five mia, mia, mia!
✨
MIA WOULDN'T WALK THREE STEPS without her sketchbook attached to her, whether it be in her school bag, or clutched in one hand, the collage made of Vogue cuttings and glitter pens doodled around to make outlines. She used to love art, used to spend her Sunday afternoons in her dorm room with a pen, outlining faces she found in a magazine. Her sketchbook would have countless portraits on one page, all sitting around each other. Sometimes she'd only draw an eye, or a nose, just to practice, and sometimes she'd paint, but painting took longer, and it was easier to grab a pen and go. Sometimes she'd get Cedric to sit and let her take a picture of him, and then she'd draw his face, and she'd make him pull faces so she could tone the contortions, the crease of his eyelid. Sometimes she'd get photos of herself and Cedric, which at first felt awkward for her, drawing herself. She'd draw her mum, too, and old photos of her mum and dad together, smiles and everything. Mia loved art, emphasis on loved.
Because now she can't pick up a pen. Now, it feels too heavy, too much energy to even think about. She wishes she was still doing it, because admittedly she was good at it, but she can't anymore. Mia feels like she's aged a lifetime since Cedric died and all in honesty, she doesn't see the joy in it...
But she wishes she did — because now, she misses it. She misses the escape it gave her, the way that she could draw and focus on that and she wouldn't have to think about anything else. It let her escape into her own little world, with No Doubt and Nirvana cassettes being switched out inside her Walkman, and nothing else mattered. It let her understand her dad who she didn't remember, because she could look at these photos of him, and she could draw his face so much so that she knew it, like she knew her own, like she knew her mum's, her best friend's, Kate Moss when she was the Vogue cover girl.
Maybe the pen won't feel as heavy, because here Mia is, wanting to pick it up. Maybe the whole summer's been spent, unable to think of drawing, but now she wants to do it. Most things are possible if you just think you can do it. People underestimate the power of a dedicated brain sometimes.
So, on the last day of the summer holidays, Mia finds Emilia, and asks, "Can you take me home, maybe, so I can get a couple things?"
She ends up having to explain she specifically wants to get her sketchbook, but Emilia agrees, deciding that if they aren't too long it shouldn't be much of a danger anyway. The main reason their home is a slight threat to their safety is if the muggle postman looks in the living room window and sees escaped murderer Sirius Black sitting on the sofa eating a slice of toast. For Mia and Emilia, it's not exactly a danger — like, the Death Eaters are cool with them now, from what Mia's gathered, so they won't go searching for them.
Mia walks down the stairs, this time in jeans and a lemon-yellow cardigan, a black lacey cami underneath. The heatwave's starting to cool down now, with the UK returning to it's usual light-grey skies and crisp breezes. Mia's indifferent to the weather — every climate has it's positives — but it is nice, being able to wear wool again.
Emilia's kissed on the cheek by Sirius. Gross, Mia thinks, as her mum says something to her dad about how they'll be fine, and all that — they'll be there for an hour, tops, what's the worst that's going to happen? A spider jumps out, because they haven't been there to clean up the cobwebs? Please.
"We shouldn't be too long, Molly," says Emilia, with a soft smile. "We'll be back for dinner, for definite."
Mrs Weasley nods, an old kitchen towel — one Mia presumes has been taken from the Weasleys' house, wherever they live — in her hands, wiping the soapy suds off of her fingers. Emilia puts her hand on Mia's arm, and as they Apparate, Mia closes her eyes. She doesn't like Apparating. She's a little annoyed her dad gave his motorbike to Hagrid because that seems a lot cooler, doesn't it? A flying Harley Davidson. Fucking sick.
They arrive outside of their house, and even before she opens her eyes, she can tell she's at home. She can feel the bark underneath her feet, that makes up the walkway to the house, hidden past the big gate and the trees. They live near-ish to a muggle town, but you wouldn't realise, the house is so hidden away. Mia loves it.
She loves London, don't get her wrong, but she loves the house her mum bought after everything, from the yellow paint covering the outside, to the kitchen doorframe with Mia's heights marked... They have her parents' heights on there, too, but they had to cover up the one of Sirius' height in his Animagus form, in case the Aurors noticed it.
