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Hogwarts had closed its’ doors to the most senior students, and the magic school was no more for us from the second we had all taken our NEWTs early. Instead of the obvious solution of just transferring us to another magic school like any sane person would have allowed us to do in order to finish our magical school career, they and by they; I mean the ministry of magic, believed this was a prime opportunity for the older students in our final year, to interact with the muggle community of Riverdale. And that meant our beautiful Scottish castle became a distant memory as we were transferred onto Southside High – a rundown America high school in the Southside of Riverdale with a problem for the notorious gangs that ran the area. The school was severely lacking on numbers, and even the small cohort of our completed NEWT students massively inflated the student population. There had already been loud complaints at the fact we wouldn’t be able to use magic there, a fact I wasn’t overly upset by, at least there was no dress code or risk of exploding potions or being hit in the face with a broomstick. A chair perhaps. But nothing hurt more than the sticks of a broomstick to the face. The first day at Southside High rolled around faster than I could have expected, and I was stood in my new home – a shared apartment with Cho, Angelina and Katie – fixing up my pair of baggy shorts which had fishnets and thigh highs underneath, paired with simple black high top trainers and an oversized black hoodie with small embroideries across it – done by hand not by magic, when I had been struggling to concentrate. I already longed to be back at the castle I had called home, and the view from our apartment of the Southside of Riverdale was not increasing my desire to stay there. The Weasley twins had long ago exited Hogwarts and were delighted to not have to argue with the new life we had to live, leaving the rest of us to deal with the reality of a transfer into a muggle high school that no one wanted or had ever been interested in. My hair was styled in a messy ponytail and apart from an old tote bag with a few notebooks in, I wasn’t really ready for a muggle school. Out of all of the transferring students I was best placed as a muggle born but even I was struggling among the chaos of trying to work out where I fit in this new world we were being forced into by a ministry that had never once given a damn about us. After all we had been taught by Umbridge and we all knew how that had ended – what a good teacher she was not. I had a simple crescent moon necklace hidden beneath my hoodie, which I gripped onto most of the short walk to the high school’s campus, the exterior of the school was more rundown than I could have expected. It made the abandoned part of Hogwarts look like a modern build with professional cleaners – none of which it was. “oh merlin, what have we let ourselves in for?” Cho murmured, interlinking our arms as she gripped onto me tightly – despite the fact she was a lot taller than me. “let’s be open minded, maybe it won’t be that bad,” I mumbled, but I barely believed my own words as we trekked up the hill that led to Southside High, where every spare bit of space was covered in graffiti or other students who made no attempt to look happy about our arrival. Not that we were any happier to be there than they were happy to have us. “we are never going to survive this!” Cho hissed to me, her grip of my arm tightening even further as her face took on a worried expression, “it’s only a semester, we can do this,” I murmured back, but as I looked around, I wasn’t sure we could.We were funnelled with the rest of the final year Hogwarts students into a welcoming area where a girl with pink hair stood smiling as she handed out maps and class lists. None of which any of us understood. The only class I vaguely knew what it was, was maths, and somehow I didn’t expect them to be using the analogies Hogwarts had used for arithmancy in terms of potion making ingredients. We really were out of depth and the school looked five minutes from being burnt down – either by our accidental magic or one of their usual students having a temper tantrum. Dear merlin. Cho reluctantly let go of my arm as we split off separate ways to our form room and I began walking behind an over confident Cedric to another rundown part of the school. The form room itself was comprised of small desks, one per student, though barely any students were there, and a large teacher’s desk though the teacher may as well have not been there considering how the students were ignoring him. “ah new students!” the teacher gestured for our group of Hogwarts students to take a set of empty desks, which we did, “let’s introduce you to everyone,” the teacher continued over enthusiastically – clearly used to have to compensate for the students’ lack of interest.One by one the Southside students reluctantly introduced themselves, including the small pink haired girl whose name was Toni, until only a tall boy with black hair and a snake neck tattoo was left. From the other students’ reaction, I was willing to guess he was one of those highest up in the hierarchy of the Southside Serpent gang that was all over the school, he grudgingly turned towards us, “I’m Sweet Pea,” he stated, scowling ferociously, “and you’ll do well to