In loving memory of when i gave a shit

“awww look at you, trying to act mature and stuff. isn’t it funny? are you still defending people and acting like a damn fool preaching your ideals around? when will you get over that phase?”

“a loser, who tries to be perfect”

“S’not a phase if it’s something you believe in. Perhaps you could learn a thing or two if you paid attention to anyone but yourself.”

“well, well, well. who do we have here?” the females tsked, cocking a brow as she stopped abruptly in front of the other. her lips turned into a mocking smile “if it isn’t celia bones. what did i use to call you? the sympathizer? the people’s defender? gosh, when will you drop that facade?” @celiabones

“I don’t remember what you called me when we were thirteen because we were thirteen and who actually gives a fuck Cressida? You still? Grow up.”

max was surprised when celia opened up and told him what had happened to her. part of him was relieved that she knew she still could, even if they weren’t exactly on the best terms at he moment. but when she told him she’d been cursed and that’s why she’d been put in the hospital wing, it was as if an intense fire of rage had suddenly lit up inside of him.

she had been cursed. she had been intentionally harmed, and max wasn’t okay with that. he was furious. but despite his anger, he knew questioning her about the situation wouldn’t be a good idea, especially when she just stated she wanted to go back to the hospital wing and lie down. but he vowed to himself that when he found out who the attacker was, he would do far worse to them than they had done to celia. 

he stood up after she did, still holding her hand. he didn’t want to let go. in fact, he wanted to pull her into a hug and just hold her. he decided against it though, not wanting to push his luck. they were holding hands and that was enough for him. “i’ll walk with you to the hospital wing. and don’t try to protest against me like you always do because i’m still going to do it anyway.”

She sighed, “I think I’m done protesting against you for the time being. ‘M too tired for you stubbornness”, and his awfulness, rottenness, et cetera. Maybe she would wake in the hospital wing the next morning and feel like arguing, but she doubted it. Celia’s capacity for a shouting match was rapidly dwindling. She had been cursed over not being able to cut keep mouth shut. Her fight with Max had been over her not being able to keep her mouth shut. She had decided during her time in the hospital wing that maybe she should just, stop shouting altogether. Perhaps she should spend more time listening. 

@celiabones

“Sooo, I have one afternoon to write a five-page report about the uses of dragon blood in potions. Is my favorite intelligent human up for helping a desperate, poor, lowly student like myself out?”

“One afternoon? I like those odds, mate. I’ll help, only because the words favorite and intelligent were used to accurate describe yours truly.”

max followed her out into the corridor until she came to a stop. her movements, her breathing—he knew that all too well, much more than he would ever like to admit. hearing her quieted whispers—he didn’t know exactly what she was saying—he moved closer until she finally looked over and saw him. her words of reassurance did not reassure him one bit. once he was close enough, he bent down into a squatting position in front of her.

lightly placing a hand over hers, he looked up into her eyes. “celia, you’re not okay. i know you.” considering he laid a hand on her, he was almost positive she was going to go on a rant to him right then and there for touching her, but he didn’t care. he wanted to be there for her. and if she were going to go off on him, so be it.

He was right. She wasn’t okay. 

She was confused about why Imogen had decided to curse her. Celia had provoked her, sure. She had literally told her to do it. Celia never expected that she actually would. She was angry with herself for drinking so much when she knew better. Why was she so stubborn? Why didn’t she just stay put in the hospital wing? And she was confused about why Max chose to follow her when he had already made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with her. 

She looked up when he put his hand on hers. He didn’t ask. But she was tired of holding it, “I got into a fight and lost. Like really fucking lost. Like, thrown across the room with a curse that I’ve never seen and lost. And I’m just- I didn’t know that it fucked me up as bad as it apparently has.”

the words she threw his way stung him. she was throwing his last words in his face. he deserved it and max knew it, but it still hurt him all the same. he swallowed hard and clenched his jaw. his defensive instincts were telling him to fight back, but his conscious reminded him not to. he was a jerk and she didn’t deserve any of the hurtful words he would spew out to defend his ego. all he had to do was apologize, yet the words were stuck in his throat. even if he did apologize, would she throw it back in his face? he didn’t really want to find out, but he had to put his pride aside. just this once.

he started to open his mouth again, but before he could even get a words or even a sound out, she pushed herself past him. he turned and watched as she went out of the double doors. his heart ached once more. this was for the best. they had to stop this constant back and forth game of bickering and making up. he turned back toward the party, but he couldn’t take a step forward. let her go, his conscious told him. he looked back toward the doors. he was having an internal battle with himself. he shook his head. god damn it, maxwell. he pushed passed people as he made his way to the doors and threw himself out into the hallway to chase after her.

