October 30th, 2010. Hogwarts, Scotland 10:00 AM BST
The next month went by in a blur of classes and training. First year was a rough one, getting us all our prereqs before we made an informed decision about our focus of study, so there was a ton to do. I'd gotten the Doxy eggs to Fred and George and handed over the box of bone to Daphne, then settled back into learning magic.
I'd also been writing letters as I could back home to my mom and Seras. The two of them were getting extremely close, my mom acting as sort of a surrogate parent to my vampire friend. I'd pretty much expected that, given her loss, but I hadn't expected Andi and Tonks to get involved in making her feel welcome and for my auror trainee cousin to become fast friends with her.
Keeping them from asking questions about her lack of magic use had taken some fancy footwork on moms part, but with some colored contacts a claim that she was in mourning, things seemed to be going well on that front, and Seras adored Tonks, which should have surprised me very little considering their similar demeanors and career choices.
Still, despite the month long training binge, today was both a day off and the day BEFORE Halloween, which was, to no one's surprise, a big deal in the wizarding world.
"So it's just a feast?" I complained to Theo and Blaise as I sifted through shit in my room. "There's no costumes or candy or anything? What a huge letdown."
Theo shrugged. "I mean…the food is good?" He said questioningly. "I don't know what else you want."
"Girls in slutty outfits?" I said incredulously. "Haven't you guys ever been to a muggle Halloween party? I mean, they take the chance to dress in the most provocative way possible. Halloween is the time of year where women can dress in the skimpiest clothes they want and no one can say anything about it."
Blaise looked intrigued. "That DOES sound interesting. It IS Saturday, do you think it would be possible for us to go to one of these parties?"
"We could invite the girls along." Theo said casually, pretending he wasn't literally drooling over the thought of Hannah showing some skin. The two of them had been dancing around each other since he first started hanging with us, and we probably would have intervened if it wasn't so funny to watch.
Speaking of frustrating relationships with women, Lavender and I hadn't really made any progress at all. It wasn't that she wasn't down for some fun, but between the house rivalry and our busy schedules we never had any time to fool around. Inviting her to a party where she could show off those humongous tits wasn't a bad idea though.
"We'd need a teacher to give us a pass…" I said thoughtfully. "Plus we'd need to be back before the ACTUAL Halloween feast tomorrow. Do any of you guys know any teachers who would help? Family business is one thing, but no way Snape lets us fuck off to find a party to go to."
We'd also need costumes but…I mean, we were fucking wizards. A bit of transfiguration on some normal clothes would get that done. Not that I'd learned enough of the stuff to manage, but Suzie was pretty good after all the training from her Aunt, so she could do it.
"Tracey might be able to get us a pass." Blaise said thoughtfully. "She's got a pretty decent relationship with Flitwick, and he's pretty easy going to begin with. I hear the Ravenclaws get weekend passes all the time. Snape is just kind of a miser about the whole thing, big surprise."
"Ok, well if we're doing this I need to borrow Theo's owl to send a message to Lavender." I looked at my brown haired friend. "You good with that?"
He waved me off. "Oh sure. Benvolio doesn't do much anyway. In the meantime I'll head to breakfast to talk to Tracey. And hey, I can mention this to Hannah and Susan while I do. Just so you don't have to go through the trouble." Blaise and I rolled our eyes at the transparent attempt to sound nonchalant.
After he left, Blaise let me into his room, having been given access a while ago since he and Theo were buddies since they were kids. Finding the pitch black owl on its perch was simple enough, and I scrawled a message to Lavender before carrying the owl out of the dorm and up to the first floor, releasing it outside to circle back around and deliver the message.
I probably could have gone up and just talked to her, my relationship with the Lions wasn't terrible, but if people found out we were getting a weekend pass everyone would want one and it would make actually leaving a nightmare.
Heading back in, I joined the rest of our group at the table, giving them all a friendly nod as I sat down and requested french toast and some good syrup. "So, Theo fill you guys in?"
Daphne snorted. "On your transparent plan to have us expose ourselves for your viewing pleasure. He did. What makes you think we would be interested in taking part in some muggle ritual based on drunken fornication and debauchery."
"You could just say fun, princess." I said with a smirk. "It's shorter and means the same thing. But hey, if you're too precious to have a good time we can go without you. I'm sure Lavender will keep me entertained."
Her eyes narrowed. "You are a Slytherin." She bit out. "Your constant fraternization with the enemy is unbecoming."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, lighten up. Not all of us feel the need to make those distinctions. But if you think it's beneath you we can seriously go without you." I glanced at her best friend. "How about you, Trace, any interest?"
She shrugged. "Sure. Not like the night before Halloween offers any other entertaining activities. Besides, school has been stressful, I need to get hammered, preferably in more than one fashion."
