#bunder

“half the school was more than happy ‘bout that,” the boy says with a barely suppressed laugh. andy starts smiling, nodding his head.

“the team used that time for practice,” he adds quickly and brian’s frown smooths out as bunder starts laughing outright. “good job.” andy punches brian, who flinches and smiles awkwardly.

“maybe.”

“fucking brilliant pranking from a teacher’s pet!”

claire lowers her head with a smile and focuses her gaze onto the slowly growing vines that twist around where allison sits. the hufflepuff continues to swirl her wand, eyes glazed over ever so slightly. muted flowers grow out of the vines and claire runs her hand through her disheveled hair as she remembers ally’s earlier spells. a flower - not unlike what allison is growing between her feet - falls into her lap and she swallows. she gently moves the pink blossom to her knee, delicate fingers working to smooth out the smushed petals. she feels a soft smile growing on her face and rests her fingertips on the flower with a soft sigh.

allison hums and claire snaps her head back up. the other girl has her head tilted towards the ceiling, wand now twirling between both hands. claire watches as allison tugs at her own bottom lip with her teeth.

to her left bunder coughs and she hastily drops her gaze, cheeks already burning. bunder laughs. “try and be less subtle, would you, princess?”

“shut up,” claire snaps, the words lacking the heat she had intended.

bunder leans back on his hands and glances over at andy, who looks back at claire with a knowing grin that she wants to wipe off of his face right this moment.

“we should try and get back upstairs,” brian’s voice, still thick with earlier tears, cuts in just as andy opens his mouth with a mischievous grin. claire could hug the ravenclaw for the distraction. she knew he’d make a good ward when she cast the spell.

“we just saved the school, nerd.” bunder reaches out and shoves brian out of his cross-legged position. the younger boy sprawls out on the chessboard with a yelp and bunder smirks. “i think we deserve some time to chill out.”

“all this gore is absolutely perfect for that,” allison replies and claire looks back at her. allison’s wand has made its way into her haphazard bun, her right hand resting on her chin. her index and middle finger were shoved between her lips. claire could almost hear her chewing on her nails and cringed.

“well i think we should leave,” she says, looking away from allison and to the boys. “we’ve been down here for quite some time.”

“that we have,” andy sighs. the beater jumps to his feet and holds out his hand to brian, who stares up at him. “come on, pidgeonclaw, i don’t bite.”

“unless asked, i presume,” allison mutters, slightly muffled by her hand. andy glares at her over his shoulder and hauls a hesitant brian up to his feet. bunder snorts.

a ‘pop’ resonates through the cavern and claire flinches back as the cavern air gets disturbed by an apparition spell. beetle stares up at them from the middle of their pseudo circle. the house elf seems to be vibrating in her spot as she looks around. “oh! beetle thanks you! thank you, thank you, the school is saved!”

the timid voice seems almost shrill to claire as she carefully picks up the blossom from her knee and puts it behind her ear. allison pushes herself to her feet and offers her hand to claire. cheeks already warming again, claire accepts and lets herself be pulled up. allison smiles and moves to follow beetle, who is rambling about distracting professor furbon. claire straightens her uniform, eyes scanning the hole they had come through. andy is already scaling the pillar that leads back to the kitchen, bunder following closely behind.

“that won’t do,” claire mutters to herself and flicks her wand. her feet lift gracefully from the floor as she grabs her summoned broom out of the air and speeds up out of the cavern.

she follows the others through the halls, keeping vigilant. they just manage to rush past that truly awful cat, their way back up almost too smooth.

when claire looks down at her classmates jumping onto the already shifting staircase, she inhales sharply. time seems to slow as she watches brian miss the staircase and stumble into the open air. she grits her teeth and snaps her fingers, feeling the air whistle past her ears. she finds herself at the bottom of the staircases, hovering where brian had been falling just a second ago. a grunt and a thud make her sigh in relief and she speeds to catch up to the group.