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booksmarts and broomsticks
act ii , take a breath
chapter twenty-six , for the love of st valentine

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➖TESS ROBBINS➖
february 1993

        "VALENTINE'S DAY can kiss my arse!"

A great thud followed the statement that left Dria's lips as she, unceremoniously, threw herself into the seat beside Penny at the Ravenclaw table.

Swiping the heart shaped confetti from the table with a grimace, the blonde folded her arms upon the table's surface and buried her head in them with a tired groan.

        Valentine's Day had taken Hogwarts by storm that year in 1993, all thanks to the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher — it was safe to say, Dria was less than impressed.

The entire castle had been more or less completely covered in fabrics of bright fuchsia and the corridors were flooded with the sound of harps being elegantly plucked. In the Great Hall, the tables had been lined with insipid rose tablecloths and the entirety of the food was coloured pink — not to mention, from the ceiling, fell heart-shaped confetti of pink and red that kept landing in Jackie's pumpkin juice, much to her annoyance.

The only highlight of that day had been the Apparition lesson that the sixth years had that morning in Hogsmeade, in which Tess left a eyebrow behind when Disapparating from the Post Office. It was fairly traumatic for the Robbins girl, but Dria had a mental image of the events that she was sure would last a lifetime.

But even the memory of that incident wasn't enough to put a smile upon the blonde's tired face as she continued to groan into the table surface.

"What's got your wand in a knot?" Jackie asked, her eyebrows raising, as she fished out the pieces of confetti from her drink.

"This holiday."

"What about this holiday?"

"It's unnecessary and pathetic." Dria grumbled as she lifted her head up, only for her gaze to settle on the pink food set before her. "And why is everything pink?!"

Jackie just shrugged from where she sat opposite the girl, sharing an amused smile with the Ravenclaw across the table. The Hufflepuff then reached forward towards one of the plates of food.

"Meringue?" She asked, plucking one from the plate and outstretching her hand to Dria.

"No, Jackie, I don't want a bloody meringue!"

"Raspberry tart, then?" Penny offered, picking up the plate of said food and showing it to Dria.

The blonde let out a defeated sigh as she looked on the appetising dish before giving Penny a small nod.

"Yeah, I can probably stomach that."

Reaching out, Dria took the plate from Penny and served herself a rather generous slice of raspberry tart, her stomach rumbling at the sight of it.

"You missed Lockhart, you know?" Jackie informed the girl just as she took a large forkful of tart.

"What a tragedy." Dria responded, her words muffled slightly as she spoke with her mouth full.

"He's put on quite a show." Penny tutted, with a slight roll of her eyes as she grabbed a pink wager to have with her tea which sat before her.

"Dare I ask?"

"Have you not seen the dwarves?" The Ravenclaw asked as a wry chuckle left her lips, lifting her cup of tea to her lips.

"What dwarves?"

"He's hired a dozen or so to deliver Valentines around the school." Jackie explained, her lips curved into a disgusting expression — although, Dria was pretty sure that the Irish girl only had that reaction as a result encountering the creatures due to receiving a fair few of said Valentines, herself.

"How tacky."

Jackie and Penny only hummed in agreement with the blonde's statement before they all turned their attention back to their plates.

        As much as Dria hated the ostentatious display, she knew it was well intended. Madam Pomfrey had been telling her and Savannah how Professor Lockhart had been tasked with organising the celebration in attempt to boost morale of the students and take their mind off the atrocities that had occurred so far that year.

        And Dria had to say, it certainly seemed to be doing the trick. Even in the Hospital Wing, it was hard to focus on the petrifications, when every ten minutes a new student walked in having been drugged with love potion.

        "The Hospital Wing's overrun." Dria explained, her mouth full with raspberry tart. "You wouldn't believe the amount of psychopaths trying to drug people up with love potions."

        However, despite Dria thinking that her statement would to stirred up a rather interesting topic of conversation, the Ravenclaw quickly silenced her ("Shh!").

        "What?"

        "Tess is coming." Penny muttered, her eyes flitting in the direction of the entrance to the Great Hall. "You mention love potions, she'll probably try and brew one for Una."

        Dria's face contorted into one of mild panic at the thought; not only was the idea perfectly illegal, but knowing Tess' ineptitude with potion-making, Dria feared said potion would sooner poison Una than make her fall in love with Tess.

       Shaking the look off her face, Dria turned in her face to follow Penny's gaze and see her fellow Gryffindor making her way down the hall, towards them. The blonde had grown accustomed to seeing a bright smile whenever her gaze joined Tess' and found herself deeply unsettled when one didn't appear. Instead, her lips were pressed together in a thin line and her brown eyes wide in worry as she neared.

