* 𝖙𝖊𝖑𝖑 𝖒𝖊, 𝖆𝖙𝖑𝖆𝖘.

“Shh, if more and more people think I care, they’ll start being too friendly with me. We can’t have that. I save all my friendly for a few select people,” Dorcas relaxed some then, knowing that for as long as their conversation lasted, she wouldn’t have to be as on high alert as she usually would be. Edgar had her back, he was an unmistakably kind & good person, something Dorcas deeply admired him for. “I might just need your expertise as I’m close to getting a headache from the music, the smells, the fear of eating a pot brownie,” she joked, though she knew that she would be absolutely fucked if she had one. “ACTUALLY, question, what would be your advice for me if I accidentally swallowed one of those special brownies, Ed? Just in case. I’ll need to act quickly.”

“ you deserve people being friendly with you, dorcas, “ edgar’s words were absolutely serious, even if he didn’t bother with all the work it would take to remove the smile from his face. no, all the meaning in them would have to be conveyed in tone alone: “ even if you save your friendly for not-with-them! you’re great, and it’s totally possible. I’m friendly with people who can’t risk their allotted friendliness on me over someone else. “ he paused for a moment, and shrugged as he mulled over dorcas’ question --- done, now, with his dissertation on friendliness. “ you should have some water, “ edgar said in the interim. “ even if you’re not drinking it to avoid a hangover, it can’t hurt a headache? and, I don’t think you should stress about the special brownies. because, if you do eat one, you could just --- oh, sorry, this is gross --- get a friend to punch you in the stomach or something, get it right back out. right? that should work. “ he grins at dorcas, shrugging his shoulders up again. “ but I’ll watch and make sure you don’t eat one in the first place, yeah? “

It was a few hours into the party and the part-Veela had already had several drinks and was busy on the dance floor. Jasmine was happy to be back at Hogwarts, pleased to not be working at her family’s pub, something she’d done for the majority of the summer.  She smirked as they saw the person, “Come join me for a dance, gorgeous! Let’s get this party started.”

“ hey, jas, “ edgar called from the sidelines of the dancing. he wasn’t ever really opposed to spending a party that way, but the night felt too young, and despite the cup in his hand being a nearly-finished third drink, he wasn’t feeling affected enough to be of any use on the dance floor. but he was happy to carry on a shouting conversation with jasmine. “ c’mon, you’re telling me I’m the best dance partner you could have? no way. “

          “ I PROMISE I’M NOT CHEATING,                       i just happen to be exceptionally good at this game. ” with a small smirk adorning his features, remus bounced the small ball off the table and back into his hand, off the table and back into his hand, the continued motion so swift he didn’t even have to look at what he was doing. his eyes were instead trained on the cowering individual at the other end of the table, an eyebrow raised in question as he waited for their response. with only one beer down the hatch, he was feeling rather confident in his wager, he just hoped the other student would be stupid enough to try their hand. “ c’mooon, just one game. who knows, maybe i was just lucky the first three times. ”

               EDGAR HELD HIS HANDS OUT,                            the near-universal gesture of surrender turned joking with a smirk fit to match the one he found at the other side of the table. edgar wasn’t accusing remus of cheating --- but remus’ actual opponent had made some grumblings, fueled in part by the stack of empty cups resting at their feet. it was a fun enough game to stumble upon, as a bystander; though of course, watching the same person sweep the last few rounds was starting to get a little dry. edgar glanced at remus’ drunken challenger, before glancing back at the other gryffindor with a raised brow. “ hey, I believe you weren’t cheating, “ he began, gently guiding the poor loser towards one of their friends on the sidelines. “ but maybe a better challenge for your lucky streak would be a go against someone new, yeah? “

                 EDGAR BONES  ➝ moodboard 001

Going to these parties sober was awful but in Dorcas’ opinion, necessary. While she wasn’t there to take care of anyone, she was there to make sure none of these people were going to kill themselves. Maybe it made her boring to some, but her role at the party was a necessary evil. “Have you been drinking enough water?” Dorcas asked the person nearest to her, scanning them, “you’ll regret it if you don’t. I have a feeling there’ll be a lot of regrets come morning, your DEHYDRATION doesn’t have to one of them.”

“ aw, dorcas, “ edgar said, tone lilting and teasing and accompanied by a light jostle towards dorcas’ shoulder. he got it  ---  got her, at least. he may not have been abstaining himself, but it was hard to turn his caring off. he knew he’d waxed poetic about the importance of water to a few of the fifth years he’d seen around; surely he couldn’t begrudge dorcas checking up on the people who might think themselves too seasoned to care. “ I always knew you cared. no need to worry, though, I’ve got my age old hydration sched in place. no morning-after migraines for me! “  

    even after several years of attending hogwarts, the castle never ceased to amaze narcissa. the desire of exploration was never quite quenched and she found herself year after year narrowly escaping detentions due to her love to explore at night. and whilst she had promised her sisters that this year would be different, she couldn’t resist a walk after hours. her fun was short-lived, however, finding herself nearly running into someone in the dark. with a voice as sweet as honey she cooed, “don’t tell me you’re turning me in? surely there’s something i can do to avoid that.”

