Love Is Complicated: Marauders Soulmate Applyfic! (Closed!)

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖊𝖓: 𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝕳𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖂𝖊 𝕯𝖔𝖓𝖊?

A/N: Hello my wonderful Greekies! I'm so sorry for not updating in so long. life sort of got in the way of things! Not to mention it was the end of the school year which meant everything was about 10x more hectic than normal. I'm on vacation now so I had a bit of time to edit this chapter! The aesthetic created by me on Photopea! I use Photopea and Procreate for everything photoshop. This chapter is 13.9k words long.

Also, I finally got Instagram and I do post some things about my stories on there, like snippets of chapters or maybe a new aesthetic. Though it is mostly fan art 😅. If you guys wanted to follow me, my username is greekgirl0777. I got the idea to do some fun Wattpad book things from RobinHood37 though! Now on with the story!

A few minutes before we last saw our "heroes" ...

𝕳𝖊𝖑'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

As Hel shadow-travelled outside the door of the hospital wing, she saw the limp body of Professor Umbridge next to her. She quickly let go of the pinkie she had been holding onto as she looked at the Professor with disgust. A split second later, the realization of what they had done sunk in.

"Oh, my gods, what have we done?" Hel said, her voice breathy and her eyes wide. She has nearly killed a person. She nearly killed someone; a professor. Imagine the trouble she'd get into, not only at Hogwarts and on Midgard but Asgard. What would happen? A fledgeling goddess kills a professor where she was supposed to be a guest! Imagine the consequences!

"Oh we're done for," Hel muttered under her breath so low that only the person directly next to her could hear.

"We didn't know this would happen, none of us can see into the future," Sirius said, seemingly out of his trance he was in with the Dark Ones. Hel wasn't sure if he was trying to convince her, him, or everyone else that everything would be fine and they didn't mean to nearly kill a professor.

Hel heard someone clear their throat near them and both she and Sirius turned to see Harley leaning on the wall with the bottom of their left foot pressed against it. Their arms were crossed across their chest as they glared at Sirius. They seemed to be one of the only ones who were unfazed by the nearly dead professor. A feat Hel was impressed by if she was completely honest.

"Except for Harley," Sirius said quickly.

Hel took a deep breath and ignored the Professor for a moment as she took a quick headcount to make sure that everyone was still there. There have been times where when she shadow-travelled with a large group, some people went missing. The last time it was with gods so they could get back easily, a swish of the robes and they were back with Hel. Now with mortals, it wasn't so easy.

Remus seemed to be still a little dazed and Pandora seemed just a tad bit frightened by the lump that was the Professor, but both kept brave faces. Snape was next to Harley, the latter looking downright bored now that Hel examined them closer. James was next to Pandora seemingly doing a headcount along with Hel, and it seemed Pandora joined in after Hel looked away from her. Trust the momma bear twins to make sure everyone was alright. Declan was somewhat near James, but Hel nearly didn't notice him. Maelyn was next to Sirius and Sirius was next to Hel, so Hel was sure that everyone was there.

Hel sighed before thinking up a convincing lie. From the last time she dropped off students in the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey was utterly livid with the Professor; it wouldn't take much to convince her. A simple lie would be easy and didn't have to be too convincing. All she needed was for Madam Pomfrey to take a good look at the limp professor, and she was sure that anything she said would work. Heck, she could talk about Freyja wearing a bright purple thong to a winter ball and Madam Pomfrey wouldn't notice. This was all if she was correct about Madam Pomfrey's priorities, and Hel was positive she got it right.

"Let me do the talking," Hel said sternly to the entire group. No one challenged her and even if they did, she would've shut them down before they had a chance to breathe. Unfortunately, in stress, she tended to lack sympathy. Something she needed to work on that she'd do later.

Hel calmed herself down before pulling out her wand. While whispering a levitating spell under her breath she pointed the wand to the still-limp Professor who levitated a few inches. Hel walked up to the doors making sure that the Professor was secure before opening the doors. Upon doing so, she found Madam Pomfrey tending to the wounds of the four kids the group had found earlier.

"Madam Pomfrey!" Hel said urgently as the doors almost slammed against the wall. Madam Pomfrey turned around lazily, probably expecting a Marauder to have been stupidly injured again. Her eyes widened though when she saw the limp Professor and she quickly ushered Hel over to a cot where Hel dropped the Professor.

Right as Hel opened her mouth to explain "what happened", Madam Pomfrey shushed her with a frantic wave of her hand.

"I don't care how this happened, but we need the Headmaster here. This is very serious—Sirius, or any of you Marauders, I swear to God if you make a joke I will send you to Professor McGonagall's office faster than you can say femur—and I believe I know what you all did. Quite frankly I do not care," Madam Pomfrey said urgently. She looked around the group before settling on Hel.

"Dear, I know you've just shadow-travelled, but if you're the quickest out of all of us," Madam Pomfrey asked sincerely, her eyes filled with remorse.

Hel nodded with no hesitation before summoning the shadows and imagining the headmaster's office. Once the shadows released her, she found herself looking at Headmaster Dumbledore. He was sitting at his desk, a bright green quill in his hand as he wrote on some parchment.

"Ah, Miss Lokidottir, how may I assist you?" Headmaster Dumbedleor asked once he noticed Hle in front of him. He set his quill in its ink cartridge as laced his fingers together, looking at Hel with a calm smile which deeply contrasted with how Hel was feeling at the moment.

"Madam Pomfrey requires your presence in the Hospital Wing," Hel said professionally. She was talking to the head of the school, not an acquaintance. No matter how stressed or scared she felt, that couldn't be shown through her actions. Imagine if her grandmother had shown how stressed she was in court at times of battle. Asgard would've fallen centuries ago!

"Ah, I thought something seemed suspicious," Dumbledore said before standing up, his chair making the softest of scraping noises as he did, "Are you fine with shadow-travelling whilst I apparate?"

Hel nodded and she allowed the shadows to whisk her away once more. She felt the shadows release her and she shook off the shadows on her wrists before looking to where everyone was crouching over Professor Umbridge. Hel caught a flash of bouncy black hair and bright red hair, so she assumed that Eloire and Lily had been in the hospital wing but she didn't notice them earlier in her panic.

"Ah, I was worried this would happen," Headmaster Dumbledore said solemnly as he looked over the Professor.

The Professor looked gaunter—as if old age had stolen ten years of her life for her within ten seconds. She looked ... sadder in a way, probably due to her happiness being strained from her like squeezing the juice from a lemon. Hel was sure that if they had left her there for another thirty seconds, everyone would be standing over a dead body and Hel would have a new subject in her kingdom. Well, she was sure it was Lucifer's shift right now, another year after December and then it would be Satan's turn, and Hel would be studying under him for a while. But that was beside the point, she should be focusing on the almost dead body rather than the actual dead souls.

Hel didn't like premature death though, nor did she like innocents dying for no good reason, or innocents dying a painful death. Only one of those applied to the Professor. Hel didn't feel that it was the Professor's time to die. There was a time and place for every mortal—and sometimes immortal in times like Ragnarok—to die. Now was not the time for the Professor to do so, and if she did? Hel shuddered inside. She would've been responsible for premature death, and that would've been something that would leave a mark on her forever.

"We need to sound a call for a school-wide meeting as soon as possible. What we have feared has come true," Headmaster Dumbledore said and Madam Pomfrey quickly nodded and went off to do something.

"Headmaster," Hel said and Headmaster Dumbledore looked to Hel, "If I may, may we be allowed to remain anonymous when you speak of the Professor?"

"Of course," Headmaster Dumbeldore said before nodding his head to everyone and walking off to where Madam Pomfrey went.

Hel watched the Headmaster leave while reaching to her neck and rubbing her lockets, the one from Sirius and the one from her father. She hadn't realized she was doing it until Sirius gently took her hand.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly in her ear.

"I believe not," Hel whispered back before turning to the group. "Sirius and I will be right back. I would suggest for you all to stay here for the moment. I have something I'd like to tell you all, and I'm sure the Headmaster or a teacher will want to see us before we go our separate ways. No doubt to tell us to keep quiet about this, but we should all stay in the same spot," Hel said before both she and Sirius went outside into the hallway.

"You're scared," Sirius said, holding up his finger where his ring was.

