SHOUTOUT TO MY EX | O.Wood

- nine

"Boo!"

Veda makes a poor attempt at scaring Felicity as she walks down the stairs, witch hat on top of her head and jumping out from behind the Ravenclaw statue.

"Oh no! Not a witch, that's my worst fear!" The redhead feigns.

"Shhh both of you, you're gonna wake the first years!"

Penelope's chide lands on deaf ears as the two girls continue to giggle, Felicity saying something about how her acting was so good she almost thought it was her dad.

Penelope glares at the two as the finally calm down from their fit— everything is funnier when it's the middle of the night and they're supposed to be quiet.

"Chill, Pen, you really think we didn't place a silencing charm on this room? What are we, amateurs?"

Felicity dons her own witch hat to match Veda's, and the three girls get to work.

"Do you think we can transfigure those into bats?" She asks, pointing at the floating lights that always lit their common room.

Last year the girls had made them into skulls, the year before that it was pumpkins— easy enough considering the shape was close enough to the round sphere they started with.

"Bats aren't round." Veda states, but says nothing else to dissuade her friend.

The three girls quickly realize that transfiguring glass from its standard shape is a little harder than they thought.

There are small shards of light laying around the common room floor, still giving off a faint glow.

"Guess we get to see if that silencing charm works," Penelope laughs, referring to the loud shattering.

When no one comes to check out the sound, the girls quickly repair the lights and try again.

They shatter about 10 more lights before Felicity finally manages to get a bat shape, even if one wing is slightly smaller than the other.

Soon the common room is lit with dimly glowing and slightly disfigured bats, and the girls perform a three-way high five, proud of their abilities.

"Look at us go, first bat lights, next patronuses." Veda cheers.

"That's definitely the natural order of things."

Penelope had used her job at the library to go through the catalog and look for anything about casting patronuses, coming up with little to nothing except a book from the restricted section that they currently had no way of getting.

"You know, I bet I know some people that could get us in there." Felicity supplies, and the two girls look at her in confusion.

"Who in this castle could possibly know enough about sneaking around- oh." Penelope quickly stops asking as all the girls come to the same conclusion.

The Weasley twins.

"They kinda owe me a favor, and I think they rather enjoy breaking rules just to prove they can."

Veda perks up at this, "do they now?"

Felicity smirks, "don't both of you go getting all hot and bothered over Weasley's."

"Both?" Penelope shrieks.

"Don't think we haven't noticed your weird Percy thing." Veda joins in on the teasing.

"What weird Percy thing?" She chokes out, but all three girls know it lacks conviction.

"I'm only letting this go because I think you're just as confused as we are," Felicity says, and Penelope lets out an airy laugh that acknowledges that truth. "Just know that if you want to talk it out, or when you do figure it out yourself, we're here."

Penelope grins, putting an arm around both her friends.

"I love you guys."

"Ditto"

"Me three"

The girls sit there like that for a while, before Penelope speaks again.

"Speaking of stubborn gryffindorks, how are you feeling?"

Felicity lets out a soft laugh, glad they've stopped treating her like a fragile little girl who would cry at any mention of her breakup.

"I'm okay, really. I'm doing a little better now that I've gotten back on a schedule and distracted. I just can't think about it too hard."

"Why not?" Veda questions, "you love thinking hard about things."

Felicity smiles, they know her so well.

"I just can't think about him without thinking about all the good stuff. Even when I think about the breakup to try and make myself mad, I just can't hate him."

Her friends take the information in, silently thinking.

Felicity lets out a stressed breath, "I'm stupid, right? Merlin I wish he'd cheated on me or yelled at me or something— it's so hard to move on when I just can't make myself regret him. No matter how hard this part is— if given the option, even knowing what I do, I know I'd still do it again."

Penelope rubs her back.

"Do you know what I like about you, Lis?" She asks.

Felicity hums, confused at the sudden change in topic.

"You're an all-inner. No matter what it is, whatever you do, you go all in on it. Whether that's transfiguring bats or loving people. You were all in on your relationship, just like you're all in with us. I think this pain that you're feeling is a testament to how beautiful that is, to be so all in on something that it can make you feel this way. And I really love you for that."

Felicity's eyes are misty, and she once again hugs her best friends, the three girls cuddling in a heap on the floor.

"What would I do without you guys."