𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨-𝙧.𝙖.𝙗

𝟭𝟬-𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗮𝘀

ANGER AND PRIDE ERODE AWAY ONCE JO HAS HER BROTHER BACK BY HER SIDE. Once she gives in, she realizes how exhausting it's been to dig her heels in the sand, how holding onto her anger and pride has left her tired. That happens to Jo, sometimes. Red hot emotions explode so bright and burn everything in their path and then she just fades, a once raging fire now just a tender ember. So she lets herself sink into Marlene's embrace, lets Remus sling his arm over her shoulder and pull her tight into his side, lets them fret and apologize and she smiles and accepts their apologies graciously and gracefully, how she thinks Lily would, and she swallows whatever harshness remains. But she doesn't forget. The taste of bitterness isn't so easily washed away.

She tries to push it to the back of her mind while she half-folds wrinkled shirts and tosses them, mostly crumbled and hardly folded, into her suitcase. Jo tries to replace her petty thoughts with ideas for Christmas presents and she's really only half listening to Dorcas.

"-and I think I might hang out with Marlene over the break. After I get back from California, of course. I want to take her to a movie theater. She has no idea what they are," Dorcas rambles, a pair of trousers neatly folded in her lap as she packs, shaking her head and a small, stubborn smile on her lips. The sun is setting, casting a golden light on her dark skin; Jo thinks her best friend is radiant, legs crossed on her bed. "Do you remember when I took you to a movie theater for the first time? I swear, you purebloods can do the most unimaginable things all your lives but just lose your minds at the simplest of technology."

Jo snickers. "You didn't even tell me what to expect," she reminds her, the absolutely traumatizing memory of her first time in a muggle theater replying in her head. "A girl in pig blood killed a bunch of classmates and you didn't even bother to tell me it wasn't real."

"I thought you would know!" Dorcas protests.

"How would I know?" Jo questions back, giving up all pretenses of folding and simply shoving her clothes into her luggage.

Dorcas chuckles, "Well I'll make sure to explain to Marlene that they're just stories."

Jo flops down on her stomach, hand under her chin and she sinks into the softness of her bed. "Since when are you and McKinnon so close anyways?" she asks. Jo can't think of an instance of the two of them spending time together. Or maybe she just hadn't been paying attention.

Dorcas seems to sink into her shoulders, bites down on her lip and looks everywhere but at Jo. "I dunno, why? Is that a problem?"

Jo shrugs. "No problem with me. Just wondering, 's all."

"She just helps me out with Divination sometimes," Dorcas offers. "You know, I think that-"

But Dorcas is cut off at the sound of their dorm door being slammed against the wall, wide open to reveal a panting and frantic looking first year girl. It's the little blonde one, the one who approached Jo in the library, one of the girls who hadn't left her alone since. Her big eyes scan the room before they land on Jo and she yells, "Josephine! Come quick!"

Jo blinks. "How did you get up here?"

The small girl throws her hands up in the air, throwing her arm back to point down the stairs. "Antonin Dolohov is...is torturing Olivia Atkins!" she rushes out.

"What?" Jo questions, feeling a little slow on the uptake, feeling like she has nothing to go off. Dorcas is leaning forward on her bed.

The little girl has their rapt attention when she says, "Olivia is muggle-born and he started-"

"Ah, shite," Jo interrupts, needing nothing else. There is suddenly a fierce sense of urgency as Jo pushes off her bed, and she doesn't need to look back to know Dorcas is close behind.