Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Saved by the Goddamn Bell
Adora loves ties.
She loves the way they feel around her neck every morning, weaving the gold and red material around her collar. She loves the way the smooth fabric lies perfectly against her white shirt, outlined by her dark robe. She loves the ritual of getting ready in the exact same way, every morning. The way her bed creaks on the right side, and the way she avoids the nail sticking out of the third floorboard leading to her dresser. She also loves leaving the tie a little loose which is only a minor detail, but is meant to (hopefully) give off the impression of ‘I swear I’m not a prick,’ despite everything else about her which screams otherwise.
But in this moment, Adora really fucking loves ties.
Adora’s back nudges against the closet door, pushing it open and leading Dahlia, a seventh year Ravenclaw girl, inside the small space adjacent to the corridor. Ten minutes prior, the two were flirting in the courtyard after their Transfigurations class. Adora hardly knew the girl, but apparently Dahlia knew exactly who Adora was when she walked up to her and immediately started a conversation. It wasn’t really surprising that Dahlia knew who she was, and she certainly wasn't the first girl to try to grab Adora’s attention, considering Adora had won more house cup titles and been prefect longer than any other student. Trying not to overthink it, Adora had flirted back and gave Dahlia her bright, lopsided smile as they moved through the busy corridors. The two made small talk, and Adora took notice of the slight blush creeping across Dahlia’s face. Adora was about to say goodbye to the girl and head out towards her next class when suddenly two things crossed her mind:
One- Adora’s next class is potions, which is without a doubt the worst hour of her day and the broom that is wedged so far up Professor Weaver’s ass has probably not budged. Meaning, Weaver will undoubtedly make Adora’s life a living hell the second she enters the classroom.
Two- Dahlia is cute, and Adora can feel her rationale slipping away by every step as she thinks about which of the two is obviously the best option.
So in a split second decision, Adora gives in to her desire and grabs Dahlia’s hand to lead her away from the other students. Dahlia has a curious look in her eye, and a sly expression crosses her face as she realizes what is happening. Now awkwardly trying to cover up their laughs with whispers, the pair find the small closet that Adora has been searching for.
“Okay here we go. I don’t think anyone goes down this wing anymore, so we should be fine. I figured this place would work to uh, talk and stuff? I’ve been here before so I know that it's pretty... soundproof. Also I have to leave in like-” Adora is cut off by Dahlia grabbing her tie and pulling her downward.
“You really do talk a lot for someone who only has a few minutes to spare.” Dahlia suggestively replies.
She tugs again at the tie, slowly walking back and dragging Adora with her as they land against the back wall. Adora’s brain practically short circuits from the act, and Dahlia brings their bodies together with almost no room to spare. Their faces are mere inches away and Dahlia smiles as and gently tugs once more on Adora’s tie, eyes entirely focused on her lips.
Adora takes the hint and thinks, fuck it .
She brings her free hand to cup Dahlia’s face, leaning in to press her lips against the other girl. Dahlia makes a small sound of surprise before reciprocating the kiss, letting go of the tie and grabbing at the back of Adora’s neck steady herself. Adora tries to start slow, softly kissing Dahlia’s lips and breathing in the smell of her perfume which reminds her of clean laundry and a new spring day. Adora loses herself for a moment, deepening the kiss as she situates her body against Dahlia so one of her legs is in between the other girl’s thighs. Dahlia’s legs go weak for a split second, and soon Adora can’t seem to catch her breath as she tugs on Dahlia’s bottom lip.
Wanting to keep up with the pace, Dahlia goes to pull Adora’s robe off of her. She feels the fabric gently fall off Adora’s broad shoulders and reaches back for Adora when her hands suddenly hit soft skin. Her eyes fly open, and Dahlia looks down and lets out a laugh when she sees Adora’s outfit.
“Where…..are your shirt sleeves?”
Adora takes a moment to process what Dahlia says. She’s so riled up she can practically feel her heartbeat in her face. She then registers that her robe has fallen to the ground, and her arms are now fully exposed.
“Oh I...cut them off.” Adora replies simply, looking down at her bare arms that have long ago stopped fitting into the uniform shirts required by Hogwarts.
“I can see why.” Dahlia nods, glancing down at Adora’s very defined biceps.
Adora didn’t always have this problem. When she was younger she used to be engulfed in the uniforms, constantly having to roll up the sleeves and literally tripping over her pants while running down the Gryffindor tower. But that quickly changed around her fourth, most notably fifth year, when she grew almost four inches over the course of a few months and made the Quidditch team as the first pick. At that time she had also been putting on muscle ridiculously well for someone her age. It would’ve been more embarrassing if it wasn’t so much fun watching the older Quidditch players become easily intimidated, most of them nervously staring at her everytime she entered the pitch.
