“Not that I think you should be working in your condition, but just in case you wanted to--- But mostly, I brought them because I wasn’t sure if your parents would let me in without something like this as a golden ticket.”

“For yesterday?” Wendy shook her head, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “I don’t know, Sturgis. I think you ought to have shown up for lecture if you wanted the notes.”

Somewhere in the shuffle -- between the Dueling Club showcase, the essays, the April schedule for Prefect rounds that had barely been posted in time -- Fabian had lost track of the date. More than that, he had lost track of how few days he had left until graduation. Better than an alarm clock was the pile of mail that had accumulated for him at the kitchen table. Parents asking about graduation dates, advertisements for flats near Diagon Alley, reminders about course work deadlines---and, in the very middle of the pile, an acceptances to the Auror Academy.

Fabian had tossed the envelope aside before he had realized what it was. Atop the thick envelope’s fold was not simply a plain Ministry seal, but one specific to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. If his mother and sister could see him now, tearing the thing to shreds while a letter opener the former had bought him laid only inches away on the counter---

The first three lines  of the letter passed through Fabian’s eyes no less than five times before the rest of him caught up. Accepted. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, given Fabian’s marks, and the things he’d accomplished over the years---but the acceptance itself wasn’t what was so shocking. The rest of the packet fell to the kitchen counter as Fabian, with the first sheet of parchment in hand, stormed up the stairs and into his brother’s bedroom.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?”

“Do you usually smoke out in the open like this?”

“Ahem.” Marlene stuck her foot out in the middle of the Great Hall entrance before Doc could pass by, only sharply enough to get his attention without tripping him in front of the rest of the school. Before he could get a word in -- or, worse, scramble away -- she held up a pouch and shook it. “I hope you’re ready to go berry picking.”

“Looks groovy as all, Dawn!” shouted Marlene from the lower stands at the Quidditch pitch. She ignored the rest of the players as they walked towards the showers (save Danny, at whom she winked) and waved excitedly at Dawn.

“It’s cleaner than I expected it to be.” Marlene avoided Sturgis’ eyes as she turned in a slow circle, evaluating his section of dormitory for the first time in her years at Hogwarts. “That sounds stupid, ‘cause of course you’re clean, but I don’t think I knew how clean, clean could really be until right now.”