Time of Your Life

[Margo Liddell]

No regrets. That was a popular saying Margo liked to live by and it applied to tonight. Sure, she was in trouble after only a few months at Hogwarts, and yes, it was true that she now had a pack of older Slytherins who she'd just made her enemy, but she was having the time of her life. Upon exiting the great hall Margo took one of the butter beers from Eugene with one hand, grabbing the hand she'd just freed with her other. With the Hufflepuff boys hand clasped firmly in her own she began running, tearing through the hallways, not stopping until she came to the fourth floor. By now Margo was laughing hard, barely able to catch her breath between fits of giggles.

Looking back at Eugene, her eyes bright with joy, Margo backed into the student lounge. "Oh my gosh, that was amazing. Did you see their faces!" she exclaimed, turning on the lights. With the feast going on the lounge was empty, so Margo and her friend were free to talk freely of the shenanigans they had just gotten into. Upon reaching a table she upended her bag, spilling candy and sweets everywhere. It was mostly candy, but Margo had managed to grab a few cookies and other sugary treats and wrap them in napkins while the Professors eyes had been focused elsewhere. She was most proud of a pair of candied apples she'd managed to pilfer, and digging them out of the pile she handed one to Eugene before hopping up to sit on the table next to her treasure.

"Was this for me?" Margo asked, holding up the butter beer in her hand, waiting for his response before deciding whether or not to drink it. "Dig in, I'm going to summon some paper and write to Isla and Kaleb and tell them to just meet us here." Margo did just that, quickly scribbling notes to her friends who were currently MIA before charming the parchment to fly off to the respective recipients. It was a spell she'd begged a seventh year Gryffindor to teach her, and now she was glad she had.

With the task at hand done Margo grinned over at Eugene. "I must say, you were pretty great back there. I'm going to have to start calling you my knight in shining armor," Margo joked, referring to how the boy had protected her while dressed up as a knight. "Wait til we tell Isla and Kaleb about this, they're going to be mad they missed it." Margo frowned before adding, "I can't believe they actually missed it." The tiny Gryffindor wasn't angry with her friends, even if it did turn out that they'd chickened out at the last moment. The prank had gone off fine without them, and she'd had fun watching it all play out with Eugene. She was, however, worried about Kaleb after his recent revelation. I hope it's not a full moon or something... Margo thought.

 

[Eugene Smythe]

That cocky smile would stay for a long time on his handsome face.Because Eugene Smythe hadn't never before felt that proud of himself.Not even when he had been selected to play for the Hufflepuff team.But today the prank that he and his partner Margo had played had been absolutely brilliant.Even the Professor had shown signs of admitting it even though he couldn't infront of the Slytherins. And they had managed to piss off some seriously mean Slytherins.That was really something considering that they were just first years. Eugene wasn't even worried about what would happen when he met any of those students again with on one to save him. He was feeling victorious and thought of the Slytherins getting back at him didn't even occur to him at that time.

He ran with Margo, all the way to the fourth floor,laughing and breathless by the time they reached the Student lounge. It was time for the after-party. He followed Margo inside the room which was empty. Most of the students were still at the feast. Eugene liked to think that they were all talking about the prank of the evening, and it was probably true because what had happened wasn't really a secret. The whole Gryffindor House had seen most of it and so had most of the other students. He laughed with Margo as she mentioned how they looked after eating the fudge."Those expressions were worth thousands of galleons." he agreed and he was laughing so much it was hard to talk. When they turned on the lights, magical fire started itself in the fireplace. Eugene walked over to a comfy looking chair and perched on its armrest

Eugene was a bit hungry so he was thinking that he should take Margo to the Kitchens where the house elves would be more than happy to get them anything they wanted. But then he noticed that Margo had upeneded a whole bag of candies and treat on the coffee table."Margo!" he exclaimed looking at the heap of candies and then at Margo who handed him a candied apple.His expression was one of surprise and awe "When did you bag these? You are a genius!" he said taking a bite from his apple and said through a mouthful."Of course that's for you."

He watched as she wrote two notes to Kaleb and Isla, and wondered what had kept them from coming to the feast. He hadn't seen Isla in his last classes and he couldn't help but worry about her. He took slow bites from his apple as he thought about when he had last seen her. She had looked well at the time and he didn't know if she was sick or anything When Margo was done writing Eugene,turned back to her as she said that he had great at the feast with the whole prank situation.

