always, i'll care { b a a l i e }

Billie popped a singular piece of popcorn in her mouth, making sure not to move her head as a favour to the girl sitting behind her, braiding her hair. She stretched her legs out in front of her, pushing several pillows out of the way as she did so. Aase’s living room had been turned into one big pillowed mess, with a magically enlarged mattress for them all to sleep on and so many differently-coloured cushions and blankets.

Term had only ended a week ago, but she’d missed her friends. She loved Kendrick, and the Silvermans had done a lot to make her feel comfortable at their beautiful home, but at this point, school still felt more like home. She’d been sleeping in the same room as Barbie for the larger part of the past four years, which was far longer than she’d spent at the house she was living at now, so there was something nice and familiar about having her housemate here. Being at Aase’s house just made everything a bit more exciting.

She smiled at something one of the other girls said, sitting in comfortable silence while the other two chatted.

Love had been on the mind a lot lately. Since she and Phillip had gone out last week, Billie had been unable to think about much other than him. Even now, she was sort of regretting leaving her journal at home; by now she felt a bit naked without it. She’d wanted to spill everything that had happened with him to her friends as soon as she’d turned up here tonight, but conversation had gone in all kinds of other directions, and she wasn’t the sort of person who felt comfortable directing the attention of a room to herself.

Presumably, Barbie knew the most about relationships out of all of her friends. She and Owain had been together for what, almost a year now? Something that was practically unheard of amongst her other fourth year friends. Fifth year friends, she corrected internally. Either way, a year was a lifetime when it came to mid-teen romances.

“Which OWLs are you two taking again?” she asked, still keeping still. “No one is dropping charms, are they?”

Barbara loved Billie’s hair -- curly and golden, so romantic, though she’d seen the state of it on enough early enough mornings to know the downside of the curls -- and she was woefully, ardently jealous. Her own hair was an uninspiring brown most of the year, and much less romantically wild. It could sometimes be persuaded to wave, but even then she thought it was wispy and drab. Her legs tucked underneath her, the skirts of her nightgown tangled in them, she had to shift her bum every few seconds to get comfortable, but she was nearly done with her plait and couldn’t move ‘til she’d finished -- she furrowed her brow with concentration, but carried on talking over Billie’s shoulder, sitting across from her.

“I just don’t think it looks very good,” she said, “Individually, you know, I love them -- nothing like a lovely little shrubbery -- but only one shrub, you know? The whole front path is lined with them now -- it’s awful, I have to look up at the sky for the wriggling every time I leave the house -- but I’ve tried to tell my mum and she just thinks it’s charming.”

She pinched the end of Billie’s plait and plucked up the hair ribbon in her lap, wrapped it carefully and tried unsuccessfully to tie an even, symmetrical bow. “There you are, Billie,” she said, and shuffled gratefully on her knees back around to get at the popcorn in its bowl, took a small handful and cradled it in front of her to eat one-by-one.

“Oh, well -- they’ll die eventually, I reckon, and we can get shrubberies that don’t wave.” Barbie felt rather foolish, that her mother’s gardening exploits were the most notable story she could tell from her summer thus far, but ballet was the same, Owain was the same, and everything else was the same. The bushes alone were new.

“I’m desperate to drop Potions,” she sighed, “But I haven’t decided, beyond that. I might drop astronomy too.” Barbara, to her own woe, liked her sleep at night.

Lying flat on her stomach on a linear arrangement of displaced couch cushions and swaddled in a quilt, Aase snaked her hand into the relatively-centrally-located popcorn bowl and gathered up as many as she could fit in a single handful. A few stray pieces couldn’t quite hang on, though, and dropped to the ground as she withdrew – but Ralph was on it, quick as a flash. The midnight-blue Pygmy Puff squeaked excitedly and tumbled off of her shoulder in his haste to get to the fallen kernels; popcorn was his favorite, and Aase was convinced he had a sixth sense for it. She grinned as she watched him happily crunch away at the pieces.

“– it’s awful, I have to look up at the sky for the wriggling every time I leave the house –”

Aase had been following along, but at this she couldn’t help but giggle aloud: it conjured up a perfect mental image of Barbie bracing herself.

“Which OWLs are you two taking again? No one is dropping charms, are they?”

“I'm keeping Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Herbology, and Potions for sure… Merlin willing I pass all of them,” she replied, ticking them off on her fingers one-by-one. “Maybe Divination, we’ll see. Can’t wait to drop History of Magic” – she grinned at her friends – “though I’ve heard a new professor is teaching it this year, so I'm half-curious. And I know I probably shouldn’t… but I think either DADA or Transfiguration is ultimately going to go, too.”

