Hogwarts Host Club

Edward was leaning against the wall outside the Defence Against the Dark Arts when Rachel and Michael came up from their flying lesson. Lindsay came from the opposite direction – he had been in a free period, most likely sleeping or chatting with his other friends about anime and games.

Annette came up the staircase behind him, from Charms class. Rachel was the only one who greeted Edward; she smiled brightly and all but ignored the others who were seemingly annoyed at his new place in Rachel’s group of friends. They had known each other for just about a day, and already they were like best buddies. Jesse joined them not long after, her clothes back to their usual devil-may-care state. Rachel bounced up and down in delight as some more of her close friends arrived, she ran forward and nearly tackled one of her other girlfriends as the climbed the staircase.
When she and her friend returned to where Edward was now surrounded by Rachel’s friends, she was chattering like a parakeet on steroids. Her friend wore a pained expression as Rachel told her about Potions class and the Venomous Tantacula. Eventually Rachel fell silent, and introduced Edward to the others.

“This is Brie; she’s a really good friend of mine. Oh and this is Kristie, my little Ravenclaw. Ah and the Hufflepuff, that’s Ashley, she and Michael have a thing going... um... oh this is Edward guys.”
There were mixed hellos and grumbles amongst the throng of sixth-years, Brie actually smiled at Edward, which was a plus. Professor Moody opened the classroom door from the inside, and barked for the class to hurry up and get inside. Edward was shunted in with Rachel infront sandwiched between him and Brie. Jesse was pushing Edward from behind, causing a slight blockage in the doorway. Eventually they all got through the door, and found that all the tables and chairs were gone, instead there was a wide open space, some practice dummies and lots of cushions.

“We’ll be practicing defensive and offensive spells today, so you all put your bags in the cupboards and we’ll get started.” Professor Moody grunted, his magical eye swivelling in its socket. Edward felt Rachel shudder beside him. All the students pulled out their wands, and split into small groups. Jesse all but grabbed Edward and dragged him over to stand with Rachel, Brie, Kristie and herself. Lindsay, Annette, Michael and Ashley stood nearby in their own little huddle. Moody told them all to start with revising Expelliarmus, then carry on to Stupefy and Levicorpus. They had a double lesson, so they had plenty of time to practice the spells on each other.

Edward didn’t really like the idea of challenging three girls to a duel, but after the first ten minutes, he was firing all manner of spell at the three of them all at once, their laughter at his poor aim fuelling his frustration with each passing minute. Rachel’s Expelliarmus hit him squarely in the chest and his wand when flying, then Jesse hit him with an excellent Levicorpus. Brie howled with laughter, and fired Rictumsempra. Kristie rolled her eyes at the lot of them, but laughed all the same. Edward was now on the ground, barely able to move due to the power of the Tickling Charm he had been mercilessly struck with. Rachel freed him of the charm, and he was able to stop laughing and get to his feet. Moody was watching them from the front of the class with mild amusement. He had said to practice those three spells only, but he didn’t seem to mind them having a bit of fun.

Lindsay had frozen in the act of watching Edward suffer the Tickling Charm. He was very weak against tickling, and was now dreading the use of the spell on himself. Brie waved her wand at him with an evil smirk, his face paled. Michael took advantage of his distracted moment, and unleashed another charm. A quantity of water soared in through the window, and hit Lindsay with impressive force. Now drenched, Lindsay proceeded to fire multiple charms and hexes back at Michael. Annette and Ashley kept out of the way, swapping notes and curses at the same time.
The lesson flew by, and at the end of it, Lindsay was still soaking wet, and Michael’s robes had burns on the sleeves and hem. Annette, Kristie and Ashley were unscathed, Rachel, Brie and Jesse were still laughing, their hair in a mess and robes looking somewhat scruffy. Edward looked like someone had hung him upside down, shaken him like a cocktail, and pulled various parts of his clothing undone and out of place.

Oh wait... that’s because that is EXACTLY what happened to him. Professor Moody had to step in and tell the girls NOT to take off all of his clothes, that was not appropriate classroom behaviour. He was now standing by a window, doing up his buttons. He pulled his sweater back on, then his robes, but sighed as he looked at his tie. He was always hopeless with ties. He heard a noise behind him, and saw Rachel waiting for him by the door. She saw his problem, and made her way over to him.

“Cant tie a tie huh? Let me, I pulled it off after all.” She said, taking the tie and threading it around his neck. She leaned closer to him so that she could do it up properly, and Edward noticed she was wearing some kind of perfume. It smelled flowery, and kind of like strawberries. It seemed like forever and a day had passed when Rachel stepped back to check the tie looked proper. She smiled up at Edward, and he barely heard her ask if he was going to come down to dinner with them. He just nodded, his head spinning from Rachel’s scent. She seemed slightly confused, but let it pass.

***

Before he knew it, Friday came, and the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would be arriving tonight. He left Potions to drop his bag off at the Slytherin common room, and then proceeded with his fellow Slytherins to the front lawn to wait for the other schools to arrive. He pushed through the crowd to find someone he knew. He eventually found Rachel and her friends, and edged between them to stand squashed between Rachel and Jesse. There they waited, and witness the arrival of the Beauxbatons Carriage and the Durmstrang Ship. Then the students from the three schools, as well as all of the teachers, Dumbledore, Madam Maxime and Karkaroff, moved into the Great Hall for dinner. Edward sat between the Malfoy kid and Jesse, watching as Rachel threw hateful glares at the Beauxbatons girls, the Veela-looking one in particular. He noticed a lot of the boys were watching her, and a lot of the girls were drooling over Viktor Krum. Edward shook his head, and silently ate his sausages.

Dumbledore unveiled the Goblet of Fire, and announced the rules to the students. Edward sighed when they were told nobody under the age of seventeen could enter, that ruled him out then.
Eventually everyone left the Great Hall, returning to their dorms. He waved to Rachel as she left to return to Gryffindor tower. Tomorrow was the day that he would be going to see her at the Hogwarts Host club. He didn’t know if he should be excited or nervous. Or terrified. It was going to be Halloween after all... oh well. He was just going to have to harden up and face it like a man.

***

The next day, Edward got up early, and went down to breakfast alone. He didn’t see Rachel or her friends anywhere, he just sat and ate his toast by himself, watching as Harry Potter and his friends gazed in awe at the Goblet of Fire. He also watched as the Weasley twins made idiots of themselves by trying to fool the Age Line. He wondered about those two sometimes, they were in his Charms class, and they could be seriously scary sometimes.
After the commotion had ended, Edward looked at the Halloween decorations that had been set up in the Great Hall. There were bats and pumpkins everywhere. Creepy, but in a good way. He dreaded what the room the Host Club were using was going to look like. He imagined blood and coffins, and... he shuddered at the thought.
After finishing breakfast, he made his way up to the library to study for his Advanced Potions class. The Slytherin girls had started to leave him alone, he wondered if Rachel had anything to do with that... or Jesse.

***

At half-past-twelve, after a light lunch, Edward made his way slowly to the room the invitation told him would be the permanent residence of the Hogwarts Host Club. He seemed to be the first person there. He had been reminded just yesterday not to knock, just to come straight in. He sighed, and pulled down the handles on the double doors, and pushed them open. The scent of roses filled the air around him, and through the dim lighting he could see a group of students shrouded in darkness.
“Welcome!”