough. "Ugh. JJ swears they cast a spell to add extra dust every night for detention. I'm thinking he's right, for once."
Kiara took in the metal and shelves, all coated in a layer that looked a little too healthy when weekly detentions took place to clean the room. "Okay, yeah. Good point."
The conversation and laughter flowed easily enough for the rest of the night that Kiara almost found herself enjoying the detention. They'd quickly hush whenever Filch would walk by before breaking out into another round of sniggers as soon as his footsteps faded away.
She couldn't help the ping of disappointment when the caretaker returned, growling at them to get to bed already as his way to announce their detention was over.
They trekked up the stairs to Gryffindor tower, side by side. John looked victorious. "JJ and Pope got stuck with Slugghorn, so they'll still be listening to him talk."
Kiara snorted at the thought. "No doubt." Somehow, they'd arrived at the portrait of the fat lady, so she added, "Cattywampus."
The door swung open, allowing them to clamor inside. Kiara hesitated. This was the point of obvious separation, so she settled on giving a little wave. "Well. Night, John."
"John B," he corrected, like it was something he'd done a thousand times. She quirked an eyebrow, and he explained, "I go by John B, not John."
"Oh. Seems like kind of a mouthful, doesn't it?"
He nudged her shoulder. "You'll get used to it."
With some amount of pleasant surprise, Kiara realized she hoped she would get a chance to.
One day, JJ was chill. It was him and the boys, laid back and laughing, living the best life he'd ever lived. The full moon was coming up, but the potions were working, and he was worried about it less than ever before.
The next, Kiara Carrera appeared at John B's side like a shadow with curls pulled back messily into a scarlet headband. He called her over at breakfast, at lunch, in class, until she eventually drifted to them on her own. She brought along her loud, obnoxious laughter and expensive colored quils, and JJ didn't like it.
He didn't like it at all.
JJ knew Kiara Carrera's type just by looking at her. He'd noticed her from day one at Hogwarts, strutting behind the other Gryffindors with her designer robes and flashy new school supplies. She was loaded. A girl like that would never stick around with guys like them, and he didn't care to waste the energy it would take to hide his curse from her for however many weeks she decided to slum it with them.
Pope was too nice to really say anything, even though he too had started off going quiet in Kiara's presence. But soon enough, he was preening under her attention, too pleased for his own good when she complimented his charm work.
JJ corned John B after Defense Against the Dark Arts, their last class of the day. "Why are you trying to upset the balance, bro?" he demanded, glaring at the back of Kiara's head. She'd momentarily detached herself from John B to discuss the lecture on zombies with Pope.
"It's clearly morally wrong—" Kiara was saying.
"Maybe, but the magic behind it has to be amazing," Pope replied, his voice carrying down the stone hallway even as they grew farther and farther away.
John B followed his gaze. "What? Kiara's cool."
"Really?"
"Yeah. And she rounds out partner numbers, so we don't have to play rock paper scissors anymore."
Cool. JJ took in John B's earnest expression, the casual way he talked about Kiara, and he realized that his friend was planning on keeping her around. Once John B decided something like this, it was done.
Well, just because he was a moron, it didn't mean JJ was going to be. John B and Pope could simp over Kiara's pleasant face and wide smiles all they wanted to, but he wasn't going to be the one moping when she inevitably grew bored with them. Just because they liked her, it didn't mean he had to.
It sucked that she wasn't quite as unlikable as would be convenient for him.
Kiara didn't know why she'd spent so long sulking about not fitting in with the other Gryffindor girls when the Gryffindor boys were right there. They conveniently had every class with her, just the same as the girls, only they didn't roll their eyes if she didn't want to participate in sneaking bad beautification spells out of library books.
She'd never met someone easier for her to get along with than John B. He was easygoing and loyal, and once he decided they were friends, he was yanking her along for almost everything the boys did. It was disorienting at first, going from wandering the halls alone to actually having people to hang out with.
Pope took her a little longer to click with, if only because he didn't appear to know how to hold a conversation with her at first. He tended to blurt out random facts when he didn't know what to say, especially if they pertained to zombies or inferi. She finally figured out how to get the ice well and broken by asking him for help on homework. Her grades were fine, but it certainly didn't hurt to have a second watchful eye like Pope's going over her work. He seemed to take it almost as a relief that she asked, because the other two boys showed little interest in schoolwork beyond the practical application.
