EIGHT
"Red jumper or purple jumper?" Fiona asked from her spot on the floor in front of her wardrobe chest. "The red one is much warmer, but it also makes me look a bit like a granny," she offered, holding the red jumper up for the judgment of the two other girls in the Hufflepuff dormitory.
Eve eyed both pieces with careful consideration as if the decision was a matter for scientific research and not the school year's first Hogsmeade trip. With all things considered, though, both situations needed the serious deliberation of cost-benefit analysis only a teenage girl could offer.
"Purple jumper, let yourself freeze," Eve decided. This was all Fiona needed to hear, the girl immediately tossing the red jumper back into the chest and ripping the sleeping shirt she had been wearing off her shoulders. She threw on the winning jumper and quickly got to her feet to examine herself in a tall mirror on the wall by her bed.
Eve noted how the purple color complemented the red undertones in Fiona's light brown hair that she had watched neatly get straightened earlier in the morning. Eve thought about how pretty her friend looked. But it was a prettiness in a distinctly grown-up way she had never noticed before, and for a moment, she thought back to Fiona being 13 years old and begging Eve to come up with a spell to fix the awkward mismatched fringe she had decided to cut herself in the middle of the night. Eve had settled on just trimming the fringe even shorter, in a helpless attempt at evening out the cut. Fiona cried herself to sleep for days.
Oh, how far we've come.
"Why does it matter?" Lucie asked, ripping Eve out of her childhood memory. Lucie herself had been distant from the dormitory conversation for a while now, but Eve had chalked it up to homework stress and Prefect duties. Lucie had always been in a dedicated relationship with her school anxiety.
"I'm meeting Demetri Minkov. Remember I told you like three days ago at dinner?" Fiona replied, now applying mascara from her spot in front of the mirror.
Fiona has had a 'thing' with Demetri for the last few years now. Demetri was in the same year as the girls but in Ravenclaw. Their exchanges in classes turned into library dates and the usual teenage flirting and fondling in empty corridors. Eve thought they would surely solidify their relationship last year when they attended the Yule Ball together, but drama ensued during summer break that left them icy when the new school year came. When Eve first asked about it, Fiona had simply shrugged the questions off with, "Boys are imbeciles, you know that."
"They're speaking again. He asked her to be partners in Charms class last week," Eve offered to Lucie, who she could see was struggling to grasp the status of the romantic relationship. She murmured an "Ohhh" to Eve's information, but Eve could still tell her friend hadn't remembered anything.
"We meeting Doug then?" Lucie now asked, causing Eve to spring from her laid position on her bed to her feet. She had been so preoccupied with Fiona's plans she had forgotten she and Lucie had their own.
Kneeling at her own wardrobe chest, Eve quickly shifted through her muggle clothing, all of which had become disarrayed from their original neat folded organization promptly after school started. Grabbing a plain cropped forest green jumper and a knitted dark plaid skirt, she put the items on before reaching for the closest pair of black tights. Slipping into her old and scuffed black penny loafers, she took a position behind Fiona to glance at her own reflection in the mirror.
"There's no way I'm even remotely attempting something with this hair right now," Eve murmured, running her fingers a few times through her long dark curls. Fiona glanced at her through their reflections before handing Eve the berry-colored lip gloss she had just finished applying.
"Thanks," Eve grinned, accepting the lip gloss and carefully applying it to her own lips.
"Are you getting ready?" Fiona asked over her shoulder to Lucie, who hadn't moved once from her spot on her bed.
"I've been ready," Lucie replied, gesturing to her own outfit of plain blue jeans and a buttoned-up baby blue cardigan. Lucie had never given much time to her looks in the same way the two other girls had during their coming-of-age at Hogwarts. Fiona had always relentlessly begged Lucie for effort, for which Eve would always roll her eyes and tease back that Lucie didn't need it, "She's a natural beauty, unlike us two, Fiona."
Lucie got up from her bed, slipping on her tennis shoes and taking a moment to glance at her own reflection in the now crowded mirror. Eve moved to the side to make space, turning to Lucie and offering Fiona's lip gloss that was still in her hand. Lucie grinned, accepting it and applying her own modest layer. Eve smiled, glancing between their reflections in the mirror, all of which were adorned with the same identical lips.
"Aw, lip gloss. The true magic of friendship," Eve sighed in dramatic reflection, earning a laugh from Lucie and an eye roll from Fiona.
