RECONVENE! (fred weasley)

vi. the pink toad

the end of summer was usually awful in the minds of teenagers. nobody wanted to go back to school. summer meant freedom and free is all that teenagers wanted to be.

for maeve, school was incredible. hogwarts was her happy place. it had the best food and the nicest people. it even had village next to it called hogsmede, where maeve had had her first kiss and her first date.

unfortunately, this was her last year at hogwarts. this meant she would be even more stressed than usual since the exams that decided what she could do with her life were going to be at the end of the year. many people had told her not to worry but maeve was a worrier. she knew she was smart but she was also very stressed and had had many dreams where she fainted during the exams or had accidentally fallen asleep.

to go to the train station, harry needed a guard. apparently the order thought that voldemort was going to show up on the platform to kill harry, which everyone else thought was ridiculous because voldemort was meant to be laying low and not outing himself as alive again to the ministry.

regardless, maeve now found herself walking next to remus lupin and kingsley shacklebolt. the former was expected but maeve felt intimidated next to kingsley. he was much taller than her, despite her being above average height at 5 foot 7 inches. kingsley was her favourite member of the order other than tonks anyway though. he was the right mix of strict and funny and was honestly one of the people she admired.

eventually kingsley left and it was just remus and her.

"merlin, i feel old now," remus stated, chuckling, "i cant believe it's been seven years since i dropped you off here for the first time,"

"seven years since i betrayed you and was sorted into ravenclaw you mean," maeve said, smiling.

"hey, i never said anything was wrong with being a ravenclaw! i almost was one, you know," remus told her.

"yeah, you only bring it up every time we talk about houses. so in every letter we send, really," she replied, jokingly.

"well, i do apologise. now, you should try and find edward before the train leaves without you. i'll see you at christmas maevie," remus gave her a hug, "i'll put your luggage on the train."

"just call him eddie, moony. see you in a few months and thank you!" she shouted as she ran onto the train and into her usual compartment.

upon entry, she saw that her best friend edward capulet was already there. eddie was a handsome boy with dark, curly hair and hazel eyes that were darker than maeves. he was skinny and lanky but this didn't stop girls in their school from swooning after him.

"eddie!" maeve screeched as she went to embrace him.

"maevie!" he returned, both of them mimicking the stereotypical teenage girls that screamed no matter where they where.

"how are you, ed? i cant believe we didn't see each other during the holidays!" she said, both of them managing to sit down.

"i know, but that's your fault really, huh. i'm just kidding, i didn't get made head boy which upset me slightly but i'm pretty sure noel miller did," eddie rambled.

"oh, really?" maeve complained, "i thought you would've got it to be honest, sorry that you didn't. i'm head girl though and as nice as noel is, he's constantly looking at me for reassurance!"

"well done, mae, really i'm proud of you. i'm at peace with not being head boy, i can focus on other things now. i cant believe you'll be my boss though. oh god, now whenever your being pissy with me you can take house points off of me!" eddie complained.

maeve and eddie talked for another hour, until they both had to go to the prefects compartment. they had been prefects for two years and were used to the process, though maeve wasn't quite sure how to lead the meetings.

"hey, maeve!" noel miller said to her as they entered the compartment.

noel had short, blonde hair and was very attractive overall. if maeve had more of a chance to get to know him, maybe she would be happier to be working with him. unfortunately, noel had a big crush on her and couldn't stay around her for too long without blushing.

"noel," she greeted, nodding her head, "how are you?"

"i'm good, thanks," noel said, "what about you?"

the two made small talk for a few minutes until all of the prefects had arrived. to say maeve was surprised was an understatement. her and noel had just had the longest conversation of their lives and he didn't get embarrassed once. maybe the world was on her side.

noel and maeve stood up and carried out the meeting, telling the students about their plans for patrols. maeve carries on catching ron and hemione's eyes, giving them reassuring smiles and trying to make all of the new fifth year prefects feel as comfortable as they could

they waited until all of the prefects had left, including eddie, to go over some more plans for later in the year. as they talked, maeve realised she had a newfound respect for the hufflepuff. he was smart and funny when he wasn't worrying about what maeve thought of him.

the two of them stayed talking about their plans for another hour and a half before they both went back to their friend groups.

the last four hours of the train journey were spent by maeve and eddie talking about their summers and playing uno, a muggle card game that eddie had stolen from his younger sister. eddie and maeve mostly kept to themselves in terms of their friends. before the break up, they spent lots of time with the gryffindors in their year but that was now more hassle than it was worth.

before they knew it, they were sitting at the ravenclaw table in the great hall waiting for dumbledore's speech to finish so that they could eat the feast.

"tryouts for the quidditch teams will take place on-" dumbledore had been telling the students before a 'hem hem' was heard.

everyone's attention was turned to a short, pink woman. as much as maeve could appreciate the colour pink, this woman was abusing it. not only was her pencil skirt pink, so was her blouse, her tights, her shoes and her hat. maeve had to turn away before her eyes exploded. whispers broke out through all of the students- dumbledore was never to be interrupted.

maeve looked up from eddie, who she rolled her eyes at gesturing to the lady, to look for her brothers reaction. she saw him whispering to his friends and made out the word 'ministry'. puzzled, she forced her eyes back to the ravenclaw table, not before making eye contact with fred and feeling her cheeks heat up.

"thank you, headmaster, for those kind words of welcome," the lady whined. if maeve thought her outfit was annoying, her voice was in a different level. it was high pitched and patronising, making it clear that this woman was not a pleasant person. if what she had seen harry say was accurate, she was from the ministry which instantly made maeve dislike her.

the lady introduced herself as professor umbridge. she carried on talking to all of the students as if they were toddlers and maeve could tell that every other student was just as taken aback as she was.

she exchanged another look with eddie as they waited for her speech to finish.

"well," eddie said, as soon as the pink person had finished talking, "we know what that means."

the ravenclaws sitting near them nodded.

"the ministry are interfering at hogwarts," maeve stated.

keira's note!
hey everyone! just wanted to say that i do not support what j.k rowling has been saying at all. trans people are 100% valid- end of.
hope you enjoy the chapter- stay safe!