𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐔𝐌 [𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐫𝐚]

act one, scene one

A/N: Hi, and thank you for clicking on our story! We don't want to keep you from reading for too long, so we'll make this quick. Listen to the video when it comes up (you'll get it once you get there)!

Thanks again for choosing to read Peace in Pandemonium!

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"Going out again?" Ahalya Mitran sniffed, her tone laced with disapproval.

Netra Mitran dressed casually rather than in her house robes, gave her mother an apologetic glance. "Preethika wanted to go to the library at Diagon again."

"You won't be able to go there next week—we're having guests over," her mother said as Netra adjusted her bag and walked over to the fireplace.

"I'll make sure to finish my essays by then," Netra said.

She looked back, saw her mother's responding nod, and took that as an invitation to Floo away.

Throwing the green powder in the fireplace, she said, "Diagon Alley!"

Netra stepped out of the fireplace with the grace of someone who had done so since birth, which she had. Once she had made sure that no one was going to come over to use the fireplace, she took off her robe, revealing the muggle clothes her neighbour had given her for her birthday. Netra folded the robe carefully and placed it inside her handbag, which also contained her keyboard, its stand, a speaker and a pot of Floo powder she had Owl Ordered at Hogwarts. Undetectable Extension Charms were useful.

"Platform Nine and Three-Quarters!" Netra exclaimed, throwing her Floo Powder into the fireplace again.

No, she didn't go through all of this trouble just to go to school. There was still a week and a day before she had to go back to Hogwarts, and in any case, her parents would bring her to King's Cross station themselves. Meeting up with her muggle neighbour to go busking, however, was something that they wouldn't condone. Willow Wood's parents felt much the same, though she was certain they didn't know about her magical abilities. He didn't, anyway.

It was because of this that they decided to busk by King's Cross rather than by their neighbourhood, as well as the reason they chose to only do it during the last full week of their summer holiday. Willow and Netra first met during the summer after her second year at Hogwarts, and they'd been busking together since the summer after her third. She hoped that this tradition of theirs would go on for as long as they stayed in touch because while it started as a way for Willow to earn money for his cat's surgery, they had continued just for the fun of it.

Netra was startled out of her thoughts by Willow's butchering of her last name.

"Alright, Mitran?"

"Hey, Will!" she exclaimed, running up to him, albeit rather slowly than she usually would. Carrying a cumbersome keyboard with its stand and speaker tended to make running hard. "And for the last time, you say it like 'mitten' but with a 'thr' sound instead!"

Willow groaned, "I thought I got it for sure this time!"

Netra laughed as she set up her keyboard, thanking Merlin for the millionth time that Willow's parents got him battery-powered microphones. It would be so much easier if she could cast a Sonorus on the two of them and his guitar (her keyboard was battery-powered and charms hated electrical things apparently, so the speaker was unavoidable) but he was a muggle. The Statute of Secrecy was such a pain to maintain.