six six appeal

✨

       "MIA FUCKIN' BLACK," SAYS CORMAC, when he sits down at breakfast, on the second of September, and sees Mia sitting at the Gryffindor table, talking to Archie. She's eating scrambled eggs on toast, which is a lot more amusing than usual, because apparently, Archie Potter has never seen someone conjure up parsley before, to put on their eggs.

       Mia smiles at him, as Cormac sits next to her.

       "She's our friend now," says Archie, raising his eyebrows, as if warning him. "Don't be a dick."

       Cormac juts his bottom lip out, pouting. If there's ever an opportunity to pose, he'll take it. "I never—"

         Mia and Archie exchange a look, and she starts to laugh, as Cormac puts a hand on his heart, quickly taking a bite of his toast.

       "You know what?" says Cormac, as he shrugs. "I'm not complaining, in the slightest..." He glances across at Mia. Archie sticks his tongue out in repulsion, and then he waves his finger at Cormac, warning him, again.

       "Don't be a perv," says Archie.

       "I'm not," says Cormac. He glances at Mia again. Archie looks unimpressed. "You seem happier than you did, at the party..."

       Mia doesn't reply, particularly, to that, but she changes the subject. "I didn't realise you were friends with Briar..."

       "He begged to be my plus-one," says Archie, without a pause.

       "Oh, come on, Potter," says Cormac.

       Archie laughs. "I mean, it's a good thing, because I would've made an absolute fool out of myself, asking someone else..." he says, and just as he trails off, Harry walks past, along with Ron and Hermione. Archie says hello to his younger brother, and then he says hello to Hermione.

       Cormac leans closer to Mia. "Guess who he fancies."

       Mia grins. "Ron."

       "Wha—?"

       She laughs. "I mean, surely, if you fancied someone, you wouldn't put any emphasis on it...?"

       Cormac shrugs. "That's a fair point."

       Archie frowns at Mia. "I invited you to sit with us, you aren't allowed to gang up on me," he says, shaking his head. "And anyway, let's not go around telling everyone that stuff, yeah, Cormac..."

       "Mia's fine," says Cormac.

       Archie gives Cormac a look. He lets out a sigh, and he turns to Mia, with a small smile. "No offence to you, M. I think you're cool," he tells her. Next to her, Cormac smiles again. Archie ignores it. "You aren't doing Defence, are you?"

       Mia shakes her head.

       Cormac smiles. "You know, I'm not doing it, either... Don't need to have some bat teach what I already know..."

       Mia and Archie look at each other, and even though Mia's trying to stay unbiased, she can understand the irritation across his face.

       "Well, uh, I just... struggle with it, sometimes..." says Mia, slowly.

       "Oh," says Cormac, as if he's never had that issue before.

       Archie smiles. "Well, wish me luck with Umbridge," he tells the two of them. He gets to his feet, grabbing his school-bag. "Oh — and Mac, you dickhead—" He makes the "I'm watching you" signal with his fingers, pointing to his eyes, and then to Cormac.

        "You're so paranoid," says Cormac.

        "Hm," says Mia, eating the last of her eggs.

       "Say, Mia, what have you got now?" says Cormac, as he stands up. He smiles in the way that he used to, and Mia feels a little strange. She doesn't think her stomach's fluttering. She likes the idea of thinking about Hogsmeade and dates and Christmas presents, though, instead of Cedric Cedric Cedric. In her mind, Cormac's fine. They went out before. Cedric didn't mind. They only broke up because Mia liked Cedric, maybe if they picked things back up...

       Mia picks up her schoolbag. "Alchemy."

       "I forgot you were clever," says Cormac, the same old smile across his face. Mia smiles softly. "I've got Transfiguration... Did I tell you, I almost got full marks on the O.W.L. for it, same with Charms and Herbology..."

       "Oh, wow," says Mia. In her head, she thinks, shit? She suddenly feels a little stupid.

       "I'll walk you to class," says Cormac. "You can tell me what I've missed, since we last spoke — well, last spoke properly," and he laughs, referring to the time where they were going out, not the time at Briar's party, where Mia avoided him... And when Mia Salvatore-d George into helping her out of that situation.

       Mia struggles to say anything, though, about her homelife, because it either (a) includes a dead best friend, or (b) includes a father she isn't supposed to be talking to. But she starts to explain stuff about her mum, St Mungos stuff, not the Death Eater stuff, and she's about to explain the subjects she's taking, but then, two ginger idiots walk out in front of her.

