A/N: Hullo my wonderful Greekies! Yes! I know it's been a while, but I've been focusing on some of my other arts and hobbies at the moment. This chapter is 14,760 words according to Wattpad, 14,660 words according to google docs, and 14,640 words according to Grammarly, so just pick whichever makes you feel the best about yourself! I just want to shout out my wonderful editor 000Lilypad000 who helped me edit this story! They're so sweet, so go check them out! The aesthetic above was created by yours truly and it's of Harley. Also, happy birthday to our wonderful character Maelyn Winkle who's birthday is on February 18th!

𝕻𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖔𝖗𝖆'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

As it was a lovely Wednesday afternoon, and it was their break time, Pandora and Sirius decided to have their monthly tea time near the window in the corner of the common room. They did this every month on the full moon to ensure that Remus was feeling his best and didn't need either one of them (even if he always said that he didn't need the help, Pandora could tell he did). They had a small tea party with a lovely fringed tablecloth, porcelain, teas, homemade crumpets, homemade biscuits, and a lovely assortment of jams. Sirius called it the "Remus talk time" though, because the main topic they both talked about was their love for Remus (among other things), for Pandora that love was romantic, and for Sirius platonic and familial. Pandora liked their little tea times mostly because it made up for the lost time when she didn't have her brother with her (oh how very different things would've been if Sirius had actually been born into the Potter family!).

Pandora poured Sirius a cup of black tea and added the correct amount of cream and sugar (after about three years of doing this, they had both remembered what they took in their tea) while Sirius poured her drink. As they waited for their tea to cool, Sirius got a bright smile on his face.

"So," Sirius said, drawing out the "o" sound as he put his elbows on the table and pressed his cheeks on his knuckles. If it was any other situation, Pandora probably would've scolded him for putting his elbows on the table, but this was their Remus tea time, so she didn't mind as much. "Did you see how cute Remus looked with the Gryffindor nails we painted on him?" Sirius asked, grinning.

Pandora smirked as she remembered her being fed up with how Remus' fingers were always bleeding because he bit them so much (it wasn't healthy!) so she and Sirius ended up painting Remus' nails in an effort to make him stop biting them. It had worked for about a week until he picked the nail polish off and resumed biting his nails to the beds.

"Yes, he looked quite adorable, we should do neutrals next time," Pandora said giggling, and Sirius barked out a laugh.

"Well, Remus can be our model for nail polishes. We get to see what colours look pretty together while he doesn't make his fingers bleed! Win-win situation!" Sirius said brightly and Pandora laughed at his excitement.

"But brother dear," Pandora said. "Have you not heard of a colour wheel? It shows you what colours go together," She informed, "And I thought you were a fashionista," she added as she slowly blew on her tea. She looked over the edge of the cup and chuckled when she saw Sirius was pouting.

"Oh come on Dora! I just wear black all the time with maybe a rainbow or bi flag every now and then. Or maybe Gryffindor colours," Sirius said.

"Well, now we know what to get you for your birthday," Pandora said and Sirius gasped offendedly and clutched his chest as if Pandora drove a spear through his heart.

"You wouldn't," Sirius whispered, his eyes wide.

"But I would," Pandora said, smirking.

"Not the fuzzy multi-coloured sweaters Panda!" Sirius exclaimed as he dramatically fell back in his chair, one hand on his chest and the back of the other hand on his forehead.

"The fuzzy multi-coloured sweaters Star!" Pandora said and they both broke out in giggles.

See, these were the kind of conversations they had, it always started with Remus, and then just veered off into a random conversation or topic. It was honestly enjoyable though and quite therapeutic for both of them. Of course, everyone else thought they weren't right in the head (well, they thought Sirius wasn't right in the head) but Pandora was used to the looks after spending just about a decade with the rest of the Marauders.

After a moment they recovered and Sirius got a more serious look. "Remember two weeks ago when you gave us your mum a talk because we went into the Forbidden Forest as animals?" he asked and Pandora thought back to the day.

It was two days after the full moon, and all of the Marauders had been sitting around the fire in the spare two hours they had before Astronomy class (they all took it). As Pandora was doing her Herbology homework, she looked around and realized they were alone in the common room, except for Declan, Lily, and Hel of course, but she didn't mind scolding the boys (and Elorie) in front of them since they all knew about the Marauders being animagi.

Pandora scooted slightly so that she was in front of everyone, and then Sirius, Elorie, and James froze when they realized what was about to happen. Pandora saw all three of their brains turning to figure out a way to leave, but she stopped their thoughts in their tracks.

"Don't think about it," Pandora said, and all three of them huddled closer together and hung their heads. Pandora didn't know if her "mum speeches'" were really that bad, she just scolded them lightly. That was all.

Pandora looked to Declan and tried to figure out what he was thinking since he was the only one who didn't know about Sirius, James, and Elorie's (and technically Remus, but he wasn't actually Remus at the time) little Dark Ones adventure into the forest. Hel had found out since she was the one who technically saved them and Lily found out due to both Elorie and Sirius ranting about it in her ear.

Pandora didn't see Declan have a major reaction though. Maybe she saw a hint of confusion, but she couldn't really tell, he was a guarded soul after all, and she hadn't been able to get to know him well just yet.

"What were you guys thinking?" Pandora asked, "No really. Answer me," she added and all three mumbled out the same response.

"We weren't."

"And why, when I told you not to go into the forest for your own wellbeing, you went because why?"

"Because we weren't thinking."

"How could you do that? Why didn't you think? You could've your life force sucked out of you, and all of that could've been avoided if you guys didn't go into the forest. Why didn't you think about that?"

"Because we weren't thinking."

"You knew the chance, yet you took it. You all are quite lucky Hel remembered that you all are reckless. Say thank you to Hel."

The three looked over to where Hel was sitting behind Sirius. Hel seemed to be just a tad bit amused by the whole ordeal, but non the less switched a stern look as the Marauders thanked her for saving them. Humiliation could be a good thing if used correctly.

"Now, just to make sure I'm not speaking to brick walls, and the message got through to your brains. Why are you not supposed to go into the forest without backup?"

"Because of the Dark Ones."

"And what do those Dark Ones do?"

"Suck out your life source."

"And what will you not do from now on?" Pandora asked her final question. She felt bad by how sad the three looked, but they needed to understand that they can't go ruin around willy nilly while the Dark Ones were on the loose.

"Go into the Forbidden Forest without backup," The three said, their heads still hung low. They seem to not be able to see Pandora's eyes.

"Good," Pandora said before going back to her work. The other three sensed that they were done being scolded and quietly went back to their homework. Pandora looked up from her homework to see Declan, who looked just a teensy, tiny bit bewildered. Pandora couldn't blame him. He'd probably never seen -- nor heard -- the Marauders be so quiet before.

Pandora then caught Hel's eye, and she looked a little bit impressed going off of the small smirk on her face. Hel just went back to whatever she was doing (Pandora assumed it was a letter to her father). Then Pandora caught Lily, who looked amazed once more that she had silenced the Marauders, even though Pandora was able to do that for years now. In fact, everyone called it her superpower, not that she thought it was.

"Well, yes, I do remember, why?" Pandora asked, taking a sip of her tea.

Sirius just chuckled, "Well, I think Coals, Prongs, and I certainly have not recovered," Sirius said as he leaned back in his chair.

Pandora looked at Sirius and he sheepishly smiled before making his chair go back on all four legs. Pandora just smiled into her tea. Well, at least they learned their lesson, she hoped. The Marauders weren't good with learning how to not act recklessly.

𝕳𝖊𝖑'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Hel whispered some colourful choice of Ancient Nordic words under her breath. She had been cross-referencing different ancient texts her father had sent her. She never once mentioned the Dark Ones or made any reference to the Dark Ones in her letters since she had learned that any mention of them would have her letter "lost in the mail". She had wanted to see if she could find anything that related to the Dark Ones. So far, she had only gotten through a little bit on Ancient Greece. She had been taking notes for a while, and her handwriting was starting to not look so perfect, which made her quite frustrated, being the perfectionist she was.

Hel just mentally adjusted the mental crown on her head and fixed her posture (which honestly didn't need fixing, but she liked the extra bit of superiority) before going back to the texts. She had been looking at the Empousas and what they knew about the Dark Ones since she had the idea that perhaps they could be related in a sort of way, but she found no correlation other than the supposed "shape-shifting" and appearing as an old hag. Although, they hadn't gotten a good look at the Dark Ones legs since they were covered by rags (to victims though, the "rags" looked luxurious, shapeshifting?) maybe they were made of brass and ass dung.