No one batted an eye at that. Tracey was easily the bluntest member of our group, and had no issues being incredibly up front about anything that went through her head. It wasn't sarcastic or teasing, she just gave no fucks about what anyone thought, and frankly I respected the hell out of her for it.
Sadly for Blaise, who offered himself as tribute, she preferred uncomplicated fun, so she refused to hook up with anyone in the group.
I turned to Suzie. "Speaking of fashion, I was hoping you might be our costume manufacturer tonight? We don't have anything prepared, and you're the best among us at Transfiguration. So you think you could put together something that would last?"
She flushed, but nodded. "Oh sure, I've been doing cloth to cloth Transfiguration for Hannah and myself for years. I might need a bit more information on what you're hoping for. I'm not used to making clothing as…adventurous as Theodore described. But I'd be happy to help."
"Maybe you can even meet a boy." Said Hannah innocently. "Since none of the ones here seem to be interested."
I glared at her, but she just gave me a bitchy smirk. She knew that despite not wanting to mess around with Daphne or Susan I was (probably unreasonably) pretty possessive of my girls. I tried not to be, but it wasn't really something I had control over.
Before I could respond, a rolled up piece of paper dropped onto the table right in front of my french toast. I unrolled it, cursing. "Lavender is out. She has plans with her girlfriends tonight. Some kind of seance of something. Who the hell does a seance in a castle full of ghosts?" I waved it off. "Whatever, it'll be fun either way."
It wasn't like Lavender and I were dating or anything, just hanging out. If I could find some pretty muggle girl to fuck that would work just as well.
Susan, who had been flushing hard, brightened up, and I couldn't help but imagine HER in a skimpy Halloween costume. While she didn't have the magnificent sweater puppies Lavender was rocking, my Suzie wasn't exactly sporting an airplane runway, and those gorgeous long legs of hers were almost unfair on such a tiny girl.
Hannah rolled her, though what emotion she was expressing I had no idea. "Anyway, Tracey, can you get us a pass from Flitwick?"
She shrugged. "Probably. He's a big believer in students being free to explore the world and experience the magical community even when in school. I'll talk to him after breakfast, are you sure we can just FIND a party?"
I snorted. "It's a Saturday night the day before Halloween. You won't be able to swing a cat without hitting something. We can do London. I don't know anyone there, but it should be easy to find someone."
Sadly, i couldn't invite Seras. London was her stomping grounds and she was supposed to be dead. Muggle parties would be tempting fate. That said, we'd learned the point me spell in DADA recently, and it was easily the most useful bit of magic I'd ever seen. I'd been practicing, and I should be able to use it to find a party.
"Fine." Snapped Daphne. "I'll go with you to your muggle festival." Her anger would have been much more imposing if she wasn't pouting, an expression which made her look even sexier than normal. None of us bothered to point out that she had only been thinking of going before because Lavender had been, and now Lavender wasn't. We all silently agreed to spare her pride.
"Great!" Said Tracey with a grin. "You really need to loosen up Daph. I know you have a lot of expectations and all that, but you've got to have some fun once in a while."
Daphne looked offended. "I have fun." She snapped. "I've got a very active social life, as you well know."
"No, you have a very POLITICAL social life." Tracey disagreed. "And I got with you to most of those functions. Galas, the opera, dinner parties. Those aren't FUN. You never just bail on being a princess for a day and go to a Wyrd Sisters concert. Or go to a bar to meet a handsome wizard."
The blonde glared at her friend. "I CAN have fun. I'll have more fun at muggle Halloween than you will."
Tracey nodded solemnly, until Daphne looked away and then winked at me. I had to smother a groan. Daphne and I were friends. Friends who flirted and snarked and both looked like walking sex, but still friends. I wouldn't do anything with Suzie tonight, even if she tried (which she probably wouldn't) because she'd read too much into it. Suzie wasn't the casual sex type.
But Daphne…if Daphne came onto me I might not be up to turning her down. She was fucking gorgeous, and fun, and definitely not the type to take things too seriously if I was up front about just wanting some fun.
I shook that thought off. I wasn't going to think too much about this now. We had a lot of prep work to do before we could even go to the party, assuming Flitwick gave us that pass. I refocused on the costumes and other things we might need.
Regardless of which of them it was, or my feelings towards them, I was determined to make sure my friends had a kickass Halloween in the nonmagical world. They deserved some fun, and it was up to me to give it to them. Most of them were purebloods or half-bloods raised by wizard parents, so I had a lot to cover. One way or another, I was going to make this a night none of us would forget.