       Fred keeps on glancing across at George.

       "Morning, Mia," says Fred, smiling brightly.

       "Uh, hi," says Mia with a frown.

       George looks across at Cormac, and then back at Mia. She already knows where this is going.

       "Uh, Mia, can we talk to you?" says George.

       Mia crosses her arms. "About what?"

       George looks at Cormac, as if hoping he'll walk away, but he doesn't, because he doesn't think that anyone would ever want him gone. Instead, George waves his hand dismissively.

       "Mia here is helping us... with our joke products," says George. He elbows Fred's side, and he starts to nod. "With the, uh, box designs, and all that..."

       Cormac shrugs his shoulders. "Mia's amazing at art," he says, acting as if he knows her better.

       "Oh, she's brilliant," says George with a nod. Mia raises an eyebrow at him. She doesn't know why he's having this much of an issue about this. "But it's all top-secret, so, if you'll excuse us—"

       George manages to hold onto Mia's hand, to pull her to the side. Mia snatches her hand back, smacking him in the process. She glares at him. "What?" she says.

       "Are you serious?" says George, raising his eyebrows.

       Mia scowls. "No, I'm Mia."

       George almost glares at her — and by this, she means, he looks like he's pissed off, but he knows he shouldn't be pissed off, the only reason he is is because she's getting defensive... Because he's sticking his nose into things that don't concern him...

       "Cormac McLaggen?"

       "He's friends with Archie," says Mia.

       "Isn't it a little... soon?" says George.

       Mia crosses her arms. "I had a boyfriend, over the summer..."

       "But still—"

       "Look," says Mia, tilting her head up, to look at him, as she steps closer. "Why are you bothered, anyway?"

       "Because I want to open a joke shop!"

       Mia rolls her eyes. "Jesus Christ, Weasley, your mum supports you!"

       "No, she doesn't! You don't get it!"

       "OK, well, you wanna know what you don't get?" says Mia, scowling. "We aren't friends. Leave me alone."

        "I never said we were—"

       "Yeah, well, you act differently," says Mia. "I am not your friend. You are the guy that was a dick to my best friend before he died. Remember that? When You-Know-Who killed him? And how, before that, you were so caught up over a stupid Quidditch match you were a complete arsehole to him?" She could kill him. The candles around her start shaking with irritation, boiling into anger. "We aren't friends. Piss off."

       Before she sees George's full reaction (by this, she means: she sees him glaring) she walks away, back towards Fred and Cormac. Fred smiles nicely at her, and she frowns back at him. She turns to Cormac.

       "Are we going?" she says.

       Cormac smiles. "Definitely."

      Mia walks out into the hallway with Cormac. Alchemy classes use one of the spare Potions classrooms, so Cormac walks her in the direction of the dungeons. She frowns to herself, folding her arms over one another.

       "So..." he begins, but Mia quickly cuts in.

       "How was your summer, then?" she asks him, and just like that, he goes off on a massive spiel about everything he's been up to, from his O.W.L. results to his uncle. Mia zones out, and instead, she thinks about the minutes before.

       Isn't it a little soon?

       But surely, it's fine with Cormac, because they were going out before she ever even thought about Cedric. They broke up because she started to fancy Cedric. It's not like he's completely new, he's an old idea of hers, an old promise of daydreaming about dates and potential Christmas presents, instead of thinking of the bad things in her life. If things picked up again now, surely it would be fine, because they'd be picking up where they left off. Cedric was fine with it then, wasn't he...?

        They stop in front of the classroom door, with a few minutes left before the bell goes. The door's ajar, and Mia can faintly smell some of the potions left around the room, by the witch employed to teach Alchemy, who experiments with different potions from time to time...

       Mia looks around awkwardly. In the air, she can smell wood and grass and honey. Cedric. Her stomach begins to tie into knots. She feels as if she's hugging him, how his clothes had a specific smell that was him...

       She remembers how nice it was, when he hugged her, when he wrapped his arms around her; how she'd rest her head against his chest and she'd feel his body warmth, and as she hugged him back, he'd move his hand, ever so softly, up and down her back, to comfort her...

       She remembers how ecstatic she was, when they first kissed. She remembers the way that he leant in, the way that, in her mind, every other kiss before this was worthless, none of them were real kisses. This was her first real kiss. She remembers how afterwards her cheeks had burned because she was never that happy about kissing someone. She remembers how he had smiled softly, and told her how much he liked her. She remembers thinking, I'm going to marry this boy...