JJ, however, didn't like her.
He didn't make it a secret either. JJ was very open about the way he felt about people, she'd discovered, which was a far cry from the sneaky whispers littering the girls' dormitory.
Mostly, he ignored her presence entirely. He didn't laugh at her jokes or give more than a grunt of reply when she greeted him. Occasionally, he would glance at her with this infuriating, slightly demeaning lilt to the corner of his lips, like something about her very existence offended him.
Fall term was quickly ticking by when Kiara received a package with a brand new exploding snap game inside from her parents. It put her in a better mood than usual, seeing as she finally had friends to play it with. It was her family owl, Artemis, that had delivered it, since she'd chosen to bring her cat as her one pet and thus didn't have a personal one.
"Who wants to play?" Kiara asked, once class was over for the day and they were gathered around one of the tables in the Gryffindor common room. She'd always sucked at exploding snap, but she had a feeling the boys would get a kick out of it.
"I need to study for Defense," Pope said, apologetically. He'd gotten a total of two marks off on his last exam. "Also I hate loud noises."
John B shrugged. "No idea how to play, but let's go."
As a muggleborn, he didn't know a whole lot about wizard games, but he always seemed to be up for learning new ones. JJ was usually up for games too, unless Kiara was the one who suggested them. She turned her attention to the blond, who was laid back with his feet propped on the table. A patient smile was painted on her face.
"Yeah, I'll pass." JJ followed Pope to the library instead. The library. Kiara was sure he couldn't even find it on his own, but books were a better alternative than her, apparently.
"Why doesn't he like me?" she asked, finally, her gaze following the tail of his robes as they swished through the portrait hole.
"He does," John B said, but his voice squeaked at the end. She noted that he didn't have to ask who she was referring to, either. She raised her brows at him, and he shifted in his chair. "Seriously. It's just JJ being JJ. He'll come around."
Kiara wasn't so sure. JJ didn't seem to have an attention span for homework, but when it came to being determined not to like someone, well… he was proving to be pretty stubborn.
If he wanted to be that way, fine. She could be stubborn, too
The full moon was that night, and there was a dull throb between JJ's ears. His tongue was numb, either from his sensory overload, or the bitter aftertaste of the Wolfsbane Potion he'd taken every morning that week before breakfast.
It was his third one of the school year, so he was growing a little more comfortable with the routine. Take his potion, fake a detention, head to McGonagall's office to be led to the Shrieking Shack, just in case.
The Wolfsbane Potion rendered him relatively harmless; he was basically a groggy version of his human mind in a wolf body as opposed to the bloodthirsty beast he transformed into without it. McGonagall had been more than gracious with him, but he understood that she still couldn't risk leaving him in the school on a full moon, just in case something went awry with the potion. The only way he'd been allowed at Hogwarts to begin with was because his condition wasn't common knowledge; many parents would be in an uproar otherwise.
He'd never been provided with Wolfsbane before coming to Hogwarts. His father couldn't afford it, couldn't brew it, and said it was a shame to curb their natural instincts, regardless.
But it made JJ's bones feel a little less like they were breaking in half, and kept him from clawing himself to death when he was locked up with nothing to attack. Most of all, he had to worry a lot less about accidentally killing someone. He'd gladly take the potion.
"I predict there are at least three secret passageways on this corridor. Theoretically one could lead there—"
Pope was drawing an imaginary map in the air above his cornflakes, and John B was leaned over eagerly, nodding like he could actually understand what Pope was on about. The three of them had been trying to discover where the kitchens were since their first few weeks at Hogwarts, to little avail. Usually, JJ would be jumping at the bits to explore a new possibility, but right now, it was all he could do to force a mouthful of toast down.
He clenched his eyes shut, trying to drown out Pope's voice. Everything was louder than normal on these days.
"Are you okay?"
It took JJ a moment to realize that Kiara's mocha gaze was trained on him. A wrinkle was in her forehead, and her fork was hovering over her plate.
He froze. The boys didn't tend to notice little things like the dark circles under his eyes or the fact that he could hardly eat the day of a full moon, but Kiara was eyeing him up in a way he really didn't need. He mentally added another tick to his list of reasons he didn't like this girl sniffing around.
