"Here we go again," Ariadne droned as she caught sight of her owl in possession of a mint green envelope. Lobster was an easy owl to spot among the fleet when it was time for the daily mail drop, due to her darker plumage and the protruding tuft of feathers that mirrored the antenna of the crustacean, Ariadne made a game out of it of how fast she can spot her pet.
Lobster swooped overhead and fluttered slowly towards Ariadne's plate, gently releasing the invitation from her claws. "Just like clockwork – oh, you're such a sweetheart, aren't you?" She picked up a generous serving of honey-cured ham from the assortment of breakfast and offered it to Lobster to which she promptly retrieved before flying away to enjoy her treat. Alison stifled a laugh, though her enjoyment was short-lived at the moment when a similar envelope was airdropped on her lap by a school owl.
Both girls decided to bite the bullet and tear open the envelopes, confirming their suspicions about it being the timely callings for the Slug Club Dinner Party. Ariadne remembered the first time she attended the dinner. By the time the main course was served, she was already mentally composing a letter for both her parents, practically begging on her hands and knees for them to find a way to pull her and her sister out of the professor's club.
To her sad end, they had replied: If we had to go through it, you lot will too. P.S it's a right of passage. Love, your mother, Harrison, Jaime, and Alex. P.S.S. your father says hi.
"I don't like going to his parties. But on the bright side, as soon as I get to my dorm, I'm already drowsy enough to sleep." Alison commented, hacking away at her maple sticky bun. "You've never tried to weasel your way out of a party, have you?"
Addy looked pensively down at her oatmeal, some spots bleeding purple from the mashed blueberries. She and her sister had only attempted and succeeded with skipping a Slug Club lunch last year, it was the first social event of the term and neither of them had the energy to masquerade as willing guests, so they simply ignored the invitations and had a little picnic with their younger siblings since they were still too young to receive invitations for the Slug Club.
"I actually have skipped a party," She finally answered, further mixing in a few tablespoons of brown sugar into her breakfast. "Minnie and I skipped it, but we paid the price afterward... We had to endure a private teatime with Slughorn."
Alison gasped, her smile spreading wide across her face. "Was it excruciatingly boring?"
"Beyond your wildest dreams, Longbottom. When in doubt, never go the easy way out." Ariadne prompted, feeling a considerable amount of warmth spread across her chest at the sight of Alison giggle, it rang through her ears like the soft melody of silver bells jostled by an ocean breeze. Out of the blue, the warmth had spread equally along her face, Ariadne had realized she had focused too long on Ali. "So, do you feel like Professor Slughorn just invited us because of who our parents are?"
"Oh, yeah – totally." The fifth-year girl replied, sneaking a look at Ariadne's blushed pink face. "Which I think is funny. My parents weren't in the Slug Club when they were our age."
"My dad wasn't in the Slug Club either," Addy said. "Lucky bastard."
Alison scrunched her face, her smile digging deeper until a dimple showed at the righthand corner of her mouth. "You realize that it was 1996, he was probably already recruited as one of Tom Riddle's cronies. Against his will, obviously."
"It's like your saying that students had the exclusive choice of joining either the Slug Club or Tom Riddle – "
"No – " Alison laughed boisterously, covering her mouth at once when she realized that her voice bounced off the walls of the Great Hall. "You are a menace."
Not soon after finishing their breakfast, groups of students began to file out of the Great Hall, the girls observed the first and second years who were enviously watching the upper-year students clothed in their casuals leave school grounds via the carriages awaiting them beyond the courtyard. While Ariadne was glugging down the last of her apple juice, a soft punch met her shoulder, urging her to look for the source.
((Right: Ali; Left: Addy))
Isobel and Vega stood behind her, both of them smiling deviously at Alison who sat across the table. "So, we finally meet." Vega mused, taking the empty space on the bench next to Addy. "We haven't seen much of our friend here for so long, we actually considered the theory that she was actually being a good student, holed up in the library or somewhere."
"I told you guys I was hanging out with Ali," Ariadne said, feeling her cheeks flush at the sudden intrusion in her life. "Well, the thing is," Isobel mused slowly as she sank in beside her friend. "You never formally introduced us, it's almost as if you want to keep little Ali all to yourself."
Ariadne began to collect her things in a huff, standing up far too quickly that Isobel and Vega lost their balance and knocked each other's heads like fallen coconuts. "Right. Alison, these are my overbearing friends, Izzy and Vega. She's a Gryffindor, you can tell by the whiff of hubris smoking from her brain – "
"Hey!"
