"Potter!" Draco Malfoy's voice echoed outside the door to Harry's room.
Harry sighed, his shoulder slumping as he ignored Draco and finished buttoning up his shirt. Draco, of course, took that as an invitation to waltz in, unlocking the door with a wave of his wand.
"The headmistress wants us to write a report on our first trimester as the first Eight-years in-" He looked up and his spit went the wrong way for a second. He coughed as Harry studiously ignored his presence.
"Potter, what the fuck is that?" He exclaimed, horror breaking his voice as his mouth stood agape.
"What is what?" Harry asked, his patience already wearing thin as he looked at clock on the wall. He only had half an hour before the date.
"Your shirt! Where did you get that mostruosity?" Draco asked, bewildered, "Was that even made in this century?"
"Piss off Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed, "It's a totally normal shirt."
"You look like a truck ran you over. And yes I know what a truck is!"
"Why do you care?"
"I wouldn't, normally, but this is you first date with Granger! No fucking way you are wearing that!"
"Wha-" Harry started to sass, but Malfoy was already dragging him by his arm into the corridor that housed all the private rooms the Eight-years had been assigned.
"Pansy! Blaise!" Draco thundered, he was far too sofisticated to simply holler thank you very much.
"What?" Pansy answered back from the common room, Blaise remained silent as he watched Draco drag Potter in front of their sofa.
"We've got a clothing emergency, look at what Potter was going to weat on his date!"
"Draco," Pansy sighed as she put down the magazine she was reading, "Why would I ca—. Potter what the fuck is that?"
"I said the same thing!"
"You are not taking Granger out in that!" Pansy exclaimed, taking Potter's other arm and ignoring his objections. Toghether they half-carried him to Draco's room and Blaise closed the door behind them.
"What is wrong with what I'm wearing?!" Harry asked, half exasperated, but also now worried that he really was about to fuck up his and Hermione's first date.
"Why is your shirt that awful color??" Pansy asked in outrage.
"And why are the sleeves so short?!" Draco added in consternation
Blaise simply raised an eyebrow as Pansy and Draco moved to the back of his room to rummage through the massive wardrobe (it was mahogany and Draco had it transported from Malfoy manor).
"Hermione said to wear something casual?" Harry asked in bewilderment as Pansy walked into the wardrobe.
"That is not casual! That is just shite!" Pansy answered him as she came out with enough shirts to make Harry's whole wardrobe want to burn itself down.
"Oi!" Harry tried to retort, "It's not that bad!"
Blaise answered by raising his other eyebrow and Harry's shoulders sagged in defeat.
Pansy's eyes sparkled in victory as she directed Draco to "Take some of those Italian jeans you have hidden in your muggle section!"
"I do not have a muggle section!" Draco retorted from his wardrobe, still coming out with a handful of Jeans that looked like they were worth more than Harry's trust vault.
"Sure you don't," Parkinson rolled her eyes, "You have a high fashion section."
"Exactly! Right Blaise?"
Blaise sighed as if he had heard the same argument fifty-nine other times (he was counting).
"See? Blaise says I'm right!"
Parkinson ignored them as she moved Harry in front of the mirror that had just walked out of the wardrobe. She put a black shirt in front of him only to shake her head and go back to the pile.
"Guys I only have like twenty minutes." Harry said, deciding to just go along with the madness that was unfolding.
"I would say that being ten minutes late is fine, but you are going out with stuck up her arse Granger-" Pansy said
"Oi!" Harry exclaimed in anger.
"Sorry," Pansy said, looking like she wasn't sorry at all, "It wasn't meant as an offence, she's just very precise"
Pansy trew him a navy blue shirt, with actual sleeves, and a pair of Jeans that looked like they would barely fit him.
"This are a size too small," Harry said.
"Yeah, but you don't have that much to work with in the arse department Potter. So one size too small it is for you."
"Wha-?!" Harry choked as he was pushed into the wardrobe by Draco to change up.
"And clean them before giving them back!" Draco screamed from the other side of the door.
"What the fuck." Harry said softly as he reluctantly changed.
Hermione watched with raised eyebrows as Harry walked towards her in the entrace hall. Was that an H&M shirt? And Armani jeans?