The weather was mild, but Celia felt clammy, the light humidity felt unbearably think as she breathed it hard into her lungs. The world around her was spinning and all she could think of was the curse hitting her body. She placed her hands on her knees, unaware that she had been followed, and breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, as she had instructed others when this happened to them. Was she having a panic attack? She was having a panic attack. Celia had never had one.

Her thoughts turned from the curse to the dreams she had while knocked out. She fixated on the idea of her uncle and how he would handle this. It was okay to not be okay after being attacked with dark magic. It was okay. “It’s okay, it’s okay”, she began heaving in what was supposed to be a whisper but was surely audible. 

Finally, she noticed someone in her periphery. She looked over. Well fuck. “I’m alright”, she choked out, “I’m alright. I’m fine. You can go back to the party, I’m fine.” Her reassurances were not particularly convincing. “Really, just needed some air. Lots of people in there, easy to get a little claustrophobic.” 

“You see I’m a rather rational person, I like to make good decisions. This whole thing sounds like a recipe for bad decision making.” He mused. “I really don’t understand actually I’m an introvert…or an extroverted introvert. Meaning I can fly and perform in front of people, I just don’t like being in a jammed room full of them.” He continued with a laugh. “I’m really disappointed in you for making that joke.”  

“Okay, okay, extrovert-introvert.” She rolled her eyes, “I propose a compromise. First, we hit up the party. You know, fashionably late, an appearance of sorts. And then we leave for cake.”

max watched her face as she spoke, trying to decipher the emotions she was feelings. and were they due to the party or him? as much as he hated to admit it, he felt stupid for hoping some small part of her hadn’t given up on him. though, he knew the chances were quite slim considering the last thing he told her was that he’d be happy when she met her end.

when she said she didn’t feel well, he finally took full notice that she had been drinking, which is what she had spilled all over herself when they bumped into each other. fresh out of the hospital wing and she immediately put alcohol in her system. leave it to celia to do the exact opposite of what was advised.

he sighed in annoyance. he opened his mouth to lecture her, but before the words could escape, he decided against it. he had to remind himself she didn’t need that stress or negativity fresh out of the hospital wing. he let our another frustrated exhale before trying to relax his features. “do you need to go back to the hospital wing?”

She looked at him and wondered how much he knew. Imogen would have been a fool to tell anyone what had transpired between them, but Celia was sure that he knew she had at least been in the hospital wing. The Slytherins, particularly the ones in their first and last years, would not be able to hold water if they were buckets. News, rumors, myths, misconceptions traveled fast in the dungeons (everything echoed against those cold walls). Which is why when he asked about the hospital wing, she was not entirely shocked. 

He has sighed, twice, and then she once again remembered their last conversation, or their last argument. In which he literally said that when her day came it would be a good day. And the day had come. A part of her wanted to throw that in his face. ‘Fuck off Flint, I’ve lived to see another day’. But she didn’t want to. She was exhausted from this, but also from the mixture of everything she had ingested in the last two hours. She nodded, not meeting his eyes. He had sighed, twice, she was a burden. Celia wasn’t even his burden anymore. She was just some girl that he now enjoyed being mean to.

The male can’t help but shake his head, placing a gentle hand on her, “Merlin, I don’t WANT to see the other girl, Ce.” He says softly as his brows knit into a furrow. Louis himself was quite a pacifist which didn’t stop him from getting into fights. He found other ways to snake himself into trouble and pissed people off to where they tended to want to punch him. The male licks his lips as he takes in her features, “I don’t believe you. You’re not fine. I mean I’m glad you’re physically fine but something’s wrong. You wanna tell me about it?”

“I’m like a boy-man?” Louis suggests with a slight shrug, sighing as he tightened his grip on her to keep her up. He gives her a gentle kiss atop of her head, “Friends forever.” His hand drops to take a quick drink from his bottle, “Just the usual me being a naive prick. I kissed this guy and believed him when he told me had broken up with his boyfriend. Then said ex-boyfriend comes barging in.”

