"LETTERS"

LETTERS: written messages; Lorelei Black was tapping her foot with boredom in Transfiguration, she was usually a pretty attentive student, but today she was having a bit of trouble concentrating on the board or the the stuff McGonagall was saying, probably because pink toad over here was interrupting the Professor almost every five seconds, and Lorelei could see McGonagall's patience running out every time she did so, until boom.

"Do you need a cough drop for that nasty cough, Professor Umbridge?" asked Professor McGonagall to a now pink-faced Umbridge, "Because if you do I certainly won't mind if you had to leave my class, it does get hard to teach with constant interruptions, you see"

Lorelei covered her mouth with her hands in hope that a chuckle doesn't escape her lips, but on the other side of the class someone else didn't do that and a snort noise echoed in the classroom because of how silent everything was, apparently that seemed to do it for many students and the kids burst out laughing — as Umbridge tried to control them McGonagall made no effort whatsoever and let them all laugh for around a minute or two before clearing her throat and silencing the class.

"Right then" said McGonagall, "Let's continue, shall we?" she turned around and started writing on the board and right at that moment Umbridge walked out.

Turns out Umbridge wasn't going to be the only distraction of the day because there was a knock on the door and it opened up to reveal a very tense and scared looking Regan Rosier, Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows at the young Slytherin and Regan cleared her throat, "Extremely sorry to disturb your class, Professor, but I need Lorelei."

Professor Mcgonagall said, "Well, Miss Rosier do you have the permission slip from a Professor?"

"No, Professor" Regan winced, "It's a serious matter, though, really sorry I'm doing this"

Professor McGonagall was in thought for a few seconds — over the years she had grown quite fond of Regan Rosier, she was respectful, she was smart and she stood out of trouble as much as she could with being Harry Potter's best friend, and for some reason she was also weirdly scared of her, so Professor understood that the brunette wouldn't just walk up to the class unless it was a serious matter, or rather... a Sirius mattter, "Of course, Ms Black, pack your things, and remember to finish your notes on this topic please"

Lorelei looked confused but she walked out after giving the board one last look to get the topic in her head and walking out to join Regan, "Is dad ok? You said it was a serious situation—"

Regan scoffed, "Oh, for fuck's sake, I actually meant serious, not Sirius, dumbass" Lorelei frowned at the younger girl.

"What's got your knickers in a twist, you little asshole?" Lorelei asked Regan, "Everything ok?"

"No!" Regan exclaimed, "Freya is injured!"

Lorelei paused in her steps, Freya was their family owl they'd had for years, and she was the most graceful owl they'd ever seen, she flew carefully and got the job done so soon, she was also the most precious owl ever, loving and caring, Lorelei remembers that whenever Freya would fly to Hogwarts with presents or letters for El on her birthday she would spend more time than necessary with her, it was almost like she knew that Lorelei wanted a letter from her parents and she knew she felt bad about it. Freya was the animal of the family, and she was getting old so she wasn't sure if she could take the hit.

"What happened to her?" Lorelei questioned as both the cousins sped up their pace and Regan led them to where Freya was, "Is it bad?"

"I— I don't know" Regan said to the older girl, "It looked really bad, her wing was bleeding and she could barely walk much less fly"

"When did you find her like that?" questioned Lorelei and Regan sighed with frustration.

"It was in Professor Binn's class and Hedwig was there too, but she didn't look as injured" said Regan and Lorelei nodded, the two then reached Professor Grubbly-plank's office.

Regan knocked on the door and it opened up to reveal a very disheartened looking Professor who passed the two girls a look of sympathy, shaking her head at them with her pipe in her hand.

🫐

"I'M SO SORRY" Hope pulled Lorelei into a hug, a tear fell down Lorelei's cheek as she stared at the last letters Freya had ever delivered them, she stared at the name in front 'World's best parent' she would laugh at it if it wasn't for the fact that her most favorite animal in the whole entire world died (No offense to Santa — she's a great cat) George was standing in the Ravenclaw common room with an unsure expression — no one really liked him here right now because of a prank he pulled on them, well not necessarily just them he did every Quidditch dressing room, and it's not like they got hurt or something — Bubbles wasn't mad about them, they should all be a bit like Bubbles in his opinion.

He wasn't sure how to cheer her up right now, and to be honest, he wasn't sure he should be cheering her up right now, so he didn't, he just brought her some warm cookies from the kitchen, he just wasn't sure when the right moment to bring it to her was.

