((Where: Positivus Festival, Salacgrīva, Latvia; When: July 21, 2013; canon))
Packed snugly into the front row in front of the main stage, Piper screamed when The xx took the stage. Thunder cracked the warm dusk air overhead, but everyone was too dialed into the performance to notice, or to care.
By the time the band was playing their encore, Piperâs voice was hoarse and nearly gone from overuse, and it was pouring rain.
When it was over, Piper ran through sheets of moisture back toward her tent, nestled within a small, discrete community of magical folk camping amongst the rest of the Muggles, hiding in plain sight. Having long since lost track of her shoes, Piperâs bare feet splashed through thick mud and she nearly lost her footing more than once. The weather didnât bother Piper, thoughâshe was laughing with uninhibited exhilaration, the sound of it swallowed up by the heavy rain, as she raced her new friend back to the campgrounds.
A large, black creature as swift and dark as a shadow barreled past Piper, then made a wide, almost lazy circle around herâtwice, before stopping directly in her path, causing Piper to slip and squelch her way to a halting near-collision. Piper gulped in air, adrenaline searing through her body as she laughed incredulously at the wolf in her path.
âUsing your Animagus form is such a cheat!â Piper said, though she was smiling despite herself.
The wolfâs vivid blue eyes seemed to flash a gloating gleam up at Piper before the creatureâs body shrunk and paled in a hectic blur, transforming into a girl whose thick, black hair was wet and plastered to her cheeks and shoulders, an impish smirk on her lips.
âOh, and Veela Charm-ing us to the front row wasnât?â Dylan replied, amused.
âIâŠthatâsâŠtotally different!â Piper insisted, and then both girls exploded into giggles until they were breathless, with stitches in their sides.
When Piper finally managed to pull herself together, a shiver ran up her spine, and she didnât know if it was because she was drenched and half-naked with glitter dripping all down her exposed skin, or if it was because Dylanâs electric blue eyes, ringed with dark smudged eyeliner, were looking at Piper that way; Piper was paralyzed by it. Her stomach fluttered and she blushed a soft pink, but she couldnât look away.
Dylan reached out and ran three fingers agonizingly gently along the length of Piperâs rain-wettened cheek, stopping to hover at her jaw, leaving tingling trails on Piperâs skin, as if her fingertips were charged with an electric current. Piperâs breath caught and she blinked at the other girl, wide-eyed and entranced. How did someone who was practically a stranger affect her this way?
Piper was about to blurt out something awkward and half-thought-out along those lines, but Dylan spoke first:
âPiper, youâre really fuckingâŠextraordinary. Has anyone ever told you that?â
Piper beamed, feeling a wave of staticky warmth wash through her body like a tidal wave, all the way down to her toes, despite the still-pouring rain. And before she could even think straight she was crashing against the other girlâs lips, pulled toward the other by some otherworldly force, like gravity.
