#chapter00

ᴅᴇᴠɪʟ ʀᴏʟʟꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅɪᴄᴇ, ᴀɴɢᴇʟꜱ ʀᴏʟʟꜱ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴇʏᴇꜱ

╰┈➤ CHAPTER 00

The music roared through blown-out speakers in a random Muggle house Quinn Keenan couldn’t even begin to remember the owner of. Not that it mattered.

The bass rattled the windows, shook the floorboards, pulsed against her ribs like a second heartbeat. Someone had shoved the furniture against the walls to make space for dancing, or what passed for dancing when half the room was three drinks past reasonable.

Quinn was at least one too many drinks in. Possibly two.

Her thoughts felt soft around the edges, like someone had wrapped her brain in cotton. The room swayed in a way that might have been the music or might have been her. She decided not to investigate which.

Laughter burst somewhere to her left. A bottle clinked against glass.

The air smelled like cheap alcohol and someone’s aggressively sweet perfume. The mix of the two burned the inside of the teen’s nose, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Summer before sixth year was supposed to feel freeing. Reckless. Infinite.

And Quinn, in her infinite wisdom, had decided to fully commit to the reckless part.

A few other people in her year were at the party, people she didn’t personally know but had at least one conversation or class with. They all blended into the background that started spinning around her.

A blonde-haired girl approached her, asking about who knows what. Quinn paused for a moment, deciding now was the time to announce a lie as though it were the truth.

"I, Quinn Keenan, have been dating James Potter this summer, and it feels so good to announce it."

She wasn’t sure why she said it, but a fit of giggles escaped her lips only moments after the declaration. She wasn’t even friends with James Potter. He was just the first person who came to her drunken mind.

Hoots and hollers followed after her announcement, and another drink was passed in her direction.

"Finally got over Evan's thanks to you" the same blonde girl shouted over the music

Quinn paid no mind now completely lost in her own world, thinking of what she would eat later and the comfort of her bed.

Whispers and rumors started spreading throughout the party, several people approaching Quinn asking her for the details on her relationship.

It all began to blur but she was fairly certain she lied to quite a few people before she decided to head home.

She wasn't sure what time she ended up home. All she knew was that the moment her head hit the pillow she was out for the rest of the night, or maybe it was the morning? She couldn't be sure.

♥︎

When she awoke, Quinn was greeted with a pounding migraine and no memory of the night before.

She let out a groan reaching around for her wand. Her fingers finally brushed against the familiar wood on her bedside table. With a muttered charm, the throbbing behind her eyes dulled to a manageable ache, and she allowed herself to open them. Sunlight streamed through the curtains of her bedroom, far brighter than it had any right to be. Trunks were stacked at the foot of her bed. Her school robes hung neatly pressed on the wardrobe door.

Hogwarts.

Right. First day back.

She pushed herself upright, trying to gather her thoughts. There should have been some flutter of excitement, she usually loved the start of term, but her mind felt like a blank page where last night should have been written in ink. She remembered packing. She remembered laughing downstairs. After that… nothing.

“Brilliant,” she muttered.

By the time she’d washed, dressed, and forced her hair into something resembling neatness, the house was already in its usual pre–King’s Cross chaos.

Breakfast was a blur of toast and hurried goodbyes. Every so often she caught someone looking at her oddly too quickly looking away when she met their eyes but she told herself she was imagining it.

Quinn wasn't unpopular by any means but she wasn't exactly the talk of the school either.

The scarlet steam engine of the Hogwarts Express billowed smoke against the crowded platform at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Quinn hauled her trunk aboard, weaving through the corridor in search of a compartment.

That was when it started.

A second-year she didn’t recognize stared openly as she passed. Two Ravenclaw girls froze mid-conversation. A group of Hufflepuffs went abruptly silent, watching her through the compartment glass.

She slowed.

“that’s her, isn’t it?”

“I heard it was after the feast!”

“No, my sister said it happened in the common room. My sister is NEVER wrong”

The whispers skittered down the corridor like nervous mice.

♥︎

Quinn slid into an empty compartment and shut the door, her pulse picking up. She tried to steady her breathing. This was ridiculous. People stared all the time. New hair? Ink on her cheek? She checked the reflection in the window. Nothing unusual stared back.

The door slid open again.

A fourth-year boy peered in, eyes wide. “Is it true?” he blurted.

“Is what true?” Quinn snapped before she could stop herself.

He flushed and disappeared without answering.

The train lurched into motion. Outside, London began to blur into the countryside. Inside, the murmuring only seemed to grow.

“She doesn’t even remember?”

“That’s what I heard.”

Her stomach dropped.

Remember what?

What in Merlin’s name had she done?

She pressed her fingers to her temple, trying to force something, anything, to surface. A flash of light. Laughter that wasn’t entirely her own. The crack of something breaking.

And applause.

Applause?

The compartment door opened once more, slower this time. A familiar face stepped inside, hesitating like Quinn might explode at any second.

“You really don’t know, do you?” they asked quietly.

Quinn’s throat went dry.

“Know what?”

The whistle shrieked overhead, drowning out the reply as the Hogwarts Express took off.

Quinn couldn't focus, she looked back up at the girl in front of her. She looked familiar, the blonde hair triggered a memory for her.

Then next thing you know the blonde girl was sat there comforting Quinn as she finally has realised what she had done.

James Potter. Out of every guy she could have picked, she just had to choose the one guy who was the most popular in all of Hogwarts.

"Well my name's Marlene, Marlene McKinnon, you can always count on me to be your friend" the girl was kinder than she expected.

She had heard rumors of how bitchy Marlene could get, but perhaps that's exactly what they were. Rumors.

The exact thing Quinn had been avoiding and somehow started about herself.

"I cannot begin to fathom why I did this to myself, I officially hate drunk me!" She announced to Marlene who laughed at her.

The two girls talked and got to know one another better, they had seen each other around and somehow for six years they had never once crossed paths.

At least one good thing came of what she had done to herself.

Quinn didn't have many friends, for a hufflepuff she surely didn't act like one.

♥︎

By the time they arrived Quinn hid herself behind Marlene, not wanting to answer any more questions due to embarrassment beyond measure.

"If he approaches you have nothing to worry about, I'll find you after dinner and we can find a place to hide" The blonde patted Quinn on the back leaving the girl to enter the Great Hall alone.