Merlin, Odessa was looking forward to the winter holidays. This school was entirely suffocating, as was the façade that she had in place when she was at it for months at a time. The only breaks that she got were Hogsmeade weekends, which she could admit had become very productive recently. She certainly wasn’t going to say no to the fact that Corey had once again happened to be at her uncle’s apartment and her uncle happened to be gone… it really just worked out quite well for them. Obviously, she still didn’t fully trust him, or anything near it—obviously if he were to not be there this coming weekend, she wasn’t going to even give it a second thought… overall, shagging Corey was very unimportant to what she was doing in general. It was a nice little benefit, but nothing that was entirely necessary. It helped her to stall for long enough to see if she actually trusted him—to see just how bad it was that he knew the truth about her. But that didn’t mean she thought anything of it other than two people being able to shag without playing any kind of part—her part being the ridiculous Ravenclaw princess that everyone thought she was, and his being the Slytherin bloke that was perhaps a little rough-around-the edges, but not downright evil. She could certainly admit that it was a nice little break from this bullshit.

But not a long enough one, obviously. It was why she was practically counting down the damn days until the winter holidays began. Time was officially dragging now that it was approaching, and she knew that it was bound to be a bloody annoying couple of weeks, but she could get by. She always did, after all. Six years at this damn school, and still not a person was the wiser about her. No one knew just how much she bloody despised Mudbloods, how much she wanted to do the world a damn favor by getting rid of them all… and the blood traitors too, while she was at it. No one knew of her practicing the dark arts, not that she was bloody stupid enough to do that at school, and no one knew where her family’s loyalties lie. Not even the professors… not even McGonagall. It was bloody fantastic, really.

It was certainly what got her through dealing with the daily annoyances at this castle—gaining amusement by the fact that she was fooling everyone. Odessa also didn’t falter in the slightest, despite her growing irritation as the weeks went on. She was ready to get out of here, but no one would know in the slightest. Hell, they might just think she was a Ravenclaw sad about the holidays because it meant she didn’t get to go to bloody class… or whatever Ravenclaw damn stereotype fit the bill there. Everything that they thought only made this all the more easy on her, though, so she certainly wasn’t complaining about their obliviousness. She fit right in with the other Ravenclaws—partially because she was that good, and partially because people were that predictable and she knew exactly what they wanted to see. Still amused by the thoughts, Odessa entered the common room after coming up with the answer to the riddle outside. As the entrance shut behind her, she took a glance around at the room, knowing that she’d have to play the part and be social. Finally, she set her sights on someone who would be incredibly irritating to talk to, but not entirely intolerable—@hadley. Smiling brightly, she approached the girl, “Hey Hadley,” she said to her teammate, before gesturing at the armchair across from her. “Mind if I join you?” She asked, knowing that she couldn’t be bloody rude.

---

WONDER WEEK, DON'T YOU KNOW IT.

Hadley thumbed open the letter from her mother and read it quickly for the sixth time today. She had received the letter weeks ago, but she still couldn’t bring herself to fully understand it. Tucked into the binding of the book that she was reading, her eyes scanned over it again.

Hadley,

I wish you would quit going on about your aunt and uncle. Desdemona died, sweetheart. The Order torched her house a few weeks before the war ended. They found her wand in the embers. She’s gone and she’s not coming back. As for your uncle Orpheus, your father said that he’s taken care of. Dad sent Atticus a letter a few months ago – he’s locked up in Azkaban and he’s not coming back either.

Secondly, no one is out to get you, I promise. It was just a silly prank that one of the other students probably put on. You are safe at Hogwarts – it’s always been the safest place for you to be.

You have it in your head that something horrible is going to happen to you, but you won’t be punished for your relatives. Trust me, sweetheart. Dad says he misses you - so do I. We can't wait to see you for Christmas. Send Atticus our love.

I love you.