Hel just massaged the sides of her head in frustration. Why was no one taking these things seriously? No pun intended. After dating Sirius for a month, she knew well to add that after every "serious" she said. Maybe they just didn't feel the Dark Ones. They felt — Hel didn't know how to describe it. Old? Powerful? Dark? All of the above? She didn't know what to categorize the feeling in, but it felt the same as if she were visiting Tartarus, but, with the added spice of mystery and darkness. As if Erebus and Tartarus —

Hel quickly wrote down the idea she had but made sure her handwriting was perfect or she could never forgive herself. If Erebus and Tartarus had a love child, maybe? That could be the Dark Ones, they had the same feel to them, or perhaps they were another breed of primordial, straight from Erebus...

Why was she just using Greek things? Other than the fact that the Dark Ones has a distinctly Greek feel to them, and her father did tell her Hestia knew more about them... yeah, maybe she should stick to Greek things.

Hel then put her quill down for a second to collect herself. Was she just being a little too over the top about this? Perhaps it wasn't a big deal. No one else was making it a big deal, perhaps she was just overreacting. But the feel of those things, that darkness that not even her powers could achieve...

"Hey, what do you think Sirius and Pandora are laughing about over there?" Remus asked.

Hel looked around for people without realizing she was. Her mind registered that no one of a real threat to her social status was there before answering. "I haven't the faintest idea," she said as she watched Remus take a sip of a mystery beverage that she wasn't sure she wanted to know the contents of. Maybe she'd look at it later.

Remus looked to the corner of the room where Pandora and Sirius were having what looked to be a little tea party. Hel watched as Sirius and Pandora laughed over something one or the other said, and Hel smiled at the two. Hel then looked to Remus and saw he was doing the same thing.

"Well, she looks happy, so I won't bother her," Remus said before going back to his book. Apparently, it was a muggle classic he was re-reading called Dante's Inferno. Hel had met Dante before. He refused to believe she was a goddess, nevertheless, a display of her not dying and some shadow magic made him freak out. The man was still completely loyal to another God though. She also remembered that he seemed to have a distaste for Greek heroes, how very tragic.

"Is that the book with the nine rings of hell?" Hel asked, and Remus nodded. "My Hel isn't like that you know. It's life after death for most. It's a copy of modern nordic villages, just darker and colder. Now, the fun area, the one that wasn't recorded anywhere, where the, what that Catholics would call 'sinners' go. It's just a big large dungeon basically. Each cell has a torturer, and a tortured. It's honestly not even physical torture but metal torture most of the time. And then we come to my palace, the dungeons in my palace are where the really bad people go, and the ones under my bedroom, that's where the personal affairs go," Hel ranted. She felt comfortable around Remus and quite liked talking to him because even though he didn't respond, she knew he sucked up the information like a sponge, unlike some others who are like stone walls. Of course, he had heard this tangent probably a million times already, but Hel just couldn't seem to stop bragging about her kingdom. She had heard it was just a thing that Queens do when they're proud of their kingdoms, they like to talk about it.

Speaking of people who should be tortured, Hel thought back to the disgusting Professor. Just the other day, when Hel was patrolling the halls on her head girl duty, she found a little boy crying in the corner of a corridor. She saw that he was a Ravenclaw, and couldn't have been more than thirteen. Of course, she approached him since there was no one else around, and she had been just a tad worried when he cowered away from her (her reputation precedes her after all) but then saw him clutching a bleeding hand and she realized what had happened. She was livid, but kept her cool exterior and offered to take him to the Hospital Wing via shadow travel (he was old enough). She stayed while the little boy recounted his story of sticking up for a little girl who was ridiculed for having a pixie cut that was bright purple. The cut on his hand said, "I will not correct an adult," and Hel was about to march right up to the Professor and give her a one-way ticket to her realm.

Hel just shook her head before returning to her ancient texts, focusing on something else. She smiled softly at the laughing and talking coming from the corner of the room.

𝕿𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖆'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Thalia brushed her brown hair out of her face as she kept to the crowds of students making her way to the Turris Magnus (largest tower) for her Advanced Arithmancy Studies class. She reached in her tote bag to make sure that her textbook was still there (not that she had much doubt that it wasn't, but it never hurt to double-check) before going up the staircases (luckily none decided to move). There were only a few people in the sixth year who were taking Advanced Arithmancy, but most just heard rumours that Professor Vector was extremely strict. Thalia wasn't one to back down from a challenge though, and decide that she would try it and be top of the class.

Thalia manoeuvred through the halls until she found the class. Of course, this was probably her seventeenth time there, but it was always tricky. Thalia checked the time on her stopwatch she had gotten on a clearance sale at some antique shop and found that she was five minutes early. Brilliant, she could turn in her homework from Monday which she had already finished.

Thalia went into the classroom cautiously and found the professor already in there. Thalia raised her hand to the Professor Vector to say hi, which the Professor did back and Thalia set her bag underneath her as she got in her desk. She pulled out the homework they got on Monday and raised her hand to ask if she could turn it in early.

Professor Vector looked over to where Thalia had a raised hand and looked at her with the "go on, speak" teacher look.

"May I return my homework early, Professor?" Thalia asked as she held her homework. There were no direct instructions on the homework being gone over during class, so she didn't see why she shouldn't turn it in.

"Are you sure?" Was all Professor Vector asked, and when Thalia nodded her head, Professor Vector tapped the part of the desk in front of her for Thalia to place her parchment there.

Thalia got out of her seat and went to the front, placing her arithmancy homework down (she noticed that the Professor seemed quite impressed that Thalia had gotten it done without it looking like rubbish) before going back to her seat, getting started on some Potions homework she had to finish.

Slowly, people started to trickle in, and Thalia looked up from her question seat to find Rabastan looking at her. Thalia smiled discreetly when Rabastan looked away blushing, and then fondly remembered that he had asked her out on another date in the morning. She remarked how he tried to be smooth, but ended up stuttering the words out until Thalia had enough and just laughed softly before telling him that of course, they could go to the small library on the outskirts of town. They were scheduled to go on Saturday on the Hogsmeade trip, and Thalia was actually quite excited.

Thalia finished half of her potions homework before class was about to start, and as she was reaching for her bag, she noticed a girl sitting next to Rabastan. No, she wasn't jealous, she just saw that the girl looked quite uncomfortable next to Rabastan and Thalia was worried for a moment about what had happened. Thalia watched as the girl whispered something in Rabastan's ear before Rabastan looked concerned and told her something back. The girl looked relieved before taking her things and moving elsewhere. Rabastan looked over to Thalia after the whole ordeal, and Thalia quickly averted her eyes to not make Rabastan think that she was prying into his social life, because, against contrary belief, just because she didn't have a social life, didn't mean that she eavesdropped on others social lives. She was just concerned for the girl and Rabastan.

Then Professor Vector told everyone to shut up and everyone did well to shut up because she punished severely when people didn't listen to her. But, unlike Professor Umbridge, her punishments were like extra work, detention, and those sort of things, not the monstrous blood quills Thalia's heard were being used. Those things were barbaric! They were sickening! And she was using them on little eleven-year-olds? Thalia was disgusted. They didn't even learn anything in her class, why should Thalia have to respect her if she won't respect everyone else? Luckily for Thalia, she was a "proper" girl. Long hair, caucasian, little to no makeup, perfect school robes, she works quietly, the only downside to her in the Professor's eyes was that she was a half-blood.

Thalia just pushed the other Professor out of her mind and focused on what Professor Vector was talking about in the more palatable, interesting subject of arithmancy.

...

Thalia's eyes widened when she was suddenly being pulled into what looked like a broom closet after class.

"Get away from me!" Thalia hissed as she hit her culprit with her tote bag. The upside to carrying a bag full of books everywhere was that it made a lovely weapon whenever you were being harassed. All you had to do was whop them over the head and your Y/A six hundred page fantasy novels will do the rest. Or perhaps an autobiography on muggle-born witches that has the weight of a large human toddler -- or both-- hey still made good weapons.

"Ow! It's just me Thalia!" The culprit yelled and Thalia slowly lowered her bag and brushed the loose hair from out of her face. She squinted to get a good look at the person she had just been hitting with her tote bag and found a familiar face.

"Bas?" Thalia asked, and Rabastan waved at her while rubbing right under his collar bone where apparently she had hit him. "Why have you just pulled me into a broom closet? Right before class no less!" Thalia asked. She had Transfiguration next, and while Professor McGonagal seemed to like her as a student, she did not permit students being late to class and Thalia was not about to ruin her perfect attendance.

"Thals, we don't have class for another ten minutes, you'll be fine," Rabastan said, then muttered something under his breath. Thalia heard most of it, but raised her eyebrows and asked Rabastan to repeat himself if he could please.

