A/N: Saffron only gets one prompt for @kc-and-co’s Spring Challenge, and this is it: “Fruit”. This story features @lifeofkaze’s Dana Parkin, who is helping Saffron to face her fear and get back her zest for life. Warnings: phobias, fears, kiwi fruits.
Ever since she first purchased her wand at Ollivander’s, shortly after her eleventh birthday, Danielle Parkin had been fascinated by the spells she could cast with it. Once she started at Hogwarts, she quickly set about learning as many of them as she could.
In Charms, she was taught the basic incantations for day-to-day use, but she soon found out that cleaning charms and cheering charms were not the most exciting, and although Transfiguration covered more flamboyant spells, Dana couldn’t really see the point in knowing how to change a ferret into a feather duster. There was one subject that managed to strike a balance between practicality and glamour, and that subject was Defence Against the Dark Arts.
In the two years Dana had been at Hogwarts, the lessons had become a highlight of her week. And this week, Dana’s class would be learning a spell she had been looking forward to casting for some time: the Boggart banishing spell.
She had been reading up about the spell in advance, and about the creature it was designed to repel, though Boggarts were not truly creatures at all. They were non-beings, shapeshifters that were able to take the form of the person facing them’s worst fear. The spell to repel them was able to force them out of that shape and into another, one that the caster found funny.
“The spell isn’t really the thing that sees off the Boggart at all,” their teacher told them. “It’s your laughter, so really think of the thing that will make you laugh the most.”
One by one, the students approached the wooden trunk containing the Boggart, and faced their fears. A clown turned into a seal balancing a ball on its nose, a raging thundercloud turned into a rainbow, a growling dog turned into a teddy bear. Soon, it was Dana’s turn.
As Dana approached the teddy-shaped Boggart, it disappeared. The air swirled in front of her as the Boggart decided on its new shape, the one that would terrify her the most, before deciding on…
A pair of large crossed meat cleavers, sharp and bloody and ominous, hovered before Dana, floating towards her. Her heart began to beat in her chest, faster and faster as the knives drew closer and closer, and she took a deep breath before raising her wand and casting the incantation she had learned in advance:
“Riddikulus!”
The knives disappeared, and in their place stood a penguin dressed in a bow tie and top hat. The penguin began to tap dance to a music that Dana could not hear, and though she did not laugh out loud, it was only because she was smiling so proudly to herself, a smile that was reflected on her teacher’s face as she stepped to one side, ready for the next student to have a go at facing the Boggart.
Taking Dana’s place in the middle of the classroom was Saffron Summers, a Hufflepuff girl who had a reputation for strangeness that put many of her peers off befriending her. Dana was not one of them. She found Saffron’s eccentricity endearing, and quite enjoyed being partnered with the peculiar blonde girl in Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts.
The class fell quiet as Dana’s penguin disappeared and the Boggart began to choose a new form to take. Dana could see why; after all, who knew what sort of diabolical creature would exist in the darkest recesses of the mind of someone as odd as Saffron Summers? As for Dana herself, she closed her eyes. She knew that Saffron’s greatest joy in life was the care of her pet rabbits, and she really did not fancy seeing a dead bunny today, thank you very much.
Dana kept her eyes closed as the silence in the classroom gave way to hushed whispers, but as the whispers turned into stifled giggles, she frowned. How could anyone find someone’s pet dying funny? Cautiously, she opened one eye, then the other, to see that the one thing that scared Saffron Summers most in all the world was, in fact…
A kiwi fruit.
One single brown hairy fruit lay motionless on the floor in the middle of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Around the walls, Dana’s classmates were sniggering, and she almost laughed herself, out of a sense of relief rather than amusement. However, her laughter died the moment she saw the look on Saffron’s face. Poor Saffron had turned completely pale, and her wide brown eyes were filled with tears and terror. Dana had never seen anyone look so frightened.
Before Saffron even had a chance to cast the Boggart banishing spell, the kiwi fruit disappeared, the barely concealed snickers of their peers having grown loud enough to banish the Boggart without her input. A moment later, Saffron disappeared too, bursting into tears and running right out of the classroom.
She did not return before the bell rang to mark the end of the lesson, and though Dana kept her eyes peeled, she did not catch sight of Saffron for the rest of the day. By the time it reached dinner time, Saffron was still nowhere to be seen. Dana was starting to get worried, and so she headed over to the Hufflepuff table to see if anyone in Saffron’s own house knew where she might be.
“I saw her heading for the dormitories,” she was informed by Rylie Hopper-Lee, a Hufflepuff girl in the year below. “She looked really upset. I tried asking her what was wrong, but she ran up the corridor into her room before I could stop her. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Dana sighed. “Rylie, do you think there’s any way you could sneak me into the Hufflepuff dormitories after dinner? I’d really like to try to cheer Saffron up, we are sort of friends, after all.”
Rylie hesitated, but after a moment she nodded. Having agreed to meet Rylie at the entrance to the Hufflepuff dormitories, Dana ran up to her own dormitory in Gryffindor tower to fetch a box of brightly coloured nail varnishes from her chest of drawers, and carried it back down again to the basement of the castle, through the bright and cosy Hufflepuff common room, and down a tunnel shaped corridor lined with semicircular wooden doors. Dana knocked on the door Rylie told her was the one to Saffron’s dormitory.
No voice answered her knock, but Dana entered the room anyway, peering around the door to find Saffron sitting inside her open wardrobe clutching three large crystals, whilst her rabbits hopped about, roaming free around the dormitory. Dana sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the wardrobe.
“Saffron? I came to see if you were okay,” she told her, and Saffron’s eyes widened.
“Oh,” she said, quietly.
“Are you okay?”
“Oh,” Saffron said again. “Oh, no. Not really.”
“You know what I do when I feel sad? I paint my nails.” Dana opened her box of nail varnishes, held it out to Saffron and tilted her head to one side. “I can paint your nails too, if you like? You can pick whichever colour you like.”
Saffron’s attention had clearly been caught by the brightly coloured bottles, as she leant in towards the open box, but she frowned.
“Are they tested on animals?” She asked. “And are they vegan?”