Hel nodded. "You remember when I put my hand in the happiness and the soul of the Professor?" She asked tentatively and Sirius nodded. "With the soul, I felt powerful. I felt a feeling of power surge through me. It was an amazing feeling and that's why I'm scared. The soul fueled me, it's why I'm not an ounce tired even though I shadowed all of you guys here and to the Headmasters office and back. I think I may know how the Dark Ones feel, how they're getting their power and why they want it. It terrifies me that I felt power the same way they feel the power and I felt their hunger for a split second Sirius. I felt the power and I loved it and I wanted more," Hel explained, her voice breaking and trembling. She didn't realize that her hands were shaking and there were tears in her eyes until Sirius took a hold of her hands and cupped her cheek, wiping a tear away from her face.

"You didn't love it," Sirius said and Hel scoffed.

"How would you know?" she asked, with a shaky laugh. She didn't mean to be rude, the break in her voice indicating that.

"Because we're soulmates," Sirius said with a childish grin and Hel sniffed as she chuckled in disbelief. "I'm kidding obviously," Sirius said, "But it's because you're terrified. It's hard to love something when it terrifies you to your core. You don't just fear it, you're terrified." Sirius smiled sadly. "I know you, I know you like power and control, but that feeling you got when you felt the soul--when it 'fueled' you--it made you terrified, you may have liked it a tad, but your terror overrode that." Sirius bit his lip in thought. "You're not a monster like the Dark Ones, you're not a cruel queen or goddess for liking some control and power. You're terrified," Sirius said before letting go of Hel's cheek and hand. He pulled Hel close to him and cradled her head to his chest. At the time, Hel didn't know it, but it was the same way James did to Sirius after Sirius had one of his arguments with his family or a nightmare.

He didn't realize it, but she was sobbing into Sirius's chest. She was terrified of the power a soul could give her. She was terrified at that moment that she would want to be like the Dark Ones, taking the power from someone else's soul to give power to herself. She didn't want that. She wanted people to fear her but not in the way people were terrified of the Dark Ones.

Hel sniffed and wiped the tears away from her face. Luckily, she had a fast healing time so her cheeks and eyes wouldn't be puffy when she walked back into the room. "I feel pathetic," Hel muttered to herself with a shaky laugh and a shake of her head.

"No," Sirius said, tilting Hel's chin up to meet his eyes (which didn't take much), "You're feeling human, and even though you're a goddess it's okay to feel human."

Hel smiled sadly before she took a deep breath and regained her composure. "Thank you," she whispered before pressing a kiss to Siirus' lips.

"I love you too," Sirius said with a lighthearted smirk before holding his hand out. Hel took it and the pair went back inside the Hospital Wing (after Sirius tripped over Hel's robe and swiftly regained his composure).

𝕻𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖔𝖗𝖆'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Pandora didn't want for all this to happen--she didn't realize all this would happen--but it did. She looked at Professor Umbridge with a worried look on her face. The Professor looked almost dead and she looked so...sad. Pandora frowned and pushed her hair back out of her face. She hadn't anticipated for the Professor to have had a female soulmate with all of her anti-LGBTQ+ ideas; with her directly pulling LGBTQ kids after class and telling them it wasn't right to be themself. Pandora had only meant to scare the Professor and once she had looked scared enough she would've asked for Hel to shadow-travel them right back. She has never meant to hurt the Professor in this way, she didn't wish whatever the Dark Ones could do on anyone. Not even her worst enemy. Not even Snivellus.

Pandora decided that she'd take full responsibility for whatever happened after. It was her idea and mostly her fault after all. Her mind had been clouded by rage--a mistake she hoped to never make again, she'd learn from this time... hopefully.

Pandora heard the door open and she looked up to see Hel and Sirius come into the Hospital Wing. Though it was hard to tell by anyone else she saw that Hel had been crying earlier, the almost unnoticeable puffiness of her cheeks gave it away. You would have only noticed it if you were looking for it, and Pandora sensed that she should look for the signs of crying. She would've asked Hel why she was crying, but that was Hel and Sirius' business and she would respect that. She'd figure out how to comfort Hel later.

"Comfort yourself first Pandora," Remus whispered as he wrapped his arms around Pandora's waist from behind, rocking her slightly. She felt him bury his nose in her hair and she couldn't help but chuckle softly as she responded.

"You should tell that to yourself," Pandora said in the same volume as she smiled up at Remus who smiled back at her as he pressed a slightly tilted kiss to her lips. Pandora kissed back for a few seconds, relishing the taste of bittersweet chocolate and tea leftover on Remus' lips from dinner, before pulling away and sighing as she looked at the Professor. She bit her lip and pulled some of her hair between her fingers, fidgeting with it while she thought about what she should do. She felt Remus trial his fingers up the side of her stomach and to her shoulders before resting his hands there. As he did, Pandora reached into her own hands to cover Remus', both of them feeling a sense of security from the small action.

Pandora then looked over where the little kids were. All four of them were sitting on their own hospital cots and it looked like they had to stay there until they had to go to the schoolwide meeting. The four looked scared as they stared at the Professor so Pandora gently removed Remus' hands from her shoulders and pressed a kiss to his lips. She whispered, "The kids we met earlier look terrified, I'll be back," against his lips before going over to where the little kids were.

"Hey there," Pandora said softly with a smile. All four kids whipped their heads to look at Pandora as she pulled up a chair and sat in front of them. Pandora looked from the Professor to the kids and decided that they deserved an explanation for what had happened. She sure as hell would have wanted one if she were them.

"You all don't know this, though I'm sure you will once you go to the schoolwide meeting. But, there are creatures in the Forbidden Forest that are—" Pandora looked for the right word so that she didn't scare the kids out of their minds—they were already scared, after all, no need to scare them further "—More dangerous than you could ever believe. We know that these creatures only affect people with female soulmates, and as you probably know already, the Professor is against LBGTQ+ and she has a husband, so we didn't believe she would have a female soulmate. Unfortunately, we were wrong, and she had her happiness, and part of her soul taken away from her by the creatures."

Pandora looked at the four kids who looked at each other. She could've sworn that they were reading each other's minds by the way they are looking at each other. It was the same way James and she looked at each other when they were "reading each other's minds".

"We can read minds actually," Josephine said. "It's why we were able to find each other and be friends in different houses. We can read each other's minds and we figured out a way to talk that way. We found it really cool," she explained, shrugging.

"Oh," Pandora said. "You're legilimens then," She said in realization and the four looked at each other with equally confused faces.

"We're what?" Beau asked, blinking a bit fast in confusion.

"Legimens," Pandora said. She didn't remember when she had learned about legilimens, but it wasn't in the first year it seemed. She tried to think of the best way to phrase what a legend was without making them seem strange or wrong to the kids. " A leligemen is someone who can magically go through the different layers of someone's mind and can know what they're thinking. You all seem to be naturals at this, which is amazing seeing how young you are," Pandora said with a comforting smile as all the kids looked surprised and proud of themselves. Pandora smiled, mission accomplished. They were educated and they felt good about themselves.

"You're Pandora, right? Elorie said you and ... Remus? Were soulmates and that you were her OTP," Abigail said and Pandora chuckled as she scooted slightly closer to the kids.

"Sounds like Elorie. But yes, I'm Pandora and my boyfriend--and soulmate--is Remus," Pandora said a smile automatically appeared on her face at the thought of her lovely boyfriend.

"What's it like having a soulmate?" Abigail asked, her pale green eyes lighting up with excitement as she got on her knees to get closer to Pandora. Her Hufflepuff robes got in her way slightly, so she pulled those out from underneath her and pressed her hands on her knees as she looked eagerly at Pandora.

"Well, almost everyone has a soulmate—I'm sure you do—but if you mean what is it like knowing who your soulmate is? Well, it's one of the most amazing feelings in the entire universe, or universes if we're going there. I was in love with Remus even before we found out we are soulmates and the confirmation that he really was my soulmate was an amazing feeling. A rush of adrenaline ran through both of us when the hat called out my name as his soulmate," Pandora explained and she chuckled with a smile when all four kids got wide eyes and looked excited. Even Beau, who seemed to be the one who wasn't into that sort of thing, looked interested.

"Pandora?" Remus called from where the door was. He waved slightly with a toothy smile on his face. It looked like everyone was getting ready to go to the school assembly. Pandora nodded to Remus in understanding before turning to the kids.

"Do you want to come with us?" Pandora asked and all four kids nearly jumped out of their beds to hurry next to Pandora. Pandora laughed and gestured for the kids to follow her to the door.

No one said anything about the kids coming with them so Pandora didn't see the harm in letting them come along. Although, when Harley looked back at them, they did narrow their eyes at the kids. But, when Beau took that as a staring contest, Harley looked slightly impressed before turning away.

They quickly came to the entrance of the Great Hall where everyone else was milling about. Pandora looked down at the kids with a smile before kneeling a bit to get eye level with them.

