AN: Betcha weren't expecting those two reveals were you? What is wrong with these Ravenclaw girls I mean come on; you know it's bad when Paige Turner has the happiest life.
Sam: History of Magic
James: History of Magic
Albus: Potions
Lien: Potions
Lydjah: Astronomy
Molly: Transfiguration
Jayna: Herbology
Scorpius: Transfiguration
Next question then; how would you guys rate the eight on their attractiveness? I'm kinda curious to see what images you've built up in your heads, particularly of my OCs.
As ever, the translations are at the bottom.
And finally; Happy Holidays everyone!
Chapter Fifteen
Of Misunderstandings and An Unfortunate Situation Involving A Sweet Shop, An Apologetic Present, A Memory, A Vision and A Smashed Pair of Glasses
31 years ago
Celina Daviau was known around school as rather intriguing. She was pretty, she was funny, and her parents were both professors at the school. While her mother, Professor B Daviau, was pretty and her father, Professor E Daviau, was funny, neither parent showed signs of the wicked intelligence that made Celina so special. She was quicker than anyone else in her year-group, head of every extra-curricular academic club and completely outspoken in her distain for prejudice.
Devin Luca Blackwood III didn't stand a chance.
He'd blushed and stumbled his way around her for years, in fact the only thing stopping his peers from exploding with laughter at his predicament was fear of his father. His father was an eccentric, a mysterious gentleman with a cloak of secrets, aloof, dark and confusing, even to his three sons. He was a Pureblood through and through, from his haughty manner to his twisted way of speaking and disappointment etched itself onto his features every time he spoke to Devin. Ghost stories surrounded his father, apparent sightings of him in places where he could never hope to be and he seemed to have half the ministry of France in his back pocket.
Devin had never wanted any part in it. In fact, if it wasn't for his brothers, he would've run away a long time ago. He had enough money, he could do it. It wasn't exactly that Devin believed the ghost stories but even without that his father had always been distant and his mother… Ugh. She'd cheated on his father but refused to allow him to end their marriage, insisting it would ruin all of her social standing. She never apologised for the havoc this had wrecked on her sons' lives, for the months of sleepless nights as the two of them fought loudly all over the house. Devin couldn't see the point in having a house so large if it didn't hide what it was supposed to.
He knew he wasn't supposed to love anybody who wasn't the purest of Purebloods. And he knew that if he was disowned for falling in love with Celina, the burden of being the oldest son would suddenly come crumbling down on Anton. But right at that moment, as Celina Daviau brushed past him in the corridor, her hair swinging freely causing the calming scent of lavender to wash over him, he didn't particularly care.
"Celina!" His call was slightly too loud for the distance between them and he winced internally. She spun back around to face him, regarding him with bored confusion. Despite the fact that he was a good five inches taller, she still managed to make him feel small.
"Blackwood?" She replied, calmly. He put his hands into his back pockets, swinging onto the balls of his feet, but managing to force himself to keep eye-contact and not look completely like a nervous prat.
"Je me demandais si vous aimeriez aller avec moi au village ce week-end." He tried for a smile at the end. She raised an incredulous eyebrow.
"Non." She said flatly, looking slightly disgusted, before turning and stalking away, her two best friends hurrying after her a moment later. He felt heat rush into his cheeks and wished desperately for a hole to come and swallow him up.
Christophe, his youngest brother, clapped him on the back sympathetically. "Désolé frère. Mais au moins vous avez essayé."
"Ouais." Anton backed up. "Allez, passons à diner."
Celina Daviau stalked towards the dining hall, shuddering. Who the Hell did Devin Luca Blackwood III think he was? What a pretentious arsehole. As if she'd ever go out with someone who was so racist that he couldn't even be friends with people outside his own brothers. He was sickening.
"Jésus Celina, attendez-vous!" Ivonne Yount panted. Celina rolled her eyes and slowed down.
"Quoi?" She asked impatiently.
"Cela a été un peu dur avec Devin non?" Celina gave her a disbelieving look.
"Ouais, il vous aimé pendant des années." Mae Voclain chipped in. Celina couldn't believe what her best friends were saying.
"Est-ce que tu plaisantes? Devin est un connard." Her two friends frowned at her.
"Comment?" Ivonne questioned. Celina raised an eyebrow.