“I don’t actually know, but we can check the labels.”
Though she didn’t smile, Saffron nodded her head, and between them the two girls picked out two bottles of nail varnish that met Saffron’s requirements - one purple and the other mint green - and Dana applied the two colours to Saffron’s nails in an alternating pattern.
“Thank you very much,” said Saffron, admiring the finished effect and blowing gently on her still damp nails.
“You’re welcome,” Dana replied. She paused before continuing, “Saffron, I’m really sorry that people laughed at your Boggart. It was really unkind of them.”
“Oh. Yes, I suppose it was.”
“You can’t help what scares you.”
“No, I know.”
Dana couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you so scared of kiwi fruit?”
Saffron opened her mouth as if to answer, before shutting it again without saying a word. Her eyebrows furrowed, and her eyes became tearful again.
“Why aren’t you?” she asked Dana eventually, her voice a terrified whisper.
It was a question that Dana had never thought to ask herself before, and one that she found herself unable to answer.
“I have an idea,” she told Saffron. “I think I know how to make you feel less frightened. Come with me.”
She stood up and held out her hand, and Saffron took it. The two of them walked out of the Hufflepuff dormitories and up into the main castle, walking until they reached the now dark and deserted Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. In one corner of the room was the trunk containing the Boggart, and Dana pulled the trunk into the centre. Saffron took a large step backwards and away from it.
“Wow,” she frowned. “I don’t think I like this idea.”
“I know, but hear me out a minute.”
“I will.”
“Okay, so I know you aren’t into duelling at all, but the thing everyone always says is that you have to keep your eye on your opponent’s wand so you get an idea of what they’re going to do and when,” Dana said, leaning against the trunk. “But my mum’s friend gave me private lessons, and she said you’re better looking them in the eye. They don’t expect that, and they think that you are so confident that you don’t even need to look at their wand, so it throws them off. They are trying to be the intimidating one, but when you face them so directly like that it makes them intimidated by you. Does that make sense?”
Saffron frowned and said nothing, so Dana stood up, and unlocked the trunk, holding it shut as she told Saffron:
“If you can face the Boggart, then it won’t be the scary one anymore, will it? And it’s not like you’ll be facing it alone. I’ll be here with you. Okay?”
“Okay.”
Dana and Saffron exchanged small smiles, one nervous, the other reassuring, and Dana opened the trunk. The swirling air that was the Boggart deciding on a form moved closer to Saffron, before shrinking down to the ground in front of her in the image of a brown fuzzy fruit. Saffron seemed to shrink too, her hand and bottom lip trembling as she stared at it in abject terror.
“It’s not real, Saffron!” Dana told her. “It’s not a real kiwi fruit, just a Boggart pretending to be one to scare you. Look it in the eye and let it know that you are the one to be scared of!”
Her words seemed to strike a cord with Saffron, because although the kiwi fruit did not have eyes, she stared at it with less fear and more determination, took a shaky breath, and raised her wand.
“Riddikulus!”
The kiwi fruit did not disappear, but instead, got bigger. Brown fluffy feathers sprouted from it, and it grew legs, wings, and a long beak.
“It’s a kiwi bird, Saff, you did it!”
“Oh, wow,” at last, Saffron was smiling. “I suppose I did.”
“Now you just need to laugh, and that will banish it completely.”
Saffron’s smile slipped slightly.
“What’s wrong?” Dana asked her.
“No, we can’t banish him now,” Saffron shook her head, her long blonde hair swishing as she did so. “He’s too cute to banish. Look at his little fluffy wings. I love kiwi birds.”
“But it’s not really a kiwi bird, Saff, it’s still a Boggart, pretending.”
“Yes, I know. But he isn’t doing any harm just pretending, is he?”
Dana smiled and linked arms with Saffron. “No, I suppose he isn’t.”
And so, the two newly best friends left the classroom arm in arm, leaving the kiwi bird Boggart to peck its way around the empty room, scaring absolutely no one.
Danielle Parkin, Saffron Summers, Nova Mae, Scarlett Tempest
It's Dana's birthday today, yay! Happy birthday to my little buttercup Gryffindor, who is sweet as a cupcake but with a little chilli inside. If any of my OCs could be real and my best friend, ngl, it would be you ❤️
Find all the stories of this challenge here.
The other members of the HPMA Breakfast Club belong to @the-al-chemist, @kc-and-co and @whatwouldvalerydo respectively. This challenge was created by the lovely @usernoneexistent.
Warning: mentions of underage drinking
The wind was rustling through the trees in the Parkins' garden on the border of Wigtown. Dana let her feet dangle in the cool water of the garden pond and lay back on the red-and-white chequered picnic blanket with a content sigh.
Next to her, Nova, Scarlett and Saffron - Dana's three best friends from school - had their own ways of appreciating the hot summer day. Scarlett was lounging in the sun in a black bikini and shades covering half of her face. Nova and Saffron were busy discussing the flawless handiwork of the macarons Nova's dad had made for Dana's birthday.
Dana turned onto her stomach, happy to have her friends with her. Scarlett and Nova would leave tomorrow, while Saffron would stay with Dana and her family. The Parkins would be taking a Portkey to the finals of the Quidditch World Cup in Argentina tomorrow night. Since Dana wasn't too fond of the family sport, she had been allowed to bring a friend.
The thought of the World Cup made Dana's smile falter. It wasn't so much that she had to go and watch a sport she didn't enjoy with the most fanatic family on the planet, but the prospect of who would be joining them. As always for big events like these, her parents would meet up with the family of Dana's godmother. Spending time with the Amaris had always been something to look forward to for Dana. This time, however, the thought of listening to her aunt Skye's lecture on why it was a scam that Scotland hadn't even qualified for the tournament - again - suddenly had a strange appeal.
Dana's mind was taken off her glum thoughts when the patio door opened and her mother stepped into the garden. Penny Parkin was wearing a white summer dress with yellow sunflowers, looking just like the pattern Nova had painted onto Dana's nails this morning. A tray with homemade lemonade and a plate of sliced watermelons was floating behind her as she made her way over to where the girls were sitting in the grass.
