Greenery

Wasn’t seventeen supposed to be the prime of your life? That’s what all the adults said, they’d give you that longing look and shake their head and tell you to make the best of those memories. It was depressing, honestly.

But on the off chance that it was true, how the hell was she supposed to make memories if they kept putting her in detention?

The audacity, honestly.

It was interesting to her, however, that there was blatant anti-muggle rhetoric popping up everywhere in the castle, threats levied against fellow muggleborns - and yet she was the one in trouble over a stupid little fight. And it wasn’t even that serious a fight. At this point, it was just how she and Lestrange communicated.

She didn’t realize she was early for her punishment until she reached the Greenhouses. She checked her watch and realized she had mixed up the detention time with their biweekly pick up practice for the Gryffindor team alternate players. Which meant she had at least half an hour until the hospital wing nurse who would be overseeing their herb harvesting showed up.

Early. She had a reputation to uphold. What would people say? So embarrassing.

She glanced towards the castle and peered into the greenhouse, before catching sight of herself in the windowpane. She looked her usual mess, her poorly done dye job obvious even in the dingy glass, her natural red hair peeking through the from-a-bottle black. She met her own gaze and grimaced. But then a thought dawned that twisted her frown into a smirk. Well, while she waited…

She swung her foot out and started to make her way around the greenhouses, reaching into her school bag. She found her trusted lighter and her enchanted mint tin. From the tin came one of her pre-rolled spliffs, which was promptly lit. Spliff in mouth, tin in bag, and rounded the corner of the greenhouse to hide from the view of the castle-

“Shit!”

Someone was already camped out here.

Plans were changing all over the place.

***

“Shit!”

Maddie jumped when she heard the sound of someone approaching. She had come back behind the greenhouses to hide from the professors as well as her siblings. Sometimes you just had to get away, have a drink, take a breath, smoke a cigarette. Today she was leaning against the green house with the latter pinched between two fingers with a red glowing end. Mads had forced herself to go back to the common room after class just long enough to change her clothes. She had put on a pair of well fitting jeans and a mustard yellow top, and had pulled her hair back into a ponytail out of her face.
Classes were getting stressful, the teachers were honing in on their lessons preparing them for the end of the term tests. Pages of homework for each of her classes. As Maddie heard the footsteps growing louder, she quickly stubbed out her cigarette and turned around to face the approaching person. She let out a small sigh of relief as she saw Jack Dyllan

Jack had been hoping for a solitary smoke. As of late, her sessions had become suddenly very social, and she wasn't built for it.

"When did the greenhouses become the place to be?" she quipped, raising an eyebrow.

But she did recognize the girl. Jack might be antisocial but that went out the door when it came to Quidditch. She knew every other player, their strengths, weaknesses. Sometimes their class schedule.

She smirked, "Hey, I'd say sorry about that Bludger last match but, you know, I'd be lying."

“I’m not sure. I actually didn’t expect anyone to be here.” Maddie shrugged, putting on the cigarette in her hand. She was a prefect, she should have been setting a better example for the other students. Even the ones older than her. “Oh I know, and I don't blame you. All part of the game right?” Maddie smiled at Jack. “Couldn’t expect you to not try to win.” Mads glanced around looking to see if anyone else would be joining them. Satisfied when she didn’t see anyone else she relaxed more. “You stressed out about classes too?” she asked

Jack's eye darted to the cigarette. Interesting, maybe miss prefect wouldn't mind her toking up herself.

"Try to win? If memory serves, we crushed you," Jack teased. "It was a good match though, it was close to going either way."

Jack laughed at the question. "No but I probably should be. I don't need an occasion to smoke. Speaking of..."

She pulled out the joint and raised an eyebrow. "Am I going to get points deducted if I toke up, Miss Prefect?"

Maddie let out a chuckle, "Yeah, I guess your'e right. Maybe if I had just been a little bit quicker. It was pretty good." she looked up at the sky as she spoke, taking a deep breath she filled her lungs with fresh air. "If I took points off from you, wouldn't I need to take them from Hufflepuff too?" she raised one eyebrow, "Nah, it's not like you're hurting anyone, and you're not breaking anything. Also, yours is probably better than mine was." she shrugged and pushed her hair out of her face, "just don't tell my brothers and we'll be good."

"Yeah, in my experience authority figures aren't ruled by a sense of justice," Jack said, placing the joint in her lips as she searched for her wand, speaking around the spliff. She found her wand and tapped the spliff, taking a long pull. She took the spliff and dropped her hand, letting her head hang backwards as she blew smoke into the air.

Finally.

"No chance of that," Jack reassured. Jack wasn't exactly known for her wide social circle. "Slytherin's team isn't as strong as I thought they'd be this year. Shaky season start and barely holding on."

"Yeah, I'm not really an authority figure though." Maddie responded, to Jack, "I'm not even sure why I was picked. Probably because I’m so friendly and I talk to almost everyone.” She assumed the role of teacher though the younger students felt that she was easy to approach when they needed help, as well as her being a role model for them, some role model she was. Maddie closed her eyes and rested her head back on the wall of the greenhouse behind her, and closed her eyes, the sun warming her face, and her hands tucked in her pockets. “No, they don’t seem to be, but a little practice couldn’t help.”