"Pour l'un, il prend tout de suite après son père -"
"Quelle? Il est à peu près autant comme son père que vous êtes comme votre mère!"
"En aucune façon! Il est constamment à fouiner, l'air coupable chaque fois que nous faisons le contact oculaire. Je l'ai pas parlé avec lui depuis la première année!" Ivonne and Mae both burst out laughing.
"Oh Celina. La moitié de l'enfant dans l'amour avec vous! Il vous regarde tout le temps dans la crainte complète-"
"Rires chaque fois que vous dites quelque chose de drôle-"
"Nous demande toujours si vous êtes ok lorsque vous êtes en congé de maladie-"
"Devenu préfet juste pour qu'il puisse vous voir plus souvent -"
"Et a pas jamais été avec quelqu'un d'autre, même si il est l'un des mecs les plus chauds à l'école, parce qu'il est totalement accroché sur vous!" Celina blinked rapidly.
"Eh bien il ya encore le fait qu'il n'y a que des amis avec ses frères parce qu'il pense que tout le monde est en dessous de lui -"
"Voilà certainement pas vrai! Ses seuls amis sont ses frères parce qu'il est si ridiculement timide! Anton pense qu'il est aussi parce qu'il ne pense pas que beaucoup de lui-même, et toujours se blâme quand quelque chose va mal dans leur ménage, qui est une grande partie du temps." Mae interrupted as they finally made it to the dining hall and sat down. She'd dated Anton for a while the year before, even though he was two years younger. The three Blackwood boys each had two years between them; Christophe was only in first year.
"Peu importe. Je ne veux toujours pas à sortir avec lui."
"C'est très bien. Mais je pense que vous devriez présenter des excuses pour être si brutal. La façon dont vous le regardais me faisait sentir comme de la merde, et encore moins de lui." Ivonne advised. Celina squirmed in her seat.
"Plus tard, d'accord?"
"Vous savez que vous ne le ferez jamais si vous attendez plus longtemps." Celina had what she would call a minor and Ivonne and Mae would call a bloody flipping ginormous problem with pride. She didn't get things wrong. Ever.
"Devin!" Celina snapped. Devlin jumped in his seat from where he'd been stirring his soup morosely. "Viens avec moi." She didn't wait for his response before spinning on her heel and striding out of the hall. Anton and Christophe shot him a helpless look. Honestly he was impressed she'd managed to find him so quickly; the dining hall was huge.
He climbed out of his seat and hurried after her, a hundred apologies already forming in his head. She was stood a little way away from the door, face screwed up as if in severe concentration. "Je suis vraiment désolé." He blurted.
"Quoi?" She asked, her expression clearing.
"Je ne savais pas mon offre allait bouleverser vous tellement je vraiment comme vous et je voulais vous dire cela, mais je comprends pourquoi vous ne voulez pas sortir avec moi et qui est complètement amende parce que vous êtes Celina Daviau et je suis vraiment timide et je suis vraiment dés-" She cut him off with a kiss, linking her arms around his neck and drawing him closer to her, so that she didn't have to stretch up so far on her toes. He bent down until he was nearly horizontal, kissing her back with the most enthusiasm he'd ever felt for anything in his life so far.
She broke away after a long moment, but kept her arms around him. "Je me demandais, Devin- Aucune vis, je ne l'aime votre nom complet et le titre à partir de maintenant je vous appelle Luca- Luca, je me demandais si vous aimeriez aller avec moi au village ce week-end?" She didn't apologise, but Devin knew her offer was an apology in itself. He didn't know what he'd done in the time between leaving for the dining hall and coming here to change her mind so drastically but he wasn't complaining in the slightest.
"Oui. Oui je voudrais."
Jayna Ivonne Blackwood woke up screaming. She wish she could say it had been the first time, or even just the first time this week, but it wasn't. The memory that involved Lizzie Bagby plagued her every night, and every night it became that little bit closer to the start of that memory, before the torture began. She vomited now almost as much as Lydjah did she thought, with an exhausted sigh as she rested her face against the cool of the bathroom sink. The two girls had taken it in turn to puke their guts out yesterday morning, which had been a bonding experience, if a thoroughly disgusting one. For the moment, Lydjah was still regarding her with wariness, as if she expected Jayna at any point to suddenly retract her friendship.
