Chapter 11
having survived her first monday attending hogwarts and first ever day of official wizarding school without having cursed something, set fire to any school equipment or accidentally blown something up (unlike peter), hazel found that all in all, her first day at classes had gone surprisingly well.
her first one had been double herbology, alongside marlene, dorcas and an unsurprisingly unsmiling evan, the rest of the narrow high benches in the greenhouse filled with unfamiliar faces of other sixth year students she wasn’t yet acquainted with as she settled into her seat beside marlene. they where sat towards the back of the classroom, dorcas and evan a few rows ahead of them and hunched over a small notebook in dorcas’s lap, pale blond and dark black strands joining where their heads met. the classroom was large yet covered with such as amass of roiling dark stained plants and leafy green herbs potted in dirt dusted ceramics that it gave the impression of a far smaller space, walls and ceiling constructed fully from glass, the panes smudge stained and peppered with small scratches and dirt patches that interrupted the stream of light that flowed through them, causing the rays to fall in strange whirling patterns upon the soil speckled floor.
she traced two fingers over the worn scar flecked wooden desk before her as she idly waited for the teacher to arrive, trying not to think too hard on how those scars had come to be on the wood. so far only a few faces had glanced her way, confusion staining their features as they tried to place her face, noting her red and gold striped tie and who she was sitting beside, clearly unsure of what to make of her unfamiliar presence. she ignored them for the moment, content to chatter lazily with the sleepy girl beside her, marlene having her head propped up on one furled hand and eyes fighting to stay open against the sleep that was pulling them closed.
hazel was just about to nudge her with an elbow and prevent her from having a full blown nap in her first class when the door of the greenhouse flew open, a small professor bustling in and making her way to the blackboard at the front of the class, greetings of ‘good morning, good morning students, morning to you all…’ falling of her lips as she dumped her belongings onto the teachers desk at the front, wheeling around the the now attentive students before her and smiling broadly. she was short, with a mop of white curls and rosy cheeks, over large glass frames slipping down the ledge of her straight nose and sitting there, her grey eyes friendly as she blinked at the class before her.
‘lovely to see you all again so soon, i hope we have all had a wonderful winter break, hmm? wonderful to have some weeks of to enjoy home, i must say i rather enjoy the breaks myself.’ she paused, waiting for a few students to grumble half hearted responses before continuing, ‘ i do hope some of it was spent on that winter reading list i had handed out at the end of last term. a lot of important material there, the works on shrivelfig seeds and snargaluff pods in particular will be relevant in the oncoming class exams.’
some groans where heard at this latest announcement, others looking confused as they turned heads to their friends, marlene blinking bewilderedly as if unaware there had even been a reading list as the professor continued, unperturbed by the commotion she had caused.
‘moving on from the christmas reading, before diving into todays lesson i would like to welcome a new student to the class. do we have a hazel o’mallenough here with us today?’
practically all the heads in the classroom swivelled to where here and marlene where sitting as hazel raised her arm slightly, smiling at the teacher who beamed back at her, eyes crinkling at the corners ‘ah, there you are! ms o’mallenough is a new student at hogwarts and as such i expect you all to make her feel very welcome. now, onto todays lesson, if we could all please retrieve our ‘advanced herbology: saltwater ecosystems edition’ textbooks and open them to page fifty-two..’
the professor continued to list off instructions as students brought their attention back to the books before them, many of their gazes lingering on her before looking back at their own desks, hazel dragging her own attention to the book marlene plonked down on the desk before them, content to share the textbook regardless of the fact they each had their own copy. glancing between the book before her and the blackboard that the professor (professor sprout, that was her name) was scribbling on she started to taking notes within her own notebook, occasionally taking breaks to doodle little drawings on marlene’s own paper when the girl wasn’t looking, marlene returning the gesture while hazel was preoccupied by the black board and the rambling professor before it.
they passed the first lesson as such, before professor sprout clapped her hands, drawing the attention of the quietly chattering and frantically scribbling students to the front of the room as she announced ‘for the second half of todays lesson, we shall be looking at the growing process of gillyweed. for this, i will be partnering you all of in a few moments, in which each pair will be assigned the materials needed to grow and harvest their plants. growing charms will be needed to speed up the process of the plants growth, however do keep in mind that the conditions have to be ideal for each plant to sufficiently grow, regardless of the charms. instructions for creating the ideal habitat can be found on page seventy- two and seventy- three of the textbook. now for the pairs…’
she began to list of names from a long unfurled scroll she had clasped before her, hazel waiting patiently until she heard her own name called.