October 30th, 2010. The Leaky Cauldron, London, England 6:00 PM BST(mild smut warning)
We didn't get changed into our costumes at hogwarts. Most of my friends weren't up for dressing strange (pot and kettle) on school grounds, so Susan consulted everyone in private for their costumes and we brought them with us to the Cauldron, each of us renting a room to get dressed before we headed out to party.
I'd kind of phoned mine in, just doing a pair of boxing trunks and some gloves. As a devil, my body changed itself over time to my physical ideal, at least according to the booklet, so I was straight up shredded, and I didn't mind showing it off.
Once I was dressed I headed downstairs to meet everyone. Blaise and Theo were the ones who finished dressing first. Blaise was dressed up as a stereotypical vampire with a cape and Theo had chosen to go as a Victorian gentleman. When they saw me, they both cursed. "Ok." Complained Blaise. "That's just not fair."
I grinned. "Hey, I told you Halloween was the time to show off and act a little slutty. That goes for us too. Who picked your costumes?"
Theo cleared his throat in embarrassment. "Tracey and Hannah are more familiar with muggle costumes, they helped us decide while you were working with Susan. Still don't know what any of them are going as though."
Tracey's bell like laugh came from behind us, and I turned to see the tall, willowy brunette in a tight sexy cat costume. "It's more fun if we get to see the looks of shock on your faces." She grinned at us, hands on her hips. "You can be the dry run for all the lads who get to drool over this masterpiece."
Hannah, who was currently dressed as a stereotypical witch, complete with short frilly skirt and thigh highs, rolled her eyes as she stepped past her. She adjusted her hat as she took us all in. "Ignore her, you all look great." She frowned at my abs. "You're going to melt my poor Suzie you bastard."
I opened my mouth to respond, but froze in place as my eyes caught the aforementioned redhead. Or at least, she HAD been a redhead. Susan had dyed her hair blonde to go with her costume. She wore a skimpy see through white babydoll with white lingerie under it, a pair of angelic wings on her back.
Her cheeks were fetchingly pink as she averted her eyes, squirming a bit under my gaze as I took him in. The sweet and friendly vibes she usually gave off only served to underscore the angelic sexiness, and I had to clear my throat to swallow.
"Suzie…you look amazing." I managed to croak. She offered me a shy smile, her eyes raking over me as her blush went from light pink to crimson.
"I like your costume too." She stammered. Seemingly at a loss for what to do, she turned around to call back up the steps. "Daphne, are you alright up there? I can come back up and help if you like?"
There was a sigh as the blonde stepped off the landing, her cheeks ALSO pinked. "No. I'm fine. I'm simply not used to dressing in such a…forward way."
"You look like a thirsty whore." Chirped Tracey happily. "You sure you don't want to go change?"
Daphne, who had seemed stiff and uncomfortable, glared at her friend, flipping back her hair. If Susan's angel costume did it for me because she was pure and sweet most of the time, Daphne's got me going a whole other, much more ironic way.
My toned blonde friend had put on a pair of red glittery thigh high boots, some very skimpy red leather booty shorts, and a red leather corset that molded to her well muscled body. The completed the ensemble with a pair of cheap devil horns on a headband, a small pitchfork and a pointed tail that hung from her shorts, albeit wrapped around her slim waist.
Choosing to go as a slutty devil was unexpected, though I figured it was a counterpoint to Susan. She certainly gave the other girl a challenging look as she walked by, making sure she had plenty of sway in hips as she sauntered up to me, giving me a once over.
"I'll admit, you're much more pleasing to the eye without all those bulky robes." Her voice was husky as she licked her lips. That fucking devil outfit was hitting a lot of buttons for me, weirdly, and I couldn't take my eyes off her.
Tracey snickered. "I'd tell you not to soak your knickers, but no way in hell you've got any on under shorts that tight. Even so, we have to actually get to a party, so I'd recommend pacing yourself with the flirting." Her tone was teasing, making sure we all knew she didn't mean anything by it.
Susan practically appeared next to Daphne, grabbing an arm with a big forced smile. "Tracey's right." She chirped. "We all look…" She blushed harder. "Lovely. We should find a party to go to." She turned and strode off, dragging Daphne behind her, much to the amusement of everyone else. I was a bit distracted by their respective asses to bother.
Trailing after them, we got out into the street and I used a point me spell to find a party with open attendance. It didn't take us long to arrive at a large house with people trailing in and out. With our crew being as sexy as we were, there was no chance they weren't going to let us in, and we all headed inside to party.
Not a huge drinker, I still decided to let loose a bit, and got myself a glass of the punch, which based on the taste probably had a decent amount of liquor in it. While I got my drink, everyone else scattered to the winds.
Hannah dragged Susan off to the dance floor, while Theo followed the natural blonde (not that she seemed to mind) Tracey and Blaise slipped off separately to find dance partners of their own, which left me alone with Daphne. I couldn't stop staring at her body in those tight leather shorts, and I could see she looked just as affected by me.
