Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(103) Fridays

Florence awoke to a searing pain on the surface of her hand, the events of yesterday surfacing in her mind regrettably. Her eyes peered open, seeing letters etched on the surface of her skin, stinging as she clenched it, making her flinch. I must not talk back.

"Merlin's pants, Flo, you already know that it hurts," Nicolai scoffed, bringing over a bowl of clear liquid, "Stop moving your hand."

"What is that?" she asked, propping herself into a sitting position with her other arm as Nicolai set it down on her nightstand. "It's a healing solution. I told Professor Flitwick about what that ugly cow did to punish you and Olivia during detention. He said this would help ease the pain, but not heal it quickly. It'll take time before the words completely vanish."

"Harry was there too," Florence said, easing her hand in to the solution, thankful that it wasn't as stingy as she thought it would be, "His looks worse, though, like he's been writing with that quill for a couple of days now. Deeper cuts, I think."

"Well, worry about yourself first, yeah? You have tryouts to host tomorrow. And you can't do crap with  bloody cuts on your hand." she told her, "But if it's any consolation, you have really nice handwriting so it doesn't look as bad."

"Olivia has to host tryouts too." Florence pointed out, "I hope she's alright. I mean, she wouldn't have been in detention if she didn't stand up for me."

"It was her choice. And her tryouts aren't until Monday. She has a lot of time to heal up. While you, you have a day."

Xander was waiting for them at the common rooms, along with the Weasley twins who did not at all look guilty that they were intruding again. She was about to go on about how they weren't supposed to be in there when George stopped her.

"Yes, we know we're not supposed to be in here." he started, making Alexander roll his eyes, "I told them to stay by the door."

"But the riddle was just too good not to answer!" retorted Fred, "We couldn't help ourselves. And we were able to answer it without any help, so, I figured coming inside was our reward."

"What's that you got there?" Florence asked as soon as George hastily hid it behind his back. "What thing? We don't have a thing."

"You do," Nicolai said, "What is it?"

"Fine! They're flyers..." he showed them, "We've completed our Skiving Snackboxes, and we were wondering if we could put some up here in your commons so that people will know what to buy and where to buy."

"Buy what...exactly?" Xander raised his brows at them, Fred giving him a look, "They're snacks..."

"No I'm going to have to ask you to elaborate on that," he crossed his arms, "Knowing you two, there's a whole lot more to it than just a snackbox." he turned to Florence and Nicolai, "Why don't you two look so curious?"

"Well it's because we already know about them, Xan. They're snacks that make you sick upon consumption. Personally I think it's handy, especially when you want to get out of class." explained Florence.

"What kind of sickness?"

"Merlin, Xander, you ask too many questions!" Nicolai exclaimed, "Just let them hang the damn flyers. We need to go to breakfast. I'm starving."

"What? I need to ask many questions. I'm a Prefect, you know, it's what I'm supposed to do when someone asks if they can put up flyers in a house common room they're not supposed to be in."

"You're a much considerate one at that," Fred said, "Hermione's always telling us not to put them up at the Gryffindor common room."

"We'd demonstrate it's usage...but I wouldn't want to dirty your carpets... We have fainting fancies, nosebleed nougat, puking pastilles and fever fudge. From the names themselves, well, it's inferable what they can do."