"HOME"

HOME: relating to the place where one lives; Home had always been a feeling more than a place for Lorelei Black, it was a place where she felt accepted, welcomed, and loved — often, it was the Rosier-Blacks for her, the family had always loved her as if she was one of their own because 'Lorelei you're my niece, you are one of our own!' her aunt would remind her every time Lorelei's imposter syndrome kicked in, and she would start feeling bad about sitting at the dinner table with them, or being with them in Christmas morning and opening presents.

More than that though, she felt at home whenever she was at Hogwarts with Birdie, the two would go around pulling pranks, and pissing Snivellus off like it was their second nature (Which it was because prankster blood runs through their veins like nothing else!). Last year when Lorelei had spent the year at Durmstrang she realized what Hogwarts really was to her — it was comfort and it was home.

Lorelei remembers the classes of Durmstrang, though she wishes she didn't very badly, if she could erase them from her memory — she would do it without any hesitation, but she doesn't want to obliviate herself and lose the good parts of the year.

"Having trouble, Miss Black?" Mr. Volkov sneered, coming face to face with a Lorelei whose wand was shaking in her hand, "Should've known you'd be a coward" Lorelei tried everything in her power to stop her hand from shaking so much as she saw the bunny in front of her, "I can do this all day, you can't leave without completing your assignment"

Lorelei turned stiff as the teacher walked around her in circles, she could feel his gaze judging her, "I can't do this" Lorelei breathed out, her hand dropping to her side.

"It is not an option to quit" Volkov said, his scowl more prominent now than ever, "We do not raise quitters here at Durmstrang"

Lorelei took another shaky breath, "Crucio" she could barely make out that word, a red spark made it's way out of her wand, but nothing happened to the bunny, it turned to look at her and tilted it's head — as if it was wondering what she was doing.

"Avada Kedavra" Volkov said without any hesitation in his voice, a green light shot out of his wand and the bunny dropped limp on the ground, "We go again, you fail — I take out another one of those, understood?"

Lorelei nodded with a gulp, unable to say anything else, she took out her wand once again as Volkov set another bunny down, "Crucio" the red light shot out and it hit the bunny, it kept writhing in pain as little squeaks escaped his body, Lorelei did everything in her favor to keep her tears in — she didn't want to anger the teacher even more.

"Good" Volkov nodded at the girl, "Now finish it off"

"But you said—" Lorelei stuttered.

"I know what I said, girl" Volkov grumbled, "Either you do it, or there are going to be a lot more of those than there need to be"

Lorelei hung her head in defeat, she then looked up, and watched the bunny make it's way towards the end of the table, "Avada Kedavara"

"El, get up, it's time" Regan shook Lorelei's shoulder violently, Lorelei flinched, passing an annoyed look to the younger girl, after a chat with Regan and making her promise not to tell anyone in return for Lorelei taking it easy with the sleeping potions — Regan was suspicious but in the end she agreed, finding it better to make a deal with the brunette rather than taking it to her parents.

"Merlin, you're so annoying" Lorelei threw a pillow at Regan, her voice raspy and her eyes burning — she'd fallen asleep late at night, almost around three a.m. or something like that, and it wasn't even proper sleep, she kept waking up in between for some reason, getting too hot, or too cold or just too uncomfortable.

"Did you sleep well?" Regan asked, her tone getting more serious as she sat on the end of Lorelei's bed with a bottle of cold water with lemon juice in it, "Here, drink this — it'll help you freshen up"

"It was ok" said Lorelei, she didn't want to get into the whole nightmare part of her sleeping schedule that never seemed to leave her alone, "Thanks, Reg" she pat the kid's cheek, "Go on, get ready, I hate it when you're nice to me"

"Fine, dickhead" Regan passed her a joking scowl, "Be ready in five"

🫐

"WAIT A SECOND, IS THAT THE HEAD GIRL BADGE?" Lorelei squinted her eyes as she saw Birdie take out her Hogwarts letter, Birdie's jaw dropped to the floor along with Hope's, "Holy shit, Potter, you've betrayed us" Lorelei chuckled at how speechless Birdie looked, and Hope let out a laugh, patting Birdie on the back three times before running around the house to tell everyone about it.