Mia remembers how they had searched their house, when he first escaped. She remembers sitting on the stairs, feeling incredibly uncomfortable, as her mum tried to reason with the Ministry officials. She remembers watching her mum follow one Auror called Dawlish, as he walked from the kitchen through the hallway to the living room, straight past Mia. He had shaken his head when Emilia told him, "I promise he hasn't been anywhere near this house in years..."
"You told us that you thought he was innocent, correct?" the Auror had asked, and Mia knows he's referring to the interview Emilia did when Sirius first left. And Emilia had sighed and said that had nothing to do with it, but don't worry, things got worse.
They brought up her mum's family.
"Salvatore, wasn't it? As in Capulet?"
They brought up the night they died.
"Wasn't it your magic that burned the house down?"
They brought up the magic Mia and Emilia both have.
"I cannot imagine that — a family so terrible they corrupted your very ability to use magic..."
And then, they brought up Mia.
"... Nor can I imagine allowing a murderer near a child, even if it was their own daughter..."
Emilia had snapped, and the lightbulbs broke throughout the house — the first time Emilia's ever done that, in Mia's memory — and they left shortly after that.
Mia remembers how one Auror had brought up who her mum is, referring to her job, and it made Mia feel strange. Her mum's a good Healer, and considering she became the head of St Mungos' children ward a couple years back, she's known at the Ministry. She's the woman to go to when children are poorly — not only that, but there's been times where muggleborn kids have magicked shit up, and because it's not Hogwarts' point of call yet, Emilia has to explain to the parents of a kid that just, like, made the car explode, that this is totally normally. Her mum's amazing, to say the least, and she's known for it.
But that makes Mia feel strange. Because it's so odd, isn't it, that both of her parents were so against becoming the sort of Ministry official that people know about, and yet, Emilia's accidentally done it. She's not in the Ministry, sure, but they got special tickets to the World Cup. Fudge sends the family Christmas cards — or at least he did until he offended Emilia with the whole Sirius-is-a-murderer bullshit, and Emilia told him to get fucked. (Not her words, but Mia likes to imagine she did.)
Mia doesn't know. All she knows is that she'd rather die than have anything to do with the Ministry. Like, you know what's weird? A whole country of wizards, where almost all of them go to work for the government. Like, she isn't saying that's Stalin's wet dream, but...?
Emilia unlocks the door and Mia goes straight upstairs, missing the creaky step like always. She walks across the landing, her hand on the banister, feeling overcome with everything she's missed. She looks at the photo frames along the yellow walls, eyeing the ones of her as a baby, her mum as a teenager, her parents as bride and groom. She misses the comfort of the carpet, compared to the awful old shit that makes up Grimmauld Place, and she feels her feet sink into the carpet as she walks. She should've taken her shoes off, really, but she'll only be here for a little while, it's not a big deal.
And then she walks into her bedroom, opening the white door with the gold stickers, reading MIA'S ROOM. She did when she was little, already in love with gold and glitter, and since then it's stuck. She has an attachment to the shitty stickers on her door, same with the posters she's badly put up, or even the smiley face she drew on the windowsill when she was seven. (Emilia was not happy about that one.) Nothing's as comforting as your own bedroom.
She kneels on the ground, to pull the sketchbook out. She's always stored it under her bed, on top of old magazines, so she takes it out.
The cover's covered in her own collage. Glitter and drawn-on stars surround a Steve Madden cut-out, with the models with the massive heads and shoes. Someone's review of Pulp Fiction is in the corner, with a star next to Mia Wallace and the photo of Uma Thurman. Mia's also scribbled MIA BLACK — HUFFLEPUFF.
She opens it up, the paper cracking from being slightly stuck together... The inside cover's collaged, too, but the centrepiece is a photo of Mia and Cedric. It was one of those Polaroid-type cameras that a wizard got their hands on, so the photo moves. They're both grinning as she kisses Cedric's cheek, and you can see his smile looks even happier. Mia takes a minute, to stop herself from crying. It was taken before they were going out... She forgot how affectionate she used to be.