"If you need anything, remember that we'll be there, alright? You can ask us anything if you need help. Our dorm is in the Dorados Tower on the northside of Hogwarts," Pandora said to the four kids. All of them nodded before they ran off to their house tables.

As Pandora got up, she felt an arm go around her shoulders and she looked up to see Remus. She laughed and pressed a kiss to Remus' cheek as the two went to sit down at the Gryffindor table. Once there, Pandora let her head rest on Remus' shoulder as they looked to where Headmaster Dumbledore was standing on the pedestal.

𝕰𝖑𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖊'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Elorie looked up to where Headmaster Dumbledore was standing on his pedestal in his purple-robed glory. Eloire looked down to find that she too was wearing purple; they matched! Wasn't that a treat? She also couldn't help but notice that Lily was sitting right next to her (or in front, depending on where you sat), but she tried to ignore the sweet-smelling bright red hair in front of her. She low-key (high-key) failed, but oh well.

Just as Eloire was debating on telling Lily to scoot just a bit so her short ass could see, Professor Dumbledore spoke up and Eloire decided to be halfway in the aisle. Her butt was dangling precariously at the end of the seat, but it was alright, at least everyone could see her beautiful platform boots whose black colour stood out against the light floor of the great hall. A lot of how she could stand out in a crowd, (nothing that has to do with height though, as she said, she's a short ass) was how much a colour would stand out in her background. Or if she wore something that tested the line a little too much, though there isn't such a thing as "too much"; that's a myth. Or if she added enough sequins or glitter to blind someone if she stood somewhere with an ounce of light. Even Lily Evans would notice her! Did she actually think that?

"Hello, students of Hogwarts," Headmaster Dumbledore said. Elorie giggled and had to cover her mouth to stop from yelling out, "Hello to you too Dumbles!" since it would've been very inappropriate. Eloire tried to wipe the everlasting smile on her face by thinking of the professor but was only a bit successful. Forgive her (or not), but that Professor hurt her and her friends, she still had the marks on her hand to prove it. Revenge was cold and sweet (like a popsicle!) and she couldn't help but feel a little happy that the Professor got what she deserved. She would survive though! Elorie heard that she would and she had asked Hel (who hadn't been amused) if the Professor would die, and Hel said she wouldn't, so the professor had to be fine...right?

"I'm sure all of you are surprised as to why we've called you here at such a late hour. Well, if you would turn to our staff table, you would see someone missing," Headmaster Dumbledore said, waving his hand over to the staff table, his robes swishing as he did. Elorie knew full and well who was missing, and quite frankly, she didn't mind a whole ton.

"It is time you all know why we truly had the soulmate sorting this year," Headmaster Dumbledore said and Elorie leaned forward intrigued. While she got a new ... friend? from the soulmate sorting, if there was another reason other than the "procreate" part of the soulmate sorting, she wanted to know.

"The soulmate sorting was a way to protect all of you from the creatures lurking right outside these castle walls. These creatures are not the ordinary magical animals that you've learned about in school, these are ancient creatures that are even older than some of the gods you believe in. They could be older than the parents of most of the gods you believe in, or even older than their grandparents. We as mortals do not know," Headmaster Dumbledore said.

Elorie looked over to Hel as many others (a.k.a the rest of the school) were doing. She was Hogwarts resident goddess, after all, everyone ought to be looking at her if anyone mentioned the word "god". But Hel's face was emotionless. Elorie cocked her head to the side before diverting her attention to the Headmaster again.

"These creatures are called the Unnamed, for we have yet to find a name for these beings," the Headmaster said.

Elorie's mouth dropped. But, didn't the things tell you what their name was? In their creepy song, they said who they were. They called themselves Dark Ones. Was there really not enough information on them for Headmaster Dumbledore, a hundred-year-old or so man, to know? Plus Dumbley-dore was really smart! Well everyone liked to tell him everything and she was pretty sure the ministry liked him, so he had to know all those inside secrets and scandals and smarts.

"They suck out your soul much like a dementor, and then they devour your body. They seem to sing a song that enchants people, and we were sure that they only affected men ... until now. Our lovely teacher, Professor Karen Umbridge has been affected. The students who brought her in wished to be kept anonymous, and I will respect their wishes. But, we have found out that it is people with female soulmates who are affected. Those with male soulmates shouldn't have to worry, but for those with female soulmates, be wary. All activities that require going near the forest will happen within castle walls, other than that, have a good night, and be cautious, we do not know how strong these creatures are and we do not know the extent of their powers," Professor Dumbledore finished.

Everyone was dismissed and Elorie whipped her herd around to face the rest of the Marauders.

"Did he just?" Lily asked.

"Spout out some bullshit?" Someone said from behind Elorie and Elorie craned her neck to see Harley in their emo glory standing behind her. "Don't get excited, I still hate you shits, but you guys are the only ones who actually know about the bitches in the forest. But are they really that stupid? You'd think the old fucker would know more," Harley said, referring to Dumbledore, and Elorie couldn't help but agree. Granted she wouldn't've said it the way Harley did, but she agreed nonetheless.

"This is exactly why we need to figure out what these things really are, and we need to figure out how to get rid of them, if that could possibly happen," Hel added as she came over beside Harley. Eloire looked around and realized most of the Slytherins had scurried away--probably off to tell mummy and daddy their perspective of the situation. "

As much as I wish we could do something new, it's virtually impossible since the books on Midgard are simply not enough to research something older than some of the gods," Hel explained. "Fall break could not come sooner," she said with a sigh.

"For now, we should make deductions based on the information we have, see what the song means, see what they really want, their powers, compare rhythm to other mythical creatures," Hel explained, though, Elorie could tell it was supposed to be a toned-down order. Hel turned to Harley, " You can see into the future, am I wrong?"

"No," Harley said reluctantly as they crossed their arms in front of their chest, causing their multiple silver and black bracelets to jumble together loudly. Something Harley seemed amused by as most everyone stared at the bracelets wondering how it could possibly be that loud.

"Well, since we'll look awkward being the last ones here, let's go to our dorm and test out your skills Kelly," Hel said.

𝕳𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖊𝖞'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Harley raised an eyebrow as Hel sat in front of them in the common room.

"You do know how to use your powers, correct?" Hel asked.

"I'm not a fucking idiot Lokidottir," Harley said, and Hel sat back and waved her hand. allowing Harley to do their thing.

Harley rolled their eyes and was hyper-aware of all the eyes staring at them. Harley gave Hel a look, and Hel sighed before glaring at everyone else. They all got the memo. Well, most of the idiots did. James seemed oblivious to what was happening, and Remus had to drag him away along with Peter. Severus stayed in the room, though, but Harley didn't mind that. He could stay if he wanted.

Hel looked away as she kept an eye on the idiots to make sure they weren't doing something stupid--not that Harley had much hope for the bastards. Harley sighed as they closed their eyes. They envisioned a timeline, a long gold line. One side had all the interesting things that had happened in the world on it, while the other was blank. Harley envisioned zooming in on the gold part of the line that had no event on it. They took in a sharp intake of breath and leaned back as if they were on a fast ride in a theme park. Their eyes moved rapidly in their sockets as Harley saw a flash of events before them.

They saw the Dark Ones. They saw a jar with weird symbols on it--probably Greek. They saw everyone crouched around books. They heard a spell, but the spell didn't make any sense to them, they'd never heard it before. They saw a dead body, a small dead body, one that was eleven years old. It was one of the kids they met.

Harley would've gone further, but they felt warm bile and burning fluid come up their throat, and their eyes flashed open as they coughed into their elbow. They pulled away and could see blood on their leather jacket. They snorted and coughed again as they felt hot blood run down their throat. Oh, how fucking brilliant.

"What did you see?" Hel asked, offering a handkerchief that Harley recognized as one of Pandora's.

They reluctantly accepted the handkerchief as they tilted her head back and pinched the bridge of their nose.

Harley gagged on the blood draining down their throat. A second later they felt Severus' hand in their own and felt him put a vial of who knows what in their palm. Harley titled their head down a bit and realized it was a healing potion. They shrugged before popping open the bottle and chugging it in one go. They felt their nose bleed go away, and the cough that was threatening to make them cough up more blood resided.

Harley held the handkerchief away as they wiped the blood off of their face. They probably looked like a vampire that was new to killing.

"Did you see death?" Hel asked, and Harley raised an eyebrow. "I can tell when someone sees death," Hel said simply. Made sense. In some ways, Hel was fucking death.

