June 20 1996
11:32 p.m.
"I can't believe we're doing this!"
"Easy, Headgirl, or your head will explode."
"Considering I brought the booze, I feel I should be more worried."
"Jonathan!"
"Shuddup! You want to get caught?"
"Sorry Lucia…"
Lucia Selwyn flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder and smiled brightly as sprawled herself on the sofa like a swooning heroine from a romance novel while Audrey Causey conjured some nice glasses for the table. The Ravenclaw common room was empty at this late hour, it was just the four of them to finally celebrate the completion of John Townsend and Ellie Quinton's N.E.W.T.s.
Also, there was another bit of news to celebrate as well.
"You heard about Umbridge getting carried off by centaurs right?" Ellie fixed her long brown hair in a high ponytail as John pulled out several bottles of contraband whiskey and butterbeer and placed them on the table.
"Couldn't happen to a nicer toad!" John laughed manically. "I'll bet Potter was involved!"
"Isn't he always?" Lucia chimed in as she popped open a bottle of butterbeer and began to drink straight from the bottle. "We haven't had a quiet year since he showed up."
"I knew that curse would get rid of her eventually!" Ellie opened the bottle of whiskey Audrey had brought and poured it into tiny shot glasses.
"How many teachers has Potter offed so far?" Audrey laughed as she popped open her own bottle of butterbeer and sat on the top of a plush chair, her bunny slipper clad feet on the cushion for balance. She took a slow drink, letting the warm, sweet taste of butterbeer move down her throat. Her face grew warm quickly and she wiggled her feet, watching the ears on her bunny slippers bounce up and down. "Quirrell's dead, Lockhart's lost his mind, Lupin was a werewolf, Moody was…"
"Impersonated by a lunatic!" Lucia finished as she twirled around like a dancer. "I'd call it three out of four because Lupin showed up weird."
"Four out of five then if this gets rid of Umbridge," John corrected. "Such trouble the Potter boy is."
"A true threat to our education!" Audrey added.
Ellie made a scoffing noise, "Too true, he's trouble, but if he's managed rid us of Umbridge I'll drink to him."
The four friends raised their glasses and bottles with a quick toast to the end of Umbridge before they began to drink in earnest.
John had moved to the now vacated sofa, throwing his arms across the back as Ellie rested her head on John's lap. Lucia was now performing an elaborate mime of Umbridge getting eaten by giant spiders as Audrey contributed commentary on other creatures in the Forbidden Forest for the potential consuming of the toad.
"Do the Redcap bit again, Lucia!"
Lucia took another large swig of butterbeer and downed a shot of fire whiskey before quickly doing a promising imitation of someone being stabbed in the belly by promptly clutching it and rolling her eyes into the back of her head with a dramatic gasp as she dropped to the floor with a series of defensive twitches.
"I'm not sure that's accurate," Ellie chimed in with a giggle. "More screaming I think."
"You're well off girl from London, what do you know about stabbing?" John poked her playfully in the belly, causing Ellie to laugh harder.
"Says the farm boy from Scotland!"
"Pfft! At least I could defend myself with a pitchfork."
Audrey snorted into her now empty bottle as she swayed slightly on the top of the chair. "As a good Yorkshire girl, I wouldn't need a pitchfork." She waved her wand about and set off a series of multicolored sparks. "I got this!"
"And your fists!" John added.
Audrey threw a couple of quick jabs at an imaginary opponent causing John to clap at the display. Audrey suddenly felt rather lightheaded from the whiskey and slid down to sit in the chair properly before propping her feet up on the table.
"Feet off the table! Were you raised in a barn?" Ellie snapped, as she tried to reach out and swat Audrey's ankles, she was too far away to do anything other than swing her arm up and down ineffectively.
"Mechanic's shed actually," Audrey laughed as she moved her feet from the table and tucked them under her instead. "It was a renovated barn."
"Merlin's pants," Ellie mumbled with a roll of her eyes and a voice tinged with laughter. "You and John are going to give me a stroke."
"What about me?" Lucia prodded from the floor.
"A trip to the mental asylum."
"I'll do my best to make sure you're sent to the nice one. Perhaps you'll get a room next to Lockhart!"
Ellie threw a throw pillow at Lucia who ducked out of the way with a cackle.
"I can't believe he was a Ravenclaw alumni," John mumbled before downing the rest of his butterbeer. "Gives us all a bad name with the nonsense he was sprouting."
"So was Quirrell," Ellie piped up. "We all can't be Rowena Ravenclaw, John. Sometimes smart people are stupid too."
"That is true." Lucia said sagely from her spread eagle position on the floor. "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure."
Audrey burst into a fit of uncontrolled giggles at her sudden understanding of the innuendo, soon being joined by John and Lucia while Ellie bemoaned their immaturity.