She flicks through the drawings, pausing especially at the sketch of her mum, when she was a teenager. Mia thought the photo was a good one to draw; some pictures are, and some aren't. Mia doesn't know why, but sometimes the light works right, and everything's easier to sketch out.
Mia picks up her pencil case, too, and she puts a couple jumpers and stuff leftover in her wardrobe into a bag, to take them to school with her. She thinks she just forgot about them — and plus, she saw one of them, and decided it would look sick on top of her starry dress — but whatever. It wouldn't be a day in Mia's life without her thoughts going from anything to clothes clothes clothes!
She walks back across the landing, down the stairs. She can hear the kettle boiling, and she follows the sound, setting her things down on the dining room table. Emilia's leaning against the kitchen counter, looking outside the window.
"I miss it here," says Mia softly.
Emilia lets out a sigh, and she crosses her arms. "I do, too," she says. Quickly she begins to shake her head, unfolding her arms. "But it isn't safe for Sirius here... And it's not safe for you here, what if..." She doesn't finish the sentence, but Mia knows.
"I get it," says Mia.
Emilia smiles softly at her. "I'll miss you, when you go back to school."
"I'll miss you, too," says Mia, and her mum hugs her gently.
"I'll find a way to visit you in Hogsmeade, and for your dad to come, too," says Emilia, and she turns to start making their cups of tea. "I know you're not getting along, but you need to, soon. With the way the world's turning..." Emilia sighs. "You never know."
Mia feels incredibly uncomfortable, so she excuses herself to go back upstairs, lying about wanting to check there aren't any more clothes she wants to bring back with her.
She thinks she hears the doorbell go, when she gets upstairs, but she guesses it's just those wind-chimes outside.
... Maybe she'll grab a t-shirt and pretend that was what she was looking for, she doesn't really know. But she feels so weird, at the thought of with the world's turning. With the world's turning? Her best friend is dead... Her first love is dead... The kid she would've married is dead. The world's already turning weirdly for her. What is she supposed to do now?
She hears her mum's voice, and she figures Emilia's just talking to herself. She does that sometimes, when no one's around. Nothing crazy, just filling quiet air. But the familiarity comforts Mia. She hasn't heard it in a while — with Grimmauld Place being so manic, her yellow house in the woods feels like it's from a whole new dimension.
Mia ends up finding the Led Zeppelin t-shirt she got from her dad's wardrobe years ago, and decides, well, he's annoying but the t-shirt's cool, so she brings that downstairs, holding it in her hands. Her feet jump from the bottom step to the floor, and she turns into the kitchen, to say she found something else — but she stops in her tracks.
A man with long, blonde hair stands in the kitchen, holding onto a walking stick of sorts. He has a supercilious look on his face, and once that thought clicks in Mia's mind, she realises the similarities between him and Malfoy, from school. It's Lucius Malfoy, she guesses, considering all that adds up. She's never met him before, just heard what he did, during the last war...
"Mia," says Emilia quietly. Her eyes are glassy, and Mia can see the plant on the windowsill, next to her mum, start to cower. Her mum's scared. "Mia, honey, how's about you—"
"Hiding her away isn't necessary," says Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy. Mia doesn't want to call him Mr Malfoy. That's giving him too much respect for someone with that on their arm. "I was only calling to... check on things. A lot of things have been happening at the business, see..."
Emilia seems to calm down, or at least she doesn't look scared anymore. But Mia can tell, from the minute she was addressed, her mum looked angry. "My godfather used to say that," says Emilia with a grimace. "But I'm not a part of that."
"No," says Lucius Malfoy, with a sneer. The plant next to Emilia has blossomed, bright orange petals. "I find it rather strange, how in the times I've called, you haven't been home... I hear the same has been the case for the Weasleys..."
Mia crosses her arms. "Why are you so concerned about the Weasleys?"
Emilia looks at Mia, as if to say, stop talking.
"I like to keep my eyes on blood-traitors," says Lucius Malfoy, and he glances back at Emilia. Mia frowns, but he turns back to her, fully aware of how uncomfortable she looks. "It was nice to meet you, Mia..." He pauses. Mia's reminded of his son. Merlin. "My Narcissa was your father's cousin... He was rotten, even then."
