Holiday From Real

Bueno has either ignored me all week, or has been awkward when we did talk. I've been trying to make things right, he and Jane are my best friends, and this fight is tearing us apart. It's now Friday, and things haven't really gotten better. Jane has figured out when we can set up, when we should start, and in what dungeon to play in. Tonight's the first Slug Club meeting, so Bueno and I are going to help clean up and put away after the show, instead of helping setting it up. I talked to Slughorn earlier today in class and told him that Bueno and I have plans. He said it was okay to leave the meeting at ten o'clock instead of eleven; I was polite and charming the whole time, so he didn't ask me what our plans were.

When eight o'clock rolled around, I went up to my dorm, put on my leather jacket, put on my white belt with the useable brass knuckles, and fixed my exaggerated pompadour. I put a lot of volume into it, and then made sure it stuck out to just where I wanted it. Once I had that done, I put in some hairspray that Deva lent me – its literally magic strength, which is very good – and then moved on to the back of my head. I didn't really like having a ponytail with this look, so I put the ponytail up in a sloppy, but still pretty sweet loop that complimented my pompadour. I sprayed that too, and then I quickly put on some black liquid eyeliner on my top lid and winged it out a bit. I slipped on my Peter Pan shoes, and put on my long, clock necklace. No one ever seems to have the time when I asked, so when I was still in Chicago, I drove to the nearest flea market and bought myself a long, fake gold necklace with a large analog clock on the end. The clock has a thick, gold colored ring around it, and sunbeam like swirls extend off of the ring. The necklace chain is pretty, too. There's the long, main one, and then there are three, gradually shorter chains that also connect to the clock, making it slightly crooked.

I put a guitar pick in my right pants pocket because I know Jane usually forgets to bring one, and then headed out. I told my friends in the common room to go to the dungeon at the end of the hall at ten thirty, and to tell some of the Hogwarts kids that they think would enjoy the show. I still had some time before the Slug Club meeting, so I snuck into the enormous Hogwarts kitchen and grabbed two bananas. When I started to walk down a flight of stairs, I heard a familiar voice shout, "You're on the wrong staircase!"

I turned to see a rather indifferent, but still curious Tom Riddle, and a smirking Abraxas Malfoy. I flashed him a crooked smile and walked back up the three steps I just descended. I walked up to them and looked at Abraxas, "Which is the right one?"

His nostrils flared and his smirked widened, "Take a guess."

I pointed to the one I was just on, "That one."

Tom smirked and Abraxas' widened his eyes for a second, "Why that one? I just told you that it's the wrong one."

"I've been walking down that staircase everyday for five days for potions, I'm rather familiar with my class paths at this point."

Abraxas put his hands in the front pockets of his black slacks, "But I told you it's the wrong one."

"I know," I slid my hands into my jacket pockets and took a step back so that I wouldn't have to hurt my neck to look up at him, "just because you said it was wrong doesn't mean that it actually was."

Abraxas stayed silent for a minute, so Tom asked me, "When did you add the lion to your jacket?" He took a minute to stare at my new patch; it's a large lion that wraps half way around my jacket. It didn't have a lower body, so I carefully (magically) sewed it on so that the mid torso area would be on the end of my back and just below my "Street Dogs" spray paint. The lion has its front paws up like the Gryffindor lion, and has its mouth is open as if it were in mid-roar. The upper body is on my back and extends to the right, the aggressive paws are on my right side, and the head is on the front right of my jacket.

I was surprised that Tom actually has a rather quiet voice. Don't get the wrong idea, it's quiet, but it's not weak. It's quiet, but it still sounds rather demanding and quite powerful. I looked at him, and then looked him over, "I put it on last night."

"Where did you get that, we haven't been to Hogsmeade yet."

I smirked crookedly and rocked onto my toes for a few seconds, "That's no concern of yours."

He looked a little shocked, but the expression didn't last. Abraxas cleared his throat, so I looked back up at him. "I know the school better than you—"

I smirked and started to walk back down the staircase I was originally on; I looked at him over my right shoulder, "And I know myself better than I know you." They started to walk down, too, when I was a third of the way down the stairs. Without looking at them, I said just loud enough for them to hear, "Why are you walking down the wrong staircase?"