Jayna didn't see Lydjah any differently. It explained a few things; like how she was more mature, and why she hated being so, and why she knew so much more about sex than the rest of them did.
"Why are you so comfortable talking about sex?" Jayna asked, quietly, as she gingerly ate some breakfast. Now she understood why Lydjah put on make-up every morning; waking up at ridiculous hours terrified for your life and therefore immediately emptying the contents of your stomach did not do wonders for one's appearance. Lydjah shrugged, swallowing a mouthful of fruit.
"I didn't want to let a shitty experience get in the way of having fun. And believe me, sex is a lot of fun when it's consensual."
"You don't think you're a bit… Young?" Jayna's voice dropped to a whisper. Lydjah shrugged again.
"Probably. But I've kind of got past the point of caring about that now. I had a couple of… Bad years after everything happened. Made some questionable decisions, especially when it came to sex. And while now looking back on it, it seems really stupid, I have got a lot of experience. There were some good times mixed up in there too."
"When you were nine?!" Jayna said incredulously. When she was age nine she'd barely understood what sex was, let alone that it was something that could be enjoyable. She'd seen it as a necessary and disgusting evil couples put themselves through to have children. It wasn't really until she'd gotten to Hogwarts that she'd found out people did it for pleasure.
"You'd be surprised about how many people believe whatever age you tell them." All Jayna could picture was a shorter pudgier Lydia in a princess dress with matching plastic tiara, legs swinging from a barstool and a shot glass in her hand. She shook her head in wordless disbelief and continued picking at her food.
"Hey guys, you're coming to Hogsmeade today ri- Merlin Jayna what happened to you?" Jayna groaned, banging her head on the table at Sam's slightly horrified exclamation. James meanwhile was taking in the rest of Jayna's appearance; a Bent-Winged Snitches tour t-shirt that modestly showed how much she'd grown over the summer and a snug pair of jeans. She looked somewhat odd in casual Muggle clothes, but not in a bad way. Lydjah was wearing a loose fitting flannel shirt and very short denim shorts with thin black tights but neither of their outfits could hide the exhausted way they slumped in their seats.
"Rough night." Lydjah explained. "Whole lot of nightmares."
"You need to eat something; you look really pale." James said, trying to keep the concern out of his voice as he looked over his friend. Jayna shook her head without speaking.
"Whole lot of puking too." Lydjah added. James made a face.
"Are you ill?" Jayna leant her head on Lydjah's shoulder, half-closing her eyes.
"No. Just very, very hungry, very, very tired and very, very scared."
"Scared?" Jayna gestured vaguely with her hand.
"Nightmares Potter?"
"Your nightmares scare you so much they make you puke?" James said incredulously. The three of them looked at him.
"You've never been scared enough that you felt like puking? What about with that Quintaped last year?" James shrugged.
"I wasn't really thinking then. Blackwood's got her memories; what made you two puke?"
"Personal much." Sam pointed out.
"Go on." He said, rolling his eyes.
"Last year with the Quintaped and every time my dad phones my house."
"Why were you scared of the Quintaped? You weren't even injured." Sam gave him a pointed look. "What?" Sam sighed dramatically.
"You were though."
"What's that supposed to- Oh." They both looked away uncomfortably. Jayna bit back a laugh. Thankfully for Lydjah, the slightly touched but very please-stop-talking-about-feelings mood to the atmosphere made James forget what he was asking.
"Yes we're coming to Hogsmeade." Jayna said eventually, taking a small bite of her toast.
"You want to meet at The Three Broomsticks for lunch?" Sam suggested. Jayna made a face.
"I doubt I'll feel like eating but sure." James' brows pulled together.
"Don't let yourself get too thin. Guys don't like skinny girls." The three girls blinked at him in astonishment. Sam shook her head at him from where Jayna and Lydjah couldn't see before speeding off towards the Gryffindor table.
"If you think that I give a flying fuck about what guys think of my appearance then you have another thought coming you insensitive prick!" Jayna snarled. James backtracked fast.
"I didn't mean it like that I was just wor-"
"How did you mean it then Potter?" Lydjah retorted. James flinched. Only Jayna called him Potter. Jayna looked at him in disgust, but below that he could see the hurt and the insecurities about her appearance simmering.