‘we have irene flintstone and corbin yaxley at station twelve, lucy goldstein and katie abbernoth at station thirteenth, hazel o’mallenough and evan rosier at station fourteen, christopher o’sullivan and lavender barnet at station fifteen…
she glanced up, locking eyes with evan just as he tilted his head briefly to look back at her, expression bored and eyes flat as their gazes met, looking for only a second before he turned back to his desk, completely disregarding her. she made an effort not to scoff out loud at the blatant dismissal.
marlene winced as well, shooting hazel a sympathetic smile and ‘good luck with that one’ before grabbing her book and making her way to her own station in which she was set to share with dorcas, both girls careful to leave a large enough parameter between them one could mistake them for working at completely different stations and not as partners to the same one. sighing through her nose, she snatched her own notebook from the desk, fishing her text book from her bag before making her way over to her own station where evan was already standing, hands stuffed in his pockets and looking indifferent as he watched her approach, lips set in a line and blond hair bright in the beam of sunlight that pierced through the glass overhead, illuminating them both as she stopped beside him.
wordlessly he began to arrange the tools set before the, positioning the large plastic tub so that it was directly underneath the beam of sunlight and handing her the small glass container of rock salt with a curt ‘we need four ounces of this.’
she took it from his out stretched hand, pouring the required amount on the small brass weighing scales before her, careful to get the measurement exact as she flicked her eyes down to her open textbook, scanning the next few steps, chewing on her bottom lip absentmindedly as she did so. content that it was fairly straightforward, she transferred the small weighed out pile of salt crystals into the empty tub as evan raised his wand, twirling it lazily and muttering a quick ‘agumenti’ as it began to fill until it reached half full, water abrupt stopping and lapping gently against the tubs interior walls as it settled.
content on allowing him to complete the magical elements of the process while she carried out the practical, she silently snatched up the silver tea spoon from the desk, beginning the process of stirring the mixture thrice clockwise and twice anti clockwise before taking the spoon out, droplets running of its side and falling into the water below, placing the gillyweed seeds on the wet tea spoon and carefully lowering them into the salt water mixture. evan, picking up on her willingness to complete the task in silence seemed to relax slightly, shoulders slumping just a fraction as he raised his wand yet again, murmuring a quick worded spell that took effect immediately, the gillyweed seeds swelling until double their size, then settling. so far so good, they had only need to complete this process three more times and they would hopefully, if all went well, be complete.
she scanned the next instructions before turning to her reluctant lab partner, asking ‘do you want to strain the gillyweed or should i?’ to which she just received a cold glance before his gaze slid of her, not even granting her his attention as he replied a cold ‘i dont particularly care.’
‘neither do i.’ she raised a brow, fixing him with a look. ‘be pissy all you want, just do it over there. brooding doesn’t make the gillyweed grow any faster.’
he just scowled at her, turning so his back was facing her as he began to arrange the chopping board and various apparatus for the water plants preparation. prick.
based off the students around them who kept shooting the cold faced boy apprehensive glances and doing well to skirt around him he had quite the effect of terrifying the rest of the students cooped up in the greenhouse, even marlene looking slightly troubled as she darted her eyes to him and quickly back. hazel, however, had seen a lot more fear inducing people than the unfriendly boy before her was frankly was getting quite sick of his piss poor attitude, something she didn’t bother hiding from her face as she rolled her eyes at his back, turning to grab the silver tea spoon back up again.
as she was preparing the water its second mix she realised she had a pair of eyes on her, looking up to in fact see the attention of one of the boys working a few stations across from her shooting her glances as him and his partner worked. he locked eyes with her for a few moments as her gaze met his, shooting her a lopsided smile while seeming to puff out his chest slightly. beside her she heard evan scoff under his breath, and she slid unamused eyes in his direction.