"Yeah, fucking did. Obviously saw the old bitches--the Dark Ones. I saw this weird jar thing, those damn greek symbols on it, couldn't read it though, not that smart. I saw everyone in the library with books everywhere. Everyone in the tower, Reg, Lestrange, Rosier, that lot. I saw--heard a spell, dunno what it fucking is, never heard it before. And a dead body. I saw the goddamn dead body of one of the kids we met," Harley explained. Harley retching at the taste of metal in their mouth combined with the weird flavour of the potion Severus gave them.

"The jar was most likely a pithos if it was Greek, and I assume you don't know which child?" Hel asked, and Harley gave her a look, causing Hel to back down with a raise of her eyebrow. Hel told Harley that the two (three including Sev) should tell everyone else what would happen, and Harley shrugged. They understood the urgency. These fucking things nearly killed a professor. Granted, no one liked the professor, but maybe the Dark Ones would kill someone they actually liked.

When Harley (mostly Hel since Harley didn't feel like talking) told everyone what they had seen, the reactions they got were all different. Some were unfazed, others were surprised, and others were worried. Harley just kept to themselves while Hel explained other things. Honestly, they turned Hel out after the future-seeing bit.

Harley looked up from where they were leaning on the wall to see that everyone was starting to leave. They shrugged before heading up to their dorm to read some fairy tales and plan some Halloween tricks.

Severus followed Harley, and Harley gently (though that part was subconscious) wrapped an arm around his shoulders as they went up.

Two days before Halloween...

"Oi! Watch where your fucking going bastard!" Harley yelled sharply from the top of their ladder. The thing wobbled for a second, but Harley sent a sharp glare to it, making it stop. Due to their glare or due to physics? Harley didn't know, nor did they particularly care.

Harley had been putting beheaded heads on spikes when their ladder started to shake from someone running past. Who it was? No doubt a fucking Marauder. Those shitheads had been doing that for the past couple of hours. They did not need to die two days before Halloween, the day after? Maybe. But two days before? Abso-fucking-lutely not. They'll stare death in the face and demand to be alive rather than die two days before Halloween.

Harley looked down but didn't see anyone, so they resumed putting heads on spikes. They reached over to grab another head from the bag they stuck on a different spike, but after spending a few seconds trying to untangle three heads from each other because the hair got tangled up, they gave up and shoved one of the heads on the spike and let the other ones dangle off of it. If it fell on someone on Halloween it wouldn't matter, it would just add to the fun.

Harley heard footsteps and assumed that Severus or Elorie had come along from where they were setting up the possessed doll section of the hallway. But when Harley looked down, they saw Pandora and Remus with the four eleven-year-olds from earlier.

Harley groaned. Had the four kids imprinted on Pandora? They wouldn't be surprised if they had. Pandora was sweet that way, but still.

"Can I help her?" The Asian boy--Beau--asked, and Pandora sharply inhaled while Harley rolled their eyes.

"It's them," Harley said. They didn't expect the kid to know that they were agender. It was never brought up.

"Them?" Beau asked, and while Harley groaned at child stupidity, Pandora explained. Better she did that. They'd probably frighten the kid like everyone else.

"They're agender. Harley doesn't have a fixed gender you see. Usually, they go by they/them pronouns, like today. Though, some days they'll go by he/him or the rare she/her. They'll probably tell you when they have a gender shift though," Pandora explained and Beau nodded.

"Cool," he said, nodding. "Can I help them?" he asked.

"Do you rap your mouth off?" Harley asked.

"Nope," Beau said, and Harley shrugged.

"Then I don't give a fuck, grab a bag of beheaded heads, a ladder, and get to fucking work," Harley said.

Harley saw Pandora smile and move along after making sure Beau was alright.

"You guys wanted to help in the pranked hallway right?" Pandora asked the other kids, who nodded. "Great, you all are going to like the part I organized," Pandora said with a hint of a mischievous glint in her eyes. Harley thought the look suited her as a Marauder.

"Are those maggots?" Beau asked as he climbed up the wall. Harley raised an eyebrow and Beau pointed to one of the heads Harley put up a few minutes ago whose eyes were filled with maggots.

"Yep."

"Cool."

Harley turned their head around to see Beau with his eyes twinkling. Their eyebrows were raised in pleasant surprise. Finally, a kid who didn't screech at maggots.

With the extra help, Harley finished the beheaded spikes in no time. Afterwards, they went to where they had to dress up a dummy to look like a convincing corpse. It would be a dead bride that would jump scare people at a haunted wedding, and once the people would jump back, the dead groom would jump scare them from behind. Harley couldn't wait to hear the sweet sounds of screams from the entrance.

Harley told Beau to go paint blood spatters wherever he wanted since they couldn't think of anything else for him to do. While they were putting smeared eyeliner on the bride, Beau poked his head out from where he was flicking blood on the altar.

"Do you wear eyeliner?" Beau asked.

"I'm emo," Harley said, which should've explained everything.

"Can I wear eyeliner?" Beau asked again.

Harley blinked a couple of times. They were surprised before turning around to see Beau staring at them expectantly. Harley showed no emotion while they waited a moment before they ended up shrugging. "Yeah, why the fuck not?" They said before they went over to Beau and told him to sit down and stay still. Harley didn't know what to do, so they just did the "normal" eyeliner look.

Harley pulled away and shrugged when Beau looked decent. They looked around and found a mirror that would reflect a skull in the dirt on Halloween. For now, it was useless--not anymore. Harley guided Beau over, and he looked at himself in the mirror.

"Neat," Beau said with a grin upon looking in the mirror.

Harley hummed in agreement. They patted Beau on the shoulder (probably a little rough, but who cares) before going back to their dead bride.

𝕸𝖆𝖊𝖑𝖞𝖓'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Maelyn munched on a piece of chicken jerky as she cracked some skulls on the wall. She was hanging off a thick rope that actually had a purpose on the night of Halloween. She obviously didn't know the real purpose. She hadn't been bothered enough to pay attention when anyone was explaining earlier, after all. But, she still wanted to know what it was supposed to do. Was it going to hold the skulls? That's probably what it was going to do.

Maelyn had been given instructions to put some fun cracks in the skulls to make it look like they were rammed into a wall. Maelyn took that quite literally and rammed the skulls in the wall before dropping them in a bag next to her on the rope. Sometimes she dropped the skulls on the floor and watched them crack...or shatter, but surely Harley could find a use for them. It was quite a fun activity if she was being honest.

Maelyn pulled her long, curly, dark red hair into a ponytail, watching as the bags of skulls she was supposed to be breaking swung from their spots beside her on the rope. Maelyn had tied the top of the bag to the rope so that it'd be easier to pull skulls out of. Hel totally didn't tell her to do that while she was holding the bag in one hand and breaking skulls with the other earlier, and Hel totally wasn't the one to give her the chicken jerky.

Maelyn had used one of those fun super-quick growing shampoos two days ago from the Potter hairline thingy. It wasn't on purpose, Potter's dad had some good products, sadly, even though his son was an idiot. She put some blood-red hair dye in it the day before and shoved her hair into curlers at night. Her result was some fun bouncy curls which she enjoyed very much. She recalled doing this a couple of years ago, but honestly, she couldn't remember that far back. Luckily, she rarely had any disasters when she did her hair. She was proud to say that, along with hanging off of things, destroying things, and charms, it was one of her finer talents.

Maelyn decided that it was time to drop a skull on the floor and she did so. She picked out a decent sized skull before letting it slip from her fingers, landing with a thud on the floor.

Only she didn't hear a thud. She heard a high-pitched shriek.

Maelyn looked up (or down depending on where you stood) to find a girl with strawberry blonde hair right below her. What was her name? She was the lost Hufflepuff girl. Addison? Analee? Anastasia? She was sure that the name started with an A. Just which name?

Maelyn knew too many people to keep track of now. But as she went to ignore the strawberry blonde-haired girl, said girl smiled up at her.

"Hi! You're Maelyn right! Pandora's told me about you!" The girl said. Maelyn blinked a little faster.

"I know," she said. It might've sounded rude. But she didn't know how else to answer. She hasn't been spying on strawberry blonde girl and Pandora. Well, she had only been hanging off her usual spot when they had a conversation. It was hardly her fault that she heard them.

"You're the one who hangs off of things!" Strawberry blonde girl said excitedly.

Maelyn blinked a little faster again. How was she supposed to answer that again? She just awkwardly smiled (it felt like a cringe) before she noticed the skull in the strawberry blonde girl's arms.

"You caught it," Maelyn said bluntly, and the strawberry blonde girl giggled.

