Chapter Text
Rey looked around the platform anxiously, but no sign of him – she sighed and tapped her fingers on her steamer trunk as the Hogwarts Express began to billow out smoke, the horn shrieking shrilly.
“I don’t see him.”
Rey turned and smiled at Obi Wan, who was also assessing the crowd at her side. Her guardian tucked his forefinger under her chin and tilted her head back to smile at her.
“I’m going to miss you, papa.” Rey fell back onto the old name, one she didn’t frequently use these days. Her arms wrapped around his middle, and she buried her face in his soft, brown robes. “I love you.”
“I love you so much, my flower.” Obi Wan kissed the top of her head. “Don’t be so sad. I’m coming to see you at the start of Winter Holiday before I head off.”
“I know.” Rey didn’t pull away and only held him tighter.
“It’s not too late to come with me,” Obi Wan said. “The idea of you spending Christmas alone—”
“No.” Rey shook her head and pulled away, swiping at her cheeks with her long sleeves. “No, papa, you need some alone time with Satine.” She managed to wink suggestively at him through her tears, and Rey giggled when his cheeks turned pink.
“Now, now,” Obi Wan said with faux-sternness. “Satine is a lady. And I shan’t take your crass intimations lying down.”
“Wands at first light.” Rey stuck her tongue out at him, which he copied. It was a hilariously undignified expression for the world’s most famous Auror, retired or not. Obi Wan Kenobi was nearing eighty years old, but he didn’t look a day over fifty. Rey wondered at his secret, honestly.
The train shrieked again, at the same time Obi Wan’s pocket watch rang obnoxiously. He pulled it out and sighed mightily. “That’ll be Calrissian,” he said, snapping the watch face shut. “I must be off. Have a wonderful term, my darling girl. Write me if you need anything.”
“Don’t keep the Minister waiting,” Rey teased, and Obi Wan bopped her on the nose before turning with a swish of his robes and disappearing back out towards King’s Cross.
Obi Wan really had left because he knew Rey hated being the one to leave – it was easier for her to watch him walk away, than for her to willingly leave his side. She smiled sadly at the brick wall that he’d vanished through, and then turned towards the train, lugging her case.
Finn already had a compartment for them, and was waving at her frantically through the window. “Come on, Peanut!” she saw him mouth, the words lost over the roar of the crowd and the engine warming up.
She smiled at a gaggle of nervous looking first-years on her way by, and when one’s bag ripped open, spilling Every Flavor Beans and quills this way and that, Rey knelt to help.
“Th-thank you,” the young boy stammered, and Rey waved him off, reaching over to grab a crystal that had rolled out. Her hand brushed up against someone else’s, and she looked up into a pair of warm, brown eyes.
Poe Dameron had stopped to help as well – of course he did, Mr. Perfect, and yes, that figured, there was the Head Boy badge, gleaming on the front of his robes – and he smirked at her as she stood hastily, snatching the crystal out of his grip.
“Here you go,” she said to the young boy, steadfastly ignoring Poe. “Come find me after the Sorting, and I’ll teach you a charm to make sure your bag doesn’t rip again. I’m in Gryffindor.”
“Thank you!” He squeaked, sprinting towards the train. His friends stared at Rey with equal wonderment, and then over her shoulder, most definitely at Head Boy Dameron (Big Head Dameron, more like). They turned tail and followed the first boy onto the train.
Rey grabbed her trunk again, and found that her path was blocked by Poe.
“You don’t want to miss the train,” he said, his honey-warm voice somehow entirely audible over the noise on the platform, although he spoke quietly.
“I don’t plan to,” Rey snapped, trying to step around him.
“Can I help you with your things?” He smiled at her, not a half-smile this time, but a mega-watt, blindingly bright smile. Rey returned it stiffly and shook her head, yanking her trunk after her and around him.
“No. I can take care of myself, thanks.” Poe didn’t move, so Rey rolled her eyes. “I’m not helpless, Dameron. I’m sure there’s a damsel in distress for you to save elsewhere.”