Aase shifted slightly in her cocoon and sighed melodramatically, draping one of the thinner sheets around her head like a babushka for emphasis.
“Why does career planning have to be so stressful?”
She was only half-joking; they had wonderful guidance from their Heads of House, but at the same time it was very overwhelming to decide the trajectory of your adult life when you were only fifteen years old…

“What O.W.L.s are you thinking, Billie? And what do both of you think you want to actually do once we graduate?”
Aase fought the urge to shudder reflexively at the word ‘graduate’. Sure, she was excited to get out into the world, but she also knew she was most definitely not in any sort of hurry to expedite that. Perhaps she’d feel differently after this year.

Billie smiled serenely, listening to Barbie’s complaints about her mother’s gardening and making small sounds of agreement or disapproval as necessary. Her smiled widened a touch as Aase laughed.

“Thank you Barbie,” she said, shuffling to the side and turning a bit so she could see both girls at once. She reached up and touched her braid at the nape of her neck with her fingertips, making sure to be gentle so as to not ruffle it or the bow that tied it at the end. She tucked a stray wisp behind one ear, nodding as her housemate glanced at her, assumedly looking for affirmation of her feelings on shrubberies that waved, and tucked her hands together in her lap demurely.

She glanced at Aase as she mentioned career planning, then nodded in agreement to that, too. Despite being busier socially in the past six months or so, the blonde had kept her near-perfect grades, but she wondered if that would be sustainable into her fifth year.

“Oh, I’m doing the typical core five,” she answered with a gentle smile. She counted them internally: Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Herbology, Defence. “And I think Care of magical creatures,” she added. Honestly, Billie had chosen all of the OWLs that led to NEWTs required for careers in healing, but she was a little nervous to say so out loud. Despite being a typically rational sort of Ravenclaw for the most part, Billie could be superstitious, too. Saying out loud that she wanted something that was relatively difficult to attain seemed a bit hasty at this point.

“I’m not sure,” she said instead, which wasn’t a lie. She glanced at Barbie, the same question in her eyes.

Aase clutched a sheet around her head; the effect was so comical that Barbie snorted a little laugh, then covered her mouth with the hand that wasn’t holding her popcorn: she swung her legs around and leaned forward to replenish her popcorn. “It is,” she agreed -- “I don’t think it’s right to put this all on us in our fifth years. I wish we did it next year like they do in France.” She wasn’t sure how much of a difference one year could make, but it would be better than nothing.

She’d forgotten about Defense Against the Dark Arts, which Aase thought she might drop; she hesitated before saying, “I don’t know if I’ll drop Defense. I don’t suppose it’s very useful now but…” she had never felt quite comfortable with the idea of being ill-prepared for anything.

Billie was planning to keep all five of their core subjects -- Barbara nodded, trying not to feel or appear jealous. It was ridiculous to envy Billie a packed schedule, but perhaps not so ridiculous to envy the opportunity that came with more options. Maybe she’d keep Potions after all -- but, she supposed, she had to pass her O.W.L. first.

She glanced sideways and caught Billie’s look -- Billie’s answer had been a non-answer, so she considered her own with more care, though she didn’t really know either. “I might work at the funeral home,” she said -- her safety option -- “Or, I reckon, I could apprentice for a seamstress. Or… I’m not ballerina  material but I might be alright as just a teacher.” The prospect didn’t thrill her -- but her sister had been very happy, teaching other girls to dance, and Barbara at least knew she would probably be good at it.

Wasn’t that what was really important, anyway?

She glanced at Aase -- “Your turn,” she said urgently. “But then I recommend we quit talking about school ‘til it’s started -- I can’t stand to think about our exams this early.”

Aase nodded enthusiastically in response to Billie’s list of subjects; then more solemnly in wholehearted agreement with Barbie in wishing they could push all of this to next year.
“I guess we do actually need to get through our O.W.L.s before we get to even decide what to drop and stick with afterwards,” she sighed with a small smile. It seemed so far away which she counted as both a good thing and a bad thing right now. “I was getting ahead of myself.”

She listened carefully to the rest of what Barbie had to say, trying not to frown at her proposition of working at the funeral home. It was important work, to be sure, and admirable that her family worked so diligently at it… but it did not seem the best fit for Barbie’s potential and interests. Her other two options seemed more like her.
“You’re so artistic and creative, though,” Aase insisted, letting the hood of her makeshift babushka fall back to reveal her dark brown curls. “I'm sure you’d make lovely garments… I’d certainly buy them,” she continued encouragingly. “And your paintings are lovely, too.”