She stared into my eyes for a bit, then her expression became determined, dragging me off by the wrist. She found a roomy closet, shoving me into it in grand Hogwarts tradition, then pulled the door shut and yanked the chain on the single lightbulb above us.
The light played softly over her smooth skin as her big blue eyes stared up into mine. "So." I said cheerfully. "You have something to talk about princess?"
Her pout was probably the sexiest thing I've ever seen. "You shouldn't read into this." She said haughtily."I told Tracey I could have fun. You're just a friend I trust. You can't expect me to throw myself at some…muggle."
I reached up and pushed her hair behind an ear, and she shuddered, her pupils blowing up. "Are you throwing yourself at me, Daphne?" I asked huskily. "You seem a bit far away."
She swallowed hard, stepping closer, her breathing speeding up. "This is just fun." She said as she stared up into my eyes. "You're…objectively attractive. No reason we can't enjoy ourselves. But I won't go too far. I'm not some broom closet slag."
I ran a thumb over her lips and down her chin. "I know that." I said, my heart pounding in my chest. I was so hard it fucking hurt, she was beautiful and right here, and mine for the taking and I fucking WANTED her. I leaned down, taking her lips in mine, kissing her softly at first, but then things started to get more frantic.
My hand slid down her back, palming one tight smooth ass cheek and then the other as I hiked her up to wrap her legs around my wait, slamming her back into the wall. She wasn't a small girl, but she felt almost weightless to my devil strength, and I had to hold back not to bruise her as Imanhandled her.
Judging by the whiny moans coming from her lips as I devoured them, she certainly wasn't complaining. Her hips ground against me where I had her pinned to the wall, her shorts and mine the only thing separating her from my extremely hard cock. I kissed my way down her cheek, sucking on her neck, desperately wanting to leave a mark on that pretty pale skin.
"Ryan." She whined. "Nothing past this. I can't…my virginity. It's not proper." Her voice sounded dazed and uncertain, but I got her point.
I groaned. "Ok, clothes stay on. No big. But maybe we can play around while wearing them?" I let one of my hands slide up, running gently over the midriff above her shorts, playing with the button of the red leather bottoms.
Biting her lip, she looked up at me needily. "Don't go inside." She mumbled, eyes averting in about the cutest gesture I'd ever seen.
I felt like I'd just been given permission to explore a fucking wonder of the world. My hand slipped into her shorts, and I grinned. Tracey had been dead on. No panties to speak of. Daphne whimpered as my fingers traced over the lips of her soaking pussy. Despite the no penetration thing being her own rule, she tried to grind on my fingers to get them deeper.
Naturally I didn't let her. I pulled back, smiling at her needy whine as I captured her lips with mine again, finally getting to her clit, rubbing it gently at first. Her eyes flew open wide, staring into mine as she started to squirm, her eager moans against my lips probably the hottest thing I could imagine.
I sped up my iron grip with my other hand holding her hips in place as I played with her dripping cunt. Her whines got louder, needier, and more frantic, until she finally went off like a bottle rocket, squealing into my mouth as her eyes rolled up, hips trying desperately to buck as she soaked her shorts.
Grinning at her, I pulled my hand out and licked it clean. I'd always loved the taste of pussy, and Daphne's taste was fantastic. Such a sour girl with such a sweet flavor, I almost made a joke about it, but it felt mean.
"That was…" She trailed off in a daze. "I've never felt like that before." I set her down, and she frowned at her shorts and the puddle on the ground. I grinned and grabbed a towel from the shelf next to us, what a convenient closet. She started wiping herself down. Her eyes flicked down to the tent in my shorts. "Do you want me to…do the same?"
Leaning down to peck her on the lips, I shook my head. "Seeing you cum for me like that was plenty of excitement for me. You can owe me one." A desperate handjob in a closet wasn't what I wanted from Daphne. Being patient would mean more fun later.
She stepped up and went onto her toes, pressing a kiss to my lips. "I…had fun." She said shyly. Then her expression stiffened. "And naturally you did as well. So we've accomplished our goal. You'll take me out to dance now."
That drew a laugh from me as I extended my elbow to her. "Of course, princess. Maybe we can have some fun like that again sometime."
Her cheeks blazed, but she noticeably didn't turn me down. I probably should have been worried about our group dynamic, but here, in a closet the smelled of orgasm and arousal, with my dick almost painfully hard in my shorts and a cute little blonde pressed up against me, I couldn't be bothered to worry all that much. I'd let future Ryan worry about that. I had a party to enjoy.
AN:// I had fun with this one. Trying to keep Daphne in character while having her lean into having fun for the night was tricky, but I think I managed, and Ryan was ultimately too tempted to let common sense warn him off fooling around with her, no matter what his head said. Granted, it was bound to be tough given how hot she is.