        "Why does she looked so...?" Dria started, her voice low as she addressed Penny, her gaze never leaving Tess — Jackie was too distracted by picking the confetti from her drink to engage in the matter.

        "Panicked." Penny finished, wearily.

        "Ten galleons, it's something to do with Una." Dria offered in a quick mutter, averting her gaze from the Robbins girl and turning to her other friends.

        "Well, duh."

        The likeliness of her bet meant neither Penny or Jackie wanted to oppose and merely respond with small shake of their heads, as they tried to act as normal when Tess sat down next to Jackie.

"Hi guys."

While her eyes were still unusually wide, her tone maintained some sense of normality as the Robbins girl looked around at her three friends with a tight-lipped smile.

"Alright?" Jackie asked, as the three of them returned her smile quickly before their attention resumed to their plates.

However, Jackie's question went unanswered as the dark-haired Gryffindor stared firmly at the blonde opposite her, guilt filling her gaze before beginning to speak again in a tentative voice.

"Um, Dria?"

"Uh-huh." The blonde replied with another mouthful of tart, looking up in curiosity at her fellow Gryffindor.

"I kinda need to tell you something."

Her tone seemed to have slipped out of its light-hearted manner and seemed much more serious; Dria arched an eyebrow.

"Is it good or bad?"

"Depends which way you looked at it." Tess replied slowly, her lips pressing together in a thin line once more.

"So ... bad, then."

"Very bad." The Robbins girl agreed, beginning to wince as she at last came clean. "I may or may not have ... lost your cat."

A sharp cough left Dria's lips, choking on her raspberry tart upon hearing Tess' confession. A few laboured gasps followed as Penny slapped her hard on the back and Jackie pushed forward a glass of pumpkin juice — all trace of confetti removed. The blonde took it gladly, glaring over the rim of the goblet at the sheepish look on Tess' as she gulped down the beverage.

"What?!" Dria cried as she slammed the empty goblet upon the tabletop, her nostrils flaring as she looked at her fellow Gryffindor. "Tessa Vivian Robbins, what have you done to my cat?!"

"It was an accident!" Tess responded desperately, her eyebrows furrowed as she leaned back in her seat, shivering under her friend's icy glare. "I had him and then he just sort of ... ran away."

"Tess, the Heir of Slytherin is on the loose!" Dria reminded her friend, shaking her head slowly with a clenched jaw before slamming her fist down upon the tabletop. "What do you mean you lost my cat?!"

"Can I explain?"

Dria's jaw was still hardened, her gaze fixated on Tess before giving her a firm nod and picking up the knife at her side so she could cut herself another slice of tart.

"Okay, so — please put down that knife." Tess began, eyes widening as the blonde chopped up the tart harshly, her blue eyes never leaving Tess. "So I'm just in the Common Room, having fixed my eyebrow — you would never guess it was missing this morning — and I was minding my own business and looking out the window."

"So completely the opposite of minding your own business, then." Penny quipped, taking another gulp of tea.

"Being a nosy twat." Jackie added, although Tess paid them no mind and continued to try and explain the situation.

"And I saw Una—" The dark-haired began, only to be cut off again by the voices of her friends.

"That's ten galleons, Jackie."

"Fuck off."

"I saw Una and a few of her friends out by the lake." Tess persisted, her voice raising slightly so as to cut her friends off. "And then Figaro came down from the dormitory, and then an idea came to me."

"An absolutely disastrous idea."

"Well, Penny told me that Una likes cats, see?" Tess nodded, trying to validate her reasoning but Dria's attention only turned to the Ravenclaw at her side.

"Penny, you helped?!"

"I didn't know she'd use your cat!"

"And so, I thought if I were to save Figs from sudden peril or something—" Tess went on, causing Dria's blue eyes to widened as she chewed on another mouthful of tart, her gaze becoming increasingly worried.

"Sudden peril?!"

"Or something!" Tess repeated, exasperated. "That it might catch her attention and we'd hit it off, you know?"

The three girls around her said nothing. No, they did not know.

"Okay, then." The dark-haired girl clicked her tongue before continuing again. "So, I put him up a tree and planned to rescue himself."

"And?"

"And your cat is a terrible actor! He refused to comply with what I asked of him, and ran away!" Tess went on, her hands gesturing madly before settling on her lap. "And ... now I can't find him."

         Once again, no one said anything. But the volume of anger in Dria's said enough for all three of the girls sat by Tess.

"Tess, you've reached a new level of idiocy." The blonde told her fellow Gryffindor, her gaze still as hard as rock.