‘what.’
‘excuse me if i dont need to see every guy in this shed fawning over you at ten in the morning. i already get enough of that from barty.’
she raised a brow, genuinely taken back for a moment. ‘you do?’
‘i dont think he’s physically capable of brining up your name without the words ‘cas’s new bombshell gryffindor mate’ or ‘golden eyes goddess’ following close behind.’
unable to help herself she snorted, slightly amused that anyone their age would be using the term ‘golden eyed goddess’ to describe a fellow classmate, let alone it being barty doing so.
this, evidently, was the entirely wrong reaction to have as his expression hardened, turning away from her as they finished the rest of the process in silence, evan simply snatching up his belonging and marching back to his desk once the teacher had checked over and approved their end result, a hufflepuff girl practically leaping out of his way as he reached his chair, slumping into it and waiting for dorcas to finish. hazel, equally eager to get back to her own desk and away from the grouchy wanker made her way to her own seat, smiling as marlene joined her moments later, class finishing only a few minutes later as both girls grabbed their bags and made their way out of the greenhouse and back up to the castle above.
‘well?’ marlene probed as they neared the stone entrance that would bring them to their next class, book bag swinging wildly from side to side as she strode forwards. ‘how was your first class?’
‘the class itself, good. the partner, not so much.’
marlene winced, nodding with understanding ‘merlin, i dont know how dorcas is such good mates with him, rosier is downright terrifying. you wouldn’t believe some of the hexes ive heard he’s pulled on students over the past few years- im not going to lie, im actual a bit scared of him at times. he’s right intimidating when he wants to be.’
‘more like a right knob when he wants to be.’ she grumbled, marlene’s brows shooting up in amusement at hazels small frown. ‘ive hardly known him three days, and he already seems to have it out for me.’
‘he just seems to hate everybody that’s not dorcas, barty or pandora, although godric knows why.’
‘he hates me because barty thinks im a golden eyed goddess’
marlene blinked. ‘come again?’
‘im just as confused as you marls’ she confirmed, sighing deeply through her nose, already feeling the beginnings of a headache burrowing into her skull as she brought one hand up to massage her scalp. ‘anyways’ she asked you, eager to talk about more pleasant topics, ‘how about your own lab partner?’
she could have sworn a faint blush tinged her friends cheeks but before she could part her lips to ask marlene was speeding up, practically running to the entrance before them. ‘is that the time already? c’mon, were not having you late for your second ever class at hogwarts! hurry up!’
second class was astrology with lily, and went marginally better then the class before. by the time charms rolled around, the last class of the day and held in a spacious classroom in the western wing that allowed the sunlight to pour in and brighten the space, hazel was pleasantly surprised by how much she had enjoyed most of her classes so far, especially potions in which she witnessed peter accidentally blow up his cauldron and cover both himself and james in a plume of green powder that was still tinging their skin a slight sickly colour, even hours later. now, sitting beside the blond boy who was slightly resembling a pea with the strange tint of his skin, she tried not to fidget as professor mc gonaggle stood before the class, already halfway through explaining the new spell the class was tasked with beginning to master in todays period.
this was the class she had been most nervous to attend, and now sitting towards the back of the class surrounded by students who all looked completely at ease with their wands that they where waving before them, she tried not to let her anxiety get to her. mc gonaggle had made it clear that she was not expected to immediately pick up any of the spells, and recommend hazel to simply sit and observe her classmates practise the magic, taking notice of wand movements and word emphasis so she could begin to get the general gist of wand techniques and get herself more acquainted with them. her actual wand lessons would take place later today with professor flintwick well into the evening, where he would personally be teaching her the basics of wand work for the rest of the year, in order to hopefully catch her up to speed on the lessons her fellow classmates had had drilled into them since they had turned eleven. in basic terms, hazel was to learn all there was to know in the next year that everyone else had five years to master. so, naturally no pressure then.
