Madness til Midnight

Annie walked into the Great Hall, her right arm casually draped around Kerry's waist. She was dressed in her brand new brushed cotton pistachio pullover and matching bottoms—her new necklace reflecting the dim light of the room.

The pair glided to their couch and made themselves comfortable with a shared blanket and a few pillows. This feels like home, she thought, relaxing into the shelter of Kerry. The day had been perfect in every way and she was glad they would be able to end it like this…snuggling on their couch.

“Comfortable?” she asked, peering up at the boy she was crazy about.

The whole week had been one of insanity, but now, here, all was normal. The night before the Madness had been subdued, but tonight, with the beautiful day and the excursions into Dunwich--and the quidditch tryouts complete--the air was one of total relaxation and not a little abandonment.

Kerry followed Annie to their sofa, which was how he was now thinking of it. Four Madnesses, four times on this sofa. It made Kerry happy to know there was some connection here for them, like a friend that was waiting to welcome them every time they entered.

After getting comfortable under the blankets, with the pillow at their backs, Kerry was able to sigh and really take in the hall and its occupants. "Oh, yeah," he said, answering Annie's question. "It's a lot more comfortable than being out in the woods."

Raising her eyebrows, she smiled and said, “You looked pretty comfortable to me in the woods, Mr. Malibey.” Annie felt her cheeks flush as she giggled.

She allowed her arm to wander under the blanket, coming to rest lightly on his thigh. “I happened to be quite comfy out in the hollow. But then again, I wasn’t sitting on the ground…”

"I like you sitting right where you're at." Kerry gave Annie a gentle hug just so he could feel her. "There's something that's bugging me." He nibbled on her neck, around the chain holding the locket. "I don't know your full name. You know mine, but I . . . I have no idea about yours."

“My name,” she breathed, noticing the warmth of his breath. Annie closed her eyes as his lips played around her neck; her fingers explored the cotton of his pants.

“My name is Anelie Farin Krum. I grew up with everyone calling me Annie—though sometimes my father calls me Ann.” She smiled remembering Kings Cross…the last time she had seen him. “I really hate when he calls me that… It makes me sound like a grandmother.”

Kerry ran the name around his mind. "Farin is beautiful," he whispered. "Almost Gallic." He sat back, thinking how lovely that name was. "If I'd known that, I could have had it engraved on the locket."

He relaxed, sinking into the pillows, into Annie. "I'll get it next time." He kissed her cheek. "That's so good . . . it's like we now have a piece of each other for safe keeping, isn't it?"

Annie nodded her head. “I’ve never told another soul my name. To tell you the truth, no one has ever asked before you.

"I think my parents knew I would be different when I was born and decided against a more traditional Bulgarian name. My family is full of people whose names you’ll struggle to pronounce.” She giggled imagining him try. "As a matter of fact, I'll be the first to marry outside my own culture on either side of my family."

It was time to do a quick double take, for when Annie said, "I'll be the first to marry outside my own culture," it was the first time they'd mentioned "the marriage" in public like this. Before, it had been on the shores of Lovecraft Lake with no one around.

But now, here in the Madness with maybe 60 others in the room, it was said with thought given of cringing or shushing or even worrying that someone might have overheard them and went, "Wahhhh?"

In short, it was normal for them.

He looked around and only saw a few people he recognized from class. A couple of instructors were already here, and . . . a couple of older students, a guy and a girl, waved at him when he looked in their direction. He didn't understand why they were . . . and then he recognized the girl: she was the one in the Bastion Monday who told the students handing out brooms to give him the now-trashed Nimbus. Wow, you're getting recognized, dude, he thought, and gave a quick wave back.

"So what's on the menu tonight, Sweetie?" he asked Annie.

Annie knew what she was in the mood for. She leaned forward and ordered Medenki, a traditional honey-spice cookie, and two mugs of hot cocoa. She placed a still warm cookie on one of the linen napkins that appeared next to the plate and lifted it to his lips.

"What do you think?" she asked, taking a bite of her own.

Kerry loved the taste of this . . . medenki. It had a taste that was so un-western in the way it lay on the tongue. Kerry had really fallen in love with European sweets the last couple of years, and in particular he loved licorice from The Netherlands. And Turkish yogurt? Fergiggitaboutit.

"I love that," he said. "I hope you know how to make it." He reached for the hot cocoa. "Now this . . . for some reason it makes me think of Death Eaters--"

Giggling, she reached for her own hot cocoa and sipped at it. The rich chocolate flooded her mouth, warming her instantly. “This really is good. The elves here know a thing or two about chocolate.”