not laugh at me, or get in my way,” what a good start. I couldn’t decide whether I immediately hated him or had a large despise for him, but I certainly didn’t get good vibes off him. He was on the opposite end of the line to Malfoy but you could tell he was just as much trouble, “and the transfer students,” the teacher prompted, forcing each of us to begin our introduction, I managed a polite smile crossed with a grimace as the teacher gestured for me to introduce myself, “I’m y/’n,” I stated, feeling particularly uncooperative, there was nothing I could tell them about myself anyway, we weren’t allowed to discuss magic and therefore we couldn’t talk about Hogwarts either. “and are you happy to be here?” the teacher prompted, “not really, I didn’t want to transfer,” I replied with a sweet smile. It was true and as I said it, I watched in quiet amusement as the other Hogwarts students nodded in agreement, it was also interesting that my statement seemed to have peaked the interest of a certain tall moody serpent. He was wearing black jeans, a black t-shirt and a dark green flannel over the top, with a dog tag on his chain, he looked ready to say something but said nothing. “well I'm sorry to hear none of you want to be here having transferred,” the teacher said in a sympathetic tone, whether it was genuine or not I was none the wiser to. “none of us want to be here from the Southside either,” Sweet Pea chipped in, cocking his head to the side as if he dared the teacher to return the comment. When the teacher said nothing, he smirked. Dear merlin he was trouble, the sort that would burn the whole world down to the ground.“dismissed,” the teacher murmured exhaustedly when the bell chimed for end of form time, I was immediately bundled out the door with the rest of the Hogwarts students who were already debating how to use magic without being caught and bust their way out of the school. I said nothing as I sat through lesson after lesson that we had no hope of understanding having not been taught a muggle curriculum before. Screw the ministry and their hairbrained schemes. By the time we got to lunch I was so ready to never return. We had played hunt which table we could take and had eventually given up agreeing if in doubt we would commit accidental magic and play dumb to any out come. I sat at the table with the rest of the Hogwarts students, staring ahead completely unaware to what was going around us, my eyes eventually snapped out of the daze and woke up to stare around the cafeteria which unsurprisingly, like the rest of the school was run down as hell. My eyes fixed in on the Serpents table where a boy in a beanie had joined Sweat Pea and Toni as well as their friends Fangs who I had shared my previous class with. I must have been staring too long as Sweet Pea’s eyes rose up to meet mine and his eyebrow rose cockily, I met him with a level look before turning away. If he wanted the world to burn, he could burn it down, but I could guarantee burning the world down with magic would be far faster than any standard muggle fire. “let’s go,” I mumbled to Cho as I stood up, “you go on ahead, I’ll catch up,” she murmured, she was rooted to her seat but not out of fear, Cedric was flirting with her. I smiled softly but said nothing as I put my bag over my shoulder, and began walking out of the cafeteria and hopefully towards somewhere that was empty and didn’t have a ton of people. “don’t walk around here alone!” a voice called out after me, I turned around to see Toni jogging up to me, “trust me, I can handle myself,” I assured her, she didn’t need to know I was a wizard but I could handle a muggle any day of the week.“maybe at your old school you could, but here is a different world, don’t be stupid and go anywhere alone,” she repeated, I shrugged with a sigh, “thanks for letting me know Toni, but right now I want to be alone,” she returned it with a sigh of her own but wasn’t able to speak as someone called to her before she spoke. “Toni, why did you leave?” Sweet Pea’s voice rattled down the empty corridor, “oh I see,” he murmured as he approached, looking me up and down in a way that had my skin prickling with irritation. He easily towered over both me and Toni and his broad shoulders combined with neck tattoo made him wholly intimidating, not that I would ever let on that I though as such.“hey Pea, I didn’t want her walking around alone, it’s too easy to be a target here,” Toni defended, “why isn’t that girl clinging onto you from earlier?” Sweet Pea asked turning to me, “she’s busy,” I stated flatly, crossing my arms over the top of my hoodie and met his eyes dead on, I wouldn’t be intimidated by him. “like Toni said, don’t go walking around on your own,” Sweet Pea stated before turning back to Toni who shook her head silently, he didn’t say anything else as he walked off, “he cares about me,” she explained quietly, I said nothing in response, but smiled and followed the direction Sweet Pea had walked off in towards the cafeteria. Though the second I was through the door I wished I hadn’t. someone in their infinite wisdom had decided to start a fight with the rest of the Hogwarts students who were all stood in their signature duel poses, Cho was nowhere in sight and Toni tensed from beside me, “this isn’t going to end well,” she muttered with a groan – she was right it wouldn’t end well, but probably not