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booksmarts and broomsticks
act ii , take a breath
chapter nineteen , magic, duh?

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➖ JACKIE O'HARE ➖
october 1992

DRIA'S LEGS ACHED as she willed them keep climbing the stairs up to the Common Room, blowing her hair out of her face in exasperation. She let out a long sigh when she reached the landing before the Portrait Hole, catching the attention of the Fat Lady who merely quirked a brow at the Gryffindor.

"Back so soon, Miss Lockaby?" She chirped, as she shuffled in her frame to address the blonde who was still breathing heavily, and taking a hand through her hair.

The Fat Lady had good reasoning for asking such a question as Dria had only left the Common Room only some fifteen minutes earlier — and she had left in much lighter spirits than the ones she was in when she returned.

"Change of plans." Dria spared the Fat Lady a forced smile, before trilling her lips and standing up straight and uttering the password. "Wattlebird."

"In you go, then."

With an obedient nod, the Fat Lady gestured behind her and Dria was met with the sound of her portrait creaking open and swinging forward to reveal the inviting Common Room.

Muttering a slight thank you, Dria trudged into the room before her with her sights set on the fireplace — or, more specifically, the deep burgundy sofa that sat before it, upon which she had every intention of throwing herself, in the least elegant manner in order to rest her aching limbs.

"Oi!"

However, the exhausted girl did not take into account that the sofa may have already been occupied by someone else — as well as a cat, judging by the unimpressed yowl that accompanied the human exclamation.

Dria had fully thrown herself upon the sofa, with her legs outstretched across the cushions and her head landing in the lap of a familiar Hufflepuff, who was smirking down at her with a book in hand.

"How in the hell did you get in here?" Dria immediately shot up in her seat, upon recognising Jackie and wondering just how she'd managed to get into the Gryffindor Common Room, at which the Hufflepuff gave the most typical Jackie-like response.

"Magic, duh?"

Somewhat satisfied with her friend's response, Dria merely shrugged before kicking off her shoes and curling up in her seat, leaning her head in her hand as she turned her attention to the Irish girl beside her.

"What have you been doing?" She asked, a small smile resting on her lips, as she watched her cat jump back onto Jackie's lap, after being so rudely evicted by Dria's head moments before.

"Oh, you know, fancied sitting by the fireplace," Jackie shrugged, closing her book upon which Dria could vaguely see the title Wuthering Heights written across the front. "And stealing your cat, of course."

"Which you can't do in the comfort of your own Common Room?" The blonde chuckled in response, while the Hufflepuff ran her hand along the tabby cat's back much to his contentment.

"Not with the cat."

"Fair point." Dria agreed, quickly, before reaching forward and scratching the top of his head. "He's a great cat."

        The next few moments that passed must have been the greatest of Figaro's life as he received the upmost attention from the two girls upon the sofa — that was until a call aimed in their direction, from across the Common Room,  cut through their midst.

       "Jackie—!" Lorcan McLaggen approached the sofa with a light smile on his lips, before his words fell short upon noticing the blonde beside the Hufflepuff. "Oh ... hi Dria."

       Jackie's hazel eyes widened ever so slightly as she turned in her seat to face the boy who was leaning on the back of sofa, with an expression on his lips that Dria thought contained the slightest confusion.

       "Don't you have somewhere else to be, Goldilocks?" Jackie replied with her eyes narrowed and lips pursed, as she looked up at him.

       "Um, sure."

       Faltering slightly and casting glances here, there and every where, the McLaggen boy retreated from where he stood behind the sofa and slowly made his way to the other side of the room, looking somewhat deflated.

       "He seems a little off." Dria's eyebrows furrowed as she made the remark, her blue eyes following the blonde boy as he skulked away.

       "He's a weird sod."

       Jackie muttered, although her tone didn't hold the same spite that Dria normally heard whenever the girl spoke of McLaggen, but the Lockaby girl decided to not question it and instead tore her gaze from the boy and slumped in her seat, with her gaze back on her Irish friend.

       "You've got applaud his determination."

       "For what?" Jackie asked, her eyebrows quirked in humoured curiosity as her hand resuming stroking the cat on her lap.

       "Still trying to get with you, even though you rebuke his every attempt." Dria clarified to the girl amid the lightest of chuckles, as she pulled her knees to her chest in attempt to get more comfortable.