He had the gall to chuckle and raise his hands, nodding at her. He finally stepped completely out of her way, and Rey huffed as she lugged her (admittedly heavy) trunk up onto the train. She rolled it down the corridor, praying to whichever god was most convenient that Poe hadn’t followed her. A quick glance over her shoulder soothed her worry, and she trundled along until she spotted Finn Trooper’s head poking out from the compartment he’d snagged.
“Peanut!” He roared, pulling her into a hug the second she walked in. Rey laughed, and when he released her, he chucked her trunk overhead for her. Rose Tico, a tiny Ravenclaw in their year, held her arms out for Rey, and she stepped in willingly, smiling as her chin rested on Rose’s head.
“How was your summer?” She asked excitedly. “Mine was great! Paige started Auror training, and I already miss her, but you know, it’ll be nice to have my home away from home! I’m so glad you found us, I was worried you wouldn’t, I told Finn that we should put up a flare or something, something to get your attention – we must have waved for a full minute when you were on the platform, but we saw you looking for someone!”
Rose stopped to take a breath (her mind was busy, and full of thoughts, and they often made it into the air. Rey and Finn – especially Finn – found this endearing, while others found it less so), and Rey cut in.
“I was looking for Ben,” she said. Rose’s face didn’t betray any emotion, but Finn made a noise of disgust. “Come on, he’s not bad. He’s really, really sweet when you get to know him.”
“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way,” Rose said slowly. “But he’s only interested in being sweet to you.” Rey raised her eyebrows at her friend, but Rose had already turned away and was chattering to Finn about Tallie and Connix’s breakup.
“Speaking of sweet,” Finn said, as the train began to pull forward. “I saw you chatting with Poe Dameron out on the platform.”
“Chatting?” Rey wrinkled her nose. “No, he accosted me. Wouldn’t let me past, kept harping on about how I was going to be late. Ugh.” She rolled her eyes and tossed her hair back, feeling the need to stretch her legs out obnoxiously across the compartment, propping her feet up on the seat that should have been occupied by Ben. “Terrible segue, by the way. I don’t know how you went from sweet to Poe Dameron.” She stared up at the ceiling, and as a result, completely missed the look Finn exchanged with his girlfriend.
“Guess I’m just terrible at conversation,” Finn said, and Rey shrugged, grinning at him when he scoffed with indignation at her and Rose’s lack of denial.
The train ride went by with little to no items of interest; at one point, Rose fell asleep with her head on Finn’s shoulder, and Rey waggled her eyebrows at her friend.
“That’s going well, then?” She whispered.
“Really well.” Finn looked particularly pleased. “Incredibly well.”
She and Finn had tried the romance thing in their fourth year, but had decided they were far too interested in continuing their long-standing tradition of pranks and adventures to threaten it with a bad break-up, so they’d mutually ended things a month in. He hadn’t dated anyone since (and neither had Rey), but he’d been entirely blindsided when Rose Tico asked him out in May, right before their OWLs.
While they rode on in silence to respect Rose’s nap, Rey reflected on how incredibly grateful she was that her friends hadn’t asked for her OWL scores – she’d gotten straight O’s, actually, with just the one E in Divination due to a very, very badly timed sneeze that ended with her examiner covered in the dust she was supposed to be reading – especially after a conversation with Ben Solo a month ago. She was worried that’s what had caused him to go back early, as he often vacationed with her and Obi Wan out in the countryside. But this summer, he’d left abruptly; and she had assumed he’d gone to Hogwarts, where his mother, Leia Organa, was headmistress.
He’d left two days after Rey had told him her OWL scores – and he’d seemingly been incredibly proud of her, and had jokingly said something about how she was “set to take over the galaxy,” but then after he’d gotten an owl from school, he’d become moody and withdrawn. He’d had those sort of fits as a child, but this one lasted a day and a half. He’d even snapped at Rey when she knocked on his door to ask if he wanted to walk to the Muggle ice cream parlor in the village nearby.
She hated to admit it, but she’d cried from the anger in his voice – she had run and hid in her room, arms wrapped around her stomach, something in her aching as though Ben’s anger had become her grief. It was inexplicable, and odd, but it wasn’t the first time something like that had happened between them. They read each other’s emotions as though they were involved in Legilimancy (something that Ben had showed remarkable promise in during Professor Skywalker’s lesson last year, apparently), and it was the nearly symbiotic relationship of their childhood that had Obi Wan suggesting that Rey gain some distance from Ben at school.