       She remembers the way her heart broke, when she told him that he was going to die, but he went into that maze regardless.

       "Well, uh, at least I know to be careful," he had said to her.

       Mia had replied, "Ced..."

       "I'll see you soon," he had told her.

       It was true. She did see him, but she had fully broken down, and he was nothing but a dead body.

       Mia glances at Cormac. This is wrong, this is wrong...

       "Merlin, Mia, I really like this perfume of yours..." says Cormac, with a softer smile than usual.

       Mia's eyes widen.

       Oh, no.

       So there must be Amortentia in the classroom, that's what Mia can smell. Cool. That makes sense. The Alchemy professor is a little eccentric. But this feels alarming to Mia. Amortentia only means attraction, right? Right...?

       Mia keeps on smelling Cedric, and she looks up at Cormac, beginning to panic.

       "Look, you're really nice, but it feels wrong, you know? With how recent everything was..."

       Cormac shrugs his shoulders. "I'm sure Cedric would understand..."

       "Well, I don't," says Mia, frowning.

       She walks into the classroom, taking a seat. She doesn't know how this happens, most of the time. She's had a fair share of boyfriends, sure, but the list of boys that fancy her? She doesn't even know. But, still, Mia can't help but wonder — what, really, is so special about her? Briar Crouch, until the year before last, was right there, why was Mia getting any level of attention when she isn't even special...

      Mia sighs. She thinks things are being made worse, too, by the fact that the chalkboard reads the importance of the elements in love spells, and the Amortentia is making the whole room stink of Cedric...

       Fucking kill her.

✨

       SCHOOL IS SHITTY, BUT THEN, when isn't it? Either one class is giving her hell or she's being stared at because of X, Y, or Z — oh, wait, she's still being met with gazes and whispers of, "That's Diggory's girlfriend..." She would like to also add that she was also his best friend, for multiple years before that, but whatever. She supposes girlfriend is a little more dramatic.

        Fred and George haven't been bothering her at all, which is a relief, to say the least. Every so often, when she eats with Archie and Cormac (super awkward, but Archie's nice and that's the main thing) she accidentally catches George's gaze, and both of them sort of scowl at the other, before looking away.

       (She would like to add that Fred is still being nice to her, but then she supposes Briar told him he had to. She heard him talk about how much he wants to marry her, she knows he wouldn't fuck up his chance to marry Briar Crouch.)

       It's a couple days later when Archie sits down at dinner time, next to Mia, and shakes his head furiously. Cormac raises an eyebrow.

       "Everything all right, mate?" he says.

       "You're lucky, you are, not doing Defence," says Archie. "I'm gonna kill Umbridge. Honest to God, I'm gonna."

       Mia's about to ask why, but Archie raises his hand when he sees his younger brother, who he gestures to sit with them. Shit, Mia thinks.

       "Harry!" says Archie. "Tell 'em what Umbridge is doing."

        "She gave me a detention," he says.

        Cormac shrugs. "All right...?"

       "No, Mac," says Archie. He turns to Mia. "Mia, get this."

       Mia frowns. "Get what—?"

       "She's saying Cedric's death was an accident," says Harry.

       Mia blinks. "It was."

      "No," says Harry. "She says Voldemort didn't kill him, and that Voldemort hasn't come back...!"

       The weird thing is, Harry looks at Mia, as if forgetting their differences and instead, wanting her to side with him. But all Mia can do is look back at him, and frown. Maybe she's scowling a little. She is most days. But still. She finds this weird. Just because they both know what happened to Cedric doesn't mean they're friends now. Harry was some kid that saw him die. Mia was his best friend.

        "Maybe you should talk to my dad about this," says Mia. She sees Cormac's eyebrows rise in surprise, and Mia thinks, if he says anything about Dad, he can fight me. She glances at Archie. "I've got work to do. I'll see you around, yeah?"

       Mia stands up, and grabs her bag.

       She isn't having this. She gets that Harry saw Cedric die, she really does, but she doesn't think Harry gets that this a hell of a lot different to her than it is to him. Mia lost her best friend, her boyfriend, her fucking soulmate. Mia thought she was going to marry him. Mia thought she was going to have his kids, she picked out the names and everything. She thought that she'd end up as Emilia "Mia" Diggory...

       So, sue her, for getting pissed off. Harry knew Cedric, but it wasn't the same. Harry just feels bad because he saw him die and he could've stopped his death. But so could've Mia. Mia tried to stop his death, and it didn't work. She begged him to not go into that maze, and he fucking did anyway.

