STUPID & CONTAGIOUS

Harry let out a loud guffaw. He was never one to throw his weight around. He simply didn’t have it in him to do it. Shaking his head, he took another swig of his drink, planning on drinking until he blacked out, It was the only escape he had now from his night terrors. Finnegan was the best company a bloke could have when it came to letting him do as he liked when he meant to get well and pissed.

“Yeah?” Harry shouted. “Teach me then, Seamus. How should I go about it?”

Rolling her dice, Hermione added the modifier before nodding. “Sixteen,” She then told him, putting the dice back and waiting to see if they could open the chest without getting blown up, or hexed.

“Depends,” She then added, shaking her head. “I would tell you if I knew anything that involved life or death,” The truth was: They were all in the same boat, and knew about as much about the future as the others. Harry, Ron and her simply had the misfortune of always getting tangled up in things that were way bigger than themselves.

“Alright, you open the chest, and inside there’s a shiny black stone the size of a walnut,” he informed Hermione and the others, flipping his book over to the next page to see if there was any further information, which there wasn’t. 

Seamus definitely didn’t believe Hermione when she claimed not to know anything life-or-death, and was honestly a little aggravated that she seemed to be admitted to keeping secrets that affected others, stopping only short of life-ending secrets, but he figured that that was about as much as he was going to get out of her at the moment, at least without being kicked again. 

Parvati’s always been rather breezy; quick to anger but quicker to laugh. She’s never really dwelled on anything long enough but that was of course before everything that had happened. She likes to think that she knows Seamus well enough that he didn’t mean anything bad about it; besides, Padma calls herself a swot from time to time.

“Someplace far. Different.” Anywhere but here, she almost says. Perhaps if she moved far away enough she’ll trick herself into thinking that she’s living a different person’s life. A different Parvati untouched by everything. Wonderfully carefree and selfish. Because that’s what it was in a way, right? Selfish. Escaping for herself and turning her back on everyone trying to push her into a specific direction. That would make her happy… Right?

“Venice would be nice.” It’s beautiful (or so she’s heard). Distant enough. Somewhere she could forget. “But I’ve always enjoyed larger cities. Maybe Singapore?” Plenty of people. Birmingham is always bustling, after all. She wants to be able to keep herself busy.

“Well it’s rather infamous, isn’t it?” Parvati says with a smile. “What’s it they say? What happens there stays there?” She’s had an older cousin have her hen party there of all places. Very controversial. Parvati was infuriated that she wasn’t old enough to attend. “Definitely seems like a place you could get lost in.”

“Don’t think I’ll care much for gambling.” Or at least she doesn’t think so. “But the clubs are likely amazing. I even heard they have magic shows.” She can’t help but laugh, wondering about the kind of magic Muggles use.

Venice, Seamus was pretty sure was in Spain. Or maybe Italy. He had no idea where Singapore was, but guessed that it was one of the larger cities in South America, maybe? In his defense, he’d been pulled out of grammar school aged eleven, and Hogwarts hardly lowered themselves to teaching such subjects as boring as geography.

He did imagine Parvati traveling the world, maybe as a photographer or something. It seemed like it would suit her, and he wondered if she’d ever taken photos before.

Something about the comment she made about the magic shows -- look. He liked Parvati, he really did. She was a good person, they got along well. Had been friends for years. She probably didn’t even mean anything by it. But it came across as demeaning, or something, and it set his teeth on edge.

The blow to the side of his head might not have done much damage under normal circumstances, colliding haphazardly and in a mess of limbs and scattered movement. But these were far from normal circumstances, and Sirius was far from whole: he was a walking ghost, feeling hardly a step away from an inferi and drifting closer to that reality each day. The hit made him see stars, and swearing quietly, he hit the floor at Seamus’ feet.

Desperate now, his head spinning worse than it usually did, Sirius shouted out the animagus revealing-spell, knowing just how unlikely it was that this boy would go find the rat and try it out. That he’d give a damn. That he’d believe anything Sirius was saying. And how it was far more likely that Sirius was going to end up back in Azkaban–or worse–by the end of the night. “Point your wand at the rat and say it.” He repeated the spell again. “If he was really a rat, it won’t hurt him. But he’s not. It’ll force him to show himself. Just try it. You’ll see. You leave that rat in here, and you’re in danger. All of you.”

There was a moment, brief as it was, where Sirius realized what he was saying, asking a thirteen-year-old to conjure up a wizard perfectly willing to kill innocent people. “Bring the rat to Dumbledore. McGonagall. Anyone,” he said instead. “What do you have to lose?”

“It’s not here!” Seamus announced loudly. He wouldn’t say that he was scared, exactly, because he wasn’t the type of person to be scared easily. But it was probably fair to say that his heart was pounding a little louder than usual, and the more Sirius Black talked about this bizarre rat blood feud plot. He must’ve really gone crazy in Azkaban, right? After all, everyone did eventually.

There was no way any of this could possibly be true.

“Then we might have to try and open it with Mage Hand,” Hermione nodded, revelling just a little in the fact that she seemed to have succeeded people’s expectations when it came to playing this game.