"No," JJ bit out, because the best way to lie was to always add a little bit of truth in. "I'd rather be in bed. Wouldn't you?"
Her fingers clenched on her fork, then released. Kiara had been making a noticeable effort to be nice to him, even when he totally didn't deserve it. Like, at all. He had been nothing but a jerk to her.
And he didn't feel bad, exactly, but when she was smiling at him sometimes he forgot why he was being rude.
"I'm just saying, if you're sick, maybe you should see Madam Pomfrey," she observed.
JJ couldn't help but let out an amused puff of air. He'd be seeing Madam Pomfrey later, alright. He figured he'd be lucky if he even made it to the rest of his classes that day, but since he'd definitely be missing them tomorrow, he'd try to stick it out. The staff knew about his condition, but no other students did, so he didn't want people to take too much note of his disappearance.
"Maybe if you go see her she'll give you something to relax you," he said.
Kiara stared at him, and he stared right back. Sometimes, there were little moments like these when his curtness still seemed to catch her off guard. He could see her working her lip across the table, and a part of him willed her to snap at him. The darkest side of him was always itching for a fight on full moon days.
Instead, she gathered herself, primly cutting into her eggs. "Whatever. See if I ask about you the next time you look like you fell out of a tree and hit every branch, then."
Every stubborn cell in his body couldn't hold in his snort of genuine laughter at that.
Merlin, he really needed this girl to get a little easier to dislike.
The rest of JJ's day passed in a blur. He hardly caught anything being said in any of his classes, and he noted the others shooting him questioning looks on more than one occasion when he wasn't there with some mocking quip about something one of the professors said. They were starting to notice, and he couldn't have that.
He blew off potions, his last class of the day, altogether.
"Wait, dude, I might skip with you," John B offered, Kiara and Pope frowning in the background.
JJ shook his head, feigning nonchalance even though his entire being was vibrating at this point. "Nah, I'm gonna sleep before my detention tonight. Might as well get a little snooze in a bed instead of the dungeon."
"You're skipping class to sleep? In the middle of the day?" Kiara's voice was incredulous.
"Detention? Since when—"
"I told you about it yesterday," JJ tossed over his shoulder, cutting John B off. He picked up his pace, spinning around backwards once more to face them before he disappeared around the corner. "You were too busy inhaling that treacle tart to notice."
If they said anything else, JJ didn't hear them. He didn't hear much else at all apart from the thumping of his heart all the way up the winding stairs to his four-poster.
In the cool darkness with his curtains drawn, he could breathe again.
JJ's emotions were shitty and hard to deal with at the best of times, but on full moon days, he was a ticking time bomb. During his first one at school, he'd ended up snapping at Pope that he was an annoying nerd, and could he just shut up for once? The second had resulted in him wrestling John B into a not-so-friendly-headlock, an offense he felt significantly less horrible about than the incident with Pope.
All things considered, he was doing pretty well this time.
John B and Pope came crashing into the dormitory when it was just about time for him to go. He slid to the edge of the bed, pulling his secondhand shoes back on.
"You slept through dinner, bro," Pope pointed out, as if every fiber of JJ's being wasn't a biological clock at the moment.
"Yeah, I got that."
John B evidently didn't pick up on his tone. "But it's okay. Know why?" He waited, looking for some dramatic reaction that just had zero chance of coming today. JJ shrugged. "We're finding the kitchens tonight, boys."
"On a school night?" Pope muttered, but JJ was already shaking his head.
"Not tonight. I told you I've got that det." JJ tried to sound casual, but he could feel his blood pumping through his veins, faster and faster. He needed to be on his way to McGonagall's office. "Probably breaking a record by now."
"But you never turn down sneaking out," John B complained. He and Pope shared a loaded glance, and JJ's stomach dropped with dread. John B was looking at him all too suspiciously, and if John B was catching on, well… He might just be screwed. "What is the detention for?"
"Threw some sparks at good old Top in the hallway," he said easily. JJ spent a large amount of his free time circulating an endless supply of excuses through his brain. He was a screw up, so most of them were more believable than not.
"But when—"
"Seriously guys, I'd love to stay and chat, but I gotta go," JJ cut in, edging towards the door. "Don't want another detention."