Emilia scowls. "I bet Atticus would say the same about you," she says, referring to Holly's step-dad, the one that's been hanging around Grimmauld Place all summer.
Mia almost goes, "Mum," as if warning her after the fact would've stopped her from saying it in the first place. She looks across at Lucius Malfoy, and she watches his face contort into a grimace. Mia feels useless. She feels like a kid, because she is one — but it just feels terrible. Lucius Malfoy is tormenting her mum, and she knows it's getting to her mum, because she'd never say something like that. And what she said wasn't even that bad, was it? But the mention of Sirius being evil gets to Emilia, Mia knows it. Mia made people at school focus on other things about her, but her mum doesn't have that. Her mum can't make the rumours about her husband stop, by going out with so-and-so from the Quidditch team.
Lucius Malfoy leaves their house, and Emilia holds onto Mia's hand, smiling weakly. "Thank Merlin that's over," she says. She glances at the boiled kettle, and with a flick of her wrist the mugs and tea bags are being put back away. "You know, I think it's safest if we just go home..."
"This is our home," says Mia, with a frown.
"I meant Grimmauld Place," says Emilia. "You know what I meant."
"You don't—You don't think of that place as our home, though," says Mia, suddenly feeling incredibly concerned. "Do you?"
"I bet your dad's wondering where we are..." says Emilia, and she swings Mia's bag over her shoulder, before Apparating the two of them out of their family home, back to the front steps of Grimmauld Place. Mia can't help but frown at her mum, as she steps forwards and gets them past the security password.
Sirius walks into the hallway to greet the two of them. Mia takes the bag off of her mum's shoulder, and she walks herself up the stairs, as she hears her mum start to explain to her dad what happened, back at their house.
Go home. Mia doesn't know why she's so hung up about this, but she is. Her mum never said if she did see this place as their home... And it worries Mia. Because, here Mia is, wishing to be at their house, every time she wakes up in this God-awful pile of shit, and her parents are fine with it? They're moving on?
Mia gets to her floor, and she sees George sitting on the landing, fiddling with a pair of Extendable Ears. He must've seen it was her walking up the stairs, because he doesn't hide them, like they normally tend to, worried that it'll be their mum walking up the stairs, ready to confiscate the ears off of them. Fred must be with Briar.
"Hi," she says.
"You were quick," says George.
"Yeah, well, Lucius Malfoy showed up," says Mia. "We left after that."
George frowns at her. "Why did he—?"
"No idea," says Mia. To her own surprise, she sits down next to him, crossing her legs. She doesn't know what spell he's doing, but the string attached to the ear is growing. Right. "I've got a question."
"Right," he says.
"Do you, like, see this place as your home?" says Mia.
George pauses fiddling with the ear, and frowns. "If that's a poor person joke, Black—"
"It's not," says Mia, giving him a look.
"OK, well — no?" he says. "It's a shithole."
"My mum called this place 'home' earlier," says Mia. "I dunno, it was just..."
"Wrong?" he says.
"Yeah," she replies, with a nod.
Now this is something she didn't expect to happen.
Mia argues with herself that, OK, in her defence, he is the first person she saw. And he probably won't mention it, because then she could tell, like, his mum about the hiding spot for the rest of those ears. She wouldn't class him as a friend, maybe an acquaintance, but nothing more than that.
It's just so bizarre — it feels even stranger because he doesn't know the half of it, only Cedric does (did, she means.) Mia's opinion of George Weasley has gone from one thing to the other, and it's weird to her, the fact that all of that's happened, and it's led to now, where Mia has willingly sat down next to him, to talk to him about this.
She doesn't know...
God, she wishes she could talk to Cedric.
"You're starting N.E.W.T.s, then?" he says.
Mia frowns. "I thought you hated school."
"Ah, but, it'll distract you," says George. He flashes her a grin, and she raises an eyebrow back at him. "You don't live to seventeen as my mum's son without knowing that."
She snorts. "Fair enough," she says. "And yeah, I am."
"What you doing, then?" he says.
This is all so strange.
