20. beater.

“I’m sure we’ll just chill at her apartment, or at my brother’s,” he replied. “No dark alleys or other sketchy places,” he told her. “But you don’t have to feel obligated to come, I can really go by myself if I do go.”

Alura nodded with a small chuckle, he didn’t have to say it - she already knew he would do everything he could in order to keep her safe. “I don’t feel obligated.” She replied, rolling her eyes at the word. “I want to go, if you do. You know that if it’s important to you it’s important to me. Plus, I miss Jaz.”

“Trust me, not this time.” She laughed, although the thought made her smile, regardless. It was nice to know other people thought highly of you - even if they were misguided. “Nothing on the horizon for you? There’s gotta be someone you think is cute.”

Nova shrugged. “I’m not sure,” she replied. “I went through a rough relationship a little while ago and I’m still not sure if I want to put myself out there again yet.”

Alura laughed, nodding as she swallowed her mouthful of wine, a smile playing across her features before she replied. “I think you might have that backwards. We’re at least tied.” She grinned, shrugging slightly. Braxley was one of her best friends, as well as her teammate, and she was certain they’d get into some sort of trouble together before it was all over. “We could go visit next year, you know, if she can’t come here.” She said softly, not wanting to push him too hard and ruin their good moods. “Or before. Or both.”

Noah nodded. “I’d like that,” he replied. “I miss her.” He curled up more with her. “Are you sure you’d be fine going back to England if we go?”

“I mean, you never met Rabastan so I guess it’s not so ridiculous. We weren’t allowed to even talk about No-Maj things without….. well.” Without getting beaten, but they were having a nice time and she didn’t want to talk about that right now, so she sent him a grin as he kissed her and winked before going on. “Oh, I can teach you all about stuffy pureblood parties, and every way to get out of them without getting caught.”

“Oh you don’t have to teach me about those,” he replied teasingly, with a smile. “You can teach me like other magic stuff.”

“It’s not fair.” She said softly, frowning just a little at his words. Everything he said, she understood completely - she felt the same way about her own condition. But it was different for her than it was for him. There was nothing she could do to change it. “I can’t hide the parts of me that I don’t like from you, even if I wanted to.”

Noah bit his lip. “I don’t ever want to hurt you,” Noah told her, kissing her hand, holding it in between his. “And I saw you flinch, and then you…” he trailed off. “I don’t ever want to hurt you.”

“Hmph.” Alura grunted, hands on her hipped as she surveyed the corn around them. It smelled too strong - she didn’t like it, and she wrinkled her nose as she brought her attention back to her new friend. “You really know your flowers, huh? I mean, sorry, obviously, I just….” She sighed, frustrated. This was why she didn’t make new friends. “Mums, huh?”

“I know enough about them.” Ginny laughed lightly. “Yeah, they’re the really big ones with lots of petals. Really pretty, they come in all sorts of colors. In seasons that aren’t the fall they’re usually just called chrysanthemums, but for some reason, we give them a completely different name during the fall. It’s dumb.” Ginny held up her wand, focusing as she made a burgundy mum sprout from the ground. She picked it with her hand before handing it to Alura. “Much better fall flower.”

“I literally cried all night two weeks ago because Noah slept in his own room and I thought that meant we were breaking up. So he’s definitely not hanging around because it’s fun.” Alura laughed, rolling her eyes. She was so not good at the whole relationship thing, but she would try to offer whatever help she could. “I mean, if you’ve been on a few dates than it sounds like she’s definitely into you. So just…. don’t mess it up. It’s not that hard. Can’t be, if I can manage.”

Braxley winced, “But you figured it out, didn’t you? “ He rolled his eyes at her answer, “Yeah, i’ll try my best to no mess it up. Whatever the hell that means.” Braxley had never really had a serious girlfriend before and he desperately wanted Sierra to stick around for awhile.

“Ok, but imagine how much we would hate literally any other job if we’re already starting to dread flying.” She laughed, grimacing at the mere thought. “Blue?” Alura questioned, not quite sure what that meant. “Did they do that to you when you lost or something?” That seemed rather unfair, but she knew next to nothing about American magic, still.

“That’s true.” Heather laughed. “I hadn’t thought about it that way. Oh, merlin’s beard no. The quodpot, it’s filled with blue ink, powder mixture. So when it explodes, it goes everywhere. No cheating allowed.” She laughed.