He passed through the common room and out into the hallway, not stopping to see if Kiara's prying gaze was waiting on him. His pace didn't slow until he reached the gargoyle statue on the third floor marking the entrance to the headmistress's office.
McGonagall was waiting on him in a cascade of emerald robes. "You're late."
"My bad. Almost got busted."
Her lips thinned. "If you'd like to tell Routledge and Heyward—"
"No," JJ said, quickly. Regardless of whether or not he trusted them to keep his secret (He did), he didn't want to deal with it. He also didn't want to thrust any of his baggage on them, to force them to have something to worry about. He was fine.
Regardless, JJ didn't want to know how his classmates as a whole would react if they found out what he was. Many of them already cast him knowing looks because of the ratty, secondhand robes the school had to use a scholarship fund to even allow him to purchase. He knew how most wizards looked at his kind. Dirt under their shoe at the best of times, and an unfeeling monster out to kill them at the worst of times.
"Very well." She looked him up and down, a concerned aura about her that he'd only ever witnessed on full moons. Some of his classmates would never believe that their strict headmistress had a softer side. "Let's get you to the Shrieking Shack, then."
If he felt like he was dangling over the edge of a cliff the day of a full moon, the day after, he felt like he was wading through sludge. Like he'd been broken and then glued back together, piece by ragged, bloody piece.
As she usually did, Madam Pomfrey collected him at dawn, forcing several potions down his throat and shoving some toast in his hand. "Don't drink those on an empty stomach," she barked.
It wasn't quite time for breakfast yet, so he left the hospital wing in as much of a hurry as he could. For the past two full moons, he'd managed to sneak back into the dormitory before the other two boys were awake and pretend his excuse from the day before was worth skiving off class for.
I'm too tired from Filch breathing down my throat all night, would be his excuse of the day.
He was tired. Exhausted, in fact. He couldn't wait to collapse into his bed, and thoughts of it made the effort of sneaking through the common room totally worth it.
Years of walking on the non-creaky floorboards at his house to avoid waking his father had made him an expert at stealth. Sneaking was one of the very few things he was good at, and he planned to use it to the fullest extent possible.
JJ pulled the door to the first year boys' dormitory closed, inching his fingers off it slowly so that it didn't creak and accidentally alert John B and Pope to his arrival.
Only there they were, both sitting up in their beds, arms crossed. JJ nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Told you," Pope said, his voice coming out the mumble of someone who'd just pulled his first all-nighter. He looked almost as bad as JJ felt.
John B was glaring at him. "Detention? What gives, dude?"
JJ fought the urge to bite at his nails. He'd prepared for this. "Chill. I thought I'd have a look around the castle, see if I could find the kitchens. I was already out so late and no one was patrolling."
Pope glanced at John B, like his confidence was waning, but John B didn't budge. His eyes narrowed. It occurred to JJ that maybe he'd let him witness one too many lies he'd told, because he looked like he wasn't buying it.
"You're lying. To us."
"Conspiracy theorist isn't a good look on you, bro."
"Lying to your best friends isn't a good look on you!"
JJ was exhausted to the core of his bones. For once, he didn't feel up to this quick-tongued back and forth that he was normally so good at. Both the boys were staring at him, accusing, and his web of lies was collapsing around him.
John B and Pope exchanged another glance. "Are you in trouble, man? Because you can tell us," Pope urged.
"No more than—" JJ cut himself off, a tremble rocking his body. He steadied himself on his bedpost, and John B jumped to his feet.
"Dude," John B said, hovering near JJ. "What was that? Are you okay?"
JJ waved him away, using his grip on his bed to maneuver himself onto the mattress. He fell onto it with a grateful plop. "Fine."
"Okay, that is so not fine," Pope snipped. His eyes were wide, and he was practically bouncing back and forth on the edge of his four-poster. It was altogether un-Pope-like.
"Shut up Pope—"
"I will when—"
"Both of you shut up," John B ordered. He peered at JJ. "Did you take something? What's going on?"
There was real worry on his friend's face. His eyebrows were all scrunched up, and his brunette curls were standing on end from where he'd clearly skipped a shower the night before. A part of JJ deflated.
There was no way he could keep this to himself for seven years. This was only month three of many, and already they looked ready to stage an intervention. The last thing he needed was for them to bring other peers into it (Like Merlin forbid, Kiara) if their concern grew.