Mom

Hadley found herself, yet again, pouring over the letter in front of her. Honestly, it was more information than she had ever gotten from her mother. It was an acknowledgement that Desdemona actually existed and was…well, to be quite frank, evil. And that Orpheus was too. To some it might have seemed like nothing, but to Hadley, it felt like everything. It was the end of the letter that worried her. Of course she thought that something horrible was going to happen to her. Something horrible already had! Hadley didn’t understand why her mother seemed so content to discount everything that was happening at Hogwarts.

The sound of Odessa’s voice startled the brunette. Immediately she slammed the book closed, the letter disappearing back into the pages. “Hey…” Hadley said, smiling faintly at the girl. As her Quidditch Captain, Seeker and housemate, Hadley made it a point not to get on her bad side. In fact, she hardly even said a word to her outside of the pitch. “No, sure. That’d be…g-g-g-great.” Her words got stuck on her tongue, causing a slight stutter, but almost immediately she swallowed it and focused. That was what her father always said. ‘Just focus, princess.’ “I was just…” She looked down at the Quidditch Through the Ages book in her lap and shrugged, it would do as an excuse. “…looking at strategies. What're you up to?”

At Hogwarts, there were always people that she really bloody didn’t want to bother talking to, followed by those that were simply annoying to talk to, and then there were a small group of people that were actually worth talking to. For the most part, those people were in Slytherin, and they were people that she couldn’t talk to too much because she didn’t want to raise any suspicions about her. She already felt as though Rayyan might be a bit suspicious of her, and that was something that she’d had to nip in the bud immediately. Odessa knew that the problem for her would not be her inability to play nice with blood traitors and Mudbloods… she could fake it for them with a smile on her face, even as she thought about all of the different ways that she could kill them. But those with similar mindsets to hers… that was where everything got a bit more difficult, as it was far harder for her to not act interested in the dark arts when she knew that they were. When she had run into Rayyan over the summer, he had been reading a book on the dark arts, in Runic, and she knew that was the moment that she had gotten on his radar, unfortunately enough. He had ideas about just how interested a neutral Ravenclaw should be about the dark arts, and she had apparently been more interested than she should have been. It was the only conclusion that she could draw from his interest in her this term, so she had been keeping incredibly under the radar as of late. As far as she could tell, he was no longer suspicious, but she couldn’t be sure.

So talking to this blood traitor wouldn’t be a problem. Odessa knew that she could play nice with this pathetic little bint until her throat was hoarse, though hopefully this conversation wouldn’t last that long. It definitely felt as though the girl was intimidated by her, but Odessa supposed that wasn’t actually a reaction that she wasn’t used to. Really, she knew that a lot of people were intimidated by her, and that certainly worked for her as well. They weren’t scared of her, which they would be if they knew what she was really capable of, but as a prefect, as a Quidditch captain, as someone who pretty much came off as perfect, Odessa knew that it was easy for self-conscious bints to be intimidated. At this point, it just amused her… and this was no exception. “Great,” she replied, brightly, completely ignoring the girl’s stuttering as she took a seat. She didn’t want to make the bint uncomfortable, after all, and she was nothing if not incredibly nice. Bloody obviously. “Strategies—perfect use of your time,” Odessa stated, with a wink, as she glanced at the book that the Ravenclaw was reading. Hadley wasn’t an awful Quidditch player, which was her saving grace from being entirely bloody worthless, really. “Nothing, really. I’ve got no more schoolwork to do, for once, so I’m nearly at a loss.” She added, laughing lightly, before she got comfortable in the armchair. “Looking forward to the holidays?” Odessa asked, curiously.

For some reason, Hadley found that she was frightened of Odessa. It wasn’t that the girl had given her any reason in the slightest to be afraid, Hadley just tended to err on the side of caution when it came to people she allowed close to her. She had a hard time making friends because of this flaw in her personality. Odessa was just one of those people that she couldn’t manage to build a bridge over the fear, so she existed in a sort of limbo with the girl. They were on friendly terms, but the amount of nervousness that her very existence caused Hadley was sometimes unbearable. Intimidation, Hadley knew, was a powerful thing. She picked up her quill and pulled the book that she hadn’t actually been looking at a bit closer to her chest in reaction.

