"FIGHT"

FIGHT: brawl;  Lorelei Black felt like she wanted to walk up there and laugh at Umbridge's face every time she told the kids to put away their wands and told them not to practice magic in any way — it kind of made her want to do well in her class just to piss her off, she'd like to see that pink toad try and grade her paper bad, yeah, she'd like to see that happen, well not really see that happen because she does want to do good this year since it might all go to shit if she doesn't — she plans on getting an actual job and doing something with her life, thank you very much. Somehow, Lorelei had also gotten on Snape's good side this year — turns out if you don't look at him, don't breathe in his direction or just don't do anything even remotely in his direction that doesn't piss him off — he hates you slightly less.

Of course, Birdie and Hope didn't decide to follow that advice — Hope knows she won't get a job because of her medical problems anyway, so she's clearly given up trying (as she should, fuck the government) and Birdie, well Lorelei doesn't know what's going on with Birdie lately — she kind of just hangs out with Fred and Hope all the time. Is Lorelei mad about it? No. Is she happy about it? No, she would like to talk to her best friend, and she'd like to talk it out and get back to being the way they were before, if only Birdie would just make an effort like Lorelei's been making many.

"Ok, cherry, step back, you're ruining it" Lorelei said to George who was licking the batter off the spatula and picking out all of the chocolate chips from the cookie batter and eating them and Lorelei had started getting annoyed because she actually needed the batter to be present in the bowl to create the cookies, "Ooh, would cherries in chocolate cookies be weird?"

George paused for a minute as he thought, "You know what? Let's try it out" he grabbed a bowl of cherries that Twixy handed them the house elf went back into her crowd as soon as she was done with the job. He started adding the cherries to the bowl and Lorelei looked up at him with her brows furrowed and her head tilted sideways.

"Should we— should we chop it up before?" Lorelei looked at the bowl of cherries and then the batter and then the bowl of cherries again, "Meh" she started adding the cherries to the batter.

"Oh, hey" George said to Lorelei and she turned around with her eyebrows raised, "You got a little something there" he motioned to her face.

"Here?" she tried to wipe her face, but George shook his head, "Where then?"

"Right there" George said and before Lorelei could do something he smeared some of the batter on her nose, he chuckled at her expression before dodging a hit from the spatula.

"Not funny, carrot-top" Lorelei said she chased after the redhead and the house elves made room for her, annoyed at the pair and how much time they'd spent here — they won't even let them cook, "Get back here you demon spawn, let me see your ugly face!"

Lorelei eventually caught up to George and took revenge was putting the batter on his cheeks and then a bit in his hair looking proudly at her work as if she'd just finished painting something, "Happy?" George asked with a small grin and his eyebrows raised up.

"Very" Lorelei nodded happily, and then punched his arm, "And that was revenge for throwing the burning hot pot on my hand"

"That was months ago!" George protested as he rubbed his hand — he wasn't being dramatic, it really did hurt.

"Still," Lorelei told him and then got back to placing the cookies on the tray, "I didn't exactly get pay-back for that, did I?"

"Fair enough" said George with a shrug and watched the brunette place the tin tray in the oven and then watch it as she sat on the ground, "You know watching it doesn't make it go faster"

"I know" Lorelei said and then put her wand up and muttered a spell for the process to go faster, "This will" El put on her oven mitts and then opened up the oven door, she was met with smoke and the smell of cookies.

El grabbed a cookie and then handed one to George, "On the count of three?" George asked and the two did a 'cheers' with their cookie, "One...two...three." both of them ate the cookie and immediately spit it out, coughing afterwards.

"Bad cookies" Lorelei gagged.