October 31st, 2010. Hogwarts, Scotland 10:00 AM BST
The next morning wasn't as awkward as I'd expected. Mostly because Daphne and I were two of only three people not nursing a hangover (no guesses on the third). Susan seemed excited and happy after the party, having had a bit of liquor but not enough to get actually drunk. Hannah was trying not to look at Theo in a way that told me they'd probably found a closet of their own, and Daphne was pretending nothing at all had happened.
"Ok." Said Tracey with a groan as she inhaled a stack of pancakes. "That was fun, but it was so damned painful. Muggle liquor is so strong, I was pounding shots almost as hard as that blonde guy was pounding me."
"Tracey!" Said Susan with a blush. Naive and sweet or not, Suzie wasn't stupid. She knew what the dark haired girl was talking about. You shouldn't be so crude."
Deciding to cut off that topic before it strayed somewhere unfortunate, I cut in. "Everyone drank a bit too much I think. It might be best to head for our dorms and get cleaned up, since we have the Halloween feast later tonight."
Mostly I was making an excuse, because I needed to dip out to check in with the twins. They'd signalled me as I came into the dining hall, presumably about the job I'd given them After making my excuses I slipped out, stopping in the hall and looking around for them, until a large hand pulled me into an alcove.
"Fred." I said with a nod. "George. Haven't heard from you in a while. Good to know you're still on the case."
They shrugged, George responding for the both of them. "Quidditch started, not to mention we've had pranks to pull. We live rich and fulfilling lives. Point is, we've set up a few…creative detection methods to map when someone was going to try to get in. Earlier today, we got a rather unusual result from one of our trip spells."
"Was it him?" I snapped to attention. I'd had no leads on cloak guy for the whole of last month, Fred and George were my last avenues of investigation unless he did something else. I couldn't exactly spend my whole night lurking at the edge of the forest, and the few times I'd skimmed over it in flying practice there'd been nothing.
Fred looked troubled. "We don't know." He said hesitantly. "We added redundancies to our spellwork, not just the one trip spell but some backups. When we went to check them they appeared to be intact…mostly. One of the hidden secondary spells had been triggered, a pressure sensor, and whoever did it was in too much of a hurry to repair it like the others."
"What does that mean exactly?" I asked worriedly.
"That whoever did it is talented enough at Charms to rework our spells and slip past them." George cut in. "They were probably in a hurry, or I doubt they'd have missed the last one. They ALSO brought something big into the castle, though without the other identifying charms we laid down we can't say what."
I cursed. That wasn't helpful. I mean, it was better than nothing, but in terms of clues about evil plans 'he brought an unknown large object into the school' wasn't a particularly helpful one. Still, they'd set up the spells and had at least been competent enough notice this apparently talented asshole try to pull a fast one.
George looked unhappy. "I know it's not ideal." He said with frustration. "But even we can't just spend all our time hanging around the exits. We have ways of identifying who is in a specific location, but that only works if the detection wards actually go OFF so we know to check them."
I waved him off. "It's fine. I didn't give you much starting info, and you guys have already gotten more than I have."
Fred snorted. "We don't leave jobs half done, we'll keep working it, just be careful today. We aren't sure what was snuck into the castle or where it is. We only know it definitely isn't a person or probably a giant. Nothing with human level intelligence." I had no clue HOW they knew that, but it helped narrow things down at least.
Sadly, not nearly enough. I spent the rest of the day trying to wander around and find whatever it was, but since I didn't know what kind of creature I was looking for, where the hell it could be, or even how to navigate the giant ass school, I came up with absolutely nothing. I even tried a damned point me spell, but apparently whoever cloak guy was, he was also well aware of how broken that spell was, and could counter it. Well, that or my parameters were too vague even for a point me.
Naturally I was in a fairly bad mood when I headed down to the great hall for the feast. Still, it WAS Halloween, so I tried to do some breathing exercises to calm down. I had this frantic roiling knot of worry in my gut, like something really bad was about to happen, but without any way to find or stop it I was just stuck sitting on my hands until something went wrong.
All I could really do at this point was try to enjoy my Halloween and keep an eye and ear out for whatever the plan was. If it was that big, chances were good it couldn't get near the feast without making enough noise to tip off my super senses, so we wouldn't be in too much danger, and cloak guy himself was unlikely to start shit with Dumbledore around, since the old man was supposed to be basically invincible.
Sitting down across from my friends, I gave them all a wan smile. Suzie and Hannah were eating with us at the Slytherin table, as they often did, and since our group comprised several of the richest and most intimidating members of the house no one gave them shit about it.