"I-" Jayna shrugged, standing up from the bench, Lydjah following her lead.
"Whatever. See you around." They walked off, leaving James kicking himself.
Honeydukes sweet-shop was known nation-wide for being one of the best places to buy confectionary. In fact, the only problem with Honeydukes was that in the last few months its owners had found themselves in need of an extra hand, what with the two of them becoming rather frail. The extra hand they'd chosen to hire though, one of their nephews, turned out to be the laziest sod they'd ever come across, but they didn't want to upset their relatives by firing him.
On the day that the first school trip to Hogsmeade of the year was about to take place, the owners had reluctantly called him in, knowing the sheer amount of customers they were going to have required more staff. Their incompetent nephew, having not thrown away any of the old stock last time he was working, restocked the shelves with that when the children bought all of it, and by the time James Potter and Sam Andrews wandered into the store, most of the shop's food was out of date.
James, still feeling very guilty about this morning, though pretending not to be, had bought three flowers and was now hunting down some of Jayna's favourite no-melt ice-cream. Sam, who knew exactly what he was doing and was bored of advising James to think first and talk later, said that she was going to buy a couple of sweets and then go and find Lee, and she'd meet up with him again at lunchtime.
James barely heard her, a first in their friendship, and didn't even bother to check the date on the front of the ice-cream tub before he ran to the till.
"You are aware that this is no-melt ice-cream, right?" The cashier said kindly, looking at his slightly red face. "You don't need to rush."
"I'm not rushing because of the ice-cream." James replied distractedly, tapping his foot impatiently as the cashier rang-up his items (he couldn't resist buying a packet of the new fudge they'd created too). "Keep the change." He said as he hurriedly placed two galleons on the counter and then sprinted out of the shop.
'What else does Blackwood like?' He thought, glancing down the streets and reading the shop names. 'Socks?' He jogged to Gladrags Wizardwear and picked up the most ostentatious pair of socks that he could find (they were bright neon green with red patterns). 'Books? Potions? I can't buy her a bloody cauldron that's what she got me for my birthday. Plus I have no idea what kind of books she likes. Buying her a potion would just make her think I think she needs to change something. Merlin's saggy left tit! I can't buy her jewellery, I'm not her boyfriend. This is literally the shittiest apology present ever. At least I've got the ice-cream. Why the fuck did I buy her flowers? Oh my god she's going to think I'm going to propose-' He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that it wasn't until Rephia Dorsey icily pushed past him with a barely muttered 'excuse-me' that James realised he'd been stood in front of the door to the Three Broomsticks for the past five minutes.
Ducking his head he shuffled into the Three Broomsticks. A year ago, losing Jayna as a friend would have made him only vaguely bothered, but now he couldn't help but want her to like him. She was a good person, and when good people didn't like him it made him uncomfortable. So, for once, with only the slightest hint of a swagger in his walk, he made his way over to the table where Sam, Lee, Lydjah and Jayna were already sitting and smiled hopefully at them.
Sam immediately squidged into Lee's side to make space for him, but he didn't sit down immediately. He cleared his throat awkwardly, and put the ice-cream, the flowers and the socks in front of Jayna before he could change his mind. "I wanted to apologise." She raised an eyebrow, but a smile was curling the corners of her mouth.
"You wanted to apologise so you bought me out of date ice-cream, three extremely squished flowers and the ugliest pair of socks I have ever seen?" Jayna asked. James blushed bright red. Jayna stood up from the edge of the bench and wrapped her arms around him. "You're a fucking idiot. But thank you." His smirk returned as he hugged her back and he shook off the weird craziness from earlier. He'd probably be just as crazy if any of his other friends were upset with him.
Right?
Jayna released him and sat down, leaving him to sit opposite her. She picked the socks up with an exasperated smile, but as soon as her fingers touched the material her eyes went wide. She grabbed a small box out of her pocket and pressed on the top. Lydjah leapt forward to grab her shoulder as she began to topple out of her chair, stunned.
"Jay-Jay?" Lydjah asked worriedly, the other four of them already rising out of their seats. That's when she started screaming and broke free of Lydjah's hands, falling to the floor. Healer Clearwater's box hadn't worked.