🫐

"I CAN'T GO THAT DAY" Regan frowned as she stared at the coin, "I— I have Quidditch practice, I thought I told you guys?" she said to the rest of the group who was in the Gryffindor common room along with a few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. They were all prepping for the Slytherin and Gryffindor Quidditch match today, and everyone was buzzing with excitement — Gryffindor vs Slytherin always got everyone riled up, not because they're the best at Quidditch or something (they're really not) but because of all the drama during and after the match and surely today was going to be no different.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry, ah" Hermione winced, "It's just usually because there's a lot of people from the same house — it's easier to remember their schedule and since you're the only one from Slytherin here, I— it completely escaped my mind, Reggie, I'm so sorry, I'll postpone it, or cancel it"

"No, it's fine" Reggie sighed, "Don't cancel it, I can skip one meeting, you shouldn't cancel a meeting many people have already practiced for, and they're probably looking forward for it"

"Reggie, I really am sorry—" Hermione tried to apologize to the Slytherin and Regan raised her hand, "Reggie, don't be like that"

"I said it's fine, 'Mione" Regan passed her a smile, "I've got to go and get ready for the game, so, yeah, tell Harry and Ron I said good luck" she squeezed Hermione's shoulder.

Lorelei watched the interaction with an awkward look on her face along with Hope and Birdie.

Lorelei completely gets why Regan must be a little pissed off about the whole meeting this, but she also can't really blame Hermione — the girl's practically taken up all the responsibilities of the DA, but Regan's also had to work twice has hard to cover up, to prove herself and do do everything including help the people doing bad with the DA just so she could prove she wasn't some kind of mole — she's hurt that her own best friend forgot about the Quidditch practice she'd told her about and to be honest Lorelei was pissed for her too — why was all the prejudice affecting the good kids? Lorelei was sure there were many kids in Slytherin who'd love to be in the DA, but for some reason — they couldn't.

Lorelei also gets why some kids in Slytherin don't want to speak up, with the reappearance of Voldemort many people who'd joined him in the first war are probably doing it again — and kids can't choose their families, it's better to keep their mouth shut and heads down than to speak up and possibly lose their family members or their own lives. They weren't all kids anymore, and the ones who were won't get the chance to be.

It was messed up.

Lorelei remembers chatting with the first years before they'd all gotten sorted, they'd gotten along so well, and then it was like sorting had created some sort of boundary between them and their last names had only added height to that boundary, it was ridiculous, and a change was long overdue, but it wasn't going to happen in the middle of the war, and Lorelei wasn't sure it could unless everyone decided to start fresh without any assumptions or hatred in mind.

The kids made their way to the game and Lorelei watched it with Birdie — the Gryffindor and Slytherin team had taken hits, but it wasn't something they couldn't recover from, and lo and behold Harry's Potter genes — he caught the snitch once again, though El did feel bad for Ron — the poor kid probably lost his focus because of all the chanting Slytherins were doing.

Lorelei cheered as she rushed down the stands and up to George practically throwing herself in his arms, "Oh, my Merlin George when you hit that ugly bitch with your bludger? That was the best part of the game, I swear I would sell my soul to see it happen again!" George couldn't keep the smile off his face as he spun her around, and heard the cheering go louder.

"—wanted to write another couple of verses" George could hear Malfoy say something from behind him, but he didn't care until, "—fat and ugly, wanted to sing about his mother, you see—" George turned around with a furious expression, and Lorelei did the same, both of them marching up to where he was.

Then it clicked to Lorelei — all the teachers were watching, and Malfoy was riling them up on purpose so the infamous Potter and Weasley temper would come out and they'd get disqualified, now Lorelei doesn't think Malfoy has even half the brains to think it through, but she wasn't going to take any chances and so she grabbed a hold of George's hand, unclenching his fist and putting her hand in it instead.

"Maybe Potter loves the Weasley's so much because it reminds him of home, Draco" Capella said with a devious smirk, "Is that what your mother's house stank of—"

Lorelei let go of George without even registering that she had and grabbed Capella by her shoulders as she kneed her in the stomach — Lorelei couldn't stop herself, she literally did not think about what she was doing, her brain blanked out and she just couldn't stop herself, she doesn't even remember what she's doing as she's doing it. She then grabbed her collar with one hand and then punched her in the face with the other.

Capella tried to defend herself to the best of her abilities, but something in Lorelei had snapped and she wasn't stopping, she had now started kicking Capella as the blonde laid on the ground.

Lorelei's mind wasn't registering anything.

"El, step back!" someone grabbed Lorelei from behind, but she didn't even see who it was before getting free of their grasp once again and moving towards Capella, then the person stepped in front of Lorelei with a worried expression, "El, it's me — it's Birdie, snap out of it, remember — deep breaths, snap out of it, El!"

El blinked.