Barbie turned her original question back on her, then, with a pointed request to stop talking about school afterwards.
“I don’t know, career-wise,” she sighed. “I thought maybe Magizoology because I love magical creatures… but I don’t know that I want to research and write papers on them, like Mr. Scamander’s done for his book. Then there’s Veterinary Healing, but that can be a very sad business. Important, yes, but emotionally taxing… like when you’ve got a very sick animal that can’t tell you where it hurts or what’s happening.”
Her words were starting to come out in a rush – belatedly recognizing this, she held her tongue and instead stuffed a handful of popcorn in her mouth.
“But yeah, let’s stop talking about school now,” she finished, her voice significantly more muffled but still mostly intelligible. “Sorry. Um.” Aase fumbled for another topic to move onto. “What… fun things have you two done, or have planned while we’re on holiday?”

The blonde curled her knees up and rested her chin upon them, smiling contently as her other friends took over the conversation. “Ooh, so true,” Billie said, nodding enthusiastically at Aase’s comment about Barbie’s creativity and, specifically, the garment-making part. Her thoughts wandered a little when Aase was speaking about Vetinary Healing and so on, but she made sure not to look distracted, smiling politely and nodding when it was appropriate to do so. She linked her hands together around her folded legs.

Aase spoke over a mouthful of popcorn (Billie tried not to judge), and Billie waited for Barbara to answer first – she even looked at her Ravenclaw friend expectantly. Billie was, typically, the least opinionated of the group (Barbara was the most), as well as the least talkative in general (that one might go to Aase), and it was rare that she had news or thoughts that needed sharing. She did, however, actually have something worth bringing up today.

“I, er…” She started, eyes meeting Barbara’s before she glanced at Aase. Maybe she was looking for approval. “Phillip kissed me,” she breathed, fumbling the words a little and blushing profusely. “Last week,” she added helpfully, as if she were speaking about the weather or some kind of pop culture gossip. She glanced back at Barbara for her housemate's reaction.

The other two seemed, at least, not unenthused by Barbara’s half-considered ideas, which was heartening. “Well, don’t worry, I’d give them to you for free,” she said, cheeks a little warm. “Well -- within reason.” Aase’s ideas were a lot more helpful to society than Barbara’s were: she raised her eyebrows. “Aw,” she said, as her friend trailed off. “Well, you’d make a class Healer, if you wanted, I’m sure -- do you think you’d do the normal sort, like owls and toads and puffskeins, or -- surely not dangerous ones?” She couldn’t quite imagine Aase sticking her hand down a manticore’s throat. She put a piece of popcorn in her mouth to hide her smile.

Aase asked about their summers -- Barbara glanced at Billie, but Billie was glancing at her, so she went first: “I’ve got the ballet, obviously, you’ll see, and then my parents are letting me on a few day trips with the Hughes,” -- or was it the Hugheses? -- “and then I’m trying to talk her into taking me to France for a weekend, but that’ll be harder to talk her into.” Her recitation complete, she glanced at Billie to hear hers. Billie was very pink -- Barbara perked her eyebrows and widened her eyes.

“He did not!” she said, astonished. It was about time, she thought -- not that she liked Phillip Donnelly particularly, but he was clearly sweet on Billie. She quirked her eyebrows eagerly, leaning forward, her tone turning slightly bossy -- “Go on! How was it? What happened?” Phillip didn’t seem like he had a hidden tender side, but it would be lovely if he did -- that would suit Billie very well. Barbara was optimistic enough to imagine it.

The dark-haired Trickett smiled a bit shyly at Barbara’s praise.
“Aw, thanks! I… don’t really know, actually,” she remarked thoughtfully. “Probably people’s pets, mostly?”

Aase bobbed her head knowingly at the mention of ballet, and made a little ‘ooh!’ of interest at the day trips and potentially France. It was Billie’s turn, then, and the Ravenclaw was awfully pink in the cheeks…

“Phillip kissed me.”

Aase’s mouth fell open in shock – and a fresh piece of popcorn out with it. She hadn’t been expecting that! The Hufflepuff picked up the fallen piece of popcorn, but remained wide-eyed.
“You’ve been sitting on that this whole time?” she squeaked. Okay it had been last week, so not that long ago… but still!!

But Barbara had already locked-on to the confession like a niffler scenting gold, and so Aase took another handful of popcorn and listened intently, emphatically nodding along with the very pointed questions. Phillip was an… interesting… boy, to be sure. He certainly wasn’t exactly a ‘warm-and-fuzzy’ person, but he’d also never been unkind to her. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of him, in all honesty.