Adora thinks back to the day she decided she’d had enough of the sleeves.
She’d been aware that her arms had been filling out, but it had gotten to the point where her mobility was noticeably limited. It annoyed the shit out of her, and she tried to ignore it, until the day she was late to Quidditch practice and was forced to wear her school shirt instead.
The captain of the Gryffindor team at that time, Huntara, had them running new flying formations so things were already off to a rocky start. Adora pulled her broom close to her chest as she soared above her teammates, feeling the smooth wood under her palms and the specific curves of the handle that she’d memorized over the years. She normally wouldn’t even be involved in formation drills as the Seeker, but to her luck Huntara decided that that day of all days, Adora was needed.
She could barely do any of her usual moves or maneuvers with the fabric so tight against her upper body. She tried to fly down and weave through her teammates in a smooth fashion, but the new diagonal formation that the Chasers and Beaters were doing threw her angle off. She ended up having to lower herself between her Bow and Mermista, tightly squeezing between the two and not leaving nearly enough room as the plan had called for. As they neared the target zone, Adora decided to improvise and went to reach for the Snitch which zipped below them, refracting gold beams from the afternoon sun. But, already at a terrible angle and realizing she couldn’t even raise her arms above her head from the shirt, she completely missed it.
In her wild attempt to grab the Snitch, she knocked the back of Bow’s broom in a downward swooshing motion, causing a chain reaction among her teammates. Bow smashed into Glimmer who was off to his right shoulder, and the abrupt change of speed caused the hilt of Mermista’s broom to practically impale Adora’s back. Glimmer and a few others ahead of her were the only ones able to recover their balance in time, but those around Adora were not so lucky. Being slightly lower in the formation than the rest of them, Adora hit the ground first and the hardest. She could feel the wind that got knocked out of her lungs practically mocking her as she huffed out, choking and gasping at the air that didn’t seem to come.
She heard a loud THUD as Bow and Mermista came crashing down moments later.
Bow landed on his left shoulder and rolled over himself a few times before coming to halt a few feet from Adora, face down in the freshly cut grass. Mermista had spun out of control and was flung off her broom a little further from them, a string of curses ringing out as she tumbled forward. Bow lifted his head up from the ground, a large dirt scrape slathered across the side of his face. He groaned and gave Adora a confused look, about to ask her what the hell just happened but Adora beat him to it.
“Stupid FUCKING shirt.” She gritted out a little too loudly. She then immediately felt a wave of regret glancing around at the wreck she had caused, and more importantly, at the swelling forming on Bows face from his massive scrape.
“Shit, Bow I’m really sorry, I took that grab too early and my reach was so limited by my-” Adora was interrupted by Huntara blowing her whistle and paused to look over at their captain.
Huntara, who had swiftly flown down to assess the situation, was standing nearby Mermista and glared in Adora’s direction as if to say ‘I’ll get to you later.’
Adora was already beyond embarrassed by the entire ordeal, and decided to show herself out of practice that day, waving off Bow and Glimmer’s attempts to help her. She headed to the locker rooms, leaning over to haphazardly throw her things into her bag and winced at the sharp pain in her back caused by Mermista’s earlier jab. She knew she struggled with failure, but this was different.
This was all because she couldn’t fit into a simple shirt.
When she finally made it back to her dormitory, she felt like screaming as the tears that had been welling up finally fell down her face. In a moment of rage and frustration, she grabbed at her arms and ripped off the sleeves from where they were attached at her shoulders. The seams had burst apart like shredded paper under Adora’s strong grip.
The white threads of the sleeves fell to the ground like feathers, and Adora just stood there staring at the expensive shirt that was now basically a tank top. And in that moment she felt the pressures of the day roll off of her like waves. She almost laughed.
Almost.
Then, she froze.
She thought about how there was no way in hell she could go out wearing this, and she would probably get detention for literally breaking the dress code. But then again, her robe normally covered her arms and shoulders anyway so it wasn’t like anyone would be able to tell. Convincing herself that it was fine, she grabbed the pair of scissors tucked away in her wooden desk and cut the sleeves off the rest of her shirts.
Despite the impulsive decision, she kept it that way and never looked back. Only a few people knew about the sleeve situation (Glimmer and Bow in particular), but for the most part Adora had found that she didn’t have any problems with her choice of uniform.
