The Flood

“You guys, we’re almost there, so why don’t you shut the fuck up!” Anna yelled one last time, mainly at Teddy, seeing as his voice was the one that was carrying the most.

“But but but!” The whimpering came from Teddy. He and I were in a heated battle over who would win in a fight between Merlin or Salazar Slytherin wearing The Lost Diadem. I was still all for Merlin.“Yes ma’am, Sargent Slaughter, ma’am.” I mumbled under my breath.

“Call me Sargent Slaughter again and I’ll remind him of the ‘Strawberry Incident.” Anna threatened. As a small, quiet girl you’d never think she could act like this, but put her in SoCal traffic and throw in her seeing Alan today, she was really stressed. So I shut up.

“What’s the Strawberry Incident?” Teddy and Vic asked curiously. “And who’s him?” We still hadn’t told them why we had to leave early that day.

“Teddy, haven’t we had this discussion about not asking questions that you know you’ll never get the answer to? Vic, no, it is not something that is to be talked about. EVER.” I told them. We were NOT talking about that horrible day. Here’s a gist of it; four gallons of strawberries, Alan and I, and a dare. The results weren’t pretty. They grumbled unhappily in the back.

As we pulled in, we were stopped by some aging security guard in an orange vest. “You the special VIP group? We were told to expect a group of four in a car similar to this.” He asked.

Anna smiled. “Yeah, that’s us. Can you help us get to where we’re supposed to park?”

“We have that covered, ma’am. Just park right here and grab all your stuff and follow me.”

So, we grabbed our bags. Mine was a giant pocketbook, containing several emergency items, water, and recreational activities. I didn’t know what all Vic had in her bag, but the contents belonged to not only her, but Teddy also, so there was no telling what the kid brought. Anna, being the smartest, only brought a small bag with a charm cast on it to keep her water cold. I loved my sister. We got in a personal golf cart and he drove us to where the busses were. “We were told to bring you here to drop off anything that you wouldn’t want to carry around. Here are your passes to get back here anything you need.” The guy said as he handed us our passes.

We got off the cart and started wandering around aimlessly, but Anna took charge and led us in the general direction of Alan. He had told her where to meet him.

“Special VIP? I didn’t know they had such a thing.”

“How did they get it?” Teddy and Vic were going back and forth trying to figure this out.

Anna and I turned around simultaneously. “You will find the answers to all your questions in due time.” Apparently this freaked out Teddy and he was not hiding behind Vic.

“Get out from behind her, you dolt.” I told him.

He poked his head out from behind her. “But that was creepy.”

“Wimp.”

All of a sudden I hear something yelled from behind a bus. “Oh Mistress of the Night, have you found your way back to me?” I dropped all my things.

“Of course, my dear Loki! The night will always find a way back to her favorite man of mischief.” I almost shouted as I ran down the line of busses looking for him. He was behind one of the last ones, and jumped out before I realized, so I tackled him.

“God, woman, is it really necessary for you to attack me? It’s only been two years since you last saw me.” Of course the first sentence he says to me is a tease.

“You’re doing too much teasing, and not enough hugging.” He took this as an acceptable response and picked me up off the ground, spinning me in a circle.

“Who is she hugging?” Teddy asked.

“That isn’t?” Vic spoke up.

“Who else could it be?” Anna answered.

“Oi! You two dolts, yes it is. Anna, you think they haven’t figured it out yet?” I yelled towards them after Alan put me down.

Anna calmly walked up to Alan and gave him a polite hug. I wanted to shout, ‘What is this nonsense? You should be even happier to see him than I am. You love him, you just don’t realize it yet.’ I refrained, and just gave Alan a look. Teddy and Vic were still whispering and in general shock. They couldn’t believe that I had just practically assaulted and had witty banter with the guy Teddy looked up to in music. I took out my wand and hexed them so the concrete would feel really hot unless they were moving really fast. That was a great creation of ours, Alan and I, when Anna would be taking too long to get ready.