she swivelled her head to observe the boy beside her, wand clutched in his right hand and face scrunched up with concentration as he exaggerated the pronunciation slowly, hand movements choppy as he moved his wand. nothing happened and he tried again, this time pronouncing different symbols of the spell while maintaining the same hand movement, but again there was no spark of magic. he sighed, looking at his wand and then casting his eyes to the other students around the classroom who where similarly practising the spell to various degrees of success. they where learning an animation charm, one that would allow for the movements and basic commands of inanimate objects to be controlled by the spell caster, and currently the students where practising on small wooden figures on animals that had been placed before them. peter was not alone in his unsuccess, as so far there where only a few minutes left of the class and the majority of the students had not succeeded on controlling their wooden figurines, although most had been able to summon some movement from them, unlike the boy beside her.
‘piertotem locomotor.’ he waved his wand, motions still choppy as he aimed the tip of it at the small carving of the fox before him. ‘pier-rto-tem loco-motor.’ again nothing, and again he moved his wand. ‘pierto- tem loco-mot-or.’
his fox did not move.
‘you want to give it a shot?’
she raised a brow at him. ‘pete, i can’t even cast wingardium levosia which you lot learnt in first year, let alone something to move an inanimate object.’
he simply shrugged, stating ‘worth a shot.’
she looked at him for a moment but he looked so earnest that she acquiesced, exhaling though her nose and gingerly picking up her wand from her desk where she had discarded it. mc gonaggle hadn’t even given her her own figurine, but she had encouraged hazel to use her wand to copy the movements she had described at the beginning of class that the rest of the students where now preforming in order to get used to the feel of her wand and the types of movements she would soon be properly learning. now clutching it between her fingers, she shifted in her seat so she was facing the small fox figurine, looking at the small creature as she rose her wand, levelling it at the carving.
she practised the movements first, rolling her wrist and flexing her fingers until the movements became smooth, sure. with that she began on the pronunciation, glancing up at the black board occasionally while she muttered it under her breath. confident she had the basics of the pronunciation down, she fixed her eyes on the figurine sitting innocently before her, squaring her shoulders as she flicked her wrists, drawing her wand around in an intricate movement as she firmly murmured the spells incantation. of course, nothing happened, yet she tried again, and once more after that. still, the fox firmly stayed a fox, and her wand stayed firmly magic less.
peter turned to her suddenly, eyes widening. ‘wait- wait how did you say the incantation. it sounded like mc gonnagle when she first said it- was it peer- tom or pir- tum?’
‘try with peer- tumn’ she relied, then moved her hand slowly in a imitation of how she had seen the professor demonstrate at the beginning of the class. ‘and try move your wand more like this-‘ she flicked her wrist, slowly so he could copy. ‘this was kind of what it looked like when she did it.’
he copied her, and on the forth try the little fox carving twitched, tail unfurling from its widen frame to shift slightly.
‘it worked!’ he squeaked, beaming, looking as though he had achieved a downright miracle. mc gonnagle, who was making her rounds between the desks to monitor the students progress gave peter am appraising one over, glancing at hazel with an indescribable glint in her blue eyes, gaze lingering for a moment before she turned to the wide eyed boy, giving him a small nod. ‘good progress, mr pettigrew.’
peter flushed a dark red that had an interesting reaction on his pale green skin, spluttering out a thanks, yet mc gonnagle had already moved on, now monitoring a student a few rows ahead that had gotten their small owl carving to hop from one side of the desk to the other. hazel gave the still wide eyed boy a genuine smile, leaning over to congratulate him. ‘nice one, pete.’
he flushed again, smiling shyly back at her. ‘thanks. you helped though, your right good at the wand movements and pronunciations.’
she fought back the retort that that was simply not true, instead smiling back as he turned his attention back to the figurine and attempted to make it move again. although he wasn’t successful in his following attempts, by the ends of class as they found themselves exiting into the hallway beyond his mood was not dampened in the slightest, and convinced hazel that a trip to the kitchen for chocolate muffins was in order, partly as celebration for his success, and partly as a thank you for hazels help. hazel, not needed much to be convinced happily obliged, and found herself spending a rather pleasant hour with the boy in the kitchens, thick ceramic mugs of tea and gooey chocolate muffins spread between them, fingers sticky and smiles bright.