My redheaded friend had removed the dye from her hair and was looking as excited and cheerful as ever, and even Daphne seemed to be smiling a bit more than usual. I exhaled a long breath, trying to release the tension. I was here with my friends, enjoying life, if something happened we could take care of it, but I wouldn't let it ruin my night.
"I have to say." I announced with a chuckle. "I like the feast, the vibe, the floating jack o' lanterns and the candles, but this." I gestured to a nearby tray. "Is just weird." For the feast, they had done a standardized menu for everyone instead of allowing us to order. I was down with most of it, prime rib, potatoes, asparagus, and various other interesting and delicious foodstuffs, but the Pumpkin Pasties were just weird to me.
Theo snorted, snatching one up and biting into it. "Philistine. What's Halloween without Pumpkin Pasties?"
"Normal?" I offered innocently. "Although, honestly I don't think there is any traditional Halloween meal back in the US. Which is weird. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, hell people even grill on fourth of July. It's weird such a big holiday doesn't have an associated food. I guess people don't want to fill up before the candy."
Suzie lit up. "Oh! I tried some of that at the party. They were called Rountree's Fruit Gums. Do you have many things like that back in the colonies?"
I waggled my hand back and forth. "Some, but fruit snacks aren't super popular as Halloween candy. We mostly do either chocolate or like, super cheap lollipops that I'm convinced are just there to take up space. Other than that probably like sweet tarts and nerds. There's just a ridiculous amount of possible candies so no one place is ever really the same."
She seemed fascinated, and even Daphne looked intrigued. I chuckled. "If I have a chance to visit St. Louis over the summer I'll snag some American candy for you guys. It tends to keep pretty well, so stashing it in my trunk for a few months won't be a problem. You guys are going to flip when you try Reese's.
To my surprise, even Hannah and Tracey, who were (relative to the others) kind of muggle experts, hadn't tried any of my favorite candies. The UK and US had very different ideas about sweets, and the muggle world those two had been exposed to wasn't the same one I'd grown up with. Double culture shock I supposed.
Blaise had apparently gone to the hospital wing for a hangover cure, so he was surprisingly bright eyed. "I'm definitely interested in trying some American candy, though not as interested as I am in meeting some American girls. I bet muggle Halloween over there is even better."
"It is." I admitted. The UK tended to lean more toward spooky costumes than unrelated sluttiness, and the vibe just wasn't as pervasive from what I'd seen. The US went ALL OUT for Halloween, but the commercial parts weren't as popular over here.
"That settles it." He said with a grin. "We're definitely going over there next year. After, all not all of us brought a blonde to fool around with in the closet. While you and Daph were getting your rocks off I couldn't find a single girl at that party that didn't already have a boyfriend."
I froze, as did Daphne, as did Hannah. I heard a slight whimper of hurt, and I tried not to grimace as my eyes panned over to a shocked and teary eyed Susan. There was a thump and a moan of pain as Tracey kicked Blaise in the shin and started berating him for being an idiot, and Susan stood up and bolted out of the great hall.
I was about to go after her, but Daphne held up a hand, slipping out of her seat and bolting the same way the redhead had gone. I glared hard at Blaise, who looked ashamed. "Sorry." He offered weakly. "I didn't think…I guess I just didn't think." He sounded so guilty I couldn't find it in me to snap, it was pretty clear he felt terrible as it was.
"It's not your fault." I said with a sigh. "I made the decision not to fool around with anyone in the group and then I did it anyway. This is on me." Goddamned devil libido. Daphne was literally walking sex, and I'd just let myself go with the flow. Even if casual fooling around might not ruin my friendship with Daph, I hadn't considered how Susan would react until too late.
Speaking of late…my eyes went wide as I realized they'd taken off into the school. Which was supposed to be the site of some crazy plan involving an unknown large item or creature. I cursed, standing up and getting ready to bolt after them, still not positive how to even find them, when the doors to the great hall slammed open, admitting a terrified figure.
"TROLL!" He bellowed in a terrified wail. It took me a second to recognize Quirrel, the defense teacher had never made much of an impression on me besides smelling really bad. Now he looked positively terrified, as he stumbled toward the head table where Dumbledore was sitting. "TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!" Then he stopped, whimpered. "Thought you ought to know." And toppled over backwards, unconscious.
I was out the door before anyone could react, moving fast enough that if anyone had been paying attention they'd probably have begun to suspect I was human, but I didn't care. Daphne and Susan were gods knew where, with a fucking TROLL on the loose. My demonic energy began to stir as the wrath bubbled inside me. Cloak guy had crossed a fucking line this time. Nobody put my girls in danger.
AN://I was looking for a way to set things up so we still got the troll incident given the different dynamics, and this one seemed like the best way to do it. Next chapter is going to be lots of fun, as is the one after, so look forward to that lol.