As I turned to continue walking down the staircase instead of into a wall, I saw Tom smirk again and Abraxas blush a little bit, "Just making sure you're not going to get lost once you're down there."

"Well," I smiled and refrained from laughing, "Thank you, Mother Teresa."

Tom chuckled, it was quiet, and it was only once, but still, he chuckled. I decided that I didn't like the sound of a somewhat devious chuckle while I'm alone on a dark staircase, so I walked a lot faster until I reached Slughorn's office; it's right next to his classroom. Bueno was already there, so I sat directly across from him and smiled at his outfit; I'm going to make it right tonight. Bueno was wearing somewhat silver, but mostly grey tight jeans, and a dark green plaid shirt. He's also wearing his large, square, thick-rimmed black glasses. He has his hair combed so that his hair is mostly neat, but the left side of his head has a lazily spiked, sort of frayed area; it looks pretty good. To tell you the truth, he looks good, he looks great; it's too bad that these Hogwarts girls don't know he's gay.

Slughorn smiled excitedly at me, "Good evening, Miss Hippogriff."

I blushed a little bit and laughed, "Good evening, Professor."

Tom and Abraxas quietly entered the room and sat down next to Bueno. Abraxas smirked at me while Tom looked over at Slughorn, "Good evening, Professor."

Slughorn smiled, "Good evening, Tom. How are you?"

"I'm well, sir. How are you?"

Tom and Slughorn talked for a minute or so; when Abraxas looked over at Slughorn and joined the conversation, I looked over at Bueno, made eye contact and said, "I'm sorry."

He looked away for a second, but then looked back up at me. He was rather bitter, "For what?"

I drew in a deep breath, "For making you feel so bad; we're on the same level, I'm not," I put air quotes around, "the greatest."

He stayed silent.

"You're just as good as me, I'm not a better boxer than you."

He was still silent.

I drew in another deep breath, "And I'm sorry for all the other things I've made you feel like a loser for; I don't think that you're a loser, at all. I think you're wonderful,"

Abraxas' eyes flickered over to me, then to Bueno, and then back to Slughorn.

"And I think that you deserve all the great things you have; you're a hard worker, and that shows in all the things you do."

We were silent for a minute, but then Bueno drew in a deep breath, "I'm sorry, too."

Abraxas, Tom, and Slughorn looked over at us.

"For what?"

Bueno laughed nervously, "For punching you in the face. I… I don't know why I did that, I just did it."

Slughorn seemed horrified, "You punched her face?"

I quickly looked over at him, "We're boxers."

Slughorn looked confused.

"It's a sport, trust me."

Abraxas explained the sport to him – he was there the day of the fight – and I looked back over at Bueno. I shrugged, "Shall we let the past be the past?"

He smiled, "Yeah."

I smiled. I looked at Abraxas and shivered; he's very cute, and he's very smart, but he doesn't seem like a good person, at all. He was there when Bueno acted so weirdly, and I don't think that was just mere coincidence. I don't know why he'd want Bueno to go crazy on me, but I wouldn't put it above him.

"Hey," Bueno fished around in the breast pocket of his plaid shirt for a few seconds, "this got into my luggage somehow." He pulled out a very small, plastic bag with my rose nose ring.

I jumped up and briskly walked over to him. He put the bag in my hand; I opened it and gently shook my medium sized, rose nose stud out. I smiled widely and looked at Bueno, "Man, I've been searching for this!"

Bueno shrugged, "Sorry that I didn't find it earlier then."

"Thanks for giving it back to me tonight, you know how much I love this thing." I faced away from the group of boys and carefully slid the back of the stud off. Then, I gently slid the ring into the very small pierced hole on the right side of my nose until I felt the rose rest against the top of my nose. What does this rose stud look like? It's a medium sized stud of a beautiful and perfectly detailed red rose with two rose leaves underneath the rose; the green leaves acted as a decoration and as a slight base for the stud. I slid the back of the stud back on, wiggled my nose for a few seconds, and then sat down on the empty chair to Bueno's right.

He looked at me, "Turn so I can see it."

I turned my head so that he can see the right side of my face.

"It looks nice."

I looked into his eyes, "Thanks."

Abraxas and Tom whispered and smirked before Abraxas looked at me, "You're all sorts of exotic, ehy?"

