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booksmarts and broomsticks
act ii , take a breath
chapter seventeen , strange little twat

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➖ THE HOWLER ➖
september 1992

       "I CAN STILL HEAR the ringing in my ears." Michael let out a groan aimed at his sister, as he massaged his temples, where he sat at the Gryffindor table on the opposite side of the table from her.

The second years had just returned from their Herbology lesson with Professor Sprout where they had been repotting Mandrakes, resulting in the majority of them leaving the greenhouses with raging headaches.

The sixth years, on the other hand, had a study period before their morning break, and had been in the Great Hall catching up on assignments among other various pieces of work.

"It'll die down in an hour or so." Dria dismissed his worry, as her eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

In her grasp, she held a broken wand and a roll of Spellotape while her brother's friend anxiously looked on as she tried to fix it, wrapping the tape several times between the two pieces.

Ron's eyes were wide in concern as Michael's older sister bit her lip in concentration as she tried her best to mend the wand — that he had broken a couple of days before when he and Harry had crashed into the Whomping Willow.

"They're vile things." Michael persisted, dissatisfied with his sister's response. "Neville passed out."

"Don't blame him." Jackie chuckled in response from where she sat on Michael's right, tucking into a slice of buttered toast. "They're ugly things."

"Not from looking at them, Jackie." Dria muttered, not looking up as she spoke, her focus still stubbornly wrapt up in the task at hand. "From their screams."

Jackie pulled a face in the blonde's direction, earning a couple of chuckles from the surrounding second years but once more failed to capture Dria's attention.

"Delightful little shits." Tess mused, as she took a gulp of pumpkin juice, reminiscing on the thoughts of Mandrakes.

Dria finally gave an indifferent huff as she looked up from the task and met the grinning face of Jackie, however she was more interested in the girl who sat on the Hufflepuff's right.

Penny sat in silence, idly scribbling upon a roll of parchment, her lips pursed in boredom. Dria quickly deduced that she hadn't contributed to the conversation as she would have normally have, and in fact, the blonde gathered that she hadn't listened to any of what they'd talked about.

"You alright?" The blonde asked with an arched brow, her blue eyes settling on the Ravenclaw.

       Her question caught the girl aback, as she looked up to meet the gazes of all three of her friends whose attention had focused in her direction. 

       "Yeah." Penny said quickly, before tearing her gaze from theirs and looking back to her essay.

       "You're a little quiet." Dria remarked, her eyebrows furrowing slightly in concern, wondering if something was bothering her friend.

       "I'm just writing my essay, is that a crime?"

       Dria's words fell short in her mouth as Penny's gaze flicked up to meet hers, her brown eyes bearing a glint of annoyance as she snapped in response to the blonde's remark.

       When the Ravenclaw's gaze fell back down to her parchment, Dria's eyes widened as she spared a few alarmed looks between Tess and Jackie, but mustering a reply in a small voice, and looking back to the broken wand.

       "Sorry I asked."

       And so, a tense silence fell over the group sat at the Gryffindor table, with the only prominent sounds being Tess' slurps as she continued to drink and the unraveling of Spellotape as Dria continued to persistently wrap up the wand.

        It was only interrupted when another Weasley entered their midst, having walked from further down the table and stopped by Penny's seat.

       "Penny?" Percy asked, standing up straight as he looked down at the Ravenclaw. "Are you coming?"

       "Where are you going?" Tess asked with a furrow of her eyebrows, as Penny replied to the boy with a hasty nod and began stuffing her belongings in her bag.

       "I've got prefect duties next period." She said casually, throwing her legs over the bench and standing, as she slung her bag over her shoulder.

       "You've sure being doing a lot of those lately." Jackie muttered in a sing-song tone with pursed lips, cocking an eyebrow at the Ravenclaw.

        Penny let out a tired sigh and responded with a shrug, before she began to walk off with Percy, calling her goodbyes over her shoulder.

       "I'll see you at lunch."

       In a response of meagre waves and farewells disguised in half-arsed murmurs, the three girls watched the retreating figure of their friend as she  walked out of the Great Hall with the greatest prat at Hogwarts — with the exception of maybe Marcus Flint.