out of all of marlene’s friends she had recently met for the first time over the past three days she had interacted with peter the least, and found herself rather enjoying the one on one time with him. he was usually the quietest out of the four marauders, yet clearly had hidden comedic streak, evident as he accidentally made her laugh so hard at one point of his impressions of professor binns she almost snorted her tea out of her nose from laughter, which in turn made the boy actually snort out his own, the poor house elves rushing towels with thick towels and tissues as he spluttered. once they had both calmed (and dried off), she peppered him with questions about him and the other marauders had met, which led to him launching into tale after tale of his initial year at hogwarts, meeting both remus and sirius on the train, james and sirius’s initial connection that was evident the moment they both interacted, and how the three of them had spent weeks wearing remus down enough until he finally relented and went from being their dorm mate to reluctant, and then not so reluctant friend.
in turn she shared a few experiences from her own time in a muggle secondary school, the boy being a pureblood and not well versed in the non magical world being fascinated by explanations of a non magical schooling systems. he was never snobbish or stuck up, simply curious as he asked her to explain the lessons to him, or what they learnt about, genuinely interested in getting to know more about muggle culture. she had been scandalised that he somewhat sheepishly admitted to never having watched a muggle movie before, and she had announced that she absolutely would make sure that changed before the end of the first term. he had agreed, and she made a mental note to ask cass or tony to send over a dvd of one of their go to flicks. and maybe a projector, too.
after they had been stuffed full of tea and chocolatey muffins they just had enough time to return to the dorms and disregard their book bags and spend an hour on homework alongside lily and remus who they met in the library, before the four of them trooped down to dinner and met with the rest of the group, who where having the time of their lives mercilessly teasing peter and sirius for their green tinged flush, something the two boys clearly did not appreciate. it was after dinner that hazel found herself on her way to her first proper charms class of the evening, the first evening of many she would spend one on one with professor flinkwick as he taught her the basics of wand magic in an empty classroom on the ground floor.
arriving at the classroom just as the sun was beginning its burning descent she pushed through the door, stepping into the closed off charms classroom, large floor length windows letting in the burning organ of the slowly setting sun, desks pushed up towards the walls, the room empty bar from one other. professor flinkwick was already waiting, short statue wrapped up in inky black robes that pooled slightly at his feet, short brown hair neatly swept to one side and eyes bright as they beheld her.
‘ah, ms o’mallenough! pleasure to finally meet, a pleasure indeed. please, do come in.’
she pushed herself from where she had been lingering by the doorframe to stride further into the room, footsteps echoing in the sparsely decorated room. she stopped a few feet before him, giving him a small smile as she politely answered ‘pleasure to meet you too, professor.’
‘ah, very nice manners. tell me, how have you found settling into hogwarts? i understand it can be a big change transferring during such a late year, especially for someone who has not experienced a magical schooling environment before. i do hope you are finding the adjustment period not too strenuous.’
she shrugged slightly. ‘its gone well so far, i think. i only had my first classes today but the material was all things i covered before coming here, so i hopefully won’t find it too difficult to catch up. as for settling in, its a change from living at home, but i already had a few friends here before i came which made the transition a lot easier.’
he smiled kindly at her, seaming pleased. ‘well, thats wonderful to hear. it does make such a difference, having a friendly face in a new environment. i understand that you will be wanting to spend as much time this evening with those friends of yours, so i shan’t keep you long tonight.’
he passed to pick up his wand from where it had been strapped by his side, twirling it slightly between his nimble fingers. ‘as explained by professor mc gonnagle, these one on one tutoring sessions will take place with me in this very classroom every monday, wednesday, thursday, friday and sunday of the week, excluding any school holidays that may interrupt the schedule, in which we would reschedule appropriately. for tonight we will not be working with actual magic, only in getting you used to the feel of your wand. if you could please get it out, i shall begin in teaching you some of the basic wand holding positions.’
