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𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘-𝐎𝐍-𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐄
chapter six ─ powerful
(with a little bit of tender)

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SEPTEMBER BLED INTO OCTOBER the way a tortoise might move across a vast desert ─ slowly, well aware of the world's vendetta against it. In the same way, Heidi was soon beyond convinced that the world was out to get her.

Tutoring George Weasley turned out to be even more work than she had expected ─ which is saying something. She soon discovered that George Weasley wasn't held back by a lack of talent or natural aptitude ─ he was held back by his own inability to care. They met up once a week in the library for an hour. George spent this hour complaining. Heidi spent this hour counting her blessings, trying to maintain some hope in the world.

Surprisingly, Heidi's favourite part of the week soon became her DADA lessons with Alita Byrnes. Of course, this was because her teachers had become depressingly serious now that 'O.W.L.s were upon them', and each hour spent in class felt like a day. In contrast, Alita created rhymes for jinxes, mnemonics for hexes, and a song for magical beasts with verses added each time Lupin brought another one into class. In return for her tutoring, Alita had made Heidi promise to punch Percy Weasley, should he ever require a good socking.

Heidi didn't tell the twins about this. They would inevitably ask for the same promise, and Heidi wasn't forgiving enough to make them promises yet.

Heidi's other favourite part of the week soon became Wednesday evenings ─ Lydia had prefect duties, Angelina and Alicia had quidditch practice, and Heidi had the dorm room all to herself.

The Weird Sisters blared out of Alicia's wireless, Heidi nodding her head along with the beat as she scanned a copy of Witch Weekly. Pure bliss was the term that came to mind.

Naturally, pure bliss never lasted long at Hogwarts. Heidi was simply grateful that Lydia was the first back, slow smile spread across her face as she unpinned her prefect badge and flopped backwards onto her bed.

"Jules and I are going to be married," Lydia said. There was a beat of silence. Then, Lydia shoved her face into her pillow, screamed, and sat up again.

"He's asked you already?" Heidi asked, brow furrowed. "Wait, are you guys dating?"

"Oh, no, he doesn't know it yet," Lydia said calmly, changing into her pyjamas. "But he asked if I wanted to go to Hogsmeade with him sometime."

"And you said yes, right?" Heidi asked, scrambling onto her knees.

"Obviously!" Lydia said, spinning around their room. Heidi whooped, and Spellbound began blaring from the wireless. "Cupid shot me in the heart, Heidi, I couldn't exactly say no."

"If you say so," Heidi laughed, falling backwards on her bed. Lydia joined her, lying at the bottom of Heidi's bed and picking up her copy of Witch Weekly.

"What's in here? Oh ─ Spellbound's landed in another scandal, how surprising." Lydia pointed her wand at the wireless, raising the volume. "'Quickest Ways to Woo a Wizard' ─ thank you, Witch Weekly, but I'm doing fine on my own." Lydia grinned at Heidi, fluttering her lashes, as she couldn't wink.

Shouting erupted on the other side of the door; Alicia and Angelina's voices unmistakable. The door slammed open, loud enough to shake Heidi's bones and frightening enough to roll Lydia off the bed.

"Shout a bit louder, why don't you?" Heidi glared at them as they came inside, trailing mud and rainwater behind them. "I think there's a Hufflepuff down in the dungeons who didn't hear you."

"Fuck off," Alicia said, stomping into the bathroom.

"How was quidditch practice?" Lydia said from the floor.

"Wood told her off a bunch about her form." Angelina frowned. "Alicia didn't take it well. She called your brother 'a floppy-dicked toenail'."

"He probably won't mind. I've called him worse."

"Shut up!" Alicia called from the bathroom.

"Anyway," Angelina said nonchalantly, toeing her boots off and leaning back on her elbows. "Nate Squire's having a birthday party next week."

"I heard." Heidi pulled Lydia off the floor. "I don't think we're invited. He doesn't know us."

"He knows you," Lydia pointed out. "Isn't he friends with Alita Byrnes?"

"I met him once. He said well done for punching Roger. He did not invite me to his birthday party."

"That's because you're no fun at parties," Angelina said, half-asleep, still in her quidditch uniform.

"Wheesht," Heidi said. "I'm plenty fun. Remember Lydia's birthday party?"

"I remember you kissed my cousin on the cheek and then passed out in your own vomit," Lydia said. Angelina cracked up, and Heidi could hear Alicia stifle a laugh from the bathroom.