"Yeah! It scared me for a second since it came out of nowhere, but I caught it!" She said as she held the skull up high with a huge smile on her face. Now, Maelyn wasn't good at the metaphors thing, but she was sure that the skull was like a trophy to SBHG. That's what Maleyn would call her. SBHG, short for a strawberry blonde haired girl.

"Throw it," Maelyn said and SBHG tilted her head.

"What?" She asked as she scrunched her eyebrows together.

"Throw it," Maelyn repeated.

"Oh, Er, alright then!" SBHG said as she downright chucked the skull onto the floor causing a large crack around the eyehole.

"Nice," was all Maelyn had to say before the girl sat down underneath Maelyn.

"I don't know if you forgot my name, but it's Abigail. Abigail Ingalls. You have so many friends! I don't expect you to remember everyone's name if that's what you were wondering," Abigail said as she crossed her legs and sat criss-cross applesauce.

"I don't have that many friends," Maelyn said confused and Abigail giggled.

"Of course you do! There's Hel, Pandora, Harley, Sirius, Lily, Remus, and I'm sure there are more! I'd like to be your friend too!"

Maelyn finished off her jerky before picking up another skull and ramming it into the wall. She thought for a second. Hel, Pandora, Harley, the others, that was six, plus Regulus, that would be seven. Seven friends... that was so many wasn't it? She used to have maybe four at best, but seven? So many people... and the girl, she said she'd want to be her friend too.

"Why?" Maelyn asked as she transferred the cracked skull to another bag next to her that was full of the done skulls.

"Because you're different! I'm different too! It's like we can sense each other!"

Maelyn looked back and forth between her bags, different? How?

"Different?"

"Considered weird by everyone," Abigail clarified and Maelyn shrugged.

"Alright."

"A new friend! Huzzah!" Abigail cheered and Maelyn wondered how an eleven-year-old could act like an eight-year-old. Then she remembered the Marauders existed and decided not to question it. The girl was... almost sickeningly childish. Maybe it was just that Maelyn had lost a lot of her "childhood innocence" or whatever.

Maelyn dug in her pocket and found two packs of gummies—the gusher kind. She was about to eat both of them when she decided to be "nice" and let go of one, letting it drop to the ground. She looked at the floor to find that the packet landed right on Abigail's head.

"Ow," Abigail said before she looked at the packet. "Ooh, is this mine?" She asked and Maelyn nodded, not feeling like saying anything.

Abigail smiled before ripping open the packet. Maelyn went back to smashing skulls, and found some lovely other bones (she didn't know the names of them) and decided it would be a smart idea to do those as well. A little bit went by with Abigail making small talk or ranting about things (or apparently spacing out) before she heard clicks on the floor and she turned slightly in the direction of the clicks. At first, she thought it was a chicken or Crup on the loose before she heard that they resemble stiletto heels clicks.

"Hello dear Maelyn," Hel said and Maelyn looked to see Hel who was wearing the stiletto heels she had heard earlier.

Maelyn brought her hand up (down?) in greeting. Hel looked to Abigail.

"We haven't properly met have we?" Hel asked and Abigail nodded enthusiastically. Maelyn knew Hel had been avoiding talking to the kids. Though, Maelyn knew from watching (kind of spying, but no one noticed her in chandeliers) that Hel kept a close eye on the kids. It probably had something to do with one of them dying in the future.

Maelyn focused her attention (which was almost nonexistent unless her attention was on food, but oh well) back to Hel and Abigail.

"I am Hel Lokidottir, Princess of Asgard, Rightful Queen of Helheim, Goddess of Death, Ruler of the dead. I am the stepdaughter of Sigyn Iwaldidottir. The sister of Sleipnir the eight-legged horse, Fenris the giant wolf, Jormungand the Midgardian serpent, and Narfi and Vali the gods. I am the daughter of Loki Farbautison—Odinson—and I would list his titles, but then we'd be here all day," Hel said. Apparently, Maelyn heard she had more titles, but chose not to tell them for the sake of time. But that was a ton more than usual. Usually, it was just the Princess, Queen, and Ruler thing, but with the kids, she acted differently, almost..kinder? Like she knew something bad would happen to them and she was trying to make up for it and...oh.

"I'm Abigail Ingalls. Nice to meet you Miss Lokidottir!" Abigail said as she leapt up and gave Hel a big hug. Maelyn had to bite back a laugh at Hel who, for a fraction of a second, widened her eyes to the size of gusher packets before tapping Abigail lightly on the back.

"Abigail Ingalls. Abigail comes from the Hebrew name Avigail, meaning "my father's joy", "my father is exultation", or "my father is joy". Abigail was the wife of King David in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Samuel and is described as an intelligent, beautiful, loyal woman. The Ingalls surname is an English name with Norse roots, deriving from either of two Old Norse personal names "Ingjaldr," or from "Ingólfr '' 'Ing's wolf'. Some instances of this name in Britain are thought to have evolved from the place name Ingol, in Lancashire, which is named from the Old English personal name Inga with the Old English word "holh," meaning a "hollow," or "depression." Another source claims the name was derived from a Scandinavian personal name, retained in the designations of Ingleby, Inglesham, Ingleton, Ingoldisthorpe, Ingoldsby, and other parishes and places, lying chiefly in what are called the Danish counties. The Domesday form is Ingaldus.'" Hel listed.

Maelyn would never get used to how she did that. Did she spend a long time just memorizing name meanings and origins? Or maybe it was a fun spell! Or maybe she was a muggle-made robot... Maelyn didn't know. But then again, Maelyn knew every fact about almost every creature out there. Unfortunately for her, her creature books never mentioned anything about three old hags who could suck your happiness and soul out and sang a pretty creepy song.

"That's so cool!" Abigail exclaimed as she pulled away from Hel. "Can you do that with all names?" She asked.

"Yes I can," Hel said and Abigail nodded with her eyes wide and glittering. Hel then brushed her robes off. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to finish asking the ghosts if they'll participate in the haunted hallway. Who knows how long it's been since they've had some real fun. Well, I know all about them, of course, but I'm a goddess," Hel said before giving a curt nod to both Maelyn and Abigail. A moment later, the shadows gravitated (big word!) towards Hel, and whisked (melted?) her away.

"Woah," was all Abigail had to say to the shadow travel. She looked up to Maelyn with a smile before asking, "Do you want any help?"

Maelyn shook her head no. She was just fine with her almost empty bag of bones.

"Okie Dokie artichokie! I'm going to go down to the prank hallway! I agreed to help Joyce with something earlier. See you later Maelyn! Thanks for the gummies!" Abigail said with a final bright smile as she held up the empty packet of gushers.

Maelyn manned a cringe-smile before letting herself smile real on the inside. What a not so bad kid.

𝕯𝖊𝖈𝖑𝖆𝖓'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

All Declan had asked for was a quiet Saturday afternoon brewing some explosive potion while James wasn't there. Did he get what he asked for? Naturally not! No, instead of a quiet Saturday, he got roped into helping the Marauders with their haunted/pranked hallway by not only Remus, but Lily, Eloire, and, surprise surprise! James!

It seemed that James was becoming closer with Declan, and Declan couldn't tell if he was astounded or confused. Probably a mixture of the two. With his weird ways of flirting and him trying to get Declan to do activities with him along with the rest of the Marauders, it'd seem like James actually wanted to get close.

Declan had spent some time in the haunted section while he was giving Harley some tubs full of fake blood. It was a special concoction of his that smelled, looked, acted, and even tasted (that was a sad night) like blood. He had to say he was pretty impressed by everything in the haunted section so far. Hel and Harley had outdone themselves with the scare factor.

He came back from the dreariness of that section to the practically blinding colours of the prank hallway. He had to duck at least fifty times coming through and dodged quite a few things—he wasn't even sure if he was dodging people or things anymore—to get to Remus.

A step before he got to Remus, he looked down and noticed a line of rope. Before he dared step over it he looked at the area above the rope. He saw nothing and when he held his wand up to check for any barriers. He didn't see anything so he quickly stepped over the rope to where Remus was making sure Sirius didn't die while standing on a very tall ladder.

"Hey," Declan said and Remus turned around with a smile.

"Hey to you too," he said and then Declan heard a soft girl's voice.

"I like your hair," the girl said and Declan looked down to the Hufflepuff girl—Abigail Ingalls—smiling up at him.

"Thanks," Declan said coolly. He wasn't exactly used to people noticing him, much less getting complainants. He decided to try and compliment the girl back, but Remus said something before he could.

"You might want to try complimenting her back," Remus whispered.

"Oh dear Remus, the thought would have never possibly occurred," Declan said sarcastically back and he heard Abigail giggle.

