Despite the fact that Audra never really manages to get very fussed about things that the rest of the school seems to find exciting, she can't help but be impressed by the Durmstangs and the Beuzbatons arrival. It is not every day that you see a large carriage touch down with only a rattle, pulled by giant horses and vacated by an even larger woman, followed by the most beautiful witches and wizards that she had ever seen, all of them with the grace of a trained ballet dancer. And then, like they were determined to out do the others, the Durmstang's enormous boat had risen from the water without much more than a few ripples, all of them coming down the steps smothered in furs and impressed expressions on their faces as they stared up at the castle.
There was a little bit of fanfare when Viktor Krum emerged, staring sourly at the ground and limping a little as he walked. Audra did not miss that he was the clear favorite, disappearing under his headmasters arm as he was ushered inside in front of all the other students. She can not pretend that she is not impressed over being only a few feet away from the youngest seeker n the league (and arguably the best), but she does not join in the excited whispers of Fred and George, who were now trying to catch his eye in a way that reminded her of when they were all much younger and much less weighted down.
She settles down at the Slytherin table, which seemed to be crammed tighter than usual, and watches interestingly as Dumbledore greets the new headmasters like old friends. Audra was paying such close attention that she did not notice the boy at her side until he started speaking, and even then, Emmeline had to elbow her in the ribs to make her respond. "Can ve sit here?" The boy, who was admittedly quite handsome, gave her what she supposed was a charming smile and gestured down to the other end of the table to where his school mates were sitting. "They have ran out of room."
"Sure." Audra scooted even closer to Emmeline, as if that was possible, and the three Durmstrang boys sat down on the bench, staring up at the roof with interest.
"How did you make it look vike zat?" He asked, accent thicker in his interest. "Or is it real, and vere is just a charm to keep the veather out?"
"Um, see, it's a rather complicated charm, and the whole account of it is in Hogwarts, A History by Bathilda Bagshot, I'm not sure if you've read it, but basically...." And Audra was off, waving her hands as she explained, and then he asked about the portraits and the founding fathers of Hogwarts, and she asked about Durmstrang. Apparently it was much colder in Durmstrang, and somehow his coat found its way around her shoulders. It was quite warm, and she had a sneaking suspicion that the pockets were lined in unicorn hair, meaning that she was sitting next to a very wealthy boy indeed.
"It seems that you do not remember me." The boy, Damien, said, smiling a little sheepishly. "I must not 'ave made that big of an impression, vut I certainly remember you."
"We've met before?" Audra asked, stunned. She was sure she would have remembered a guy who new his way around spells as well as this one did, and yet it did seem that he had an easy air of familarity about him. She had been under the impression that he was just this friendly with everyone. "When?"
"The Vorld cup? You vere there, vere you not?" He grinned now, and she became aware that he was sitting much closer to her than she would normally allow, and realized that it hadn't bothered her one bit. "There had been a party, and, vell, it's ony natural that you vould not remember, you had a lot of firewhiskey by that point."
He trailed off, looking very embarrassed at this point, but Audra suddenly knew what he was talking about. "Oh Merlin. Oh, I remember that, I just didn't know it was you!" She buried her face in her hands for a moment, letting out a stream of giggles, and on the other side of her, Emmeline choked on her pumpkin juice. "Look, I'm sorry, but,"
"I did not mean to upset you." He said it earnestly, eyes wide and waving his hands to console her. "I just thought that if you remembered, it vould have been nice to get to know you better."
"Well," She grimaced, not sure how she should proceed. "Could we start over, maybe?"
"Pretend like we never snogged each other underneath the stars?" He grinned, and Audra thought fleetingly that he truly was very handsome, very handsome indeed, but she shoved it away. "Certainly."
Audra looks up, searching the Gryffindor table for Fred and George. When she finds them, George raises his eyebrows pointedly, then grins and gives her a thumbs up. But Fred just stares at her, face dark, and when she waves hello, he just turns away and begins stabbing his meatloaf with renewed vigor.
"Audra." A voice came from over her head, and a curtain of silky blonde hair fell over her when she opened her eyes. "Audra, it's time to get up."
Audra squints up at Emmeline. "The suns not even up yet."
"That was the whole point, remember?" Emmeline rolls her eyes at her and chucks Audra her robes, returning to the mirror to fix her already perfect hair. "No one's going to know."
It had seemed a good plan when they decided it, but now, sneaking through the cold corridors by the light of their wands and entering the empty Great Hall, Audra wanted to tell her that they were being silly. Clary was already waiting for them when they got there, arms crossed and staring nervously at the goblet.
"Are you guys sure you want to do this?" She asked, for what seemed like the millionth time. "Once our names are in, it's forever."
"You don't have to." Emmeline says, gently, something Audra felt certain she would never tell anyone but Clary. "We won't think any different of you."
"Don't be ridiculous." Clary snapped. "If you two are in, I'm in. That's how it works, right?"
And it was how it worked, they all knew that, even if sometimes Audra and Emmeline had wondered that maybe they should think of changing it. Clary doesn't always deserve to be dragged along with them, and one of these times, she's going to get caught up in something she doesn't deserve all because she made the wrong friends back in first year. "Okay." Audra rocked back on her heels, looked at the other two, and held out her hands. "Ready?"
