The Flood

When I woke up, I was extremely warm, and my hair was all over the place. There was what seemed to be a shirtless, and very toned, male using me as his own personal teddy bear. And then I remembered. I had to share the bunk with Austin last night. I slowly tried moving, careful not to disturb Austin. In response, he just pulled me closer to him, and I swear he said something along the lines of ‘don’t move you’re fluffy.’ What a great way to start the morning. Getting told I’m fluffy.

I realized that I was pretty much stuck until Austin decided that I wasn’t not fluffy enough for him anymore, which didn’t seem to be anytime soon. Bored, I quietly pulled out my wand and transfigured a piece of paper from my pocketbook into an alarm clock.

“Get up, you lazy assholes and go do something fun!” It began to yell in a high pitched voice. I fiddled with it a little as I heard Alan whisper-shout from the next bunk.

“Hey, Nyx! How long until that alarm goes off?”

“In about two minutes.” I smiled.

“How rude is it gonna be?”

“Very.” I respond. He chuckled. I put my wand back in my bag so that there were no odd questions later. Two wonderfully short minutes later.

“GET UP OFF YOUR ASSES AND STOP BEING LAZY FUCKS!” Oops. I set the wording wrong.

“OH GOD WHY!?” Austin yelled.

“What the HELL?!?!?!” Teddy shouted next, and then Vic.

“Who set the demon clock?”

Those were a few of the responses. I’ll always say it was totally worth it.

“VENUS NYX WINTERBURN IF YOU DO NOT CUT THAT GODDAMN DEMON CLOCK OFF I SWEAR I WILL GET UP AND AK YOUR ASS INTO THE NEXT FOUR LIFETIMES.” My sister was a very violent person when woken up in the morning. I shut off the alarm quickly.

“Why did you set that god awful thing?” Austin asked.

“Well, I had to pee and it was a fun way to wake you up. Oh, and you called me fluffy.” I smiled as I jumped up and ran to the bathroom.

Brushing my hair was a difficult task. It was always so tangled in the mornings. I finally finished, though. I brushed my teeth and left the bathroom. I received glares, mainly from Anna, as I walked out. It was still worth it.

“I didn’t call you fluffy!”

“You totally called me fluffy when I was trying to get up without waking you up. Your exact words were ‘No don’t move you’re fluffy.’” I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Well we have to get going soon, don’t we?” Vic asked Anna. She knew all the details.

“Yeah I guess so.”

“Hey! Best friend, I gots something for you before you leave. Follow.” Alan said.

“Uhm. Okay?” I followed him to his bunk and he was digging through some bags of random shit, and then finally found was he was looking for. He put it behind his back before I could see it.

“So, I got you this. Eliza already knows what it is and everything is taken care of, but here it is.” He pulled out the box, opened it, and in it was a muggle mobile.

“Alan, I can’t take this.” I had issues with really expensive gifts, and this was a really expensive phone.

“Too bad. Austin, Tino, Phil, mine, and every other number that Anna could put in here that she knew you would need to use is in there. It’s for your graduation. I know it might not work in some magic areas that you’re gonna be at in England, but this way you can always keep in touch with me.”

“I love you Alan,” I said, and then started to whisper. “By the way, I have a job interview with the Ministry over there and my job is out in SoCal. Vic’s aunt Hermione pulled a favor as a graduation present. No one else knows yet, just you me and Hermione.” I hugged him.

“Wow! I’m so proud of you! I love you as well. Just keep in touch okay? I know you’ll be close but once I’m on tour I might not be. Come on, let me show you something while we walk back up there.” He showed me this video calling thing on the phone that way I could talk to him when he was on tour.

“It’s time for chu to go!” Austin shouted and walked out the door of the bus. Tino and Phil had probably fallen back asleep. They slept a lot.

“Alan, are Tino and Phil asleep?”

“Yeah, why?”

I pulled out my wand. “Accio Nyx’s things.” My things began to fly toward me, and I shot a spell at them which had them organizing themselves.

“Oh, that’s why.”

“I’m lazy, I can’t help it. Well, everyone else is outside to see us off. Let us be gone!” I jumped on his back and he ran toward the door and jumped off the steps.