"And Vega, well – "
"Manuel, right?" Alison interjected. "One of the Ravenclaw's Chasers."
He beamed brightly, rubbing the bump forming on his head. "Glad to know my talents are being recognized – "
"She's the commentator. It's her job to know the names." Addy sharply commented, deflating his ego in an instant. "Right! We will be off now, maybe we'll see you around Hogsmeade." And then, without another word, the pair left in a rush together. Alison was steered out of sight from Ariadne's friends so fast that her heart rate increased tenfold, is it all in my head or does she not want me to meet them? She thought to herself, letting her self-consciousness fester away in the deepest corners of her mind.
As the girls passed through the courtyard arm in arm, Addy had skipped to a complete stop at the fountain where she spotted her little sister reading, her back leaning against the limestone pillar of which perched a small statue of a cherub. "Not going to Hogsmeade this weekend, Ros?" Alison questioned, her mouth contorting into the epitome of confusion as she spotted the cover of the book the fourth year Hufflepuff had been reading. Must be one of her Muggle books for her other school.
"Not interested."
"Oh, speaking of not interesting," Ariadne spoke, catching Rosamund's full attention. "Can I borrow Nana's locket for the slug party tomorrow?"
"Sure."
"Thanks. I'll pick it up later during dinner – "
"You know what," Rosamund pondered, snapping her book shut. "I just recalled Minnie borrowing it a few days ago." She continued looking up at her sister, hiding her joy as she noticed the clenching of her jaw. Addy laughed dismissively, her lips stretched thin as her patience, "When do you reckon she'll return it to you?"
The young girl shrugged almost too enthusiastically. "I genuinely do not know. I mean, I didn't feel the need to wear it anytime soon, so I asked Minnie to keep it for the time being."
"Well, I need it." Ariadne snapped, the crook of her arm where Alison's arm was interloped tightened, forcing her friend to be pulled in closer to her. Rosamund, now blissfully aware of how triggered her sister is, continued to smile innocently. "Then go get it yourself. Last I saw her was in the Great Hall with Belinda. They're study buddies now, isn't that cute?"
That's one word for it. Ariadne thought to herself, even her voice in her head felt too venomous for a snake to bear. Right at the moment when she considered storming back to the Great Hall, Professor Sprout bellowed the last call for the carriages, calling for the rest of the students to board now or risk being abandoned.
Rosamund looked up at her sister's fuming face, she continued to smile sweetly and waved good-bye to her and Alison. "Enjoy the weekend, you two." And with that, Addy tiresomely dragged Alison to the carriages beyond the courtyard, completing the final one where Ruby and James had already occupied the opposite seats.
Even with her anger-infused face that positively burned scarlet, Ariadne could not hold back gasping and cursing at the sight of her cousin's gaze. James smiled in spite of the dark bruise that formed on the right side of his face, speckled into a cluster on his cheekbone. "Go on. You haven't said anything in like a minute. I feel like I can hear you screaming in my head, I don't even know what that means but it makes sense."
The girls instinctively turned to Ruby, her face contorted like she had been holding back her laughter all morning, but still held some compassion for her brother. "He had a rough start this morning."
"Rough start – WHAT KIND OF PERSON JUGGLES BEATER'S BATS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COMMON ROOM?" James yelled, startling the carriage into jumping before speeding off. Alison frowned, looking ahead of the road despite not being able to see the creatures escorting them. "I think you scared the Thestral, James." To which he looked over his shoulder and muttered an apology, but not soon after, Ariadne brought the conversation back to Ruby, "What on earth were you doing juggling bats?"
"I was waiting for the rest of the team to come down from their rooms since we planned to do an early morning practice." She said meekly, sneaking a look at her brother. "I had Sanford's bat with me since he left it behind the last time we trained... And I thought, well – this'll be a fun challenge. Then James crept up behind me, so I kind of tossed one of the bats out of rhythm..."
"Those bloody things are lined with iron. You could have really disfigured me – "
"Oh, calm down." She snapped. "Your face hit the end cap, which is wooden, the barrel barely touched you," Ruby said, earning a questionable smile from Ariadne. "Your face is beyond help anyway, with or without the damage." She muttered under her breath, turning her attention to the other carriages that were rolling beside them.
James, visibility insulted, yanked a lock of his sister's hair. "What did you just say to me?"
And there we go. James and Ruby could argue circles around each other like it was no one's business. Though Ariadne had to give them some credit, it takes a lot of energy and brainpower to fight the way that they do, it also made for some quality entertainment during family gatherings. The majority of the ride consisted of the Potters' screaming match, but she paid little attention to it as she had her own fight to mull over and over in her head.
