This Thing I Have In My Notes That I Probably Won't Finish

this thing i have in my notes that i probably won't finish

Cokeworth is interminably boring.

Cokeworth is grey smoky skies with smog rising from a factory on the horizon.

Cokeworth is long, cold summers without a hint of sun.

Cokeworth is purgatory for teenagers.

It's the intermittent sounds of Eileen and Tobias arguing downstairs as he re-reads his new Potions textbook for the ninth time, fingers drumming against the hard cover to the steady rhythm of their shouts-

A loud thump below the window. Severus's heart skips a beat; he crosses the room and slides the lower half of the window up, and a small hand with short, shiny, black-polished nails emerges, followed by a head of tousled dark red hair and a feral grin.

"Sev!" she says breathlessly.

The climber pulls herself into the room with practised skill but no grace; a large green toad follows. He goes by the name of Archimedes; Severus avoids him at all times.

The climber, Lily Evans, is the single interesting thing about Cokeworth.

She slams his window shut again, panting heavily, and flops down on the floor.

"You'll fall to your death one of these days," Severus rebukes, shaking his head. But he's glad she's come; he's always glad to see her. His bad mood lifts, and his parents' shouting seems far away now.

Lily ignores him, brushing dust and dirt off her favourite dungarees, her wand propped behind her ear, and rifles through his box of records. Cheap, faux-silver earrings dangle out of ear piercings she did herself with a needle.

"I've told you, there's nothing good in there - it's just my dad's stuff." He pauses. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Tuney's driving me up the wall. She's got another one of her boring boyfriends over. Probably wouldn't want me around him, anyway. I might do something weird and scare him off."

Tuney, or Petunia Evans, is Lily's older sister, and they are as alike as a vulture and a swan; that is to say, they are different in every which way. To begin with, Lily is a witch, like his mother, and Petunia is not.

"She just-" The earrings shake indignantly "-won't stop calling me a freak."

"She's an idiot," Severus responds reflexively. Lily Evans is utterly perfect, and even James Potter, moron supreme, agrees.

"I know." Lily sighs. "But for better or worse, she's my sister."

She flicks her wand at one of the records, and it slips out of the case, hovers hesistantly, and then settles down onto the record player. It's terrible, but at least it drowns out the sound of his parents arguing.

Lily's gaze falls onto the Potions textbook, and a smirk crosses her face. "Read it from back-to-front three times already, I assume."

"And added annotations. Can you seriously believe Borage suggested chopping instead of crushing peppermint leaves?"

"The idiot," Lily agrees.

i wanna meet myself from another person’s point of view and experience my own energy

writing Narcissa Malfoy like one of those extremely paranoid Tory MPs gives me dopamine

The chambers of secrets has been opened. I’m planning a slumber party there for Valentine’s Day with all the single girls of Hogwarts. There will be sweets, wine and vapes.

Delphini, for the last time, the chamber is supposed to be a place of solitude and solace for the heir of Slytherin, not a discotheque.

Chapter Eight: Speak Your Sorrows (Or Forever Hold Your Peace)

"Penny for your thoughts?"

That was Daphne, peering at him with a slight frown.

"Oh, nothing, just..."

Daphne laughed lightly. "Don't worry about it, Astoria likes to stare off into space as well. Must be a Ravenclaw thing."

"Yeah, something like that."

Anthony's gaze strayed to Ruby again as his brain, accustomed to doing so through years of honing the skill, immediately tuned out the professor's droning voice. She was fiddling with the ends of her hair, her quill long abandoned.

Under her breath, Daphne said, "Does nothing have a name, or am I completely crazy?"

"Why don't you ask your boyfriend?" Anthony bit out, loud enough for the people around them to hear.

Daphne's ears went red. "One, Theodore's not my anything. Two, even if he was, the chances of getting anything of use into his massive head are close to zero. Three, be quiet and at least pretend to take notes, Goldstein. You might have a not-so-illustrious record of losing House points for lack of focus at least once per week, but I have a reputation to uphold."

Dobby has an ominous warning for Harry Potter. Anthony gathers intel. Tee has a heart-to-heart with Salazar Slytherin, but suspects he might not be alone. Read from the beginning at A03/FFN

still can't believe Hermione got hate mail over that article... these adults were really beefing with a 15 year old