THE FIRST DAY OF FIFTH YEAR Quinn Allen showed up in the great hall later than everyone else. Maybe she wouldn't have been paid any mind if it wasn't for small puddles of water being left in her wake. The storm that was raging outside was overpowered by the loud chatter of students making it almost nonexistent. In fact, if it wasn't for Quinn dripping water across the otherwise pristine wooden floors, she doubted anyone would've even been aware of the rain.
"Woah, what happened to you?" Charlotte asked as Quinn slid into the seat next to her.
"Take a dip in the lake, did you?" Adam questioned, reaching for another helping of soup.
Quinn shook her head, irritation flushing her skin. "You know my parents. Punctuality isn't necessarily their strong suit."
Charlotte glanced toward the Gryffindor table, scanning faces for another soaking wet student. "Where's Harley?"
Quinn stabbed her fork in the piece of chicken she'd shoved onto her plate. "He went to his dorm to change right away. Didn't want to embarrass himself in front of everyone."
Quinn didn't have to look up from her food to know Adam and Charolette were passing each other dubious looks. "And you didn't because..."
"'Cause I don't give a damn what people think about me," Quinn answered with a little more heat than she intended. "And I was hungry."
Adam scoffed. "So you thought you'd sacrifice your glowing reputation for some food?"
A scowl rose to Quinn's face before she could stop it. "I thought I'd sacrifice yours as well since you're the jackass sitting with me."
"I'd have it no other way." Adam's grin turned wolfish, an intimidating sight if not used to it. "Don't look now, but we got some rats on our hands."
"Mudbloods really don't have any manners." Quinn didn't have to turn around to recognize the sneering voice of Draco. "I would criticize you for being out in the rain but I suppose even the most uncivilized need a way to shower."
There was a drumming in her skull and her hands grew clammy as she clenched and unclenched her fists. How she would love to swing on Malfoy, but no doubt he would run along and tattle to daddy.
"I was hoping my stench might keep you away from me," Quinn retorted, turning around to face the lean, pale boy who always had a cold bite to his features. "But it looks like uncleanliness doesn't bother you as much as you claim."
"It's something you have to get used to going to a school like this," Malfoy claimed. "Since they'll let just about anyone in."
"And yet you waste your time talking to just about anyone." Quinn scoffed, her skin tingling with pricking vexation. "Don't preach your standards to me just to disregard them at every turn."
"You can talk as big as you like," Malfoy leered, leaning a little closer. "At the end of the day, you're nothing. A dirty, filthy, Mudblood."
"You'd eat shit if your daddy told you to, Malfoy," Adam told him.
Draco hardly spared him a glance. "At least I have a father, Davies."
With that, he turned, nose in the air and strut off back towards the Slytherin table. His shock of pale hair against his black school robes was an imposing sight.
Quinn was indignant. Say anything you want to her, bully her, harass her, she didn't care. Her friends were all she had, and she'd be damned if she let some albino rat with daddy issues treat them so poorly.
Muttering a spell under her breath, a stream of light shot out and snagged Malfoy's foot, tripping him as he brought it forward. His body hit the ground, cause a lull in the chatter as people stopped to look at him.
His eyes found hers and she feigned surprise. Her anger was granted a small reprieve, but she needed more. She wanted to crack her knuckles across his face and then see if his bravado remained intact.
Quinn grabbed her fork and knife and began cutting her chicken so ferociously she scratched the plate.
Adam and Charolette glanced at each other, knowing better than to comment on the previous exchange. Better to let Quinn's rage simmer itself into nothing rather than invoke it's wrath for merely being a more suitable target.
CHATTER FILLED THE Ravenclaw common room, it bounced off Quinn's head and filled her brain with nonsensical white noise. Even with Adam and Charolette conversing a mere two feet away from her, she was unable to process anything of what they were saying.
Charolette had a soft look about her, soft blond hair with easy waves, comforting grey eyes, and the kind of smile that appeared childish and playful. She was the type of girl who cried when she got angry and thought world peace could be won with a simple please. Charolette was comprised of optimism and naivety but was lit by a fiery determination that no one dared undermine.
Adam, on the other hand, had one main goal in life and that was to piss everyone else off for his own amusement. Devilish dark hair and a grin that made your heart race, either out of fight or flight or because of its enticing nature. Underneath his sharp tongue and his disposition for impulsiveness, he was shockingly kind. While he viewed his depth for empathy as a vulnerability, Quinn always admired the trait.
She, who had no capacity for kindness, who would glower and glare as a default, who thought the benefit of the doubt was a waste of time, was immensely jealous.
"We have double Potions with Slytherins," Adam noted with immense distaste.
"At least we aren't Gryffindor," Charolette said.
"Yeah, I suppose, he hates those blokes just for existing."
A quiet laugh escaped Charolette's lips and Quinn finally tuned back into the conversation. Despite the fact that her skin felt a little too tight and everything was a little too loud, she felt more at home than she had all throughout the summer months.
"I hate the Slytherins more than I hate Snape," Quinn spoke. "Though I suppose there isn't much of a distinction."