Annie propped herself up on her pillow and draped a leg over Kerry’s. “What do you think happened to our friends from Hufflepuff?” Annie thought about Conor and the strange girl from the train she was struggling to remember.

And that was the thing. After they left Hogwarts that night--the same afternoon Kerry was playing Death Eater Demo Derby--they never saw many of the people from Hufflepuff. Alicia had left right after that disaster of a pie cooking class; Conor . . . they never saw him on the train and no one seemed to know what had happened to him. They'd sat with a couple of upper class mates they didn't know that well. There had been some crying and a general feeling of running away . . . then again, it was early evening when they left The 'Warts and by the time they got to the station it was getting on into the night--

When they arrived in London they were hustled off to the Leaky Cauldron as quick as you could say "Dementor" (which Kerry didn't know at that time), and then, they rested up the next day, and the day after that Professor Lovecraft was telling him and Annie to get their things packed, 'cause they were changing schools--

But as far as Hogwarts was concerned, it was as if they'd never existed. And truth be known, they didn't. They'd been students there in name only. It was like some kind of dream, Kerry thought. A strange, semi-twisted kind of dream.

"I'm sure they're all on their way to their new schools now," he said, "or waiting until they can go back. I know this--" He took a long sip of his cocoa, "If they ask if I wanna go back, I'm not. I'm done changing schools."

She wondered about their friends and if they were safe while running a finger around the rim of her mug. “Me too,” she added, taking another small sip. “Besides, I think we’ve both settled in very nicely here. We have met some great people, like Lina…who I invited to join us with her roommate—Emma.”

Annie glanced up at Kerry to see if he was all right. After their time in the hollow, she had been a nervous wreck about that small request she made from Lina in the clothing store.

Kerry kept a straight face as he said, "Oh, so my old wingmate Selene is invited?" He chuckled, figuring if Lina was suppose to bring Emma, they'd probably never see one or the other.

He touched Annie on the lips. "She was good to fly with Monday, but she won't ever beat you at anything--Athena."

Annie grinned and mischievously bit the end of his finger, running her tongue over the tip before letting go. “You haven’t seen anything yet—Starbuck,” she declared, and finished the rest of her cocoa.

Wagging his finger in mock pain, Kerry said, "Please kiss it and make it feel better." After the sweet kiss Kerry looked around and saw some of the thing going on.

There were a few more people here than last night--or even last week. Headmistress Laventure was here, dressed in a rather elegant nightgown and robe. She was sitting with Professors Ellison and--of all people--Kishna, who Kerry thought would never show at something like this--least of all in a pajama set.

Off in the corner were Professor Arrakis and Librarian Parkman, who looked as they were picking up where they left off the week before, sitting in the same location Kerry had seen them last Saturday.

Looking over the back of the sofa Kerry saw Professor Sladen walk in--and right behind her was Professor Lovecraft, wearing a very long nightgown. They both looked in good spirits, and Kerry realized the last time he'd seen Lovecraft smiling had been that time--in what seemed ages now--in her potions lab in the Hogwarts' Dungeons. But this wasn't just a smile: no, she almost looked radiant. What was it seen on "Rumor's Sheet"? "When Slythern girls get together--" Hey, whatever, he thought. As friendly as Professor Lovecraft had been to them--though he felt Annie was still a little miffed about the killing curses--he hoped she had some happiness, too.

It was only moments after they entered and began speaking with the Headmistress' groups in walked in . . . Ellen. With her arm in a sling. And though he'd half expected her to show up in a damn sundress, Kerry saw she was wearing pajamas--they were hospital pajamas, but pajamas nonetheless.

She wandered into the middle of the hall and looked around, and suddenly Kerry remembered something else on "Rumor's Sheet", about Åsgårdsreia getting busted up during quiddtich tryouts. "She's Åsgårdsreia," he mumbled before he laughed out loud--not loud enough for Ellen to hear, but enough to semi-startle Annie. "Oh, man," he said, giggling, "Crash Bandicoot is here."

Annie smiled, not getting the joke--until she followed where he'd been looking and saw her ill-fated dueling partner from the triage, sporting an arm sling.

A small gasp escaped her as she remembered the last time she saw Ellen. She'd been furious and Annie couldn't blame her. She sat up on the couch, taking her leg from on top of Kerry's and folding both under her. Be good, Annie... Be good.

She breathed deeply and grabbed Kerry's hand as Ellen noticed them and made her way through the crowd toward their space.