October 31st, 2010. Hogwarts, Scotland 8:00 PM BST
I came out of the great hall so fast I bounced off the fucking wall in the hallway. My hands came up and pushed me off and I hit the ground at a dead sprint cursing. Where the fuck were they? They had to be nearby, but I had no way of knowing where they had g-. I stopped. Fuck. I'm a wizard. Right.
I fumbled out my wand, casting a point me spell and of fucking course I'd gone in the exact wrong direction. Cursing, I turned and bolted the way I came. I half wanted to fly, but what was even the point? I was in doors. At least, that would have been an issue until I came to one of the staircases.
Looking down, I could see a bit of a corridor at the bottom near the dungeons, and a flash of motion. I didn't even think twice, I popped my wings and vaulted the railing, plummeting towards the bottom floor.
My wings spread unconsciously as I caught myself about twenty feet up, slowing my descent as I came in. I would have completed the drop, except I saw a terrified Susan huddled against the wall with a massive troll standing over her ignoring a frantically casting Daphne as it brought a giant fuck-off club around at my redhead friend's skull.
I blurred forward, no time to do almost anything but push all my magic into my fucking wings. The world seemed to slow down as the club fell like a headsman's axe, but I pushed on and barely made it in time to shove Susan out of the way, sending her sliding down the stone floor as the club missed her and slammed into my fucking ribs.
There was an explosion of pain in my side as my body was lifted bodily and hurled down the corridor in the opposite direction, the world returning to its proper speed as I skipped across the floor like a stone.
I retracted my wings, my head spinning and my torso on fire as I heard Daphne scream my name and the troll roar.
"Ow!" I snarled at the huge ugly monster as I climbed to my feet. "That fucking HURT you ugly shitbag." I could feel that old familiar rage building in my gut like a kindling fire as my magic started to thrash around, desperate to be used.
Everyone froze. Daphne, Susan, even the fucking troll. They just stared at me as I shrugged off what probably should have been a lethal blow with nothing more that a grimace and a bad attitude. Granted, I was pretty sure at least three of my fucking ribs had just cracked, but still.
The troll glared, but its piggy eyes narrowed. Rather than come at me, who had seemed to be infinitely more durable than it expected, its cunning eyes darted towards the girls. It gave me an ugly rot toother smile and then turned, darting toward them, which, you know, fuck that.
I threw out a hand, my wand still happily clasped in it, and roared "PROTEGO". A massive dome of silver coalesced right on top of the bastard, sealing him inside. Stupid beast kept walking and hit the edge, bouncing off with a snarl, before proceeding to start wailing on it full force. I winced as I felt the drain, the spell soaking my damned magic from all the damage, but I blocked it out.
I limped over to the girls. "You ok?" I asked Daphne, who was staring in complete bafflement at the trapped troll. "I should have chased you guys down right away. About the rest of this… I think maybe we should discuss it later, I can't hear myself think because someone is wailing like a fucking banshee while I AM TALKING!"
Whirling on the spot I lashed out with a hand, shoving my intent into the spell as I clenched it into a fist. Since I knew how to condense my shield into a smaller one, and the spell was still connected to me, it was easy to shrink it, forcing the troll to curl up in a ball on top of its club as it was forced down.
"Y-you." Daphne stuttered. "Wings. Club. WHAT!?" She shrieked the last bit even as a dazed Susan walked over to us, her upset at our little closet hookup clearly buried under concern and fear.
"Later." I said firmly. "I promise. Don't tell anyone else though. Just you two. We can meet up and talk about it when this is over. For now, go get the teachers, They should be looking around upstairs."
This would be long over before they showed up, but I was so fucking angry I was starting to red out, and I didn't want my girls to see me viciously beat another living creature half to death with my bare hands. They'd already seen me fly, but knowing I can do something and seeing it happen are different kettles of fish.
"What?" Said Susan in horror. "We can't just leave you here! It could kill you!" She looked on the verge of tears, her eyes flicking guiltily to my ribs which I was clearly favoring.
I forced a smile. "It's fine Suzie. Don't I have him all locked up in that shield? I can't hold it forever though, so you'd better hurry. I promise I'll be ok." I let the smile drop. "This is my fault anyway. You never should have been down here."
"Bullshit." Snapped Daphne. "This is OUR fault if it's anyones, and not even that, since we had no way of knowing there'd be a TROLL in the school. We should have been up front with you, Susan, or talked about things first, and I'm sorry about that, but THIS isn't Ryan's fault."
Susan shook her head quickly. "Of course not! I'm still…I didn't like hearing that. But I don't blame you at all! I'd never!"
