The Flood

I, Venus Nyx Winterburn, and my three best friends, Victorie Weasley, Teddy Tonks, and Anna Winterburn were going to Warped Tour. We had all convinced our parents into letting us stay at my Aunt Eliza’s amazing Southern California home, so that we could go to the concert, and also, so that I could visit Anna, who was not only my closest friend, but my sister as well. Never in my life have I seen a city as beautiful as San Diego, and I live in Scotland. Now that we were there, the morning was to be spent at the ocean while we rested up for the day ahead of us; the concert of a lifetime.

“Teddy! Vic! You guys ready for the ocean-side breakfast?” I shouted from the room that I shared with Anna, which was so pleasantly located between the two love-birds'. Anna was still asleep so I let her sleep a little longer; she was my sister after all.
Teddy was the first to respond, with a loud thud emanating from his room. I took it as a sign that he was still getting up and had just fallen off his bed. “What in the living hell was that for, Vic?! Wait… oh shit.”

Of course one of them had snuck into the others' room. I should have guessed.
“I’m opening the door. Make yourselves decent for two seconds,” I said while pushing the door open, just as I heard Teddy scrambling to get back onto the bed.
Dear god, I did not want to know what they did last night.

“You two better be glad Aunt Eliza had to work today, or she would have been pissed. Now, suit up while I go get the basket she left for us.”

As I trudged downstairs I realized that the one thing I missed about living with Aunt Eliza was that she was an amazing cook. Her waffles? The best. Well, it might have helped that she was a trained chef… but, details. When I reached the kitchen I looked it over; it was small, although it had everything we needed and was a nice cooking space. Right on the counter was a basket, which I opened to find waffles; they were chocolate chip, her specialty, along with fresh strawberries, kiwis, a mango, and several small iced coffees, which I had charmed to stay cold the night before.
I heard the sound of Teddy jumping on the rail of the staircase, sliding all the way down. The boy could never do anything the normal way, could he? Vic was laughing the whole time while calling him an idiot.

“Did she make chocolate chip again?” And of course, the first thing out of his mouth is about food. I blame Harry for that, taking him around Ron too much… His eating habits must have rubbed off on Teddy.

“Teddy, you sound like Uncle Ron,” Vic said, mimicking my thoughts. There was a reason the girl was my best friend. She was a blonde bombshell; a force to be reckoned with when you got her worked up. Her Weasley temper and the fact that she’s part Veela makes her one hell of a person to face in a duel. I’d never do it, and I’m second best in our year, only next to her.

“Ha! I was thinking the same thing!” Vic smiled at me while Teddy mumbled under his breath, most likely something that would only get him in trouble. “Anyways, this is not the day to be commenting on Teddy’s appetite that rivals only your Uncle Ron’s. It’s freaking Warped, you guys!”

This comment got everyone doing a little happy dance. This was the best graduation gift I could have given them; the chance to go see our favorite bands, Of Mice & Men, Sleeping with Sirens, and Pierce the Veil. The poor souls had never heard of them until I moved to Hogwarts in my 6th year, and educated them on great Muggle musical taste. Luckily for me, Teddy loved them right away, and as for Vic, it took her a while, but she learned to love them. Then again, how could she not?

“It's time for breakfast time on the beach!” Teddy yelled as he ran outside.

Aunt Eliza had one of the few houses on this small section of the beach that was closed off to the public. When I was little I used to call it Paradise. A fitting name; which it still is and always will be paradise.

Vic and I stood and watched him as she grabbed her coffee out of the basket, and charmed it so it would be lighter to carry.

“Vic, have I mentioned how much I love you two?”

“Only once or twice, I think you should remind me more.” Vic stuck her tongue out at me and then took off, stopping where Teddy was setting up our blanket; I hadn’t noticed he had the stuff, but to be fair, I was too preoccupied in my own head.

Laughing as I walked out the door to catch up with them, I couldn’t help but think about how amazing today was going to be. I was going to see Of Mice & Men live. Why, you ask? Those guys were amazing at what they did, and it didn’t hurt that the guitarist, Alan Ashby, was a childhood friend. He had been Aunt Eliza’s and moms best friend’s child, so we were thrown together a lot. He was the one who introduced me to my love of music, and without him I’d be a completely different person. I could never thank him enough for that, and the fact that he got me the tickets for free. Wizard and Muggle money still confused Teddy and Vic, so we just pulled some strings, and said it was a graduation present from Anna. I haven’t seen Alan in years. I don’t know about Anna, but the way she’s been talking, it’s been months since she’s talked to him either, which is odd seeing as the two were never out of contact. But I’ll worry about that later.

“Nyx, you seem distracted.” Anna asked, I hadn’t noticed her come down until now, again using her odd way of knowing everything that I was ever thinking.

“Oh, it’s nothing, just excited to see Alan again. I haven’t seen him since before I left… and I’m kind of nervous to meet the rest of the guys, though. Mainly Austin, but you know how I get when I met them for the first time.” Anna had told me a lot about him, saying really nice things, like how the two of us would get along, but I still had my doubts, as I did with everyone else.

“Don’t worry about that until later. Let’s just take a walk on Paradise, eat some of Liza’s waffles, and drink some fantastic coffee.” She grabbed my hand and practically dragged me towards where Vic and Teddy were sitting and chatting. The sun was rising behind them and he had her lifted over his head, spinning around in a circle. I don’t even want to know what brought that on

---

“No, no, no, no, no! That is not the best song by far! They have so many better ones! The Great Hendowski, Second and Sebring, Purified! All so much better than Ohioisonfire! I can’t believe that’s your favorite.”

“No way, have you not listened to The Ballad of Tommy Clayton and The Rawdawg Millionaire?”

“O.G. Loko, end of story!”

This was our talk after we had finished watching the sunrise and eating our breakfast. We got to talking about what song we most wanted to hear live. This conversation had gone on for an hour.

“How about we not talk about it, and just say that every song is amazing, and go swimming before we have to leave in twenty minutes?” Teddy said. Wait, Teddy said that?

“Teddy, how did you even know we have to leave in twenty minutes? You’re never one to keep up with these things.” Vic asked, looking dumbstruck. Anna and I were chuckling quietly to ourselves at the look on her face.

Teddy just shrugged. “Well, it’s a big day and I got this wonderful device called a watch, from Harry and Ginny last week.” With that he took off his shirt, and ran head first into the ocean.

The three of us looked at each other, laughing, and agreed. “Why the hell not? We’ve got twenty minutes.”