"Hello Hermione," He said, smiling at her bewildered eyes, "How do I look?"
"You look like someone else dressed you up," she said, fingering the skirt she was wearing. It was way too short for her usual clothes but she was glad she listened to Lavender and Parvati.
"So do you," He said with a smile, "But you look gorgeous."
"You look pretty handome too," Hermione answered, kissing him on the cheek.
-----------
After months of nothing i actually managed to write something! I knew i had to get it down as soon as it came up or I'd never break the drought. I hope you enjoyed this silly little piece!
If you're interested in any more of my (kind of awful) writing, you can find me on AO3.
The Golden Trio are very affectionate friends. Like annoyingly so.
Always reaching out for a high five or a pat on the back. Arms around shoulders. Greeting with a hug. Harry gives great neck massages. Ron likes to sit shoulder to shoulder. Hermione guides them around with a hand on their lower back (and so they don't wander off).
Ron taps Harry on the ass whenever he walks by. Hermione trims their hair during the school year because she insists it does a better job than magic. Harry could fall asleep anywhere and regularly dozes off in class with his head on one of their shoulders.
If they're sitting at a table together, chances are their legs are all tangled together underneath or stacked like pancakes. Hermione holds onto their arms when they walk through a crowd. Ron props his chin atop their heads when he stands behind them.
Empire of Death was bad and cemented several fundemental flaws in this season.
I watched this in the theatre, and the contrast between everyone's excitement before Empire, and their universal disappointment leaving the theatre was super disheartening. I'm gonna try to articulate my problems with episode, and how they're linked to fundenental structural issues of this season.
SPOILERS BELOW:
Sutekh
The moment the UNIT characters died the story was robbed of any stakes. (Also? Kate and Ibrahim?? During Pride month?? Disgusting)
Sutekh was pointless, big CGI spectacle who was barely there. Saying he's been latched onto the TARDIS since Pyramids of Mars was such an asspull. Why couldn't he have latched on during Wild Blue Yonder? wouldn't that make much more sense??
You're telling me the guy who holds all life in contempt is invested enough in learning the identity of Ruby's mum he willingly reveals himself??
And then they defeat him by dragging him through the Vortex just like before, which it's been explicitly stated *didn't work* last time? He just *lets* Ruby leash him??
The 'death of death is life' bit, and the idea of the Doctor representing life as a Ying to Sutekh's Yang, is a cool concept just jammed in there with no real buildup or depth.
The issue is bringing Sutekh back takes so much effort- a literal, clunky clipshow of Pyramids of Mars, a whole episode spent building up to the reveal of a silly anagram entirely unrekated to Sutekh's previous appearance. And it just... amounts to nothing. What a silly way to cap off a season meant to be jumping-on point for brand-new viewers.
Mel was just takingup space. Pointless.
Ruby's Mother
I don't have a problem with the *concept* of Ruby's mum being normal. I really like the idea thematically. The execution was terrible.
First of all it leaves so many unanswered questions (why the snow? Why was time changing? Why was she shadowed? Literally just for the sake of the mystery-box?) and represents the worst thing about this new era- RTD using fantasy logic to handwave any logic at all, and just do whatever he wants without properly justifying it.
Second, I *hate* how easy and simple and neat the reunion is. Ruby seems incapable of getting angry with anyone. She has never once argued with 15, or Carla, or anyone besides that one moment in 73 Yards. She has never expressed any kind of negative feeling towards her mother for abandoning her. And it's fine for her to reach that conclusion! It's just bizzare we never see Ruby struggle with her feelings beyond the shallow goal of wanting to find her.
(Also Carla? Has nothing to say?? Just welcomes that woman in with basically no comment? Carla is a 2D cutout of a person, used as a plot device and otherwise relegated to the single character trait of I Love My Daughter. The children yearn for the ilk of Jackie Tyler, Sylvia Noble, even Francine Jones.)
15 & Ruby
The emotion behind 15 & Ruby's split felt entirely unearned because we've never seen their bond develop. They never argue, never disagree, Ruby hasn't learned anything about herself or grown or changed. The closest we got to that is 73 Yards, which was undone. She was already brave and kind and musical and sure she loved her adoptive family when we met her in Church on Ruby Road.