The fact that I was unimpressed show on my face; I pressed my lips together, smirked crookedly, and raised my brows a bit. "You're quite right, I'm not some sorts of exotic, I'm all sorts of exotic."

Abraxas was caught off guard; I forgot that women don't really talk back in this period of time. Not that I really care; my outfits already make me extremely different here; I'm not going to change my personality and attitude to make up for my outfits.

A few boys walked in during our awkward silence. The boys that came in, Olive Hornby, Maj Malfoy, Orion Black, Cygnus Black, Avery Bertram, Abraham Cornfoot, and Biton Cornelius, seated themselves in the empty chairs. The oldest of them, Abraham, a seventh year Ravenclaw, looked at me with curiosity, and then looked over at Slughorn, "Who is she?"

Slughorn smiled over at me and said, "Boys, this is Karma Kinzek. She is here because she has the most powerful patronus I've ever seen."

I lightly blushed when they all looked at me.

Orion sneered at me and asked Slughorn, "May we see it?"

Slughorn smiled excitedly and looked over at me, "May we, Karma?"

I nervously smiled crookedly. "I… I guess so."

Slughorn smiled while about half of the boys sneered.

I slowly got up and checked my acid washed, grey skinny jeans for my wand, but then remembered that I put my wand in my breast pocket. I fished my wand out of my vest like, red and gold, buffalo checkered shirt. I slowly took it out my breast pocket, drew in a deep breath, and turned ninety degrees so that my patronus wouldn't end up running through anyone. I was about to whisper it out, but then I saw a large, fat, hairy spider on the wall that I'm facing and shouted out, "Expecto Patronum!" My large, silverish-white hippogriff shot out of my wand and charged at the spider. It stood up on its hind legs and smashed the spider with a large talon. It flapped its wings to gain a few feet of air and then ran out of the room through a wall; it was fading and seemed like it wanted a dramatic exit.

I turned to look at Bueno and saw that all the boys, except for Abraxas and Tom, had their mouths agape. I put my wand back in my breast pocket and walked over to Bueno. We slapped our right hands together, slid them out, and then pounded fists. "Aww yeah, son." I smiled proudly, "Did ya see that? It killed a spider for me."

Tom cleared his throat and looked at Slughorn, "Sir,"

Slughorn looked over at him, "Yes, Tom?"

"Are patronus' supposed to do that? I thought their sole purpose was to ward off dementors."

Slughorn leaned forward excitedly while I sat back down, "That's what is so amazing, Tom. Her patronus also shrieks! It literally destroys dementors; it seems that it destroys all threats!"

I smirked proudly, leaned back in my seat and put my arms behind my chair. I looked at Bueno; he did the same thing, only he slid his feet forward a foot and opened his legs to a comfortable distance. The boys looked at me with jealous expressions, none of them could even think about comparing to my patronus. Slughorn and the Hogwarts boys started to talk about their present experiences with their academics, and then of course, about their futures. Bueno and I whispered about the show we were going to play soon and wondered if any Hogwarts kids were going to come to the show. Bueno said that he saw some of the Slytherin kids who pogoed with us on our first night here and told them that they should go. Before I could say anything, Slughorn said, "Karma, what are your plans for your future?"

I immediately looked at him, "Excuse me, sir?"

He smiled politely, "What do you plan to do with your life? I know you and your friends have a love of music."

Abraxas softly chuckled, "And fighting."

I ignored Abraxas and said, "I love to play music, sir, but I think I'm going to go into business."

"Oh?" Slughorn seemed surprised, "Why business?"

I sat back up and slightly shrugged, "I'd love to pursue music, but there's not a very big chance that I'd be able to make a living from it." I swallowed the spit in my mouth, "I also love fashion design, sir, and I'd love to offer the world an alternative clothing style."

Bueno smirked knowingly at me; I do want to go into fashion, but I wasn't about to explain the styles of the future to these guys.

Slughorn sat back up, "I wish you the best of luck for your future business."

I smiled, "Thank you."

Bueno and I sat silently, awkwardly participating when necessary. Ten o'clock couldn't come around fast enough; we practically jumped up from our seat, and politely told everyone goodbye. Once we were out of Slughorn's sight, we quickly power walked for the dungeon down the corridor. When Bueno and I caught a glimpse of each other, we laughed; we looked silly and we knew it.