---

“BYE I LOVE YOU! REMEMBER YOU HAVE A PHONE NOW TO CALL ME!” Alan yelled at me as we were pulling off.

“When you come back bring his sanity with you?” Austin asked.

I leaned out the window. “Alan I love you! And Austin, I might!” I’d done way too much yelling in the past day. I needed to ask Vic if there was a potion or spell that would make sure no damage was done to my vocal cords. I leaned back in. “Hey Vic? Is there a potion or spell that will make sure no damage was done to my vocal chords from all the yelling that I’ve done in the past two days?”

She pulled out a smaller bag, the beaded bag, and it was a gift from Hermione. That thing was bottomless. She dug and dug and dug, then finally got out a huge book and started rummaging through it. “I’ll let you know if I find anything.” She said this as she started flipping through pages like they were on fire.

The rest of the car ride was just relaxing. We had on music, we talked, we ate, and I napped. “Oi! Nyx!” Vic said hitting me upside the head.

“Ow that hurt.” I rubbed my head. “But what?”

“Well, there’s a spell to see if there’s any damage but no spell or potion for helping damage, which I’m going to owl Roxanne.” She was another one of Vic’s cousin, who graduated with us and was now working in experimental potions, “I’m sure she’ll find a way to make it happen.”

--

*One month later*

--

I was working in my room. I had painted the walls bright yellow, and just finished working on four navy blue picture frames. The one for Alan was the biggest, the one for Vic was almost as big, Anna’s was the same size as Alan’s, the Wotters + Teddy one was almost as big Vic’s. I was proud of them. I flicked my wand and all the furniture grew to its normal size.

“Hey Nyx?” Teddy popped his head into my room. “I have a question, but it’s really personal. You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to.”

“Come in here.” He walked inside and took it all in.

“Nice room, but it’s about something Anna said while you and Austin were asleep at Warped.” He looked down at my bed, which he had seated himself on.

“Oh Teddy, are you talking about my Fourth year at Salem?”

“Yeah,” He was mumbling, which meant he was nervous. “They said it wasn’t anything I should ask about, but the way Anna mentioned it, it sounded really bad and you know how much I worry about you.”

“Teddy come here,” he scooted closer to me. I hugged him. “I know, which is why I’m gonna tell you, but first we need Vic and Anna in here, that way Vic can know, too and Anna can tell you about what she knows.” I got up. “Stay put while I go get them.”

“Yes ma’am.”

I walked out the door and went downstairs where I found both Vic and Anna sitting on the patio outside the living room. “Hey you two, come up to my room for a few minutes.”

“Why?” Vic asked.

“I’m gonna tell you and Teddy something, but go on up he’s in there right now.” She went on inside and up the stairs “Anna, I’m telling them about fourth year.”

“Why are you doing that? You know you shouldn’t be talking about it.”

“I know, I know, but Teddy asked, and before you say anything he told me before he asked that it was really personal and that I didn’t have to answer it if I didn’t want to. I owe them this. You mentioned it around them and Teddy was going to worry himself to death over it. I’ve known them for two years and I know they’re trustworthy.”

“Fine, whatever you say but that means you need to tell Austin sometime soon. I know you two have been talking a lot. Don’t even try to deny it, 'cause I know you’ve been talking to him almost as much as you have Alan.”

“Alright alright, I’ll tell him when the time is right, okay?”

When we got to my room, Vic and Teddy were on my bed, so we sat in front of them.

“What’s this about?”