"STOP! STOP! STOP IT PLEASE! PLEASE STOP! I WON'T! I WON'T TELL! GRANDFATHER PLEASE! PLEASE! GRANDMOTHER DON'T! DON'T LET HIM PLEASE! PLEASE! STOP!" Her legs and arms were thrashing wildly, and her nails dug into the floor so much that two of them snapped, leaving her fingers bleeding. "HELP! HELP! PLEASE! MUM! MUM! HELP! DAD! PLEASE STOP! CARA! PLEASE SOMEBODY! STOP! I WON'T TELL, I WON'T TELL-" Sam's silencing charm cut her off. Lydjah was frozen and James, despite himself, felt tears building up. He didn't let any of them fall, but the idea of a childhood that started with this and ended with the entire family being murdered made James choke. Lee rapidly cast Petrificus Totalus, and then followed it up with a levitation spell that made Jayna easier to carry. The pub was silent, shock on every patron's face.
"What did Madam Longbottom do?" James hissed.
"Dreamless sleep potion." Lydjah replied. Madam Rosmerta came bustling out from behind the bar, wand out. Lee seemed to fight with herself for a second, but then she dug into the back pocket of her jeans and came out with a small vial, which she proceeded to pour down Jayna's throat, unable to look at the terror in Jayna's wild eyes any longer.
"What's going on here?" Madam Rosmerta questioned, looking at James.
"Our friend suffers from PTSD. I'm really sorry if we disturbed anyone." Lydjah explained, before James could. He shot her a look of confusion.
"'PTSD'? She sounded like she was being tortured." Lydjah cleared her throat.
"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Flashbacks in particular. We're going to get her to Madam Longbottom." She replied calmly. The other three nodded shakily in agreement and James slapped down enough coins to cover their drinks, leaving his awful presents behind.
Lee took the lead, Jayna following behind her. Lydjah grabbed one of her unconscious friend's hands, not caring that Jayna's blood was dripping down the side of her hand now and gripped it tightly. The buzz of conversation started as they left, gossiping about everything that had happened to Jayna in the past year. Sam felt sick.
"Why do you carry round vials of Dreamless Sleep potion? And how did you get it?" Sam asked Lee. Lee gave her an unreadable look, and didn't reply. Sam felt her stomach flip over. She'd told Lee everything; from how she was frightened for her father's life every day, to how uncertain she felt about being bisexual, to how lonely she still felt in a world that wasn't her own. She thought they knew each other better than anyone else did, even James. James was almost part of her, how in sync they were, but because he understood her so well, she didn't often tell him things. Half the time he already knew, and the rest of the time he was so understanding and would have done the exact same thing in her position that she almost wished they weren't so similar. Talking to James was like talking to herself in the mirror; if she needed a problem to be solved she needed an outside view, not her own repeated back to her. Apparently though, she was wrong.
"I wish we could apparate." James said, jokingly but they could all detect concern underneath.
"Would be a lot quicker." Sam agreed.
"Even if we could apparate we still couldn't apparate into the castle." Lee pointed out. They all turned to ask Lydjah's view only to find she'd stopped a few paces behind them, her eyes cloudy as she swayed slightly.
"Fuck." Sam whispered.
James, an older, taller James was lying in the middle of a snow-covered street, face-down, his messy black hair covering his face from view. Jayna was kneeling next to him, holding his hand, her eyes half crazed. It was dark, but Lydjah could still make out the distinctive shape of Hogsmeade around them. Snow was falling on the gathered people, but no-one seemed to be remotely interested. She watched as an older version of herself shot a stunning spell at someone she couldn't see as Sam put her arm round a frightened younger boy that she didn't recognise. Sam's face was bleeding, a small cut near her ear and when she turned towards her best friend Lydjah noticed there was a small piece of glass lodged in the cut, that glimmered in the light.
"Sanguis Prohibre!" Jayna pointed her wand at James' face. Lydjah couldn't describe the emotion in Jayna's eyes, other than it was the same expression she'd worn when she'd seen her Auntie being wheeled past her in St Mungos. Knowing and watching as someone you loved died. She looked up at the older Lydjah with a stare she couldn't look away from. "Lydjah, Efrain, get Potter up to the castle and to the Hospital Wing right fucking now. Sam you're with me; we're going to find the students and kill that bastard." The older Lydjah's eyes flickered with indecision for a second before she grabbed the younger boy's, Lydjah assumed 'Efrain', hand and James' jumper and disapparated.