“Ow. Frick. Ow. Bloody hell, you crazy bint.” Teddy yelled while running so fast it looked like his feet weren’t touching the ground.

Vic, being her, wasn’t bothered with the hex. I used it on her often so she had created a counter-curse to where it made it feel like pleasant heat. What she was concerned about was the fact that I had pulled out my wand. She was good at nonverbal and wand-less magic, so she didn’t need either to do the counter-curse.

“Did you just pull out your wand and use magic in front of a muggle?!” She yelled quietly as she practically stormed up to me. At this point Alan decided to jump in.

“It’s cool, random chick, I know about everything. Was quite good at it, myself, seeing as I helped create that spell.”

I think that was the moment Teddy and Anna felt the need to join the conversation, because Teddy’s face was priceless. “You… know… you… are?!” Was all he managed to get out.

“Teddy Remus Lupin, chill the fuck out. You can have your freak out later. Now is the time for introductions. Alan, the blubbering idiot you see here is Teddy. He’s a bit damaged, but he was a Puff. The woman behind the puppet strings-“ At that point Teddy had regained some of his composure only to hear me say that and start a string of “I wear the pants in the relationship” and other manly sayings that only he could hear. “-of the blubbering idiot is Victorie Nicole Weasley. Vic, Idiot, meet Alan. He went to Salem with me before I transferred to Hogwarts, and is now the current guitarist for your favorite band.”

At that comment, Alan appeared dumbstruck. “Wait, you listen to the band? But how did you even know? We hardly talked after that happened.”

“Dear Alan, as much as you like to pretend you don’t love my sister, and even if you lost contact with me, you’d never lose contact with her, and she told me about it, so I started listening. Even came to one of your shows out in England.”

“But you didn’t stay after and talk to me. If I had any way of knowing how to get in touch with you, I would have.”

“Alan, I had to sneak out of a castle and apparate to the show. Do you know how tricky that was not to get caught? I wanted to talk really bad, but I couldn’t afford to lose my badge.”

“Your badge?” He asked. My personality from Salem was a bit more mischievous than how I acted at Hogwarts. He didn’t know that Vic and I split the Head Girl duties my last year.

“I have a lot to tell you when I have the chance, kiddo,” I told him. “But don’t you have somewhere that we lovely females would be able to put our things since they took Anna’s car?” I said, loud enough for them to know it was time to start moving again.

“Do we have to move? I don’t want to move.” Apparently Teddy had charmed a piece of concrete to be cold and was laying on it.

“Teddy, I will hex you if you don’t get your ass up.” It was a simultaneous threat from not only myself and Vic, but Anna as well. I had never seen that boy move so fast in my life.

“Wow, you really haven’t changed, and I see you have found your kind.” Alan said as he pushed me.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna hope I can say the same for you and that you aren’t out there just making a fool of yourself, being all ginger and shit.” I quickly retorted.

As we were walking I fell out of step with Alan and Anna to talk to Vic and Teddy.

“Alright, I know you guys have a lot of questions, but now isn’t the time. I’ve known Alan all my life. That’s how we got the special VIP treatment, and just so you know, we’re gonna meet the rest of the band." Cue incoherent spluttering from Teddy. “Teddy, you’re going to have to remember to use your vocabulary. You may have been a Puff, but you’re dating a Ravenclaw.” I told him.

“What color should my hair be? Blue? Pink? Black? Yellow? Orange? Purple?!” Teddy was saying and changing his appearance as he rambled off.

“Teddy! Not the time! Just go brown.” I huffed at him.

Vic just looked at me. “A hell of a lot to explain when we get back to Eliza’s tonight.” She looked a bit hurt that I never mentioned Alan to her.

“Hey, I never mentioned it because it was supposed to be a surprise for you two. I’ll explain everything at home. But we really need to catch up with him or I’ll start getting hell for hanging out with you two when I see you more than him. And Teddy, try to be normal and remember Alan is the only one who knows about magic so keep it to only around him, or when we’re alone.” I said, then dragged them up to Alan and Anna.