"I brought you some snacks," Penny beamed and sat the tray down on the picnic blanket. Dana thought she would be leaving again, but instead, her mother sat down on the blanket next to Nova.
"So, what's the news?" she said in a conversational tone and began filling the glasses with lemonade. "How has your year been?"
Scarlett, Nova and Saffron each told her politely about their previous year at Hogwarts, and Penny nodded knowingly. When they were done, Penny lowered her voice, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. "And what about the interesting things?" She winked. "You know, the boys and all?"
Dana felt her cheeks go red. "Mum," she groaned, "please don't."
"What?" Penny asked, looking surprised. "You can tell me. We've all been there, haven't we? I won't judge, I promise. I'm not like other mums. I'm a cool mum."
"Mum!" Dana said vehemently. She pointedly looked at the house. "Don't you need to check on the food or something?"
Taking the hint, Penny rose to her feet, a slight dusting of pink on her cheeks. "Of course. Once Dad and Maisie are home from practice, we'll get the barbecue started, is that alright? Don't worry," she said, directed at Saffron and Nova, "I've got all the vegan options for the two of you."
"Thank you, Mrs Parkin," Saffron smiled broadly.
"You shouldn't have," Nova agreed. "The sides would have been fine."
"Don't mention it," Penny smiled back. Her eyes went back to her daughter, taking on an uncertain expression. "Are you sure you don't want me to send a Patronus to Lizzie and ask them to come? We've got enough food and drinks, and I bet they'll love to -"
"We've been over this, Mum," Dana said with a strained voice. "It's fine."
"But it will be the first time we'll celebrate your birthday without them."
"I have my friends here; that's really all I need. Dylan's probably busy showing his little girlfriend some stupid mountains anyway."
"Oh?" Penny said, a curious look forming on her face. "Dylan has a girlfriend? You never said a word."
Dana bit the insides of her cheeks, wishing she hadn't brought it up as her mother sat down again. Penny's voice grew soft. "Is there anything you want to talk about, sweetie?"
Dana glanced at her friends, who were suddenly very busy looking at their phones or - in Saffron's case - an ant making its way to the plate with watermelons.
"It's fine," she said curtly. "Forget I said anything."
"You know you can always talk to me."
"I said it's fine," Dana repeated, more harshly than she had meant.
Penny looked taken aback by the sudden sharpness in her daughter's voice. Dana thought she wanted to say something, but before she could, Saffron spoke up.
"Don't worry, Mrs Parkin," she said, her voice lowered conspiratorially. "I already gave Dana a rose quartz."
Penny frowned. "A rose quartz? Isn't that for love?"
"And heartache," Saffron sighed, not minding the dark look Dana was giving her.
"Did you hear that? Sounded like someone Apparating, must be Dad and Maisie. Better go check," Dana said, furiously hoping that her mother would just leave.
"Uh, yes, sure. Must be them," Penny mumbled and got up. With a last look at Dana, she turned and walked back to the house. When she was out of ear-shot, Dana exhaled audibly.
Next to her, Nova sniggered. "Gosh, I love your mum."
"Speak for yourself."
"She just wanted to be nice."
"I know," Dana sighed. "It's just that sometimes she's a little too nice. And nosy."
"Well," Nova said, more softly now, "do you want to talk about Dylan?"
Dana grimaced. "It's my birthday. Can we just not?"
"Sure," Scarlett said and reached for her bag. She pulled out a gleaming silver flask, unscrewed it and poured its content into each of the girls' glasses. Looking at Dana for a second, she added another swig. "Let's rather drink on your birthday. Who needs those bloody blokes when we have each other?"
"Cheers to that," Nova said flatly and raised her glass.
Their conversation soon drifted off to other topics. Nova, Dana and Scarlett were enjoying their watermelon, macarons and spiked lemonade, but Saffron had gone oddly quiet. When she looked over, Dana was astounded to see that Saffron had taken hold of the plate where they had discarded their watermelon seeds. She was holding it on her lap and busy digging little holes in the ground. Into each hole, Saffron popped a watermelon seed and lovingly spread the soil over it again.
"Saff," Dana said slowly, "what in Merlin's name are you doing there?"
"Giving the Earth Mother back what is hers," Saffron replied with a serene smile, never stopping her planting. "She gave us these watermelons to enjoy, and now we must give her something back. The cycle must always continue."
Saffron must have been at it longer than any of them had noticed because several small heaps of earth were already surrounding her. Dana counted them, and her eyebrows rose.
"At the rate you're going, there'll be a whole field of watermelons here next year."
"We can all go and harvest them then," Saffron smiled. "The cycle, you know?"
"If that means you'll come back for my birthday next year, I say that's a great idea," Dana smiled back, took a seed from the plate and put it into the ground next to the one Saffron had just planted. She handed Nova and Scarlett a handful of seeds as well and - after Dana had given a reluctant Scarlett a pointed look - both girls planted some watermelons of their own.
"The things I do for you," Scarlett sighed, looking disapprovingly at the earth on her fingernails. She shrugged and reached for her lemonade.
"Cheers," she said and raised her glass in the direction of her friends, who did the same. "To Dana's birthday, friends, and watermelons."
And this marks the end of the wonderful challenge created and hosted by @usernoneexistent. Thank you so much for the effort and the amazing content. It was a real blast!
Find all the stories of this challenge here.
Rory McTavish belongs to @the-al-chemist, Rylie Hopper-Lee (in mention) to @thatravenpuffwitch.
Warning: Mention of alcohol
Over the years, Dana had had a lot of more or less stupid ideas. But as far as Dylan was concerned, her proposition to take her - or their, as she liked to point out - friend Rory McTavish and his new girlfriend Rylie Hopper-Lee out on a hiking trip had taken the Cauldron Cake for good.
Dylan didn't mind Rylie being there; she was a sweet girl and had always been. Ever since their time at school, she had been one of Dylan's closest friends, his actual friends.