The scene swum and for a second Lydjah thought it was over, but then it solidified again; now she, Efrain and James' prone form were outside the school gates.
"Locomotor Mortis!" Her older self said hurriedly, launching herself through the gates as soon as the spell had taken hold, not noticing when James' glasses fell off and smashed on the ground. "Efrain, go and get help. Get the teachers to go down to the village and all the students that are still here to go and help at the Hospital Wing. Now." The younger boy nodded, terror making his legs stumble as he ran. Lydjah sprinted towards the castle, her wand hand held high in the air and even as tears began to flood down her cheeks she didn't stop moving.
"Lydjah?" Sam asked carefully, as the Ravenclaw's eyes came back into focus. She'd never had a vision of herself before. Sam was just happy she hadn't made another prophecy. "Please tell me that was just a random vision about someone snogging here." James raised an eyebrow.
"Weird place to snog, in the middle of the road." The others ignored him.
"Have we ever been that lucky?" Lydjah smiled, if slightly shakily. "It doesn't matter."
"As if." Sam scoffed. Lydjah looked at her.
"Fine then. It does matter, and I'm not telling you."
"Why?"
"Because then you'll all worry too."
"But maybe we can figure some way out of it."
"Once I've seen it, it always happens." She shot the Gryffindor a sharp look and Sam took a deep breath and drew away from her as she realised what she was referring to.
"Fine."
"Fine?" James asked. "Just like that? Hell no. What happened?"
"James please shut up; you've caused two people to go into trances today and it isn't because of your manliness. The least you could do is not be an arse about it." Lydjah said hotly.
"What did I say that caused your trance?" Lydjah rolled her eyes. "Come on tell me and I'll stop asking questions." Lydjah looked at him through narrowed eyes.
"You said something about apparation." Lydjah said finally.
"Were we in the vision?" Lydjah glared at him. "I promise; last question."
"Lee wasn't." She snapped. "Apparently she has more sense than the rest of us."
"I have no idea what's going on." Lee said cheerfully. James and Sam laughed.
"I have visions of the future sometimes but mostly they're just of people snogging left right and centre." Lydjah explained. Lee nodded, as if this made sense in her perception of Lydjah.
"Cool." Lydjah half-smiled but it slowly disappeared from her face as she watched another drop of the blood dripping from Jayna's fingers hit the ground and realised they were currently stood exactly where the beginning of her vision had taken place.
AN: Translations:
"I was wondering if you might like to go out with me this weekend."
"No."
"Sorry brother. At least you tried."
"Yeah."
"Jesus Celina, wait up!"
"What?"
"That was a little harsh with Devin wasn't it?"
"Yeah, Devin's liked you for years."
"Are you joking? Devin's an asshole."
"How?"
"For one, he takes right after his father-"
"What? He's as much like his father as you are like your mother!"
"No way! He's always snooping around, looking guilty every time we make eye-contact. I haven't spoken to him since first year!"
"Oh Celina. The boy is half in love with you! He's always looking at you in complete awe-"
"Laughs whenever you say something funny-"
"Always asks us if you're ok every time you go off ill-"
"Became a Prefect just to see you more often-"
"And he hasn't been out with anyone, even though he's one of the hottest blokes in our year, because he's so hung-up on you!"
"There's still the fact that he doesn't have any friends except his brothers because he thinks the rest of us are below him-"
"That's definitely not true! His only friends are his brothers because he's so ridiculously shy! Anton thinks it's also because he doesn't think a whole lot of himself, and always blames himself when anything goes wrong in their household, which is a lot of the time."
"Whatever. I still don't want to go out with him."
"That's fine. But I think you should apologise for being so abrupt. The way you looked at him was making me feel like shit, let alone him."
"Later, alright?"
"You know you'll never do it if you wait any longer."
"Devlin! Come with me."
"I'm really sorry."
"What?"
"I didn't realise my offer was going to upset you so much I just really like you and I wanted to tell you that but I understand why you don't want to go out with me and that's completely fine because you're Celina Daviau and I'm really shy and I'm just really sor-"
"I was wondering, Devin- No screw it I don't like your full name and title so from now on I'm calling you Luca- Luca, I was wondering if you might like to go out with me to the village this weekend."
"Yes. Yes I would."