Gripping Fred's hand in her own, Persephone smiled to herself as the pair made their way down the abandoned corridor towards the large stone gargoyle.
She couldn't wait to see the flash of green flame of the fireplace and the sight of Cedric, Klara and Augustus stepping through the smoke. Though Fred and George tried hard, Hogwarts never seemed the same without the company of her three best friends. As good as the quiet Hufflepuff common room was, the silence sometimes got a little too loud.
"I've never actually been into Dumbledore's office before" said Fred, interrupting her thoughts, glancing down at Persephone.
Rather unattractively, Persephone couldn't help but chortle, covering her mouth with her small hands. Fred lightly slapped her arm in fake shock.
"You're surprised?"
"Yes Fred Weasley, quite frankly I am."
He chuckled lightly as the two fell back in step with each other, "I suppose so," he said thoughtfully, "actually now I think of it, I don't know how George and I haven't."
She nodded, continuing to laugh as they came to a halt in front of the statue.
"Do you know the password?" asked Fred.
Glancing down at her hand, she squinted her eyes to read to smudged scrawl of Professor Sprout. "I don't really know what this is supposed to say.." she muttered, moving her hand in Fred's direction for his interpretation.
"Pimple inns?"
"Pebble inps?"
"Wait, that's a double p, and that looks like imp..." whispered curiously Fred, turning his girlfriends hand in his own,"Pepper Imps?"
The gargoyle statue sprang to life, twisting as a spiral staircase elevated from the ground, causing the couple to jump up and down ecstatically.
"Congratulations on figuring it out, I probably could of told you but it was rather amusing watching you try to work it out..." spoke an amused voice from behind them, and they turned quickly to be faced yet again with the smiling face of Professor Dumbledore.
Walking passed them, the headmaster began to ascend the staircase, only stopping to motion them forward.
"We need to put a bell on that man..." muttered Fred, grabbing Persephone's hand as they also began to make their way up to their circular office.
Persephone had only been in Dumbledore's office a handful of times, but each time was different to the rest. Each time she noticed new noises, new artifacts or instruments, new figures hiding behind a frame.
"Sherbet Lemon?" questioned the Headmaster, holding out a dainty crystal bowl filled with countless, rather dusty looking muggle lollies.
She grabbed one to be polite, popping it quickly in her mouth. As it lingered on her tongue, the outer layer began to dissolve away, leaving a pleasant lemon taste within her mouth.
"They should be here any mom-" began Dumbledore, only stopping as he was interrupted by a flash of green flames, and a loud thread of expletives.
Klara was soon expelled from the fireplace in the corner of the study, her body propelled onto the midnight blue rug, directly in front of the Headmaster. Getting to her feet, she immediately began to apologise.
"Professor Dumbledore, I-I am s-sorry you heard t-that."
The Headmaster dismissed it with a wave of his hand, "Don't worry Miss Francis, travelling by Floo can be an experience, that's for sure."
Grinning sheepishly, she nodded in his direction, before bounding over and embracing Persephone into a tight, almost bone breaking hug.
She giggled as Persephone moaned from the eager squeeze, "It's only been a week!"
Though saying this, Persephone really had really missed the erratic and chaotic witch that was Klara Francis.
Klara shrugged upon releasing her, letting her gaze fall upon Fred, who was standing next to Persephone and observing the rather odd female exchange.
"Hi" said Fred abruptly, reaching out to shake her hand.
Though rather confused, she outstretched a hand as well, turning to Persephone with a large smirk on her face. Persephone already knew the collection of questions that were swarming around Klara's head like a swarm of disturbed bees, and knew their next time alone would be consumed with an uninterrupted barrage of questions about what exactly went down over the weekend.
The fire place began to fizzle again, it's smoke and flames turning to a deep emerald green colour once more. Cedric popped into the flames, and soon after he stepped out, the broad body of Augustus also appeared.
Stepping out into the large circular office, the boys both let out grins of excitement, both happy to be in the place they called their second home. This lasted only a moment, until their eyes both slid across Persephone, and down to her hand that was still intertwined with Freds.
+ + +
The fireplace crackled as the four Hufflepuff students sprawled themselves out over the familiar large yellow couch in the corner of the common room. Persephone sat in a beanbag, potions book in hand, with a large knitted quilt draped over her body, Cedric and Augustus were laying across the couch, exhausted and half asleep after their morning of chasing each other round like first years. Klara, for some unknown reason, was dangling upside down from the armchair like a vampire with her feet high above her head.
"You're going to get a headache" sung Persephone in a singsong voice towards Klara, not even looking up from her book. This caused Klara to let out a quiet huff of dissatisfaction.
"I will deal with that when it happens, and anyways, we have more important matters to discuss."