Similarly, 15 tells us Ruby encouraged him to talk about family in a way he never has, but that was in what, two moments across the season? And they seemed random, unrelated to Ruby being with him. New viewers will assume 15 is just that open anyway- he was discussing fatherhood with a dead man's hologram- and old viewers assumed trauma-dumping was just a new trait of 15's personality, not Ruby-specific.
The problem is we're told Ruby & 15 are best friends but it isn't earned. I liked 15 crying initially but both he and Ruby do it so much (15 cries about 5 times in this one episode) it loses its impact and I'm becoming numb to it. There is no contrast, no downtime.
Season Structural Issues
I think the biggest problem is Season 1's storytelling priorities. It's much more interested in selling *the show* (look at our big budget! And guest stars! And how flexible our format is! Musical episode! The Beatles as props! Bottle episode! Indie folk-horror! Black Mirror! Gay Bridgerton!) it forgot to put effort into developing and investing us in its characters. I liked a lot of the individual stories this year but in retrospect a lot of them feel like they're wasting space that needed to go to essential character and theme setup.
These skewed priorities, combined with the cut down episode count, really impact the pacing of the season. Ruby and 15 were barely together! Even in Rogue they were seperated for most of the story!! We only loop back to a flashback of 15 meeting Carla in Rogue!
This is made worse by the baffling insistence on a 45-minute runtime. We know key sequences were cut from almost every episode, with highlights including:
The Gobin King invading Ruby's flat and her banishing him with scratchcards in The Church on Ruby Road: Her missing 'companion saves the day' moment!
Refrence to the Toymaker in The Church on Ruby Road, which was itself referenced in The Devil's Chord. 'I told you about the Toymaker when we first met' sir, objectively you did not.
The TARDIS jukebox playing the Sugarbabes' Push The Button in the opening scene of Space Babies, hastily cut around in the final edit. This is the setup of a running joke still in the episode, and part of the story's climax. The first encounter with the Bogeyman was also longer, with 15 taking particular interest in its skin
Extended scenes in Abbey Road from The Devil's Chord, including an apparently significant speaking role for Cilla Black, according to her annoyed actress.
Cut dialogue from The Devil's Chord explaining the musoical number was caused by Maestro's power lingering, and that banishing them undid everything they'd done. Fans inferred thos based on the rules established in The Giggle, but again, new fans haven't seen The Giggle and were left clueless.
An opening sequence for The Legend of Ruby Sunday where 15 & Ruby meet Susan as a nanny in 1947 America, a blue-skinned waitress, and an astronaut meeting a colony of giant, sentient ants. At the end of this we actually see 15 decide to go to UNIT for help. In the broadcast version he just sorta shows up.
Really what Empire of Death exposed to me is how emotionally hollow the season was. I enjoy the exoperimentalism, but not at the cost of character. And then in the finale Russell reverts to almost a parody of his RTD1 finales, with the nonsense logic and lack of consequences. All the worst bits of Last of the Time Lords and The Giggle put in a blender.
He's a crafty little snake that sometimes likes to craft incredibly elaborate plans to bring down the MiBs. While he can be a bit reckless and certainly brave, there is no way he ends up in gryffindor.
Now Ai on the other hand...
Obviously not a Slytherin: most of her plans are just "If I die now everything will be better".
Gryffindor? Maybe she has her own brand of bravery of course: Facing down the barrel of a gun ready to sacrifice yourself for the lives of your loved ones is very Harry after all.
One could make an argument for Ravenclaw, she is a nerdy genius scientist after all. But is that really who she is? Is that where she really thrives and feels fulfilled?
Nono, Ai Haibara is 100% a Hufflepuff:
She worked hard her whole life so that her sister would be safe. She got so depressed at never seeing her sister again that she tried to kill herself and only survived by chance. She proceeded to get adopted by the DBs (and Agasa ofc) in record time. She works her ass off to create an antidote for a poison that wasn't even complete and was being developed by at least two genarations of scientists before her. She values her relationship with the DBs so much because she can finally be the older sister she never got a chance of being.