         "I guess love makes you an idiot?" Tess tried, her gaze hopeful as she tried to defend her actions.

         "Yes, sure does." Dria agreed, her nostrils flaring as she began nodding, her frustration becoming even more apparent. "Your brain was clearly deprived of oxygen, due to it all going to your bloody heart!"

Tess only offered the blonde another sheepish smile as she watched her bury her head in her hands, and looked unsurely between Jackie and Penny who also surveyed the Lockaby girl with curiosity as to what she would come out with next. Luckily, they didn't have to wait long.

With a deep sigh, Dria's head lifted up and she cast a look around at her three girls before throwing a leg over the bench she sat on and beginning to get to her feet.

"Come on, dinner's over." She declared, tugging at Penny's robes while sparing knowing glances at the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor sat at the other side of the table.

"But I'm hungry." Tess whined as Penny chugged back the rest of her tea and got to her feet while Jackie following suit, as Dria glared in Tess' direction.

"I don't care." She retorted with an insincere smile that scared Tess ever so slightly, and willed her to get to her feet. "I don't want my cat to turn into Mrs Norris 2.0!"

"Ugh!"

And with that, the four girls left the Ravenclaw table, with the blonde taking the lead as her three friends followed closely on her tail, preparing themselves for an all-out cat hunt.

Dria didn't want to lose another second as she willed herself to walk all that bit faster, darting out of the entrance to the Great Hall and turning into the next corridor. So, she found herself very irritated when they passed by someone whose cheery voice caused them to stop.

"Everything alright?" Una Callahan asked, stopping the four of them in their tasks with her brow furrowed in sympathy. "You guys look troubled."

A soft smile laid upon her lips, with her red curls cascading over her shoulders. Her Head Girl badge sat proudly upon her neat robes and her blue eyes beheld a glint of kindness. Dria swore if the phrase 'Hi, can I help you?' was a person, it would be Una Callahan.

Dria let out a gentle sigh in attempt to calm herself. She heard a faint gasp from behind her which she assumed belonged to Tess, and gave her eyes a subtle roll before returning Una's smile and explaining.

"My cat's missing."

"Oh, that's terrible!" The red-head gushed, her eyes widening in worry, before she straightened up. "Can I help at all?"

Before Dria could open her mouth to answer, Jackie had strode forward from behind her and replied to the question.

"Well, we were going to split up." The Irish girl explained, nodding ever so slightly. "You could go with Tess and search the first floor — she can fill you in, and we'll search the second."

Jackie gestured to Tess whose mouth was hanging agape, only to abruptly close upon realising she had finally caught her crush's attention. The dark-haired girl plastered a quick smile on her face and gave the Head Girl an awkward wave.

"Of course." Una nodded, taking a step closer to Tess, turning in the opposite direction so they could search the first floor. "Shall we?"

"Yeah, yeah." Tess replied, her voice cracking slightly before she cleared her throat and they began making their way down the corridor. "So, his name's Figaro and he's a grey tabby—"

The couple walked a few paces away from the other three girls, their conversation fading into distant mumbled. Tess turned midway down the corridor and shot her friends a thrilled look and gave them a thumbs up.

"Well, at least her plan kind of worked." Penny chuckled, as the three girls watched her go.

Even Dria couldn't fight off the small smile wriggling its way onto her face — although, she tried desperately — and mustered a light chuckle before rolling her eyes, and turning in the other direction and setting off for the moving staircases.

"I fucking hate Valentine's Day." She muttered, before transitioning into a light jog and beginning the search for her missing cat. "Figs!"

***

        AN HOUR OF SEARCHING passed by to no avail before Dria had to leave for her study session with Oliver. Her friends assured her that they'd continue the search while she tutored the Keeper and searched the library for her missing cat in the process.

        The time stood at 7:35pm, Oliver was supposed to meet her at half past and she'd been there a good twenty minutes early so as to search the library in its entirety — again, to no avail. She could only hope by the time she returned to the Common Room, one of her friends would have found Figaro.

         Her foot was tapping incessantly on the hard wood floor, echoing out into the rest of the library, as she attempted to settle her nerves. She gazed into the pages of the book in her hands — trying to pass the time as well as distract herself — but found herself re-reading the same sentence a good five times, and none of the words sinking in. She supposed that Quidditch foul #156 would just have been one that she didn't retain — oh, the shame.

         Her eyes narrowed in deep concentration as she tried to digest the words, but the worry gnawing on her mind made it seem as though the whole book was written in gibberish. Yet, she was still too far in concentration to notice the figure of a certain Gryffindor Keeper approaching her, with a grey tabby cat lying awfully comfortably in his arms.

