Are you a pureblood?
In our next Defense lesson I somehow manage to jab myself in the eye while trying to Finite the charm on the hourglass Professor Hillburn gave me. Sirius is one of the only students who manages to do it. He shrugs off the ten points Hillburn awards him like it’s nothing. To him, it probably is.
My left eye is still stinging and I think my vision is going blurry as we walk down the corridor.
“Blimey, I didn’t expect to have to work so hard this year,” Sirius says.
I’m not in the mood to hear his whinging and neither apparently is Remus as he lays into Sirius for his privileged upbringing.
Lily’s voice sounds from behind us, making me jump. “Remus is right, you know.”
“Evans, what a coincidence seeing you here,” James says. His hand flies to his hair. “Please join our conversation!”
“Ha ha,” Lily laughs. “Lay off the sarcasm, Potter, it doesn’t suit you.”
James’ face falls. “What is it that Remus is so right about then?”
“You purebloods, you don’t understand how hard it is for the rest of us. You come in with all sorts of knowledge we don’t have, even if you have never waved a wand. And yet we are all held to the same standard, it’s inadvertent discrimination.”
Sirius and James stop walking to gawk at Lily.
Lily abandons her efforts and walks on ahead mumbling to herself.
“Is she right?” Sirius asks us.
“She makes a very good point,” Remus nods.
When we leave study period that day, I dawdle in the classroom and catch Franny’s eye. She slows and we walk together up the corridor, letting everyone else leave us behind.
“Are you a pureblood?” I ask.
She nods. “Yeah, are you?”
“Yeah. Do you agree with what Lily said earlier about purebloods having an advantage over everyone else?”
“I understand the theory, but look at us. We’re struggling more than anyone at magic and we’re both purebloods.”
“I don’t feel like I have any advantages,” I say with a nod.
Franny looks around before dropping her voice to a whisper, “I like Lily, but she can be a bit self-righteous.”
“She scares me.”
“Really? Sirius scares me. He’s way more intimidating than Lily, and he’s your friend.”
“Sirius is only moody. Lily has a motive.”
“She does?”
“Yeah, to put us all in our place.”
We lapse into silence.
“Lily’s alright, really,” Franny says.
“So is Sirius,” I reply.
Franny asks me about my family and we end up talking in the common room until dinner. She laughs at things which I intend to be funny. When I go upstairs to drop my book bag off before dinner, I find James and Sirius playing gobstones while Remus reads on his bed.
“Where have you been?” Sirius asks.
“Common room.”
“But we’re all up here,” Sirius says just before a gobstone of James’ shoots foul smelling liquid into his face.
“I know.” I put my bag on top of my trunk.
“Then what were you doing?” Sirius is now rubbing his face with the sleeve of his outer robe. That robe will reek until it gets washed.
“I was talking to Franny.”
“Macha, it’s your play,” James says.
Sirius takes his turn and I leave to find people who want to listen to me when I talk.
Lily must be having a bad day because she goes off again on Sirius and James in the common room after dinner. They are being annoying—playing exploding snap when most of us are trying to study—but Remus and I ignore them as we practice Finite Incantatem. Not Lily. She goes for reinforcements in the form of Alice, who boots Sirius and James out of the common room.
James falls backwards out of the portrait hole because he’s making a stupid pig face at Lily and walking at the same time. She bursts into laughter. The common room is one hundred times more serene with them gone.
Remus and I are taking turns attempting the spell on a sock. One of us levitates it with Wingardium Leviosa, then the other attempts to end that enchantment with Finite Incantatem. I only got the levitation charm yesterday. No one was around to witness it as I was practicing in my bed late into the night. I was so excited when it worked on the quill I was charming I barely slept.
Remus congratulated me on the accomplishment when I told him. Now we each know one spell, and are attempting to master a second one.
“Finite Incantatem!” Remus says, wand pointed at the sock. It falls to the table and I let out a little squeak.
“You did it!”
“Your turn.”
I make several more attempts but still can’t work the spell properly.
“Let’s take a break,” Remus says. “How about we go upstairs and try levitating all our stuff?”
We head up to our room, but my heart is heavy. I only just got the quill last night and sure I did the sock today, but I doubt I’ll be able to do anything else.
Remus starts with a trainer. The shoe rises into the air and hovers.
“Wingardium Leviosa!” I say with the proper swish and flick of my wand. To my surprise the other trainer floats into the air. Remus looks at me with a wide grin on his face.
We aim at things all over the room, various books, knicknacks, book bags, pillows, and even each of our trunks. I’m successful every time. I’m full of sunshine and walking on clouds.
“Try Finite again,” Remus says, levitating a book for me to cancel.
“Finite Incantatem!” The book falls to the bed. I squeal and clap my hand to my mouth.
“Peter! You did it!”
I did it. I did it. I can’t wait to tell Franny. I’m in such a good mood, the fact Sirius got a detention and had twenty points taken from Gryffindor while he and James were out wandering the castle doesn’t phase me.
I slip my wand under my pillow that night. In the past two days I’ve grown even more fond of it and the thought of being separated from it gives me mild anxiety.
The next night, Sirius serves his detention. James acts like he just got elected Minister for Magic. In the spirit of one-upping each other, they make bets about who will kiss a girl first. Remus and I aren’t invited to be included in the wager.