It caused more than one argument, at this point, that Rey had friends other than Ben. But it was ridiculous, as Ben also had friends, and his friends were downright repulsive. A weird little trio: Phasma, Hux, and Mitaka had taken to calling themselves the Knights of Ren, whatever the hell that meant. It was just so strange, and Rey had a feeling it was their influence that had Ben angrier than ever this summer.
Still, when he yelled at her through a closed door, she’d reacted poorly – and ten minutes later, her door had creaked open, and Ben whispered an apology. Rey had accepted it, eagerly, all too eagerly, and they walked down to the village not long after.
But he was gone the next morning, without even a note.
Finn started to snore across the compartment, his head lolled over to rest on Rose’s, and Rey smiled at them as the dying light filtered in through the window. This was her sixth train ride with Finn Trooper, and she loved him dearly, as though he were her brother. She remembered what it had felt like as a nervous first-year. She and Finn hadn’t looked too different from the kids she’d seen out on the platform. Rey scoffed in her throat as the less pleasant memory of Poe Dameron’s interference invaded the moment.
It struck her, then, why Ben had left home – the owl’s timing logically matched the theory.
Ben was a Prefect, and while he never said it, his own hope to be Minister of Magic, just like his grandmother had been, would surely mean that he coveted the position of Head Boy. And that position had clearly gone to another.
***
Rey finally spotted her errant friend at the feast, already elbow-deep in Slytherin posturing. He was surrounded by Armitage Hux, Susan Phasma, and Arnold Mitaka, and he didn’t look over at Gryffindor once. Rose had kissed Finn goodbye – something Rey was totally going to tease him for later – and skipped off to help shepherd the first years back at the train, part of her duties as Prefect.
“I’m starving,” Rey moaned, plunking down at the table. As if on cue, food appeared, the fastest way to get teenagers to their seats. She and Finn dove in eagerly, soon engaged in a contest to see who could eat the highest number of drumsticks in two minutes. Iolo Arana, one of their Chasers, timed them, screaming out updates, and soon Rey and Finn started to shove each other back and forth, snorting and choking more than once.
“TIME!” Iolo roared, and Rey and Finn raised their hands in the air, Finn’s cheeks still puffed out from his last wing. Iolo and another sixth year, Kare Kun, counted up the pile of bones.
“Rey’s the victor!” Kare cheered, and half the table groaned as knuts traded hands. “Tough luck, Trooper.”
“Rematch,” Finn demanded. His finger jabbed at tureen of spicy sauce down the table. “Who can drink the most of that without vomiting.”
“You’re on.” Rey belched satisfyingly and rose to drag the tureen towards them.
“Or, maybe you could represent your house with more dignity.” They all turned as one to look at Jessika Pava. From anyone else, the comment would have been downright condescending, but she matched it well enough with one of her teasing grins that no one got riled up over it.
“Jess!” Rey shrieked, pointing at her badge, forgetting the sauce in front of her. “Head Girl? That’s incredible!” Iolo leapt to his feet to give her a hug.
“I hope this means you’ll lead your house to an honorable year,” Kare said, jabbing her thumb over at the Slytherin table.
“I make no promises,” Jess said. “But seriously, guys, I know this is a night for fun, but could you try not to choke to death? Maybe save the competitions for after dinner, when you’re in your dorms and I don’t have to look at you?”
Rey was about to concede, when Poe Dameron materialized at Jess’s shoulder. “Did you already tell them to knock it off?” He asked. “We already have first years freaked out enough as it is.”
Rey looked down the table quickly – the newly sorted Gryffindor first-years had been the loudest to cheer her on – and then back at Poe, not bothering to hide the disgust on her face. “I don’t think they cared, Dameron.”
“That might be, Kenobi,” Poe emphasized her last name more than he should have, and Rey’s pride rankled from it. It was like he knew. “But all the same, you guys need to chill out.”
“Chill out?” Finn repeated, eyebrows raised. “Is that – is that still a thing people say?”