Rory McTavish, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. He was loud, obnoxious, and had a sense of humour that made Dylan grind his teeth. According to Dana, Rory had toned down his constant flirting since he and Rylie had started going out, but that didn't stop Dylan from wanting to roll his eyes from the moment the two couples met at the agreed-upon spot at the base of Ben Nevis.
Dana gave Dylan a reassuring smile as she shouldered her rucksack with her climbing gear. Dylan returned it, trying to convince himself that maybe things wouldn't be as bad. Maybe Rory had changed. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
As it turned out, it was even worse.
One hour into their hike, Dylan's mood was deteriorating with every step he took toward the summit. Dana and Rylie had fallen behind, chatting animatedly about something Dylan neither knew nor cared about. He was walking at a brisk pace, trying to put a bit of space between him and Rory, but much to his dismay, Rory had no problems keeping up with him. Even worse, he still had enough breath left to talk, loudly and incessantly.
"Aye, it was a great idea to invite us," he now said, making Dylan roll his eyes. "We haven't seen much of each other since school, Dyldo."
"And isn't that a loss."
"I know, right? I spend more time with Reva than with you these days."
Like always when Rory mentioned Dylan's little sister, Dylan was intent to change the topic to a more inconspicuous one.
"So," he said, forcing himself to smile, "how do you enjoy the hike?"
"It's great. I've done this trail before."
Dylan frowned. "Have you?"
Much to his surprise, Rory nodded. "My mum and granda took me once when I was a kid. Speaking of which," he added with a frown, "don't we have to turn left?"
They had reached a fork in the trail. The broad path to the left led to the summit in a moderately steep but manageable incline. The way to the right was narrower, not as well maintained, and the one Dylan was headed towards. He cast a look over his shoulder.
"Oh, did you want to take the easy route?"
Rory laughed out loud. "Don't worry, I'm up for the challenge."
Dylan smirked as he left the fork behind and continued on the path meant only for experienced hikers and rock climbers. Much to his annoyance, however, Rory stayed true to his word. Dylan didn't need to worry about him at all. In fact, he would have needed to lose sight of Rory in the first place to worry about him, but no matter how hard Dylan tried, there was no respite from Rory's chatter.
He was still talking, and Dylan's headache still growing, when they reached the base of the climbing trail. Rory tipped his head back and whistled softly as he took in the sheer mountainside they were about to scale.
"That's impressive, pal. And you've done this before?"
"Yes," Dylan answered concisely, detangling his climbing harness from the spare one Dana had him bring for Rory.
"Looks pretty hard."
"You can stay down here if you're too scared."
He hadn't meant it as a joke - people like them had other means of getting up a mountain than old-fashioned climbing, after all - but Rory's freckled face turned into a grin. Much to Dylan's horror, Rory draped his arm around his shoulder in a brotherly fashion.
"Don't you worry about me, remember? Hard doesn't mean impossible. Actually, being hard makes certain things more possible," he winked, making Dylan draw a deep breath. "You're not getting rid of me anytime soon."
"That's exactly what I'm afraid of."
After Dana and Rylie had caught up with them, they began their ascent. Since Dana and Rylie were similar in height, the two girls had decided to partner up. Much to his dismay, that left Dylan with Rory yet again. With Dylan climbing in front to secure their rope, he at least didn't have to listen to most of Rory's blathering. That was until Rory suddenly appeared next to him.
"Nice view, don't you think?" Rory said with a good-natured smile as he made to overtake Dylan.
"What are you doing? You're supposed to stay behind me," Dylan snapped in return, moving his arm across the stone to where Rory had aimed to put his hand next.
"Don't get your knickers in a twist," Rory grinned. "A small race hurt nobody."
"A small race can get both of us killed," Dylan hissed and gave Rory a hard stare. "I don't care what you do, but I'd rather not fall to my death because of your stupidity. Now get back behind me."
Rory hesitated, taken aback by Dylan's tone, then nodded and let Dylan take the lead again. They continued on their way in silence, only broken by the odd remark on where or where not to step.
When they reached the top of the trail and Dylan untied the rope between Rory and himself, Rory was still silent, and Dylan began to feel somewhat sorry. But before he had a chance to consider whether or not to apologise, Dana and Rylie climbed over the edge, still giggling to each other. Their laughter died when they looked between their two silent boyfriends.
"Is everything alright?" Dana asked tentatively, her blue eyes resting on Dylan as she spoke. Dylan wanted to reply, but Rory was quicker.
"Everything's perfect, Dana. Isn't it, Dylan?" he added with a grin, but Dylan saw it flicker out as soon as Dana turned from them to step out of her harness. Dylan opened his mouth to say something, but Rory shrugged, gave Dylan his gear back and continued on the path leading to the summit.
The plan had been to spend the night on Ben Nevis and return to the base of the mountain early in the morning. After they had visited the summit and set up their tents just in sight of the mountain top, Dylan left Rory, Rylie and Dana to themselves to return to the summit once more. The sky was already darkening, so Dylan picked up his pace. He didn't want to be late.
When he reached the top, he stood there for a moment, surrounded by bare rocks and the odd speck of snow, and breathed in deeply. There was nothing but silence around him, and for the first time since they had begun their hike, he felt the familiar peace that nothing but a mountain beneath his feet could give him. Up here, all his problems were fading, rendered insignificant by the might of nature surrounding him. The earth was beneath his feet, yet he was so high up that it felt like he could touch the sky. He almost understood why his family loved flying so much when it was just him, the mountain and -
"There you are!"
The feeling of peace went as quickly as it had come. Dylan turned around and sighed as the ginger head of Rory came into sight. He had his hands buried in the pockets of his jacket and was coming up to Dylan at an alarming speed.
"What now?" Dylan sighed as he reached him.
"Dana sent me. She said she's not running after you, and if you don't come to have dinner with us, it's your fault, and you can starve as far as she's concerned."
"That's a quote, I assume?"
The corners of Rory's mouth twitched. "You bet."
"Go on without me. I'll eat later. I want to stay here for a bit."
But Rory didn't go without him. He drew his hand from his pocket, bent down and selected a small piece of rock from amongst the rubble covering the ground. Dylan raised his eyebrows as Rory picked it up and walked towards the cairn next to Dylan. He put the rock on top of it and stood there for a moment.
