Jordyn didn’t know how it happened. 

She didn’t know when it happened. 

She hadn’t even been aware that it was happening. 

But now, now it was abundantly clear. 

She was officially the house slag of Slytherin.   

She supposed it was a long, long trajectory and the change had to be so subtle she didn’t notice until now.  Until a fourteen year old leered at her on a couch and seemed to enjoy the view just a little too much.  Then, that had led her to the conclusion that maybe she had been enjoying it just a little too much too.  She snapped at the little Whitman because he had the audacity to ruin her time.  Jordyn didn’t know who she was anymore. 

 It was part of the reason why she dragged Marco to the library on the Friday afternoon at the end of break and decided on the table buried in the stacks, furthest way from anyone’s view… or hearing range.  No one was there.  It was a virtual dead zone.  It was exactly what she needed. 

“I think I’m having a mental breakdown, Marco,” she finally announced with a heavy sigh.  “It’s finally happening. I’ve gone mental and they’re going to commit me.” 

Marco brought some textbooks with him, only because Jordyn was neurotic and told him that he had to pretend like they were about to study. She probably didn't want anyone to think that they would be sneaking off to snog in the restricted section, but he had better taste than to make out with Jordyn Dimbleby. Her nice butt did not make up for her other qualities, which included (but were not limited to):

1. Being hypersensitive and hyperaware (like, if he had anything in his teeth she would probably have a meltdown because he didn't care enough about her to groom himself properly. Or something.)
2. Paranoia (this one was self explanatory)
3. Being highstrung (once again, self-explanatory)

Jordyn was a complete basket case. When she graduated, he suspected that the counselor would be out of a job. With that in mind, Marco was not careful about his reply. "You've been mental for years." He opened his decoy book, "But why are you mental this time?"

Jordyn signed heavily.  Marco was a terrible friend.  But, he was also the friend most likely to give her the most realistic answers without any of the ridiculous sugary coating over everything.   She loved Neely desperately, but she didn’t exactly give her the most serious of advice – or advice that wasn’t completely optimistic. 

She never had to worry about that with Marco.   He was practically a nihilist.  Ignoring how he pointed out that she had pretty much always been mental, Jordyn rolled her eyes and pulled her chair in closer before she continued.  Shoving her books out of the way, she plopped her forearms on the desk and leaned her cheek onto her arm, looking up at him. 

Letting out a deep breath, she began.  “I snogged,” she emphasized the word, eyebrows raised just to make sure he understood how serious this was, “Xavier Tawse in the common room.”  She avoided eye contact as she said it and stared straight ahead, awaiting the torrent of judgment, “and I liked it.” 

Now, Marco had always known that between he and Jordyn, she was the one who generally had more common sense. She thought things through-- overthought them through even. When it came to romance though, she had all the intelligence and foresight of a flobberworm under the influence of billywig stings. To put this into context, flobberworms didn't hold any modicum of intelligence when sober.

A flobberworm would date Jai Patil.

An inebriated flobberworm would snog Xavier.

Wait! But Xavier was rich!!!

A gold digging flobberworm, then.

It took Marco far too long to reply to Jordyn's revelation. While he thought these judgey thoughts and tried to come up with a good response, he gave her his most critical, condescending, and disparaging look.

"That's disgusting. You're disgusting." He finally said, "I'm not sure why we're friends." Marco tried not to smile as he continued on, "So, is it kissing him that you like, or is it his bed of money?" He closed his book loudly, "If you marry him, you'll be rich."

Looking at Marco, the silence between then was deafening. 

He was thinking too much.  This was terrible.  She came to him for a speedy response.  He was the type of person who usually said whatever the hell came to his mind.  The silent stare was just…

Her stomach dropped.  Marco was judging her.

Of course he was judging her. 

Then he said and he was definitely judging her.  Gasping, Jordyn covered her mouth quickly with her hands, trying to cut down the noise from her very audible gasp.  A flush overcame her so quickly that it was all of a sudden like they’d descended below the earth’s crust and she was burning in pools of lava that would surely swallow her up. 

“Marco!” she lowered her hands and hissed at him, “I’m not sure why we’re friends either at the moment!” She took the moment to smack his arm quite liberally and lean closer to him, “I am not like that – and we are not – oh Godric!” She hit him again, as that seemed to be the only thing she could bring herself to do when she had no words. 

She hadn’t even thought of that.  It wasn’t like many of their classmates were aware of the state of her family’s finances.  It was nobody’s business, first of all, and Jordyn made a good show of pretending, at least she thought so, but now, with Marco pointing that out.  “You’re a right git!”

Why was she so surprised? So shocked? How else was he supposed to respond to the revelation that she might like Xavier. Or that she kissed him. Or whatever. Xavier was part of the 7th year Slytherin dorm, and everybody knew that the 7th year Slytherin boys were all super into each other. At least, that's what Eli claimed.