"You can't tell anyone."
"Sure, man," Pope said, and John B was quick to agree. John B sucked at keeping secrets, was like the worst secret keeper imaginable, but JJ genuinely trusted him not to tell anyone. Whether or not they'd ever want to speak to him again was up for debate.
"Look, guys, I'm…" JJ swallowed, hands balling into the fold of his pants. "I'm a werewolf. McGonagall comes to get me every full moon so I can get off school grounds to transform."
A snort of laughter erupted from John B, like maybe he thought JJ was joking. He quieted gradually, taking in JJ's stony expression.
"Holy shit," John B said. JJ winced, but to his surprise, he detected no sign of disgust on his friend's freckled face. He looked open and curious, and one side of his mouth was pulled back like he was starting to smile. "Werewolves are real. That's kind of badass, right?"
It hit JJ that John B wasn't reacting the right way, the normal way, because his parents were muggles. He had no idea what a werewolf was, much less how wizarding society viewed them. As animals that would be better off put down, as far as many people were concerned.
"No, it's not, no," he argued. Having his own father rip into him for being born wasn't badass. Feeling like he was being ripped apart from the inside out, once per month, wasn't badass. Living in constant fear that he would slip up and hurt someone, kill someone, certainly wasn't.
JJ felt his hands shaking with effort to keep himself composed. John B frowned, glancing over at Pope, and…. Pope.
He'd grown very quiet, a hand to his mouth. John B looked back and forth between them. "Well, why don't you tell us what it's like then? You're still the same JJ."
"You sure about that?" JJ muttered.
John B nudged Pope. "Right?"
"Yeah," Pope squeaked, after a pregnant pause. He shuffled, and JJ wondered if he was wishing he could bolt. He didn't blame him. He'd seen that look, heard about it. People like him could trust no one, because no one could truly trust them. "It's just, why weren't we told about this? Shouldn't McGonagall have told our parents?"
He left the rest unfinished, but JJ heard it, loud and clear. McGonagall should've told their parents that their children would be sharing a dorm with a monster, but they were putting it on a leash so they really hoped it would be okay with them.
"Probably so everyone won't have nightmares that I'll come and kill them in their sleep, don't you think?" JJ muttered. More like, probably so everyone wouldn't look at me like you are right now.
"We'd never think that," John B argued. He didn't seem to be catching on to the fact that Pope wasn't super quick to back him up, that he was instead inching towards the door, like he couldn't wait for an excuse to leave the room. But JJ did.
Well. Maybe John B at least was idiotic enough to remain his friend, and JJ was probably selfish enough to let him.
Kiara spotted JJ's blond head at breakfast on Friday almost immediately. He was slumped several seats over from where their group normally gathered, inhaling his eggs like his life depended on it. It very well might have, considering she hadn't seen him at one meal or class the day before.
Oddly enough, John B and Pope hadn't joined him in the seat move. Pope appeared determined not to look up from his plate, and John B was throwing frustrated glances down the table at JJ.
Kiara's first instinct was to head for John B, but she changed course at the last second and went for JJ instead.
Whether or not he liked her, she wanted him to like her, and she'd be lying if she didn't admit to herself that he was growing on her a bit like a fungus. It had been weird and quiet yesterday without him, and on top of that, Pope had been withdrawn. It would come as a relief to hear the absurd things that came out of JJ's mouth again.
"Morning," Kiara said, and he gave a little jolt at the sound of her voice, like he hadn't been expecting anyone to speak to him. She dropped into the seat across from him.
He still looked a little rough around the edges, she noticed. His perpetually messy blond hair seemed even more discombobulated than usual, and the dark blotches that had lingered under his eyes for the past couple days hadn't quite faded.
JJ muttered something to her that may or may not have been a greeting in return. She squinted at him. "I didn't see you yesterday. Guess I was right about you being sick, huh?"
"You just never stop, do you?" he said, and it seemed more than his usual general uneasiness about her presence. If anything, he'd tolerated her better lately, but this was bitter. Something else was up.
Kiara dragged her gaze down the Gryffindor table towards John B and Pope. "Alright, seriously? What's going on? You three have a lover's spat or something?"
JJ scowled. "No. None of your business."