All Ai wants is to have a happy, free life toghether with her friends and family and will do all in her powers to make that a reality.
Ai Haibara is the hard working, friend loving, big sister Hufflepuff by excellence.
I will accept no other Headcanons about her Hogwarts life.
Also she and Conan would 100% be academic rivals turned lovers.
During their third year Hermione keeps disappearing and reappearing at random times, acting like nothing's happened. Harry and Ron are starting to get kind of annoyed, Hermione is obviously keeping a secret and while Harry wants to let it go and respect her privacy, Ron has grown up with 5 brothers and has no intention of letting her get away with it. Everytime Hermione reappears Ron asks "Blimey! Where did you come from?" with the same exact tone. Everytime he does it Harry rolls his eyes.
After the first month Harry is honestly surprised Hermione hasn't caught on, either she's being oblivious on porpouse (Wich she isn't, she couldn't lie for her life) or she's so distracted that she actually hasn't noticed anything.
After the second month, and a week of Hermione's hair being even more impossible than usual and the bags under her eyes begin to show Harry and Ron start to actually worry. Ron starts adding food to Hermione's plate every chance he has (it's lots of chances, Hermione is always eating with her head in a book lately). Harry starts to send her to bed after ten o'clock every day, forcefully taking her away from her books to stop her from falling asleep in the common room. She gets a bit better for a while.
And then they fight over a broom.
Harry can understand where Hermione comes from, but he seriously doubts an escaped convict would have the means to buy a top of the line broom (Harry checked, he'd have to spend over half the money in his trust vault for it). Also he can't help but remember every time the Dursley show him new toys only to take them away and give them all to Dudley. He knows Hermione isn't like them, but those kind of scars are even more pronounced than the one on his forehead.
Ron just feels so angry. He doesn't know why exactly but it's been building up for a while now. Scabbers might not be the best pet ever, but he's still his pet, he's loved by the whole family in that kind of jokey but really strong way the Weasleys love each other. He knows Scabbers is old and his parents have already been open with him about the possibility of him dying. The last thing the poor thing needs is a cat trying to eat him every other day. And Hermione just doesn't care. The fight over the broom feels more like a spark igniting something that was already there. Ron is all too used to the idea of everything he owns belonging to everyone, but he's also fed up of feeling like every single thing could be take away from him by Ginny or the Twins and never seen again.
Hermione gets worse again after that.
Harry goes up to his dormitory every night wanting to first send Hermione to bed, but he's just so angry and hurt, and he deserves a "sorry" at least, doesn't he?
Ron sees her cheeks hollowing in the next few weeks and his hand itch to put some more toast on her plate, he wants to take away her books and tell her to eat, but he takes one look at Scabbers and Harry and he gets angry again.
Once the broom is given back to Harry the tension seems to abate a bit. They tether on the edge for a while: Hermione looks at them sometimes and starts to cry everytime; Harry feels awful about the whole thing but he's still hurt; Ron mostly tries to ignore the whole thing, he's still so angry.
Neville (bless his heart) is the first to take a step. He walks up to Harry one evening and stumbles his way trough what is obviously a reharsed speech about how Hermione is obviously more important than a broom. It misses the point entirely, Harry finds himself incredibly angry about it for a split second. Then her reminds himself that no one but him could know about the Dursleys. He hasn't really told anyone about them. Maybe he could try and explain it to Hermione. The idea of coming clan about the things he suffered sends his heart in a frenzy, but Neville is right about one thing at least: Hermione is important to him, her and Ron are like two pieces of his heart he never knew he was missing.
So Harry takes Hermione and Ron and finds them a secluded place in the castle. Somewhere no teachers or prefect are following him around in that suffocating way. He talks to them about the Dursleys then. He focuses on the way they never give him anything, on the way they taunt him everytime a gift is given.
Hermione and Ron are horrified. Hermione starts crying and sobs her way through an apology, she tells him she loves him and she's sorry about the broom, she just wants him safe. They hug it out and Harry feels a huge weight lift from his shoulders.
