𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒛𝒆 - pjo x hp [₂]

viii. stealing boyfriends, are we?

"𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐘," Raya led her friends along the streets of Hogsmeade.

Hermione had mentioned something about Harry leading a Defense club at Hogwarts. Considering their current teacher was shit, Raya decided to check it out. She'd convinced her friends — most of them excited about going behind Umbridge's back.

They walked down the main street past Zonko's Joke Shop — where they were unsurprised to see Fred, George, and Lee Jordan — past the post office, from which owls issued at regular intervals, and turned up a side street at the top of which stood a small inn. A battered wooden sign hung from a rusty bracket over the door, with a picture upon it of a wild boar's severed head leaking blood onto the white cloth around it. The sign creaked in the wind as they approached. All of them hesitated outside the door.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Elias muttered, staring warily at the sign.

Kayse's grip on Raya's hand tightened, "It gives me psycho killer vibes. Like this would be the perfect place to dump a dead body. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Pennywise came crawling out of there."

"Penny-what?" Meredith cowered behind Cho.

"Pennywise, clown person who kills kids."

"Oh," her reply was faint.

The Hog's Head was a small inn, much smaller than the Three Broomsticks. Considering this was supposed to be a secret thing, Raya wasn't surprised this was the place they went with.

"First off, Pennywise isn't real, he's from a horror story—"

"—Based on a real person," Kayse mumbled under his breath.

"But they've also got to keep it hidden from Dumbridge," she reminded them. "Let's go in. We're only bringing attention to ourselves by standing outside like idiots."

She led them inside.

It was not at all like the Three Broomsticks, whose large bar gave an impression of gleaming warmth and cleanliness. The Hog's Head bar comprised one small, dingy, and very dirty room that smelled strongly of something that might have been goats. The bay windows were so encrusted with grime that very little daylight could permeate the room, which was lit instead with the stubs of candles sitting on rough wooden tables. The floor seemed at first glance to be earthy, though as Raya stepped onto it she realized that there was stone beneath what seemed to be the accumulated filth of centuries. 

In one of the corner booths, she spotted the Golden Trio.

"Let's go," she waved her friends along.

Raya took a seat next to Hermione, Kayse on her other side. Slowly, but surely, the small inn began to fill up with nearly twenty five other students who'd been interested.

By the glare Harry sent Hermione's way, she could tell he wasn't informed of this.

"Hi," said Fred, one of the newcomers, reaching the bar first and counting his companions quickly. "Could we have... twenty-three butterbeers, please?"

"Add six more!" Raya called to him from her spot on the table.

"Add six to that," he told the barman.

The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something very important, he started passing up dusty butterbeers from under the bar.

"Cheers," said Fred, handing them out. "Cough up, everyone, I haven't got enough gold for all of these..."

The large group of kids began rummaging for coins, grabbing their butterbeers from Fred.