His hands were bunched into fists, and it suddenly occurred to Kiara that her questioning was backing him into a corner. It was clear that he did not like being cornered.
She changed tactics, making a mental note to harp on John B later for answers. "Do you need to borrow my notes from yesterday?"
A flash of his blue stare on hers, and his grip on his fork relaxed. "Kiara," he scolded. "Funny that you think I ever have notes."
"It won't be funny when you repeat first year."
Kiara tilted her head, playfully. JJ watched her, and he didn't smile, exactly, but something about him lightened up. He glanced down the table, towards the other boys, and then back to Kiara again. She wondered whether he was working out why he was the one she'd chosen to sit with.
Well, good luck to him at figuring it out, but she wasn't entirely sure, either.
JJ avoided the boys for a week. John B wasn't taking it well. He still tried to trail after JJ at the end of class, to partner with him in Potions.
And it wasn't something Pope had said, but what he didn't say, and JJ wasn't planning on sticking around to listen to it when he finally got around to it. He figured he'd just make things easier for him, and cut himself out of their lives for them. John B would be better off with a friend like Pope anyway.
It still really, really sucked, though.
He was laid back on his bed on a rainy afternoon, tossing a quaffle (One he'd knicked from the Quidditch shed) towards the ceiling and catching it over and over again. Because that was what he did now apparently, instead of running around planning the greatest pranks their eleven-year-old brains could comprehend.
The dormitory door swung open, and JJ looked over on reflex, hardly catching the ball before it bounced right on his nose.
It was John B, with Pope drifting along behind him, eyes on the carpet. Something ugly curled in JJ's stomach.
"What?" he ground out, as they hovered obnoxiously in the doorway.
"Hello, JJ." John B cleared his throat, giving Pope a nudge with his elbow. Pope blinked frantically. "Pope has something to say to you."
"Not interested." He really wasn't. Like, seriously.
"No, I have to say it." Pope stepped forward, and JJ threw up his mental walls like armor. They trembled, a blockade made of glass. To his surprise, Pope said, "I'm sorry I acted like that."
The wall shattered. JJ blinked, fixating on the stitches in his comforter. "No, I get it."
"No," Pope implored. "I am. It doesn't change our friendship, that you're a—"
"Werewolf?" JJ suggested, dully.
"Your lycanthropy." Pope took a breath. "I looked through some books in the library, and it's really a mess how people treat you, man. You're still you."
"Not without being drugged up I'm not." JJ hadn't really prepared for this. He'd had defenses ready, even joking threats for anyone who found out his secret and came after him, but not for someone trying to be there for him.
"You're stuck with us," John B announced. "Sorry, not sorry."
JJ took them in. Pope, looking earnest and ashamed. John B's steady, determined gaze; his best friend since he'd first stepped foot into Hogwarts. He didn't really understand the stigma that came with what JJ was, but JJ felt himself becoming disgustingly choked up.
"Whatever. As long as you promise to end this lame pity party right now, because it really sucks."
"Deal." John B grinned. "No pity parties here. Now get up! I think I have an idea to slip some dung bombs into Topper's bags."
John B and Pope were good on their word. For some reason that JJ couldn't fully comprehend, they stuck around, like they still wanted to be his friend.
Pope asked lots of questions, many of which JJ didn't know the answers to himself. In the cases that he didn't, Pope would run to the library and come back with lists of facts and dates that really didn't mean a whole lot to JJ when his main concern was not killing anyone that month. It was Pope's way of making up for his initial reaction, though, so JJ tried to keep his commentary to himself.
John B in particular continued taking it in stride. He quizzed JJ on the paths they took to get him out of the school, and JJ was thrilled to finally share the fact that he knew a secret path all the way into Hogsmeade.
John B even started referring to JJ's condition as his cousin Zippo in company. "Hey JJ, was it this weekend that you're hearing from your cousin Zippo?" followed by incessant laughter, and more often than not, scrutinizing looks and eye rolls from Kiara, who still wasn't part of the inside joke. Although JJ had grown used to her presence, he didn't plan for her to ever be a part of it.
Just the idea of her knowing made his skin crawl, not because she'd run screaming, but the opposite.
He'd seen the fire in her eyes when relocation of centaur populations came up in class, had heard her rants when someone had a snide comment about their house elf. She'd pity him if she knew, make him some sort of personal charity project, and he really wasn't going to put up with it.