Ron is silent at first but Harry and Hermione would never just let him get out of this, so they coax his anger out. He shouts at them and kicks a chair away while he stalks the room. He lays it all out, about Scabbers and how scared he is that his pet might die at any moment. Hermione is crying again by the end of it. She heals the bruise on his shin from the chair and then hugs him too. She promises to keep Crookshanks at bay and apologizes for her callousness.
Then she takes a breath and comes clean too. She takes the Time Turner our of her shirt to show it ti them, explains what she's doing with it, how stressful it all is. How she feels like her head is underwater half the time now. She never gets enough sleep and never has enough time to study no matter how many hours she turn back. She's always so tired.
They work toghether from then on, they watch out for Scabbers, who gets lost over and over. They watch out for Hermione so she studies a bit less and sleeps a but more. They watch out for Harry so that he knows they love him and that he's never a burden.
They become so close that people start to whisper around them, but they don't care. There are more important things in the world.
in the universe where sirius is the first to find out that lily likes james — properly, seriously, undeniably fancies him — james has already expressed his desire to give up and move on and forget and other things along these lines. honestly sirius can't remember the exact details; he might have zoned out when the speech started to get a bit repetitive (which tends to happen during james's Lily Speeches TM). and, anyway, the relevant thing right now is just that at the end of that particular Lily Speech TM, james was like, no one remind me of her, okay, no one talk to me about her, i'm Moving On, i'm serious, which of course proceeded to derail them all because of course sirius had to go, no, i'm sirius actually. at that point the conversation had already gotten so convoluted and moot remus just opted to walk out, main point having been provided already (see: james is officially Moving On), dragging peter out of the room with him.
and, like, another factor to consider here, if you have a bit more time, is that the whole fucked up prank thing with snape is still kind of fresh-ish around this time. remus and sirius just started talking again. james is no longer looking at sirius with that gut-wrenching Look Of Doubt. (unbeknowst to sirius currently, this will be his brain's reference for vivid nightmares years later, when he's in azkaban and there's nothing else to do but bask in another fuck-up. the biggest one of his life. the Royal Fuck-Up, if you will, so big all his other fuck-ups might as well have not existed at all in their littleness.)
(but that's later.)
right now, post-prank, pre-james and lily dating and everything else that comes with that, the marauders are back to normal at last is what i'm saying. back to normal more or less. lessons were learned and lines were drawn and people are changed for the better, you know? and sirius will be the first to tell you now that what he did was fucked up, that he fucked up, and that at the core of that fuck-up was him being careless about a secret that was not his and had no business running his mouth around about. that is why, now, even though he's dying to, he doesn't tell james. it's not his secret. (and lily clearly doesn't want it shared.)
he doesn't tell james that the girl he's been in love with since forever has been looking at him A Certain Way for a while now, that she keeps ambushing sirius for half-hour interviews with questions like, what was he like as a kid? what's his favorite color? what does he like to eat for breakfast? like sirius gave birth to and raised the guy himself or something. (by the way: loud and rambunctious, gryffindor red, and, most recently, sunny side up eggs and applewood smoked bacon and buttered salt bread if he has time, just a banana yogurt drink if he doesn't. you're welcome.)
he doesn't tell james that lily evans cried for like three hours in that secret alcove on the astronomy tower when james kissed jeanne marchbanks in front of everyone at the slaghorny party (a stupid thing benjy fenwick came up with; supposed to parallel slughorn's party where most of them are not invited to), and the kiss was lasvicious and lasted long enough to be worthy of the stupid party name. horny slags alright. everyone cheered of course. even sirius, actually. just for, like, solidarity. and only for the first three seconds, swear. only until he noticed lily by the door, still dressed formally, just arrived, it seemed, and presumably just snuck out of slughorn's. she was wide-eyed and open-mouthed and ashen at the sight. then she was turning around, heading back out. the portrait door had already swung close after her and james's damn tongue was still down marchbanks' throat. so. you know. great. spectacular.
sirius grabbed as many beers as he could hold from the alcohol stash and gestured to remus that he would be out. remus seemed concerned and curious, but otherwise said nothing. asked no questions. just nodded.
