Great Hall, Hogwarts
September 2nd.
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"Holy mother of tits, I am so fucking hungover." Lottie groaned loudly, burying her face into her hands.
Gigi winced at Lottie's loud voice, sitting beside her, her hearing sensitive from a wicked hangover. After she had run off from Sirius, she went straight to her dorm, collapsing on her bed, thinking of his kisses and seductive grey eyes until she fell asleep. Unfortunately, that meant that she hadn't drunk enough water before sleeping, resulting in the pounding headache she was currently experiencing. Her hair was mussed, having barely enough time to get ready, and her Ravenclaw tie was knotted carelessly and loosely. "Try drinking something Lottie."
Lottie looked up at the vast amounts of food and drinks in front of her. "Ugh. I think I might vomit just by looking at this food." Lottie's hair was still wet from the shower, having only gotten up by Gigi and Alexa shaking her awake fifteen minutes before breakfast. Her blouse was wrinkly, as if she had to pick out from the bottom of her trunk. Her Ravenclaw tie was bunched up and shoved into her front pocket of her blouse.
"You guys better perk up; Flitwick is coming over soon to hand out schedules." Said Alexa, spreading marmalade onto her toast evenly, radiantly groomed and put together.
"Lex, seriously, how are you never hungover?" asked Gigi, eying her friend.
Alexa gave a wry smile, taking a bite out of her toast. Her blond waves were perfectly smooth, uniform in place and no trace of dark circles under her eyes. Over the summer, after nights of partying, the group usually slept their hangovers off, Alexa was always up early in the morning, without a hint of nausea or headache.
Gerry, Max, Bryan and Tommy walked up to the table and sat across form the girls, looking equally as hungover, nodding to the girls. Gigi noticed when Bryan avoided her eyes and sat as far away from her possible, suddenly very interested in his tea. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at his awkwardness.
"I've got something to help us all in this God forsaken hour of the morning." Tommy said cheerily. He pulled out a silver flask from his robes, taking a swing from it.
"Merlin's beard, Tommy, I know you think drinking more is the answer to everything, but I refuse to have any of your alcohol right now. I've already vomited once last night and do not want to relieve that experience again." Said Max, making a face at the flask.
"No, it's a Hangover Vanisher! Got it in London just before school started. I feel better already." Said Tommy, giving everyone a wide smile.
"I'll have some of that please, but mate, you should also get yourself a love bite Vanisher too while you're at it." Said Gerry, his hair pushed back messily, dark circles under his blue-violet eyes. He looked directly at the sizable purple-red mark on the bend of Tommy's neck that was visible at the top of his unbuttoned shirt.
The group laughed as Tommy tried to observe his neck in the reflection of his spoon. The flask was passed around as Gigi leaned over and tapped her Ebony and Granian Hair wand against Tommy's neck, using a blood vessel healing charm to make the love bite disappear. "Thanks Gigi, what would I be without our local healer?" said Tommy, grinning at her.
Gigi smirked and rolled her eyes at her friend while she took a sip from Tommy's flask. She could feel the potion go down as she swallowed, burning and warming her throat like Firewhiskey. Immediately, her headache vanished and she felt more alert. Tommy quickly hid the flask into his bag as Flitwick approached their part of the table, schedules in hand. Gigi glanced over her heavy schedule. She knew she needed "Outstanding" or "Exceeds Expectations" in Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology, and DADA if she wanted to be a Healer at Hôpital de Morgan le Fay pour les enfants, the children's wizarding hospital in Paris. Her first class of the day was her elective class, Advanced Arithmancy, which she took because she knew it looked good for her resumes. It was the one subject that the perfect Lily Evans was horrible at and gave up on after third year, while Gigi who found it interesting, logical, and challenging.
"Gigi, where did you disappear off to last night?" said Alexa quietly, while their friends chatted and compared schedules.
Gigi felt her heart begin to race as she tried to maintain a neutral expression. Despite Gigi's usual aloof and cool façade, Alexa had always been able to sense when something was wrong with her. "Oh, I just ran off to the kitchens to grab something to eat and didn't bother going back to the party." Said Gigi, knowing that the best lies were always buried in the truth. "Lex, we better head off to Arithmancy, otherwise we'll be late."