        "It's a mediocre effort." The Hufflepuff shrugged, with the ghost of a smile on her lips, before shaking the expression off and turning the grinning blonde beside her. "I find it annoying."

       "I'm sure you like the attention."

       "Well, who wouldn't?"

Dria wasn't sure that she could have expected the girl to respond any other way and letting out another airy laugh, her mood having lightened considerably upon entering the room.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Jackie asked suddenly, her eyebrows furrowing as she queried. "Aren't you supposed to be in Hospital Wing?"

"I wasn't needed." Dria shrugged with a disheartened smile, her head resting in her hand once more. "Sadly, no one decided to get ill or die today. So, safe to say, I'm immensely disappointed!"

"Well, that is shame." Jackie tutted, offering the girl a wide smile that she didn't bothered to hide at her friend's melodramatic response, before offering up a potential solution. "I could always throw myself into the fireplace if you want — that'll give you someone to treat."

"Aw, Jackie, that's so thoughtful."

"What can I say? That's me."

Jackie spared a knowing wink at the blonde, and before their conversation could continue any further, they found their midst interrupted by the Portrait Hole swinging open and revealing the Gryffindor Quidditch team, who were all grumbling as they entered.

       Dria was surprised to see their robes in pristine condition, without the slightest of scuff of dirt upon them, and quickly concluded that their practise — which they had left for, just before she'd left for Hospital Wing — had not gone ahead.

       "Thought today was the day you kicked off your new training programme?" The blonde called across to the Quidditch Captain, whose frown lifted into the slightest smile at the sound of her voice.

       "New training programme?" Jackie repeated, a devilish smirk appearing on her lips as the two girls peered around the back of the sofa where the majority of the team were now approaching. "Care to share?"

       "Keep dreaming, Jackie." One of the Weasley twins scoffed as they sank into the nearby armchair, while the other perched on its arm.

       "Well, it was meant to be." Oliver replied to Dria's question with a tired sigh, as he leaned upon the back of the sofa. "But Slytherin got the field."

       "On what grounds?"

       "They need to train their new Seeker." Angelina put in from where she, as well as Katie and Alicia, had settled by the other armchair.

       "They dropped Higgs?" Jackie asked with an incredulous expression, looking around at the rest of the team for reassurance which they all gave in the form of reluctant nods. "Who have they got instead?"

       "Draco Malfoy."

       "That little shitface?"

       "Only because he bought his way in." Alicia grimaced, as she crossed her arms upon her front and outstretched her legs in front of her, from where she sat in the floor, leaning against the bottom of the armchair.

       "Yeah, his father's only gone and bought the entire teams Nimbus 2001s." One of the twins clarified, watching as Dria and Jackie's expressions contorted into further horror at the news.

        "Oh for Merlin's cat, Mildrew's sake." Dria grimaced, understanding — even with her limited knowledge of Quidditch — what it meant for the other teams.

"Fucking purebloods."

"Jackie, we're both purebloods."

"Fine!" The Hufflepuff retorted, eyebrows furrowing as she thought of an alternative. "Fucking ferretfaced moguls then!"

Dria's eyes widened slightly at the intense delivery of her words, but slowly began nodding in response as well as mild agreement, while the Hufflepuff turned her attention to the Gryffindor Keeper behind them.

"Nimbus 2001s, you're joking?" Jackie's question was met with a tight-lipped disheartened smile from Oliver. "Well, we're all dead."

"Yep."

Dria watched in mild alarm as the two Keepers soon launched into a intense discussion over the game and the outrageousness of the Slytherins' behaviour, before slowly turning her attention to the more relaxed players of the Quidditch team.

"Bet Flint was very smug." The blonde tutted, as she looked at the two Weasley twins who replied with knowing nods.

"Don't you know it."

"Hermione Granger jumped to our defence you know." Angelina told the older blonde from where she was curled in the other armchair by the fire.

Dria felt a surge of pride rush through her at the news of the young girl's actions, and straightened up slightly in her seat at the Chaser's words with a light smile on her lips, all the while her ears were ringing with the irritated mutterings of Oliver and Jackie.

"That's my girl." She mused, in a louder tone so that Angelina could hear her over the mutterings of the two Keepers.

"Malfoy called her a Mudblood." One of the Weasley piped up with a grimace.