“No, that was not the stupidest thing I ever did! I do say The Strawberry Incident was.” Of course I walked up at this part in the ritual; I still haven’t done anything as stupid as that ritual between the two of them.

“We do NOT talk about that!” I shouted from right behind him, effectively scaring him. Win for me.

“Jesus, I didn’t know you were still so sensitive about that.” He mocked.

“You will never know such a hell as that I went through on that day.” I said, as I shuddered. Why did people keep bringing that blasted day up? Urgh.

“Well, you girls, and Teddy, we are at our stop. Now, I want you at all know something. Phil and Tino are asleep so we gotta be chill,” Cue more whimpers and generally excited puppy-ness activity from Teddy. Really, what was with him today? “But Austin’s up cause he was excited to meet someone.” That last sentence was given directly toward me.

Ah fuck. I had almost forgotten that I had to meet him, and it’s not that I was nervous, like Teddy nervous; it’s just that Anna had said Alan told him so much about me, and Anna’s told him so much about him. What if I don’t live up to what Alan’s told him? What if he’s completely different than the way Anna explained him to me? Ahhh!!! Insert mental pep talk here. I’m still too hyped up from seeing Alan to think long enough to give myself a pep talk.“Lead the way, oh dear mischief.” I said, pulling out the old nickname I had created for him when we realized my namesake was the Goddess of Night.

---

“Hey, Auuusstiiinnnn. Lemme in, I got some presents for you.” Alan said, standing outside of the door. I told him to carry mine and Anna’s things so we didn’t have to, and his hands were full. There was a distinct shuffling towards the door.

“Is it presents of giant bags of candy? Or monster?” Austin said jokingly from the other side of the door.

“No, it’s people, now open the door before I fall over.” The boy really forgot about patience in my absence. I’d need to remind him later.

I couldn’t right then, though, my mind was going in over-drive. He’s over six feet tall; I’m barely five-one, five-two. What if my hair doesn’t look nice today? I just left it to its devices and after getting dyed red so many times, it just has its own mind now. Oh god, I’m not wearing make-up, what if he thinks I’m ugly?

“Hey Nyx, chill the fuck out.” Anna and Alan whisper-yelled at me. I shot them the bird.

That’s when the door opened. Dear goddess, this man was tall, and so freaking attractive. Maybe it’s the tattoos? Maybe it’s his smile? Maybe it’s the nose piercing? Maybe it’s the eyes? It’s all of them, in one goofy dork; well that’s what Anna has told me. After that little mental rant I was pushed up the steps to keep moving. Once we were in it was just like an RV; a couch in the living room/kitchen/bathroom area and a main bedroom area and bunks. It’s so cool to see all this.

Introduction time. I guess this is my turn to do this. “Well I guess it’s time for introductions. Austin, I’m sure Alan’s told you about me, maybe not by name more like ‘evil-bitch,’ that used to be his favorite. Though mine for him was giantfuck-tard. My actual name is Nyx, yes like the goddess of Night. Right beside me is my sister, Anna. Her and Alan secretly love each other but are too shy to do anything about it.” At that they both turned a bright red and mumbled something along the lines of ‘no I’m not.’ “The awesome blonde girl over there is Victorie, and then there’s Teddy, the blubbering wonder-idiot. I’m also convinced he acts like an over-excited puppy half the time but that’s probably just me. Oh! And Vic and Teddy are together.”

Alan then takes over. “Anna, Nyx, Teddy and Vic; this is Austin. He’s pretty chill. I’m sure you’ll get along fine. Oh Tino and Phil are asleep, so you’ll meet them later.”

“Austin’s gonna show you where your sleeping tonight.” Alan said.

“Ooookay. Wait what sleeping?” I asked, confused.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Austin and Alan are letting us crash in here tonight that way we can hang out with them after and party and we can drink!” Anna piped up.

“Well okay then, that’s cool. Lead the way, Austin.” I said. What I thought was, ‘HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK, WHERE THE HELL AM I GOING TO BE SLEEPING? SCOOT OVER ALAN YOU’RE SHARING! DON’T MAKE ME DO WHAT I THINK YOU’RE TRYING TO MAKE ME DO. BASTARD!’ End mental freak out.