"Just so you know, he's probably fucking Eli." Marco said, trying to dodge a hit, "There may be a threesome in your future--"  Jordyn hit him again because she had left the plane of sanity and common sense a long time ago. No matter what, Jordyn would probably keep hitting him. Beating him tender like.... A meat tenderizer to steak. Or something. Marco was never the best at analogies, nor did he care. The point was, she was going to keep hitting him.

Through a laugh, he continued. "Ask the divination club. I'm sure Virgil has an opinion." He did his best to imitate Jordyn, pitching his voice into a squeaky falsetto, "My future. Oh, Virgil!" Marco brought a hand to his forehead in mock distress, "Will Xavier explore my chamber of secrets?" He gasped, "Will Eli be there?!" He put on a face of horror, "Will YOU be there?"

He deserved every single slap and punch to his shoulder.  Marco was absolutely disgusting.  What was wrong with him?!  The horror etched on her face well… even he couldn’t do a proper imitation of how appalled she was.  Marco was a terrible person.  Why did she think this was a good idea?

Oh right, because she had very few friends in general and Marco was one of the few she even imagined telling this to.  This was, of course, only partially because she knew no matter how hopeless she was, Marco was far worse off.  He threw an orange at Hughes, for Godric’s sake. 

Making sure she gave him one last, excellent whack to the side.  That was not how she sounded.   “You’re disgusting,” she added with a sneer.  “I can guarantee you that is not going to happen.”  The very idea was revolting.  Eli and Virgil?! Marco was obscene.  “Besides,” she sat up again, practically sniffing as she turned up her nose, “I happen to know that is not true.”  Her smugness dissipated almost immediately.  Oh Merlin, she probably shouldn't have revealed that...

The harder she hit, the more he laughed. Merlin, Jordyn was so easy to work up. Too easy. He almost wished he could be sorry for her, but quite frankly... He wasn't.

She calmed down a bit. Okay, maybe she wasn't calm but she was calmer. Calm enough to not tenderize his delicate, sensitive flesh in this very moment. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Jord." Marco quipped before something else set in. He stared at Jordyn for longer than what should've been comfortable. "Jordyn. No. What. How do you know?" Did she have gossip? Gossip she did not share with him?!

"Tell me. Tell me now and I won't make any sugar daddy jokes."

It was Friday and Zia was wandering about the hallways of Hogwarts, trying to find something interesting to do so that she could procrastinate doing her homework. Doing homework on a Friday was not Zia’s thing anymore. But after roaming the halls for quite a while, Zia couldn’t think of anything better to do.

Figuring her grades could use a little bit of her time and attention, she gave in and headed to the library. At least it would be quiet, since unlike Zia, her classmates were able to come up with fun things to do on a Friday night.

Feeling pretty lame, she sluggishly entered the Library and immediately began to scope out the ideal workspace. Her search was interrupted once she spotted her cousin, and without thinking twice about it she headed in his direction. When there was family around, Zia felt inherently, almost magnetically drawn to them. Even more so when she heard the words “gossip” and “sugar daddy” among their murmurs.

“Hey!” Zia chirped quietly, keeping in mind that they were in the library. She hadn’t noticed who Marco was sitting with until she reached him. Zia was pretty intimidated by the Head Girl, and she tripped over her feet once she realized that’s who Marco was sitting with. Figures Jordyn Dimbleby would be in the library on a Friday night. Zia tried to recover from the stumble, playing it off casually as she joined them. “Who’s got a sugar daddy?”

As soon as she said it, Jordyn realized what a major idiot she really was.  The color drained from her face as she realized the implication of what she said to Marco about Xavier.  This was awful, truly awful: it made everything else she’d ever done probably look saint-like in comparison.  She almost gave away his secret!

And now he was asking about it.  Marco was the worst.  No, wait, she was!  This was very confusing.

It wouldn’t be so bad if Zia Piselli didn’t wander up to them as her face turned cherry red.  Of course Marco’s cousin would wander up and overhear something about sugar daddies.  Ugh.  This was actually horrifying – she would obviously want to know something about sugar daddies.  Her reputation apparently didn’t let anyone down. 

“No one has a sugar daddy,” Jordyn responded blandly, turning her eyes to Zia who tried to look cool as a cucumber.  She shot a harsh look at Marco and gritted her teeth, daring him to say anything about it.  If looks could kill, she was fairly sure her’s would incinerate him.  “Marco is just an idiot.”

Of course. Of course Zia had to join in.

Wait, this was a good thing. This meant that Jordyn could be pressured more into telling him exactly what she meant by knowing for a fact that Xavier hadn't slept around with his dormmates. How did she know? Did he specifically tell her that he hadn't? Did she ask? Marco had to know.

