Gatecrashing
3rd November 1977
It was easy for Solana and Regulus to get into the Gryffindor common room, some idiot had decided to leave a stool propping the Fat Lady’s portrait open. Music was blaring from almost every single corner of the room, students from most of the houses (Obviously no one from Slytherin had been invited) were gathered around dancing. By the fireplace Sirius was standing on the table with James Potter, both of them using an empty bottle of what looked like muggle alcohol as a microphone.
“Oi oi, my best friend just turned eighteen! Which means he’s officially an adult–”
“In the muggle world!” Sirius shouted.
Solana looked over at Regulus who stood slightly in front of her.
“Go celebrate with him,” she nudged his arm.
“I came here with you,” he shook his head.
“And it’s way past midnight,” she said, looking at the giant clock. “It’s no longer my birthday, it's his. So go and celebrate with your brother,”
Regulus gave her an unsure look.
“Go,” she ushered him.
“Thanks Lana,” he said, walking towards his brother.
“REG!” Sirius cheered as he caught sight of him pulling him into a hug. “I’m glad you made it!”
Solana stood on the side lines as everyone danced, she eyed a packet of cigarettes and a vacant bottle of vodka. Checking that no one was watching her she grabbed the two and made her way up to the Gryffindor Dorms.
As she reached up the top she noticed a sign on one of the doors.
“ The Marauders only! ”
Then under, “ And Evans, Marlene, Mary, ”
She pushed the door slightly, their beds were messy, as she expected. She walked in, stopping at the first four poster bed. On the bedside table was a picture of an elderly couple laughing, she had seen them pick up Potter at the end of the school year.
The next one had a picture of Pettigrew and his family from when he was a child.
She kept going, stopping as she saw Remus’ picture, noticing that it was still, not moving like most pictures, she saw he was standing with his mother, but his father was slightly away from the two.
She was surprised to see a picture on Sirius’ table, but realised it wasn’t family– well in a sense. It was a group photo of all of his friends, James and Peter holding him on their shoulders as they carried the Gryffindor cup, Remus stood shaking his head at them, Mary Macdonald and Marlene McKinnon cheering along with them, Lily Evans stood watching them, but this was before she and Potter began dating so she was being hostile towards him, but Solana always saw that she would be watching him when he turned away.
She sighed, putting the picture down, she hated to admit it, but Solana was jealous of Sirius, how he had so many people around him, she often wondered what would have happened if she had also been put in a different house, her father would have probably murdered her, but maybe she would be happier.
She brushed off the thought, climbing over to the window, and opening it. She took out a cigarette and lit it with her wand, inhaling the horrible stuff. It was the only muggle thing she allowed herself to have… that and the vodka she had just stolen.
She took another puff, watching the smoke billow out of the window.
“You really shouldn’t be smoking that?” A voice came from behind her, she turned around and saw Remus Lupin’s tall silhouette.
“What are you going to do? Give me detention?” Solana rolled her eyes, turning back to the window.
“I could take points away from your house for anti-social behaviour,” he shrugged.
“You’d do that?”
“Nah, can’t be arsed,” he said, sitting on the window sill next to her, he seemed merry, must be all the alcohol. “Gonna offer me some or not?”
Solana furrowed her brows, handing him the cigarette. “You smoke?”
“I mean, I usually smoke stronger stuff,” he told her, he smoked naturally, like he’d been doing it for years.
“Where’d you get the stronger stuff?” she asked curiously.
“Sprout has a secret stash, her and Pomfrey are right potheads, but you didn’t hear that from me,” he said, putting his finger on his lip.
“So you know where the secret stash is?”
“Naturally,”
“And you’re just gonna let us smoke this? It’s not even good,”
Remus grinned, jumping up, “Come on then.”
“Are you serious?”
“No, I’m Remus, come on,” he ushered, and she got up following him. “And don’t forget the vodka,”
She twisted back around picking up the bottle.
“Are your friends not going to miss you?” Solana asked as they left the common room.
“They are all drunk out of their minds, they won’t even remember I’m not there.” he said, walking down the corridor.
Solana tried her best to keep up with him but his legs were a lot longer than hers. “You walk really fast,”
“Oh sorry,” he stopped for her to catch up.
“Where are we going?”
“To the secret stash,”
“Okay… where is the secret stash?”
“It wouldn’t be a secret stash if I told you where the stash is secret.”
“What?”
“I’ve had too many drinks, stop asking me so many questions.” he waved her off.
“Are we going to the greenhouse?” She asked.
“How’d you figure that out?”
She pointed outside the window, “Probably because we’re walking to the greenhouse,”
“Well done, five points to Slytherin,”
“I better get those five points,”
“Sure, Solana,” he shook his head, as he pushed the door to the gardens open. The icy cold wind hit her instantly and she regretted not picking up her cloak.