"I like your hair too," Declan said, finding it easiest to just compliment Abigail the way she complimented him.

Abigail smiled brightly and thanked Declan before Remus told her that she can go swirl the paints for the paint drop. Abigail nodded and went over to god knows where to mix some paints.

"I see we're babysitting now, how lovely," Declan said sarcastically as he folded his arms. He heard Remus scoff.

"I think the kids imprinted on Pandora or something like that. I wouldn't be surprised, Pan is a sweetheart and all the kids love her," Remus said as he looked over to his girlfriend with a sweet smile on his face.

Declan nodded in agreement but smiled on the inside at how happy Remus looked even being near Pandora. Whenever the two were in the same room with each other, they seemed to be ten times happier than when they were apart, and Declan couldn't help but be happy for his friend. Not that he was good at showing it on the outside. He preferred to keep that kind of emotion on the inside. Thank you very much.

"I see you're a child then. How astounding Remus I thought you grew up," Declan said in a joking sarcastic manner as he referred to the part about children loving Pandora. He heard Remus chuckle lightly.

"Yeah yeah, you'll find the right one and you'll know how I feel," Remus said with a smile before looking up to make sure Sirius wasn't about to fall. Not that Declan had much hope for Sirius. He was dangling precautiously on the very edge of the ladder, attempting to do something that was probably stupid.

Declan looked over to where James and Elorie were chasing each other while laughing and sighed in slight defeat. "I think I've found the right one, I just don't like him as much as I'm supposed to," Declan said and Remus shrugged.

"I'm not too good at giving advice, that's James' thing, but I'm sure you won't go running to him for advice."

Declan snorted. "Oh no, I would consult James for everything possible, he seems like he'd just speak to my soul," Declan said while he pressed his hand to his chest and Remus burst out laughing. Declan tried to bite back his laugh, but miserably as he laughed along with Rmeus at how ridiculous he sounded.

Declan heard footsteps though, and he immediately stopped laughing and had a more serious (pun not intended) look on his face as James came running towards them. Declan leaned against the wall and looked over to James as he subconsciously ran his fingers through his hair. Strange. He'd never done that before.

"Hey! Declan! You remember that disappearing potion I asked you to bring?" James asked. His wild hair was even wilder from chasing Eloire around.

"Yeah, why?" Declan asked calmly. Not a single thing on his face left evidence that he had been laughing a moment ago.

"It's for the paint drop at the end. We can't have people walking around covered in thick paint and it's a hassle to say a spell to every single group to get the paint off," James said and Declan nodded his head in a, "go on'' sort of way. "And we need to know where it is," James finished as he looked at Declan with hopeful eyes and a goofy smile.

Declan turned to look at Remus who nodded his head and jerked it lightly in the direction of James. Declan sighed before getting off the wall and walking to James. He told James it was near the end of the hallway and James followed Declan to the area. Declan noticed a slight bounce in James' step but thought nothing of it. He put his hands in his pockets while walking while James did all the talking. James had one hand in his pocket while the other was moving with his words.

"What are you going to do on Halloween?" James asked as he looked at Declan.

"Well, other than that soulmate pumpkin carving thing you dragged me into? Nothing," Declan answered simply.

James tilted his head to the side, "You're not going to dress up and do the Halloween activities? Not even the haunted and pranked hallway?" he asked, hints of disbelief in his voice.

Declan shrugged. He couldn't remember the last time he had dressed up for Halloween. Sure he'd go around the neighbourhood with his sister when his parents asked him to, though he would've done it if his parents hadn't asked him. If it made Annalise (his sister) happy, it made him happy. But even then, going around the neighbourhoods, he didn't dress up. He used the Halloween party and excitement as an excuse to sneak around Hogwarts undetected. Even more undetected than he usually was.

"I mean, you could hang out around me and the rest of the Marauders! They really don't mind. You could watch people get scared and pranked by the hallway with us," James offered with a hopeful smile as he messed up his already messy hair.

Declan shrugged. "We'll see James," he said before coming to the end of the hallway where there were tubs of different potions. Declan went over to inspect them. He hadn't labelled any of them but he recognized how the potions acted. He pointed out two of them and told James those were the ones that made things disappear.

"Brilliant!" James said before picking up both jugs. Declan couldn't help but notice that James picked both up with ease.

"Do you wanna help mix the paints?" James asked and Declan shrugged.

"Sure," Declan said. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. Well, he did, but...he sighed on the inside. He didn't know why he was agreeing to all this.

...

A few minutes later Declan calmly talked with Pandora while Abigail chased James around with yellow and black paint on a stick.

"They act the same age," Declan muttered to himself and Pandora chuckled.

"Nah, Abigail's more mature," She said as she quickly moved to the side to dodge James' running.

Declan chuckled with Pandora while he put the lid back on one of the paint buckets and set it to the side.

"I'm going to make you the new Hufflepuff mascot!" Abigail yelled in excitement while James leapt over a paint bucket like a deer leaping over a road.

"Not if you can't catch me!" James yelled back, his voice matching Abigail's tone.

"I wonder how the Professor's doing," Pandora asked and Declan rolled his eyes, not at Pandora, but the mere thought of thinking of the Professor.

They rarely--if ever--called the Professor by her actual name, just "the Professor". That's all she was in the end, the Professor they despised. Sure, when Declan saw the result of what happened, he was quite disgusted, but he didn't think he had as bad of a reaction to what happened to the Professor as some of the others. Now, the fact that one of the kids would die? That was something to worry about.

"I'm just glad for Flitwick's back," Declan said and Pandora nodded in agreement.

The day before, Flitwick had come back to Hogwarts. Before that, Professor McGonagall had been monitoring students in charms class. By monitoring, he means that she poked her head in now and then to make sure that students weren't being idiots. Plus she gave most of the responsibility to the head girls and boys which worked perfectly until you realized that there was only so much authority the heads had. Sure pretty much everyone was scared of Hel and Lily could command authority when she wanted to, but then there was James...just saying James should explain everything. The only work they were given was to practise a certain spell a day, and that's it. Obviously, that meant that there was ruckus and chaos. The number of times Declan had to avoid getting hit by a spell or object for the past two weeks was ungodly.

"Oh come on!" James exclaimed and Declan whipped around to see that James had tripped over a stack of paint mixing sticks and Abigail had managed to smear some black and yellow paint on him.

James held his hands up in defeat as Abigail yelled, "Got ya!" In victory.

Declan scoffed at James before going back to his paint. He couldn't help but smile a little at how ridiculous James looked though. Happy and a complete mess.

𝕺𝖑𝖎𝖛𝖎𝖆 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Olivia was in the Great Hall decorating for Halloween along with Alice, Frank, Dorcas, Marlene, and a few others. Everyone else had gone on a short break while Olivia and Marlene decided to stay behind. She had set up a long table for when students started decorating pumpkins early on Halloween day. She had just finished putting the hay on the end of the table when she heard Marlene call out for a bit of help hanging up a scarecrow.

"Coming!" Olivia called out as she took out her wand. Marlene had attempted to hang up the scarecrow (the muggle way) but failed when the ladder she was using didn't allow her to reach the hook.

"Wingardium leviosa," Olivia said as she swished and flicked her wand at the scarecrow causing it to levitate out of Marlene's hands. Olivia manipulated it with a few swishes of her wrist so that the string attached to the scarecrow went on the hook.

Marlene smiled down at Olivia as she climbed down her ladder carefully. "Thanks, Liv!" She exclaimed as she hopped to the floor.

"You're welcome," Olivia said with a smile as she pocketed her wand.

"Say, did you finish the preservation spells on the pumpkins? Because if not I'll do them," Marlene offered, her curly waves bouncing slightly as she moved her head to follow along with her words.

Olivia smiled and shook her head. "No, I haven't, I was gonna do them before you called me over but we could both do them," Olivia offered in return.

Marlene agreed and both girls went to the table with the pre-gutted pumpkins for students (and staff) who wanted to carve a pumpkin but didn't want to deal with the mess of the guts and seeds. It usually wasn't a lot of people since most of the time, gutting was part of the fun, but for the select few it was an option. Plus there could be some students who had sensory issues, so Olivia wanted to be inclusive of them.

Speaking of pumpkin carving, Olivia, along with the students in her dorm (and a few others) were going to be doing a pumpkin carving content on Halloween--including the gutting bit. Olivia grinned to herself; it was going to be so much fun. Soulmates against soulmates for the first round, and soulmate against soulmate for the second. Olivia wanted to do something cute and original, a cat sitting on a branch maybe, but she did want Evan's input.