“No it most certainly is not,” Kare said, a shit-eating grin stretching across her face. “Unless it’s Netflix and Chill. Do wizard households get Netflix, Dameron? Would there be anyone who you’d want to do that with?” Poe blushed furiously, and Rey didn’t bother analyzing it. Instead, she snagged an empty goblet and filled it to the brim with the hot sauce in front of her.
“Here’s to you, Head Boy,” she said, raising her goblet in a mock toast. She drank it deeply, some of it spilling out, and she gave a three fingered salute somewhere in Poe’s direction while she did so. The table chanted Rey! Rey! Rey! as she chugged, and when she dropped the now empty goblet to the table, her eyes streaming from the heat of the liquid, coughing with acid burning at her throat, they screamed and clapped loudly.
“Impressive,” Poe said, and Rey forced herself to look up and grin, wiping her face with the sleeve of her robe. He leaned over the table to smirk at her, and Rey leaned right back towards him. She wanted to – to – smack the smirk right off his face, or hex it off, she didn’t care which. Before she could do anything, his eyes flickered nervously downward, and she felt her brow furrow. What was he – “But it’s still five points from Gryffindor. We’ll call it lack of respect.”
“Ugh, you foul, loathsome,” Rey began, but Finn dragged her back down to her seat.
Poe looked at her as the hubbub settled, and then he said, so quietly she could have imagined it, “That wasn’t even the spicy stuff.” He jerked his head towards a different vat and waggled his eyebrows at her before disappearing to mess up someone else’s evening.
“I’m going to make his life a living hell this year,” Rey swore, but Finn snorted and shook his head.
“Don’t waste your time on that, Peanut. Remember the real goal.”
Rey shook herself out of her revenge plotting and smiled evilly at her companion. “Dismantle the Knights of Ren,” she said.
“Break their spirits,” Finn continued.
“Destroy every last refuge.”
“Until their evil shall haunt us no more.” They high-fived and went back to their food, no one commenting on the fact that Rey stuck to boiled potatoes and cream-based items for the rest of the evening.
***
During the second week of class, Rey finally hunted Ben Solo down as he was walking out of Arithmancy.
“Oi! Solo!” She hollered, cupping her hands around her mouth. She sprinted past a group of seventh years walking down the staircase, ignoring the yellow and black scarf which would most definitely be worn by – nope – “Where’ve you been?”
“Rey?” Ben smiled at her, and some of her anxiety immediately lifted. “Hey!”
“Hey?” Rey punched his arm, and they walked towards the Great Hall together. “You go missing for six weeks, and I get a hey?”
“Sorry about that,” Ben tugged on his long, dark hair. “Been working through some stuff. I crashed on Armitage’s couch for the last part of summer.”
“You couldn’t leave me a note to say that?” Rey hated the childish note of petulance in her voice, but she’d been – “I was worried, Ben. Hurt, even.” They walked past the group of seventh years she’d passed earlier, but she paid them no mind, unembarrassed to say, “I missed you, dumbass.”
“I missed you too, radish.” Rey rolled her eyes at his childhood nickname for her, but allowed him to wrap his arm around her shoulder. “And I’m really sorry.”
“You better be,” Rey muttered, lightly slugging him in the stomach, leaning into his tall frame to do so. His arm tightened around her reassuringly, his hand gripping her upper arm, and her head rested on his broad chest. “Wanna get lunch?”
“I’d love to get lunch with you,” Ben said, and Rey was too content with the knowledge that her friend was speaking to her again to notice how loudly he said it, how he smirked over his shoulder at one particular Hufflepuff who was staring after them while they walked away.
***
“If Organa didn’t want us to buy shit at Zonko’s, she’d forbid students from shopping at Zonko’s,” Finn reasoned as they walked towards Hogsmeade. It was the first Saturday trip of the term, and he, Rose, and Rey were walking towards the village, their cloaks still in the castle behind them. The last warmth of summer was still present, and Rey relished in the feeling of sunlight on her face while they traipsed across the grounds.
“That’s not the best logic,” Rose pointed out. “Maybe she enjoys a little bit of fun, but hopes that we would exercise enough self-control as young wizards with burgeoning moral compasses to elect not to purchase items that are dangerous, or can be made dangerous with easy modifications.”
Rey and Finn traded a look over Rose’s head before saying, “Naaaaaah,” at the same time.