JJ liked it much better when she was reining in her scowls at him during Botany, thank you very much.
Christmas Holidays were upon them before he knew it, and all of JJ's friends (Yes, he even included Kiara in that list now, reluctantly) were packing up to go home. Unlike him, they had actual families that loved them, something that was easy to forget while they were away at school.
John B hovered with his packed bags near the dormitory door. "JJ, I'm sure my dad would be cool with you staying at my place."
JJ cut him a look, because they'd already had this conversation. "Dude. Christmas is the full moon. I need to be here anyway."
"I can stay here—"
"No, man. Go home and see your dad."
John B looked at Pope, as if for assistance, but he just shrugged helplessly. He had been quiet, busy organizing his bag by color and triple checking the contents to make sure he had everything.
"I don't want you to spend Christmas and cousin Zippo alone," John B said. His forehead was marred into a frown.
"Trust me, I'm not upset," JJ said, and he wasn't. In fact, he was fairly sure it would be the best Christmas he'd had since his muggle mother found him floating his toys at the age of eight and dropped him back on his dad's doorstep. Maybe since even before then.
What he didn't expect was to wake up on Christmas morning and see packages nestled at the foot of his bed, even through the pounding of his morning-of-the-full-moon induced headache.
JJ's first thought was, I have presents? His second was to wonder whether or not someone had delivered packages to the wrong bed.
But no, just as surely as they were there, each and every one had his name scribbled on them.
He could hardly remember the last time he'd gotten a gift. Nerf bullets and brand new footballs passed through his mind, from back when he still lived with his mother. Her gifts had dwindled over the years, and now he couldn't even expect so much as a card.
From John B, he had a small selection of muggle candies and snacks that he couldn't ever remember having; jolly ranchers, potato chips, and various brand chocolate bars. There was a navy sweater with "JJ" stitched onto the front from Pope's family, and he realized with some amazement that it was homemade. The sleeves were long, soft, and warm, and alone in the privacy of the room, JJ allowed himself a moment to gather himself. It had been more than a while since he'd received something so thoughtful.
There was one remaining package, sleek and rectangular and wrapped neatly in brown paper.
Happy Christmas! Maybe now you can keep your hands to yourself and stop pretending I don't notice you stealing mine.
Kiara
Inside, there was a package of the biggest assortment of chocolate frogs he'd ever seen. White chocolate, dark chocolate, some with flavors in the middle. The writing was in French, so she'd clearly picked it out over her family holiday in France (and probably gotten a kick out of imagining him trying to guess which flavor he was trying with the language barrier).
On a scale of one to ten, JJ still didn't know how much Kiara secretly disliked him, but he plopped a squirming frog in his mouth, regardless. He figured rich people chocolate was worth the risk of being poisoned.
Kiara knew the boys had inside jokes and secrets that she wasn't apart of (And maybe never would be, a fact that she tried not to let sting too much), but when they started inviting her on their forbidden nightly excursions sneaking around the school, she felt like she was really one of them.
They were out on this particular night, searching for any more Hogwarts secrets they could discover. JJ and John B liked it because knowing hidden pathways and tricks helped them prank people they didn't like and go undetected when they were otherwise making trouble, and Pope liked it because the process of unlocking something new got him giddier than she'd ever see him.
For Kiara, it was a healthy mixture of both, though she liked to make out like she was siding with Pope.
They were on the first floor, unsuccessfully searching for doorways behind portraits when things took a turn for the worst.
A light flickered in the corner of Kiara's vision, and then JJ was yelling, "Guys, guys. Code red!"
They scattered. Pope and John B headed one way, towards the grand staircase, but Kiara found herself hot on JJ's heels in the opposite direction. There were smaller, more discreet ways back up to Gryffindor tower that Kiara calculated left them at less risk for being caught, and apparently JJ had the same idea.
They darted down two hallways, and Kiara's breathing was heavy in her ears. Dread seized her when they reached the tapestry corridor, and voices were still echoing behind them. They'd been followed.
"Screw this," Kiara muttered, spinning on her heel and heady for a big, oval tapestry of a sleeping dragon. She yanked on the edge, revealing a narrow space definitely big enough for two first years. They'd been disappointed when they'd discovered an entrance to nowhere just after Christmas, but right now, it was looking like their best bet.