"George, you fucking weirdo" Hope called out to the tall redhead who was just stood in a corner, "What are you doing standing in a corner, come up here"

George chuckled awkwardly, coming up to sit on the couch with the two girls, "I brought you cookies? The soft and warm kind that you like, I don't know if you want them or not, so..."

"Thanks, Red" Lorelei said as she took the bag from him, and passed him a small smile, "Is Birdie busy or...?"

"Uh" Hope winced, her teeth showing, "She's just, kinda..."

"Busy" Lorelei nodded, "Ok, hey don't you have to meet with Angelina? You should go, the girl is becoming worse than Wood, not sure if she'll let you back on the team if you miss another one of those meetings"

"I don't want to leave you..." Hope said with her brows furrowed, "It's Angie I'm sure I can make something up—"

"No, Hope, you should go" Lorelei squeezed her shoulder with a smile, "Go on, with Umbridge you can't really take any chances, and I know you really love Quidditch"

Hope passed one last look to Lorelei before she hugged her and walked out of the common room, Lorelei opened up the bag and shoved a cookie in her mouth, "You don't have to stay with me, you know?"

George leaned back, "Yeah, I know" he nodded to a third year Ravenclaw who flipped him off — yup, he was right, they're still mad, he doesn't get why though, it was just a bit of glitter...with a bit of glue.

"Are you about to hover over all day?" Lorelei asked, she gave him a cookie which he thankfully ate, "Again, you really don't have to stay with me today just because my owl died"

George scoffed, "You think I'm staying here just because your owl died?" Lorelei nodded, "Well, you're wrong, I'm here to bother you with my existence and possibly try to rope you into candy trials"

"Considerate" Lorelei nodded.

"Do you want to go out or something?" George asked looking around, "I'm kind of intimidated by the amount of people giving me the stink eye"

"Yeah, well maybe you should've thought about it before the prank, you know" Lorelei said, "I'm still trying to get some glitter out of my hair"

"What's wrong with glitter in your hair?" George questioned, "I personally think it adds a little pezazz" he motioned to make banners with his hand dramatically.

"I think you've been hanging out with Birdie too much" Lorelei's lips pursed into a thin line.

"I know, Fred and her are always around me, it's like they're getting into my head" George said and his voice got high pitched, "Last night I almost said 'that's redonkulus' it was horrifying"

"What? You don't like the word redonkulus or something?" Lorelei raised her eyebrows.

"No" George said in a deadpanned voice.

"That's pretty redonkulus"

"Shut up"

Lorelei chuckled at the redhead, and soon George followed after and the two of them fell into laughter, "Come on, let's get out of here before Harleen stabs me with her fork"

"Keep one eye open when you sleep, Weasley!" Harleen said from the other side of the room with her fork raised up in the air and a sarcastic smile on her face.

George passed her an awkward look, and Lorelei nodded — both of them walked out of the common room and towards the Black Lake, "You know, it was a nasty shock for us when we found out that the rat we'd been living with almost twelve years turned out to be a mass murderer"

"Is that supposed to help me?" Lorelei asked the redhead and both of them sat down on the grass, she looked at him and he had his lips curled into a frown.

"Not everything's about you" George pushed her playfully, "Just telling you you got lucky in the pet department"

"Because my owl was an angel or because it wasn't a mass murderer in disguise of an animal?" questioned Lorelei.

"Bit of both" George joked, and Lorelei released a chuckle, but suddenly the redhead turned a bit serious, "I know this has been a tough year for you, and if you ever need to talk to someone — I'm here, ok?"

Lorelei for some reason started to tear up at that — she doesn't know why, but whenever George talks to her about emotions or something it's like she can't control them — her tears start coming out and suddenly it's like a dam breaks behind her eyes and they start falling down like it's nobody's business, "Thanks" she told him.

"Hey" George said softly, he pulled the brunette into a hug, rubbing her back — honestly, he wasn't so sure how she was handling it all so well, he would just explode if so many things happened to him at once — her best friend died, her father's a piece of shit (to her), Birdie's mad at her, and now her owl. George couldn't do much, so he just sat there with Lorelei in his arms as he ran his finger through her hair.

now u might be confused as to why i used the song love you goodbye for this chapter — the answer is simple — sadie sang this song for a funeral she held for a firefly😍, poor girl was unaware what this song was truly about, let's all enjoy her being naive and innocent long ago.😁