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booksmarts and broomsticks
act ii , take a breath
chapter thirty-three, a conflict of interest

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➖DRIA LOCKABY ➖
june 1993

        "HOW DO YOU RECKON it's going?" Penny asked Jackie and Dria, her brown eyes flitting towards the door of their compartment every so often.

        "Abysmally." Dria responded, her gaze stubbornly fixed on Figaro as he clawed at a snag in her jumper.

        "My theory is she's dived out the nearest window and is now roaming around the countryside." Jackie voiced from where she sat beside Dria with her legs stretching out across the compartment, resting on the opposite seat.

       "We're never going to see her again." Dria chuckled in agreement, as she met Jackie's gaze causing the Hufflepuff's smirk to broaden.

        "She's going to spend her life taking care of sheep, and playing the harmonica for money."

         "I don't think asking Una Callahan out will have driven her to going off the grid to be a harmonica-playing shepherd." Penny replied with a light smile on her lips as she joined in with her friends' laughter.

        "This is Tess, we're talking about."

        "Anything's possible."

        However, much to their dismay, as soon as Dria had mentioned the Robbins girl by name, she appeared at the compartment door with a slight smirk on her face.

        "There she is!" Penny cried in excitement as Tess stepped over Jackie's outstretched legs — she had refused to move them based on the fact that Tess had turned out alive and well — and fell back into her seat opposite Dria.

        "How did it go?" The Ravenclaw beside her chuckled, as all three girls turned in their seats to face Tess with anxious looks on their faces.

        "You know what? Surprisingly well."

        Jackie let out a light scoff before sitting up in seat and quirking a brow at her friend.

        "You word-vomited all over her and she took pity on you, didn't she?"

        "Oh, absolutely."

        "Thought as much."

        "But she did manage to hear me mention something about Diagon Alley and a date over the summer." Tess grinned, as she spoke over her friends' chuckles. "So, all in all, she gave me her address and I'm going to owl her!"

        Several cries of victory filled the compartment as Dria, Jackie and Penny all congratulated the girl with nudges and bright smiles.

       "Everything's coming up, Tess, I'm telling you." The Robbins girl smiled as she leaned back in her seat, throwing her legs upon Penny's lap with a contented sigh.

       "Just don't organise it for when we're at the beach house, alright?" The Ravenclaw chuckled, as she shuffled in her seat, her hands resting upon Tess' ankles.

        "Wait! Your parents are letting us having the beach house?" Dria exclaimed suddenly, her eyes wide with excitement as she looked at Penny.

        Penny's parents owned a beach house out on the beach front in Newquay and her three friends had been urging her to see if they would be able to spend some time there over the summer — which apparently had amounted to a success.

        "Their owl came through this morning and, since I was petrified, they couldn't really find the nerve to say no." The prefect explained with a smug smirk on her features at the excitement of her friends.

         "That's really good leverage."

         "I know, I'm planning to use it on all of you." Penny continued to smirk on response to Jackie's compliment.

        "Smart." Tess agreed, as she started biting the leg of the Chocolate Frog that Dria had just tossed to her.

        "I wish I'd been petrified."

        Dria smacked Jackie over the head in response to her statement at which she threw her hands up in defeat.

        "Okay, fine. I made the joke too soon, I'm sorry!"

        Dria merely chuckled as she grabbed a pumpkin pasty from the selection of treats that sat between her and Jackie.

        "Will our boy Percy Weasley be coming to the cottage, this summer?" The blonde smirked as she shot a look over at the prefect in the opposite corner of the compartment, who flushed red at the mention of the Weasley boy's name.

        "Maybe."

        "As long as you're not snogging all over the kitchen, it's fine by me." Tess chuckled, her voice muffled by the chocolate she was chewing — but her statement was still clear enough to earn her a snack on the leg from Penny.

        "You're never going to let that go, are you?" The Ravenclaw groaned as she buried her face in her hands, as her friends reminded her — for the fourth time that day — how they'd accidentally stumbled upon an empty classroom in which her and Percy were—

        "Honestly, if I'd have known Prefect duties were basically orgies I would have considered applying—"

        "Jackie!"

        "Hope I'm not interrupting?"

        The sound of a knock and the compartment door sliding open had been disregarded by the girls within, due to their preoccupation with Jackie's newfound outlook on prefect duties, and now they looked to the doorway to find a very amused-looking Nate Squire leaning against the door frame.

        "What the fuck do you want?" The Hufflepuff on Dria's left immediately responded upon seeing her teammate. 

        "Shut up, Jackie." Dria chastised her, as Nate chuckled at the welcome he'd received after announcing his presence.

        "What are you guys talking about?" The Chaser quirked an eyebrow, as he looked around the compartment.

        "Horny prefects." Tess replied simply, shooting him a thumbs up as Penny buried her face further in her hands — if that could be possible.

        "Oh sweet lord."

         "Nice." Nate only continued to chuckle before his eyes landed on Dria who was too finding humour in Penny's clear embarrassment. "Lockaby, you got a second?"

        His request took her by slight surprise as they'd only engaged in a few conversations since that day in the Quidditch tent but nonetheless shot him a small smile and nodded.