"I'm surprised you know this tradition."
Rory briefly glanced at him before returning his eyes to the pile of stones in front of them. "When you reach the top of a mountain, you add to the cairn. It's what you do."
"The cairns are there for many things," Dylan told him as he placed a stone of his own next to Rory's. "Some are just more geographic measurements. Some are summit crosses. Some are monuments for people who have died trying to reach the top."
"Oh," Rory said. "I didn't know that."
He was silent for another moment before he spoke up again. "Listen, I'm really grateful you and Dana took us along today. I haven't been here since I went with my mum and granda and… well, things have changed, haven't they?" He laughed quietly, and Dylan wasn't sure whether it was a happy or a melancholy sound. "Not only things, though. I have changed, too, you know? Rylie has changed me, I think. Or time, I don't know. I told you before, and I'm telling you again - I'm not the prick you think I am. Or maybe I am, but I'm really trying to be nice."
"Rory, it's fine. Listen…"
"I didn't want to spoil your hike, and I didn't want you to think I was being reckless on the climbing trail. I was having fun and didn't think much of it."
"Rory…"
"So can you just stop being a spoilsport and come back down with me because the girls are waiting, and I really don't want to make Dana angry? I don't even get why you're up here anyway when we could just have a fun evening and -"
"Can't you just shut up?"
Rory blinked in surprise before pressing his lips together in a fine line. "Hey, I tried opening up to you here and…."
"McTavish, I mean it. Shut up and look," Dylan sighed, taking Rory by the shoulders and turning him around. At the sight unfolding before him, Rory finally was quiet.
The sun had begun setting, casting the valley below their feet into a soft, golden light. The light reflected off the rocks and cliffs surrounding them, creating an intricate play of dark shadows and brightly gleaming highlights where the last light of the day hit the flecks of snow. As he looked at the wild explosion of reds, oranges and yellows painting the sky, a smile formed on Dylan's face.
"That's why I'm here," he told Rory quietly.
Rory said nothing and sat down on a big piece of rock at the base of the cairn. Much to his surprise, Dylan joined him a moment later.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you," he said, looking at the sinking sun rather than Rory.
"I can take it. Thank you for putting up with me," Rory shrugged, and Dylan could hear that he was grinning. Strangely enough, as he looked at the breathtaking display of colour in front of him, the thought wasn't as annoying anymore.
Rory reached into his jacket and pulled out two cans of beer. One of them he handed to Dylan. "Dana told me to bring you this."
Dylan laughed softly as he took the can from him. Dana always knew.
"Is that what you do? Go on a mountain, sit and drink?" Rory asked as Dylan opened his beer and took a sip.
"I come here to enjoy the view."
"Ah, I know that excuse."
"And silence," Dylan added pointedly.
Rory grinned and opened his can as well. He drank and then grimaced. "Don't you think we should go back? Dana will be livid."
"She can take it," Dylan shook his head.
"Admit it, Dyldo, you love the danger. We're alike, you and I."
"I highly doubt that."
Rory grinned but remained silent. When it was almost dark and their cans emptied, they returned to the camp.
"Wasn't that nice? A cold drink and a sunset. I've worked with less," Rory laughed as they clambered over the rocks and towards the campfire Dana and Rylie had started. "You could almost call it romantic. Or, bromantic."
"Please shut up."
"Come on, that was a stroke of genius. Get used to it."
Rory left him standing and joined Rylie by the campfire, Dylan all but forgotten as he kissed her, a gentle smile on his face Dylan was sure he had never seen on Rory McTavish before.
His eyes met Dana's, who was sitting on Rylie's other side. She smiled at him and padded the place next to her on her blanket, and Dylan felt a smile forming on his face as well as he joined his friends.
A/N: This is really a silly little crack-fic, but I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Characters featured are the property of @lifeofkaze, @kc-and-co, @whatwouldvalerydo, @kathrynalicemc, @thatravenpuffwitch, @that-scouse-wizard and @hogwartsmysteryho. Happy Easter to all of you, and to the rest of my darling mutuals. Warnings: death and reincarnation/necromancy, a lot of dark humour, a little blasphemy.
Friday
“And now my heart joins the thousand; my friend stopped running today.”
As Rylie closed the book and stepped to one side, Dylan sighed deeply and took her place next to the pumpkin.
“Thank you, Rylie, for that… beautiful and very emotional reading,” he said, projecting his voice over the loud sobbing that filled the dusky air. “It is with great sadness that we are all gathered here this evening, to say goodbye to” - his girlfriend Dana gave him a pointed look, and he somehow managed to refrain from rolling his eyes - “a very dear and beloved friend.”
“The very best friend,” sniffed Saffron Summers, before collapsing against Dana’s shoulders with a fresh round of hysterical tears.
“Yeah. Sure. Our very best friend, Gavin.”
“Gavin!”
“Anyway,” Dylan raised his voice yet louder, ignoring Saffron’s wails, “We are here to say goodbye to Gavin. Gavin was a very loyal companion, and will be missed.”
One arm still around Saffron’s shoulders and the other stroking her blonde hair, Dana raised her eyebrows at Dylan, who shrugged in return. He wasn’t really sure what else he could say. He hadn’t wanted to say anything at all, or even go to the funeral. Personally, he thought the whole idea of having a funeral was ridiculous. Gavin was a rabbit, for Godric’s sake.
But as Dana’s stare hardened, he swallowed his pride and continued to provide his liturgy.
“Gavin was an incredibly well-behaved rabbit, very charming and friendly to all who crossed his path” - except for the time he had bitten Dylan’s finger, of course - “with boundless curiosity and intelligence that surpassed any other of his species.”
That was only half true, really. Perhaps if Gavin had been a little less curious and a lot more intelligent, he would not have licked an unknown substance from the floor of the Potions classroom during the Slytherins’ end of term exam. Gavin had only himself to blame for his untimely demise, really.
“He was everything that a rabbit should be and more. A veritable paragon of rabbits,” Dylan said, narrowing his eyes at his girlfriend, still not sure why he had agreed to this. “May he rest in… pumpkin.”