“But you’re so cute when you’re being morally upright,” Finn said, managing not to sound patronizing. Rose grinned up at him, and Rey looked away so they could trade a kiss without an audience. They made it completely unawkward to be the third wheel, but she still felt like it sometimes. It was a sign of the strength of her and Finn’s friendship – and a sign of Rose’s security – that they remained as close as ever despite Finn’s romantic relationship with the Ravenclaw.
They reached the village outskirts in no time, and after they browsed items at Zonko’s, Honeyduke’s, and several other shops (their pockets laden down more and their coin purses laden down less with each stop), they stopped at the Three Broomsticks for some iced Butterbeer.
Rey waved merrily to Chewbacca, the massive bartender whom Han Solo swore up and down was part-giant, while they waited for their drinks, and he raised a large, hairy hand and saluted her. At the end of the bar, Maz Kanata was perched like a tiny pirate queen, draped in massive jewels and gold while her boyfriend waited on her hand and foot. She waved to Rey as well, blowing a kiss in her direction.
“How’s your apprenticeship going?” Rose asked, standing up on tip toe to get nearer to Rey’s ear in the loud pub.
“Really well!” Rey beamed at her, and Finn slung his arm around her shoulders while grinning at the both of them. “So well – Maz has been incredible. The other day, she said she wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up filling the position as Herbology professor – after she retires, of course.”
“That’ll be in a hundred years,” Finn pointed out teasingly. “Maz is immortal, haven’t you heard?”
Rey laughed with him, fully wishing that the rumor was true. Maz had kindly signed off on her one credit apprenticeship in Herbology this term, and she’d been helping out in the greenhouses three nights a week for the last month. They’d grown even closer as a result, and Rey knew her attachment to the old woman was more than academic, and bordering on deeply personal.
Once they had collected the flagons, they squeezed into booth near the windows. Rose and Finn were already tearing into their large pile of sweets, and Rey smiled fondly at them before excusing herself to use the restroom.
She pushed through the crowd to reach the loo, and when she returned, she had to push again, mumbling apologies left and right, mostly going ignored by the throngs of people packed inside. Of course, one person did hear her.
“No worries,” a familiar voice answered.
“Dameron.” Rey smiled tightly at him, wishing she had her tankard of butterbeer in her hand right this second. She could pretend to trip and dump it on him, and she wouldn’t even be written up for it. A solid excuse, and whatnot.
“How’s your year going?” He asked. The crowd currently wasn’t budging, and Rose and Finn looked completely content in their own little bubble, so Rey consigned herself to this fate with a sigh.
“Really well, actually.” She eyed the way he’d rolled up his sleeves, his tan skin striking against the white of his shirt. “And yours?” Why am I even looking at his forearms?
“As well as could be expected,” Poe laughed, seeming pleased that she hadn’t been completely snarky with him. His smile became more eager. “I’ve been working really closely with Skywalker – he thinks I have a real chance of making Auror.”
“Oh?” Rey cocked her head, finally interested in this conversation. “Yeah? That’s – that’s pretty cool, actually. I didn’t know you wanted to be an Auror.”
“Yeah, well,” Poe shuffled his feet, a seemingly impossible task in the crowded pub. “I guess most of our conversations end in demerits, right?”
Rey pulled a face at that comment – he was most likely referring to their last run-in, a week ago, when she and Finn had raced each other while surfing down the bannisters of the staircases.
“They move!” Poe had roared, dragging his hands through his dark curls, leaving them frazzled and completely out of their typical style. Rey was just thinking it was a nice look for him when he yelled again. “You could have died.”
“Yeah, well, we didn’t,” Finn pointed out. “And we waited for them to be clear, so, no harm, no foul.”
“Ugh!” Rey was convinced Poe was inches away from stomping his feet. “You two are so – so – you’re like, the Danger Twins of Gryffindor. And I’m always the one who has to witness it! You’re going to get yourself killed one day – especially you!” He jabbed his finger at Rey, who, alright, had maybe been a little more reckless than Finn and had slid down face first.
“Oh,” Rey pretended to pout at him, stepping away from Finn’s side to nudge Poe’s shoulder. “That’s not true. Not when I have you to catch me.” She was, of course, referring to two minutes ago, when a startled Poe Dameron had literally caught her as she fell off the end of a bannister as its staircase began to move the opposite direction.