"I said, all the other girls I've pulled into broom closets would be tugging off my shirt by now," Rabastan said, and Thalia rolled her eyes in disbelief. "But I've pulled you in here because it's important. I know how much being early to class means to you, but this is important," Rabastan said earnestly, and Thalia crossed her arms in a sign that she wasn't going anywhere. Rabastan took a deep breath before telling Thalia everything.

"So, I have an ex who I'm on good terms with, she's a nice person honestly. I can't tell how she's nice having grown up like me, but she is. Her name's Novalie Selwyn — she's obviously pureblood — and my parents and her parents agreed that since we both have a soulmate that isn't pure-blooded, that we should get to know each other'" Rabastan said, then looked to Thalia with hopeful eyes. Thalia knew what he was trying to say, get to know each other means you'll be married within the next three or four years.

"Go on," Thalia said. She had a good idea of what was going to happen since, well, she read. But she wants to confirm her suspicions.

"So, she's completely in love with her soulmate, his name's Christopher Shavkey. Both of our parents have already thoroughly warned us what will happen if we don't agree to this friendship, but I was just wondering if," Rabastan said, then he apparently expected Thalia to just comprehend everything and get what he was saying. He was lucky in the sense that she wasn't stupid and completely understood what he was saying, but decided to mess with him.

"I haven't the foggiest idea what you're insinuating," Thalia said sarcastically, and alas, Rabastan's face fell away from his cocky smile. "Of course I comprehend what you're talking about Bas, I read. Yes, I'll pretend to 'fall in love' with this Christopher if we could meet, and yes, you can go and pretend to be Miss Selwyn's partner," Thalia reassured, and Rabastan cocky smile retyped to his face. She felt quite nice for helping him. She's seen boys, girls, and non-binaries in the Ravenclaw common room have metal breakdowns over the fact that they're staying to just develop crushes on people who aren't the one their parents arranged a marriage with. That told her enough about how these parents viewed love and what you should do with it.

"Thank you so much," Rabastan said earnestly, then smirked, "This changes nothing about our date Saturday though, still the same time and place. See you in Transfiguration," he added before placing a hand on the doorknob and twisting it open. He swiftly pressed a kiss to Thalia's cheek before heading out with a grin on his face, heading over to the other purebloods.

Thalia just stood in shock for a few seconds as she touched her cheek where Rabastan kissed. She shook her head though and brought out her watch, she had seven minutes to get to class, so she'd better hurry it up. Thalia shook her head and slowly got out, making sure to quickly shut the door behind her and pretend what just happened, never happened.

𝕸𝖆𝖊𝖑𝖞𝖓'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Maelyn yawned as she bounced on over to one of her favourite classes ever. Care of Magical Creatures. As she bounced, she noticed that Sirius was near. Of course, he was near, he also took Care of Magical Creatures. Smart Maelyn. Right as Maelyn was about to throw something to catch his attention, she remembered Lily saying that since she had been "practically adopted by the Marauders and Hel" (whatever that meant) she was going to help Maleyn learn new ways to actually interact with people. Lily had been helping Maleyn, and she probably would've started when they were little, but Maleyn didn't exactly have that many friends then.

Maelyn brought her hand up to the side of her face, hoping that would catch Sirius' attention. Nope. Guess not. There was another step wasn't there? It certainly wasn't flapping your arms around, that was for her bird. Now, what was it? She certainly wasn't supposed to chuck a bag of muggle gummies at him (those were good though) since Lily said that might hurt people. What was she supposed to do? She was supposed to move her hand around, like a wave.

Maleyn over-enthusiastically waved at Sirius. That finally caught his attention and Maleyn was quite proud of herself when he waved back. Maleyn then brought out a bag of gummies and chucked it at him, which he caught. What? Lily said nothing about chucking gummy bags at people once you've caught their attention. Sirius grinned and gave Maleyn a thumbs up, mouthing something that looked like talk to you during class.

Maleyn just bounced along to where they were at the outskirts of the forest. She had found out a few weeks ago that they weren't allowed to host the class in the forest anymore due to complications. After talking to Hel, they agreed that it was because of the Dark Ones. Maelyn didn't know why the school didn't just tell the kids those things were in the forest. That would save them a ton of time. But then again, if she actually thought about it (she didn't do that often), some stupid people would just go into the forest to see what would — oh, the group did that didn't they? Yes, they did.

Maleyn found herself in front of Professor Kettleburn and managed a half-smile to him. He smiled back before looking around to make sure everyone was there. Maelyn just tugged on her now orangey-red hair (she had added some yellow dye in the night before) while she waited for everyone to hurry their asses up. Finally, the Marauders came to class, and Maleyn watched as Sirius and James pranced right in with Remus, Pandora, and Peter following them. Elorie would be there too, but she took a different class. Maelyn honestly forgot what it was. She was pretty sure it had something to do with muggles though. Didn't she also have the same class as Lily, so if Lily had muggle music that would mean Elorie had it too!

Maleyn quite hoped Lily and Elorie would be friends. They seemed to be very happy around each other. Even though Maleyn was usually bad with emotions -- her own and others -- she had studied Lily enough to know when she was really happy. That sounded weird, didn't it? Her treating Lily like one of her favourite magical creatures, but Lily was a magical creature in a way ... wait that sounded weird. And creepy. Oh no. Sorry.

Maleyn snapped out of her "sorry Lily" thoughts as Professor Kettleburn started the lesson.

"Today, we will be reviewing an animal that is one of the most popular and loved amongst classes," Professor Kettburn said.

Maelyn's mind immediately went to dragons because she loved dragons so much. Yes, she did. Dragons are better than people. Hands down. Except for maybe Lily. She quite liked Lily. Dragons were better than most people though.

She then realized that they weren't really allowed to bring dragons to class, so she settled on just trying to guess what it was based on what she saw and heard.

She heard clopping and narrowed it down to a smaller field, but then she got lazy and just waited for it to appear.

The moment the creature came to light, Maleyn tilted her head. A unicorn? she thought. Well, they were rather boring, weren't they? Well, if you took Hel's word for it, their blood was rather useful, and technically their horns were too, and their hair. But as a creature, they were strange. Maleyn could relate in that sense.

"Now, as you know, the unicorn prefers women, so if the ladies could step up and come slowly pet the unicorn. Boys, stay far back," Professor Kettleburn said, and Maleyn looked around. Everyone seemed to be fawning over the unicorn and happily coming up. Unfortunately for them, the unicorn did not like them acting like idiots around it. Maelyn, however, had read about unicorns before (it was a book about dragons too, for the record), and slowly came up as if bored and touched the unicorn's muzzle.

Maelyn made a happy face as the unicorn let her pet it, and Maleyn happily petted her hair before she got bored and felt the eyes on her (ew) and went away to, well, away from the eyes.

Maleyn bounced on over to where the Marauder boys were, and then just looked at them, kind of hoping one of them would just say something. Maelyn fidgeted with the velvet choker on her neck and played with her hair before Sirius spoke up.

"Well, Mae, you really are our animal whisperer aren't you?" Sirius asked with a grin as he wrapped a careful arm around Maelyn.

Maelyn managed what looked hopefully like a smile before she reached in her bag and found a bag of chocolate-covered oranges before munching on them, watching the other girls pet the pretty horse. Maleyn offered Sirius a single orange slice (the highest honour anyone could get from her) which he gobbled up like a puppy finding cheese on the floor. Maleyn just put the oranges back in her bag before going over to the pretty horse again. They may not be interesting, but at least they weren't humans. As her number one rule goes: animals are better than people.

𝕺𝖑𝖎𝖛𝖎𝖆'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Olivia checked her watch and saw that lunch was almost over. She quickly grabbed her bag and told the other girls (and Frank) that she was going to make her way over to her favourite class, potions.

Olivia liked to come to potions class just a tad bit early to get all of her supplies ready as she loved the art and science of potion, and she was probably going to work in a potions shop when the time came. Olivia got to the potions classroom -- which was admittedly very cold even for the cool autumn day -- and found no one else in there. She shrugged before going to her seat, setting her bag beside her and getting out her cauldron. She then looked to the board and saw that they were making an Elixir of Euphoria. Not too hard in her opinion, it was something they technically learned in the sixth year after all. She quickly got started on the potion. If she could finish the potion early, maybe she could start finishing up homework from other classes, or just brew up a fun potion.

As she was measuring out her ingredients, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Olivia turned around to find herself face to face with Evan and his practically multicoloured eyes. In the past few weeks, she'd paid just a little more attention to him (don't blame her! How could she help it? They lived in the same tower after all, and she did quite like him), and she'd seen that his eyes seemed to change colours throughout the day, probably just the lighting. One moment his eyes could be a steely grey, the next a soft blue, and the next black. Now that their faces were just a little close, his eyes seemed to be a steel blue colour.