“Vic, I’m going to tell you about my 4th year at Salem, which was the worst year I could have ever dreamed of.” I began. “Ok so here goes. Fourth year started out like any other. Alan and I pulled pranks, we got in trouble, we did everything together. It was to the point where I had a mini-trunk in his dorm 'cause I’d stay there most of the time. Well, one day Alan and I got into a little argument. It wasn’t anything big, but it turned into it. After we had gotten into it, I went walking around and was looking for Anna to talk to, but I couldn’t find her. So I was sitting in one of the hallways, upset, and this guy sat down beside me and starting talking to me. His name was Blake Ehr. If I had known that at the time I would have gotten up and left, but I didn’t and I was upset. Blake was the one guy that Alan never got along with, and since you two have now met Alan, you see how odd that is. He was the one who got me over what Alan had said that night, but he also got me to thinking that Alan was doing some stuff that I didn’t agree with, and that Anna had known and been keeping it from me. The next day I blew up at both of them, calling them liars and saying some stuff that I never meant, and that I regret to this day. Blake and I had gotten close so we started going out. When we first started dating everything was great, it was ‘perfect’ and everything a relationship should be. That changed, one day I had mentioned something about missing Alan and Anna. I hadn’t talked to them since I blew up which wasn’t something I could do under normal circumstances, and he well… he hit me saying that I shouldn’t miss people who lied to me. At the time, we were a month or two into the relationship. After that I learned not to mention either of them in front of him again. He had apologized for hitting me, saying that he didn’t mean to, that he was just upset that I was considering to talk to them again. I had thought it was an honest mistake, but little by little everything I did became wrong and he kept hitting me. I never told anyone about it then. By the time we had been dating six months he was hitting me every day, and emotionally abusing me as well, telling me that I would be nothing without him. I believed him too, that’s the sad part. Then one day, he just dumped me. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t talk to Alan about it, or Anna. So I sat in my dorm at nights, only coming out for meals and class. I cut myself.”

At this point I was crying. It was hard to talk about but I had to do it. They deserved it. I pulled up my sleeve and removed the glamor charm that I had on it. The scars appeared .They were deep, ugly, some pink, some white, and others were raised where they hadn’t healed properly. “It was something that I thought was helping me. It was, to a point, but not in the way I needed help. During one of the worst nights, it had been almost a month since Blake and I broke up, and that night I was considering suicide, and I would have done it.” I showed them the worst scar of them all; I lifted up my hair and necklaces and then showed them the thin line that went from right behind my ear all the way around my neck to the other ear. “I had done this. If it was even a millimeter deeper I would have died instantly, but it wasn’t. I hadn’t gone to classes or dinner that week, I never noticed Alan watching me while we ate or during class, but he noticed this, and came up to my dorm. He found me covered in blood and picked me up and ran me to the Hospital wing of Salem. Alan literally saved my life. I owe that boy more than he knows.” I finished with tears rolling down my face and I had to lean into Anna. She hugged me and rubbed circles into my back. Vic had tears coming down her face and Teddy just looked, I don’t know how to describe it, almost broken.

“We knew Nyx and Blake broken up. We didn’t know why, but we were worried. We figured that if Nyx wanted to talk to us she would, that she needed her time. So we waited for her, then Alan noticed one day she wasn’t in class. I had thought nothing about it, so I kept eating, but then every day she wasn’t in class, we got more worried and more worried. It was a full week since she’d been out of her dorm. So Alan and I went to go check on her, I waited in the 4th year common room while he went to get her, when he came back out it was the worst thing I had ever seen, and Alan’s face, god, it broke my heart. He was so worried about her. I’ve never seen him focus like that ever since. He loves her; no one would ever challenge that. We took her to the Hospital Wing then Madam Trice told Alan that if he had gotten there later she would have died. Madame Trice did everything she could, and luckily she reduced the scar to that and was giving Nyx blood replenishing potion and everything else that she needed, Nyx was in the Hospital for two weeks after that, they had to keep her under watch. In case she tried to commit suicide again.”

“Alan refused to leave my side during the whole time. He had gotten the teachers to start coming during their planning periods and teaching us what we had missed. If any other student had done what he did they would have suspended them, but in first year both Mom and Alan’s mom sent a letter to the headmistress saying that if something ever happened to one of us that we would not leave each other’s side until we knew they were better and that there was nothing they would do that would change that, not even magic. When we were little if one of us got hurt, we wouldn’t leave the other one, one of Alan’s aunt tried to magically force us apart and it didn’t work. Apparently our bond was way too strong to break. But that’s it. That’s why I never dated in Hogwarts. That’s why I only talked to the Wotters’ and Teddy. I’m always going to be real hesitant to trust people now because of that.”

“Wow. I just… wow. I’m sorry.” Vic couldn’t process all this information, so she just hugged me.

Teddy had no words; he couldn’t do anything but sit there, and I had to do something about it.