"When will you stop bringing that up?"

"When you do something funnier," Lydia giggled.

The bathroom door opened, and Alicia stepped out. Silence fell over the room.

"I want to go to the party," Alicia announced, and that was that.

***

"Merlin," Heidi said, matter-of-factly. "I didn't know Hufflepuffs had it in them to be this loud."

Music Heidi didn't recognise sent her heart thumping in her chest, vibrating in her spine. A dance floor had been set up in the centre of the common room; a number of people seemed to be jumping in what was once unison, creating a disjointed bass line to accompany the tune of florescent adolescence.

The four girls had been joined by the twins, Lee, Jules and August, who had brought Arbor. They were standing in a secluded corner, avoiding eye contact with any one they knew, including the birthday boy. Nobody missed Lydia's hand slipping into Jules'; Heidi was pretty sure most of the group missed Alicia's eyes continuously sliding to Arbor.

The firewhiskey Heidi had swallowed down ten minutes before arriving thrummed through her bloodstream, making her a whole lot happier. She had one arm wrapped around August and the other around Angelina; she was considering forgiving the Weasley twins, as they had brought the firewhiskey, though none of them knew how.

At least, she would have. If she had never heard the cough from behind her.

Ten heads turned; ten teenage bodies followed. Oliver Wood stood in front of them, looking slightly displeased.

Maybe 'slightly' was an understatement.

"Hi, Ollie," Heidi said quietly. Unable to stop herself, she let out a giggle, before clapping a hand over her mouth. In truth, Heidi had been avoiding Oliver like the plague since the discovery of Nate Squire ─ as the one who had encouraged Oliver to flirt with a spoken-for woman, she felt some degree of guilt for whatever inevitable drama she had caused.

"Hi, Heidi." Oliver's words were clipped. He was very disappointed. "You mind telling me what you're doing here?"

"Oh, y'know . . ." Heidi leant backwards into Angelina's chest, who immediately shoved her forwards. "Makin' memories."

"Right." Oliver pointed to the entrance ─ or in their case, the exit. "Make them elsewhere."

Somehow, Oliver could be threatening when he wanted. Somehow, through their almost-drunken haze, all ten teenagers understood that he meant business. Somehow, Oliver had successfully removed the rowdiest fifth years and Arbor Byrnes from a party without anyone noticing.

"What just happened?" Fred and George asked in unison, standing outside the Hufflepuff common room.

"I just got kicked out of my own common room," Arbor said, staring listlessly at the entrance.

"No shit, Sherlock." Alicia giggled from the floor.

"Does anyone else . . . not want to go back?" Heidi sat down next to Alicia, running her hands through Alicia's fringe. "I don't want to be sober yet."

"You're sober," Alicia said, giggling.

"Let's go to the kitchens," Jules decided. "Fred, would you get her up?" He nodded at Alicia.

"Merlin, Al, you're a total lightweight," Fred said, bending over to try and coax her to her feet.

"C'mon, Wood, upsy-daisy." George tucked his hands under Heidi's arms, lifting her to her feet.

"Don't get to comfy, Weasley, I'm still annoyed at you," Heidi murmured; however, a wave of exhaustion hit her and she slumped against him.

George wrapped an arm around her, chuckling. "Noted." He paused, before adding: "why are you annoyed at me?"

"Cause you gave me a concussion."

"Ah, that old gem."

"And you don't try."

George gaped in mock-offence. "I do try! Just not at things you consider worthy." Lee tickled the pear on a tapestry, and the entrance to the kitchens opened.

"You don't try!" Heidi tried to make sense of her thoughts through the alcohol-induced fog. "When I tutor you, you don't try. I don't like wasting my time."

"So don't tutor me, then!" George was laughing, and Heidi hit his chest.

"No! You have to get good at Transfiguration! I said I'd tutor you; I'm going to fucking tutor you." Heidi frowned. "Does that make sense?"

George smiled softly, and Heidi thanked the stars she wasn't too drunk; she couldn't have been held accountable for anything that might have occurred if she was.

"Sure it does, Wood," he said, helping her onto a bench. "I'll try for you."

***

The next day brought ─ thankfully very mild ─ hangovers for everyone except Jules, who was too responsible to drink, and Heidi, who rarely suffered them.