"Watch out, you're a gram over," Evan said as he pointed to Olivia's scale. Olivia rolled her eyes and looked over. She had been busy getting the perfect measurements for the porcupine quills when Evan came in and sure enough, it was a gram over.

"You have the potion memorized, have you?" Olivia asked, and Evan just smiled. If Olivia were to look anywhere other than his eyes, she would see his hands inch slowly together in nervousness.

"Well, it is quite basic, isn't it?" Evan asked, and Olivia couldn't help but shrug. It was rather basic now that she thought about it. It was a potion they had learned in the middle of the sixth year after all. Well, for Evan it would have been fifth since he was a year level ahead in potions.

"I guess you're right," Olivia said, rolling her eyes, and then wondered why Evan was even there so early. "So, what are you doing here before class starts? I never took you for the teacher's pet type. Waiting for a pretty witch?" Olivia said in a teasing tone, slightly wishing she was the pretty witch he had been waiting for.

"Well," Evan said as he sat down next to Olivia. Olivia noticed that he didn't have his things with him and assumed that he had put his things on his desk. "I've had my eye on a pretty witch for a while, but I was hoping she was waiting for me, not the other way around," Evan said suggestively as he looked over to Olivia.

By now, Olivia was sure that Evan was probably talking about her, but what could she do other than flirt back? The class was about to start, and if she blurted out a love confession, the entire class period would be awkward. Not to mention that they wouldn't see each other until they were about to sleep, which would lead to even more awkward feelings and tension. Olivia would prefer to just have fun flirting until they could have a proper conversion.

"Well, I'm sure this pretty witch has had her own eye on a very handsome wizard who she has been waiting for for quite some time," Olivia said, smirking as she finished measuring her shrivelling.

Then, the bell rang and people started coming into the classroom. Olivia watched as Evan hurried over to his seat. Once he got there, Olivia watched as he sent a smile her way before starting on his potion.

Olivia just sighed before adding her ingredients to the cauldron and looking behind her to see Alice and Frank, hand in hand, with a laughing Lily. Olivia just shook her head as she smiled at Alice, waving her hand and waiting for Professor Slughorn to officially start class.

𝕳𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖊𝖞'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Harley looked to the clock in class. Not five minutes in and they were already counting down the minutes until class would be fucking over.

Yeah, they/them pronouns. For about a week they were feeling pretty masculine, but then the gender dysphoria decided to barge their ass into the situation, so Harley went back to the good old they/them pronouns.

They weren't paying attention to the teacher. Oh no. Why would they do that? DADA wasn't worthy enough to actually pay attention to it. Potions, sure, but DADA? Aw hell no.

Harley just sucked on their teeth as they thought aimlessly about basically fucking nothing. Not a single thought was running through their brain because why the fuck would you want to think about something when you didn't have to? That was just stupid.

Harley then looked over beside them to Severus diligently taking notes. Harley looked up at the teacher and saw that they were just practising duelling. Harley honestly couldn't give any less of a damn about it, but if they were being paired up, they were ready to kick some ass.

Severus looked up at Harley and asked a silent question with his eyes. Uh, what happened?

"It's nothing," Harley whispered and then decided to get a piece of parchment that they totally didn't find on the floor and start writing plans for the pranked/haunted hallway on that thing. They really wanted some good dead people, the kinds that have rotting flesh and half their skeleton sticking out, and some good beheadings he heads on sticks. That shit was really nice and terrifying for kids. Especially her ones whose mouths are open in silent screams and you could see the fucking stick through the open mouth. Maybe Hel could provide some good dead people and specimens.

Some people were concerned for Harley's thoughts, and, honestly, they didn't give a flying fuck about other people's opinions on them, whether they were just concerned or not. Severus and Bellatrix didn't care, and that was honestly all that mattered to Harley. Well, if Bellatrix did start giving fucks about what Harley thought, they really wouldn't care, but they may or may not start caring just the tiniest of bits if Sev started giving fucks. First of all, because that would be pretty weird and Harley would be pretty damn worried that Severus could have been cloned and because they surprisingly kind of cared about what Sev thought.

Harley shook their head. Too many thoughts. Ew.

Harley realized their name was being called and looked up to see the Professor partnering them up with — oh hell no —

"'Sup bestie?" Elorie said with a grin as she saluted Harley.

Harley just groaned in their head. They could've been placed with worse people. It wasn't that they didn't like Elorie, it was just their personalities don't mix. They were acquaintances at best, and Harley very much intended to keep it that way.

After the Professor paired everyone up, he made little bubbles everywhere so that they all had a spot to duel in without killing another idiot. Harley and Elorie got into one, and the Professor let the duelling commence.

"Do we have to start it the proper way?" Harley asked, and Elorie shrugged.

"I mean, I guess not ..." Elorie replied, letting the sentence trail off. Harley took this trailing as a cue to hex the shit out of Elorie and started firing spells at her in the blink of an eye.

"Rectumsempra!" Harley said as they aimed their wand at Elorie, who dodged it and sent a spell flying towards Harley's way.

"Mobilicorpus!" Elorie shouted, and Harley nimbly got out of the way of the hex. They already knew what it did; it rendered the person unable to walk.

"Expelliarmus!" Harley said as they aimed for Elorie's hand. Yeah. It was a basic bitch spell, but at least it worked.

The duel lasted for a couple more minutes before Elorie blasted Harley's wand out of their hand and accioed it to hers. Harley growled in defeat before rolling their eyes and shaking a grinning Elorie's hand. Harley held out their hand for their wand back, and Elorie headed it over with an ever-growing smile.

"In hand to hand combat I would beat your ass though," Harley mumbled under their breath as they discreetly inspected their wand for marauder germs.

"Oh I know," Elorie said shrugging, "But hey, we have a peace treaty with both parties until Halloween, why not make the most of it?"

"You sound like an old American politician, the ones from the fucking 1600s. The dumbasses in the federalist and democratic-republican parties or whatever," Harley said, but it probably sounded more like a growl. They didn't fucking care, they just sounded like that. Plus the only reason they even knew that was because of History of Magic. Wait — did you actually think they paid attention to that boring class? Hell to the no! They just knew about the Thomas Jefferson dude and personally wanted to fight him to the death. No weapons. They would win, hands down.

Speaking of Americans and old politicians though, there was a girl in their house and year that had the same name and seemingly personality (based on Harley's minimal research. Which was basically one paragraph) as Alexander Hamilton. Hell, their names sounded similar. Must be a coincidence. Wasn't their business, so why should they give a flying fuck about it?

"Well, I mean, I do have an American accent," Elorie said with a shrug as she twirled her wand in her fingers. And not the traditional twirl. No, it was one of those complex crazy twirls that probably took years to master that Harley just didn't have the time (or patience) for.

The two just ended up duelling while talking about Halloween and shit like that until class ended. They both ended up tying in the number of wins and losses they had, which was decent because it meant neither of them got stupid bragging rights since Elorie sure as fuck would've abused that privilege in Harley's opinion.

Harley looked around (since they had never bothered to do that before) just to see the different groups. Sev ended up with some random kid that they didn't know. Pandora and Remus got paired, oh how fucking sweet, the true love couple even the teachers shipped got put together. James and Peter got paired. Sirius and Hel got paired, Sirius for some reason looked like he was blushing. Harley decided that they didn't want to know the details of that. Finally, Maelyn got paired with someone Harley didn't know.

"So, how was Elorie?" Severus asked and Harley shrugged.

"Not bad," Harley said before casually throwing an arm around Severus. Hey, the class was about to end, why the fuck not?

𝕰𝖑𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖊'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Elorie popped a piece of bubblegum in her mouth as she threw her arms around James and Sirius.

"So boys, Pandora — and Lily I guess," she said, her crop top that she changed into right before dinner riding even further up her stomach. Yes, it was fall. But bad bitches don't get cold so ha! "What do we plan on doing since we've miraculously finished dinner early?" She asked, staring down at her sad empty plate. Although, she had eaten about four grown men's size servings of food, so the plate had been through a lot.

"Dunno," Sirius said, shrugging as he pulled his hair out of its ponytail. "I mean, we could follow Prongs around while he does Head Boy duties," he suggested with a shrug.

Elorie nodded quickly then looked over to James, who also shrugged then looked over to where Remus and Peter were to see if they were in on the idea. Remus sighed before giving Elorie the fine, but if we get caught it's your fault look, and Elorie knew Peter was in. Elorie finally looked over to Pandora (and technically Lily) for permission to go through with their lovely idea, and the two nodded.