They stepped across the age line as one, and even though they knew they were perfectly of age, they still flinched. Emmeline gave a small laugh when she opened her eyes, dancing around goblet like she can't believe that it actually let her in. A second later she was standing beside them again, somber and straight backed, clutching a folded piece of paper in her hand. Audra had watched her write her name on it, purposefully making every letter as neat and precise as she could, so different than the way Clary had pressed the parchment to the floor and scribbled her name. "We'll do it together."
"On three?" Clary asked, drawing out her own piece of parchment, which was crumpled and smudged with ink, like she hadn't care enough to keep it neat.
"On three." Audra agreed, taking her own paper out. "One,"
"Two,"
It was Emmeline that finished, the flames casting an eerie shadow on the greedy expression on her face. "Three."
Together, the three pieces of paper fluttered into the fire at the exact same time, and the flames told purple, roaring up and sending blistering heat washing over their hands. The other two leaped down with little shrieks of laughter, grabbing onto each other's shoulders to steady themselves, but Audra just stared at where her paper had disappeared.
She hoped they never found out that she had left the parchment blank.
Audra stays there for the rest of the day, watching everyone else come and go as they put her names in. She's joined by Hermione soon after, who opens up her book an settled down on the bench, burying herself in the text like she can't be bothered by the production going on around them. They watch as Hogwarts students trek by, one after another, Cedric, Angelina and Katie, a few Ravencaws, a lone Slytherin. There was one of the beuxbaton girls, her paper cut up like the snowflakes she and Clary used to make on the holidays when they were younger. A group of Durmstrang students came next, laughing and thumping each other on the back as they enter their names. Her friend, Damien, turns and smiles just for her when he catches her watching, and Audra hurriedly pretends to be in an important conversation with Hermione, who looks a little amused but plays along without a comment.
Fred and George come down soon after, followed by Lee Jordan. The three boys walk over to join them. Lee returns her smile a little reluctantly, not quite trusting how readily she had forgiven him after the whole Bellatrix fiasco. (She had not liked it, but she had understood- fear makes people do the worst things.) "Just taken the age potion. Brewed it this morning."
"It's not going to work." Audra warns, but they just roll their eyes and tug on her hair.
"The age line won't care about a few months, will it?" Fred asked, who seemed to have taken her disbelief as further incentive to break the rules. He steps across first to general applause, and when it seems like nothing would happen, George jumped in after him with a triumphant yell. It lasts only a few seconds longer and they are thrown across the room, hitting the floor so hard they slide a few more feet. The concern turns to laughter when they finally manage to get their breath back and push themselves upright, revealing the beards they had been given.
"Well." Hermione says, sounding a little smug, like she could find no one more deserving of this punishment. "You did warn them."
And warn them she had, a fact that she kept to herself as she and the twins sat in the hospital wing. She's been switching from feeling amused and dismayed as she watches the hair shoot back into their faces at an alarming rate, and then regrow again, the beard getting shorter and redder each time. They've assured her twice that it didn't hurt them at all, just tickled, but from the slight wince on their faces, she could tell they were just trying to make her feel better.
"We must've added the wrong ingredient or something." Fred muttered, reading through the instructions she had given them. "You couldn't have just made the potion and spared us the trouble?"
Audra thought about responding with an angry retort, but seeing as he had just been through his ninth beard removal, she couldn't quite bring herself to do it. "It wouldn't have mattered if it had been the best potion ever brewed, it still wouldn't have gotten you past that age line."
"If you had made it, it would have been the best." Fred says, still huffy, already tired of sitting still without anything to work on for so long, and trying to pick a fight just for something to do. Audra doesn't rise to the bait, just sighs exasperatedly and looks to Lee for some help, who readily comes to her aid. (This isn't altogether surprising, he's so guilty she could probably ask him to jump off the astronomy tower and he would. It must be a Gryffindor thing.)
He apologizes later, as she, Fred, and George walk down to their DADA class. "It's alright. You were a bit stressed."
"You knew it wouldn't work." George said. It could have been an accusation, but it didn't sound angry.
"I did try to tell you, remember. Twice." She shrugged. "Truthfully, I didn't want it to work."
"Why?"
"To be perfectly honest, this is a terribly dangerous thing to do, even for you guys. And I know you can handle yourselves, but people have died for this, and I didn't want the two of you to do this if there's even the slightest chance that you could have been hurt." She was talking to the both of them, about the both of them, because she loves them both with the same fierceness, but it is Fred she looks at. "I couldn't take it if something had happened to you."
(It is Cedric that gets picked, not Fred or George, not Clary or Emmeline, and she breathes a sigh of relief, clapping along with the others and thinking that this might turn out okay, after all. But then the flames burn blue and lick at the air, spitting out another piece of parchment and Dumbledore reaches out to catch it, looking unsettled for the first time that she can remember. The hall is silent as he reads it, and Harry Potter, the little boy who lived, is called forward, and Audra is reminded with a sinking feeling that things can be worse than you imagined.)