“Hey Anna, Vic? Let me talk to just Teddy for a bit?”

“Yeah sure, whatever you need. I’ll talk to Vic and help her understand.” Anna said. She got Vic, and they went downstairs.

“Teddy, listen to me. That was fourth year, I’m better now. I can promise you that I haven’t cut since the last night I spent at Salem. I’m not going into that because it’s not my story to tell. But I’m always going to be the girl who helped you not get killed by the Whomping Willow, the girl you did most of your transfiguration homework.”

“I just don’t understand. You’ve always seemed the strongest out of everyone I know, even Harry, and that’s saying a lot. You’ve never broken down, you keep everything the way it should be and you make sure everyone is always happy.”

“I still am. Fourth year was three, almost four years ago. Yes, it’s still hard to talk about, which is why I never told you about it. I am the person I am now because of what happened then. That’s why I make sure every one of my friends know just how much I love them. I know that probably at any moment if I get even remotely near to where I was mentally then, that I’ll relapse. I can’t have that. I don’t need that. Come look at this.” I dragged him off the bed and to his picture frame. “Do you see all those pictures? Of the people who took the most care of me in England? This family and you made sure, even though you didn’t know it, that I never got back to that point.I could never thank you enough for that. Now I’m going to call Alan, seeing as it is the time he told me to call him today. I love you Teddy. and tell Vic I love her too. Now go make wedding plans with her.”

“Alright, thank you for telling me. And I’ll make sure you never get back to that place again.” He hugged me and then left my room.

I went over to my bed and fell back onto it. That took a lot out of me.

“NYX! Answer your phone! It’s your bestest friend ever calling.” I looked over to my ringing phone and answered it.

“Hey! You! Yeah, I had a feeling you were about to call.” He said.

“Alan dear, you know me all too well. Sol I have some stuff to tell you…” I spent the next three and a half hours on the phone with Alan, telling him that I told Vic and Teddy about that, talking about my room, him telling me about how he had to rearrange his bunk walls because he wanted new pictures on it. He talked about the band’s new bassist, Justin, and that Justin had saw the magical pictures of him and I and how he had to make up some bullshit thing that he got them from a special company that was no longer in existence. “So what are you guys doing in two weeks?”

“Uhm, the Wotters- oh, that’s the Weasley/Potter clan, Vic’s family, are coming over sometime, I’m not sure when. Why?”

“Well, I have a surprise for you. So be prepared two weeks from tomorrow for a fantastic surprise.”

“Okay then, weirdo. Way to fail at your attempt to be cryptic.” I heard a knock at my door. “Oi Alan, hold on a second. Someone is requesting entrance into my room, which reminds me, I need to send you a picture of how I re-did it.” I pulled the phone away from my mouth before yelling, “Come in!”

Anna poked her head through the door. “Hey, we’re going out to the beach, wanna come?”

“Yeah sure, I’ll get off the phone and come out in a sec. Go on ahead.” She left and I pulled the phone back to my mouth. “Okay loser, I’m back. It was just Anna telling me that she and the others are going to Paradise.”

“Luckys, I wanna be there.” Alan huffed at me.

“Don’t huff at me sir! But I love you ginger Loki. I’m off to go have a bit of fun before I go to bed, and before you ask, yes, I will keep texting you, and oh, can you put me on speaker for a second and get Austin and Tino within hearing range of the phone please?”

“You know me too well, and yes I can. Austin! Tino! Come here, Nyx wants to tell you something! Okay they’re walking toward me.”

“NYX!”

“Austin, Tino! I adore you both greatly, but I would appreciate it if you DIDN’T blow up my phone when I’m on the phone with Alan. And just so you know, if I stop talking and Alan disappears that means I’m on the phone with him.”

“Okie dokie!” Tino was such a strange dude.

“But I do it on purpose, then!” I heard a whack so I assumed Alan hit Austin.

“Alan, did you hit him?”

“Yup.” I heard Austin whimpering in the background.

“But I’m off to the beach. I will talk to each of you when I’m down there. I love you, Alan!” I hung up. I threw my bathing suit on, grabbed my phone and wand and skipped down to the beach. Today was going to end in a good way. I was determined.