She expected him to huff something about ‘I won’t always be there to catch you’ blah blah blah, insert authority voice here, but instead: Poe Dameron blushed from the roots of his hair to his neck.
“Yeah, well,” he spluttered, large hand rubbing the back of his neck as he considered Rey’s statement. “It’s still incredibly dangerous! Be – be safer!” and he’d scurried off to whatever 'Preppy Kids' Rules R Fun Seminar' he’d left in the first place.
“That guy,” Rey snorted. “What was he on about? And then he left before he even took points off.” She clapped her hands with glee and looked back at Finn, who was giving her a look of utter amusement. “He can’t take points off later, it has to be in the moment, the second they catch you! I checked!”
Finn’s smirk didn’t leave his face.
“What?” Rey demanded, hands on her hips. “What is it? Spit it out.”
Finn released his breath in a long whoosh and laughed obnoxiously. “If you don’t know why we got off scot-free, I’m not going to tell you Peanut.”
And that was that.
Now, in the Three Broomsticks, Rey’s mind snapped back out of the memory when she remembered Poe was waiting for a response.
She tried to laugh it off, trying not to piss him off. “Yeah, well, our last one didn’t, and I’m hoping this one won’t either.” Poe’s smile was annoyingly bright, so she tilted her head at him and squinted. “I still have time to mess it up though, don’t I?”
“Knowing you, you’ll find a way,” Poe acknowledged, and honestly, if they were friends, this whole thing would sound a lot like her normal banter. Weird.
“Auror, though,” Rey frowned at him. “That’s really dangerous, isn’t it?”
“Says the granddaughter of maybe the most famous Auror of all time.” Poe raised his eyebrows at her, and Rey shrugged noncommittally. “I figured that’s where your propensity for danger came from.”
“Nah,” Rey shook her head. “Obi’s not got the style to pull off one of my tricks.”
Poe choked on his butterbeer, which he’d just chosen to take a sip off. He spluttered for a second, and Rey looked at him with concern. “You okay?” She asked, patting him on the back as well she could in the cramped quarters.
He turned redder and waved her off, coughing loudly. “Sorry – sorry – um – just – you call him Obi?”
“Yeah?” Rey quirked a brow at him. “It’s that or Papa.”
“Papa?” Poe squeaked. “You call the most incredible wizard of the century papa?”
“It’s like he’s a real person,” Rey snapped, suddenly irritated with Poe again. “He raised me. Why wouldn’t I call him papa?” She looked over at the window to where Rose and Finn were staring at her from the booth.
“Hey, wait, I wasn’t trying to –”
Rey interrupted him before he could finish. “I should get back to my friends,” she said coolly.
Poe looked over to her booth and then back at her, and for a second she panicked, thinking he’d invite himself over. Instead, he opened his stupid, pink, mouth with his stupid, full lips, and said, “Where’s Solo?”
“I don’t know?” Rey felt her face contort as she considered his question. “I don’t always hang out with him. He’s a year ahead, after all.”
Poe’s face offered no answers as to why he’d asked that question. “Oh, uh, I just figured, ‘cuz, you know—”
“Oh, because we grew up together.” Rey filled in for him. If anything, Poe looked more confused. Odd “Yeah, I guess he’s probably with his Slytherin friends? I wouldn't know, haven’t spoken to him in a few days.”
“Well, that’s … cool, I guess,” Poe said weakly, but Rey didn’t have the time to waste on his weird change in demeanor anymore.
“Yeah, cool,” Rey said, already starting to slip through the crowd. “Nice talking to you, Dameron. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
His meek “you too,” was entirely lost as she pushed back through to her table. Then, she had to handle the interrogation laid out by Rose and Finn, both of whom were convinced that she’d elected to run into Poe Dameron.
She convinced them otherwise after five scorching minutes, and smoothly transitioned the topic to that of Gryffindor’s upcoming match against Hufflepuff. That caught the attention of Finn, their captain, and they talked stats for the next half hour, Rose jumping in here and there with strategy ideas.