Austin moved from behind Alan and asked him what stuff was mine so he could carry it for me. Aw, he’s sweet too. Wait, no, pace yourself, Nyx, do not start doing this now, and don’t let that happen again. Bad me.

“Would you like to be escorted to your quarters for the night?” Austin asked, laughing, and held out his arm for me to take. Ah, what the hell, he’s cute.

“Why yes I would. Thank you, dear sir.” I said, laughing as I put my arm through his.

“You look mighty comfortable there, you two. Now don’t do anything I wouldn’t.” Alan yelled to us from across the room where he was talking to Anna, Teddy and Vic. Oh! Yay, they’re getting along. What he got in response was getting flipped off by the both of us. Okay, this is weird; Alan picks on him as much as he does me. Whoa.

“So, how did you and Alan meet Nyx?” Austin asked as we made our way to the bunk area.

“Oh, our moms were best friends when we were kids. We got thrown together a lot then and we went to the same school from the time we were 11 until only 2 years ago. Then I moved to England with my parents.” I explained. Wow, it was easy to talk to him. It has never been this easy to talk to a guy that’s not Teddy or Alan. Odd.

“That’s funny. Have any embarrassing Alan stories you might mind sharing later?” He joked.

“Oh, you have no idea. We did so many embarrassing things when we went to boarding school together. We pulled pranks out the ass, got drunk as piss a lot, just making fools of ourselves in general. And I will totally tell you some good blackmail stories later.” I said.

“Hell yeah. Well here we are, this is your bed for the night.” He said, sliding a curtain to reveal a bunk with a computer, Star Wars pictures, and a picture of what looked like a young Austin and his mom. “I hope you don’t mind sleeping in mine. Alan’s insisting on giving Anna his, and Teddy and Vic are getting the couch.”

“Oh? Well where are you gonna sleep? I know Alan’s gonna purposely stay in there with her until she falls asleep so he can sleep in there too without getting in much trouble.” I asked. I didn’t want him sleeping on the floor or on the couch with Teddy and Vic.

“Oh, I haven’t thought about that yet.” He said with a look of deep concentration; his brown eyes just looked focused on something. He needs to stop being so attractive.

“I mean, I don’t mind sharing. I don’t move around much when I sleep, and it is your bunk anyways.” I said, keeping my eyes anywhere but his face so I could force that out without sounding nervous. Dammit, Alan, why did you have to do this to me? You know what happened, I can’t just jump into this. Grr, you fucking ginger.

“Well yeah, I guess that’s cool. Are you sure? I mean it’s fine with me but if you’re not comfortable with it, I don’t have to.” He said in a rush.

“Yeah its fine, I don’t mind.” I said, keeping my face away from him and setting my things down on the bunk/bed.

“Cool.” He said, letting out a breath. “I promise it won’t be as awkward as that conversation was. I heard I’m good company.”

“Oh thank god, and as far as I can tell, other than that minor awkward moment, you’re pretty entertaining to keep around.” I said, laughing at him and glad that tension was gone. But it’s not like it was a bad tension. It was just shy awkward tension.

“So what do you want to do for the next few hours? Gates don’t open ‘til 11 and it’s hardly 8 right now.” He said, climbing into the bunk and patting the space beside him. I took this as an invitation to come sit, so I sat. “And we already have all the press done; it was our job this morning which is why we could get you guys here earlier.”

“Well I do say, if you would hand me my bag I have something, as I heard from Anna who apparently heard from Alan, to contribute to ‘Stoneywankenobi.” I said as he handed it to me. “Yes, they have communicated to me about you. But I heard you like to smoke?” I said quietly.

“Let me do something before we light that up,” He said nodding to what I had just pulled out. He closed the curtains, turned on his fan, and opened his window. “ So that way Alan the hog doesn’t smell anything and, so he doesn’t annoy us while we smoke. They’re the ones pushing us to spend some ‘quality time’ as Alan told me, and we can have fun while we’re at it.” He said smiling to himself.