"What?!"

"Then, your sister punched him." The other continued the story, as Dria's eyes continued to widen.

"What?!"

"It was wicked."

Dria was completely bewildered at how much had occurred on that early Saturday afternoon in the time it had taken her to walk to the Hospital Wing and back.

"You're telling me that my little sister physically harmed another human being?" Dria asked, her eyes were disbelieving as she tried to navigate how she actually felt about the situation.

"Well, depends whether you class Malfoy as a human being."

She pressed her lips together in thought, on one hand she felt as though she stood feel mortified at the idea of her younger sister punching someone, and on the other hand, the recipient of said punch was a Malfoy—

"Is it wrong that I'm more proud than appalled?"

"No, she punched the sod," Alicia scoffed, from her place on the floor. "If you weren't proud, I'd question your sanity."

"Well, at least you got some entertainment in place of your practice." Dria chuckled, as she sank back in her chair thoroughly amused by their tale as she surveyed the five of them.

"Well, it certainly beats getting screamed at by Wood for an hour and a half." The Weasley twin perched on the arm of chair piped up with a devilish smirk.

"I don't scream at you."

It seemed that the remark of one of his Beaters had captured the Captain's attention, and shifted it away from the heated discussion with Jackie.

He rolled his eyes as he rebuked their statement, his tone somewhat light-hearted but also dismissive, which only caused the twins' smirks to broaden.

"So when your face goes all red it's just a healthy glow, is it, Oliver?" The Weasley twin in the chair replied, gesturing to his own face as the Keeper's jaw clenched and the rest of the team burst into laughter.

Dria tried her best to suppress her own laughter at the comment, while Jackie didn't try in the slightest, her cackle disturbing the cat in her lap who looked rather alarmed at the noise she'd emitted.

"Alright, same time tomorrow you lot." Oliver finally cut through their laughter in a more authoritative demeanour that caused Dria to definitely feel a little hot under the collar, as he surveyed his team. "I'll speak to McGonagall and secure the pitch."

His tone suggested that they were being dismissed and should respond with respect as an army would to a general, but the team merely offered unenthused groans as they remained where they sat, sending dismissive waves in his distraction as they fell into idle chatter.

Dria continued to chuckle at their antics and desperately tried to stop herself upon seeing the tired expression on Oliver's face, as he bent down to lean his head upon the back of the sofa.

"I don't scream at them." Oliver told the blonde in a whisper with a light sigh, at which Dria responded with a tut.

"YES, YOU DO!"

The sudden scream of opposition from the rest of the Gryffindor team succeeded in alerting every person in the Common Room, especially Figaro who let out a loud yowl and desperately scampered off Jackie's lap in a panicked frenzy.

Dria found herself more humoured than alerted by the sudden exclamation, chuckling as she watched her cat saunter away and up the stairs to the girls dormitory, much to Jackie's distaste.

"Out of support, I'm sure." Dria replied to the Keeper in the same volume with which he had whispered to her.

His eyes were wide in an incredulity at his team's response but nonetheless offered a light-hearted chuckle, as he shook his head and the conversation between the two came to the attention of the Hufflepuff beside them.

"If you're not screaming when you're playing Quidditch, you're not playing it right." Jackie surmised simply, with a nonchalant shrug, as Oliver nodded fervently.

"Exactly, thank you!"

Dria shook her head as the comment triggered another heated debate between the two Keepers and the blonde turned her attention away from the bumbling buffoons, muttering slightly to herself as she rested her head in her hand, with a content sigh.

"I'll never understand you Quidditch players." She shook her head, her gaze falling to the fire and allowing her tiredness to wash over her once more, watching as the flames chaotically danced across the bark of the logs.

"Did we mention, that on top of all that, our brother started vomiting slugs?"

"Is he really?"

The speed of a flash of lightning was slower than the speed at which Dria's question left her upon hearing the further sentiment — whichever one of the twins had said it was completely irrelevant to her, as she sat up in her seat, her firmer exhaustion forgotten.

Her blue eyes were wide and eager, flashing with hope at the thought of a potential causality in its way to the infirmary.

"That's the best news I've heard all day, do you know if he's gone to the Hospital Wing?"

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖆 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖘!
who else agrees that dria
and jackie are a low-key
psychopathic duo?
because, same

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