[3B] we could make the sun go down [izzy]

march 2001

It was weird to be back in Hogsmeade. Sure, this wasn't the first time she had been back since dropping out of Hogwarts, but being there now almost made her feel bad about not coming back during all of the dome business. She had managed to be busy with the rest of her life, simply worrying about her family from afar, instead of next door, trying to do something about it. But, that nonsense was done with now, and all of Quinn Regan's siblings had made it through unscathed.

Of course, Quinn had seen everyone when they were sent home in the month of February, but she hadn't had nearly as much time as she wanted to spend with Izzy as she was much too preoccupied with Alex and his lack of limb. Still, Izzy was probably her favorite sister. She shared much more with her than was probably appropriate for someone Izzy's age, but it was a much better option than their older sister, Carla, whom Quinn had been finding rather dull to talk to recently. And she had more that she needed to share with her since they had last seen each other. Izzy's opinion was actually important to her.

So there she was in Hogsmeade, wearing a Slytherin sweater amongst other comfortable clothes: jeans, sneakers, wooly scarf. She was doing everything short of donning an actual disguise to blend in with the other students, much preferring spending the day talking to her sister than fending off annoying students. She had received letters from students, and more than one of them would make any self-respecting woman blush, and Quinn was not really in the mood to deal with that in person today.

She entered the Three Broomsticks expecting a crowd, but apparently she had beaten most of the students to the village. After grabbing two butterbeers, she settled into a booth near the back, keeping her eye out for Izzy. She sipped on her drink, pleased with the warmth and the atmosphere of the place. It didn't take too long for the student-friendly pub to start filling up, and Quinn briefly wondered if she should reconsider the choice of venue and have her sister meet her at the Hog's Head instead.

But before she could make up her mind about it, there she was, looking as happy as ever. Quinn did the awkward 'stand-but-not-quite-because-you're-at-a-booth' stand and wave, hoping to garner her attention, even though she was fairly certain Izzy would have been able to see her anyway. Quinn was just too excited to be spending any time with her sister, considering the past couple weeks she had.

"Izzy," she said happily when she was close enough to the table, waving her hand to be seen. "I missed you," she slipped into Spanish, intending to keep their conversation as private as possible in a large crowd; she much preferred the language over their other shared one: Irish. She stood up so they could pull each other into a hug. Quinn had been shorter than her sister for years now, but it was never more painfully obvious than when she hugged her and ended up with her head in Izzy's chest, which never failed to make her laugh.

She sat back down, motioning towards the seat an full butterbeer across from her. "I got you something, hope that's alright," she said, continuing in Spanish. The woman took a sip of her own drink, smiling as she set it down. "How's school been? Sorry I haven't written, but I haven't had a free minute since I saw you."

@Isabella Regan

It was weird to be back at school, she couldn't deny that. Izzy was still living with the Ravenclaws, just like all the other Hufflepuffs, but she didn't mind it. In fact, it would have been even weirder if everything had completely gone back to normal. But then again, what was the definition of normal at Hogwarts? As far as she knew the school hadn't witnessed a normal term in years and she wasn't sure if they'd ever get a break. Still, being depressed and living in the past wasn't her thing and so she was just looking forward to the future, confident that the rest of the school year would go just fine.

While she'd never been without family, not even during the past few months since many of her cousins as well as her younger sister were also attending Hogwarts, Isabella had been delighted to meet the rest of her siblings as well as her parents as soon as the dome had finally come down. She'd cried, of course she had, but her tears had been tears of joy and she had hugged all of them way longer than necessary. The reunion hadn't just been a happy one, though. It had hurt to see their faces once they'd seen Alexander's injury but somehow it had just managed to bind them together even more.

It had probably hit Quinn the hardest, seeing as she and Alex were just extremely close, and Izzy had understood completely that her older sister had wanted to spend most of her free time with her brother. She'd been too occupied with Niall and Claire anyway and next to that it wasn't as if she hadn't seen Quinn at all.

But even though she had seen her family a lot during the past few weeks, the sixth year had been really glad when Quinn had asked her to meet in Hogsmeade. She'd left the castle alone, simply because she hadn't told anyone who she was meeting. Her cousins had their own plans and if some of her friends realised that she would meet Quinn, they'd start talking and while Izzy had been fine with sharing her with Alex and her other siblings, she didn't want to share her now with students who just wanted her autograph.

Izzy entered the Three Broomsticks right on time and as her brown eyes scanned the room, she quickly spotted her sister in one of the booths near the back. Smiling brightly, the Hufflepuff made her way through the room, waving happily. "I missed you too," she replied, slipping into Spanish as easily as her sister. After giving Quinn a hug, Izzy sat down on the other side of the booth, her eyes falling on the butterbeer. "Perfect, thank you." The brunette took a sip, enjoying the sweet flavour.

"It's fine." She quickly waved her hand to emphasise that she didn't need an apology. "Lots of practice, huh?" She'd read that the Falcon's hadn't had a great time recently which surely meant that Quinn spent every spare minute on the Quidditch pitch. "School has been fine. It's kind of weird to be back there but things are good. No monsters," she said with a grin, trying to keep the conversation light.

"Merlin, you have no idea," Quinn agreed with a dramatic sigh. Besides a few mornings off, it really had been nonstop flying and training. But she could wait to talk about herself until they had gotten all of Izzy's things out of the way. That's what any good big sister would do, anyway. She rested her chin on her fist, her elbow propped up on the table, as she paid close attention to Izzy's answer to her questions.

She returned the younger Regan's grin, doing her best not to think too much in to her 'no monsters' quip. Quinn had never really asked what actually went on, no more then the details surrounding Alex's injury, and it really had seemed better off that way. She studied her sister's face, trying to make sure that she was simply stating a fact and not trying to be asked for more information.

Deciding that Izzy really didn't want to talk about it, Quinn kept the conversation moving in the light direction it was already headed in. "You're doing really well, you know. Even with all of this, you've already lasted longer than I did at school." The woman grinned before taking another sip of her butterbeer. "And speaking of leaving, we should see if you can sneak you out to one of my matches." Never mind that she had probably missed her best one of the season already after not seeing her catch against Portree. "We play the Wanderers next week and then just the Bats in April," she trailed off, knowing that the opponent really shouldn't matter since either way, Quinn would be playing.

The Three Broomsticks was just about full now so there was less chance they could be overheard but Quinn continued speaking Spanish anyway. "So you're still living with the Ravenclaws, right? That must be all sorts of terrible." Their oldest sister had been in that house, when didn't really help Quinn's opinion about their students very much. "Unless of course you're into the studious, brainy types," she said with a smirk and a raised brow, her fingers tracing the lines of her mug.

Really, she was fishing for any sort of schoolgirl drama she could get her hands on, either to get her mind off of her own silly drama or to segue into telling her sister all about it. Normally she would be using Alex as her sounding board, but she was still figuring out if he actually wanted to hear about it at all.