“Well don’t you look pleased with yourself? Or is this all some elaborate plan to get me all to yourself” I said while leaning up, laughing.

“Of course, you caught me! Damn. Remember, you did fall for it.” He said while laughing.

“Well this is true, so I guess I’ll stay.” I stuck my tongue out at him and leaned back. “So explain your things to me. I’m sure there is some explanation for everything in here.”

“Really? Why start off with that?” He asked while I was lighting our… recreational activity.

“Well, I thought it would be a good way to get to know you better. Start off on something easy like this.” I said.

“Well okay, the reason why there is so much Star Wars stuff is because it’s my favorite movie..”--“And finally the picture of me and my mom. She was the most important person to me when I was younger. She died when I was 17… I miss her so much. It’s weird not having her around all the time.” He finally stopped. I could tell he didn’t want talk about that so I didn’t push it. He’d been talking to me, explaining everything in his bunk, from why his sheets were that certain color, (blue reminded him of the ocean, and that was his favorite place to be) to why Star Wars was his favorite movie. (It was his dad’s favorite and he watched it when he was a little kid. He had loved it ever since.) He covered the small things, like his favorite color, how tall he was, his favorite food, his tattoos. “Now, it’s your turn to do all the talking, tell me about you.” He said after a minute.

“Well I was born in SoCal, and my parents worked for some government thing. Anna is one year older than me. I think that she’s prettier; she can pull off any color she wants to. I don’t even remember her natural hair color. Hell I can’t remember mine cause it’s been getting dyed red since I was 13. Alan was my best friend from the time we were babies. He’s always gonna be Loki to me.” At this comment Austin looked at me funny. “I’ll explain. When we figured out my namesake was a goddess he made up his mind that he had to be a god ‘cause I couldn’t be more important than he was so he looked up a bunch of different mythology and finally chose Loki. I’ll always remember his reason, ‘cause mischief is best created at night.’ I met Teddy and Vic when my parents got sent to England to work at the Embassy. Anna stayed here, though. Teddy’s more of a kid than he is an adult. Vic keeps him in good shape most of the time but what can I say? He’s a puff. Oh, we have houses at our school and he was in the ‘idiot’ house. Vic and I are Claws the ‘nerdy’ house. Alan will never believe that ‘cause I changed so much when I first got to England. Things were different; I didn’t have my best friends, so I focused on school at stuff from the moment I got there. I was one of two Head Girls there, Vic was the other….”

For a good 10 minutes I sat there, just talking. I explained the small things, like why I’m afraid of spiders, what my favorite things were, how close Alan and I were, the trouble we got into as kids, My relationship with Anna, Vic and Teddy.

--

“Think they fell asleep.” Huh? What’s Alan talking about? Asleep? Wait, who do these arms that are around me belong too? Is that? Then I remembered. My after-nap disorientation was over. I remembered after talking so much, we played some game I fell asleep and I guess Austin had too. When I fell asleep he was still playing that game. Oh well. I just lay there with my eyes closed. I wanna see how nosey Alan and the gang are going to be.

“Don’t talk so loud. If they did you don’t want to wake them up, it’s only 9:50, they can sleep some.” Vic said.

“Don’t go in there making fun of her, Alan. You know how she is after what happened 4th year. Let her have this right now before you ruin it.” Anna said.

“What happened 4th year?” Teddy asked.

“Nothing,” Anna and Alan said at the same time, but only Anna continued. “If she wanted you to know she’d tell you. She doesn’t talk about it much. Or at all, and that’s what’s best for her.”

“Oh, okay.” Vic said quietly, and then her and Teddy headed off somewhere else.

Alan finally sighed. “Okay, since you brought that up, I won’t mess with them, but I’m not going to let her live it down when they emerge.”

After that I drifted off into another small nap. Hey, I was gonna get what I could while Alan was leaving me alone.

---

I felt shifting from behind me and some movement on the bed. God it was so warm. Wait? Why is it getting cold all of a sudden? Oh yeah, Austin might be moving and trying not to wake me up.

