Chapter Text
December 13th, 1994 — Gryffindor common room party.
Mabel Harbinger, 5th year - pov
Loud music crashed through the Gryffindor girls dorms, making Mabel stir. Her face contorted into an agitated expression as she lifted her head. Curious, she pulled her body up into a sitting position to get up.
"What the hell?" she groaned, tumbling out of her bed. She waddled to her closet for clothes and scanned the hangers. Her hand reached for her casual skirt and a cute sweater and pulled them off, making her way to her bathroom to change.
Yelling could be heard from downstairs as the music blasted louder. Obviously a party, so stupid. Mabel thought in her head, an angry quip as she hated having to dress up even if the hour of getting ready resulted in fun; it just never felt worth it no matter what.
Almost an hour later Mabel finally made it out of her bathroom, hair and makeup fully done as she stepped out of the dorm. She heard two male voices boom- presumably the Weasley twins, "Don't be a idiot, Ronald." It was ridiculous the way they both said it at the same time but somehow worked to make the sentence more annoying. She padded down the stairs into the loud party reluctantly, walking past the twins and Ron to meet up with Ginny. The scent of sweat and the fire burning mingled around them as Mabel ducked beside her.
"Hey, Mabes" Ginny greeted her softly, giving her small grin. Ginny's gaze averting to look for her boyfriend, Harry.
Mabel replied, huffing it out like a complaint "Hey, this party is bigger than I thought it was when I heard the noises." Ginny nodded in agreeance. The party lights dimmed, casting a shadow over Mabel's darker brown hair, making it seem black. Hermione's figure appeared beside the two girls as she crossed her arms, letting out low sigh. A weird feeling of tension and blatant unspoken words hung in the air.
An awkward silence stretched between the three.
'"Holy shit, Ron is a bloody dimwit." Hermione barked, breaking the silence abruptly and grabbing Mabel and Ginny's attention along with it. Ginny replied in an agitated voice, "He literally never had a chance with Fluer, he's such an idiot." Mabel let out a small laugh and fell into step with the girls as they walked toward the drink station in the far left corner. The three each grabbed a drink as Ron walked by and glanced at Hermione invitingly, a small gesture that seemed almost backhanded considering Fluer Delacour had just denied going to the Yule Ball with him.
Both the twins followed behind him as Mabel giggled at Ron's idiotic action.
"Ron you're a fucking loser," Mabel muttered to him as he came up to the end of the drink station with Fred and George.
An unexpected laugh erupted from Hermione.
"Oh, he doesn't want to hear it from you, Harbinger." Fred quipped.
George added, "Yeah, at least he's not friends with Malfoy and his little gang."
Mabel rolled her eyes, the atmosphere becoming subtly more tense as she realized the twins were being serious. "You two just don't know how to be nice to people, you're always trying to piss someone off," She huffed.
"Don't even start, last time the three of you fought Fred ended up in the hospital wing." Ginny scolded as she stood beside Mabel. The tension quickly faded as Mabel set her eyes on the twins, not wearing a particularly kind expression, indicting her disapproval for Fred and George not caring to try and understand.
The party started to get louder as it became dark, a couple people jumped onto the wooden center table, students crowding around and shouting lyrics to whatever Pitbull song was blasting at the pair. The 3 Weasley brothers that were previously interacting with Mabel went to separate places, Fred and George still together, trying to prank some innocent 3rd year sitting on the staircase to the boys dorms who seemed obviously confused on what to do. Ron was trying to subtly get Hermione's attention by not-so-discreetly walking past her every 10 to 20 minutes while Mabel stood by and contemplated joining the group of students who were singing, yelling, and dancing by the center table.
Mabel heard the song change, her senses heightened as she was trying to focus on something. The lights switched to a dark red, hints of orange flashing. The bright lights had switched off completely, the interesting flashing colours enticing Mabel.
I guess I have to go dance, now… Mabel's mind raced as she slid her way into the crowd of jumping, singing Gryffindors.