“I think so. I thought I might take a look at what the Holyhead Harpies were up to when my mum played,” she said, flipping through a few more of the pages of the book before she closed it and let it rest again in her lap. She was very thankful for Quidditch. There wasn’t a lot of talking involved, and Hadley had a natural talent thanks to her parents. They had brought both her and Atticus up to live and breathe the sport. Hadley laughed, slightly nervously when the other girl said that she had nearly no homework left to do. As the term was winding down, Hadley too had found that professors backed down, leaving them with hardly any work that they needed to complete over the Christmas holiday. Which was perfect, because there was no telling what Hadley’s mum had planned for the next couple of weeks. Knowing her, Hadley assumed that they would be cleaning the house spotless for one of her dinner parties and playing dominos until the wee hours of the morning just because ‘she hadn’t seen them in so long.’ The thought sort of made her smile, but Odessa’s question brought her back into reality.

“I am.” She answered, half honestly. On one hand, she was looking forward to being with her parents and Atticus, but on the other hand, she wasn’t looking forward to having to deal with being away from school and her school work. Her subconscious reminded her that it probably had something to do with one Carter Lamont. She sucked in a breath and raised her eyebrows. “I’m headed home to London to spent time with mum and dad and Atticus. What plans do you have?”

What Odessa found entirely amusing was the fact that there were people in this school that found her intimidating—but for ways entirely different than the ways that they should. Bints with low self-esteem found her frightening because she was bloody perfect… she supposed she couldn’t blame them. She worked hard to look effortlessly perfect, and she was good at what she did. Pretty, charming, captain of the Quidditch team, member of numerous clubs, and prefect for Merlin’s sake. Who wouldn’t be intimidated by her? Odessa was this way by design, but no one knew that. To them, she was just effortlessly perfect—or as close to perfect as possible, at least. She could tell that Hadley was one of the bints at this school that got nervous around her. It was never well hidden, bloody obviously. In fact, it was normally quite apparent. She was just a twitchy individual. In fact, it had actually been amusing when she’d tried out for the Quidditch team, because Odessa had been thinking very little of her. It still surprised her how good Erixon was on a broom. She absolutely had not seen that coming in the slightest.

She supposed the family coming from parents that were professional players helped. Odessa knew that Atticus wasn’t bad either, after all, and Hufflepuff was actually in the lead as of that point in the term. It was surprising, considering Slytherin’s victory last year with mostly the same team, but she wasn’t complaining. It would make it easier for Ravenclaw to win, in her opinion. They’d had a tough start to the season, but she was determined to turn it around. To her, it was just ridiculous that they were doing so poorly. If anything, it would mean she’d be making extra practices once they all got back from the holidays—and they were lucky she was even waiting that long. “Anything interesting?” She asked, curiously, trying to remember what she recalled about the Harpies in the past. They weren’t an awful team, and never had been, though she wouldn’t rank them too high up there as far as skill level went. There were definitely better teams. However, any research on strategies was a good use of time in Odessa’s opinion—at least someone was taking this bloody seriously.

There was nothing that Odessa looked forward to more than the holidays. It was a chance to be around her mother, who truly was her best friend, as well as being home where she didn’t have to do anything that even involved the ridiculous Ravenclaw mask that she wore on a daily basis. Instead, she could practice dark magic, see what her uncle was up to, and generally just whatever the hell she wanted to do. Of course, she couldn’t say that though. Instead, she pretended she was excited for whatever exotic trip her mother might have in mind, or whatever elaborate holiday plans she’d had up her sleeve. As if they had money for such nonsense… “Heading home to London as well. It’s just me and my mum, so we like spending the holidays together.” Odessa said, brightly. She absolutely didn’t bring up her uncle, for obvious reasons. “Sometimes we travel, sometimes we stay put… I normally don’t even know until I get back.” She said with a laugh. As if that was a kind of ridiculous tradition… bloody absurd.