"Uh," she says, and she lists them, like she has been doing every time she's spoken to a teacher, or her parents, about it. Care of Magical Creatures. Potions. Alchemy. Art. Charms. Astronomy.
"Six?" says George, and she nods. "Bloody hell, you must be smart."
Mia can feel her cheeks warming up. The air feels a little hotter, and she hopes he hasn't noticed that. "I'm not that smart," she says. "The only reason I'm doing six is because I got full marks in Astronomy..."
"Full marks?" says George, raising his eyebrows. "You are smart, then, what are you on about?"
"No, that's different," she says.
"How?"
"My grandma taught me how to do that, I had an advantage."
George pauses. "The nasty one?"
"Even my mum didn't know my other grandma," says Mia, frowning. "I'm not smart. I barely passed my other subjects — I'm only doing Charms because Flitwick's a good teacher... But I don't get normal magic. I need to see stuff to understand it."
He shrugs. "Well, I think you're smart." He grins at her. "And coming from an idiot, you know it's true."
Mia narrows her eyes. "That makes no sense."
George shrugs his shoulders, in a well I disagree sort of way, and he stands up, to lower the ears down through the gap between the landing and the stairs. Mia stands up, too.
"You are smart," says Mia. "You made that."
She gestures to the ear on a string.
George glances across at her. "I thought you said you wasn't smart because you aren't good at school...?" he says, and as it settles in Mia's mind, he smirks at her. "You know what I think?"
"What?" says Mia, with a frown.
"I think some people are clever, just not at school," says George.
Mia nods. "Yeah, but not everyone thinks that."
George snorts. "I know, you've met my mum."
For a minute Mia feels incredibly awkward. What does she say to that? Her mum's never had an issue with Mia not being the best at school, her mum's always understood that Mia learns differently, because her mum's the same... And her dad was super smart, sure, but he wasn't around to judge her exam results...
Fred returns, Mia first hearing his voice from downstairs, and then when he Apparates to the third floor. He looks at his twin brother, and then to Mia, with a look on his face. Mia can't read it. She feels like she might be able to read George's eventually, but Fred's different.
"That's nice, Georgie," says Fred with a smirk. "You've made a friend."
George rolls his eyes. "Better than talking to you all day."
Fred snorts. "Hm."
"Mia got full marks in her Astronomy O.W.L.," says George.
Fred raises his eyebrows, and he looks at her. "Shit, that's good."
"You can't be a Black without knowing about the stars," says Mia, shrugging her shoulders.
Fred nods. "Makes sense," he says. "I think Briar says she finds that difficult..."
"Might be another reason, Freddie," says George, under his breath.
Mia feels a little left out, but then, they're (a) twins, and (b) talking about their best friend. She's bound to feel left out.
"What N.E.W.T.s are you taking, then?" asks Fred, and the same conversation begins, only with a lot less "But you're smart," and a lot more, "Georgie, it's amazing how you're friends with Mia now..."
Weird.
✨
WHEN THE NEXT DAY ROLLS AROUND, the last thing Mia wants to do is go to school. She doesn't like Grimmauld Place, but the thought of returning to school, where everyone's going to stare at her because she was the dead boy's best friend makes Grimmauld Place sound like it's built from stars.
Mia gets ready, wears her favourite outfit — black denim skirt, scuffed at the bottom, with tights, and a baggy shirt tied at her waist — and does her makeup nicely. She has to get changed, sure, but if she walks onto the train, feeling good about herself, then hopefully she'll have enough confidence to get her to her dorm room. And then, every morning, she can make sure she looks nice, so that she feels good, and that confidence can, hopefully, last every day until she takes her N.E.W.T.s next year... And then leaves. Forever. She can't fuckin' wait for that.
She has the top half of her hair messily tied up, so you can see her gold earrings, through the black baby-hairs and wispy curls framing her face. She sprays her favourite perfume, the same one she's been wearing for years, a muggle one by someone called Tommy Hilfiger, the smell of lemon and lily lingering on her wrists and neck as she walks down the stairs, attempting to pull along her trunk.
