「 ☆ 」 -- 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

Renegades by X Ambassadors

"𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬
𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬
𝐆𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐨 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫
𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐫"

~

As the Christmas holiday passed and students returned to Hogwarts the exam season was fast approaching, and once again Laurel was being led to the courtyard by Alden whose arms were filled with her books and parchments. They turned through the archway to the courtyard and caught the eye of their friends Liya and Kamari Iyer, the ravenclaw who had come up with the studying games, along with a few strangers and a familiar face that caused Laurel's mood to sour. He leaned over to Alden and spoke in a hush voice causing the girl to slow down her walk so they could match each other's pace.

"What is Nadeleine doing here?"

"I invited her!"

"And it seems she invited half of the Slytherin house as well."

Alden paused her walking to look at Laurel with a frown, the boy shrugged slightly before continuing.

"There isn't a wizard who didn't go bad who wasn't in Slytherin."

"You can't label a whole house as evil just because of a few bad wizards."

"They have yet to disprove it."

"That's because you aren't giving them a chance to do so, Laurie."

Laurel tightened his jaw at Alden's accusation, she was right, he wasn't giving them a chance, but in his eyes they didn't deserve one. He remained silent as Nadeleine got up from where she sat on the bench beside Liya and walked over. She went in for a hug with Alden and looked at Laurel over the girl's shoulder with a scowl of which he returned before she pulled away from the hug and looked at Alden.

"I hope you don't mind. I brought a few friends from my house."

"Oh no, I don't mind at all Nadeleine."

Laurel scoffed beside Alden earning himself a soft elbow to his stomach of which he dodged, Nadeleine sent a glare at Laurel who cocked his head slightly and scrunched his face. The trio then made their way to the others in silence before Nadeleine took her place next to Liya who waved happily to her friends.

"Alden! Laurel! What took you two so long?"

Laurel held up a bag that he had been carrying with him.

"Quinn was late giving me these."

He sat down on the ground and turned the bag over onto the grass. It was a plethora of candy from Honeydukes, Alden her books down on the grass before sitting beside Laurel, the rest of the group stared at the bounty with their mouths gaping, one of the unknown slytherin students reached their hand out to grab one of the candies.

"Where did you get these?"

"Don't touch. Alden and I's friend Quinn got it for me, he's a fourth year. They get to go to Hogsmeade on certain weekends."

The slytherin plucked up a chocolate wand anyway and bit into it, causing Laurel to look from them to Alden who adverted her eyes to open her book. He blinked unamused and then looked over to Kamari who seemed to be holding in a laugh.

"Kamari, explain the game please."

The ravenclaw boy in question fumbled in his robe pocket to pull out a small wood and glass hourglass, he set it on the bench beside him before standing up with the rest of the group turning their attention towards him.