Elorie then got very bored with the subject and decided to look over to the staff table. Dumbledore was sitting there in his bearded glory wearing a lovely purple velvet robe. Professor McGonagall looked perfect as ever in her green attire, and Elorie just went down the lines complimenting the teachers' fashion choices if she could since that was fun, but then she came to the pink thing — she means (not really) Professor Umbridge.

Elorie scrunched up her nose. She was fine with pink—sure, have fun with it! A lovely bright pink statement piece looked brilliant with some things, but all pink? With a strange pink— not to mention a very outdated—hat? And not even the fun kind of outdated. There was nothing Elorie could compliment. Not a single thing. The toad—Elorie giggled as she remembered Pandora's brilliant transfiguration charm she placed with the help of a few friends that turned the teacher into a toad... wait, off-track—looked like a toad that some five-year-old swaddled in their Barbie doll's fuzzy cheap bathrobe. Not cute.

Elorie then noticed something other than the professor's grotesque outfit, it was her grotesque smile.

"Hey, why is the toad smiling like that?" Elorie asked as she removed her arms from around James and Sirius' shoulders, "It looks ... weird."

Everyone looked at her confused before they looked up at the Professor and Pandora's eyes widened as she quickly looked to the boys' (and Elorie, but hey, she was one of the boys at this point) hands and then to the Professor's face. Then Pandora and Lily shared those funny looks, and Pandora finally turned to the boys.

"We should check the halls," Pandora said, and Elorie noticed her go into mother hen mode.

Elorie raised her eyebrows up, but nonetheless, she grabbed her purple leather jacket and put that on, leaving her plate behind as she walked out of the great hall.

"What's going on Panda?" James asked and Pandora shook her head.

"I'm pretty sure I know that look, just a gut feeling you know," Pandora said.

The group of five walked hurriedly to the halls near the great hall and came to a fork in the road. Elorie looked behind her to the six other people. Eventually, she settled on Pandora to make a choice since she clearly was the one with the gut sense there.

"So, where to, Paws?" Elorie asked and Pandora fidgeted with her hair.

"Hmm, let's split up," Pandora suggested. "Sirius and Remus with me, Lily, Peter, and James with you. If you find anything suspicious send James, and if we see anything suspicious, I'll send Sirius," she supplied before the shadows gathered behind her.

"No offence, but no matter how many teachers love you and Remus, dear Pandora, you aren't going to get away with anything without one of the Headgirls or boys with you," Hel said as she inspected her perfectly manicured nails. "If I'm correct, this has something to do with the Professor, so I'm of course in. I'll go with you to make the groups even," Hel told Pandora. Elorie noticed that Hel kind of just invited herself in without asking, but she was pretty used to that by now.

"Well then, here's hoping nothing bad happens," Lily asked sincerely, and everyone nodded as they split off.

Elorie went through the halls in search of anything off. She narrowed her eyes at random things and looked in nooks and crannies. She felt kind of like one of those spy kids from the muggle Telly shows. Elorie saw that everyone else was doing the same thing. Elorie barely managed to catch herself staring at how Lily's bright green eyes seemed to glow before turning away just as Lily looked in her direction.

Then, Elorie felt a hand on her shoulder and nearly jumped before turning around and seeing a familiar dead face.

"Hey! Hel! Long time no see!" Elorie said with a grin as she hugged Hel like she hadn't seen her in a million years. Elorie felt Hel awkwardly tap her back before gently pushing Elorie away. Elorie then pulled away after sensing Hel's discomfort. "So, does the resident goddess bring fair news?" Elorie asked jokingly as Hel rolled her eyes.

"You make me sound like a messenger god," Hel said as she crossed her arms, then she looked out the window and up. "Not that I have anything against messenger gods of course. My first crush was a messenger goddess after all," she added and Elorie wondered if she mentioned that to Sirius yet.

"But in all—" Hel caught herself as James and Elorie both looked at her with excited eyes, waiting to make a "Sirius" joke, "— actuality —" Elorie and James pouted "— We found something. Or, more accurately someone," Hel managed to finish. "If you could hold onto my hand..." she said, letting the sentence trail off. Elorie knew what to do as she grabbed Hel's hand and then gently got a hold of Lily's. Hey! She didn't need to be left behind! James had Hel's other hand (even though Hel looked quite disgusted by this) after all! What was she supposed to do?

A second or two later, Elorie found herself in another hallway and looked down to see Pandora and Sirius crouched over someone with Remus off to the side. After closer inspection, Elorie saw that there were actually four people instead of just one person.

"Thank you for telling us what happened, we really appreciate it and we'll try to help you," Pandora said sincerely to the little kid in the middle who had on Slytherin robes.

Remus turned around and saw that the other group had come, so he quickly pulled everyone aside.

Remus explained how they were all first years. The middle girl with the Slytherin robes—her name being Josephine Sellasie—had dyslexia, and the three on either side of her were Abigail Ingalls, Joyce Wilder and Beau Lee. Abigail Ingalls was the girl in the Hufflepuff robes, Joyce Wilder was the girl in the Gryffindor robes, and Beau Lee was the boy in the Ravenclaw robes. Apparently, they were all friends, and in Charms class, when Josephine was speaking up about how she was having trouble reading the book due to her dyslexia, the Professor had refused to allow Abigail to read out loud to her softly in the back of the room, even though this wouldn't've disturbed anyone and would've helped both of them. Then Beau got a little frustrated since his friend couldn't learn anything and spoke up, and then Joyce got the hint and did so too. The Professor gave them all detention for talking back to the teacher, and here they were now.

Lily covered her mouth with her hand, "That's horrible!" She whisper-shouted. "Do you think they're alright?" She asked and Remus just shrugged.

"I stood to the side most of the time. You should ask Sirius or Pandora," Remus said and Elorie took it upon herself to waltz over there just as Pandora was swapping places with James.

"Are they alright?" Elorie asked and Pandora looked at her with a fiery gaze.

"Other than the trauma and the bloody words on their hands? Maybe," Pandora said, then turned to Remus, "What was that prank that you said we could never do because we'd get caught?"

"Bat bogey hex," Remus said with the same fiery light in his eyes as Pandora.

Elorie slowly inched away from the mad couple and went to where the little kids were and saw James comforting them. See, when she was little, about the kids' age, she had always thought that James, in all of his cocky glory, would be the one running to murder and Pandora, as a mom-friend, would be the one to be all comforting and motherly. Well, she was wrong after an incident that involved some seventh-years bullying a kid in their year. While Elorie was ready to grab James and the rest of the Marauders to drag them off to go and hex some dumbos, she was confused to find James kneeling down next to the kid and having Pandora at her side. Of curse, she wasn't surprised now, but she was then.

"Hey, did you go to dinner yet?" James asked and the four kiddos shook their heads. "Well alright then, er, how about we go to the hospital wing? Madam Pomfrey can help you guys and maybe get you some dinner?" he offered and the little Ravenclaw boy—Beau—narrowed his eyes at James.

"And why should we trust you?" Beau asked, and Elorie fought back a giggle since the little boy had clearly not hit puberty yet.

"Because we can help you. Do any of you like revenge?" Pandora asked and the Gryffindor girl—Joyce—and Beau looked at each other.

"Fine, but promise you will get a good revenge?" Joyce asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Of course," Pandora said, then she turned to Hel, "Look, if you don't mind, the Hospital Wing is on the sixth floor, it'd be quicker if you could take them," she said sincerely and Hel shook her head.

"I don't want to taint them with Dark Magic just yet, it's safer for them to just go on foot. Might I suggest Elorie and Lily take them? If we're doing what I think we're doing, Elorie and Lily will just burden us," Hel said and Pandora nodded as she looked at Elorie with eyes that asked her if she'd do it.

Elorie took a quick look at Lily who also happened to be looking at her. Elorie quickly looked away and tried to fight the blush that seemed to be spreading across her cheeks. Weird. She looked to the four little people sitting against the wall and shrugged.

"Fine by me, let's go kiddos," Elorie said as she pulled Beau and Joyce up by the hand that wasn't currently bleeding and Lily did the same with Josephine and Abigail.

As the two led the quartet along the quiet path to the Hospital Wing, Elorie started yapping her mouth off to break the silence.

"So, how's life?" Elorie asked the four kids, walking backwards up the stairs so she could see them better.

The kids nervously looked at each other, and Elorie couldn't blame them. Here were two seventh year girls who just happened to notice them sitting in a corner in pain and they just happened to be nice people and were going to lead them to the Hospital Wing. Hell, Elorie would've been a little suspicious too.

