━━━what's spew!

BIRDIE, LORELEI AND Cedric made their way to the Gryffindor table, all of them led by Lorelei who wanted to get to Hermione and be a part of the house elf protection thing she was doing, Birdie thought that Hermione wouldn't be able to make a difference, at least not right now, she was way too naive to understand how the whole thing started, but she admired the confidence and the determination Hermione posessed.

"Hey, Hermione" Lorelei grinned as she took a seat right beside the bushy-haired girl who's nose was deep into a book, "Matilda"

Hermione peeked out of her book at that, putting it down and focusing her attention on Lorelei now, "You've read it?"

"I have" nodded Lorelei, "It's a great book"

"It is" Hermione said, her mood brightening up a bit, "You needed something?"

"I would like to be a part of the spew, please" said El, fetching some sickles from her pocket, "Are these enough?"

"These are too much, I only need a sickle" said Hermione but El put it in her hands anyway, "By the way, it's called S.P.E.W"

"Forgive me, Fred called it spew so I thought it was called that" said El and Hermione nodded, she handed El a badge that said S.P.E.W on it in neat letters, Birdie reckoned Hermione had made it herself, though, it didn't look too bad.

"It's ok" Hermione shook her head, "Did you want a badge too, Birdie?"

"No, it's-" Birdie was about to decline when a kick to her shin told her she shouldn't, she glared at Lorelei who gave her a fake sweet smile, "Yes, Hermione, I would like a badge too" she gave Hermione a sickle that she gladly took and gave a badge in return for.

Birdie and Lorelei spent the next few seconds signing their names on the sheet that Hermione had shown her — there Birdie noticed that so far it had only six members, Neville, Harry, Ron, Hermione herself and now Birdie and Lorelei, then it hit Birdie, did that less people care about the house elves? she thought.

It made her remember every single time an elf had helped her out, whether it be in the kitchen or to heal a wound she couldn't heal herself and wanted to avoid, to help with her clothes, to help with everything — everything at Hogwarts was possible because of the house elves and they rarely get any appreciation, most of the times elves are treated like an object, like the main purpose of their life is only to serve a wizard and nothing else.

Birdie then remembered Dobby, she remembered how happy he had been when Harry set him free, she remembered how miserable he'd been at the Malfoy's. How many elves like Dobby are suffering in their homes, scared to say anything against their master?

"Cedric would like a badge too, Hermione" smiled Birdie and Cedric looked up from the table.

"Huh?" he asked before he was met with two glares belonging to El and Birdie, "I mean, yes, um, here" he pulled out a sickle and Hermione smiled brightly.

After signing his name on the sheet Cedric joined Birdie and Lorelei and all of them made their way back to the Hufflepuff table, "You get it now, don't you?" asked Lorelei, a small smile on her face as she watched Birdie put on the badge.

"I do" Birdie smiled back, "But someone" she hit Cedric in the head with a book, "doesn't"

"Yeah" El said, the smile disappearing, "What's up with that?" she hit him on the head too.

"Hey, ow!" Cedric said holding his head, "I'm sorry, but the house elves love working, El!"

"You don't know that" Lorelei frowned, "What if they want to be freed? Dobby wanted to be free, didn't he?"

"They're devastated when they're freed" argued Cedric, "You saw how upset Winky still is"

"Ced, she's not handing a clothing item to them by force" explained Birdie, "She's making sure that the option is there if needed, of course if they love to work then there's nothing wrong, but on the off chance that they don't — they should know that there is no reason for them to live a life full of misery"

"Exactly" Lorelei agreed, high fiving Birdie, "I knew there was a reason you've been my best friend all these years"

Cedric seemed to be in his thoughts for a few seconds before he took out his badge and put it on, "You're right" he said with a shrug, "If there's even one more like Dobby, they deserve the right to be free"

"You know, when you really look at it — all problems root back to ancient pureblood families" said Lorelei with a distant look on her face.

"How so?" asked Birdie.

"I mean, if it weren't for their superiority complex maybe all house elves would be free right now instead of slaving away in some house, goblins wouldn't have to have such a bad reputation, and Centaurs — they posses more knowledge than sometimes humanly possible yet they're regarded beasts" Lorelei said, "and don't even get me started on the muggleborn thing"

"And werewolves — they treat werewolves poorly too, yes, some of them are bad but the ones who aren't suffer too" said Cedric with a sorrowful look, "No matter how soft spoken, and how amazing they are, it all goes out of the window when they find out that person's a werewolf — just look at Professor Lupin, he was the best DADA teacher we've had to this date, yet here we are"

"You're both right" Birdie said, "But you have to understand their point of view too, of course I'm not defending any of their actions but after the Salem witch trials — they were bound to become a bit paranoid, humans set thousands of witches on fire without batting an eyelash, it was bound to do something, I think after that they started treating anything that might be able to cause them even a little bit of harm badly, but then it became a habit and now it's turned into this hot mess"

"Sooooo" Bianca dragged the word, "Licorice wands?"

✿

"Dad, this sucks" Hope said with a huff as she talked to her father in the Gryffindor common room late around twelve at night, making sure that no one was around to see her using the fireplace — her father's face from the fire let out an audible sigh.

"I know, it does" said Remus, but then he smiled, "but what if I bring you some extra candy when I come the next time?"

"That could work" Hope shrugged, "So, how's your thing going?"

"I'd say it's going as good as it can" Remus said, "though the girl I'm working with right now has a certain tendency to knock over things quite a lot"

"Bless her" Hope chuckled, "How have you been? Have you been eating well?"