“Okay,” Remus muttered, looking at the lock, he pulled out a paper clip from his jacket pocket, and began picking the lock.
“You know… there’s this really cool thing called magic, and a spell that you can use to open locks right.” Solana said, putting her hands on her hip.
Remus copied her, “You know, there’s this really not cool thing called teachers who know more than us, and if I use the unlocking charm it will notify Sprout and we won’t be able to get into the secret stash.” he raised his brows, unlocking the padlock. “Here we go, they will never know.”
Solana put her hands up in defeat, “Sorry, I didn’t know you were a master at this,”
“Thank you, ladies first,” he gestured for her to go in front of him, she eyed him warily. “I’m not going to do anything,”
“You might,”
“I just want to get high, I have no intentions of doing anything else,” He said, shaking his head. “And funnily enough, Sprout doesn’t lock up her weed supplies so this part is easy.”
He walked into the Professor’s office, pulling open her desk drawer. “Nice, she’s already grinded some up.” He grabbed the bag from her drawer and found some rolling paper. “Bear with me for two moments, let me just roll it.”
She took a seat on the desk, watching him as he carefully rolled up the joint. A heavy breeze brushed past them making Solana shiver.
“Are you cold?”
“No,” she lied.
Without looking at her he took off his jacket and handed it to her.
“I said I’m not cold–”
“You’re a shit liar, take the jacket.”
She hesitated.
“Take the jacket, Black.”
“Will you not be cold?” she asked, taking it.
“I’m warm blooded, don’t worry about me,” he told her, as she put it on she got a scent of coffee, caramel and fresh laundry.
“Oh shit,” she muttered, her ring had gotten stuck in the sleeve.
“You okay?” he asked, looking up at her.
“Yeah it’s my ring–” she said, pulling her arm back out and unthreading it from the jacket.
“Wow, look at that rock.” Remus laughed.
“Shush, it’s my engagement ring, Antonin got it for my birthday,” she said, putting her arm back in the sleeve carefully.
“Wait, he got you an engagement ring for your birthday? Haven’t you guys been engaged since you were twelve?”
“Fourteen.”
“Oh sorry, two years makes a big difference.” Remus shook his head she held up her hand.
“It’s awful isn’t it?” she said, as they both looked at it.
He breathed out a chuckle. “My mam used to tell me if I have nothing nice to say then I shouldn’t say anything at all,”
“You literally called it a rock,”
“Yeah but what I really wanted to say was ‘Wow, look at that massive boulder on your finger,’”
Solana let out a laugh, a genuine laugh, she couldn’t remember when she last. “I’m gonna have to use a shrinking charm,”
“The shrinking charm isn’t going to be enough,” he told her.
“I thought your mum told you to stay quiet if you don’t have anything nice to say,” Solana crossed her arms.
“She also told me not to do drugs.” he said, licking the paper and sticking it down, he then reached into his pocket to pull out a small orange cylinder, he pushed down on one side and a flame came from it.
“What is that?” she asked, curiously.
Remus furrowed his brows as he looked at her then he realised. “Oh, it's a lighter. I forget all you purebloods don’t know about muggle shit,”
She watched as he put the blunt in his mouth and inhaled as he lit the tip. He breathed out the smoke and nodded. “That’s much better than the cigarette.”
He handed her the spliff and the lighter, “Inhale from that side whilst your burning that end, just like I did,”
Solana nodded, taking it from him, she pressed down on the lighter but it didn’t seem to be working.
“Press it lightly,” Remus said.
She did so but it still wasn’t working.
“Here, let me help you,” he reached over, taking the lighter, and the flame grew as he presseed it down. “Inhale,”
The smoke got stuck in her lungs and she began coughing, holding out the spliff for him to take. “That is disgusting,” she said.
“Yeah, it’s not that great the first couple of puffs,” Remus said, holding out a cup of water, “You’re gonna need this,”
Solana drank the water in a matter of seconds. “I need another cup,”
“Thought you would,” He grinned, handing her one. “You did well for your first time, the first time Peter smoked he pulled a whitey,”
Once Solana got her breath back she asked what that was.
“Basically he took a puff then vomited. And the worst part was we were at James’ house so we couldn’t even use magic to clean it up, and obviously we couldn’t tell his parents what we were doing so we had a great night,” he said, sarcastically, he took another drag. “You want another?” he offered.
Solana shrugged and tried again, she still needed help with the lighter but this time she was able to control herself to not cough.
“Well done,” Remus applauded. “You’re doing very well for your first time.”
“How many times have you done this?” Solana asked, handing it back.