        "Oh, sure." The blonde told him, shuffling in her seat and clasping her hands around Figaro in order to hand him to Tess. "Tess, take the cat please."

        "Oh hell no." Her fellow Gryffindor shook her head in response. "You forget he hates me, now."

        "Then make up." Dria retorted and before waiting for another response placed the cat on Tess, and followed Nate out of the compartment.

       "Fuck you, Lockaby!"

        The blonde only rolled her eyes at the comment before raising her eyebrows at Nate, who had stopped by an open window not too far from the compartment, leaning against the glass waiting for her to join him.

        "Everything alright?" She asked, taking a few steps towards him, feeling the cool glass against her skin and mirrored his posture, leaning against the window behind which the countryside shot by in a frenzy of greenery.

        "Yeah, yeah." He nodded, a small smirk creeping onto his features. "I was just wondering what your plans were over summer?"

       "Oh?"

       "Well, if you'd like to, I'd love to meet up at some point." The Chaser clarified, raising an eyebrow at her, his smirk never fading. "Maybe grab some food or something?"

        Dria pursed her lips as she felt a wave of confidence wash over her. A smirk found its way onto her own lips, as she responded.

         "Are you asking me out?"

         "Do you want me to be asking you out?" He retorted, mirroring her tone as she took a challenging step towards him.

         "You didn't answer my question."

         "And you didn't answer mine." He countered, quirking his eyebrows again as he folded his arms across his front, waiting for an answer to his question.

       Dria narrowed her eyes teasingly at the Hufflepuff Chaser before withdrawing a scrap piece of parchment and pencil from her pocket.

        "Alright, Squire." She conceded, scrubbing her address down on the piece of parchment before handing it to him with a smirk on her lips. "Owl me."

        The Chaser's smirk quickly morphed into a victorious grin as he took the parchment from her and spared her a wink.

        "It's a date."

        With a final raise of her eyebrows, Dria turned on her heel, her lips pressing together in order to suppress a grin that threatened to spread across them, as she shuffled her way back into her compartment, closing the door behind her.

        She let out a light scoff upon reentering and seeing the stillness of the compartment before her; Tess had her full attention on Figaro who looked less than impressed with her, Penny had freed her face from her hands and had instead buried it in Witch Weekly and Jackie had her lips pursed as she tried to read the back of Tess' Chocolate Frog card. The blonde folded her arms, and raised a challenging eyebrow at them.  

       "Don't act like you all didn't eavesdrop on that entire conversation."

        "Told you she wouldn't believe us." Penny shot Tess a look at which she merely shrugged, and happily handed Figaro back to Dria as the blonde fell back into her seat beside Jackie.

        "And you had the audacity to say all that flirting was nothing!" Jackie turned in her seat to face the Lockaby girl with a look of faux horror on her face.

       "Wait, what flirting?"

        Tess, Dria and Jackie looked at Penny and let out soft groans of realisation as she continued looking at them in confusion.

        "Oh, sorry Pen, you were unavailable to consult at the time." Tess leant over to give the girl a gentle pat on the shoulder.

        "Just say petrified."

        "Before the Hufflepuff-Gryffindor game," Jackie began to explain, a mischievous glint in her eyes as she relayed the events to Penny. "We were in the tent and Dria started flirting with Squire—"

        "He started it—"

        "Dria, shut up." The Irish girl retorted to her interruption. "I'm being proud of you."

        "You still don't even know what he asked." The blonde told her with a light scoff.

        "He asked you out." Jackie shrugged as though it was the most obvious thing in the world — which, in all fairness, it wasn't far from.

        "Well, yeah."

        "It was pretty obvious." Tess agreed, before looking at Penny who mirrored her expression and gave a nod.

       "That, and he's been asking me how to do it since the match." Jackie clarified, suddenly causing Dria's attention to snap back to her Hufflepuff friend.

        "Really?" Dria asked, unable to disguise the bashful smile that was spreading over her lips. "What did you tell him?"

        "I told him to fuck off and stop bothering me."

       "Sound about right."

       "And then when he didn't." Jackie sighed, her gaze softening slightly as she gave her friend a nudge. "I told him to just ask the stupid question."

        The blonde spared her friend a grateful smile as she felt a slight blush dust her cheeks, before quickly averting his gaze to the ground.

       "So I'm guessing you said yes?" Penny asked, causing the girl to look up and see an excited smile on her features.

        "Yeah, he seems fun — and, not to mention, he's extremely good-looking." Dria chuckled, with a light shrug. "We get on, I mean, why not?"

        "What about Oliver?"

        The question made the smile immediately vanish from Dria's lips as she looked at Tess who had voiced the question, her eyebrows furrowing.

        "What about Oliver?" The blonde stifled an awkward smile, as she began stroking Figaro's fur as he settled back onto her lap. "It's hardly his concern who I go out with, is it?"

        "I mean, how you feel about him?" Tess clarified, arching an eyebrows, her eyes gleaming with sincerity as she awaited an honest answer from her friend.