she dutifully obliged, retrieving her wand from her cloak pocket and grasping it loosely in her right hand, wood smooth between her fingers. he began by showing the best positions for holding it, moving her fingers until she was gripping it correctly, then began to demonstrate the wand movements needed for basic charms, which was the first set of spells he had announced that they would be working on. unlike defensive or conjuring magic which used abrupt, precise wand movements, he explained, basic charms such as wingardium leviosa or lumos required much more fluid motions (the wand acts as a paintbrush as he informed her), and got her practising these for the next hour. she found it slightly tedious but it was the most she had ever been taught about magic in one go, and therefore did her best to not push it and simply let him teach her the basics, until her wrist was cramped and feet sore from standing for so long. the sun had fully sank and swapped positions with the moon in the horizon when professor flintwick nodded, satisfied, taking a few steps back and declaring that the lesson would now come to a close, and that she had done well.
the day after tomorrow, he stated, was in which they would begin practising her first spell, lumos, and he advised her to practise the incantation with he made her repeat three times before allowing her to leave at the end of class, and wand movements that she had been practising today in the meanwhile until that wednesdy. promising she would, she bid him goodnight and made her way back to the gryffindor common rooms, hoping to catch up with mary and the girls for a chat before bed, or to join pete in a game of chess that he had been eager to play with her, much to the warnings of everyone else at breakfast when he had tried to convince her to play a round with him later that night that he was a secret evil genius at the game and that she should play with literally anyone else. still, she had never played wizarding chess before and thought that if she was to learn (and loose), it might as well be to the best.
hurrying to get to the common room, she almost didn’t notice the figure heading towards her. sandy curls, brown eyes and a smattering of freckles caught her attention and she blinked, seeing remus striding towards her, face down and peering at an open piece of parchment before him, seeming completely unaware of the girl he was swiftly approaching.
‘remus!’ she called out, watching as he jolted, head snapping up as he scanned the corridors, eyes quickly falling on her. he seemed frozen for only a moment, as if a deer caught in deadlights before snapping out of it, giving himself a small shake as he straightened, hurriedly shoving the piece of parchment into his pocket as he blinked at her.
‘hey, hazel.’ he frowned then slightly, cocking his head to the side as if only now noticing the late hour of which she was hurrying through random corridors. ‘what are you doing in this wing- did you get lost?’
she smiled, warmed by his concern even as she answered ‘no, not lost. just back from a charms evening lesson with flintwick. in on my way back to the common room now. what about you- you seem like your in a rush’
‘no, no rush. just on a walk to the kitchens.’ his words where slightly too strained to sound completely casual.
she glanced over him for a moment, deciding not to let it slip that she knew the kitchens where at the opposite side of the castle since she had just been there with peter, simply shrugging and flashing him a friendly smile as she started to walk towards him and the direction of the common room. ‘alright. ill see you in the common room.’
she brushed past him, noting briefly the scent of dried parchment and something sweet cling to him, his breaths momentarily silent as she passed, walking leisurely back to the common room. finally reaching it after several long minutes and pushing inside where she was greeted by the sight of peter and mary hunched over a game of chess, sirius and james sprawled out on one of the couches and in a seemingly very intense competition between which one could land the most tiny pieces of torn up paper at petes unsuspecting head, while both lily and marlene where on the other couch. she greeted the group before flopping down on the couch with the girls, chatting idly and occasionally commentating on the chess game before them. they thoroughly entertained themselves by providing commentary on mary and peters chess game, inventing fake rules whenever pete took out any of marys pieces and loudly agreeing with the offending girl when she shamelessly cheated at the game, claiming that perhaps peter was just rusty on the rules whenever he complained at the outrageous moved mary pulled, and no, they didn’t see her move any extra pieces what was he on about? until he almost stopped the game altogether. he still won, somehow.
after marys game, she swapped with the girl and sent the following half an hour listening to pete as he patiently explained the game rules to her, even playing a few moves before tiredness settled on the group, the chatter around them broken up by loud yawns and mumbled retorts.