"Well, my life's pretty great," Elorie said as she started doing cartwheels to break the tension. "My best friends — you guys probably know them as the Marauders—are all happy. Our OTP — if you guys don't know what that means, it means one true pairing — did we tell you our names yet? Well, I'm Eorie McFellon and she's Lily Evans—but about the OTP thing. Our OTP is very happy, it was the girl that I think first saw you, her name's Pandora Potter by the way, like the myth Pandora's box! Speaking of myths, the girl that you saw that looked all high and mighty and whatever. That's Hel Lokidottir! She hates me saying that I'm her friend, but I'm her friend. She's actually a goddess you know, the goddess of death that is, she's very scary, but can be nice. She'll probably be mean to you guys because you're new. But about Pandora, the boy near her all the time—not the boy with long black hair, that's Sirius, they're basically siblings, I can explain that later if you'd like—the one with the brownish hair is Remus Lupin. He's a dear friend of mine, but they're the OTP of everyone and --" Elorie was cut off by Lily, who spoke up.

"Elorie, they can't keep up. I can barely keep up," Lily said and Elorie looked over her shoulder to four little people staring at her with wide eyes, probably trying to soak up everything she said.

"Oh," Elorie said, then chuckled. "Well, in that case, how 'bout you guys? How's your life? Or just tell me about yourself, anything to pass the time and get your mind off of those horrible hands. I had detention too, I can show you if you'd like," Elorie said as she held up her left hand, which had a faint scab on it, though it was fading away. "Lily, on the other hand," Elorie added as she pointed over to Lily, "Well, she's a very good girl, no detentions for her," she said as Lily rolled her eyes.

They did that for the remainder of the time, Elorie just yapping while the little kids warmed up and with Lily popping in every now and then to tell Elorie she's going too fast or just to converse. By the end of the trip, Elorie could safely call the quartet her friends.

"Well, hope you heal alright, if you ever need any help with anything, feel free to tell either of us! It's easiest to just find us in the Great Hall. Gryffindor table, the centre of it. Just follow the shouts," Elorie said with a bright grin on her face as she dropped off the kids.

Then Josephine, the child that seemingly was the loudest, spoke up. She tucked her light brown hair behind her ear and looked up to Elorie and Lily with bright brown eyes.

"Are you two soulmates?" She asked. Elorie and Lily looked at each other.

"Yeah, we are," Lily said, smiling.

Abigail giggled. "Are you two in love?" she asked, her strawberry blonde curls bouncing. Elorie found her to be a more ditzy version of Lily.

"Kind of," Lily said before knocking on the door of the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey came out looking very frustrated and questioned them as to why they were out during dinner. As Lily explained their situation, Madam Pomfrey's face softened as she took the little children in and thanked Elorie and Lily. As the door was shut, both Elorie and Lily looked at each other before going to the dorm room -- if the crew was going where they thought they were going, they needn't be there, no matter how much Elorie wanted to.

𝕯𝖊𝖈𝖑𝖆𝖓'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Declan muttered a few curses as he fidgeted with the invisibility cloak over his head.

Yeah, that's right, James let him borrow the stupid invisibility cloak that he had inherited from his parents. Declan had been very confused that weekend when James had excitedly poked him awake — on a bloody Saturday of all days —saying that he had something extremely cool to show him. Declan had groaned out random words, he was pretty sure he had just been muttering "shove off James''. But nonetheless, James had managed to wake him and the invisibility cloak was shoved in his face. Declan had been confused as to why a silky cloak had been shoved in his face, but after James had demonstrated what the cloak did, he was more than intrigued. James had grinned and told Declan he could use it anytime as he unceremoniously shoved it in his trunk.

Declan wasn't really sure if that was James' way of flirting with him, since based on the dramatic declarations of love he had done for Lily, it was more than a little different. Declan was sure he was reading into the action a little too much and was letting his feelings cloud his judgement.

Speaking of feelings, Declan thought back to when he had tucked Lily in the night of the full moon. After Miranda and Regulus had gone off to the Astronomy Tower, Declan had made sure Lily was comfortable before admitting to her that maybe, just maybe, he liked the toe rag after all. He had assumed Lily was asleep, but when she smiled he knew he was done for. Every time he and James were less than seven feet away from each other, Lily would give him this soft but knowing smile and he would just have to fight back the urge to blush.

As Declan was taking out the cloak for a test run, he had bumped into the Marauders and the kids and witnessed everything. As they were discussing the revenge bit, he was tempted to take off the cloak and reveal he was there, but after careful consideration (meaning little kids were there and were going to be scarred for life) he waited until Elorie, Lily, and the children were away before revealing himself.

To no one's surprise, nobody noticed him in the shadows. He started trying to fold up the cloak while waiting for someone to notice him, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw, of all people, that James was looking at him.

"Oh hey, Declan! Were you taking the cloak for a spin?" James asked with a stupid grin on his face, and suddenly everyone wheeled around to face him.

Declan felt awkward with all the eyes on him but played it off by looking at them with a bored expression. "Yeah, I was, you can have it back now," Delcan said as he handed over the folded up cloak to James, who took it with a smile.

"Hope you liked it," James said as he tucked the cloak in his pocket (Declan had no idea how he fit the entire thing in there).

Remus then butted into the conversation, "So you mean to tell me, after all these years of hiding the cloak from Declan, I could've just shown it to him?" he asked in disbelief.

"Wait, how long have you been friends with him again?" James asked and Remus sighed in exasperation.

Declan rolled his eyes before Pandora caught everyone's attention.

"So here's the plan, I'm going to get caught doing the bat bogey hex on the professor, you guys will say you were part of it, and then we'll lead her to the Forbidden Forest. The Dark Ones will hopefully scare her enough to make her finally listen to reason, and if it doesn't, well, we'll figure out something," Pandora said (Declan saw that all the boys were about to probably yell at Pandora that they could get caught, but one look from Pandora silenced them) and Hel shrugged.

"True, what about the boys? Well, Remus and Sirius," Hel asked as she looked over to where Remus and Sirius were standing by each other.

Pandora wrinkled her eyebrows, "Remus, Sirius, do you mind getting Harley and Severus? They shouldn't be affected. After you do, do you mind staying back, I don't want either of you to get hurt," Pandora said and Sirius pouted while Remus shrugged.

"Understandable, c'mon Pads," Remus said as he pulled a pouting Sirius away.

Declan then put his pockets in his jeans as he leaned against the wall. It was kind of awkward seeing as he didn't really know anyone there. His only friends in this little group were Elorie, Lily and Remus, and all three of them were very much not there.

"So," Someone said and Declan turned over to see Pandora beside him. He would usually try to avoid Pandora's approaches. Back when James thought he was just another crazy Ravenclaw, Declan wanted nothing to do with the other Potter twin because he didn't really want James or Sirius on his tails about infatuating himself with their sister, but now, maybe it wouldn't be too bad to not try to get away when Pandora approached him with friendliness.

"So, we technically haven't officially met each other, have we?" Pandora asked with a smile, and Declan was surprised by how she could go from calm anger to kind motherly so fast. "So, to start off on the right foot, I'm Pandora Potter, your soulmate's twin sister," Pandora said holding out her hand.

"Declan Lacey," Declan muttered, narrowing his eyes at Pandora. He wasn't used to people being this nice to him without a deceiving plan after all.

"So Declan, my brother is completely and utterly infatuated by you. A complete three-sixty from Lily," Pandora said as she went to stand next to Declan.

Just as Declan was going to answer, he heard some decently loud cursing coming from down the hall and he looked over to find Severus and Harley. Harley was around half a foot shorter than Severus, which made it look kind of weird to see him crouched down while Harley was proudly in front.

"Aw fuck, the Marauders. Did the peace treaty have to go this damn far?" Harley grumbled as they ran their fingers through their hair, pushing it back from their face.

"Revenge against the toad is involved," Pandora said calmly and Harley smirked.

"Then count me the fuck in Potter," Harley then looked at Sev, who was crouched so low the two were almost the same height, "Sev's in too," Harley added as they jerked a finger at Severus.

Declan sighed at the group as they headed over to the Professor's office. Declan hid in the shadows once they got to the office then waited by the door as Pandora went in.

"Soooo," a voice said, and Declan groaned as he turned to face James. "Did you like the cloak?" He asked with an adorably (Declan's given up on arguing with himself at this point) dorkish grin on his face.

"Oh no, it was the worst thing I've ever used," Declan said with obvious sarcasm. So obvious that even James Potter could detect it, hopefully. He was amazed by the invisibility cloak though, he'd never admit that out loud. It was much better quality than all the other invisibility cloaks he'd ever seen, and it was cool in general.

Just then, there was a bang and Declan whipped around to see a very angry Professor Umbridge holding Pandora by the upper arm. Pandora didn't seem fazed though, in fact, Declan was sure behind the curtain of black hair that Pandora was pushing out of her face, she was smiling.

