the Boy and the Girl.
It’s almost the end of the 6th school year for the marauders and their friends. Marlene and Dorcas finally started dating, it took them way too long to realize they were feeling more for each other than just quidditch rivals. Remus and Sirius still need time to get their shit together tho, Remus is going in the right direction but Sirius is just fucking lost. Mary and Sirius are an item and Remus doesn't like that for one bit, though he still has no idea why. James just started to date Lily and they are taking it slow, trying not to rush anything. Lily and James were already friends for a long time, since Remus and her are almost as bad as Sirius and James themself. She and James get along well, very well actually. Most people don’t see it coming but they are very much alike. They got closer this year and started to question if they felt more for each other than just platonic feelings. They are still figuring it out and taking their time.
Our last lesson for the day is finished and I walk next to Lily. “So, do you want to hang out later?” I ask her.
“I would like that but I have to study, sorry James.”
“No it’s okay, I should do the same. Maybe tomorrow?" Lily and I haven't really talked in a long time, we are both very bussy with our own things like quidditch and studying that we almost have no time for each other. I miss her.
"Sure, I'm looking forward to it!"
"Alright bye then, I'll see you later!” I give her a fast kiss on the cheek.
I am walking towards the library since I don’t really have anything to do. Everyone is bussy with other stuff. Lily and Remus are gonna study together and want no distraction, Sirius and Mary are gonna ‘study’ in her dorm and Peter and Sybill are gonna take a walk around the castle to calm down a bit and catch up with each other. I get that actually, these last weeks were so busy that I thought that I would go crazy if it didn't end soon. We had so much homework that it felt like I was drowning in it for fuck sake. But we only have 2 more weeks to go before the exams are over, we’ll get through it.
I sit down at my favorite table and open my Astronomy book. We are studying the moon cycle which of course I already know everything about for the next 10 years. I try to keep my focus but it's just way to loud in here. I decide after a half hour of trying that it is complete useless and that I want to go to the quidditch pitch to let my mind cool down. I grab my stuff and stand up, walking to the exit. The fact that I promised Pete to help him for setting up a date with him and Sybill shoots into my mind. I could try to get to know what kind of flowers Sybill likes the most? Or maybe see what her favorite song is?
My thoughts get when I crash into a person.
“Hey! Watch out!” The student says.
I look up and see that it is Regulus Black. Sirius her brother. I realize he dropped his books because I bumped into him. I’m bending over to grab the books while he does the exact same thing. My eyes focus on the rings he is wearing, silver and black ones. My heart is pounding for some reason. I give him his books back but I lost all my words to say that I am sorry. My mind just disconected from my body.
“Why are you staring like that?”
“I- I just- I wanted to uhm..."
"...Yes?"
"I got to go!”
I spurt away from him as fast as I can, I felt my face getting hot and my heart would not stop racing. Why did it do that? Probably because I am so stressed about the exams, I’m sure it is that.
~~~
I’m walking with Remus to our tree near the black lake. We kinda adopted the tree actually, we always sit under it if we study or talk or just do nothing at all. It sort of became our place without ever owning it. I hear Remus sign and opening his Transfiguration book.
“So, how was your day?” I ask him.
“It was alright, no one got detention today so that’s new.”
“Why would you get detention in the first place?”
“Okay first of all when do we not get detention? Second, don't get mad Lily but, we kinda set a classroom on fire…”
“You did what?! How did you not get detention for that?!”
Remus his eyes shine as he starts talking, “Ask that to Sirius, she is amazing Lily! We used aguamenti to put out the fire-”
“Wait, why was there even a fire?”
“We tried to burn our initials into Minnie’s desk so that she will remember us, even though we are only gonna be gone for the summer, but the desk catched fire." He said, like it's the most normal thing in the world. "Anyways, Minnie came in and the whole classroom was burned and wet, I swear Lily she didn't even looked surprised! And she started to lecture us, so we tried to explain to her why it was with the right intention, but she was so done with us and she wanted to give us detention, but then out of nowhere Sirius started crying! And-”
My mouth drops open, “Oh my god is he alright?!” I have been friends with Sirius for a pretty long time. We kinda bonded over the fact that we both have sibling issues. In my second year I was crying over the letter Petunia sent me in the common room while it was late at night, thinking no one was there. But Sirius came down and saw me crying, she asked what was wrong and I told her about Petunia and why she hates me. Sirius comforted me and later told me about her problems with Regulus and we kept talking that whole night long. We knew too many secrets from each other to lose contact so we kept talking and soon we became very good friends. So of course I am concerned about her.