"JJ," she hissed, lunging for the back of his robes and missing. "Over here."
Luckily, he still heard her. He scrambled in the alcove behind her, and she just caught the dragon peeling open its eye before the tapestry fluttered back into place, locking them in the pitch black, stuffy air.
They were crowded more closely together than they'd normally stand in the space, but they still had room to put several inches between them. She imagined JJ was glaring even though she couldn't see him. Panting, he complained, "Doesn't Filch ever sleep? It's just sad at this poi—"
A rustling came from outside, and Kiara smacked her hand over his mouth. His breathing stilled. "Shh."
"I know I heard them go this way," someone said, and she felt JJ tense under her grasp.
They'd recognize that voice almost anywhere. Rafe Cameron was only in second year, but easily one of the most obnoxious, arrogant students in the school. Naturally, he'd become a target of whatever cheap prank products the boys could get their hands on whenever possible (or whenever JJ could swipe them from someone else and use them for his own benefit).
Unfortunately, Kiara had known the Camerons for years. They came from a pureblood, Slytherin dynasty, and her mother always acted like she'd won the lottery when they got invited to one of their dinner parties.
They had a daughter in first year as well, Sarah Cameron. Kiara didn't think much of either of them, but Rafe was definitely the worse of two evils, and he was right outside.
"Maybe we should go back another way." There were some mutters of agreement. From what Kiara could decipher, it sounded like maybe three people, total. If they were found, they'd be totally outnumbered.
"I'll teach those stupid pogues to put dung bombs in my bags," Rafe said. JJ shifted next to her, like he was trying not to laugh, and Kiara resisted the urge to pinch his arm. The dung bombs had been his idea, but he'd dared John B to do it. Unfortunately, unlike JJ, John B wasn't stealthy enough to go unnoticed by Rafe.
"He is a walking piece of shit, so it's what he deserves," JJ whispered.
"Idiot," Kiara muttered back.
"I say we head them off on the seventh floor. The Gryffindors are always coming from up there."
JJ moved again next to her, and Kiara grabbed his arm instinctively. She didn't doubt at all that he was debating jumping out at Rafe, because he was hotheaded and rash and he's set himself on fire if it meant keeping his friends safe.
She wasn't prepared to set herself on fire with him, though.
Rafe's voice was getting farther away, and JJ was restless as Kiara began digging through her small knapsack. "He's gonna catch John B," JJ said.
Kiara's hands latched onto what she as looking for. A small but still highly effective Whiz-bang, one she'd been saving fro a special occasion. Her parents didn't realize she'd snuck any back to school. "We'll see about that."
She reached for her wand. A steadying breath slipped through her lips, and she balanced it against the Whiz-Bang.
"Run for the hidden staircase."
"Wh—"
"You'll know when," Kiara cut him off. She whipped her wand, and a trail of blue flames cascaded out, right onto the Whiz-Bang. She threw it into the corridor, hands flying to her ears.
BANG. BANG BANG BANG.
The Slytherins outside screamed, and the next thing Kiara knew, JJ had a fistful of her robes, dragging her up winding stair after winding stair. The Whiz-Bang would be attracting every authority figure in the castle and it really wasn't funny but it was, and their laughter was echoing off the stone, only a few notes quieter than the shouts of the Slytherins.
"Custard Tart." JJ's voice was breathless, but the Fat Lady swung open regardless, frowning at them. He gave her a hand up into the hole, and he'd never done that before. Her smile stretched wider.
John B and Pope descended upon them at once in the common room.
"Dude, what was that—"
"I thought the castle was coming down. I actually thought it was coming down."
Their laughter was still struggling to die on their lips, and the other two boys were looking between them with awe and maybe a little horror. Kiara managed to sober first. "It wasn't Filch. Rafe Cameron and a bunch of Slytherins were trying to get revenge or something macho bull like that."
"Kie scared them off with a firework. A freaking firework, guys," JJ added, and delight was dancing in his ocean eyes. Kie. No one had ever called her that, but she wanted to hear it again. And again.
Her heart was warm, and in the low light of the Gryffidor common room, she thought maybe she could really be one of them, after all.
AN: update speed depends an awful lot on interest for this story, so, comment.