“Oi, you tattooed man, you’re taking away the heat.” I said as I curled up in a ball.

“I’m sorry, but it is 10:30. I do say it is time for us to get moving. We don’t play until last so Alan and I will get to show you around until about 7:30 when you’ll come with us to warm up and you’ll get to stand side stage for our show.” Austin said while brushing his hair.

“Well alright, but damn, I don’t wanna move. It’s so warm.” I said while getting out from under the covers.

“Don’t worry about that. Wait until you go outside. It’s hot as hell. I heard Phil and Tino come in saying something about it, that’s why I woke up. Oh fuck. We are never going to live this down you know that right?” He said, suddenly realizing that Alan will take the mickey out of us for falling asleep.

“I never expected that he would. I’ll just give him hell about Anna.” I said as I dug through my bag for my favorite shirt, which so happened to be my OM&M tank that I had cut the sides out of and used some of the fabric to put a piece at my hips so I stay cool, and thank god for already being in my bathing suit. I know Alan too well. He likes surprise water attacks.

I waited, then I heard it the small squeaking of trying to turn on the water.

“Alan! Don’t even think about filling up that water gun! I will hurt you if you come near me with that right now!” I shouted towards where I knew he was.

“You take the fun out of everything.” That was the only part of his response I heard, which was probably a good thing for him.

Austin looked at me. “How did you know? Oh and I’m gonna change shirts. I hope you don’t mind.”

“I’ve known him my whole life; we tend to think about the same thing at the same time.” Aren’t I a repetitive one?

“And I honestly don’t care because I need to change shirts from the car ride shirt to my shirt I didn’t want to get dirty.”

His face went red. So I just set to changing my shirt, after getting it on I realized, I needed to put on my sofees. Did I really want to do that in front of him? Ah fuck it. “Also, I need to change into my other shorts so if you don’t wanna be around you can leave but I’m going to do it in front of you if you stay.”

His face went even redder with no sign of leaving, so I changed. “Oh stop blushing so much. Don’t be a prude.” I told him as I took the hair brush from him and brushed my hair.

“I am not a prude! And give that back it’s mine.” He pouted.

“You’re face says otherwise. It’s as red as the rest of the Weasley’s hair. Oh, that’s Vic’s family; they’re a small army of gingers.” I laughed at him and opened the curtain. Things really got quiet in there after I did that.
He leaned up and then decided to put his shirt on. I shoved him “Way to make it look like a lot more had happened than it did, loser.” I stuck my tongue out at him as he got up and helped me up.

“He was gonna give us hell either way. I wanted to have fun with it. But alas, your escort awaits to take you up to the front of the bus.” Did he really just say that like it didn’t matter and then pull the cheesy stuff? He better be glad he’s cute.

“Be glad you’re cute or else you wouldn’t get away with this.” I huffed at him, took his arm. “But very well. I shall let you escort me to the front of the bus”

“Of course you think I’m cute.”--- “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Mr. and Mrs. Forget about everyone else, it’s ‘nap time.’” As Alan said this there was air quotes around nap time. “Or was it more like sex time?” He got an empty water battle to the head from yours truly.

“Well that’s all good and lovely but there are more introductions to be made. Phil, Tino, this is Nyx. She’s Alan’s good friend.” At this point both Alan and I interrupted Austin to yell ‘BEST FRIEND’ at him. “Okay, best friend then. Nyx that’s Tino,” He said, pointing to the one with drum sticks in his hand with long hair. “And that’s Phil.” He said, then pointing to a Mexican looking guy, they waved, I waved back.

“Well,” Teddy said, getting up and bringing Vic, who brought along Anna, who brought along Alan. It was like dominos; one rewind and they’re standing each other up. “Isn’t it time for us to go see all this music?!”

There was a general noise of agreement and goodbyes. Tino and Phil were gonna stay in the bus a little longer, so Alan, Anna, Teddy, Vic, Austin and I all headed out for the start of the greatest day of our lives.