"What's up with her?" Jackie asked as they all turned away from looking after the pair, and looked back at each other with incredulous expressions.

"God knows."

"What a strange little twat." Tess mused with a shake of her head, earning amused chuckles from the two blondes at her side.

As their conversation lulled once more, Dria found herself letting out an exasperated sigh and she looked upon the sorry sight of a wand that rested upon the table top.

"Say it, Dria." Ron exhaled, his face contorting into an embarrassed expression, "I'm doomed."

The blonde let out another sigh as she shot a glance at her brother, as well as Harry and Hermione, as she tried to muster an answer. Slowly, she raised the wand from the tabletop with the roll of Spellotape still hanging from its end, and placed it in the red-head's hand.

"It's not looking great, Ron."

"You heard her." Harry added in, pressing his lips together as he looked painfully upon the wand. "You're doomed."

"Hiya, Harry!"

Before Dria could comprehend the introduction of another voice into their midst, a bright flash of light lit up her sight, and sent her into a mild panic as she threw a hand onto Tess in her frenzy.

"Shit!"

       "Alright, there?" The dark-haired girl asked with an arched brow, as she gently shook the blonde off her arm.

      "It made me jump!" Dria argued back amidst a groan as her gaze travelled back to where the bright light had flashed.

       "You're embarrassing."

       "Sudden bright flashes are startling, Jackie!"

       The flash had passed in less than a second, and now, in the place where the bright light once shone, stood a young boy with wide excited eyes, curly blonde locks atop his head and a camera clutched in his grasp as he grinned eagerly in Harry's direction, where he sat on Ron's other side.

      "I'm Colin Creevey!" The boy, Colin, nodded as his eyes remained intently focused on Harry's whose were also wide, however more so in alarm than excitement. "I'm in Gryffindor, too!"

       "Oh— hi, Colin." The Potter boy replied with a tentative smile, as Colin Creevey kept on grinning at him, much to the amusement of the other Gryffindors around him. "Nice to meet you."

"Ron, is that your owl?"

By the speed at which Harry's head whipped away from Colin and towards Michael as he spoke, Dria gathered that her brother had timed his interjection rather well.

However, it became evident that it hadn't been said for no reason, as a great owl was swooping down from the rafters of the Great Hall and was approaching the Gryffindor table at a worryingly fast speed.

Letting out a large hoot as it descended, the owl — that Dria had gathered belonged to the Weasley family — evidently misjudged its speed and in a frenzy of feathers and objectionable hoots, the bird crashed against the table top, knocking over a bowl of crisps in its haste. Dria winced as the once tidy table surface became littered in crumbs and spilt drink as the great bird collapsed in front of Ron, with a red envelope clutched in his beak.

"Bloody bird's a menace." The red-head said in an exhale as he retrieved the envelope from its beak. "Oh, no!"

His eyes widened in horror, and as Dria looked more intently on the scene, she understood why.

"Look, everyone!" A Northern Irish accent rang out in the small silence that filled the air at the bird's entrance. "Weasley's got himself a Howler!"

Michael's friend, Seamus, was chuckling with many of the other Gryffindors sat at the table at the panicked expression on Ron's face, his hand trembling as it clutched onto envelope.

"Go on, Ron." Another voice rang out from near Seamus, another boy in second-year chimed in — Neville, the boy who had fainted in Herbology. "I ignored one from my gran once. It was horrible."

Ron shot a look at Harry, who looked worriedly on the unfolding evidence from the red-head's side, to the bushy-haired brunette across from him and the older blonde to his right. Dria merely shrugged in response, and spared him a sympathetic smile before scooching a little closer to Tess, predicting the events that would follow his opening on the envelope.

With a nervous gulp, Ron began fumbling with the envelope and picked at the wax seal. For a moment, there was nothing and he held the envelope open in his hands, but that nothingness was very short-lived.

"RONALD WEASLEY!"

Dria jumped at the sudden shrill tone of Mrs Weasley that emerged from the envelope, watching as Ron's instinctively dropped it upon the tabletop and it quickly levitated in the air and morphed onto a furious pair of lips, aimed directly at him, seething as it delivered the message.

"HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR! I AM ABSOLUTLEY DISGUSTED!" The Howler shrieked, Dria noticed how now the entire Hall had fallen silent, but that was hardly a surprise due to the scene being made. "YOUR FATHER'S NOW FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, AND IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT! IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE, WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!"

Dria's jaw had dropped at the dressing down the boy beside her with receiving, as he obediently nodded in response, his face contouring into an expression of fear, reddening as he began aware the staring faces around him.

The Howler then twisted in the air, turning to address another recipient, speaking in a much softer voice.

"Oh, and Ginny, dear." It spoke, leading to most of the students leaning in their seats to look down the table where a rather mortified first year girl was sitting. "Congratulations, on making Gryffindor. Your father and I are so proud."

With that, the Howler turned on Ron once more, and blew a loud raspberry in his face before proceeding to tear itself to shreds that landed upon the table.

The Hall was silent, with the exception of the heavy breathing coming from the red-head on her right, whose eyes were wide in panic and shooting between Hermione and Harry, who responded with looks of alarm.

        "That was brilliant."

       At the sound of the chuckle that left Tess' lips, Dria made sure to elbow the dark-haired Gryffindor harshly in her side.

       "Ow!"

       Dria spared another sympathetic smile at the youngest Weasley boy, who was beginning sweep up the remains of the Howler into his hands while he and his two friends began rising from their seats, with every pair of eyes in the Hall transfixed on them as they went.

        As soon as they'd left, the Hall erupted into a sea of excited chatter, laughter and mutterings at the expense of the red-head who had left seconds prior in a flurry of embarrassment.

       Michael cracked a grin before arising from his own seat and moving down the table to sit with Seamus and Dean, who were also chuckling at the events that had just occurred.

       "I do love a good Howler." Jackie mused with a content sigh, folding her arms upon the table, and while Tess responded with a chuckle, her words fell flat on Dria's ear as her attention had been captivated by something else — or someone else.

Her blue eyes had followed the trio of second years leaving the Hall, however once they had fallen back to the Gryffindor table, Dria's gaze had landed on a pair of coffee coloured orbs that were gazing right at her.

Oliver pulled an expression with wide eyes and lips pressed together to conceal laughter as his eyes met hers, raising his eyebrows in response to the events that had just preceded.

Dria mirrored his expression with a mixed smile of pity and humour, before tearing her gaze from his and looking down at the tabletop with slightly pink cheeks and a bashful smile, that didn't unnoticed by her friends.

Tess and Jackie exchanged small smirks as they followed her gaze to the Gryffindor Keeper — who had looked away once he saw them looking — and then back to the blushing blonde, with their eyebrows wiggling suggestively.

"What's going on there, then?"

       Dria looked up to meet the gazes of her friends, and simply rolled her eyes with a shake of her head at their expressions.

        "Nothing, we're just friends." The blonde dismissed, causing her friend's faces to contort into disbelief and uncertainty.

       "And you're okay with that?"

       "Yes, of course, I am." Dria whisper-shouted at them with a hint of solemnity in her voice as she took a hand through her hair.

       Tess' eyebrows were still furrowed but Jackie's were much more relaxed while she accepted Dria's response — Tess did not.

       "We're only asking before this time last year you were head over heels for him." Tess reminded the blonde by her side, who let out a short sigh as she kept her gaze down, sifting through her parchment.

       "And that was last year."

       "So you don't like him anymore?"

       Dria's head shot up at Jackie's insinuation, her hands snapping down the parchment upon the table as she let out a tired huff in president.

       "Of course, I like him!" She replied, her eyebrows furrowed tensely. "I mean you know platonically ... and the other way too."

       Jackie and Tess shared a knowing look and few hums causing the blonde to roll her eyes again at their antics.

       "But it's just nice to be his friend for now." She nodded, seemingly trying to convince herself as much as her friends. "I like being his friend."

       And with that, her gaze dropped down against to the tabletop where she tried to focus on her parchment with furrowed brows, all the while her two friends shared disbelieving chuckles.

       "Alright lovebird, whatever you say."

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖆 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖘!
slight change of
format because
i'm fickle as shit,
what we thinking?

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