"Alright, let's go before Demetri decides he wants more 'me-time' again," Fiona huffed, turning away finally from the mirror and grabbing her purse from her nightstand. Eve cackled at the comment while Lucie raised her eyebrows in mild concern.
One by one, the girls filled out their dormitory and into the common room, the area mostly left now to the disappointed-looking younger years that weren't of age yet for Hogsmeade weekends. Douglas and Fernando, formally known as Wells, sat on armchairs, casually chatting about whatever teenage boys must talk about when girls weren't around.
Eve was first to reach the boys, taking a seat on Douglas's chair's right arm.
"I just don't personally think the Tutshill Tornados are a generally stronger team, maybe when Waterman was still a seeker for them but not anymore-"
Douglas cut his discussion and turned to Eve, the girl looking at him with an expectant stare.
Quidditch teams, what else would they possibly be talking about?
"Looks like you ladies finally found your way out," Douglas observed.
"Sorry, it was my fault. Had a bit of a meltdown over some jumpers," Fiona shrugged.
"Sounds reasonable," Fernando nodded, getting up from his chair, Douglas quickly following suit.
"Is this a double date, then?" Fiona asked, gesturing to the four of them with an amused look. Douglas and Eve exchanged looks with a laugh, while the other two looked a bit uncomfortable.
"Oh, my father would love that," Douglas grinned, slinging his arm casually over Eve's shoulder and leading her out the Hufflepuff common room, their friends trailing behind.
Douglas's sentiment was accurate, by the way. His father had adored Eve the moment he met her, thinking she was just as bright as she was charming and kind natured. His father thought it was only a matter of time before they expressed their secret romantic feelings for one another.
On the contrary, it only took Eve's liberal-minded muggle parents a week when Douglas came to visit two summer agos, for them to know the boy really was sleeping on Eve's floor every night.
Eve took a moment as the two made it out into the corridor first to turn to Douglas with raised brows. He grinned and shrugged aimlessly.
"He asked what my plans were for Hogsmeade, and I invited him along," he whispered in Eve's ear just as Fiona emerged from the barrel. Eve replied with a simple nod, trying not to let her playful smile show too much.
"And what are your plans for today, Miss Hangrove? Because you are certainly not crashing our romantic evening," Douglas asked Fiona, just as Fernando and Lucie met the group at their sides.
"Demetri's taking me to Madam Puddifoot's," Fiona replied, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, but the gang could see the soft rosy blush creep on her cheeks. Douglas snorted, causing Eve to immediately slap the back of her hand on his chest.
"Oh, I didn't know you and Minkov were dating again," Fernando said, with all the Hufflepuff politeness in the world, but the comment caused Fiona to grimace and look away.
"Well, technically, we never stopped dating," Fiona replied plainly, leading the way now as the group started towards the direction that would lead them out of the castle grounds.
As they walked through the corridors, they were greeted by more and more student groups all making their way towards Hogsmeade. Excited chat amongst friends filled the air, and Eve noticed several young couples taking liberty with handholding and stealing quick kisses amongst the crowd of students. It was only a week ago that Umbridge went on her tirade about students keeping their hands to themselves, but it was enough for adolescence love to go full anarchy.
"You know, I've never gone to Madam Puddifoot's," Lucie started, just as the group made it out of the front castle doors and begin their descent towards the grassy road that would lead them into town.
"Remember when Eve went with Nicolas O'Connell last year," Douglas blurted out, causing him and Lucie to burst out into laughter.
"Nicolas O'Connell, are you serious?" Fernando asked with a genuine tone of shock, but a laugh escaped his lips as well.
"What, you never told me that! When? Why?" Fiona asked, with all the dramatic disappointment Eve would have expected her to react when she eventually found out about the secret date from last year. This was the exact reason why she hadn't told Fiona at the time.
Nicolas had been a seventh year Hufflepuff last year and had asked Eve out after a few months of longing looks across the dining hall table and awkward conversations in the common room. Eve had thought he was nice enough, Cedric had even vouched for him as a friend, but she had ultimately found the boy a bit dull. When he eventually asked her to the Yule Ball, Eve quickly lied and told him Douglas had already asked her.
"It wasn't a big deal," Eve replied, rolling her eyes when Fiona quickly pushed for her answers.
"He was really nice. He just… talked too much," Eve continued with a shrug.
"Oh, god, he would go on and go on," Fernando replied, giving a glance up at the bright blue sky, dreamily reminiscing on the annoying Hufflepuff boy.