       And this isn't even factoring in everything with her dad and Harry. Merlin.

       Mia decides she's going to the library, not her dorm room, so she takes the long way there. Clearing her head. She knows she needs to calm down, she can see the candle flames grow when she walks past them, giving them her anger. So she crosses her arms and lets out a sigh and breathes in the fresh air coming from the courtyard, when she hears him.

       "Fancy seeing you here," says George.

       Mia rolls her eyes. "I'm on the way to the library," she says. "You know where that is, don't you?"

        "I thought it was made up," says George.

        Mia scowls.

       "What do you want?" she says.

       "Just thought I'd see if you had come to your senses yet," says George.

       "I'm gonna kill you, Weasley," says Mia. "If you mention that again."

       George frowns. "So why'd you walk off?"

       "Did you follow me?" says Mia.

       "No, I'm going to get some of the Wheezes products from my room," says George. "Me and Fred are gonna test some things out in the grounds, now it's dark... But anyway. Why'd you walk off?"

       "Because I was pissed off," says Mia.

       George frowns. "Why?"

       "Because," says Mia, and she sighs. "Look, I get that Harry saw Cedric die, but I'm the one who lost my best friend... And you can't say that Harry could've stopped it from happening, because I tried to do that, too."

        "What... do you mean?"

       "Briar told me," says Mia.

       And this is when George stops walking.

       "Briar told you?" he says.

       Mia nods. "And I couldn't stop it from happening."

       George pauses for a minute, frowning.

       "She shouldn't have told you, Mia," says George.

       Mia crosses her arms. "Why not?"

      "You just said it," says George. "You feel guilty."

      "I would've regardless—"

       "Fuck, Black," says George. "She shouldn't have told you."

       Mia raises an eyebrow. "Uh, why are you getting so—?"

       Protective, she's about to say, but a witch in pink walks around the corner.

       "Children! What is this shouting about?"

       Mia crosses her arms, and raises an eyebrow. Children?

      "Nothing, Professor," says George, under his breath.

       "Remember Mr Weasley, we do not like mumbling!" says this witch. "Now, how about you say it again?"

       "What?" says Mia.

      The witch in pink smiles at her. "I'm sorry, dear?"

      "We weren't shouting, and even if we were, why is that an issue?" says Mia. George looks away, because he's smirking. Mia could kill him. She isn't doing this for him. She's doing this because this witch is a bitch.

       "I don't think I have you in my classes," says the witch. "What's your name?"

      Oh, thinks Mia. This is Umbridge.

       "Mia Black," she says.

       "Black?" says Umbridge. "... Sirius—?"

       Mia nods. "That's my dad."

      Umbridge gives her an awful smile. "I was there for his arrest."

      "I'm sure it was a blast," says Mia. "What, with the whole 'no-trial—'"

       Mia can see past Umbridge, that the candles' flames are growing and spewing. She can feel her blood boiling. It makes sense. But still. Even if Mia's pissed off with her dad, that doesn't mean shit, she's still on his side, he was never guilty—!

       "He is a murderer—!"

       "He didn't kill anyone," says Mia, point-blank.

        Umbridge shakes her head. "Dear, you are confused—"

       "You're demented?" says Mia, without thinking twice.

       George splutters.

       Mia thinks, Oh, shit.

       Umbridge smiles still.

       Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh—

       "Detention, Miss Black. Monday, six o'clock."

       And then, Umbridge walks past them.

      Mia doesn't look at her when she passes them. Instead, she looks at the ground, her eyes widened. She's at a loss for words. Sure, she can get carried away with her emotions sometimes, and sure, her emotions at the moment are either super angry or super sad, but she's never done that before? Mia Black, calling a teacher demented?

       "That was amazing," says George.

      Mia glances across at him. "Don't get used to it."

      She starts walking again, in the direction of the library. She looks over her shoulder, just as George moves to trail after her.

       "Uh, why not?" says George. "I think a lot of teachers could do with getting that treatment — you know, I bet Snape would really appreciate it, and if you were to do it, maybe, when I've got a free, I would be very—"

       Mia's brows furrow. "I didn't mean to say that."

       "And?" says George. "Do you think I mean to say half the stuff I do? Do you think Fred means to say any of the shit that comes out his mouth?"