        "Don't suppose you've lost something have you?" Oliver's voice rang out in curiosity, breaking Dria from her reverie.

         His sudden announcement caused her to turn in his direction, where — upon seeing him — her worry instantly dissipated into nothing, a smile curving onto her features at the sight of Figaro in his embrace.

        "Oh, Figs!" She cried in relief, quickly getting to her feet and moving over to the boy, and seizing her cat from his grasp, holding the grey tabby close to her.

         "Found him wandering the third floor corridor, thought I'd recognised that furry face." Oliver explained, as Figaro's purrs flooding Dria's hearing and he nuzzled into her neck. "He seemed fairly happy to be out of the Common Room."

        "Oh, I'm sure." Dria chuckled, readjusting her grip on the cat so that she could look him in the face, adopting a sudden change in tone as though chastising a child. "But you can't be out at the moment, unless you want to end up petrified, Figs. We've talked about this."

        The cat in her grasp didn't seem in the slightest fazed by her words, and continued purring as Oliver let out a light chuckle at the antics of the blonde beside him.

        Dria's cheeks flushed suddenly as she cursed herself for using her 'cat voice' in the company of another person — especially when that other person was Oliver Wood.

        "Oh, sorry." She winced slightly, mustering the smallest of chuckles, as the two of them began walking back over to the desks. "You just witnessed my inner crazy cat lady surfacing."

        "Don't apologise, it's pretty cute." Oliver shrugged in response, pulling out a chair seemingly oblivious to the words that left his lips.

        Dria's ears pricked up at his words, and she felt her cheeks flush again as he sank into a chair and cast a look over the book she'd discarded.

        "What's this your reading?" He asked with a smirk, as she sank into her own chair with Figs settling on her lap.

        "Something I think you'll approve of." The blonde chuckled in response, as he picked up her copy of Quidditch Through The Ages and flicked through it to her bookmarked page.

        "Oh, I see you're into the fouls section."

        "It's exhilarating."

A good ten minutes passed with the two discussing the bird-conjuring charm and its practicality in real life — Oliver thought it would prove useless, Dria disagreed; she rather liked the idea of conjuring a flock of birds and firing them at anyone she found particularly annoying.

While the return of her cat had somewhat quelled Dria's worry, there was still a niggling feeling in her mind that affected her demeanour
ever so slightly. A change that she was surprised came to the attention of the boy beside her.

"Are you alright?" He asked suddenly, his eyebrows furrowing in slight concern.

"Huh?" Dria replied, shaking herself from her brief daze and plastering a smile on her lips. "Yeah, I'm good."

"It's just you keep zoning out." He explained, not allowing her to brush off her mood so easily. "Something on your mind?"

"If by something you mean everything." The blonde chuckled derisively, leaning her head in her hand gently with a light sigh. "Yeah, you could say so."

The Keeper shot her a concerned look before mirroring her sigh and setting down his quill, turning to face her.

"Come on."

"What?"

"Tell me." He insisted, leaning back in his chair with a small smile.

"Please, another person really doesn't need to be burdened by it all—" Dria chuckled, attempting to dismiss the subject as she took a hand through her hair.

"Well, you can't keeping hogging all the burden." The Keeper joked with the ghost of a smile on his lips, his brows still furrowed in sympathy. "I'm afraid one day you'll explode."

"You and me both."

"What's up?"

Dria let out a shaky sigh before letting herself look at him. Her mouth opened and closed as she searched for the right words to express just how she was feeling.

"Everything just feels wrong."

Oliver arched a brow as he learnt forward, arms resting in his knees as he awaited for her further explanation.

"How do you mean?"

The blonde let out a long breath, the slightest of smiles appearing derisively on her face as she allowed her gaze to meet his.

"Everything's just changed, you know?" She said, absentmindedly reaching down to her lap to stroke Figaro. "And I'm not taking too well to it."

Oliver said nothing. There was a slight glint in his eye that told her to continue and so with a large sigh, she did.

"The school's turned into a living crime scene." The blonde explained, allowing her thoughts free rein. "Every shift I do at the Hospital Wing, I dread that a teacher is going to come through the doors with another hoard of victims. I know that the Mandrake Draught is brewing well, but there's nothing they can do to stop them in the first place.

"Tonight was the first time I've spent more than five minutes with Penny since we've come back. She's spending less and less with us for reasons unknown — not that she'd tell us even if we dared to ask her.

