hold me while you can {Posie Hogwarts AU}

Fourth Year

   "Maybe we should sit with our own houses," Milton suggests. The Potions class had begun half an hour ago, and the group of friends stuck out like a sore thumb. Lizzie from Slytherin, Josie from Gryffindor, Milton and Rafael from Hufflepuff and Kaleb from Ravenclaw. "We look like a pile of M&Ms."

  "More like skittles," Kaleb says, looking around the classroom which had clearly been segregated into houses, with them in exception.

   "Taste the rainbowwww." Rafael sings as he dumps the content of a jar into his and MG's potion.

   Josie and Lizzie both laugh at Rafael's joke, the latter giving her twin a warning look.

   "Well, I say we screw anarchy." Josie says, shifting her position on her seat to get a better view of her cauldron. "We're the new generation of change." She assures the group.

   As Lizzie scraped the coagulated salamander's blood into the cauldron, Josie sprinkled in dried thyme leaves and stirred the potion. Rafael and Milton did the same, but while the twins' and Kaleb's potion sparked into a smooth clear liquid, their potion bubbled over and melted into a thick gray soup-like liquid.

   "Milton I don't think we did this right..." Rafael says, squinting at their awful creation. MG peers into their cauldron, slightly afraid. Kaleb rolled his eyes and pushed Rafael aside to see their catastrophe potion.

   A burst of laughter suddenly erupted from the other side of the room, and Josie's reflex gave in as she snapped up her head.

   "Ms. Park, if you would please control your volume." Snape sneered as he walked by where the group of Slytherins were seated.   

   Josie watched as Penelope looked up at the teacher and gave an acknowledging tilt of the head. Despite the warning, the Slytherins snickered as the Professor walked away, Penelope wearing a smug smirk. Her green eyes caught the reflection of light that seeped in through the slim dungeon windows as she whispered to her clique, entrapping the group of witches with her conversation. She was too far for Josie to comprehend any words, but she could distinguish Penelope's voice easily, as if she was a lark against the sounds of a soft river. 

  Josie was disappointed to say that she hadn't seen much of Penelope since their second year. Penelope, Hope and herself had been a close-knit trio since the first day, but with each passing semester, it felt as if they drifted apart. Hope had become secretive and frequently visited Dumbledore's Office with no explanation while Josie had been occupied with Lizzie's own turbulent life, which eventually simmered the trio's friendship to a dead stop. Every so often she would catch Hope in the girl's bathroom or Penelope browsing for books in the library, but what started off as greetings and conversations had diminished into small acknowledging smiles or silent glances. 

    "If we were the ones talking  Snape would destroy us," Milton mumbled, returning to his now salvaged potion as Rafael and Kaleb huffed in agreement. 

   "Snape just loves the Park family," Lizzie said bitterly, stirring her potion after adjusting the heat. 

   "Why are you complaining, you're in Slytherin. You never get House Points deducted," Rafael says, challenging the girl playfully.

    "That's not what I meant." Lizzie says rolling her eyes, "I was talking about how the Parks  are working for Voldermo-"

   "Lizzie!" Josie gasps, appalled that her twin would say the cursed name. 

   "What?" Lizzie says defensively, "Josie, it's true, everybody knows the Parks worked for him in the Great War and they're probably working for him now."