Alison felt the tension building up in Addy's chest, she wanted nothing more than to comfort her and talk about her troubles, although the thought of bearing one of her weaknesses out in the open in front of her cousins might prove to become another fight. As soon as the carriages soothed to a complete halt at the entrance of the village, Alison and Ariadne fled the scene and headed straight to the dress shops.
"Minerva knows that I always wear Nana's locket for parties." Ariadne ranted almost immediately as they swung open the door, the attached bell ringing sharp throughout the store. "It's my thing! She already has the bleeding hairpin that Gran passed down to mum, now she's hogging something she doesn't even own?" She busily swiped through racks of dresses, alarming her friend with her irate nature.
"I'm confused." Alison said carefully, "Is it your necklace?"
"No," Addy replied shortly, seeming to simmer down as she spoke. "Mum inherited the locket from her mum, and then passed it down to Ros. Even if it isn't mine, Minnie shouldn't be using it all the time, especially when Gran got her those gorgeous earrings for her birthday – "
"Don't you share a birthday with Minnie – "
Frustrated, Addy began to pile up on outfits in her free arm. "Yeah, alright! I got the same earrings too. And mum's ring, but I can't wear it because it snags every top that I wear, and I bloody hate it – I just..." She broke off what would have been the end of her sentence, sighing in hesitation. Alison reached out to her and helped carry a load of clothes from her arm, "Those earrings you mentioned, it's the emerald ones you have on right now, right? I think I've seen Minnie and Ros wear them too." She asked, trying to divert her frustration into something lighter.
Ariadne nodded, consciously feeling the cluster of stones decorating her ear lobes. "It's a family thing... When Gran passed down this hair ornament contraption that doubles as a brooch to mum, she wanted it to be, like, casual enough for daily wear. It was an ugly piece of jewelry – I think you've seen the silver serpent Min wears in her hair? Well, the stones came from that snake. Gran had the stones removed and had them turned to earrings. Now all the women in my family wear it. Though my brothers and my father do have either tie pins or a signet ring." She looked over to the mass of dresses Alison took from her, I don't even like those ones. Ariadne cursed herself from having held this bitter grudge for months over her twin sister, it seemed it had taken such an ugly toll on herself than it did on Minnie.
"It just reminds me," Ariadne starts to say slowly, one by one taking each dress back to its perspective rack. "How I am terribly petty over something that my sister did. I ignored her for the entire summer, and of course, being who she is, she did the same. I've lost sight as to why I'm doing this in the first place, but then I remember how it's all in vanity." The girl confessed, hanging her head back. "You must think that I'm such a spoiled brat."
Alison smiled lightly, gently coaxing her friend into holding her head high, her fingers guiding her neck to hold her chin up. "No, I don't." When she asked what prompted the feud between the girls, Ariadne replied cautiously. "You know my sister. She keeps to herself ninety-nine percent of the time, and I think it will finally backfire on her."
"And you're angry at her for... being shy? I've always thought of Minnie being a private person, and she's uncomfortable with doing most things. I heard that she almost didn't make Slytherin's quidditch team because she wouldn't step off the benches when it was her time to fly. Melissa had to make the spectators and most of the players leave so that she could showcase her skills."
Addy shrugged, "She actually had a meltdown in the locker room. Sabrina and both of Slytherin's beaters had to calm her down and drag her back to the pitch – "
"That's worst!"
"I know that, Ali. It's just that... Minerva has done so much progress since we were kids, and now, it feels like she's succumbing to her old habits." Ariadne frowned in disgust at the sight of a scarlet frock with sequined toffy brown ruffles. "I am not going to lie; it feels like rubbish to be jealous of her. Sometimes I'm even jealous of Ros. They both have excellent qualities, and then you have me – I'm relatively good at sports. But what the hell is athleticism if it's just going to fade with time when my bones are practically as strong as pretzel sticks and my reflexes are good enough to pass for a Flobberworm?"
"To be fair, pretzel sticks get really tough to bite through as they age," Alison reasoned snidely. "Don't even get me started on stale pretzel sticks. I chipped a tooth from it once, had to get a crown fixed in." Even with her ridiculous anecdote on stale snacks, Alison found Ariadne to be unresponsive, wallowing her stress in dress shopping. In a wild attempt to possibly make things better or worse, she swept up a canary yellow dress and held it over her shoulder like a cape, gaining her friend's undivided attention.