      " well, protocol tells me I’ve gotta ask what you’re doing out in the first place before anything proceeds,” edgar said. his tone was slow, not quite ending in a questioning uptick --- but it was something close, and definitely something contrasting to the sugar he heard in narcissa’s voice. the truth was that he was tired, and it was early enough in both his rounds and the year in general that he didn’t feel like taking anyone in to their head of house. but he was also hoping her reasons ( or her lies, even, god was he tired ) were benign enough for him to get away with letting her get away with a warning. “ so, the avoidance depends on you, yeah? “

“What is your opinion on this year’s most Charming Smile awardee?” She was in her natural state, intently flipping through Witch Weekly while chewing on a piece of gum. Holding up her magazine for the other to see, she continues talking as if this is a matter of great importance, “I mean he’s obviously adorable. But really, do we need any more blondes on this list? This is probably the fourth year that they’ve given the award to a blonde wizard.” 

edgar leaned over so he could take a better look at the page ophelia was holding up, tilting his head as if that cleared anything up about --- yes, another generically attractive blonde wizard, smiling in all his best angles. “ hm. well, I’m not going to say he doesn’t deserve the recognition, I guess. “  he turned a small grin of his own at her, settling back now that he’d seen what he needed to. “ but yeah, it does make you wonder what criteria they even look at for this thing. “

He smiled slightly, “Nothing? I find that hard to believe. Everyone did something someone didn’t do.  What did you do?” Lorenz found it slightly hard to believe that was the case, so he pressed onward.

Lorenz went quiet and nodded, “I suppose so.” He raised an eyebrow, “That must be nice then, having siblings who don’t try to get you removed at every turn,” and then he smiled, “So what exactly did you do for the summer? Surely something interesting?”

edgar wrinkled his brow at lorenz’s use of ‘ removed ‘ --- but he knew enough about the sort of family he came from to think better of asking about it. better to shrug an move on, sliver of a smile in place. “ well, I think it’s pretty nice. but then I’ve heard it’s weird how much I like my family, so who knows! but nothing much interesting happened for me. “

“You know what’s dangerous? Already getting BEHIND on work in my first week. That’d be dangerous,” said Alice, a grin curling her lips as well. She was only half-serious; she knew that there’d be plenty of time to catch up, should she slack now. She just didn’t want to. “Oh, it definitely does. I do get a bit jittery, you know, but I definitely have a lot more energy to spend, and I need any energy I can get.”

“ look, I’ll believe in you even if you let up on the coffee --- hell, even if you fall back down to one measly double espresso. you’d still have my backing. “ edgar gave a vague gesture towards her drink, letting the smile on his face turn to a grin to match hers, if a touch teasing. “ though, to be fair, I might end up behind on the first week myself. so maybe I should bite the bullet and admit the genius of your death-drink. “

“You’re asking very hard questions, you know,” Wendy said, letting out a deep, deep sigh. “But I think it’d be fun to leave it out — surprise puns are the BEST puns, you know?” She thought about the squid’s name for a second, pushing her lips together pensively. “I don’t think it did, and I bet that she doesn’t love the name she has now. I mean, mine isn’t much different, but at least it’s humorous!”

“ hard questions about the semantics behind puns and the squid are my specialty, you know, “ edgar said, small grin in place at wendy’s sigh. he leaned back on his elbows, following the gaze she’d directed up at the start of the conversation. “ but that’s fair. I’m all for surprise puns. let the first years stew a little bit, wondering if it was a pun or not. but then tell them, of course. it would be the squid’s name and they should know that eventually. aw, but your name’s not bad! “

He hummed, explaining all to the person, who could stand to listen to him, what happened over summer. “Of course, my sisters were at each others throat again, not like they never are. Their wrecks, all four of them.” He stated with a slight scoff,  “I envy people who aren’t related to us!” Then he stopped and looked at the other individual, “Enough about me. What did you do, if you don’t mind me prying?”

“ no, I don’t mind prying --- but to be honest, I also didn’t mind hearing about your summer, “ edgar said, crossing his arms and half incredulous at the concept of siblings fighting as much as lorenz had implied. “ mine would be a pretty big departure from your usual, it sounds like, since I don’t think I’d call the sibling relationships in my family wrecks quite as easily. “ his following grin was an easy one. “ but sometimes we want a departure, right? “

“i wouldn’t go round there if i were you!” remus called as he saw a figure turn around the corner towards the courtyard, the sound of their footsteps echoing off the stone floor of the corridor alerting him to their presence. “peeves had it out with some fourth years, there was yoghurt and ball bearings and-” remus shuddered at the thought of where either party would get such items. “yeah. i’d steer clear.”

“ yoghurt and ball bearings? “ edgar cocked his head and moved towards remus --- curious, now, about what exactly the fourth years had been doing that inspired such a reaction from peeves. he grinned, though, shoved his hands into his pockets with an easy shake of his head. “ if people stopped leaving those sorts of things around where he could find them, I think we’d have fewer of these messes to avoid. “

Alice was sat in the courtyard, a book balancing on her leg, a steaming mug in her hand — she was already short on sleep. “I call it an espresso squared — two double espresso’s thrown together in a big mug,” she said, before taking a sip of her mug and looking up. “It’s just an atomic bomb of energy, works fuckin’ miracles.”

“ that sounds mildly dangerous, “ edgar said with a slight grin at alice’s cup. his own book was barely balanced on his knees in much the same way, and he was using alice’s conversation as a valid reason to ignore it, and the work it carries. “ anything with the word ‘ bomb ‘ in it strikes me that way --- but that’s just me. what matters is that it works, so: does it? “

It was day THREE of being back, and Wendy was fully enjoying the last days of summer that Scotland would give her. As she aimed her gaze at the sky, her mind felt a  lighter due to the few puffs of a joint she’d inhaled earlier. She grinned a little, sitting a little straighter only to say, “You know what? The Great Squid should be called the INK-redible Squid in stead.”  

“ would you have to write the squid’s name with the pun intact, or leave it as a fun little surprise for whenever you’re talking about it? “ edgar gave wendy a curious, sideways smile. as far as small talk went, this was far more palatable than the usual back-to-school fare. “ I, for one, have always wondered if the Squid named itself to begin with. it might like the change. “