        Dria let out a light sigh, furrowing her eyebrows as she thought on Tess' words — what about Oliver? Then, a small smile crossed her features.

        "He didn't even come to mind when I was talking with Nate." Dria confessed, her smile only broadening. "I'm past all that now."

        "You know what? I actually believe you." Jackie chuckled, as she slid back down in her seat, grinning proudly at her friend.

       "It's the truth!" Dria assured her with a chuckle, as she looked over at her other two friends, whose expressions mirrored Jackie's.

        "I like this new Dria." The Hufflepuff confessed, pursing her lips together. "I hate to say it but that whole Lockwood situation was really holding you back."

        "Oh, god. Don't remind me of Lockwood." Dria let out a groan, as she raised a hand to head in attempt to mask her sudden embarrassment.

        "I'm trying to be complimentary!"

        "It's back-firing!"

        A cackle of laughter left Jackie's lips before she calmed herself and clarified her point, grabbing Dria's hands away from her face.

        "My point is I think going out with Nate will good for you." The Irish girl nodded, an excited flint dancing in her eyes. "I mean he's an arse—"

        "You think everyone's an arse!" The three girl around her retorted almost in sync, earning a light chuckle from the speaker.

        "I'm just excited to witness Dria Lockaby reborn, okay?" Jackie held her hand up, shooting Dria a proud glance, bumping her shoulder with hers. "Cornwall is going to be fucking legendary."

        "You bet it is."

***

"OKAY, SO HERE'S THE plan." Allan Lockaby announced, as he loaded his children's three trunks onto a trolley. "We're going to drop all your stuff at mum's and then the five of us are going to go and get dinner."

"How does pub grub sound?" Julia added, from where she stood beside him, her arm around Michael's shoulder as he leaned into her side.

"Superb, I'm bloody starving." Maisie replied, with a wide grin on her face as she clambered onto the trolley and sat upon the trunks.

Dria could only chuckle at the chaos unravelling before her, watching as her mum and dad chatted animatedly with her siblings as they prepared to depart the platform in order to go and spend time together ... as a family. The blonde knew that a year ago she would have scoffed at the very thought but now, she was just happy it was no longer that — and it was now reality.

Readjusting her bag on her shoulder, she took a step forward, following her father as he pushed Maisie and their belongings towards the gateway back into King's Cross but the sight of something — or rather someone — made her stop in her tracks.

"Hold that thought." She called to her mum, who turned at the sound of her voice. "Can I meet you outside?"

"Sure." Julia smiled, following her daughter's gaze and a small smirk settling on her lips. "Don't be too long."

"I won't." Dria assured her, watching as the four of them hurried through the gateway before turning around meeting the gaze of a very familiar Keeper as he stood not too far from her.

With a small smile on her lips, Dria took the few steps towards him and shoved her hands into her pockets.

"Hi."

"Hey." Oliver chuckled in response, his eyes flitting between her and where she'd just been stood with her family. "Just wanted to catch you and say goodbye."

"Yeah, sorry." The blonde winced upon realising she would have left with saying anything due to being distracted by her family. "I was just a bit caught up."

She looked back at the Quidditch Captain and found him looking on her with a soft smile and a glint in his eyes which she couldn't quite place. He let out a light sigh, his smile never fading.

"You look happy."

"I don't know how but everything seems to have fallen into place." She replied with a light shrug, unable to hide a gleeful chuckle that laced her tone.

"I'm glad, you deserve it." He told her sincerely, giving her a slight nudge before he cleared his throat and quirked an eyebrow. "Listen, do you want to meet up at some point during the holidays?"

"Yes, absolutely." Dria smiled with a light chuckle as though the answer was obvious. "Of course, I do."

"Alright, look out for my owl." Oliver responded, his suddenly alight as he began stepping away in the direction of where — Dria assumed — his family would be.

"I will." The blonde assured him, her smile never fading as she began making her own way towards the gateway sending him a wave.

"See you, Dria!"

"Bye!"

Pushing through the swarm of families, Dria eventually found herself at the gateway which she quickly found opportunity to pass through.

Wincing slightly due to the slight claustrophobia the passage gave her, she maintained a quick walk as she found herself on the Muggle side of Kings Cross station. The blonde found herself blinking a few times in order to adjust to the brightness that shone through the station's skylights.

Despite how quickly she shook off the sudden setback, she found herself stopping in place upon seeing her mum lingering just beyond the other end of the gateway.

"I thought you were heading outside?" Dria asked, quirking an eyebrow as her mum met her gaze.

"Oh, I was. The others have." Julia replied, her gaze averting her daughter's ever so slightly. "I— I just needed to tie my shoe."

"Mum." Dria warned, as the two fell into step and began walking towards the exit.

Julia threw her hands up in surrender, as Dria figured that her mum had lingered in order to ask her about her conversation with Oliver.

"I'm saying nothing, I'm not saying anything!" Her mother assured her, quickly, before the two fell into a short silence. "He's very handsome."

"Mum!"

"Okay, I said one thing!"

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖆 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖘!
and that's the end of
act ii! brace yourselves
for the third and final
act — or as i've taken to
calling it; b&b on crack

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