Adam turned his dark eyes to her, tinged golden by the firelight. "No, you don't hate Slytherins, you hate Draco Malfoy who happens to be a Slytherin."
Quinn glowered, "Anyone who disagrees with me is a suck up or a blood elitist."
"He's a piece of work," Charolette agreed, which is about as big of an insult as you could get from her.
Charolette used to believe he just needed to grow up and get more exposure other than his father's one sided beliefs. She used to think he was just a boy growing up who had yet to figure out how the world worked. Yet, the older they got, the crueler her became. Mocking Adam's single mother household and claiming Quinn's unknown heritage makes her a mudblood by default. It doesn't matter that she was adopted, at the end of the she was raised by muggles.
He never had a specific quarrel with Charolette who never said much in his presence (she had the annoying belief that conflict would dissolve itself if ignored blatantly enough), but he seemed to decide she was guilty by association. Worse still, that she was a pushover. Because of her peaceful nature, she seemed to get the worst of his wrath despite being a pureblood. Apparently, the company she keeps wasn't up to his standards.
It really was all Quinn's fault, the hatred he had for their little group. Back in first year, she was unaware of the world she was getting herself into, unaware of the prejudice some held against muggles and the ideal that some wizards were better than others. All she knew was that she had been searching for an opportunity to get away from the suffocating nature of her adoptive parent's house.
Hungry with newfound power and a chance to prove herself, she jumped at the first chance of discord.
Malfoy, smaller then but still possessing a raging superiority complex, had made fun of her for the wide eyed manner she had looked about the castle. Her fascination of the floating candlesticks and doors that opened by themselves was, by his standards, low class.
She hadn't known what Mudblood meant then, but nothing spoken with a nasty sneer could've been good so she denied any affiliation to the word. Of course, this lead him to the conclusion that she was such a Mudblood, she couldn't even recognize what the insult meant.
Him and two other boys had guffawed at this, and suddenly she had been reminded of her helplessness. She realized with realization so stifling that just because she was somewhere new didn't mean things would be any different.
So, she had taken one look at his pinched, unrighteously gleeful face and punched him in the stomach.
He had keeled over in pain as his two lackeys stared down at him, surprised she had gone for her fists rather than her wand. Their stupid expressions flicked dully between their leader, obviously waiting for some type of instruction, and the criminal, who they could've objectively squashed like a bug.
As soon as he sputtered the words, "My father will hear about this" Quinn had vowed to hate him the duration of their education.
"I just can't wait for Quidditch to start," Quinn sighed, "I'll take any chance to see Malfoy knocked clean off his broom."
"One can hope," Adam grinned. No matter his words or the meaning behind them, his smiles always had a predatory look to them. The exact opposite of Charolette who was smiling delicately beside him.
"What classes is Harley taking this year?" Charolette asked, all but changing the subject.
Quinn did her best to hide her scowl. "Don't know, don't care." It wasn't that her and her twin brother didn't get along, because they did. Over the summer months they often spent hours together, wrapped up in a world everyone else was unaware existed. Their parents weren't happy the two children they happened to adopt turned out to be so different than them, so while they were in the muggle world they were told to act as muggles.
So, of course, it was only natural for Quinn and Harley to buddy up.
But back in the wizard world they both defaulted back to their friends. The pair never exactly saw eye to eye. Quinn was too brash and smart mouthed and Harley was always searching for the high road if only to praise himself later for it.
Harley always wanted to do his best to outshine his competitors, being his twin, she was a natural one.
"For as much time you two spend together over the summer you don't talk much, huh?" Adam pressed.
"My parents don't like hearing about the magic world," Quinn answered. "So we don't talk about it."
"Since when do you listen to what your parents say?"
"I couldn't care less what they say, but their perfect Harley couldn't dare disobey."
"Your brother isn't that bad," Charolette says, shifting so she's now sitting cross legged on the couch. "He's no puppy killer."
"Ah, the standard I hold everyone in my life to," Quinn sighed.
Adam merely laughed. "Shouldn't you be the one defending Harley? He's your own flesh and blood."
Adam Davies, the expert player of devil's advocate while remaining meticulously neutral. He picks no sides in these petty quarrels because he's smart enough to realize that in the end, there's no true winner. There's no rationale in a battle of opinions formed from emotions.
"That's exactly why I'm not fooled by his bravado."
Charolette rolled her eyes before standing up. For her, this was the equivalent of pushing back her sleeves before a fight. "Quinn Allen, I swear to Merlin you'll get along with your brother this year if it's the last thing I do."
And then she left to go to their dorm.
Adam and Quinn stared at each other for a moment before a startling grin made its way to his face.
"Buckle up, bitch, there's no getting out of that one."
Quinn feared that he was right.
{Author's note}
im gonna be so honest, the only reason i decided to write a harry potter fic is because of the fic "some kind of disaster" by metalbenders, that shit is so good, writing is immaculate, if you think you like this go check it out i promise u'll like that more.
also, i have autocaps off (dont question it im a whore (in spirit not literally)) so if the capitalization is off its not my fault (it is but im dont accept responsibility).
peace bitches