ten minutes later (he had to use the map, because christ that woman could power walk), lily was crying on his shoulder and cursing like a sailor. i like him, what the fuck. what do i do now. this is terrible. what the fuck do i do.
and sirius didn't know. how the fuck was he supposed to know what to do. he could barely handle himself. he just kinda sat there and let her cry. offered her beer. opened the bottles for her. held the bottles for her when she kept doing these impassioned hand gestures as she talked, almost smashing one against the wall by her own head (very james of her, sirius noted). chanted not my secret not my business not my secret not my business in his head like a mantra.
the problem though, is that he's sure this is the girl james is going to marry. and it's not like, some corny gut feeling or some shit. i mean sure there's some of that, maybe. but most of it is proper evidence-based. like james and lily's mutual stupidity about being in love, and lily's easy dynamic with their silly little group, and sirius's unquestionable expertise in all things james potter. he's not gonna write a fucking essay about it, okay, but lily is definitely long-term, sirius is certain. and he doesn't want to just — do nothing.
so that night, on the astronomy tower, just for something to do, he asked lily, "hey, do you like dogs?"
and she's so surprised by the randomness of it she actually laughed, tear-streaked and all. "what?"
"do you like dogs?"
"yes...? who doesn't?"
"dunno. cat people?"
"ah, i do like cats, too. i like both, i guess."
"what if it's, like, a really big dog?"
"i — what are you talking about?"
he thought about it one last time. then, very seriously: "i can turn into a dog."
she blanked for a bit. then, "but that's — "
"illegal, yeah."
"huh." she didn't seem alarmed, or maybe she wasn't yet, then. she just seemed like — she was trying to figure him out. "why are you telling me this right now?"
"i thought it would... cheer you up or something." it suddenly seemed very silly. "never mind."
she laughed again, this time closer to not-gonna-cry-again territory. "you can't just tell someone about illegal shit and be all, never mind. that's crazy."
he shrugged. "i know you won't tell."
"how do you know? i'm a prefect. i could very well tell."
"because you're you. and it's me." and it's james.
"what does that mean."
"just take it as you will."
"i don't know how to take it at all."
sirius felt slightly annoyed then. "then don't take it. just forget it."
she was still looking at him like he's a jigsaw puzzle, and his pieces were all scattered about. but at least now she had officially stopped crying. thank god. "can you do it easily?" she asked. "turn and then turn back? or do you need time and stuff?"
"i can do it both ways pretty much on command now."
"you've been drinking though."
he returned the jigsaw puzzle look. it's — it was just such a lily evans thing to say, is all. it was very distinctly lily evans to consider that. "it's okay," he said. "should be fine."
she was quiet. she still wasn't crying anymore, but she was — she'd gotten contemplative. "padfoot," she said quietly after some time, more to herself than anything.
and he thought, then, that he should've known. that of course she would figure it out that quick. the nicknames become pretty obvious once you're in on one. he wondered if she was thinking about the rest of them, figuring out that it's not just him. wondered what she was making of moony. if she thought of them less. if — god — sirius had fucked up once again and just made her think of james less, which was really what mattered.
"it's just me," he said, scrambling, then instantly feeling stupid. yeah. nice save, dumbass. "i swear."
"okay," was all she said. and — she knew. she knew then, for sure. and sirius started panicking a bit. but then she smiled, and it was a kind, understanding smile, classic lily, and he's not quite sure how she did (slash does) it, but it was suddenly like it's perfectly alright that she did know, that he didn't have to elaborate or worry about anything.
(he knows because it's the exact same feeling, the same brand of magic as james opening his fucking mansion door summer previous, looking at the state of sirius and then saying, you look fucking terrible, come in, not questioning the bag containing his entire sorry life and taking him in, forever, like he's lived there all his life.)
(they both chase sirius's panic out, is the thing. so easily.)
then, she asked, "can you do it now?"
he choked on his drink, mid-swig. "now? like, turn?"
"yeah."
"why? you don't believe me?"
"no. i just thought you were offering. to 'cheer me up or something'."