for the reason she expected. It began with a poorly timed punch from a ghoulie and ended up with that one – and then all the rest of them writhing on the floor. Accidental magic probably wasn’t going to fly with the ministry but this had been their bloody stupid idea. None of us had our wands so everyone was relying on their natural magic ability, it was all fine till I saw someone lunge towards Cho when she wasn’t looking and no one else was looking her way, I cast a silent stinging hex before my brain could kick in and watched in relief as the attacker fell to their knees. Cho glanced over at me and I nodded with a small smile, my eyes roamed the room until I realised Sweet Pea’s eyes were fixed on me, I didn’t meet his eye and instead turned away. It wouldn’t be long before a member of teaching staff found the chaotic scene in the cafeteria and started panicking and then we would likely all never have to return.…Except we did have to return, and as we trudged up the hill to the school several days later in the pouring rain I sighed resignedly. The ministry had let the excuse of accidental magic slide and it was beyond infuriating as everyone had been looking forward to an easy out. Cho, Katie and Angelina had all ran ahead and I was the last of our group trudging up the hill, I didn’t really care to be fair, I could handle myself very capably and was happy to be alone to feel as crap as the weather was. It didn’t help that I also hadn’t remembered an umbrella and my charm to stay warm from under my thin hoodie was weaker than usual because of the fact we had lived in a magical space for years and being out of it meant our magic was having to acclimatise to a less magical (in every sense) environment. I was still trudging up the hill grumpily when Toni, Fangs and Sweet Pea caught up to me, since the day in the corridor, Toni had made it her business to look out for me, “and you’re alone for what reason?” she questioned as she walked beside me, Fangs walking on her side while Sweet Pea walked around to walk beside me, “Toni I can handle myself,” I reminded her wearily, as the rain drenched the hood of my black hoodie. I groaned attempting to squeeze out the water as we walked, “I know you can but even so, you shouldn’t be alone, don’t make me have Sweet Pea act as your personal bodyguard,” she stated as Sweet Pea huffed from beside me unimpressed, I ignored him, “I’ll be careful don’t worry,” I murmured as she rolled her eyes and linked her arm with Fangs and the two walked off, I expected Sweet Pea to follow but he didn’t and stayed in step beside me. “she’s worried about you,” he stated gruffly, as we continued walking into the school building and then to my locker, “you can go, I know you don’t want to be around me,” I stated flatly as I tugged off my hoodie which was drenched the whole way through, “ughhhh,” I groaned as I tugged it off and attempted to squeeze out more water, it was too risky to cast a drying spell as the ministry’s attention was now hyper aware of everything we did, and after the previous ‘accidental’ magic, I didn’t fancy having all eyes on us yet again for the second time in the week.“here,” before I knew what was happening, Sweet Pea had stripped off his leather Serpent jacket and flannel, and handed me the emerald green flannel as he tugged back on his leather jacket. “no it’s fine, I’ll just deal with being cold,” I stated flatly as I tugged down my cropped top that had risen up when taking off my hoodie. “don’t argue with me, just cover up ok,” there was a fraction of a blush on his cheeks which I smirked at, “don’t worry, I won’t slip you a love potion,” I teased, as I took the flannel off him and shoved my hoodie into my bag while I adjusted his flannel and then did up the bottom set of buttons. “wasn’t worried about that,” he muttered, making sure I had done up a few buttons as he turned back to look at me, “do I make you blush?” I teased, biting down slowly on my bottom lip, before licking my lips and watching with amusement, he scowled down at me, as I slammed my locker door shut. “don’t answer if you don’t want to skyscraper, but we both know the answer,” I called over my shoulder as I went in the direction of my first class, I made it through to right before lunch before a ghoulie decided it was time to try and take out another transfer student. I all but rolled my eyes when one leapt out at me down a quiet corridor, “you transfer students are all the same, this is our school we cause the chaos, not you,” she hissed, “and if you think Sweet Pea actually cares about you, think again, he sleeps with anything that moves.” I looked the girl up and down, she was a tiny inch or so taller than me, but judging from her combat boots I was willing to bet she was actually the same height as me on a normal day. “I couldn’t care less whether he cares about me, I don’t need a man,” I responded, boredom sinking into my tone as she smirked widely, rushing forward to attempt to a land a punch on me. Unfortunately for her I was far too quick and ducked and dodged the first few, she gripped onto the flannel and attempted to rip it off me but I was once again too quick for her and pried her fingers off one by one. Before smiling sweetly at her as she panted for air angrily, a moment later she doubled over, and therein was the beauty of the slug sickness spell. Cast without a wand and technically self defence, I was fairly confident I could use it without getting an earful off the ministry as a direct result.