Rey was absorbed in the conversation, but if she had looked up like Rose did, she would have seen Poe with his elbows on a tabletop across the tavern, his face still bright pink and buried in his hands while Jessika Pava and Tallie Lintra took turns rubbing his back in an attempt to soothe his embarrassment.
***
“And Rey Kenobi catches the Snitch! 320 points to 190, Gryffindor wins the match!” Kaydel Connix’s voice rang out across the stadium, and Rey descended gracefully, her hand holding the struggling Snitch aloft as the stands erupted in cheers. The second she touched down, she was met with the three Chases burying her in a hug, and Finn joined in not too long after. Matthew and Eric, their Beaters, flew in circles over their heads, roaring like lions in delight.
“Alright, alright,” Rey laughed, shoving them off. “I guess it ended better this time, huh?”
She was referring to the Inter-House Championship of last year, where they’d been neck and neck with Hufflepuff – she and their Seeker (Poe Dameron, because of course) had dove for the Snitch at the same time, but due to an illegal hit by his team’s Beater, she’d been knocked unconscious and fell thirty feet to the ground. Poe had caught the Snitch, Gryffindor had lost the Cup, and Rey had dodged mocking questions from Slytherins and some Hufflepuffs for the rest of the term, asking if she could “see this?” as they swerved large objects in her direction.
So yeah, today’s victory felt good. It felt more than good.
They queued up to shake hands with the other team, and Rey grinned as the second to last player, their Keeper, grabbed her hand. “Good match, Kenobi,” Snap said, his boomingly loud voice comforting as he slapped her on the back. “We’ll get you next time.”
“We’ll see, Snap,” Rey laughed. He winked and moved past her towards the locker rooms. That just left her and Poe.
The older boy held out his hand, his gloves long since removed. “Great flying,” he commented.
“Thanks,” Rey shook his hand, regretfully realizing how warm it was, how his callouses were perfectly shaped, his fingers clever if short – and where did that come from?
“Are you feeling okay, though?” He asked, his brows drawn up in what must be faux-concern.
Rey tossed her hair angrily, now loose from the three buns she wore to play. “Why wouldn’t I be feeling okay?” She snapped.
“Well, you know, last time we played, you, uh—” Poe’s eyes darted around, like he hadn’t expected Rey to look mad about this topic. “Well, you know. I’m just…glad it went better for you this time.”
“Oh?” Rey’s voice could cut glass. “Thanks for the check-in, Dameron. This must surprise you, but a girl can do a lot when fifty pounds of lead hasn’t just made contact with her skull,” she said primly. “Sorry that I didn’t pass out to make it easier for you to steal a win. Now, I wouldn’t expect to get so lucky again, so I hope you and your buddies got in enough celebrating last year while I was unconscious.” She gathered her scarlet robes around her and stalked off the field without another glance backwards at Poe.
Finn caught up with her in the locker rooms, a look of concern on his face. “Hey peanut,” he said cautiously. “What did you say to Poe? The poor guy looked like you’d slapped him in the face.”
“He was trying to get under my skin about last year’s Cup.” Rey hung her robes up carefully and placed them on the rack. “Made fun of me. So I told him off.”
Finn didn’t look happy with her, and Rey found that highly confusing. Poe was the enemy. He was law and order, a buzzkill, a goody two shoes— “Rey, he was really fucked up by what happened last year.”
Rey blinked in surprise. She definitely hadn’t expected that. “What do you mean? Hufflepuff won their precious Cup, he got all the glory, and I got called Lead Head for a month. How could that have messed him up?”
“He didn’t start that nickname,” Finn sat down heavily on the bench and glowered at her. “And he sat by your bed in the hospital wing for six hours before Organa made him leave. He was absolutely distraught – he was the first one to reach you once he landed and realized what happened. Apparently he begged Madame Holdo for a rematch, but you weren’t cleared to participate in strenuous activity until after the end of term, so she refused to budge.”
“What?” Rey froze where she was unlacing her boots. Her back rested heavily against the lockers while she considered that. “You’re – you’re sure? That’s what happened?” Finn nodded solemnly, and Rey winced, realizing now that his concern had been entirely genuine, as had the look of hurt on his face when she lashed out. “Oh, bugger.”