They're all taken to Kings' Cross in small groups, to not arise any suspicions. Emilia's got to go to work, but she hugs Mia and kisses her forehead, and Sirius gives Mia a hug, too, which feels awkward. Mia ends up walking into Kings' Cross with Fred and George, Fred loudly explaining how his twin is now best friends with her. George looks like he's going to kill him. Mia's unamused.
Mia, the second she stepped foot on the platform, gets the looks. Students eye her, up and down, and whisper to their parents. "She was best friend's with Cedric Diggory, the one that died..." First years with older siblings are being informed on who she is. Quickly Mia's surrounded by a chorus saying her name. Mia, Mia, Mia. In the six years she's been at Hogwarts, she's only had this level of attention once, when her dad escaped prison. She hates it.
"It'll die down after a while," says George, as Fred walks ahead to speak to Lee Jordan.
Mia frowns. She doesn't know what to say.
The two of them end up standing with the rest of the group from Grimmauld Place. Mia hears another voice talking about her, and her ears feel like they're ringing. Her heart is beating faster, and knots are tying in her stomach, because what if this is the whole year? What if Cedric's death, added with her dad being Sirius Black, is enough to make the whisperings a constant? She can't handle this, she can't, she can't—
She looks down, and she sees her dad, as a dog, next to Harry.
Next to Harry.
Mia feels herself go numb, completely drained of the panic, and instead filled with nothing but anger. Of course. Of fucking course. She's over here, tears in her eyes, and her dad hasn't even noticed. Her dad snuck out of the house to help Harry. He didn't do that for her... He didn't even find her when he escaped, he went straight for Harry, like he always does...
What is it, that makes Mia so worthless to him?
"I'm going," she says, but she doesn't wait for a response before she makes a move for the train itself. Her trunk feels a lot heavier, but then, everything's a little more difficult when you want to cry, when your dad's being a dick, and when everyone around you is mentioning how your best friend is dead...
Mia finds an empty compartment, and she sits down. She has her feet up on the bench, her arms hugging her legs. She tries her hardest not to cry, because she knows if she starts she won't stop.
The door slides open.
"It's taken—!"
She looks up, and finds that it's George. She thinks he knows that she's upset, and she thinks he might know it's because of the talking and then her dad showing up, but he closes the door behind him, and sits down.
"I don't wanna talk about it," says Mia, trying not to scowl.
"That's fine," says George. "I'll talk, then."
Mia remembers what he said about distracting her, the other day.
"You know every year, when Ron gets into some sort of danger, me and Fred get stared at, because we're his older brothers," says George. Mia nods slowly. "And the year Ginny was possessed by You-Know-Who's diary... We always get looked at. What we've started doing is pulling a massive prank so people lay off the talking."
She raises an eyebrow. "So what you're saying, is that I need to start doing pranks?"
"No," says George. Mia fidgets in her seat, sitting with her legs crossed, instead of tightly hugged by her arms. "All I'm saying is that Hogwarts is always like this. And it's a new year, so they'll be something else to talk about... Ginny was possessed and yet everyone's forgotten it." She nods, feeling bad because she thinks she had forgotten about that. "You'll be fine."
And then the weirdest thing happens.
Trying to be comforting, he puts his hand on Mia's knee — but by the looks of it, he must've miscalculated, and instead, his hand's on top of hers, the one resting next to her knee.
What the fuck.
Mia's frozen. She looks at George, who looks surprised, as well, and she can't help but think about Cedric. She remembers when Cedric slept over at hers, last summer, and when she woke up in the morning she saw him, still asleep, holding onto her hand, and Mia's heart stopped, and that's how her crush on him started. She remembers how she couldn't get Cedric out of her mind for weeks afterwards, how she was worried she was going to fuck up their friendship because she was head over heels for him...
She remembers how happy she felt, when things started changing between her and Cedric. How she could tell, something was different between them — and him asking her to the ball confirmed it all...
She remembers when they first kissed, at the Yule Ball, how Mia felt like she was on cloud nine, how the candle flames danced, how Mia could tell, it was going to be different this time. Alfie and Cormac and Oliver and Roger and Graham — they were nice, sure, but they never felt like they'd last forever. Cedric, though...