“are we done here? I don’t really want to spend my entire break in this grotty corridor,” I stated, watching as she tried to speak but was too sick, “yeah I think we are done here,” I replied for her, and walked towards the cafeteria, giving her a small backward look as I went past. The Serpents were sat in their usual corner and I sat down at the Hogwarts table where Cho and Cedric were cuddled up together, “what took you so long?” she asked, glancing to the flannel and then back to me, “had to do some accidental stuff,” I replied as she smiled quietly and I settled beside her. A few moments later, I watched as Sweet Pea entered the cafeteria, and took a seat at the Serpent table, “I’ll be back,” I muttered, undoing the buttons on the flannel as I approached the table, I said nothing as I noticed how exclusive the Serpent table where Sweet Pea and Toni sat was limited to very few others – Fangs and a guy who apparently the son of the incumbent Serpent ruler. “Skyscraper,” I stated, dumping the flannel down on the table in front of him, noticing how his eyes roamed over my now bare midriff, “I don’t need this,” I stated flatly, giving him no reason as I nudged it towards him. “your hoodie will still be soaked,” Sweet Pea stated equally as flatly, “yeah well my hoodie comes with a pre packaged set of issues,” I replied with an irritated drawl, thinking of the ghoulie who had attempted to jump me in the corridor and was likely still vomiting snails. I allowed myself a small smile before I turned on my heel and walked back towards the Hogwarts table, where I took out my still soaking hoodie and tugged it on, attempting to dry it the muggle way as I sat at the table – none of us ate the food, not only because it didn’t appeal, or come close to Hogwarts food but also because none of us really trusted it to not give us something.I was sat fiddling with the still drying edges of my hoodie when Cho nudged me sharply, “ow!” I muttered indignantly, I looked up to where Toni was stood at the table with her eyebrow raised as she caught sight of how snuggled up to Cho, Cedric was. I smiled wryly as she glanced to me, “let’s go for a walk,” I nodded, reaching for my tote bag and put it on my shoulder, she smiled reassuringly as we walked out of the cafeteria. “Pea is worried about you,” she stated, “that doesn’t seem likely,” I muttered flatly as we came across the ghoulie who had attacked me and finally stopped vomiting slugs, “what did you to me you witch!” she hissed at me, as I smiled back sweetly, “I did what you had coming,” I replied with the same sickly sweet smile, Toni shot me a sideward curious look but said nothing. We continued on down the corridor in the direction of our shared class, “she attacked you I'm guessing, and that is why you returned the hoodie right?” she questioned, clearly already certain of what the answer would be, “yeah she attempted to fight me, she lost as you can see,” I added with a sigh, running my hand wearily through my hair as we walked. “you shouldn’t pay attention to ghoulies, they talk a lot of shit and nothing they say or do has any substance,” she replied as we walked into our classroom and settled at the back of the room. “don’t tell skyscraper about this stuff, I don’t think head even care but just in case,” I mumbled the last part quietly as Toni sighed quietly and shook her head, “god you’re so oblivious,” she murmured but was cut off as the skyscraper himself along with Cho and Cedric came into the room. Cho and Cedric settled at the desk (the singular desk that they both squeezed around) in front of me, while I sat with my legs hugged to my chest at the desk next to Toni and the window. I stared out the window as skyscraper took the seat beside Toni and was silent for a moment, I watched in the reflection of the window as he stood back up after barely a minute sat down and then came over to me, “you are shivering in that hoodie, it's still damp I can see the water, take the flannel,” he murmured.“I'm not cold,” I lied, my magic was weaker than usual and my drying spell hadn’t been effective in the slightest, and I was shivering underneath my hoodie. “damn it y/l/n, take the flannel,” Sweet Pea stated, all but slamming the flannel down onto my desk, I said nothing for a few heartbeats, “really skyscraper, it’s fine,” I mumbled quietly, hugging my knees closer to me, he glanced back at Toni who shook her head. For the entirety of the lesson I could feel Sweet Pea looking at me but I didn’t look over at him, the form tutor came into the class and I was unsurprised when they asked to speak to me, I played dumb about the whole slug incident and asked why would something like that happen and how and why did a ghoulie have any business being near me in the first place? To which there was no answer the form tutor could provide, and I took the opportunity to slip out of the school building and down to the grass area where it was raining once again but I didn’t care and sat in the rain under a tree on a graffitied table. Merlin I would have given anything to be back at Hogwarts. The sooner the better. I sighed quietly, feeling my hair get damp from under the hood on my hoodie that had never fully dried out properly. “why are you out here?” Sweet Pea questioned, settling