"You children," Professor Umbridge seethed and Declan fought back a laugh since Professor Umbridge looked like an angry toad. Unfortunately, this toad could speak and give out punishments.

"You see, I took this job hoping I could fix you all, but there's no hope is there?" Professor Umbridge said.

"Ma'am—" Pandora started to say, but then Professor Umbridge tightened her grip.

"Don't you ma'am me, young lady! You already have detention for the rest of my time here. Don't make you give you double detention. It's you, homosexuals, I knew you were nothing but trouble. Here I thought that maybe the sweet quiet child would be okay, that she would change, but no. It's you homosexuals and half-bloods, and blood traitors, and mudbloods and all you half breeds and impure children!" Professor Umbridge ranted. Declan was seething with anger, however, he kept his cool on the outside but was more than happy for their revenge plot to commence.

"Ma'am, if you'd let her finish, you would've heard her ask if you would like to meet our ringleader. The person who gives us all these good ideas.The person who changed us from sweet obedient children to misbehaving ones?" Hel lied through her teeth, and Declan had to admit, she was good at it.

"It's not just you all?" Professor Umbridge asked, her eyes bugging out of her skull. Declan noticed her grip tighten on Pandora's arm and he winced knowing that it might hurt later. He took a quick look at James to see that his wand was clutched in his hand tightly and he looked as if he would pounce on Professor Umbridge if she hurt Pandora. Declan was sure if Remus were there he'd join James and Sirius too.

Declan grabbed the sleeve of James' wand hand and muttered, "Not yet," to him. James seemed to be so surprised that Declan touched him, that he put his wand away in its pocket.

"No, it's not. As I asked before, would you like to meet them?" Hel asked before muttering something as her illusion came off, revealing her dead side.

Professor Umbridge recoiled away from Hel but nonetheless agreed. "Where is this person?" Professor Umbridge asked. "Are they a student?"

"To answer your second question, they aren't a student, to answer your first you'll have to follow us," Hel said.

Professor Umbridge considered this. Declan knew she was dumb so he kept quiet in hopes that her rotting toad brain would go along with it. He was correct when the Professor agreed.

"Fine, but give me your wands," she said.

"Excuse me?" Hel asked, blinking a little faster than normal.

"You heard me, give me your wands! I don't trust you, children, not to trick me and take me somewhere where you'll hex the life out of me. Now hand your wands over. I already have Miss Potter's wand."

They all look at each other. The same thought seemed to be running through their heads. This. Bitch. All of them were headstrong though, so no one seemed to want to give in, but eventually, Hel did.

"Fine. But I still have shadow magic and godly magic, so don't keep your hopes high, Professor," Hel said as she handed her wand to the Professor's outstretched hand.

Professor Umbridge seemed satisfied by this and everyone else started handing their wands over. After they did Hel started to lead them out to where the Dark Ones were. Declan stayed in the back with his hands in his pockets. James was standing near the front, closest to where Pandora was still being held by the Professor.

"Just realized I've never seen these goddamn things, are they really as bad as those bastards make them out to be?" Harley asked their hands behind their head.

Declan thought back to Elorie and Lily's first encounter with the Dark Ones. He remembered how their life forces looked to be sucked out of them and he shuddered on the inside. It had been terrifying to watch.

"Yeah, they are," Declan said simply.

"Well, can't wait for the shitshow," Harley said.

A few minutes later they were at the edge of the forest, and Professor Umbridge seemed to be getting sceptical. "Is this a trick?" She asked.

"Oh no, it totally isn't," Declan muttered sarcastically.

"It's not, ma'am, and if you could follow us deeper, I can summon our leader," Hel said, getting frustrated with the Professor.

Just as they were heading into the forest, Declan looked at Hagrid's hut to find Maleyn leaving it. He looked away so that hopefully Maleyn wouldn't notice him, but it was too late. Maleyn caught his eye and waved bye to Hagrid before hopping over to the group.

"What are you doing?" Maleyn asked as she bounced beside Declan.

Declan sighed, "Revenge against the toad," he said simply and Maelyn's mouth moved in what resembled a smile.

"Okay, I'll join," Maleyn said as she bounced alongside a walking Declan. Declan decided that instead of trying to walk away from the crazy girl, he'd accept his fate.

They trudged through the forest for a while until they came to a clearing, then he leaned on a tree while Maleyn started climbing it.

"What are we doing here?" The professor asked, pointing all of their wands at the kids who were kind of grouped up together.

"Summoning our leader," Hel said before she let out a bit of godly energy. The same kind of energy as the past when they've tried to see the Dark Ones.

Declan felt a sense of dread and loss before he shook it off. It felt weird that kind of magic. Like a mix of dark magic and light magic if that made sense. As if he mixed a powerful potion of light and added a strong dose of Drought of Living Death to it.

Seconds later Declan heard the sound of the Dark Ones singing.

"Hush child, open your eyes. You are not alone. We are your dark ones holding you close."

Declan fought back a shudder as he looked to see Harley and Severus's reactions. To his surprise, they both looked confused, or worried. But enchanted? He knew it was the feeling he felt but he couldn't describe his feeling. The Dark Ones song had this primal feeling to it that made you feel a certain way, it wasn't joy, or freedom, or love, or sorrow, he couldn't place it.

"Come dance with us, dance in the darkness. We've been waiting for you."

Declan turned to the Professor then and his eyes widened to the size of cauldrons at what he saw.

"That world doesn't want you like we do, we see you for in the night fire shines bright."

The Professor had lost her grip on Pandora, who rubbed her arm where it had been held onto before and James immediately went to Pandora's side. The Professor then got this look in her eyes as she dropped everyone's wands. James snatched up his wand before it could hit the ground and kissed it while everyone else calmly got their wands. Declan rolled his eyes at James before getting his wand, checking it to make sure it didn't look broken. After feeling satisfied, he looked over to where Professor Umbridge was walking slowly toward the Dark Ones

"Why fight the night when the night is endless? Why cling to the light when the light always diminishes?"

"So the fuck do we do now?" Harley asked, "Leave her here to die or some shit?"

"Come dance in the dark and you will be fearless. Let the dark kill the love in your heart till your heart is painless."

Declan looked at Harley with an expression that asked them if they were crazy. Leave the Professor to die? They'd all be sent to Azkaban! "Oh yes! Leave the Professor, a Ministry official, here to die. We totally won't get in trouble," Declan said sarcastically.

"Come, let's leave this world behind, dance with the dark ones in your mind. Come, let's leave them all behind. Dance with the dark ones, dance with the dark ones."

"Why is she following them? I thought she was married to a man!" James said as he backed away from the Dark Ones, who were getting closer.

"Hush child, open your eyes you are not alone we are your dark ones holding you close."

Hel then pushed Pandora behind her since she was closest to the professor, and therefore the Dark Ones. "My aunt Freyja once told me that some people never find their soulmate. They find someone and think they've found their one true love, but in reality, it's an obsession, an appreciation, infatuation, not love. I'm sure that our Professor doesn't even have a clue that her soulmate is female," Hel explained.

"Come dance with us dance in the darkness we've been waiting for you."

Declan blinked rapidly. Seriously? After all that preaching about how "homosexuals" were bad, and it turned out the Professor's soulmate was female?! Outrageous! Sure, she didn't know it, but she sure as hell would be embarrassed when she found out what happened. Based on what they found out from Loki's letters, she knew exactly what was going on in the forest since she so lovingly didn't let the letters from Loki be sent.

"That world doesn't want you like we do, we see you for in the night fire shines bright."

"I didn't know this would happen," Pandora said, "All I meant was for her to be scared," she added with a hint of fear in her eyes. Declan saw how she kept her fear at bay though and he didn't question why she was a Gryffindor.

"Come dance with us dance in the darkness oh how we've been waiting for you."

"I don't think any of us meant for this to happen," Hel said, then Declan focused his attention back on the professor, who looked like she was having the same reaction to the Dark Ones as Lily and Elorie did.

"Why fight the night when the night is endless? Why cling to the light when the light always diminishes?"

"What's happening to her?" Maelyn asked quite stupidly. Did she not remember Hel explaining what happens to people? Or did she never?

"Come dance in the dark and you will be fearless. Let the dark kill the love in your heart Till your heart is painless."

"Hold on," Hel said, then went over to the side of the clearing where Professor Umbridge and the Dark Ones were. Declan noticed the faint yellow smokey light coming from the Professor. like a memory flowing out of her and to the Dark Ones. Hel reached her fingers out to touch the smoke, maybe collect it, Declan didn't know. Once she did though, the Dark One's song got angrier and the two Dark Ones in the back turned to look at Hel. Declan didn't see what face they made at her, or if they made a face at all, but it was enough to make Hel back away before coming back up to touch the smoke again.