"What on earth – "
And then, quite horrifically, she watched how drastic Alison's movements became; her usual tilted shoulders straightened along with her back, her hips gaining a considerable amount of fluidity as her arms swayed like bamboo stalks standing against a breeze. "Look at me, the eldest daughter of one of the most illustrious families in the Wizarding World. I'm the roughest, toughest Quidditch player in all of Hogwarts, maybe even for the entirety of Great Britain! Did I mention that I am offensively popular – "
"Shut up, Longbottom." Ariadne spat, unable to hold back her amusement. "Popular I may be, but I'm still best friends with a complete dork."
Alison's impersonation froze back into her own self, though her lips were stuck on copying Addy's pout. "I'm your best friend?"
Have I not said that before? Ariadne thought to herself. "Of course, you are, Ali."
Seeming to have shaken the feeling of giddiness from her bones, Alison sank back into her cool attitude. "Alright then. As your best friend, I forbid you to throw yourself a pity party like that ever again. Or else I'll start imitating you in a very obnoxious, yet accurate manner as I have clearly showcased earlier."
Ariadne tried not to comment on how different Alison seemed while portraying her. Am I like that to her eyes? She was amused at how lithe she moved when she imitated Addy, how her hips swayed with every single movement. Ariadne knew herself to be rather prone to bumping into many pieces of furniture like desks and kitchen tables, and the occasional random student in the hallway. I could never be that graceful. "So, you really think that I'm the strongest Quidditch player?" She finally asked.
Alison nodded dutifully, now particularly interested in the yellow dress she picked out. "Do you remember when I tried out for the team? I was this tiny twelve-year-old, and you were already there to warm up the other students trying out for Beater." Just then, she pressed her hand against Addy's shoulder and guided her towards the full-length mirror at the end of the store. As the girls stood before it, Ali swept away locks of Ariadne's hair, her fingertips gently grazing her neck, sending sparks down Addy's spine. "Well, look at that," Alison said, gesturing to their reflection. "That's settled, you're wearing that dress." She proclaimed, grabbing her friend's hand to take hold of the yellow number.
Ariadne looked down at her hands and realized that she had been holding her breath. "Right. So, you were saying?"
"Oh, right. Well, we were doing practice swings on low-hovered brooms – I thought I was doing great, fantastic even. But the moment we were fully up in the air and the Bludger was loose... My arm was a goner. The bloody ball flew right into my radius and broke it cleanly into halves. Not soon after that, I saw it racing towards you, and you were focused on flying towards me to help," Alison smiled as she retold the story as if a broken arm were something to laugh about. "I vaguely remember the Bludger hitting your bicep, and you just did a weird bit of flying where you flew away in a sideway somersault before it could fully impact on you. I think you just ended up with a bruise. I don't think anyone has escaped a Bludger without a broken bone or a shot to the stomach, perhaps even getting knocked off their broom. Sometimes even having their brooms whacked to death and then falling – "
Alison caught herself in time to see Ariadne looking back at her in the mirror, blushing and then averting her attention back to the dress. "You're also one of the two Ravenclaws in your family. Being in our house doesn't always mean intellectual wealth, it's always more to that than meets the eye. Besides, you should know that it's never good to harbor jealousy over others. Being who you are is something you should celebrate; your individuality is not something to use as a comparison to who you think is a model human being."
Ariadne nodded reverently, folding up the yellow dress into a neat square. "I'm sorry about your arm. I didn't reach you in time."
"It's nothing a little potion can't fix," Alison answered with a beaming smile, unconsciously feeling her left arm, her fingers drawing against the thick scar where her bone poked outward. Just then when they returned to look for more outfits, Addy spotted her other friends through the shop window, walking down the street towards The Three Broomsticks. Her mind instinctively went to Alison who was examining a violet feathered dress.
"I sometimes feel like I keep you away from your actual friends, like, from your own year," Addy said in an outburst. "You should know that you're not obligated to hang out with me every day." I don't want you to get sick of me so soon.
Alison shrugged, her smile on the fence of laughing. "Scorpius is getting a tad jealous with the attention I've been having for you, but he's a big boy – he has Gen and Albus with him. And besides, I love hanging out with you., Addy."
"Good."
"Great," Ali added, now sighing. "I think you should pick out a dress for me, Adds. Seeing that I've ready picked yours. That dress should go brilliantly with those shoes you have, the block heels with the periwinkle stars. I trust you know my style, so I have no doubt that you'll disappoint me."
Ariadne scoffed; her eyebrows already knitted in pure focus over the nearest rack. "Please. I'll just pick out the outfit that looks like it hasn't seen broad daylight since it was locked in the basement during the 1970s."