"It's not about sugar daddies, Zia." Marco said, "But Jordyn here knows for a fact that Xavier hasn't had a wild orgy with Eli, Virgil, and Theo. Which means... That it came up in conversation. Which means I need to know the details. So." He turned from Zia to Jordyn.

"Spill, Dimbleby."

Zia began to realize that she had walked in on one of those conversations that caused a decent amount of concern when heard out of context. It was difficult to tell whether Marco was kidding or not, especially for gullible Zia. Rather than say anything stupid she waited for them to explain.

”But Jordyn here knows for a fact that Xavier hasn't had a wild orgy with Eli, Virgil, and Theo. Which means... That it came up in conversation. Which means I need to know the details.

Once Marco was done explaining she blinked and looked at Jordyn, joining Marco in his quest for gossip. Zia remembered seeing Xavier and Jordyn cozying up together at the bonfire party,which was probably how she knew the extent of Xavier’s orgies. Or at least some of them, she thought coyly, thinking back to New Year’s Eve.

“‘At least not lately,” Zia joked. “‘Cuz Slytherins have weekly orgies, right?” She laughed and plucked a bag of trail mix out of her knapsack and began fiddling with the wrapper.

“I’ve hooked up with half of those people. An orgy would have been fun,” Zia said, mostly joking. She had probably gotten closer to an orgy in the Slytherin common room than anyone actually in Slytherin. “The more the merrier, right?” She added a hyperbolic wink-wink nudge-nudge. The sex act definitely would have been interesting to witness. She popped a few chocolate chips in her mouth.

Jordyn hated Marco so might right now.  She wanted to light him on fire.  It’d be so delightful, watching that full head of hair go up in a puff of blazing hot fire.  How could he do this to her?!  To be fair, she’d totally betrayed Xavier’s confession first… but for Marco to do it to his cousin?!  She had the biggest mouth ever. 

Well, that was at least what Jordyn figured.  She didn’t know Zia particularly well, but she’d heard quite a bit.  The Bevans incident stood out pretty starkly in her mind – and she had heard a rumor about Virgil… though, as soon as she started to speak, Jordyn’s jaw dropped. 

Was Zia serious?  That was… Jordyn’s cheeks went red for her.  Half of them?  Couldn’t be Theo… that’d be… wow.  Eli and Virgil… that she believed, for sure.  That had to be it.  Xavier wouldn’t lie about that… would he?  There was a little bit of panic in her face and she tried to play it down, averting her eyes, clearing her throat… it was all in an effort to appear less fazed by the whole thing 

“I… um…” how did she say this delicately?  She didn’t want to offend her, but at the same time… “Well, I wouldn’t know! I guess is the point,” and she shot Marco a look, “and Xavier doesn’t either and that is all I am going to say about it.” 

"So Xavier doesn't know.... About any alleged orgies? In his own dormroom?" Marco said slowly, trying to draw a reaction out of Jordyn once more. "You're one hundred percent sure?" Eli had bragged about having a good time with them. But then again, it was Eli... And the word of an eccentric Amherst was not one to be relied upon.

Still. The rumors were fun, whether or not they were true.

"I'm sensing contradictions." He turned to Zia, "Okay so Jordyn said she knew for sure that Xavier hadn't had sex with his dormmates. Now she's saying she wouldn't know. Which one is the lie?" He slammed his hands on the table in an attempt to be Zia-levels of dramatic, "Which is the lie, Dimbleby?!" His tone started out forceful, but Marco could barely, barely choke back a laugh, so his voice cracked at the last syllable.

Ooh. As Marco and Jordyn went back and forth Zia sensed that she’d touched on a sensitive issue. Marco and Jordyn weren’t just nonchalantly joking - well, Marco was, and he was teasing Jordyn. Teasing was something that Zia could recognize in probably any language. According to seniority there were a dozen people who had the older sibling’s right to tease their littlest sister.

“Well I guess it depends on what kind of sex you're talking about,” Zia offered in a clinical tone, as if she were some type of expert. What was the joke though? Zia still didn’t really know what was going on but she wanted to be in on it, as little sisters often do. As Jordyn’s face turned red she started to get a better sense.

Zia thought back to the bonfire again, which had almost turned into an orgy of sorts. They’d all eaten special brownies and started snogging each other while barely managing to keep themselves from catching fire. But Jordyn wasn’t there for that part… She probably would have been smarter about the pyrotechnics.

“Which one is the lie, Dimbleby?”

“‘Ey, spettegolare!*” Zia punched her cousin in the arm. Feeling she had no other option Zia admitted, “I fooled around with Xavier, we partied together on New Years. But we didn’t have sex.” She emphasized the latter part. Feeling a bit awkward she paused and then added, “Welll, not sex sex anyway. I don’t think he's done It."  Probably everyone thought that Zia had slept with all the people she’d snogged after the Bevans Incident. She hadn’t talked to Marco about this, for the same reason she wouldn’t be talking to any of her older brothers about it.


*gossip (Italian)