       She doesn't know what to say. She doesn't act like that. Not to teachers. She's always been respectful, even when Snape was a prat after Cedric died, Mia was still polite. She'd always feel guilty if she was rude to a teacher, she felt like she should be respectful to them, you know? But just then... Why couldn't she stop herself? One second, she's defending her dad, and the next, she's calling a teacher demented... It just isn't her...

       It's what Dad would do, she thinks. Maybe not because he was standing up for his parents, but it's definitely what he'd do...

       Maybe she is her father's daughter...

      "Honest, right," says George. "You should do that more."

       Mia raises an eyebrow. "Right."

       "No, seriously," says George. "It's fit."

       George frowns, surprised with himself.

       She rolls her eyes. "I see what you mean, with the foot-in-mouth thing."

       He frowns back at her, and Mia takes this as her cue to walk off, brows furrowed as she walks into the library. She sits at an empty table, taking out her Alchemy homework — but even if she wasn't writing a learning journal about love potions, she'd still be sitting here, thinking about the Amortentia.

       It freaks her out, that Cormac smelt her perfume... Especially since in the lesson, the professor emphasised that with Amortentia, you smelt who you loved. Not liked, not fancied, not even had a couple dreams of us shagging. Oh, no. Full-on love.

       She also doesn't know how to feel, with George saying she's fit. Because that's weird. She knows he didn't mean it in that way, but it still makes her feel weird. It reminds her of when she was fourteen and in the common room, and overheard a guy in the year above call her that. It just makes her feel weird. Because she can't help but think, why her? Like she's thought time and time again, up until two years ago, Briar Crouch was right there. And maybe people fancied her too, but knew that obviously Briar would end up with Fred, but still? Mia isn't special. Why her? What makes guys fancy her, out of everyone at school?

       Mia lets out a sigh. Everything's just weird.

✨

       ... AND THINGS GET WEIRDER AND WEIRDER, when Mia shows up to her Monday detention and finds Harry waiting outside, too. She frowns at him, and he does the same to her.

       "Why are you here?" he says.

       Mia shrugs. "Called her demented."

      Harry looks at her, surprised, and oddly, he doesn't ask any more questions. Maybe he can tell that Mia doesn't want to talk, because she never wants to talk to him. Why would she want to? Oh, hi, boy that my dad prefers. How are you? Yeah, uh, exactly. No reason for Mia to bother.

        But things get weirder, when they're let into the office, and quickly, one thing is made painfully clear to Mia. Umbridge hates her dad. Which, like, makes sense, but this is a whole new level of Ministry propaganda.

       "You're not in my classes," says Umbridge, to Mia.

       Mia shakes her head. "I don't do Defence."

       "Why would you need Defence?" says Umbridge. "With your father being who he is." And then she smiles, like it's a normal thing to say. Like it's normal to go, don't need to fuckin' learn defence because your dad's a murderer! Ha ha ha!

       Mia doesn't argue back, but she doesn't show up the next day. What's she gonna do, tell my parents? Tell my mum that I got a detention, because some teacher hates Dad? Fuckin' fight me, Umbridge!

       But, Umbridge finds her in lessons on the Wednesday, and gives her an extra week. For being disrespectful. Mia holds her tongue. The candle next to her is dripping wax, it's burning that fast. Mia wishes the wax would find it's way onto Umbridge's ugly pink peacoat and stain it so she can't wear it ever again—

       Harry looks at Mia, as if surprised, or maybe impressed, when she returns on the Wednesday evening, glaring the whole time. Afterwards she grumbles how she's got an extra week. Then she walks back to her dorm room, seething...

       ... The next two weeks go by the same way. Mia spends the evenings pissed off, her right hand aching, and ends up bursting into tears when she has a shower before bed. Even when her dad escaped from Azkaban, it was never this shitty... What does this one person have against her dad, that makes her hate Mia so much?

       But then, at the end of the two weeks, the weirdest thing ever happens.

       Mia walks out of her art lesson that Friday (her favourite thing about her timetable has got to be double art on Friday afternoons) and, outside, George is waiting for her. She stops walking, she's that surprised. Why is George Weasley waiting for her, outside of her lesson?

       "Black," says George.

       Mia frowns. "Weasley?"

      "Right," says George, and he looks around, checking no one's listening in. (No one is. No one comes to this part of the castle.) "Harry's gonna teach us Defence, I guess you can come..."

      Kill her.

happy halloween boys n ghouls!!!! im still on a hiatus but ive been working on this for ages now and thought id post it anyway now it's done!!!