on the bench beside me, “I didn’t want to go back to class,” I replied, “well let’s go and at least sit indoors where you aren’t going to get soaked through,” he stated flatly, “and no I'm not giving you a choice,” he added, bundling me up into his arms and carried me back into the building, his dark black hair becoming stuck to his forehead from how much it was raining. From where I was I could see the lines of his Serpent tattoo, and the sharp line of his jaw, “keep checking me out,” he added as he put me down on the ground once we were back inside the school building.I rolled my eyes at him as he guided us to a hidden section of the school where there was a back set of stairs that we went partially up to reach a high window with a large window ledge and then clambered onto it. It was just like the one’s at Hogwarts and that was a huge comfort to me. His eye roll was infamous but it got bigger as I refused his flannel again and instead tugged off my sopping hoodie and dumped in onto the window ledge beside me. “stop being so stubborn, you must be freezing,” he murmured as I tucked my knees up to me, “I’m ok, really,” I mumbled, resting my chin on my knees as I stared at Sweet Pea who was stretched out in front of me leisurely, clearly familiar with this particular hiding spot. He said nothing and we both turned to stare out of the window onto the dismal campus of Southside High, how I longed to be back at Hogwarts. “why did you all transfer here?” he asked quietly, “we were never told why you came here and we all know no one would ever choose to come here if they had a single choice in the matter.” I shrugged and silently debated how to discuss the topic, “we didn’t really get a choice, we were just told we couldn’t stay at our previous school and that other schools were being arranged for us to transfer to.” I explained quietly, being sure to leave out the details that could let onto his muggle mind of anything being amiss in any way, he nodded for a moment before turning to look at me properly, “it’s been interesting having all of you here,” I scoffed quietly, “you can say you hate everyone from my school, I’ve heard what they say,” Cedric for one hadn’t been backward in coming forward when it came to denouncing the ‘thugs’ he viewed the Serpents as and this included Toni, who I had defended but Cedric hadn’t exactly cared. Though I didn’t know why I was surprised. He’d always been like that. His way or the highway.“yeah well, you don’t say those things so you’re already a ton better than them,” he remarked casually, brushing the damp strands of hair out of his face, I hugged my knees tighter as I stared around, “yeah well I'm not a total ass, I wouldn’t say that crap,” I muttered with a sigh. It was sad to think my Hogwarts peers were so quick to make those kinds of comments. Sad but not really surprising. Sweet Pea offered me a small gentle smile, something I hadn’t expected and yet it was so beautiful and mesmerising that I simply couldn’t look away. His smile soon dropped and I mentally took a photo of what it had looked like, something precious to remember once I returned to the magic world and could no longer see him. “you’d burn down the whole world,” I mumbled watching him flick with a lighter, “don’t you think sometimes the world is too big?” he replied without answering my statement, “of course it is, it’s way too big for us small humans to live as part of,” I replied quietly. “but it’s ok if you want to burn the world down because I like playing with fire,” it was a terrible pick up line but I winked teasingly at him anyway. He smirked widely, “if you’re going to flirt with me, you can start by wearing my flannel and not give a shit for the opinions of irrelevant people,” he stated, nudging the flannel back towards me, I sighed reluctantly and pulled it on, immediately engulfed by the warmth of it having been on Sweet Pea’s skin, it was a magical feeling that no warming charm would accomplish in the same way. “much better,” he stated, smirking at me, as I snuggled further into the flannel, finally warm for the first time all day, “where do we go from here?” I asked quietly, letting the flannel form sweater paws for me, “how do you mean?” he asked quietly, drawing small shapes in the fogged up window pane from the rain, “I won’t be in Riverdale after this semester,” I replied, “neither will I,” he replied immediately. It was too soon to tell him about the wizarding world and the existence of magic, but in that moment I wished I could, it would make everything so much easier if he just knew about it and then this wouldn’t be painful, and it wouldn’t have the opportunity to become a painful memory for me if it all fell apart the way I expected it to.“we don’t need to think about the future yet, we are young, we will both leave Riverdale and what happens with the world will happen and if in doubt, we will burn it all down,” Sweet Pea replied, reaching for my hand and sent sparks through my entire body, “we’ll burn it all down,” I agreed, as his lips touched mine and fireworks erupted in my stomach in a way that was purely magical and had nothing to do with the existence of the wizarding world or the way magic truly worked. But it was magic. And it was so magical that it was something I wouldn’t want to forget, it was a moment I wanted to treasure and keep locked in my heart…The happy ending 🥰