She nodded, before opening to one of the pages that did not contain the letter to her mother and pointing out some of the X’s and O’s that denoted a particularly difficult blitz strategy. “It makes sense,” she said, of the idea. Her mum had been on the team the year that they had used it and, although Atlanta had been a seeker, she had played a part in the team’s win streak for that year. “Bombarding the opposite team’s hoops and leaving your defenses a little open. It’s sort of a give and take.” Hadley said. The strategy could go either way. By pushing up the entirety of the team, they risked their defense and in turn, risked leaving the keeper completely open. Usually at least one of the Beaters was around to offer defensive support. However, seeing as they weren’t doing too well in the standings already, perhaps they could use a turnover of strategy.

Hadley smiled, as it seemed that Odessa was warming up to her. They had never been close, it just wasn’t their style. Hadley was shy but good on a broom, so a majority of their relationship was based off of their interactions on the Quidditch Pitch. “Travel sounds like fun.” She commented, tapping her fingertips upon the book in front of her. It must be nice to have a lot of money for that sort of stuff. The Erixons were well off, but her parents preferred to use the money to save up for hers and Atticus’ inheritance and the constant renovations that they were doing on number 91 Hamilton Terrace. She paused for a moment and then looked over at Des, raising her eyebrows as she grinned at the girl. Maybe she had seen something exotic – maybe she had experience India and Austrailia and Paris. Wouldn’t that be something? “Where have you guys gone in the past?” She had only been back and forth between America a few times. That was the extent of her travel. Once, she had heard her mum talking about a house her family used to own in France, but it had apparently burnt down sometime during the first wizarding war. The details were shady, as were most of the details that her mum gave her about her family.

Sometimes, hanging around the common room meant that she had no choice but to talk to people she’d rather not deal with. It was why she spent her time in the prefects’ common room when she could, as there was a greater chance of it being empty whenever she decided to hang around there. The common room was always crowded—often, at least, but she still had to make her appearances. Odessa couldn’t afford to avoid people… not after all the work she’d put in to make sure that everyone bloody loved her. She had to make sure that she kept that up by being outgoing and nice to everyone that she talked to. Her mother had taught her well, after all, and she wasn’t going to muck it all up now. Even if that meant playing nice with this jumpy little bint for a little while longer. “Something to consider, at least,” she answered, with a light shrug. That was the way that she’d rather play… going all out and not playing it safe, but it wasn’t the way a typical Ravenclaw would play—so she held off. “Depending on who we’re playing, at least—far riskier move, say, playing Slytherin.” Odessa added, contemplatively. They had a way more aggressive offense, so leaving their own defenses open a bit more would be a far more reckless move than playing that way with some of the other teams.

She was already bored of this conversation, but that was par for the course nearly anytime she had to talk to someone in her own house. They were the dullest bunch, but it was the best fit for her when she was convincing the sorting hat where to place her. She was meant to be in Slytherin, clearly, but that wasn’t what she wanted. Like her mother, she knew that it would be smartest to be put elsewhere. It was one small aspect as her façade… another was every story she spun. One of which was obviously all the nice trips that they went on, and the fact that they were wealthy when really, they lived in Knockturn Alley. Yes, it was true testament to how much she had everyone fooled… “It usually is… my mother is really into traveling—says it’s important to expand one’s mindset, and all that.” Odessa replied, easily, a small smile forming on her lips. Really, she hadn’t been bloody anywhere, but it was easy enough to convince people she had. “Luxembourg… Spain, Italy… places like that.” She told her, making sure to not list too many to sound like she was bragging or that she was exaggerating. She usually just went with a few, as she found that worked out better. At this point, Odessa was very bloody good at lying… though she supposed she couldn’t recall a time when she hadn’t been.