But it didn't last forever. It lasted forever for him, sure — and maybe that's the issue. Because, in the graveyard, Cedric died, still with Mia as his girlfriend. With Alfie it was fine, because it wasn't going to last, they both knew that from the start. But George... George was the before.
So Mia stiffens, and she moves her hand away. "You know we're not—"
Friends, she was going to say, but Fred walks in, and cuts her off.
"This is nice, isn't it?" says Fred, and he turns to his side, to look at Lee Jordan, a massive, twinkling grin across his face, directed at George. Fred and Lee sit down opposite them. Mia wants to leave, right now, but this was her compartment, she can't get up now, that would be weird... "Oh, I told Archie he could sit with us."
Lee nods. "Cormac's busy. Prefect duties."
George raises his eyebrows. "That git's a prefect?"
Mia rolls her eyes. "He was smart, when I knew him..."
Lee looks like the Cheshire cat now. "I forgot you two went out."
"I wish I could," says Mia, and Lee scoffs. She feels the tiniest bit bad. "I'm kidding, he wasn't that bad, really..."
"Just a massive prat," says Fred, and George nods.
Mia feels awkward. She doesn't think he's a prat.
After a while, Archie appears, sitting in the gap between Mia and George. Fred, George, and Lee end up leaving the compartment to market their joke products to the students up and down the train. Mia looks across at Archie, still feeling awkward.
The thing is, Archie and Mia have known each other, sure, having seen one another a couple times before Hogwarts — Emilia arranged play-dates with Archie's guardian, Marlene McKinnon, considering their dads had been best friends — but since first year, it's been polite friendliness. Not really friends, or at least, not close. But friendly enough to sit in some lessons together, because both of them get it — their dads were best friends, to the point that Mia's dad was taken in by Archie's, when her dad left home.
Still awkward, though.
"I didn't know you were friends with them," he says, sitting where George had been, to give both of them more space. He puts his feet up on the bench.
Mia pulls a face, twisting her lips. "I don't think I am."
Archie shrugs his shoulders. "Fair enough," he says. "So, I heard Fred and George have to be nice to you now."
Mia raises an eyebrow. "Who—?"
"They told Harry, who told me," he says.
"Oh," says Mia.
"You know, you've got a superpower, there," says Archie.
She raises an eyebrow. "I do?"
"Uh, yeah," says Archie, and he nods his head to further emphasis it. "Haven't you seen some of the pranks they've done around school? Shit, if you've got any enemies..."
Mia snorts, and she smirks at him. "But what if it's them?"
Archie laughs. "Well, Black, I think you and me could figure out how to back-fire one of their pranks."
"Oh, absolutely," says Mia with a laugh.
"How was your summer, then?" asks Mia.
Archie shrugs. "Went to a party. Invaded a country. The usual."
"Totally," says Mia.
"How was yours?" he says.
"Shit," she says, with weak smile.
Archie nods. "I get it," he tells her, but he doesn't really. Mia appreciates the comment, though. "What subjects are you doing?"
Mia lists them off.
"I've got Potions and Charms, 'cause I need them to become a Healer," says Archie, and Mia nods. She can imagine him as a Healer, actually. "We can sit together, if you'd like... And I dunno if it'll be awkward for you, but if you wanna sit with me at meals, you're free to..." Mia smiles softly, and Archie grins. "I promise Cormac will behave."
Mia's smile grows. "Right."
Archie laughs. "He's not that bad, just a piece of shit sometimes," he explains, and he fidgets in his seat, getting a little more comfortable.
But, just after that, Fred, George, and Lee return, and Archie has to move anyway so that George can sit down, now awkwardly wedged between Archie and Mia. There's a solid gap between Mia and George, where both of them have downright refused to touch. Thank Helga, Mia thinks.
"You know, Mia," says Archie, as he starts to eat a Chocolate Frog, breaking a part off to give to her. He doesn't give any to the others, explaining that Mia's his best friend now — Mia laughs at this — and Mia's cool with that. She loves chocolate. "You've probably lucked out, not doing Defence anymore. Merlin knows what prat they've employed this year..."
mia n george need a ship name (also i love them 🥺🥰 god bless)
anyways i hope u enjoyed!! thank u for reading!!!