"And I appreciate that." I gritted out. "But that thing is still straining at my shield and I can't hold this for more than fifteen minutes tops." That was actually probably true, maintaining a shield with a troll INSIDE it was fucking draining. It probably shouldn't have even worked, but I cheated by shoving a bunch of intent into the spell to flip it inside out.
Their eyes went wide, and they looked at each other, faces drawn and pale. Then they both lurched forward and glomped onto me in a tight hug. It took every ounce of demonic manliness in my devilish soul not to squeal like a dog who got its tail stepped on, but I managed it and they turned and bolted away.
Once they rounded the corner (the staircase above us wasn't connecting for another twenty minutes or so, they had to use another) I turned to glare at the troll. "Good. They're gone." I growled. I waved a hand and the shield vanished, letting the troll free.
It surged to its feet, roaring at me in rage, and I flicked my wand at it, using a disarming charm at full force. The club was ripped from its hand and came sailing across the hall to smack into my open palm as I put my wand away. Cracking my neck, I got a good grip with both hands and started to stalk forward.
"How DARE you?" I hissed at the subsentient beast in front of me. It wasn't aware, wasn't intelligent, all it had was hunger, rage, and animal cunning. I clearly noticed something was off because it turned to try to run and I hauled back and swung at its fucking leg like I was getting up under a home run.
There was a crack and a howl as it stumbled forward, crashing to the ground. The panicked monster started trying to drag itself away from me, but the red hot pit of boiling WRATH in my stomach had gone volcanic.
I brought the club up and over, slamming it into the things spine and there was another horrible crunch. "How dare you try to touch what's MINE?" I hissed, the anger eating the pain from my side even as I acknowledged in the back of my brain that I should be screaming in agony. "How dare you try to STEAL from ME?"
I'd felt Wrath. I'd felt Gluttony. I'd felt Pride. All of these had been part of me since I'd become a devil, but not like this. There had been some mentions of sins in the booklet, but I hadn't understood. Now, here, in this hall, with this inferior being trembling on the floor in front of me I felt it ALL.
And suddenly…I didn't want it anymore. The troll had tried to hurt my girls, but not because it was evil. It was stupid, and cowardly, and I'd already hurt it pretty bad. It's whimpering as it tried to scramble away wasn't a challenge, it was pathetic.
Sighing, I tossed the club aside. This poor bastard hadn't actually hurt Susan. He'd only gotten IN here because of cloak guy. He was a victim in this. Plus I'd already tormented the shit out of him, and I had no way to explain it if I killed him in the hallway of a fucking college. I sighed, limping over to the wall and slumping down against it.
It was only a few minutes later that the girls came running back at top speed, followed by McGonnagall and Snape. I was leaning against the wall, holding my ribs as the troll huddled in a ball, whimpering.
"Bludgeoning curse." I said in explanation as they spotted the leg and back, both bleeding and crushed. "He got loose and tried to kill me. It was all I could think of." Daphne had taught me that curse actually, but I didn't use it much, my hands did the job well enough most of the time. I could overpower it to a crazy level, but it wasn't usually necessary.
No one questioned it, the girls just ran over to check on me, both looking terrified, though Daphne's terror was more reserved while Susan was just openly weeping on me.
The teachers restrained the troll with some weird zip tie spell, then levitated it off down the hallway. McGonnagall was giving me suspicious looks, but not suspicious enough to bother me, especially with Snape insisting the girls take me to the hospital wing. Great, so that was something I had to deal with.
They helped me stand, one under each shoulder, and half walked half carried me down the hall. After the wrath fled I just felt…tired. Tired and empty. I wasn't too upset about fucking up the troll, I'd stopped and there was magic to heal it, but that could have been bad. I really needed to get a handle on my temper.
"So…that-" Daphne started, her face a mask of almost fearful reluctance to address the elephant in the room.
"No." I said shortly. "Not yet. Like I said. I'll explain, I promise, but not now. We actually do need to go to the hospital wing, not just to prove we did, but also because I'm in a metric shit ton of pain right now, and I require either a healing spell or enough magic drugs to knock my block all the way off and back around up my own ass."
Susan giggled at that, and I raised an eyebrow at her incredulously, and she blushed, before looking away and muttering. "It was funny." I grinned at her, trying not to chuckle myself (because cracked ribs plus chuckling equals agony). Daphne just rolled her eyes at both of us, though I saw her cheeks twitch as she tried to fight a smile.
After we arrived at the hospital wing, they dropped me off, promising to pick me up in the morning before breakfast. The silent promise of a long conversation loomed over that pickup, but I didn't mind too much. I trusted them, and besides, I'd take the distraction from seeing Susan so upset, though who knew how the fuck THAT was gonna work out.
AN:// I was building to this one for a while, and I think it came out really well. I hit all the notes I was aiming at. Let me know what you guys thought.