When they stopped to catch their breath the unmistakable voice of the doorknocker caught their attention. It was muffled, but the pitch of it could be heard acutely through the stone of the tower.
"What has an eye, but cannot see?"
"Bugger! Scatter!" John whispered as he jumped to his feet, almost taking Ellie to the floor as Audrey vanished the glasses and bottles on the table into nothingness. They foursome ambled and stumbled about drunkenly as they straightened the common room with flicks of their wands.
"A needle," Flitwick's unmistakable squeaky voice answered confidently.
"Well reasoned."
Lucia was the first to make a retreat to the dormitory staircase with the rest of the group close behind her as the door swung open to reveal the looming shadow of their head of house. The foursome held their breath, unwilling to catch his attention with the squeak of a door hinge this late at night, waiting patiently for Flitwick to complete his rounds and go. It took ten minutes for Flitwick to be satisfied that there were no shenanigans taking place in the Ravenclaw common room. The students breathed a sigh of relief, said goodnight and staggered to their dormitories.
Oo0Oo0
June 21st 1996
7:17 a.m.
Audrey yawned loudly as she stretched her arms over her head, her jaw popping slightly with the strain. She rubbed her eyes and reached for the coffee in the center of the table and several heaping spoonfuls of sugar flew into her mug. There was a sound of hooting and flapping from overhead, Audrey looked up to try and spot the tawny owl who usually delivered her morning paper in the flock as Lucia's head dropped onto her shoulder with a groan.
"Too much party?"
"Nope."
John and Ellie were cuddling on Audrey's other side, Ellie's head resting on John's shoulder while his hand rested on her lower back or waist. It was hard to tell.
Audrey wondered what that measure of security with another person, a lover, was like for a moment. She was not all that interested in dating, perhaps she should give that a shot this summer if the opportunity presented itself. What did she like though? She was not sold on muscles, she liked men with glasses. Tall men with glasses did something to her.
Good luck with that, Audie. You're gonna die alone.
"Must you two flaunt your perfection to us singletons?" Lucia grumbled from Audrey's shoulder.
"Perfection?" Ellie purred. "John, I don't know what she's on about."
"I don't either, dearest." He nuzzled the top of her head as he accidentally stuck his elbow in a bowl of eggs.
Lucia gagged.
Audrey giggled.
A tawny owl dropped in front the little group and dropped the paper properly in Audrey's lap before sticking out its leg for payment. Audrey dropped a couple of sickles in the bag and gave the bird what was left of her bacon as Lucia took the paper to do her normal, dramatic readings of the headlines and Quidditch scores.
Only there was a loud gasp instead.
"What the fuck?"
"Lucia, don't swear in front of the First Years!" Ellie snapped as John tried to look at the headline that had so shocked the unflappable girl.
The First Years in question were laughing at the older student's outburst as Ellie reached for the newspaper in Lucia's hands, accidentally hitting Audrey in the head with her elbow in the process.
Lucia leaned away from Ellie's grasping hands and Audrey's curious eyes as she began to read loudly.
"You-Know-Who Returns!"
The students sitting near Lucia grew silent, from her gaggle of friends to the First Years, the Fifth Year boys who were falling asleep on their heavily buttered toast, and the Seventh Years shoveling food into their mouths as they read their career acceptance letters.
The Ravenclaw table was never a quiet place, usually full of debate and teenage shenanigans, making the silent response to Lucia's proclamation of the Daily Prophet headline bone chilling.
After a moment of tense silence, a Seventh Year girl reached over to grab a copy of the Daily Prophet from a stunned looking Third Year, who lunged out of reach in a nick of time and huddled down over it with his group of friends as they mouthed the words of the article silently to themselves. The rest of the Great Hall seemed to be shrouded in the same silence that had overcome the Ravenclaw table as they received their own papers or a hurried whispering that echoed quietly through the Great Hall.
Lucia began to read aloud for those students who did not have a copy of the paper who had quickly crowded around her to catch a glimpse of the headline, crushing Audrey against the table in the process and forcing her to brace her hands against the edge of the table and push against the small swarm behind her.
Lucia's voice echoed of a break-in to the Department of Mysteries, that Harry Potter and other Hogwarts students had encountered Death Eaters within the facility, the event ending with Aurors and the Minister of Magic witnessing a monster long thought dead retreating from battle.
There was a moment of shocked silence as Lucia set the paper down. The crowd around Lucia stepped back and Audrey pressed a hand to her chest to keep her breathing even as her mind swam with thoughts and fear for the future.
Oo0Oo0
Author's Notes: We didn't see too many Ravenclaws in the DA, I don't imagine a lot of them believed it initially. Hence the use of OC's here, it's nice to write them in a more innocent, less traumatized state and explore the shock of more normal people. Plus, it entertains me to write characters who have labelled Harry as a threat to their education.