Olivia sighed to herself, she didn't know why she was putting off being more than flirt buddies with Evan. Maybe she was waiting for him to make the first move? He was a traditional person after all, would he prefer it if he made the first move? Olivia shook her head. If she wanted to have more, she'd do it herself instead of waiting around. But she did have to think of their reputations, didn't she? Evan was a respected pureblood and she was a popular Gryffindor. Olivia groaned softly in frustration. Everything was complicated when you were in love with someone that had a reputation important to them, and you had a reputation important to yourself. Two reputations that directly clashed with your relationship with them.

"Thinking about Rosier?" Marlene asked and Olivia popped out of her daze.

"Huh?" Olivia did not ask, not realizing what was happening for a moment until she saw Marlene's smirk. Olivia rolled her eyes. "'Lenes," Olivia groaned as Marlene giggled.

"Face it Liv, your soulmate's taken over your mind," Marlene sing-songed as she twirled her wand in front of Olivia's forehead.

Olivia rolled her eyes playfully. "I don't think he's taken over per se," she said and Marlene wiggled her eyebrows at her.

"Oh really," Marlene said with a smirk. She looked up over Olivia and her eyes widened as she gasped. "Oh my god, it's Rosier and the rest of his group. Lestrange, Snape, Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini, the whole lot! Oh, wait, the rest of them have left, Rosier's the only one left now," she said and Olivia rolled her eyes at her.

"You really think I'd fall for that?" Olivia asked and Marlene snickered and covered her mouth slightly as Olivia felt someone tap her shoulder.

"Hello there, Olivia," Evan said from behind Olivia.

Olivia whipped around quickly putting a smile on her face as she tried to desperately conceal her blush. She heard Marlene's snicker growing from behind her like a good friend would do in that situation.

"Hi, Evan," Olivia replied nervously chuckling. She pushed some stray hairs that fell out of her ponytail behind her ear.

Evan looked around the Great Hall before leaning slightly on the table where the gutted pumpkins were sitting. "I like what you've done with the hall," he complimented with a soft smile.

"Thank you," Olivia said as she put her hands in the pockets of her skirt--one of her favourites because it actually had pockets. "It, uh, wasn't just me though. There were loads of others in her earlier. Marlene's still here. Alive and er Frank were here earlier too," Olivia said, stumbling on her words slightly. She didn't know why she was stumbling over her words, she was usually very good at speaking. Maybe it was the fact that Evan had pointed all of his focus at her. His eyes were a light blue at the moment, something Olivia noticed very quickly, and they never strayed from her face.

"I'll leave you two be," Olivia heard Marlene say from behind her. Olivia watched as Marlene walked away. Once Marlene was behind Even though, she turned around and gave Olivia two thumbs up and winked at her. Marlene mouthed, 'Get it, girl!' before turning back around and hurrying out of the hall. Olivia rolled her eyes at Marlene before turning her gaze back to Evan.

"So," Olivia said as she went to sit down at one of the tables, which wasn't far away from where Evan was. "What are you going to be for Halloween?" Olivia asked. attempting to make small talk.

Evan went over to sit by Olivia, but not too close that it felt awkward. He put his arm on the table and leaned on it as he turned to face Olivia. "I'm still not sure," he said.

"Halloween's in two days though," Olivia said, her mouth dropped slightly. Evan chuckled. Olivia planned her all Halloween costumes at least two weeks in advance, and Evan hadn't even figured out what he wanted to be!

"Well, what are you going to be?" Evan asked.

"A cute bunny rabbit maid thing, I always do cute things for Halloween. Last year I was a black cat, the year before that a mouse."

"I remember that, I couldn't keep my eyes off of you if I remember correctly," Evan said with a chuckle and Olivia rolled her eyes and chuckled with him. She fought the blush starting to form on her cheeks though, Evan had noticed her? Well, if she was being honest, she couldn't keep her eyes off of Evan when he was Lucifer. She distinctly remembered Hel being disappointed in the costume, saying, "He isn't Lucifer, he's Satan. Lucifer has the white angel wings and Satan is the one with the long pitchfork staff, horns, and bat wings. Sure they're the same being, but they're two different personalities," but Olivia didn't mind what he called himself, as long as he kept that wonderful black tuxedo of his with no shirt underneath.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Olivia said and Evan smirked.

Olivia noticed Marlene at the entrance of the hall, jerking her thumb and head to one side and Olivia got the memo; people were coming back.

"Hey, did you want to see my costume?" Olivia asked and Evan shrugged.

"Why not?" Evan said, and Olivia took his hand, ready to head back to the dorm. The butterflies in her stomach went crazy when her hand touched Evan's, and based on Evan's reaction, his butterflies did too.

𝕿𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖆'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Thalia sighed in content at the silence of the common room. Unfortunately, when you shared a common room with the Marauders and their "arch-nemeses" Harley Kelly and Severus Snape, silence was a precious and rare thing. Back in the Ravenclaw common room, there was always a time when one could read in silence with just the crackling of the fire. Here? Not so much.

She had finished all of her schoolwork, as usual. Everyone else was preparing for Halloween while she was reading up on the history behind the holiday and reading some Halloween classics. To understand a holiday to the fullest you possibly could, you should always read the lore and famous stories behind it. To really understand something, you have to see how other people view it and their opinions on it. Something she was alright with as long as she could form opinions on the topic for herself

Thalia swirled her cup of pumpkin tea in one hand while flipping another page of Frankenstein in the other. Frankenstein was one of a kind in its time; written by a nineteen-year-old girl in the early nineteenth century. Granted the author, Mary Shelley, has sex with her married boyfriend on top of her own mother's grave, but Thalia could push past that for the literature masterpiece she created. Thalia pushed her hair out of her face to better see the book, setting her pumpkin tea on the floor beside her.

"It is a classic isn't it?"

Thalia turned around to see Rabastan leaning his chest and arms on the back of the loveseat. Thalia smiled as she turned back to her novel.

"Quite so," Thalia replied, adjusting the hand-crocheted blanket on her lap. The fire in front of her made the room quite warm, after all.

"Mind if I sit?" Rabastan asked, and Thalia scooted over to make room for Rabastan. She laid her elbow on the side of the loveseat and looked down, being careful not to spill her tea.

Thalia could feel Rabastan reading from over her shoulder, so she moved closer to him and placed the book in between them. She was on page one hundred, but she was sure Rabastan had already read the book, so she didn't think she needed to worry.

Thalia gently laid her head on Rabastan's shoulder and sighed softly in content. She was sure her serotonin levels were through the roof, and she was quite happy about that (pun intended).

Thalia felt Rabastan press a kiss to her head as she flipped the page. Thalia couldn't help but smile after the kiss and lean just a slight bit more on Rabastan. She finished the page as she reached down to get her tea, careful not to move the book too much or spill her tea.

"Is it just me, or have the seventh years in the tower, excluding Liv, been on edge lately? After Professor Umbridge had been attacked, that is," Thalia asked, and she felt Rabastan shrug.

"Don't pay attention to them much if I'm being honest," Rabastan confessed. Thalia nodded in understanding.

"Yes, well, I believe it may have to do with the Unnamed," Thalia said. She felt Rabastan tilt his head to the side slightly.

"What do you mean?" He asked as he flipped the page. Thalia focused on the words and quickly read through them. To a passerby, her eyes probably would've looked like they were having a seizure of sorts from how quickly she was reading.

"Well, of course, the Marauders and Co would never seize the opportunity to get into as much trouble as possible and play it off by having the people with brain cells get them out of it," Thalia said sarcastically.

"You don't mean to think they had a hand in the Professor getting attacked do you?"

"Think about it, Bas," Thalia said as she turned her body slightly to face Rabastan, her hand keeping the book steady and in between the two. "The most turbulent group in the school just so happened to not be in the tower the night that the Professor was attacked? It can't be a coincidence; the universe is rarely so lazy," Thalia explained, quoting a book at the end.

Thalia flipped the page and looked up to see what Rabastan was thinking before she looked back down to the book. Rabastan sighed, and Thalia sensed she won.

"I see what you mean, but what can we do about that?" Rabastan asked and before Thalia could open her mouth, he chuckled. "Oh let me guess, you already have a rough draft of a plan in your beautiful mind?" He questioned, and Thalia chuckled.

"Yes, I do. There's no doubt that they'll want to research and know more about the Unnamed. Especially since the creatures nearly killed a woman—though it would be absurd to call the Professor a human. Assuming that they'll research in the library, we'll confront them there, and this generation has an alarming distaste for libraries and learning, so I doubt many will be there to witness the ordeal," Thalia explained, and Rabastan nodded along with her words.