Alexa raised an eyebrow at her, but picked up her bag to head off to class without asking any further questions.
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Potions Class, Hogwarts
September 2nd.
The rest of the day went by in a blur and Gigi was currently in the last class of her day, Potions. After smiling tightly at Slughorn's greetings and praises, Gigi took her seat next to her brother at the side of the classroom with Alexa and Bryan behind them. Slughorn droned on with his welcome back speech and general overview of the course, while the rest of the class tried not to fall asleep.
Gigi stared at the brass cauldron in front of her, thinking about Sirius. Why had she run off from Sirius Black the exact same way during both their interactions? Gigi felt like she was in a trance when she was with him the last two times. It was like everything else in the world got blocked out and it was just her and Sirius. When he looked at her with those intense grey eyes with animalistic desire, it brought out the same primal need. She wanted to feel him up against her skin and feel his lips on her body again. She was completely consumed by him in those moments, like she had tunnel vision from their strong connection. The only thing she could see was him and the only thing she could feel was the need to be with him. Gigi had never felt so out of control of her own feelings and actions, even with Antoine.
Antoine.
Dear, sexy, loving Antoine, who had completely betrayed her. The worst part was that she had no idea, she was completely taken advantage of a boy who couldn't keep his prick in his pants. Handsome Antoine, who pursued her and charmed her, just like Sirius, ladies' man of Hogwarts, famous Black heir, probably looking for his future pureblood wife to abuse and neglect, like so many of the pureblood families she knew. Just like Antoine was probably intending to do to her and use her father for his own personal gain.
In the end, all boys are the same and they all wanted the same thing from her; her body, her family name, her connections.
She might have made a mistake with Antoine, but she had to learn from her ways. And Sirius Black was, without a doubt, a mistake waiting to happen.
"…And the final essay of the year will be due the third last class of the school year. Any questions before you're dismissed?" said Slughorn, while his students stared blankly at him. "I'm sure you are all excited to be in your last year of Hogwarts, so close to the beginning of your adulthood. I will be having many Slug Club meetings and parties during the year of course, and I will be inviting some very important and successful Hogwarts alumni, all of whom were part of the Slug Club during their days at Hogwarts. I'm sure many of them would be delighted to become acquainted with some of you." His eyes gleamed with pride as he eyed the Cartier twins in front of him. Gigi and Gerry gave him a polite smile, knowing Slughorn meant that he wanted to show them off to his high ranking friends.
Slughorn dismissed the class and Gigi, Gerry, Alexa and Bryan left quickly, heading back to the Ravenclaw tower before dinner. Gerry and Alexa chatted ahead of Gigi about the first Quidditch practice that was scheduled in a few days, while Bryan walked quickly in step with them, blatantly avoiding Gigi. Gigi stared at the back of Bryan's head and sighed loudly, annoyed at his awkwardness.
"All right, Gigi?" a deep voice asked. Gigi turned to her left to find Ian Parsons, a tall Slytherin with straight, honey blond hair and sapphire eyes. He was a good friend of Lottie's who was in her music class and was known for his deep, seductive singing voice. With his strong jaw, tall figure and boyish good looks, he was downright delicious.
Gigi gave Ian a wry smile. "Hey." She noticed Bryan subtly checking out the two, walking ever so slightly slower to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Slughorn's a complete bore, don't you think? And he already asked me if my father was available to come to his Slug Club party. Don't know how I'm going to get my old man out of that one." Said Ian, rolling his eyes. Ian's father was a high ranking official in the Ministry and had worked with Gigi's father in the past.
"Tell me about it. The man is unbearable." Said Gigi, giving Ian a flirtatious, radiant smile.
Ian grinned back, looking over her features, his sapphire eyes twinkling. "I wanted to ask if I could walk you back to your dorm. We haven't had the chance to catch up."
"Well, aren't you the chivalrous gentleman." Said Gigi.
The two walked behind Bryan, Gerry and Alexa, talking about their summers, exchanging stories of wild parties they attended. Ian stayed in Brazil for most of the summer but travelled all over South America, and even went up to the Caribbean. When they reached to Ravenclaw tower, Ian swooped in and kissed Gigi on the cheek goodbye before she could say anything, lingering a second too long while Bryan glared at him. Ian winked at Gigi and said goodbye to the group before heading down to the Slytherin dungeons.