“You seem to confuse me with Harry,” She then added, shaking her heard ever so slightly. “Despite contrary believe he doesn’t tell us EVERYTHING that goes on, but if you’ve only invited me here to get gossip I am afraid I’ll have to disappoint.”

“Alright, roll for it, then,” Seamus offered. He resented her other comment, which he felt wasn’t entirely accurate. First of all, there was no way that Harry wasn’t telling Ron and Hermione at least the vast majority of what was going on between him and Dumbledore -- they always ended up involved in the same end-of-year death-defying stunts. Secondly, --

          // @seafinnigan​ liked for a harry potter starter ( fred & seamus )

“Heya Irish,” Fred interrupts his brother, turning towards Seamus with an arched eyebrow. “George over here tells me you saw what happened between the Slytherins an’ us during Potions? Care to share?” It’s been everywhere, Fred thinks with a frown, landing both Potter and Granger in detention, Malfoy smugly getting off easily, of course. Of course, his brother has up and disappeared, so Fred finds him asking their year mate for more information, hopeful.

Seamus slows his pace walking down the corridor when he hears Fred Weasley call his name -- or near enough his name, anyways. Apparently he’s looking to know what happened in their previous lesson, which was, predictably, some sort of nasty row between Potter, Granger, and Malfoy. In his opinion, hardly breaking news, but he supposed it might be more interesting to someone who hasn’t spend the last four or five years taking classes with them.

Mia grew uncertain if she had taken her explanations too far. It wouldn’t be the first time. She lacked quite a bit experience with more subtle social clues due to avoiding them whenever possible in the past.

Kind of hoping to get out of the situation without making things worse, the Werewolf tried to catch a glimpse of the apothecary and how far they were with her order, but she failed.

“It shouldn’t take all that long until they’re done. Unless one of their potions is about to…make problems, but I think we would have noticed that.”, Mia answered in a joking matter. At first she had thought about mentioning some potion exploding but that would have probably been too much.

“So what’s this big mystery disease, then?” he asked, because at this point he was running out of topics of conversation, and despite what the woman was predicting, he expected the shopkeeper wouldn’t be back for a long minute. 

Also because he was nosy. So sue him.

Looking around at the rest of the party, Hermione nodded. “Does anyone have Dispel Magic prepared?” She surely wasn’t going to open a chest that was, at the very least, trapped in some way. She hadn’t played much, but she knew there were chests that had enchantments on them that could cause instant death.

“You put entirely too much faith into my knowledge of things that aren’t academic,” She then added. “But something needs to be done. She doesn’t fit in here, in the worst way.”

The rest of the group all shook their heads very unhelpfully at Hermione’s request. If Seamus had to guess, he would say they were a bit disappointed -- they probably assumed Hermione would have no real idea how to play the game, and therefore, be easily fleeced.

The nerves weren’t ever going to go away. Neville was sure of that. Even now, giving out orders like he knew what he was doing, putting this group together, he could still feel his hands shaking and had to stuff them deep in the pockets of his robes just to hide it. It was a miracle his voice hadn’t broken. This boldness had been growing in him for some time, ever since the DA had taken off the first time and he’d begun to do magic he’d never thought himself capable of before, when he’d realized that outside of the classroom, he wasn’t terrible at everything. But now all eyes were on him, and that should have been terrifying. 

But Luna was smiling, Ginny was nodding fiercely, and Seamus had nodded his approval, even if he didn’t look all that happy about it. With support, Neville could do this. With support, any of them could do anything. He was sure of it. 

“We need to know Snape’s plans,” he said. If only his third-year self could see him now; the man he feared most of all in the world, and here he was, about to suggest a suicide plan to take him down. “We need to make life difficult for him. Remind him he isn’t welcome here. We have to…we have to break into the headmaster’s office. Take whatever we find that could be useful. Destroy what isn’t. And if nothing else, make it clear that he doesn’t belong in there. That that office still belongs to Dumbledore.” There were a few cheers among the other students, a shout of ‘Dumbledore’s Army!’ that steeled Neville’s resolve.  “And then the Carrows come next!” 

He folded his hands together, took a deep breath, and added, “Who else has ideas? We’re all in this together.”

Seamus tapped anxiously on his leg. Even though he’d agreed to Neville’s way of thinking, it certainly wasn’t the way he would’ve handled it had the situation been left up to him, and the gulf between those strategies left him feeling unsettled. For instance, this idea of breaking into Snape’s office seemed reasonable, but Seamus foresaw at least one major issue.

“Do any of you know exactly where Snape’s office is, then?” He wasn’t trying to be confrontational about it, and hoped none of his worry had crept out into his voice. But the location of the headmaster’s office was, as far as Seamus understood it, intentionally kept secret from the students, which, he supposed, was a fair enough defense in keeping the students from breaking into it.

He had another concern as well, and while he was trying to go along with the group’s plan, and didn’t want to come across like he was trying to be difficult or make trouble, it did seem like the sort of thing that was important to bring up, and the best place to do so.