Sirius watched the kids with a nostalgic look on his face, it seemed like not to long ago when he had been the one opening those letters, and he remembers that day very well, it was his seventh year and Sirius was at the Potters', Monty had just made waffles for everyone, and the stupid owl had ended up crashing on the glass window instead of flying through it, Sirius and Sirene opened the letters with the biggest grins on their faces, excited for another year at Hogwarts where they could pull even bigger pranks then before. Sirius remembers everyone at the breakfast table just pausing with shock when James took out the shining little badge, "Shit, Potter, you've betrayed us"

"What did I miss?" Neveah walked in with two smoothies and a warm cookie for Lorelei, Lorelei took them from her hands excitedly, immediately shoving the cookie in her mouth, "Oh my merlin, Birdie is that the head girl badge?"

"Yes" Birdie spoke, but Lorelei could still see that the brunette was busy trying to process what had just happened, "They must've made some sort of mistake—"

"Bloody hell" Neveah grinned, "Nerd alert"

"And I thought you were ok" Fred joked as he joined them in the other room with Hope and George behind them, yeah, Lorelei hadn't really talked to George after that whole situation, look don't blame her — Lorelei hardly ever cries, much less breaks down in George Weasley's arms, he probably thinks she's a weak little shit after that, so Lorelei would rather just not.

"Bubbles, how do you feel now that your girlfriend has decided to ditch you for stupid fifth years who have no idea what they're doing" George held up his wand and pointed it to Lorelei's throat, El rolled her eyes, "Hey," George poked her arm, "Stop ignoring me"

"OH, SALAZAR!" Regan exclaimed, she had her eyes wide open, "I'm the stupid fifth year who has no idea what they're doing!" she held up a shiny little badge, "Why the hell would they make me a prefect? I've brought shame upon my family — kill me before I have to put it on my body"

"Stop being dramatic, you little shit" Lorelei smacked the back of Regan's head, "I'm disowning you by the way, how dare you become a prefect?"

"Oh, damn, maybe being a prefect isn't so bad after all" Regan said loftily, going through the rest of her list, "Oh, hey, I get the password for the Prefect's bathroom"

"Lucky" Lorelei said huffing, but then she remembered last year when her, Birdie and Cedric had figured out how the egg could be opened in that bathroom together, she remembered Cedric's smile when he'd gotten his head out of the water and how the three had to do a shame walk back to the common room with their clothes dripping wet.

"Reggie," Ron ran into the room his eyes wide open, and ears almost as red as the hair on his head, "I'm a prefect!"

"Oh, my merlin! Ronnie, me too!" Regan exclaimed and the two best friends walked out of the room chatting about how they had no idea what they were doing, Ron was excitedly telling Regan about how he was going to get a new broom, and Lorelei thinks the kid was probably more excited about that than being a prefect.

"Are you planning on ignoring me forever, or is this day a special occasion?" George stepped in front of Lorelei, she sighed.

"I'm not ignoring you, Fred"

"Nice try," George said dryly, "but I know you know"

"Damn it" Lorelei shook her head, "Well, ignoring you seems harder than I thought it would be"

"You can't escape me" George said with a crooked grin.

"I can always try my best?" Lorelei shrugged, "Look, about that day, I really wasn't feeling my best, so I'm sorry for the whole...you know — situation"

"What situation? George asked acting oblivious, he smiled softly when he saw the corners of Lorelei's mouth lift up into a smile too, "Anyway, since my mum is busy doing everything but noticing Fred and I — do you want to go to Diagon Alley together?"

"Oh, like all the kids?" Lorelei grinned, "That seems cool, ooh, we can finally take the little ones too, we're of age now"

"That's not what I—" George was about to complete his sentence, but then he stopped himself from doing so, "Sure, we can take the little ones with us too"

🫐

"LOOK I'M CAPELLA" Lorelei put a horribly dyed yellow wig on her face, she added a frown to add on to the character, George Weasley chuckled taking the wig off her head to which Lorelei pouted immaturely, "Buzzkill"

"Having fun, are we, Black?" Lorelei and George both flinched when the voice behind them startled the pair, both of them turned to find Capella Malfoy there with a scowl on her face — Lorelei had actually done a pretty great job copying that.

"We were until you came along" Lorelei huffed, she turned to look at George, "Let's go before she finds a way to ruin the rest of our trip" she gripped his hand, pulling him forward with her when she heard Capella say something from behind.

"I wouldn't walk around with so much attitude if I was you" Capella sneered, "Doesn't seem long before your blood traitor father gets captured by the ministry, having fun on his walks, is he?"

Lorelei turned around but before she could say something George put a hand on her shoulder, turning to face the blonde instead of Lorelei, "Does your family not have anything better to do than poke their noses into other people's business?" he then proceeded to guide an angry El out of the joke shop.

Capella Malfoy sighed in relief after the interaction.