The pumpkin burial, like the rest of this whole sodding charade, had been Saffron’s idea. Still crying hysterically, she carried Gavin the rabbit’s limp body, wrapped in a pashmina, to the pumpkin that had been gutted especially to provide Gavin’s final resting place. Dylan didn't have the heart to tell her that this probably wasn’t the most sensible of tombs, being made of decomposable vegetable flesh. He would just have to cast some kind of preserving spell on it when she wasn’t looking.
With Gavin safely laid to rest inside the pumpkin, a large piece of quartz holding down the lid of his squash sarcophagus, Dylan hastened to finish up the funeral service.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, rabbit to pumpkin, amen,” he muttered, drawing the line at crossing himself.
“Amen,” several voices echoed the sentiment, many of Saffron’s friends having come down to the pumpkin patch to support her as she said goodbye to Gavin the rabbit, not just him, Dana and Rylie.
Both Nova Mae and Scarlett Tempest were dressed in black, though of course this was not an unusual fashion choice for Scarlett; Samuel Murad had turned up despite usually not liking to socialise with anyone, though he had stayed silent throughout the ceremony; and Dante Briarwood, who had been the one to discover Gavin’s body at the end of his exam, looked more sombre than anyone.
Dylan wasn’t really sure why - out of all of them - he had been chosen to be the officiant. They all seemed much more invested in this than he was, as he could have predicted, and had done so the three times he had declined to lead his friends in the bizarre funeral rites. But, of course, Dana had got her way eventually, more because Dylan could no longer be bothered to argue with her than because he wanted to give Gavin a proper send off. He had never really even liked Gavin that much; he smelled funny and made him sneeze.
Still, as their little crew left the pumpkin patch, each having stuck a burning stick of incense in a ring around the pumpkin containing Gavin the rabbit, Dylan found himself taking one final look back at the sun setting over the top of the forest, he felt his heart tug a little. He ran his thumb over the rabbit-bite scar on his forefinger and smiled sadly.
“Goodbye, Gavin.”
Saturday
“Can we just start?” said Nova, staring at a pain au chocolat with her blue eyes wide.
“No,” said Dana, definitely. “Not until Saff gets here.”
Nova sighed heavily. She understood why Dana was so set on waiting for Saffron, but at the same time, her coffee was getting cold.
“Saff might not come,” she told Dana.
“She will. It’s the last Saturday breakfast of term. She won’t miss it.”
Somehow, Nova got the impression that Dana was wrong, that Saffron was not going to arrive. Judging by the look on Scarlett’s face, she was sceptical, too. But Dana clearly wasn’t ready to give up hope just yet.
“Saffron was really upset yesterday,” she said, folding her arms across her chest and refusing to so much as look at the food in front of her. “We are her friends. We should be here for her.”
“Bit difficult if she’s not actually here with us, though,” muttered Scarlett, already picking up her coffee. “I say we start, and if she doesn’t show up, we bring breakfast to her.”
Dana pursed her lips, but Nova followed Scarlett’s example, already feeling more human as the coffee passed her lips. It didn’t take long for Dana’s resolve to break, and soon the three of them were all eating together, though Nova had to admit that breakfast just wasn’t the same without Saffron.
“I think it will take more than just breakfast to cheer her up,” she told the other girls. “I think we are going to have to go in with all guns blazing. Dana, what do you think?”
“I could bring her nail varnishes. That always cheers her up.”
“Excellent. I’ll bring her my ukulele. Scarlett?”
“I’ll buy her a new rabbit,” said Scarlett wryly. “Or I’ll get Rory McTavish to go down there and pull one out of a hat for her.”
“Careful, that might not be the only thing he tries to pull.”
Nova and Scarlett exchanged smirks. Unfortunately, Dana was less amused.
“I don’t see how you two can find this funny,” she said, her voice terse and an angry look in her eyes. “Poor Saffron is really upset and poor Gavin is dead, and you two are making fun of them.”
“We aren’t making fun, we just-”
“Besides,” Dana interrupted Nova mid-sentence, “even if Rory could pull another rabbit out of a hat, it still wouldn’t be the same, would it? It’s Gavin that Saffron is missing.”
“Fine,” Scarlett said, rolling her eyes. “Then I suggest necromancy. Resurrect the bunny. We could get Dafne Arcano to help us.”
While Nova bit her lower lip to stop herself from smiling at Scarlett’s sarcastic comment, Dana continued to look reproachfully at both of them.
At least, she did for a while.
“Well,” she said eventually, “I guess…”
“I wasn’t being serious, Dana.”
“I know, but we can’t do nothing, not when Saffron is so upset!”
“We aren’t going to do nothing. You’re going to paint her nails, Nova’s going to bring her ukulele, remember?”
“Yes, but…” Dana looked at Nova hopefully. “It wouldn’t do any harm just to ask her, would it?”
“Yes,” said Nova, simply. “Trust me, I’ve read Pet Sematary, I know exactly how much of a slippery slope that can be.”
But even as she said the words, Nova knew that they would do nothing. Dana’s mind was made up.
And so, after breakfast, the three of them found themselves traipsing all over the castle in search of Dafne Arcano, the necromancer. Eventually, they found her in the library, a large and impossibly dusty book and a small skull on the table in front of her.
“Can I help you?” she asked, looking up at them with both her seeing and her blind eye narrowed in suspicion.
“Actually, yes, I think you might be able to help us,” said Dana, pulling over a chair and chatting to Dafne as if they were best friends, or as if what she was about to ask her was about something a lot less morbid than the possibility of resurrecting someone’s dead pet. “I don’t know if you know our friend Saffron, Saffron Summers?”
Dafne nodded slowly. “She put a bit of obsidian under my pillow once. I still don’t know how she got into my dormitory.”
“Um, no,” Dana shook her head. “We know how. He was found in the Potions classroom; he must have been poisoned by drinking a potion.”
“Makes sense,” Dafne frowned. “So what do you need me for?”
Dana looked nervously at Nova and Scarlett, the latter of whom let out a deep, exasperated sigh.