“Plus, in his office, Snape will have home field advantage. He’ll have put all sorts of spells on it, for protection, and know it like the back of his hand.” No disrespect to the members of Dumbledore’s Army, but no matter what they called themselves, they weren’t a true military force, and he wasn’t sure they training to take on a fully-prepared Snape, who’d had all the time in the world to lay traps, especially if they were going in blind.

It wasn’t exactly a word Hermione would ever actually use, but the sentiment she was one she could agree with. She didn’t really mind any teachers being strict, they were here to learn after all, but there was just something about Umbridge that was unsettling, and she would have thought so even if she hadn’t known what she did to Harry.

Pushing that thought aside, Hermione rolled her dice, adding her perception. “15,” she then nodded, glancing over at Seamus.

Seamus looked down at his Very Important paperwork, and then said to Hermione, “You can tell that there’s an enchantment on the chest, but you don’t have enough perception to tell exactly what it does.”

“No, you’re right.” Parvati rolls her eyes. As much as she loves her sister, Padma’s housemates can be rather annoying in their own right. She gets bored to tears on the days she decides to sit at the Ravenclaw table during mealtimes. “Though you can’t say that they aren’t passionate about their endeavors.” She’s always envied her sister on that right. Padma always seemed so certain of herself and what she wanted.

“And that’s the million galleon question isn’t it?” It’s all her parents seem to ever talk about nowadays. She can’t stand their questions even if they’re only appearing through letters––she knows she can only avoid it for so long especially as the year continues. “I just know I don’t want to stay here. I don’t want to be in Britain anymore.” It’s suffocating being here at times and she wants nothing more than to leave it all behind.

“I think I need to be reminded that there’s still good things in this world,” Parvati murmurs softly. “That there are reasons to keep going and wake up to another day.” She shakes her head, the conversation topic seems to have sunken far lower than she initially intended. “Who knows? Maybe it’s time I see how the other side lives so to speak. I have cousins scattered across the world. I’m sure I’ll fill my time somehow until I figure out what I’m supposed to be doing with my life.”

“That’s a word for it,” Seamus agreed, happy Parvati wasn’t upset by what he’d said about her sister. She did tent to be fairly easy to get along with, which Seamus really appreciated. It seemed like he was having a harder and harder time getting along with people these days, although he contended that that was mostly their fault, not his.

He nodded as he listened to her talk about the pressure her parents were putting her under to make up her mind and commit to a plan, so to speak, as well as her desire to leave it all behind and go explore some far off corners of the world. He could definitely relate to how she was feeling. It seemed like all he did these days was be pushed around by different people who all had their own ideas of what he should be doing, what he should be like, how he should feel about things.

Back at Hogwarts, Mia had never known what she’d love to do after her graduation. Anything involving Potions Work, tending to plants or flying on a broom had been completely ruled out due to the fact of her inability in those subjects. That had also meant she wouldn’t be able to become an Auror - which had been a disappointment despite everything.

A tiny smile appeared on the woman’s face when the other said it was nice of her to distribute the potion. “I had a relative who was chronically sick and looking back I think it would have been nice if something like this already existed back then.”, she said softly. It would have saved her father probably lots of pain and stress.

“Technically, it could be catching but only during episodes. The potion is meant to prevent episodes from occurring. On top of that, I take every single safety precaution that exists whenever I drop the potions off. So you’re perfectly safe from catching anything.”

Seamus nodded at her explanation, but to be honest, the more she went on about it, the warier he got. He’d meant it as a joke, originally, but now that he’s thinking about it, a lot of magical diseases out there were nasty, and they didn’t always follow muggle ways of contagion, either.

He took another look around the room. Speaking of nasty things, there were plenty of horrible looking ingredients here, vials and bottles and jars of all manner of mysterious concoctions. But still no employee.

“I have no idea what that woman is planning, but knowing that she seems to be set on sucking the fun out of anything I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d cancel Hogsmeade visits.” Hermione sighed, She knew what Umbridge had done to Harry during detention, and even though she would never mention it to the others, it was unsettling to say the least.

“What about that chest in the corner? Can I see if it’s trapped?”

Seamus was less than thrilled to hear Hermione’s answer, not least of which because it meant that Ernie had been at least a little correct with his insider’s information, and Seamus hated to se him be right about anything. Also, the news that they were in danger of losing their Hogsmeade weekends was disheartening, as well. 

Raising an eyebrow at him, Hermione picked up her dice and sorted them so they would be in place for her next roll. “You…do know that they change the answers every year, right? At least they phrase the questions differently, so unless you plan on going over those questions as nothing but a help for your studies…” She trailed off, shaking her head.

“Well, I wouldn’t rely on 6th years who just want to make some extra money because Honeydukes is getting new flavors next week,”

Shit. He hadn’t thought of that. He hoped she wasn’t right. Surely the teachers wouldn’t bother to rewrite their entire exams every year? Well. McGongall probably would. He regretted the money he’d spent on the answer keys, which was potentially wasted. But he’d already committed to the plan now, so he might as well stick with it.