"Why fight the night when the night is endless? Why cling to the light when the light always diminishes?"

Once she did though, she stumbled back rapidly with her eyes wide. "It's pure joy — happiness — I've only felt this sort of magic from Nanna's -- my goddess of joy's -- godly magic. They're sucking the joy out of her," Hel said with shaky breaths then shuddered. "That does not sit well with me," she added as she held the hand that touched the smoke like it held a disease.

"Come dance in the dark and you will be fearless. Let the dark kill the love in your heart till your heart is painless."

Hel turned to the tree where Declan was. He thought about moving away so that Hel didn't pay attention to him, but he realized she was looking above him, and he turned to look at Maelyn.

"Hush child, open your eyes you are not alone we are your dark ones holding you close."

"Maelyn — I know you're here from Hagrid's hut, I could notice your hair anywhere — do you mind telling us all you know about the dementors?" Hel asked. Maelyn shrugged upside-down from the tree branch that she was hanging off of.

"Come dance with us dance in the darkness we've been waiting for you."

Maleyn nodded and started spouting off in a happy rant, "A Dementor is a gliding, wraithlike Dark creature, considered to be one of the foulest to inhabit the wizarding world. Dementors feed on human happiness and thus generate feelings of depression and despair in anyone close to them. They can also consume a person's soul, leaving their victims in a permanent vegetative state, and thus are often referred to as "soul-sucking fiends", rendering a person an empty shell — " Declan was sure that Maelyn would've kept on going, but Hel interrupted her.

"That world doesn't want you like we do, we see you for in the night fire shines bright."

"Thank you, Maelyn, could you please expand on the part about sucking out souls? What does it look like?" Hel asked.

"Why fight the night when the night is endless? Why cling to the light when the light always diminishes?"

"When a dementor suck's someone's soul out, it looks as if the person's soul is being ripped from their body slowly, like prying a bandage off a wound. The soul comes out of the body, usually around the face, and into the dementor," Maelyn said, and Hel nodded.

"Come dance in the dark and you will be fearless. Let the dark kill the love in your heart till your heart is painless."

"Thank you, Mae, now, would you say it looks similar to this?" Hel asked as she pointed to the now-grey smoke coming out of the Professor. It looked gruesome, and Declan couldn't even imagine what it must feel like. The Professor appeared to be swaying and she looked to be in pain; her face was contorted slightly and she looked like she was getting gaunter -- like old age was catching up with her faster than expected. Her soul looked like it was being ripped out of her body in all places, like a layer of skin being painfully skinned from you while you were still living.

"Come, let's leave this world behind, dance with the dark ones in your mind. Come, let's leave them all behind. Dance with the dark ones, dance with the dark ones."

"Yup," Maleyn said casually as she flipped back up and sat on the tree branch instead of hanging off from it.

"Hush child, open your eyes you are not alone we are your dark ones holding you close."

Hel took a deep breath before pushing her entire hand into the smoke. This earned a loud growl from the Dark Ones, who momentarily paused their song, allowing the Professor to regain her consciousness for a moment before they resumed their enchanting singing.

Hel backed away, this time much calmer, "That's definitely her soul. In a way, I'm the goddess of souls, more the queen of them, but that's definitely her soul," she said. Declan couldn't help but notice how she looked a little bit more powerful after pushing her hand into the smoke as if she absorbed some of the magic.

"Come dance with us dance in the darkness. We've been waiting for you."

"I see where all this is going, but Hel, I don't think we can come up with a good excuse for the Professor losing her soul," Pandora said, resembling a mother telling her child that no, they could not hit the parent on the playground that was being mean to them. "I know this was my idea and I hold all accountable for it, but could we please go?" Pandora asked and Delcan mentally seconded her. It was starting to feel depressed around there if that made sense. There was too much Dark for all of them to handle. Other than Hel though, who looked suspiciously right at home.

"That world doesn't want you like we do, we see you for in the night fire shines bright."

"Of course, you guys know what to do," Hel said, then looked at the Professor with disgust on her face. She held onto her pinkie like holding a dirty dishrag and then held onto Pandora. They all held on to Pandora and Hel one another in some way as Hel shadow travelled them back to the castle.

"Come dance with us dance in the darkness, oh how we've been waiting for you."

𝕸𝖎𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖆'𝖘 𝕻𝖔𝖎𝖓𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖁𝖎𝖊𝖜:

Miranda groaned as bells rang all throughout the castle. She was doing her homework, and she wondered what could possibly be so important that it couldn't wait for the next day. Miranda looked next to her to where Regulus was doing his homework on his bed before setting her things down and going to the bathroom, checking to see that she still looked perfect. Not that she had any doubt, but she did love her reflection, so might as well.

She looked at her perfect self in the mirror and was satisfied with her looks. She touched up her lip gloss and mascara a bit before going back into the dorm room where Regulus was seemingly waiting for her. He smiled before holding out his elbow for her to take and Miranda took it as they went to the Great Hall.

Once they arrived, Miranda saw that it was starting to fill up, so she pressed a kiss to Regulus' cheek and went over to her spot with the Eagles at the Ravenclaw table. She flattened her skirt before sitting down. She crossed one leg over the other and looked up to where Headmaster Dumbledore was standing at the podium.

"What do you think it is this time?" A girl named Aliyah asked and Miranda shrugged.

"I haven't a clue, but they did interrupt my study time, so I do hope it's important," Miranda said looking over to the podium, hoping that this would all soon be over so that she could get back to her work.

A few minutes later, everyone was there. Miranda checked her perfectly manicured nails (a simple french manicure, still beautiful though) as they were waiting. Then, finally, the Headmaster started speaking.

"Hello, students of Hogwarts. I'm sure all of you are surprised as to why we've called you here at such a late hour. Well, if you would turn to our staff table, you would see someone is missing," Headmaster Dumbledore said, waving his hand over to the staff table. Miranda followed the hand and found out that, indeed, someone was missing. A certain pink thing, that is.

"It is time you all know why we truly had the soulmate sorting this year," Dumbledore said and Miranda listened in, intrigued. If this announcement had something to do with soulmates she wanted to dissect his entire speech.

"The soulmate sorting was a way to protect all of you from the creatures lurking right outside these castle walls. These creatures are not the ordinary magical animals that you've learned about in school, these are ancient creatures that are even older than some of the gods you believe in. They could be older than the parents of most of the gods you believe in, or even older than their grandparents. We as mortals do not know," Headmaster Dumbledore said.

Miranda turned to look at Hel, Hogwarts resident goddess and Miranda's rival. Miranda wished she could say that she saw a hint of discomfort in Hel, but she looked nothing but proud and royal. Miranda just narrowed her wide eyes at the goddess before regaining her regal look.

"These creatures are called the Unnamed, for we have yet to find a name for these beings," the Headmaster said.

Miranda looked back over to Hel, who looked the slightest bit confused about what was being told. Miranda decided to remember that look before listening back to the Headmaster.

"They suck out your soul much like a dementor, and then they devour your body. They seem to sing a song that enchants people, and we were sure that they only affected men -- " Headmaster Dumbledore said, and when Miranda looked to Hel, she saw less confusion and more anger.

"-- until now. our lovely teacher, Professor Karen Umbridge has been affected. The students who brought her in wished to be kept anonymous, and I will respect their wishes. But, we have found out that it is people with female soulmates who are affected. Those with male soulmates shouldn't have to worry, but for those with female soulmates, be wary. All activities that require going near the forest will happen within castle walls, other than that. Have a good night, and be cautious, we do not know how strong these creatures are and we do not know the extent of their powers," Professor Dumbledore finished.

Miranda blinked rapidly as they were all dismissed. She bid her ducklings — er, friends — goodnight before finding Regulus and catching up with him.

"What was that all about?" Regulus asked, his eyebrows scratched together.

"I don't know, but we have to be careful," Miranda said, "Love is powerful, for and against us."

Question For You Guys: Would you guys like to see more of the first years (OCs who I created on the spot for this fic), or Novalie and Christopher? Or all of them?

OCs Used In This Chapter:

Declan Lacey

Elorie McFellon

Harley Kelly

Hel Lokidottir

Maelyn Winkle

Miranda Clark

Olivia Tucker-James

Pandora Potter

Thalia Carmichael

SPECIAL MENTIONS:

Freya Mavor as Novalie Selwyn

Khylin Rhambo as Christopher Shavkey

(Young) Chloe Mortez as Abigail Ingalls

Erica Tremblay as Josephine Sellasie

Ian Ho as Beau Lee

Jaliyah Manuel as Joyce Wilder