“That is a very good question. I tend not to count how many times I’ve been high,” Remus said, leaning back on the Professor Sprouts chair.
“Okay… when did you start?” she asked, as he handed her the spliff, she opted to use her wand to light it up instead.
“I think I was thirteen. I kinda snuck in here one time after a fu– after a shit night, and I saw some in a bag,” Remus said, “And I’ve seen my older cousin smoking it so I knew what to do, and when I smoked it I felt… calm. This is way better than the calming draught.”
A warm fuzzy feeling began to take over her body, she smacked her lips together as her stomach growled. “I am starving,”
“You’ve got the munchies,” Remus grinned, “Let’s see what Sprout has got stashed in her snack drawer,”
He pulled about three open before he nodded. “Yes, she’s got Cockroach clusters!”
“I fucking love Cockroach clusters!” Solana exclaimed.
“Same! Everyone hates them,” Remus said, throwing a packet to her. She didn’t catch it in time and groaned loudly as she had to get out of her seat to pick them up.
Solana opened the bag and popped one in her mouth. “At least when you buy a pack no one is gonna eat them.”
“Yes,” Remus nodded. “That is for sure what Professor Sprout thought when she bought them,”
Solana chuckled. “She should have locked the greenhouse properly–”
She was cut off by a meow.
“Fuck, is that Mrs Norris?” Remus said, jumping up from the chair.
Solana didn’t move, she just watched as the cat sniffed around at the plants.
“Why aren’t you moving?”
“Shhh,” she said, putting her hand out for the cat to come closer.
“You’re gonna get us caught,” Remus said, shaking his head.
“Hello, Mrs Norris,” Solana said, stroking her neck, Mrs Norris began purring. “Go on now, Filch will be looking for you,”
Mrs Norris licked Solana’ hand then purred a meow before turning around and leaving through the window.
Remus stood with his arms on his hips. “How on earth did you do that?”
“I’m a cat whisperer,” she whispered.
“No, honestly that cat has been a menace–”
“That’s because everyone tries to chase her away or shoot spells at her, she’s just a scared little cat that wants cuddles.” Solana said, looking at the time. “How the hell have we been here for two hours!”
“Time flies when you’re high,” Remus stretched his arms out.
Solana stood up but stumbled as she did, her hand gripping onto his arm, she didn’t see him wince as she touched one of his wounds from the previous full moon.
“Sorry,” she muttered. “My legs are like jelly.”
“It’s cool,” he said, “That happens, should have seen Sirius, he fell over once and broke his nose. Luckily James knew first aid so we didn’t have to explain to Madam Pomfrey why we were all high,”
“I really don’t want to break my nose thank you– shit,” Solana muttered, her ring had gotten stuck on Remus’ jumper.
“Solana, you really have to do something about that ring,” he laughed, “Careful– you’re gonna rip my jumper–” He carefully unthreaded the ring from his jumper. “That is a lethal weapon,”
“It’s not my fault.” Solana rolled her eyes.
“Of course it isn’t,” he breathed out a laugh.
Solana covered her mouth and let out a yawn.
“I’ll walk you back to your common room,” Remus offered.
“It’s fine–”
“I’m not taking no for an answer,” he said in a short tone.
“Yes sir,” she saluted him, as they left the green house. “You’re actually quite fun when you’re not demanding me to read the same passages over and over again,”
Remus tilted his head. “You’re actually quite fun when you’re not sighing every time I ask you to read the same passages over and over again–”
“I already know everything–”
“I know you do, you’re not stupid.” he told her, “I admit, letting all of your grades fall was pretty stupid, what happens if it doesn’t work out with Dolohov?”
Solana shrugged, she had never thought of an alternative. “I didn’t really think of a future without him,”
Remus nodded, they stopped outside the Slytherin entry. He held out his hand for her to shake, she raised a brow.
“It’s a truce, we now know that we can actually get along– yes marajuana was involved but, we can be in each other's proximity without getting stressed with one another. I call that a win, don’t you?”
“Alright then, but next session can we please not do History of Magic, somehow it’s more boring than Professor Binns' lessons.”
Remus nodded, “Okay, no more History of Magic, but if you’re grades slip then you gotta study it–”
“You know they won’t slip,”
“I know, shake on it,”
Solana shook his hand, “And we should have snacks,”
“Cockroach clusters?”
“Definitely!”
“I’ll get some for the next session,” He told her, “See you later, Solana.”
“See you later, Lupin.”
She watched him walk down the corridor and round the corner, as she turned to enter the common room, she realised she was still wearing his jacket.
“Wait, Remus!” she called out, running after him, but as she rounded the corner he’s already gone.
Bloody fast walker.