He grinned at her and said, "Thanks but I kind of figured that the metal armor thing would have deflected most jinxes and you were the one in actual danger if the spell got deflected or something..." his sentence trailed off as he thought back to that moment and he could hardly remember what he had been thinking because everything had happened so fast. But he had kept Margo safe so everything else didn't matter. He hadn't even drawn his wand because he didn't take DADA and he didn't know the spell that the Professor had used to deflect the jinx. He frowned and got up of the armrest and threw himself on the sofa with a sigh. He realized that he wouldn't have been able to defend himself if the Professor hadn't intervened and it made him feel pathetic that he had assumed that the armor would protect him. What if his theory had proved wrong? Or worse what if the spell had hit Margo instead? He knew that they had been lucky but he didn't like to depend on luck and it the fact that he couldn't do the Shielding spell bothered him.But he cast away the troubling thoughts for the time so that he could enjoy the candy.

"Neither can I...and I hope they have a good excuse..." he added. He was sure that they wouldn't have wanted to miss the prank or the feast but something must have happened. He was done with the apple and it had been delicious. He took a sip of his butterbeer and tried to decided what to eat next. "Margo, come here and help me pick what to eat next. Everything looks so delicious that its confusing me." he added grinning at her and patting the space next to him on the sofa.

 

[Margo Liddell]

It was a magical night for the young Gryffindor girl sitting there with Eugene in the student lounge and for once, the magic she felt had nothing to do with being surrounded by witches and wizards. With the success of their prank and the knowledge that soon all her closest friends would be together to share the rest of the evening, Margo felt as happy as she had ever been. The eleven year old could not remember having laughed this way since before she came to New Zealand. It was if a wall she had built was crumbling, the naturally cheerful child becoming free to just enjoy being young and wild. The fire caught Margo's eyes, reflecting off the shimmering green to give her a wild, elven look. Shooting Eugene and impish grin Margo explained, "After you moved in front of me there was no way the professor could see me behind you. Besides, he was distracted with scolding that nasty Dionysus boy. Being small does have it's advantages from time to time." Giving Eugene a wink Margo popped a piece of candy into her mouth, not caring whether or not she had gotten the Slytherin's name correct.

Eugene brushed off her compliment, to which Margo responded with a shake of her head. Eugene protecting her had given her a feeling of such estatic joy that it hardly made sense to an eleven year old, ignorant as she was in ways of the heart, and she was not about to let Eugene diminish the act by explaining it away."Regardless of why you did it, it was still very cool of you. No one's ever done something like that for me before. At least no one I'm not related to," Margo returned seriously. Her words seemed to do little however, and Margo frowned a bit as Eugene plopped onto the couch with a sigh. With a voice full of concern Margo asked, "Hey, you okay?"

Soon all was forgotten as the topic turned back to friends and candy, very popular subject matter in the world of eleven year olds. With mischief in her eyes Margo mused aloud jokingly, "Maybe we should make up some wild story to tell them since they couldn't be bothered to show." Scooping up as much of the stash of goodies as would fit in her arms Margo ran over to the couch, jumping into the spot Eugene had designated with a laugh. After sorting through the pile a bit Margo came up with a chocolate frog, "Oh! This one! I've never actually seen one of these, but I heard some of my dorm mates talking about them. Do they really move?" Margo exclaimed delightedly, her emerald eyes brimming with wonder.

With the cozy fire crackling in the fireplace, a giant pile of candy in front of her, and the company of a good friend, Margo really could not think of a way she'd rather be spending Halloween night. Closing her eyes for a minute Margo turned her face toward the fire, enjoying the warmth the flames gave off. Margo was a child of fire, her personality and spirit mirroring the unpredictable joyous dance of the flames, consuming all that was in her path. She could have spent hours just staring into the blaze, basking in the warm glow as a cat basks in the light of the sun. The only thing that could make the night a more perfect Halloween was a scary movie, but there was little chance of that at Hogwarts.

Giving voice to her thoughts while she opened her eyes to gaze at the fire eating up the log, "I wish TV's worked here so we could watch a Halloween film. My mum used to let me watch Steven King films on halloween even though I was really too young...." Margo trailed off there, the memory of her mother causing too much pain yet for her to go on further. Briefly she considered sharing her loss with Eugene. Margo was beginning to feel as close to Eugene as to Kaleb, and she didn't feel like she had to be strong for this boy, but she had yet to tell anyone of the loss of her mother, and was fearful of how doing so might effect her. That fear held Margo's tongue as she sat there waiting for Eugene to speak.