Augustus groaned loudly, before grabbing a cushion and putting it over his head. "Can we discuss them when i'm not trying to sleep."
"Well I was thinking we could discuss New Years Eve, actually."
This caused both boys to wake up immediately, both of them sitting up to be active participants of the conversation at hand.
"I still have the fire-whiskey from my birthday!" exclaimed Cedric, referring to his previous birthday on which the four convinced Amos to pitch the tent in the woods near their house where they partied all night with two bottles of fire-whiskey packed hidden in their bags.
"That was a good night," reminisced Klara as she turned herself from hanging upside down, sitting normally on the chair, "hopefully Augustus can handle his alcohol this time."
Cedric, Persephone and Klara erupted in an explosion of laughter, all remembering the comatose state Gus was in for almost the entire night. Augustus on the other hand, turned a shade of red as he crossed his arms together in dissatisfaction.
"Where were you thinking?" questioned Cedric once the laughter had died down.
"Astronomy Tower? Filch is away on some cat conference and the Heads of Houses will understand that we're young and happy and willing to celebrate the end of 1993 and the commencement of 1994."
"What about Snape?" questioned Augustus.
Klara snorted, "as if you think he's actually going to leave his smelly dungeon."
+ + +
The night of the 31st of December was cold and quiet as the group of four students climbed up the ladder to Hogwarts' astronomy tower. The bag, full of food nicked from the kitchens, was swinging off Persephone's arm as she stepped onto the ladder behind Klara.
"When did you tell Fred and George to get here." called Klara, just as Persephone climbed up into the large circular astronomy tower. Cedric and Gus were already up here, setting up the blankets and pillows onto the cold stone floor.
"You invited them Persephone?" groaned Augustus, failing to contain his annoyance.
Persephone turned around to say something in retaliation, but was interrupted by the voice of a familiar ginger boy coming from the direction of the ladder's hole. "Klara did, actually."
Persephone smiled as the familiar mop of fiery hair made its way out of the entrance, followed suit by his almost identical twin.
"Hi Seph," he greeted, pressing his lips against her forehead in a chaste and affectionate matter. This caused Klara to let out a loud "aw" as she watched the exchange, and a loud comical gag to come out of both George and Augustus' mouth. Cedric, on the other hand, stayed quiet.
Augustus stuck his hand up in a wave like movement towards the twins, "No offence, or anything, I just thought it was a strictly Hufflepuff event."
"Don't stress it mate" muttered George with a smirk, swinging a bright red bag over his shoulder.
Persephone waved at the boys as they began to put down bag upon bag of stuff. "Hi Fred, hi George... What's in the bags?"
"Aren't you nosy.." grinned Fred, "it's something for later, for the New Year's Eve celebration."
Persephone couldn't help but be wary of the heavy bags lingering in the corner of the room. She knew her boyfriend, and she knew his brother.
This was not going to end well.
+ + +
hi lovelies,
it's the not posting in a couple of months for me lol im sorry ive had a lot a lot a lot of stuff on and have been trying to focus on myself when i have had time to myself.
but ah 100k!! omg!! I could never of imagined this book getting so many reads and so many amazing readers. thank you for your constant support and lovely comments & messages.
also ive been peeping at what reading lists this has been added to and to have this book be in a list titled 'hp favourites' or even 'favourite books of all time' means so bloody much to me.
but on a more serious note, i would like to voice my opinion on the current debate surrounding the author of harry potter, she who must not be named. I want all of you to know, that this place is a safe space for ALL OF YOU! trans woman are woman, trans men are men. no matter what is going on, i respect you and i respect your identity. though controversial, i want all of you to know that i no longer support or stand beside j.k rowling despite the creation of the world I love so much. I don't want any argument of this in the comments - please just either respect MY opinion and ignore it & continue reading, or respect my opinion & stop reading. I appreciate your support up to now either way. my dms are always open and my comments are always a safe space for you.
(i'm sorry if this is late it's only because I haven't updated in a while. this opinion has been and always will be mine."
this safe space should also be provided to my characters by you guys, the readers. the slut shaming and internalised misogyny that is currently going on in my comments is not on and will not be tolerated any longer. Cedric and Gus have not been held to the same regard as Klara and Persephone are and it is really frustrating. I have intentionally created Klara and Persephone as flawed yet strong and independent female characters. If you have a problem with that, keep it to yourself or simply stop reading.
I want to make this book a safe space for everyone, me included.
I am sorry this authors note had to go this way lol but its been annoying me for yonks
I love you all sm,
tilda xx
(i also created a harry potter tiktok HAHAHAHA hi if youre from there. its @quibitch and personally i find it vvvv funny but could just be my bias)
qotd: favourite marauder?
aotd: remus duh I love him sm