"um. yeah, okay. sure."
not long after that, after laughing at the absurdity of the giant black dog suddenly in her presence, her chortles started morphing back into sobbing, in the way high emotions shift and blur into each other sometimes. he let her, curling up best he could in that alcove, and she cried, and held on, and — well, that's how the whole padfoot thing started.
as in this thing where james comes to dinner holding hands with jeanne tonight and lily drops her fork and looks at sirius dead in the eye, and just goes, right there at the gryffindor table in the great hall, sirius in the middle of chewing a mouthful of chicken, "padfoot, can i talk to you? now?"
and of course everyone is bewildered. no one calls sirius black that besides the boys. the last non-marauder moron who tried it got the worst of the Signature House Of Black Glares, the one that must be a nonverbal jinx by the way it leaves you jelly-limbed and dry-mouthed and unable to even glance at sirius's general direction for the next ten business days.
and lily evans just. so nonchalantly did it.
but even more bewildering to everyone, for sure: sirius looking right back at her, zero glare, taking his time swallowing and not fazed at all. then, after primly wiping his mouth with a napkin, he smiles, gets to his feet, and says, "alright."
—
for @jilymicrofics' prompt for may 3: map. except it's 1,700+ words lol so it's now for @jilymicro-oops :)
i realized there's also azkaban thrown in there, so it's also an advance entry for may 15. thanks for reading!
Shiho still has nightmares about her time working for them.
Shinichi still has nightmares of the times Shiho almost died.
When Shiho wakes up, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, Shinichi is always there with a hot tea and a warm hug. He never lets her get as cold as her old labs.
When Shinichi wakes up, screaming in fright and calling her name, Shiho is always there to remind him she's safe, to remind him that she's there. She never lets him feel as lonely as he was after becoming Conan.
Shiho feels warmer every day. Shinichi is never lonely.
Hermione never really tought of herself as attracted to teachers. Sure she had a bit of crush on Lokhart (cut her some slack, she tought he was an accomplished writer and an actual hero), and everytime Professor Sinestra decided to take off her robes in class she might stare a bit, but that's just because she didn't think witches wore pencil skirts, and not because her legs went on forever. And her blushing when Professor Burbage complimented her on her runes work was solely because of the attention she recieved in such a small class.
So when Harry is teaching a new spell to the DA, and he gets that glint in his eyes, and he rolls up his sleeves and he starts showing them the wand movements... Well she's just paying attention like she does for every other class right?
And when he steps up to her and she gets it on the first try (because of course she does), and he says "Very well done, Hermione. I shouldn't be surprised." It's normal for her to blush and feel that tingle up her spine, right?
Why is she even breathless? That was an easy spell. The way Luna and Ginny are looking at her makes her blush even more. The way Harry winks before leaving to check on Colin makes her knees weak.
Ok Hermione thinks Maybe I do have a thing for teachers
Ok, but do you ever lose half your day thinking about Luna and Ginny fixing each other's wounds in their sixth year? Getting what little peace they can in abandoned classrooms first and in empty corners of the RoR later?
Do you ever think about that infinite second when Luna lets her hand linger on Ginny's face as she checks a bruise? That excruciating moment when Ginny has to move Luna's hair out of the way and her shoulder is right there.
The restless nights when either of them has to recover from the cruciatus and all the other can do is hold them and try to soothe pain with nothing but words? Useless words that are never enough because they both want to say so much and they just... don't.
Do you ever think about that horrifying moment when Luna gets taken from the train, and Ginny can't do anything? She wants to fight, she wants to curse those bloody death eaters to pieces, but she can't. Neville is holding her wand arm down but that single look from Luna is all it takes to make her feel petrified. There is so much to take care of back at Hogwarts and Neville can't do it alone and... "Please don't do anything. I love you." and it's all one look and one minute and then Ginny can't do anything else but break down on Neville's shoulder.
And Ginny is running on fumes until the battle is starting, until everyone is getting ready and Luna fumbles through Ariana's potrait. And then everything comes back into focus. And Ginny knows there are other things to think about, thing to prepare for the battle, but nothing comes even close to knowing Luna is there, alive and whole.
And they share another moment, another second, another minute. They share another look and there's nothing more to say, because of course they love each other, how could they not?
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