"Happy Sunday, folks!" Heidi greeted. Lydia winced, smiling ─ or was that a grimace? ─ before looking back down at her toast. This was a small victory, as no one else deigned to look up.

Before long, the lack of bona fide fun amongst her friends drove Heidi away. Hands tucked into her cardigan, she resolved to roam the Hogwarts halls in search of some excitement.

What she found was far from excitement, but it wasn't nothing.

"Hey, bro," she said, lightly touching Nate Squire's boot with her foot. "You good down there?"

"Huh?" Nate squinted up at her, taking a moment to place her. After a minute, he nodded, and looked back down. "I'm good. Stellar, even. Just . . . y'know, sitting."

"Are you not freezing your arse off?" Heidi asked. "It's really fucking cold. You're in a t-shirt."

"I guess I am."

Heidi rocked back onto her heels, before pulling her cardigan off. The chances of Nate pulling his arms from around his knees long enough to put it on seemed unlikely, and Heidi doubted it would fit him, even if he did. Rather than find out, she simply arranged it over his head, like the French hoods Tudor women wore. She sat next to him, shivering slightly as the cold stone wall touched her back.

"When I was five," Heidi began. Nate still hadn't looked up. "When I was five, my mum tried to put me on a broom, cause Oliver already loved flying. He was always kind of weird like that ─ fixated on flying. It's why he can't get a girlfriend."

By the look on Nate's face, that seemed like the wrong thing to say. Undeterred, Heidi continued.

"Anyways, after the fifth or sixth time I fell off, Mum decided that quidditch probably wasn't my calling, but she didn't want to leave me on my own when Oliver was practicing. We didn't have enough room at our house, see, 'cause Glasgow gardens are tiny, so she used to drive to this huge field. While Oliver was practicing, she just let me . . . wander around."

"She let a five-year-old wander around a field?"

"She's a therapist, don't question her logic." Heidi paused, trying to remember her story. "Anyway, I used to find a bunch of bugs ─ mostly woodlice. I don't know why there were so many woodlice. I came back with them crawling over me, dead-set on taking them home, and my mum never, like, made me feel bad about it. She ended up bringing a box with holes punched in the lid so I could take them home."

Nate smiled. "Your mum sounds nice."

"She was always lovely about my woodlice, even when they multiplied and took over our tiny garden. She didn't even get mad when Wendy the Woodlouse died in her tea."

"You named your woodlice?" Nate furrowed his eyebrows. "How did you remember all their names?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. I think I just guessed, or said their names with authority and no one questioned me."

"I don't know how much authority five-year-olds have."

"I was always destined for greatness. My mum knew that, which is why she let Oliver fly around on his fancy floor-brush and let me collect bugs. My point is, do what you like, and control the woodlouse population of your garden."

Evidently, Heidi had failed to inspire greatness in this strange, sad Nate.

He looked at her; even sitting down, he still towered over her, and Heidi's cardigan looked comically small on his head. He opened his mouth, shut it, and shook his head.

"What's up?" Heidi asked quietly.

Nate laughed, but there was no mirth in it. "You don't want my troubles."

"Trouble has a bad habit of finding me, so I'll probably find out sooner or later."

He sighed. "Do you ever feel like . . . you're never enough? Like you're constantly doubting yourself?"

Heidi leant back, considering. "Dude, I feel like that all the time."

"Really?"

"Yeah! The way I see it, I fall short quite a few ways." Heidi bit her lip. "But I also know quite a few people who would probably drop-kick me if I didn't figure out some way of loving myself, so." Heidi shrugged, fidgeting with her jeans. "I guess if they see something worthwhile in me . . . there must be something there."

Nate leant his head back against the wall, blinking upwards through Heidi's cardigan.

"It's a sound theory," he said carefully.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Nate nodded. "I like that."

"Good stuff, bro. This was fun, but I've lost all the feeling in my arse, so I'm off."

Nate looked up at the loss of Heidi's cardigan on his head, a corner of his mouth curling upwards. "Thanks for the chat," he said. "And your weird woodlouse story."

"Anytime," Heidi said. "Like I said, trouble can find me anywhere, so I'll probably see you around."

As she walked away, Heidi encountered a strange epiphany; trouble wasn't synonymous with bad. Nor was it good, exactly; trouble, Heidi and a certain ginger twin existed within a grey area synonymous with excitement.

𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫 ─
dude, there are no words
for how much i don't like
this chapter.