She had no idea why she was here. Probably because Karen was going on and on about how her leg hurt and Ellen was way tired of hearing that. She just wanted to get out of the hospital, because sitting around all day in there, with that witch of a nurse poking her with her wand every time Ellen demanded to know when she was going to fix her arm--

What a bunch of losers, Ellen thought. It wasn't like this when I was at Hogwarts... before they made me leave, that is.

She was just about to turn and leave when she... no, no, no. Not Broomkiller and his Dark Witchipoo. Ellen's stomach started to turn wondering how many times they'd already kissed. Gawd, how can anyone think it's cute? If it were up to her she'd lock them in separate towers and give them detention until the end of the year.

The problem was they saw her, and she saw they saw her--and a few other people saw that she saw that they saw her, and Ellen knew if she walked out now people were going to talk about how she couldn't face the girl that... that....

The hell with it, she thought. Be nice. You don't dare pull your wand here. They'll get you.

She walked over and stood before the Gruesome Twosome, smiled, and though she didn't even want to open her mouth Ellen spoke in the still damaged voice--the light whispering voice that made her sound like she was 6 years old again! The damaged voice that this little WITCH cursed her with....

"Hi, Annie; Kerry," she said, doing her best not to wince. "How are you?"

Annie noticed the change to Ellen’s voice the second she spoke and grinned up at her in sweet satisfaction. That spell worked better than I thought…

“Good evening, Ellen,” she said, motioning for her to sit down in one of the armchairs flanking the sofa. “What happened to your arm? We’ve heard rumors about a couple girls from your tower taking a tough fall from their broom. Was one of them—you?”

Smirking, Ellen said, "Ha, ha, Annie." She plopped down in the same chair that only last week she'd plopped into right before Professor Sladen chased her out. Then, however, she didn't have a broken arm and she yelped as her still-wounded arm thumped the chair's arm.

"Yeah, I took a fall." She didn't have a problem burning holes in Annie's eyes, but she was having trouble looking at Kerry, who had this smug look on his face. Oh, sure. Outrun one dementor and suddenly you're the King of the Pitch. "I was trying out for Chaser, and I was going in for a layup, and that idiot Semplen--" She looked around, wondering if any of the instructors heard her-- "He did... something and I fell off my broom!" She grunted again, though with her little girl's voice it sounded almost comical. "He probably cursed me. It seems like a lot of people wanna curse me." Once more she glared at Annie.

Kerry didn't know much about quidditch save for what he'd picked up in the last few days, but Professor Semplen not only didn't seem like the sort of person who'd curse you for no reason, but Kerry found it difficult to believe they'd do something like that to a 1st Year trying out for a sport.

"I don't know, Ellen," Kerry said in a low drawl. "You sure you didn't just slide off or something? I don't think any of the instructors would curse a student like that."

Annie wasn't buying what Ellen was trying to sell. She stared back at the silly girl, gripping Kerry's hand a little harder as the strain of keeping pleasantries was taking a toll.

"I think that maybe your broom just didn't trust you and bucked you off. It happens a lot with inexperienced riders."

Nodding, Kerry added, "Seeing as how we've never seen you on a broom, Ellen, I gotta wonder why you even tried out for quidditch in the first place." Kerry gave Annie's hand a nice squeeze, knowing she wasn't digging having Ellen here now that she was.

"Why don't you come out to the pitch tomorrow and practice with us--" Then Kerry did a double take. "Oh, wait: do they have handicapped brooms?" he said to no one in particular. Kerry knew he shouldn't have gone there, but he couldn't help himself.

Annie laughed until the tears sprung from her eyes. She wiped them away and glanced up at Ellen, who sat staring icily at them both.

She breathed deeply and said, "Do you think you damaged the broom?" She looked at her arm and decided anything Ellen touched probably broke or exploded. "Professor Salomon would probably be upset if you did."

Ellen had reached her breaking point. Jumping up, she pointed her good finger at Annie and screamed as best she could, "You! You and your... boyfriend, you're both a couple of twisted freaks!" She has spittle shooting from her mouth she was so upset. "Everyone sees you making out and they do nothing! You're both sick! You're freakin' 11! Act like kids!"

With her twisted voice, however, her anger came off more comical, and there were a few chuckles from the onlookers. That was enough to push Ellen over the edge. "The only reason you get away with so much is 'cause you kiss the instructors butts! All of them!" She suddenly turned on Kerry. "You should be dead! Only a freakin' idiot attacks a Dementor! Instead everyone thinks you're a hero! Gawh!!!!"

Ellen turned and was about to make a clean getaway out the East Entrance--except her way was blocked by Professor Arrakis. Taking Ellen's hand, Deanna softly spoke. "Ellen... we need to speak." And with that she led her from the hall.