"I'm doing fine, and yes, I have been eating well" answered Remus, "Now, get to sleep — you're going to need all the energy you can get for today"

"You try and rest too, ok?" asked Hope and Remus nodded, "Love ya, dad"

"Love you too, darling" Remus gave her one of his famous fatherly smiles that made Hope feel warm inside. Hope watched her father disappear from the flames with an empty feeling in her heart, and so she sat there for a few more minutes just staring at the fire swallowing the wood and the flames rising up.

Sometimes she wonders if things would've been different if she'd had her mom, if her mom hadn't died so young — she was only four years older than her when she'd died, she didn't deserve that. Hope doesn't remember her mother that well, but her first memory ever was with Lauren Lupin — her beautiful and amazing mother, she remembers watching her mother twirl in a beautiful dress and pose to her, asking her how she looked.

That was it, that's all she has of her mother, and Godric does she wishes she had just a bit more.

In the Hufflepuff common room, Birdie laid awake on her bed with sweat dripping off her — she'd had another nightmare related to that night. It wasn't uncommon for her to wake up with nightmares troubling her, but this one was different — it was almost like she'd been reliving that moment in the dream, it was like she was feeling the pain all over again.

Birdie released a sigh and then got out of the bed, sliding on her fuzzy bunny slippers that she's loved ever since she was a child — she remembers her dad getting her a new one every year whenever she would grow out of them. She leaned down and peeked under her bed, reaching out her hand and looking for something, a cold handle touched her hand and she pulled the small mirror out.

Birdie hid the mirror in her pajama pocket as she got out of the room, and soon the Hufflepuff common room — she walked and walked the quiet hallways until she was finally in the corridor she wished to be at.

Somewhere cozy with a kitchen, she thought and soon a door appeared, she looked both ways before opening it and stepping inside, she came face to face with the room she'd spent many nights in, a cozy room that looked much like hers back at the now abandoned and broken Potter Manor.

She sat down on the couch and then pulled the mirror out once again, "Dad?" she whispered, not sure whether her dad would be able to hear her.

"Bird?" Her father appeared, his glasses sitting crookedly on his nose and his hair all messed up, even more than usual, "What happened? Did something happen to Harry? Is he there with you?"

"No, no, nothing happened" Birdie said hurriedly, the look of distress on her father's face disappearing, "I just needed to— I just needed to see you"

"Nightmare?" His father asked, his tone turning mature as Birdie shrugged, "Now, if you were a child I'd sing you your favorite lullaby, but you had to grow up, didn't you?" he joked.

"Can I ask you something?" asked Birdie.

"Anything, darling"

"How did you know mum was the one?"

"I didn't" James confessed, "For the longest time I just looked at her and thought I would love to get married to that girl, I didn't know at the time what the whole 'the one' thing was, but whenever I would look at her I knew I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life — as cliche as it sounds — it was love at first sight, at least for me"

"Did you ever want to give up?" Birdie asked, and watched her father chuckle.

"Many times, yeah" He said with a smile, "Believe it or not the love of your life looking into your eyes and telling you they hate your guts wasn't very motivating most times, but then I would look at her eyes once again and I would forget about everything else she ever said"

"Can you sing to me?" Birdie said in a small voice, her father's heart melted, "Like you used to?"

"You told me that you didn't want me to do it anymore when you were six" James chuckled, "You always had to rush growing up"

"I think I regret it now" Birdie confessed, "I would kill to go back in time and experience everything once more"

"You can't go back in time now" James said, "But you still have a lot more to experience, starting with a new song, I heard this on the muggle thing? What do you call it? Radio? Yeah, that, anyway—"

Birdie smiled as she watched her dad fiddle with the drawers and get his guitar out, shutting the door behind him as he walked out on his tip-toes, making sure not to wake his wife up.

The Slytherin common room was quiet except for the hushed voice of the teenager who had sneaked in some floo powder from McGonagall's office when she wasn't looking, or so Regan Rosier had thought.

"Marauders Manor" she said after she threw the powder on the fire, she put her head in the green flames and soon saw the halls of her house looking extremely quiet except for the loud snores of a big black dog, she saw her mom sleeping on the couch with her mouth slightly open and her hand hanging down, her dad on the floor with a blanket cocooning him, "Psst, mum, dad?"

"I didn't do it" Regan heard her mom mutter in her sleep, Andrew stirred in his sleep as he rubbed his eyes — opening them and seeing his daughter passing him an awkward grin from the fireplace.

"What's up, kiddo?" He asked coming closer to face the fireplace.

"When did we get a dog?" Regan asked with furrowed eyebrows, though it didn't take much longer than that for realisation to dawn on her, "Is that—?"

"Yes" Andrew nodded, but then he placed his fingers on his lips motioning for Regan to stay quiet, "Don't say it out loud"

"Ok, well I just wanted to warn you that you may get a letter from the school about a certain...incident?" Regan explained sheepishly.

"Regan..." Andrew said in a threatening voice, "You shouldn't go around pranking people it could land you in—"

"You have the dog in your house"

"You make a fair point"

The dad daughter duo talked for a few moments until Sirene Black-Rosier woke up and then talked for even more time than that, Regan Rosier considered herself lucky that she'd gotten such great parents and with all the chaos sometimes she forgets just how grateful she should be for them.

While the snores of Durmstrang students in the huge ship rang throughout the whole mast, there was one sound that was left unheard — the sound of a pen scratching against parchment.

Lorelei Black sat against the window desk as she wrote many letters, all addressed to one person — Sirius Black, though nothing seemed to satisfy her and she ended up with a parchment full of nothing but scratched up words, she had nothing to talk to her father about and he didn't either. She balled up the parchment and then threw it in the dustbin, making sure to ignite the paper so it didn't get into wrong hands, Lorelei released a sigh and leaned back into her seat, slowly a tear fell down her cheek that she hastily wiped, blinking furiously to avoid any others.

How the hell did they get here?

Be ready for flirty Birdie people.