"What a lovely plan sweetheart, you'll have to tell me when but I'll go along with it," Rabastan replied.

Thalia smiled in victory as he flipped the page of the book. They were slowly getting to the same reading pace, and Thalia found something romantic about that. She wasn't sure why, but she did.

Thalia loved the next few minutes of peace, well, quiet to be exact. Peace and quiet weren't the same things, were they? But people did get them mixed up sometimes, herself included, but at least she actually corrected herself. Peace was freedom from disturbance while quiet was little to no noise. While for most people, those would be synchronous, some find peace in a thunderstorm raging outside, and that's not quiet whatsoever. It was quite amazing how other people's minds worked, and it was fun finding loopholes and thinking of different ideas in whole new ways.

Isn't that the kind of mindset that their government needs to have as well? Of thinking of different ideas in whole new ways? Was the justice system flawed? The court in favouring those "pure of blood" and human? Just look at how they treated different kinds of people! Werewolves were never given an equal chance in society, nor were half-giants or muggle-borns, sometimes even half-bloods such as herself! It needed to be fixed. Maybe that's what she'd do in life; she'll fix the terrible justice system.

As Thalia flipped the page after her brain rant, she heard Rabastan ask a question.

"We're going to be Annabeth and Percy right?" Rabastan asked. "For Halloween," he clarified.

"No no, I assumed you intended the costumes to be for Easter," Thalia said sarcastically after she flipped the page, and she felt Rabastan chuckle. "Yes, we are, we planned this out a while ago though, didn't we?" Thalia asked.

"Yes, but I just wanted to make sure, that's all," Rabastan replied before he flipped the page. Thalia reached down to grab her pumpkin tea, carefully bringing it up to her lips to take a sip just as the door to the common room burst open.

Thalia quickly leapt away from Rabastan, probably spilling a dash of tea in the process as Rabastan scrambled to get out of the loveseat and away from Thalia. Thalia quickly scooted over to the very edge of the loveseat and leaned on the armrest. Her tea was still in hand, so she set it on the ground. Her eyes were glued to the page, granted they always were, but this time she was actively trying to make it look like she was really focusing. She hoped that whoever came in didn't notice her and Rabastan.

"Oh don't even try, darlings," A deathly sweet girl's voice said,

Thalia groaned softly as she looked up to see a certain rich bitch with her arms across her chest staring directly at Thalia with a sickening smile on her face. Thalia smiled back sarcastically, causing Miranda to sneer at her.

"The amount of love you two have is overwhelming. It's a miracle no one's guessed by now. Well, other than me of course," Miranda said. She eyebrows up slightly in pride before they fell back into their "perfect" places. Regulus followed close behind her, his black hair bouncing slightly.

Thalia rolled her eyes. Of all people to discover her and Rabastan's secret relationship next, it just had to be Hogwarts' one and only head rich bitch. Sure, Thalia was fine with Pandora finding out, she kept her lips shut (which sounded rude, but it was true, Thalia couldn't help but like the girl), but who knows how Miranda will use this information. No doubt as blackmail tucked away in the back of her brain.

While glaring at Miranda, Thalia saw Regulus give an awkward wave to Rabastan, who was on his way to the bookshelf. Rabastan, in return, nodded his head in Regulus' direction.

Thalia watched as Miranda looked at her with her wide eyes before rolling them and saying, "Never mind, you're not worth my time, Carmichael."

"Oh no Clark, do sit down next to me. It's very comfortable and so nice for conversation," Thalia said sarcastically. "Oh wait, you're incapable of sitting down and having a civil conversation with all of mummy and daddy's money shoved up your ass."

"Says the girl who has to keep her relationship a secret and can't even say hello to her boyfriend in the hallway," Miranda shot back in a falsetto sweet tone while blinking her eyes as if she had accidentally shoved some gold flakes in there.

Thalia flashed Miranda a sarcastic smile as Miranda strutted off and up the staircase leading to the dorms. Thalia looked to Regulus and dared him to challenge her with a single look. Regulus promptly ignored her as he walked up after Miranda.

Thalia craned her neck to make sure Miranda and Regulus were a safe distance away before sighing. Rabastan sighed as well before he rolled his eyes.

"She can be a bitch sometimes," Rabstasn muttered, and Thalia scoffed.

"Sometimes?" she asked. Rabastan chuckled lightly.

"Yeah, sometimes she can be nice, but I've barely seen it."

"How lovely," Thalia muttered before she watched as Rabastan came back over and sat back next to her. She smiled before scooting back over. She looked around to make sure that her tea hadn't spilt absolutely everywhere, and she was lucky that physics was on her side when she found that she hadn't spilt anything. Thalia went back to leaning slightly on Rabastan as he leaned on her, and the two went back to peacefully reading.

Despite the peacefulness, Thalia's mind was racing as usual. Miranda's words did sting just slightly, but that was a natural reaction wasn't it? Thalia sighed, people would try to take you down, but you had to stay upright and try to let the words bounce off of you like glue on rubber.

𝕸𝖎𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖆'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Miranda sighed as she laid down on her plush pink bed and pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. She closed her eyes as she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself from her little spat with Thalia. She felt the bed dip slightly on one side and she opened her eyes to see Regulus sitting next to her, his head laid on the dashboard.

"We'll be fine, right Andie? We'll be fine," He muttered under his breath, seemingly comforting both himself and Miranda. Miranda couldn't help but sigh again in stress.

They both had just gotten letters from their parents. The main topic? The Dark Mark and becoming Death Eaters.

Not a bloody surprise to either of them. Hell, their parents have been waiting for this moment their entire lives. The precious months right before they were legally adults. The precious months when they were still children under their parents' control. The precious months where they could have their precious babies become death eaters and devout followers of the Dark Lord.

"I hope so," Miranda said as she fidgeted with her diamond necklace, rolling the largest diamond between her thumb and forefinger. She went with a lovely vintage pink aesthetic that day. It quite suited her in her opinion.

"I don't want to get it. I really don't," Regulus said, screwing his eyes shut before pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes. Miranda agreed, nodding her head softly, her perfect curls framing her face bouncing just a little as she did so.

"It feels so bad, they kill so many people, and aren't even adults yet Reggie! Our parents are still making all our decisions for us," Miranda said solemnly as she turned to face Regulus.

Regulus pulled the heels of his palms from his eyes and rested them on his legs. He sighed as he tapped his fingers against his thigh. Neither of them knew what to do. All Miranda ever wanted to do in her life was please her mother, and her mother just told her to go join an organization whose main goal was to rid over half of the wizarding community. Of course, she didn't want to do it, but what choice did she have? What choice did either of them have in the matter?

Miranda watched as Regulus rubbed his forearm where the Dark Mark would be if he got it. Miranda sat and looked at her own forearm, gently pressing the pad of her finger on her skin, tracing around it. It was impossible to imagine a dark mark on her perfect skin.

"At least all of our parents and we agree on something," Regulus said as he opened his eyes and looked at Miranda.

"Oh?" Miranda said, her eyebrows raised slightly. "And what is that?"

"That one day in the probably near future, we'll get married," Regulus replied and Miranda smiled softly as she leaned up to press a kiss to Regulus' lips.

That was one practically guaranteed thing she knew would happen in her future that she actually liked. It was drilled in her mind that she'd get married and have kids at a young age, and sure she had been slightly worried about who her parents would choose, but the soulmate sorting had her back when it chose her as Regulus' soulmate. At least she knew that she'd be able to spend the rest of her life--no matter how terrible said life was--with Regulus.

"Do you want to, I dunno, cuddle?" Regulus asked timidly as he looked at her, tilting his head slightly so that they made eye contact.

Miranda smiled a little bit wider, trying to let go of the thoughts about Death Eaters as she replied, "Of course, Reggie."

Regulus smiled and pressed a soft kiss to Miranda's lips, the small gesture sending tingles down Miranda's spine before they both laid down on the bed. Miranda gently laid her head on Regulus' chest, her worries slowly melting away as Regulus rubbed her back and she drew little hearts on Regulus' arm.

Question for you guys: Are you guys alright with me swapping up the chapters a bit? I think the extremely long chapter makes more sense if it was split up into two smaller (yet still very long) chapters, but it's entirely up to you guys! Just let me know.

I for one think it would work better, but ultimately, you all are the readers of this story.

OCs used in this chapter:

Declan Lacey

Elorie McFellon

Harley Kelly

Hel Lokidottir

Maelyn Winkle

Miranda Clark

Olivia Tucker-James

Pandora Potter

Thalia Carmichael