"And, on top of that, my family's falling apart as though it wasn't already." Dria shook her head, a derisive chuckle leaving her lips as her jaw clenched. "I haven't spoken to my mum since I stormed out on Christmas. Michael's become as secluded as I've ever known him to be and is even refusing to speak to Maise. And she's distraught by the fact that everything's falling apart around her and she can do nothing to fix it."

Dria closed her eyes softly, stroking Figaro continuously as she tried to calm herself, before she let out a final complain in a small whine.

"And Tess lost the fucking cat!"

The blonde willed herself to look back at the boy beside her, lifting her head out of her hand and resting it upon the desktop.

"I think I just exploded." She muttered, shooting him an apologetic glance.

He didn't say anything for a couple of moments, instead he reached forward and gently laid his hand over hers.

"Sorry." He said softly, his coffee coloured eyes boring into hers, as the blonde desperately tried to remind herself how to breathe.

"You've got nothing to be sorry about. It's really fine. I'm just feeling sorry for myself. I guess losing Figs pushed me over the edge." Dria chuckled gently, trying to distract herself from the feeling of his hand on hers by focusing on the confusion that filled her from his words. "Stupid Valentine's Day."

She dropped her gaze from his and focused on Figaro purring on her lap, smiling down at the cat that resided there, before she heard a soft exhalation from the boy beside her.

"You know you don't have to always keep things to yourself." Oliver assured her, causing the blonde gaze to raise back up and meet his. "There are people that care about you and I know you feel like you're burdening them but you're not; you're a blessing if I've ever known one.

"Eventually, the heir will be caught and everything will go back to normal. Penny will snap out of whatever funk she's in. You'll talk to your mum again. Michael will grow out of his grim teenage boyishness and Maisie's a strong girl, she'll be okay." He gave her a tight-lipped smile before arching an eyebrow, "So the question is; will you?"

Dria was unsure as to whether she had fully soaked in his words as she was aware of the fact that she had lost herself in the warm colour of his eyes and the sincerity they beheld.

"Yeah." The blonde nodded, slowly, earning a light smile from the boy beside her.

"Yeah, you will."

Dria let out a small chuckle at the relief she felt wash over her, and how easily the boy had made her feel at ease. It was just another reminder at how brilliant a captain he was.

"Is that how your pep talks normally go?" She asked, arching an eyebrow, her lips curving into the slightest of smirks.

"I may have gone with a similar structure." He chuckled, sheepishly, his gaze darting down to the floor and back up to her again.

"Well, consider me suitably inspired." Dria reciprocated his chuckle, as the slightest of the blushed coated the boy's cheeks.

"Still got it, then."

"Without a doubt."

A comfortable silence fell over them after a few moments before Dria felt the urge to reciprocate his efforts and enquire after him.

"Has it been helping?" She asked, causing his gaze to meet hers once more. "All the extra Quidditch practices? I saw on the notice boards that McGonagall had approved more of them, I assumed it was to distract you guys — or one of you in particular."

It was fairly obvious who Dria was referring to and Oliver understood immediately letting out a large sigh, shaking his head slightly.

"He's twelve years old and the entire school think he's a raging psychopath." Oliver tutted, his eyebrows furrowing in slight frustration. "I don't know how he manages getting up, let alone anything else."

"He's resilient." Dria spoke up with a small smile as she thought fondly of the Potter boy.

"He sure is." The Keeper agreed with a light chuckle. "He was laughing, yesterday. Haven't heard him do that since before Christmas."

"He's lucky to have you guys to help him out." The blonde replied, sparing the boy a gentle smile.

"We're a team. You're always there for your team." He said sincerely, before gently squeezing her hand. "Bit like us, eh?"

"We're a team?"

"Don't you remember?" He asked, arching a brow with a ghost of a smirk on his lips. "Brains and brawn?"

"Oh, right!" Dria chuckled with a light roll of her eyes, as the memory from the year before flooded her memory.

"I think we make a pretty good one as well." He nodded, his smirk ever growing as he waited to gauge her opinion.

"Yes, I suppose we do." She agreed, the corners of her lips threatened to mimic his smirk as her other hand still ran through Figaro's fur.

"And just like with any other team, I'm always there for my teammate." He explained slowly, before letting out a light chuckle. "Even when she doesn't want me to be."

"Likewise, Wood." She nodded, sparing him a sincere smile, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. "Just so you know, I'm there for you too."

He didn't say anything for a few moments, he just smiled as his eyes looked over her with an unrecognisable glint in their centre.

"I know."

        And with that, they fell back into their comfortable silence; only sound to disturb it was the gentle purring of Figaro, while they turned their attention back to their studies — his hand still rested atop of hers.

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖆 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖘!
we hit 50k, would
somebody kindly
mind explaining
the actual fuck?

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