‘i dont think im going to think of any more revolutionary chess moves tonight.’ she managed through a yawn, looking at the blond boy sitting before her on the worn red carpet. ‘call it a night?’
‘sound.’ he agreed, nodding as he carefully scooped up the pieces and placed them back in the box, rising alongside her as the girls noticed their movements and got up swell, james and sirius following suit.
‘where remus?’ lily questioned, looking around the group as if only now noticing his absence.
‘probably at the library somewhere, or raiding the kitchens.’ pete shrugged. ‘he only left a few minutes ago, im sure hell be back before curfew.’
‘he better be.’ the red head grumbled, moving towards the steps towards the dormitories with marlene and mary in tow, both girls shooting a quick ‘night lads.’ hazel was right behind them when she suddenly saw pete straighten slightly, quickly reaching into his bag and withdrawing out an item that he held out to her. looking down, it was one of the same chocolate muffins they had scrounged in the kitchens only a few hours earlier. he smiled at her, shrugging. ‘thought it might help, after your first evening class and first proper full day.’
she smiled so widely she felt it in her cheeks, unable to help it. ‘thanks pete.’
behind the boy sirius and james where now both grinning wildly, the former wiggling his browns at the now blushing boy, who was scowling back at his friends.
‘wow, wormy’s already gone for whooing via chocolate muffin gifting. we better step up our game here prongs.’
‘piss off.’ he grumbled, while hazel raised an eye brow at the two boys. ‘you really better, although based on how good these muffins are, im not sure its going to be easy to top.’
‘oh dont you worry.’ sirius grinned at her, shoving his hands in his pockets. ‘we have something far better than baked goods planned for your welcoming to hogwarts.’
‘that sounds vaguely threatening.’
‘nothing of the sort.’ james promised, which only reassured her slightly. ‘just make sure to keep saturday night free.’
throwing them a slightly wary look she agreed, turning back to the staircase where the girls had paused, waiting for her and made her way to the room, quickly changing and flopping into her bed.
‘so?’ that was the only warning hazel got as suddenly a blond rush of motion was springing onto her bed, causing her to shriek slightly and scamper back. marlene flopped onto the mattress, landing half on hazel and rolling over so she was facing the girl now clutching her chest, blue eyes gleaming as she grinned up at hazel, only narrowly missing the girl as she made to playfully shove her.
‘jesus marls, im really looking forwards to actually making it past my first proper day here. maybe keep the attempted murder for later?’
‘so dramatic.’ the blond scoffed, swatting at her as she shifted to lean her head on both hands, elbows pressed into the mattress as she peered up expectantly at hazel, repeating her previous ‘so?’
‘so what?’
‘so how was your first day!’ marlene exclaimed, as if this had been a particularly obvious question that hazel should have guessed by now. ‘how did you find it?’
she took a moment to think about it, biting her lip as she considered. it was different- a new environment, new friends, new bloody country- but it wasn’t a bad different, she defiantly didn’t think that. it was a massive change going from living at home and attending a normal secondary with her mates back at home to suddenly thrust into a magical boarding school, but a change she didn’t mind too much, at least so far. a part of her when she had been younger had always longed to follow danny and marlene each time they departed to hogwarts, had thirsted for any emersion in it and the magic world through pouring over marlene’s textbooks and letting danny teach her how to fly on the broom, had always felt slightly unfulfilled attending the secondary she had back at home when a small part other mind would always wander to the school here, nestled in the scottish highlands. looking back at the girl in front of her, face soft and open hazel smiled slightly back, answering softly ‘it was good. i really like it here marls.’
marlene smiled softly back, reaching over to grab her hand and squeezing. ‘im glad. im really happy your here with me, zel.’
‘i know. im glad too.’
they stayed there for a moment, hands clasped and smiles soft until marlene finally drew back, clambering to her feet and moving to pull hazels curtains around her bed, stopping before they where fully closed to turn back to hazel, that same small soft smile on her lips.
‘i love you.’
‘i love you too.’