“Later, Lou. We’ll talk about it later, yeah?” her statement was more of a plead than a brush off. She was drunk, and tired, and discussing the Max thing never fared well with her friends. They all told her the same thing: move the fuck on. So she had stopped talking about it, or mentioning him, or anything about her personal life to them at some point during the summer. She was tired of being told how unhealthy it was. She knew! Celia knew that it was unhealthy and she did not need to be reminded once again by another person who mattered to her.

“Friends forever, boy-man”, she laughed. The development of drama in his life perked her up slightly from her state of drunken tiredness, “So, lemme get this straight, some jerk had the audacity to tell you that he had broken up with his boyfriend at a party where everyone over the age of fifteen happens to be when he hadn’t actually broken up with his boyfriend? Or was it a recent breakup and the emotions were still fresh. Oh, no, Lou-” She dramatically gasped, “were you the rebound? Scandalous.” 

Akira looked up from the book in her lap to peer at her best friend. She had expected relative silence and peace while everyone was away at the post-Quidditch party, but she supposed she knew better than to think Celia would not notice her not being there. 

“I’m just reading some books I’ve been meaning to get to. You know parties aren’t really my thing.”

“You were just reading some book you’ve been meaning to get to.”

His brows furrow at that statement as he eyed her with concern. It was no secret that the young Weasley had a habit of having his head in the clouds, missing out on important information. “The hospital wing? What happened?” Louis inquired, taking a step forward as he examines her to make sure that she was okay, “Are you okay?” He asked seriously, expression softening as he manages to let out a chuckle, “Well I’ll take what I can get. Though to be fair…I think everyone will agree that I’m not a man just yet. So how about us boys? You still hate us?” Louis sighs as he drapes an arm over her shoulder, “Thanks for saving me back there.”

She shrugged, “I got into a fight. You should see the other girl, honestly.” Celia hadn’t seen Imogen since, nor was she particularly looking forward to it. Celia also hadn’t articulated to anyone that it was Imogen who had done it, nor did she plan to. She was sure though that she had hit hard enough for a black eye on the other girl. At least Celia wasn’t sporting any physical injuries, just the effects being cursed had on one’s mentality. “I’m fine.”

“Celia fucking Bones.”

Leia tip toed slightly to press a quick kiss to Celia’s cheek. “I do try to defy all and any odds. Especially when Quidditch is on the line.”

“Miraculous,” Celia responded. “Well, Eddie Slughorn has given me a particularly well-articulated version of the events of the match. And how well you did, of course. But how’d it go?”

To be fair it wasn’t that Louis Weasley was ALWAYS asking for trouble. He was just unlucky enough for trouble to seemingly be able to ALWAYS find him. Perhaps if he was a little less curious and a little less adventurous. Louis wasn’t quite sure what he had exactly done wrong this time, his head dizzy with intoxication. Though he knew it involved fireworks and a Slytherin’s trousers. He was grateful when he spotted the familiar face, panic etching onto his features, not in the mood to get another beating. He tensed when she kissed him, completely taken aback as he crinkles his nose. When she pulls away he turns his head to look, discreetly, “Thanks, Bones.” Louis breathed out with a sigh before looking at her, “Nothing. I’m COMPLETELY innocent.” Though he smirks, giving her a nod, “Our first kiss. How adorable.”

“You? Completely innocent? That’s like saying that I wasn’t just in the hospital wing an hour ago because I had no part in taking an argument too far.” She shook her head. Normally she wouldn’t say something like that, but everything, the drinking, the medication, the incident, her messy personal life, was getting to her head. It all clouded her mind. “Our first kiss, which also happens to be our last kiss. I’ve got a reputation of being a man hater to uphold and cannot be seen canoodling with one at this point in time.”

“She’s the one that kept Gryffindor close right up near the end there, I think.” Edgar nodded, taking a drink, “Yeah, every member of the other teams’ nightmare. Though there are never too many bludgers getting whacked over to visit me, which is nice.” 

“Of course. Nothing exciting is allowed to happen while the central heroine is trapped in a bed in the perpetual boring that is the hospital wing. That’s probably why no one died or was seriously injured in the match. If you were there we would’ve had three mid-air spontaneous broom combustions, a herd of thestrals eating the stands, and a mid-match fireworks show. But instead we got a pretty straight forward game of Quidditch.” 

“You’re right. That’s why I had to quit playing in the first place. Too eventful. Too much drama. Hooch and I had a meeting and I agreed that I would retire early if she could swing me finishing the year with and outstanding in charms. And hey, let’s just say we both held up our end.”