New Love & Old Friends

Chapter 1

The familiar smell of a burning fire and light musk relaxed the senses of Chloe Blaine, a fourth year Hufflepuff, as she sat with her two best friends, a set of fourth year Gryffindor gingers who were too sarcastic for their own good. The sound of yelling brought her out of her short trance, and she was slowly brought back into the moment. She saw her friends avidly arguing with fellow students over which Quidditch team was better, and she remembered where she was. The three of them had a habit of sneaking into the others' house areas and causing harmless trouble. Currently, they were in Gryffindor Tower's common room sitting on the floor, leaning against the couches rather than sitting on them. Chloe yawned, and glanced up at the small clock sitting on the wall. Without a second look, she jumped up off of the ground, and her eyes darted around hurriedly.

"Shit!" she turned, quickly grabbing her bag and throwing her belongings into it. The other students paused their trivial quarrel and looked at her with confusion plastered across their faces.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" she repeated, which just gave her friends further confusion.

"You alright there mate?" Fred asked.

"No!" she yelled back frustratedly, which just simply earned a small chuckle from Fred.

"Care to enlighten us then?" His ginger counterpart pushed.

"I'm going to be late!"

"For...?" George started, holding the final syllable motioning for her to tell them.

"My detention, remember! I'd think you would seeing as you lot are the reason I have it." She heard a collective ohhh coming from behind her as she shoved the last of her items into her bag.

"Yeahh sorry about that. To be fair it was mostly Fred's fault—"

"Excuse me, I must've heard you wrong, but I thought you just said it was MY fault."

"I did actually...." Chloe tuned out the twins bickering as she pulled the last of her things together, threw her bag over her shoulder, and ran towards the door. As she was getting out of earshot of the other students, she heard a faint yell from behind her,

"Hey, Blaine!" Fred called, "try not to get caught this time!"

"Oh, shove off you idiot!"

____

Theodora Wilde, a fourth year Slytherin, walked through the grand corridors of Hogwarts with Aurora Pierce, a Ravenclaw of the same age. Theodora gripped the strap of her bag that was on her shoulder so tightly, that if it were someone's arm it would be severely bruised.

"You alright there, Theo?" Aurora asked quizzically. Theo looked at the bubbly girl next to her, and admired how flawless her skin looked in the lighting of the corridor. Aurora had a darker complexion, brown hair that reached her shoulders and brown eyes that were absolutely mesmerising in general, but especially in the sunlight. Theo had always thought Aurora was beautiful, and even had a small crush on her in her first year, but now she was her best friend going on three years.

"Yeah, yeah I'm okay." Theo said with a forced smile. She didn't want Aurora to feel bad, seeing as Theo only had detention because she took the blame for her.

"Are you sure? It's not too late, we can.." she hesitated, "..we can go tell McGonagall that it was me." Theo could see the anxiety on her face despite Aurora's best attempt to hide it.

"It's okay, Aurora. Really, I'll be fine." She reassured kindly, though she was struggling to believe it herself. Aurora looked at her, still slightly concerned, but she let it go. She knew she couldn't change Theo's mind.

"Any idea what you're doing in detention?"

"No clue. Probably cleaning cauldrons." Theo sighed. Aurora shuddered, remembering who exactly Theo had detention with. Aurora, like many of the other students at Hogwarts, was terrified of Professor Snape. The two girls reached the end of the corridor, but before Theo could turn down the adjacent hallway Aurora stopped her.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this? We can still totally-"

"Ladybug! I'm going to be fine. I promise."

The endearing nickname rang through Aurora's ears as she thought back to the day they met. The first conversation between the two of them was a rather long and passionate one about why the name ladybug was so bizarre. Aurora went on and on about how strange she thought it was, she was most perplexed about how someone came up with it, and how it truly did not relate to this particular insect in any way. Theo then asked her what she would be called if she were a bug, to which Aurora stammered before quietly saying 'ladybug'. Since then, Theo has always called her Ladybug.

Aurora looked at her once more, still doubtful, but she sighed and continued around the corner. Theo followed right behind her. They made their way slowly down the corridor a little further, until they reached the ominous potions classroom.

"I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

"Bright and early." Theo responded with a slight smile. With that, Aurora nodded and turned to walk down the rest of the corridor. Theo faced the door with her hand on the cold, metal handle, dreading having to enter. After a long moment, she pushed the door open and met the eyes of Chloe Blaine.