Hadley had to admit that she was slightly jealous of Odessa and her mother. It seemed like the pair of them had the entire world at their fingertips. While the Erixons weren’t poorly off, her mother and father very much preferred to stay at home, with the exception of trips to New York where her father had grown up. Her mum always said that dad traveled so much for work it was nice when the four of them could actually get together and spend quality family time together…but Hadley wouldn’t mind traveling to Spain or Italy. “I’m so jealous,” she blurted, but suddenly felt silly. Odessa didn’t seem like the kind of girl that she should admit that to. After all, she probably had loads of people that were jealous of her and her enormous wealth. “I just mean that it sounds like fun having a mother that’s so much into adventuring.” She clarified, hoping that the red-haired girl wouldn’t think her too entirely pathetic.

After all, Hadley did travel sometimes. Though she hardly thought that New York was exotic like the places that she had mentioned. “We mostly go to the States.” She said, shrugging her shoulders. “My da’s American. Well, he grew up there, but moved back here in time to go to Hogwarts. He’s got a funny accent sometimes...you know, half American and half little English quirks,” Hadley laughed slightly, before becoming slightly anxious and rubbing her hand over the back of her neck. That was another stupid thing to say — her batting average for conversations with Odessa was abysmal and she was surprised that the girl even bothered to have a conversation with her in the first place. “Which was your favorite? Surely you have a favorite, don’t you?” She asked.

Before her mum had taught her anything, she had taught her how to lie. Well, she supposed that wasn’t necessarily true, but it was an amusing thought nonetheless. The fact of the matter was that learning how to lie and deceive was very important, and she had gotten damn good at it over the years. From the moment it was necessary, Odessa had been able to manipulate anyone around here into thinking she was nothing more than exactly what she wanted them to think. Innocent when she was younger… and then a good student, a good example, a nice friend, an overachiever, and anything in between. If she thought it helped her to look like a typical Ravenclaw, which would make people not look any closer, then she made sure they thought it. The fact that she had been made prefect was only proof of how well she had done over the years. No one was suspicious. She had never given anyone any reason to be.

Of course, that meant that she had to be annoyingly nice to her classmates, particularly ones that she would rather not even speak to, let alone be friends with. Hadley was such an example… she supposed, though there were also worse people to talk to. But of the Erixons, she’d much rather speak to Atticus than this bint, because he was at least decent to look at. Hadley was just fidgety and irritating—she seemed intimidated by Odessa, not that Odessa minded that fact much. If she was intimidated by her as her studious, popular Ravenclaw self, she could only imagine how the bint would feel if she ever saw what she was truly like. Luckily for her, she never would. She smiled in understanding, before nodding. “I’m grateful that I get to, really,” she answered, knowing that it was important to be gracious and humble and shit like that. Really, she had never gotten to do much traveling at all. Her mum did for work, but that was quite obviously different.

But to her, it was an important part of the lie. She wanted to be the slightly privileged Ravenclaw that did well in her classes, participated in bullshit clubs, and generally had it all. No one would think she’d go anywhere near the dark arts, that much was for certain. Each tiny bit of the lie she weaved was important to her, and she made it all work. “I’ve never been to the States,” she offered, with a small smile. She wouldn’t risk saying she had and have Hadley talk to her about a bunch of shit she didn’t know, after all. “I’ll bet he does—do you have family there, then?” Odessa asked, curiously. It was important to look like she gave a shit, even if she truly did not give a singular damn about the girl’s family. “I do… I’d say my favorite was probably Italy,” she commented, shrugging. “But I have to admit, my mind changes on that often.” She remembered when she’d talked about this with Alice back over the summer, and she couldn’t even recall what her favorite had been then, if the Hufflepuff had even asked. With the amount of traveling she ‘did,’ she thought it was reasonable for her mind to change.