“I’d tell you that you need to apologize, but I’m afraid that’d make you less likely to do it.” Finn stood and cuffed her on the shoulder lightly. “You’ll do the right thing, Kenobi. You always do.”
Rey nodded, and her friend smiled at her, warmly now, and headed off to the showers. Rey stood there a few minutes longer before slamming her locker shut and heading up to the castle alone.
***
A week after their victory over Hufflepuff, Rey was outside, enjoying the cooler temperatures of mid-October. She dug victoriously in the dirt behind Greenhouse C, and came up with the vicious weed that had been spreading its toxic nonsense into the surrounding area, killing the grass and threatening the plant life past the glass walls.
“Aha,” she said, chucking it roots and all into the bucket, unwilling to let it touch the ground for another second. “Take that, you beast.” She sprayed the area she’d cleared down with some of Maz’s own Magi-pest-killer, and sat back on her haunches, admiring her handiwork. She’d pruned the bushes outside the greenhouse, and cleared the area of weeds, everything Maz had asked her to accomplish.
And, she still had a few hours of downtime, which meant she could explore some of the species in the Greenhouse in front of her, which was typically off-limits without a professor present.
“Rey?” She looked around at the sound of her name, and balked at the sight of Poe Dameron, emerging from the treeline. He was wearing his tie loose, his hair somewhat rumpled, and he had hands full of a small creature.
“What’s that?” She asked, nodding at the little brown body in his hands.
“Niffler,” Poe smiled down at the sleeping animal. “He’s been digging up holes left and right outside the Forbidden Forest, so Professor Antilles asked me to retrieve him.” Poe knelt down next to Rey and extended his hands, where the adorable little guy slept.
“He’s precious,” Rey breathed, staring at him. “Nifflers – they like treasure, right?”
“Yeah.” Poe cradled the niffler partly against his body so he could stroke him from the head to his tail. The Niffler squirmed in his sleep and turned over, nuzzling against Poe’s thumb. “The trick is to pet them like that, they get sleepy right away.”
“Can I try?”
Rey’s hand hung in the air over the small body, and after Poe whispered, yeah, she tentatively stroked the Niffler the same way Poe had. “Oh,” she said. “Oh, he’s so sweet.”
“If he was going after your jewels, you might not think so,” Poe teased, and Rey rolled her eyes at him, brushing her hands off on her leggings for something to do. When she looked over at him again – it was blinding, really, the way he sat in the light, the wind playing with his curls, stirring them out of place, his teeth white and even while he smiled at her like they shared a secret – she was surprised to see him looking at her face intently.
“Is there a problem?” She asked.
“You’ve got a little,” Poe gestured to his nose with the hand not holding the Niffler. “Right there.”
“Right where?” Rey asked coyly. Before Poe could react, she reached out and wiped her finger across his cheekbone. “There?”
Poe looked startled and then sat back on his heels and laughed and laughed. The Niffler grumbled in protest, and Poe stroked him again until he settled down. “You got me,” he said, turning to examine her handiwork. “You’ve clearly had a productive day.”
“That’s where the dirt’s from,” Rey pointed out. “Easy to tell when you’ve had a productive day while gardening.”
“Fair enough.” Poe smiled at her, and she realized this was the easiest it had ever been between them.
"Hey, Poe?" Rey said quietly, staring at the ground. She'd never been good at this.
"Yeah?"
"I'm really sorry for how I yelled at you after the match last week," Rey said, cheeks burning. "I thought you were making fun of me, and I overreacted. You were just being kind."
When he didn't say anything, she looked up at him and smiled hesitantly. He returned it, just as tentatively, his hands full of Niffler, and his face full of happiness that almost hurt to look at. "Don't worry about it," he assured her. "I'm - I'm just really glad you got back on that broomstick. Takes guts after a fall like that."
"Yeah, well," Rey shrugged. "I broke half the bones in my body, Dameron, I didn't die." He looked slightly horrified by her dark joke, so she reached out slowly and pushed him lightly on the shoulder. He rocked into it, and settled back down with an odd, quiet smile on his face.
And if they sat there for another few minutes in silence, enjoying the warm sun and the cool breeze and maybe even the company while they examined the grounds of Hogwarts, well. Rey wasn’t going to read too much into it.