Remus his smile keeps getting bigger while he is talking, “That is the thing, yes she is! She was acting, Lily you had to see it even Prongs believed it! Sirius just started crying out of nowhere and Minnie was speechless! She asked what was wrong and Sirius said ‘I want to get out of here, I hate the smell.’ and she started sobbing and heartbreaking sounds were coming out of her mouth. So we basically all stared at James but he also had no clue what Sirius was talking about or what he should even do. Eventually James sat her down on a chair and grabbed her shoulders and asked to explain. So Sirius said ‘The burned smell, I hate it.’ So me and Peter followed and Minnie kindly asked why, and she answered that it reminded her of the smell of the Black family Tapestry because she was burned off it and she had to watch it happen.”
“That is horrible! Who would do such a thing?! What did you guys do?"
“Minnie immediately said some kind of wordless spell and the room smelled of roses in no time. Sirius started to violently scrub her tears away but it was useless because she was still crying and repeating sorry, over and over again. Minnie started to panic a bit, and she just said that we needed to take Sirius up to our dorm and get her to calm down and that she will talk to us later.”
I am in total shock, “You got Minnie to not give you detention after putting a whole fucking classroom on fire and underwater?! You deserve an award for that honestly. That is unbelievable.”
“You know what is more unbelievable? The fact that the moment we were out of Minnie her sight, Sirius literally wiped of her tears and just started fucking laughing! We thought she was going insane for a second! We all stared at her and she just laughed harder! Eventually James couldn’t hold himself anymore and asked what the fuck is wrong and Sirius answered ‘I got enough detentions this year, it’s almost summer and I want to spent those last days at Hogwarts in the sun laying in grass, not sitting in the cold dark dungeons, so I got us out.’ And then she stared at us like we were the crazy ones. Peter asked what the hell that story was and Sirius said that it wasn’t true at all. His mom burned Sirius off after she left and she explained that she could cry on commando.”
“That is fucking crazy.”
“Yeah it is mental, but it got us out of detention.” Remus says while shrugging his shoulders.
“True.” I say agreeingly.
We both study for a bit but then Remus starts talking again, “Hey could we go to Regulus really fast?”
“What do you wanna do with baby Black?”
“I still have that book he gave to me. And I wouldn’t call him that if he could hear you or he will in fact rip your head off your body.”
“Noted.” We stand up and walk towards him. There is a girl beside him. A very pretty girl actually. “Remus, who is that? The girl?”
“Pandora Lestrange. She is the best friend of Regulus I think. Why?”
“Just curious…”
Regulus looks up and smiles lightly at Remus.
“Hey Lupin, why are you here?”
“I still got that book you gave me months ago. Here you go.”
“Thank you, so what did you think about it?”
Remus lightes up at the question, he loves talking about books, “I loved it! It was so beautiful and powerful! I really liked the part where-” I stopped listening and look at the girl, Pandora apparently, she really is beautiful. Her hair is as white as snow and her eyes are light blue and green, exactly like the sea.
“Lily, right? I’m Pandora. Nice to meet you!”
“Yeah I’m Lily, but I already know who you were. Not in a stalker way! I just knew it from other people, but not that they talk about you of course! Well of course they talk about you just not in the bad way which now I say out loud doesn’t make any sense at all I just mean-”
“I love your voice.”
“Sorry- what?” I’m so thrown off by this question that I just stare at her.
“I said I love your voice. It’s so soft.”
“I- uhm thank you. I like your hair.”
“Do you want to go shopping in Hogsmeade sometime? You seem like a very good girl to become friends with.”
“Yeah of course sure yeah let’s do that!” I say shocked but enthusiastically.
“This week at 9 AM? I’ll be picking you up from the Gryffindor staircases.”
“Perfect, I already can’t wait!”
We turn to see that Remus and Regulus are staring at us with their mouths wide open.
Regulus is the first to speak, “Did you guys ever hear about social anxiety?”
“‘Cause that bitch would be scared of you guys.” Remus finishes.
“Not everybody has as hobby locking themselves into the bathroom and not coming out for literally 3 days, Regulus.”
“Not fair! That only happened once!”
I laugh at Pandora's comeback even though Regulus looks like he might kill me, but it would be totally worth it because Pandora smiles at me and I feel warm inside.
I really can't wait until 9 AM Saturday.