Hell or High Water.

𝖎𝖎. poison drips through

HELL OR HIGH WATER.
II.

Despite Archie's inner certainty that she was sorted into the wrong house, the Ravenclaw common room always felt like home more than her actual home. There was a kind of peace that took over when she'd get in and stare at the dome above their heads, decorated with stars that shone even in the early morning. Once the fresh air hit her face and she saw the view of the surrounding mountains, her heart finally slowed down. For that moment, she could feel the anxiety leaving her body. And she felt... good. She felt like she was going to be alright.

The first person she noticed once she got in the common room was Emmeline. She had somehow already found herself in a fight with another guy Archie recognized as Barty Crouch Jr. But once Emmeline caught Archie's eye, she completely disregarded her argument that was clearly cut short and moved to hug her dorm-mate.

"How was your Christmas?" she asked once she pulled away from the friendly embrace. Emmeline was probably the only person Archie would actually call her friend, although not in her face. So despite the fact that at first she stiffened up against the hug, she quickly got over herself and hugged the girl back.

"It was... normal. Boring," she answered quickly, not wanting to get into it. "I want to know about you, though! Did your parents take you to Egypt?"

Emmeline seemed happy that the girl remembered it. "Oh, yes! Archie, your dorky arse would love it there. We went to a bunch of different museums-"

The two caught up on Emmeline's impressions of Egypt as they got to their dorm and unpacked. Archie only had a few things to tidy up, so once she was done, she crossed her legs and sat on the floor next to Emmeline as the girl basically gave her a presentation of the bunch of new clothes she bought over the holidays. It would be easy for Archie to feel insecure about how much poorer she was compared to Emmeline and it would be easy to feel bitter about it, but in all honesty, she was way too interested to hear about the pyramids to care about any of that.

"That sounds amazing," Archie said after Emmeline was done. "Did you take any photos? I-"

Before she could finish her sentence, the door was kicked open and the twins, Leah and Siobhan Vail, entered the dorm with high-pitched screams of excitement. Emmeline jumped to her feet and the same sound came out of her throat as she ran to wrap her arms around her best friends. Archie, still sitting on the floor, simply waved to them with a small smile.

Soon enough, Emmeline forgot all about Archie and their conversation, too engrossed in catching up with the twins' news.

After a moment, Archie got up and grabbed a book from her nightstand. She started walking to the door, hoping the other girls wouldn't notice or acknowledge her, when Emmeline's voice cut her off. "Oi, where are you going?" she asked.

"I feel like taking a walk," the girl replied, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

Emmeline's face dropped a little. "Oh, right. I forgot to show you the photos," she said. "Wait-"

"Ah, don't worry about it, you'll show me later," Archie said with a small smile. Emmeline nodded and the girl walked out of her dorm, the conversation behind her quickly continuing. Last thing she heard before leaving was the twins talking about how everyone always said their fifth year was the best one and Archie fought hard not to roll her eyes.

Due to the embarrassing, as one could call it, absence of friends, Archie had developed a routine when she found herself feeling bored. She'd grab a book and walk around the castle with no particular direction in mind. Sometimes she'd find herself reading under a tree, while other times she would start a conversation with one of the school ghosts or the portraits. She had even figured out a worst case scenario; if she didn't feel like doing any of the above, she would go to professor Flitwick's office hours and pretend she didn't understand a spell. It was pathetic, thus why she swore to never tell anyone about it, but it worked. All she had to do was play dumb for five minutes and then she could spend as much as half an hour talking to the Head of her house about anything she had in mind.