"Well, I'm starving, I think we should grab Lottie and get some dinner, yeah?" said Gigi cheerfully, ignoring her brother and her friends looks. They headed up the stairs and the girls went to their dorms to find Lottie, who was sitting on their sofa, writing down music notes furiously onto her notebook.
"Gigi, I am telling you, about fifteen boys were eying you and attempted to dance with you last night, all of whom you ignored, you little vixen." Said Alexa throwing her bag onto her bed.
Gigi rolled her eyes, smiling and walked to their mirror, inspecting herself. "They have to try a bit harder than grinding up against me. Plus, now that I'm single, it'll be fun to toy with some boys this year, have them on hand and what not."
"Starting with Ian Parsons?" Alexa teased. "Lottie, you should have seen the two of them after Potions class, Ian walked her back to the tower, and they were flirting the whole way."
"What can I say, I enjoy the pretty things in life." Said Gigi, smirking.
"You're going to be the heartbreaker queen this year!" said Lottie, laughing. "Please shag Ian and tell us how he is, that boy is pure sin."
"Looks like Gigi already has a string of boys following her around, starting with Bryan and Ian." Said Alexa.
Gigi sighed. "So you noticed Bryan? He asked me out last night at the party, to which I said no. He's been pretty awkward since, avoiding eye contact at all costs."
"Don't worry about Bryan, he's a good guy and will get over it without any hard feelings." Said Alexa, tossing her blonde waves into a messy ponytail. "And what about Ian?"
"Ian sure is pretty, but I am not going to venture into any kind of relationship anytime soon girls. Don't you worry, I plan on being fun, single, Gigi for a while." Said Gigi, confidently. "And what about you, Lex? Did I see you talking to a certain Marauder last night in the corner of the room, away from the party?"
Alexa blushed deeply, confirming Gigi's observation. She saw Alexa and Remus talking intimately on the large sofas against the walls of the Hufflepuff common room, away from the dance floor. Remus's amber eyes were practically glowing as he listened intently to Alexa, staring at her with what could only be described as awe. "Oh. You saw that. Er – yeah, Remus is sweet, he caught me when I slipped on a puddle of beer, and then we sort of just started talking."
"WHAT!" exclaimed Lottie, tossing her music notebook to the side. "You and Remus Lupin?!"
Alexa crossed her arms defensively. "Calm down, Charlotte, it was really nothing. We talked, that's all. He's a lot more bearable than his other friends and he's quite smart. Also, he has an interest in magical creatures. We – well, actually, I mostly talked about how more rights need to be given to magical creatures and how I want to work in that field once we finish school. Then he got all weird and stiff, running off, saying he needed to find his friends."
"Maybe he started to get an erection while staring at you in your bra." Said Gigi nonchalantly.
Alexa and Lottie burst out laughing, Alexa throwing a pillow at Gigi. The girls headed down the stairs to go to dinner, meeting the boys in the common room. Gerry pushed his dark hair back with intense, smouldering violet eyes only for Lottie and strolled over to her, kissing Lottie on the lips quickly. He held her hand while Lottie blushed, their friends whooping and congratulating them, directing attention from other Ravenclaws.
"About time you two!" exclaimed Tommy. "Max, you owe me my Galleons, I told you they'd get together before the end of the week."
The group laughed and Lottie gave her friends a sheepish look. "He asked me to be his girlfriend last night."
As they entered the Great Hall, Gigi saw Ian looking at her and waved to him, noticing several other male gazes from the House tables. As her and her friends walked to their spot at the Ravenclaw table, Gigi smiled to herself, realizing her endless possibilities to have some fun this year. Gigi dared to turn her head slightly towards the Gryffindor table. There, she saw Sirius looking right at her, staring intently. She quickly looked away and walked to the Ravenclaw table, feeling those familiar grey eyes follow her body.
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Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait, I've been so busy lately. I also wrote a draft of this chapter, ended up not liking it and starting it over.
Tell me what you guys think! I would love to hear your feedback, it keeps me motivated!