“We want to know if you can… bring him back,” she said, sounding as if she hated herself for even saying the words.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Unfortunately, I am being entirely serious.”
“No.”
Dafne Arcano returned her gaze to the open pages of her book. Nova counted down from three in her head. Just as she got to zero, Dana piped up again.
“Will you not even try?” she asked Dafne, who looked up at her and blinked, her face expressionless.
“Trust me,” she told Dana. “You really don’t want me to do that.”
“But-”
“That’s understandable. Thank you anyway, Dafne,” said Nova quickly, seeing the way that the necromancer’s body had tensed. “Come on, Dana. Let’s go and see if they have any Stephen King novels in this library for you to read.”
“I don’t want to read any Stephen King novels.”
“Tough. I think you need to.”
Nova half-dragged Dana away from Dafne Arcano, whose posture immediately became more relaxed. Looking back over her shoulder, Nova thought that she might have even seen her smirking to herself.
Sunday
The sun had not yet risen when Dana met Saffron in the quad. They walked quietly through the still slumbering castle to the grounds as the sky lightened outside, changing from an inky indigo to a vivid violet, with shades of amber and pink streaking across the horizon.
Usually, Saffron would have marvelled at the colours of the sky, but she was still upset, her tears watering the bunch of flowers she carried with her. Dana’s heart could have broke for her. She wished that there was something she could do to make her friend happy again.
As they reached the pumpkin patch, Saffron’s sobbing redoubled in intensity. However, rather than sadness, Dana began to feel angry. Someone had overturned the pumpkin containing the dead rabbit, the pumpkin lid and the crystal holding it down having rolled away across the soil.
“Oh no! Who would do such a horrible thing to Gavin’s lovely coffin?” Saffron cried, staring at sight.
“I don’t know, Saff,” said Dana, frowning deeply as she hugged her friend. “But we will find out, and we will make sure that they never do it again, okay?”
“Okay. But what about Gavin?”
Dana swallowed. “I’ll make sure he goes back in the way he was before. Just wait there.”
Trying her hardest not to show her revulsion to Saffron, Dana made her way over to the pumpkin coffin, picking up the lid and crystal and carrying them back towards it. Inside the hollowed squash, the pashmina that had swaddled Gavin’s body was in disarray. Reluctantly, Dana held her breath and reached out to rearrange the scarf so that Gavin would once more be wrapped up safely.
But Gavin was not there. Dana blinked, and less hesitantly moved the scarf to double check. No, he really wasn’t there. Gavin had gone.
“What’s the matter?” asked Saffron, staring wide-eyed at Dana. “What have they done to him?”
Before Dana could make up a lie or find the words to break the truth in the nicest way possible, Saffron too had made her way over to the pumpkin.
“They’ve stolen him!” Saffron said, and her bottom lip trembled. “Someone has stolen Gavin!”
Dana took a deep breath. Somehow, that seemed unlikely. In all probability, an animal had discovered the pumpkin and the rabbit inside, and considered him an easy meal. She cursed herself for not insisting to Saffron that they at least bury the pumpkin properly, like Dylan had suggested.
She opened her mouth to try and explain this gently to Saffron, but was interrupted by a rustling noise from a nearby group of cabbages that was so loud and sudden it made both girls jump.
The two young women stood close together and stared at the source of the noise, watching as the leaves of the cabbages wriggled and writhed in time with the sound. Whatever was making it was moving towards them closer and closer, making its way out of the cabbages and into the open, until it emerged. As it did, Dana’s jaw dropped. She recognised that creature, its tawny brown fur, its long ears, its fluffy white tail and twitchy little nose.
“IT’S GAVIN!” Saffron dropped Dana’s hand and her bunch of flowers and ran towards the rabbit. “Gavin, you’re alive!”
Gavin the rabbit hopped over to Saffron and jumped into her outstretched arms, clearly very much alive and well.
“It’s a miracle! Gavin, you are a miracle!”
Dana nodded, smiling from ear to ear all the way back to the castle. As Saffron took Gavin back to her dormitory, Dana went to the library. She saw Dafne Arcano sitting at a table near the Restricted Section and ran over to her, wrapping her arms around her.
“Thank you so much, Dafne! I knew you could do it! You’re such a wonderful person, how can I ever thank you enough?”
“Please stop hugging me.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry,” Dana immediately let go of Dafne, but her smile did not fade. “I’m just so grateful, that’s all. What you did was so kind, and you’ve really made Saffron very happy.”
Dafne Arcano blinked. “What did I do, exactly?”
“You know. Saffron’s bunny. The necromancy. You did such a great job, honestly, you’d think that he’d never been dead at all. You really are very talented.”
“Thanks, but I didn’t actually do anything.”
“Sorry, I didn’t realise that it was meant to be a secret,” Dana lowered her voice. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul.”
“Tell them what? There’s nothing to tell.”
“No, of course. You didn’t do a thing,” said Dana, trying her hardest not to giggle. She leant in towards Dafne and whispered to her, “Seriously, though. Thank you.”
She left Dafne, who was looking at her in a very peculiar way, and made her way out of the library. As she was walking out of the door, she bumped into Dante Briarwood, who was on his way in.
“Oops, sorry!”
“No, I’m sorry,” Dante shook his head. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
“That’s okay, neither was I,” replied Dana. “Oh, how did your Potions exam go on Friday, by the way? I didn’t have a chance to ask you about it with the whole bunny fiasco.”
“It went okay, I think. Bit of an issue with my Draught of Living Death, though.”
“Oh, no. What happened to it?”
“Not a clue, I put in all the right amounts of everything, but ended up with half the amount everyone else had. Honestly, you’d think someone had drunk some of it,” Dante pulled a face, before shrugging his shoulders and sighing. “Oh well, it looked like it was good enough quality, so I should still pass the exam. And if anyone did drink it… Well, they’ll wake up eventually.”
Dana giggled and left Dante to his studying, before leaving the library with a spring in her step, the bright morning sunshine glaring through the windows of the corridor outside.
Send me a 🎵 and an OC or ship of mine and I'll shuffle their playlist for you and see what comes up!