"And Eve didn't want to do any talking," Douglas said, sending his friend a cheeky smile. This statement caused Lucie to giggle and Fiona to send her yet another look of dramatic revelation. Eve rolled her eyes.
The accusation was a bit of an exaggeration, but it had a place in the situation. Nicolas had been sweet and gentlemanly, but he had used conversation to overcompensate for his awkward romantic maneuvers. Eve eventually had to build a strategy of taking him by the face and kissing him whenever he went on for too long. Unfortunately for her, though, he never learned from the blaring hint.
"Who wouldn't rather snog than talk about school for hours?" Eve replied, throwing her hands up with her guiltless reasoning. The others nodded in agreement.
"Was he a good kisser at least?" Fiona asked, just as they reached the giant walking path. Eve felt lucky the student groups had begun to scatter now, and no other Hufflepuffs were in earshot. Hell, she was lucky Nicolas had graduated, to begin with.
"He was alright, just needed some guidance," Eve shrugged, sending her own cheeky grin to the direction of her friends.
Now, Eve wouldn't consider herself fully experienced with boys, especially at Hogwarts, where going out with anyone was risking at least two weeks' worth of gossip amongst students. But she had gone on her fair share of dates with Muggle boys during school breaks back in her hometown of Brighton, all with the hopes of doing her own teenage girl exploration away from the eyes of her nosy peers.
"Your dark side truly frightens me, sweetheart," Fiona sighed, shaking her head and glancing amongst the little shops that now began to fill the street sides, "Oh, there's Demetri."
They all turned to look at the Ravenclaw boy leaned against the outside of the Hogsmeade Post Office, obviously waiting for his date to meet him. Fiona called out his name and hurriedly departed from her group of friends. The boy towered over her, Fiona being the shortest girl in their year by miles, but she still somehow managed to swing her arms around his shoulders and plant a kiss on his cheek.
"She looks like his child," Douglas commented, but the group waved politely to Demetri and said their goodbyes all the same.
"Honeydukes?" Fernando asked, and the three murmured an agreement.
The sweets shop was expectantly crowded. The foursome entered amongst the students already engrossed in bagging decorative sweets, blowing football-sized bubble gum bubbles, and egging one another on to test their taste buds on a particularly threatening type of jellybean.
"Chocolate," Eve muttered, and Douglas nodded, the two making their way across the shop that lead them to a corner covered with every type of chocolate combination imaginable.
Eve wasn't much of a sweets kind of person, but she loved her fair share of chocolate, and wizard chocolate, in particular, was astronomically better than Muggle chocolate. Even her parents had agreed. There was something about the wizard-made treat that almost left a physical euphoria effect from it. Eve's father always made magic mushroom jokes about it, which could have been true enough. Eve didn't know the inner workings of wizard chocolatiers.
"Is 'chocolatiers' an actual word?" Eve asked aloud, causing Douglas to momentarily stop his inspection of a type of chocolate that advertised the addition of a whole Peruvian hot pepper in it.
"Yeah, I think so… Yeah, it definitely is," he responded, but his hesitation showed he actually didn't know for sure.
"I'm buying this for us. We'll see who cries first," Douglas continued, waving the chocolate in his hand and going back to inspecting the shelves in front of them. Eve grabbed the bar from his grasp and examined it on her own. She turned the spicy chocolate in her hand, reading the warning label with particular interest.
"Doug, it says it might cause hallucinations," Eve observed, "Grab me another one for my dad, will you?"
Just then, Eve felt a gentle tap on the shoulder, causing her to glance behind the in direction of contact. There was no one there, though, besides a group of kids gathered in the opposite wall corner of them. But the students were engrossed in their own conversation about the licorice stand in front of them. Eve stood for a second, puzzled by this, scanning her eyes through the sweets shop, before landing at the front door.
Two tall flaming red-haired heads were making their way out the door. Eve hadn't even seen the twins enter the shop, let alone noticed them idling around inside. One of the twins stopped right before walking outside, his hand still on the doorknob. He turned right in Eve's direction and the two caught eyes with one another. Eve cocked her head to the side as if asking for an explanation for the tapping, but he only grinned. Eve couldn't help but smile back a little, and the boy nodded in a type of silent greeting before disappearing out the door with his brother. Eve thought over the distinctly messy hair and innocent enough smile.
It had been George.
Author's Note: I can't even begin to describe the fun I had in looking up 90's outfit inspiration. Eve is serving prep school grunge realness and I love her for it. I might have to write in some choker wearing for good measure.