Except now, standing in front of Dahlia, Adora accepts the fact that a sleeveless button up shirt is pretty ridiculous upon first sight. But Dahlia doesn’t seem to mind at all, so Adora just grins in response and gently pushes the fallen robe out of the way with her foot. She’s about to move in again to resume where they left off, but she hears the echo of the bell tower ringing off in the distance, signaling the end of the break between classes.
Adora shoots up, nearly colliding heads with Dahlia who also looks just as surprised. They both register the fact that their books are sprawled out across the room, their clothes are definitely disheveled, and there's lots of hair sticking out in odd places.
“Um should we…?” Dahlia asks.
“Yes.” Adora responds, nodding her head in a silent agreement.
Clearing her throat, she leans down to scoop up her robe and slides the soft fabric over her arms. She turns around to gather her things probably a little too quickly, and smiles to herself seeing that Dahlia is also struggling to collect her composure. Dahlia looks up and blushes, slightly avoiding eye contact but eventually lets out a laugh at their situation.
They head for the door, Adora opening it in a rush and scanning around to make sure no one is coming down the long hallway.
“So I guess I’ll see you around?” Dahlia asks.
“Yeah! Well, um, maybe? Sorry this was fun, but I really have to go.” Adora fumbles over her words, not thinking about the fact that they came off anxious and probably rude. She double checks to make sure all of her books and her wand are for sure in her book bag, before she slings it over her shoulder. She then glances over at Dahlia, who is now awkwardly starting to back away.
“Bye Adora.” She finally says, turning and laughing to herself over Adora’s own chaos.
“Bye!” Adora replies, but she’s already running towards her potions class so she's not sure Dahlia actually hears her. But Dahlia is the least of Adora’s concerns right now. She’s already a few minutes late and knows Weaver is probably going to deduct points from Gryffindor on her behalf, at the LEAST. Could be, and most likely will be, much worse depending on Weavers mood today.
She rounds the corner of one the massive marble staircases. She almost trips over the last step, which she personally nicknamed Alfred Bitch Step, because of the sheer amount of times she has fallen over it.
“Fuck off Alfred.” She mutters, trying to pick up her pace again. Her shoes slap against the stone floors, and she can feel the sweat starting to cling to the back of her shirts. And her neck. And her forehead.
Why am I always sweating, she thinks.
She finally reaches the last of the seemingly endless set of stairs. Turning another corner, she sighs seeing that the door to potions stands only a few feet away. That's when she slows down, and notices that another person is headed towards her as well. Which is unusual, since Adora is almost 9 minutes late to the start of class. Which she knows, because she counted.
It isn’t until the person gets closer that Adora realizes it's another Slytherin. But not just any Slytherin, Catra fucking Cortez.
Of. Course. Its. Catra.
They are both obviously late, and both clearly out of breath as they arrive at the door at the same time. Adora hesitates, staring at the girl who quite literally used to mean the entire world to her. But now, she can't stand to look her in the eye.
Catra scowls, realizing around the same time as Adora that they are both in the same boat, and unfortunately are having their first real interaction in years. Catra doesn’t say anything at first, just staring at Adora with a mix of disdain and confusion. So they both just stand there, waiting for the other to say something.
“Nice robe” Catra finally says, in a mocking tone.
Adora looks down to realize that her robe has been turned inside out, and Adora would normally fix it before going into the class but you know, sleeves .
She slightly blushes, thinking about her break with Dahlia. She reaches for the back of her neck and wipes the sweat off. She then looks over at Catra’s appearance, which looks almost as messy as her own. Her short hair looks windswept, as if she just came from outside. Her cheeks are slightly flushed, which only accentuate the freckles that are scattered all over her annoyingly perfect face. But that's when Adora sees it.
“Nice mud stain” Adora counters, quirking an eyebrow.
Its Catra’s turn to glance down, searching her clothing to see what Adora is talking about but unsuccessfully finding the source of the mud.
“You’re such a bitc-”
But Catra stops when she watches Adora motioning to her own face, hinting at its location. Catra reaches up and feels the dried mud that has been caked over on the side of her face. She aggressively tries to rub it off, while glaring at Adora.
“As much as I would love to stand in this freezing corridor with you, which I don’t, can you let me through so I can go to this stupid class.” Catra spits out.
Adora couldn’t agree more, and instead of letting Catra go in first Adora reaches for the handle and opens the door for her, widely gesturing with her arm to the inside of the class.
“After you, dirt serpent” She quips.
Catra rolls her eyes, heaving her bookbag up again and heading inside. Bracing herself for the upcoming reprimands of Weaver.
Let's just get this over with, Adora thinks and she follows right after her.