Disclaimer: I was looking for the original post with this ask game for forever but couldn't find it. The idea to this game is not mine and goes to whoever came up with it.
A/N: Already Day 3 of @kc-and-co Spring Break Challenge and today we go for breakfast with the lovely ladies from the HPMA Breakfast Club and Saffron has prepared some gifts for her three best friends.
Saffron Summers belongs to @the-al-chemist, Nova Mae to @kc-and-co and Scarlett Tempest to @whatwouldvalerydo
Find all stories for this challenge in the masterpost here.
The wooden wind chime above the door made a warm, melodious sound as Danielle Parkin opened the door to the small café in Hogsmeade Village. She stood in the doorway and looked around her in wonder; a lot had changed since the times of Madam Puddifoot’s tea shop.
The old-fashioned wallpaper with the flowerprint had made way for a deep, yellow colour and the walls were lined with open shelves made from dark wood on which a colourful assortment of pot plants and crystals in every size and form were displayed. But the crystals on the shelves weren’t the only ones in the shop; there were little glass bowls filled with a probably carefully curated collection of them on every table and another big display next to the counter, along with dried plants, candles and what looked like self-made soaps. There were other things there as well, something colourful and sparkly, but from where she was standing she couldn’t make out what it was.
Dana had no time to think on it any further, however, because she had been spotted by the three women sitting at one of the tables next to the window beneath a canopy of low-hanging fern. A wide smile spread on her face as she made her way over to her friends.
There was a hasty shuffle of chairs and a little bickering as Nova Mae, Scarlett Tempest and Saffron Summers - owner of the café - scrambled to give their long lost friend a hug. Dana returned them all, laughing and answering questions all the while, before picking one of Saffron’s bunnies off a chair and sat down at the table.
Dana looked at the handmade cups sitting in front of Nova, Scarlett and Saffron. “You started without me?”
“Did you expect us to die of thirst before you arrive?” Scarlett said. Her tone was snarky but Dana knew from the flashing in her hazel eyes that she wasn’t angry at Dana being almost half an hour late.
“Leave her alone, Scarlett,” Nova said and sipped on her coffee. Her eyes sparkled as they looked Dana up and down. They lingered on the exposed skin of her neck and Dana quickly pulled the collar of her shirt back into place. “I bet Dana had some very important duelling to do.”
“What kind of duelling would she do on a Sunday morning?” Saffron said and frowned.
Scarlett and Nova exchanged glances and grinned while Dana hid her face, which was now as red as the lovebite on the side of her neck, in her hands.
“Can’t believe I missed this,” she muttered from between her fingers and Scarlett laughed out loud.
“I bet you did. France can’t be fun much without us being there.”
France is a bore,” Nova agreed. “How sad we both needed to get out of the country to actually meet up.” She held her finger under her nose as if she had a moustache and continued with a horrific accent. “Non, mademoiselle, I am just a stuck up Frenchman and do not know ‘ow to ‘ave fun. We arr not any better zan your amazing girlfriends from Royaume-Uni, non?”
“Stop it,” Dana giggled. “France is amazing. The work Dylan and I are doing there is important. You would know if you came visiting every once in a while.”
“What, and stay in the mountains? Without proper roads, or showers? Do you even have electricity? Wifi?” Scarlett said and wrinkled her nose.
“We’re living in a normal house, Scarlett,” Dana said and shook her head. “It’s not the middle-ages.” A grin flashed across her face. “The region is quite popular, you know? We might find you some well-situated Frenchman after all.”
Scarlett laughed and leaned forward. “Tell me more. This,” she said and pointed at her face, “is expensive to maintain, after all.”
“Absolutely, but first, I need some coffee,” Dana said and glanced over to Saffron, who took out her wand and waved it through the air, the little beaded appendages hanging from its hilt clanking against each other. A moment later a dark red cup floated towards them and Dana carefully plucked it out of the air when it stopped in front of her. The smell rising from it was delicious.
“Is that a pumpkin spiced latte?” she asked Saffron and wrapped her hand around the hot cup.
“Yes,” Saffron confirmed. “Vegan, naturally.”
“It’s not even autumn yet.”
Saffron smiled widely and tilted her head. “I keep it stocked. In case you swing by.” She sat upright in her chair as if she had suddenly remembered something.
“Wait here,” she said, got up and made her way back to the counter, careful not to step onto any of the many bunnies roaming the shop. Dana, Nova and Scarlett exchanged astounding glances when Saffron came back with three boxes, one red, one blue and one green. She handed their friends one each and when Dana opened it, her eyebrows shot up. Now she saw what the things next to the counter, which she hadn’t been able to identify at first, actually were.
“Saff,” she said slowly, “are these -”
“Nipple tassels!” Nova exclaimed with a giggle and pulled two small, sparkly patches from her blue box. They were made from coloured rhinestones and looked like winking unicorns. “I can’t believe you’re selling nipple tassels now, Saff.”
“Neither can I,” Dana said wryly and examined her own. They were black and white penguins with sparkling orange beaks and feet; they were cute, no doubt, but Dana was rendered speechless for more than one reason. “They are… something, Saff.”
Saffron’s eyes went wide. “Don’t you like them?”
“I do,” Dana said hastily, “it’s just somewhat, um, unexpected.”
“They’re new,” Saffron explained. “A new hobby of mine. I made a pair for each of us to begin with, and it kind of went from there.” She pulled a yellow box from her pocket and presented them with her own tassels; they looked like chickens and strings of colourful eggs were dangling from it.
“Can’t say I’m unimpressed,” Scarlett muttered and turned her tassels - shaped like pouty, scarlet lips with profanities written across them - in the light. “They’re sparkly. I like it.” Saffron beamed at the compliment. “You do know what that means, though? These need a test run.”
The other three girls exchanged glances. Dana swallowed. “I might regret asking, but what did you have in mind?”
“If we’re taking a burlesque class I’m in,” Nova immediately said and Scarlett chuckled.
“I was thinking about a night out, but whatever. Book a class, and off we go.”
Dana looked down at the cute little penguins and then at her coffee. She might need something stronger before the day was over.
