The inevitables

I woke up to Marlene screaming. Like actually, wake up every single Gryffindor girl type of screaming. My first priority was to make sure she was ok, my second priority was to shut her up!

“I CANT FIND IT!” Marlene bellowed. I didn’t want to move, I didn’t even want to raise my head I was so comfortable. I looked over to see it was still dark outside, Marlene better be dying or something.

“Marls, I love you but why are we awake?” Mary asked half asleep.

“I can’t find my quidditch uniform!” Marlene stressed.

“Right. And it is what time exactly?” Mary asked nicely.

“I don’t know like four five in the morning.” Marlene tore open her trunk and threw everything out.

“Isn’t the quidditch game in the afternoon?” Lily pointed out.

“Yeah and?” Marlene snapped.

“And.. not even my brother is crazy enough to want practice this early.” I gave up on going to sleep and sat up. I looked past Marlene to find Mary staring at me saying is she serious? With her eyes. Mary’s hair was all over the place, so was mine. The difference between us is that she would actually her hair while I would just tie mine back.

Marlene continued to destroy the room in search.

“We have a lot of time before the game, we could go to the kitchens or Mcgonagals office first, I’m sure there’s extra uniforms.” Lily got up and sat next to me on my bed. I wanted to fall asleep on her.

“It’s useless I just won’t play!” Marlene sat down and rested her head on her trunk. Now I was starting to get concerned: Marlene was perhaps the bravest and strongest girl I knew, yet here she was giving up. Mary got out of bed and sat next to Marlene, Lily and I followed. Mary hugged Marlene from the side.

“What’s really going on?” Mary asked.

“We’re facing Slytherin today.” She kept her head on the top of her trunk.

“And you’ll give it your all and do incredible.” Lily smiled.

“But what if I don’t.” Marlene whispered.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“If we lose then it’s like munclair and all those creeps are right that I’m just a halfblood. I’m only half a wizard.” Marlene spoke quietly, I saw a few tears escape her eyes. Lily and Mary looked down, I could tell they had been called similar things. I realized that no matter what they told Marlene it wouldn’t mean anything. We were all wizards, we had the same power, we all learned the same things. But we came from different worlds. Lily and Mary were from the muggle world and i the wizard. Marlene was split in half and here the wizard world was telling her she didn’t belong. It didn’t matter what the muggle world said to her, it had to be me.

“Marlene,” I started, “my parents are both wizard, and so are my grandparents and great grandparents. I come from a very long line of wizarding families and you know what? It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because all four of us take the same classes and learn the exact same thing. Lily is a much better potion student than I am, Mary is naturally gifted at defense against the dark arts and you are one of the greatest flyers I have ever seen. The magic in you doesn’t care who your parents are, just that you use it for the best purposes. The only half-wizards around are the ones who use magic for evil purposes and you tear down their equals to feel superior. You are one of the greatest wizards I know, Munclair and everyone else have nothing on you.”

Marlene smiled and wiped her eyes as Mary and Lily agreed with me.

“We’ll sleeping is definitely shot, so how about we get dressed and brush our teeth then sneak on down to the kitchens.” Mary gave us all one last hug.

* * *
The day went by incredibly slow, I was practically falling asleep in the in the main hall, the quidditch game would only make me more tired.

“Switch seats with me.” Lily whispered to me.

“Why?” I asked.

“Does it matter?” She asked, I shrugged and we got up and switched. Her seat was mostly no different than mine until I realized that I used to sit next to Remus and now Lily did.

“Where’s Sirius?” Lily started conversation with Remus, I tried not to laugh.

“Dunno,” Remus yawned, “you haven’t seen him Hazel have you?” He asked me, lily looked hurt.

“No.” I answered quickly. The truth is I haven’t seen him since I spoke with Regulas. I felt so guilty but I couldn’t see him without giving him pity. Regulas explained to me in great detail what happened over break and all I wanted to do was hug Sirius and promise him he’d be safe at my house. Until I got my act together, I’ve been avoiding Sirius which is even worse I know.

"He’s sulking somewhere, probably." Peter smirked at the idea, Remus didn’t think it was that amusing. "What?! He calls me whiny all the time."

"He'll be here." Remus directed the conversation back to Lily and I. "He wants to see us destroy the Slytherins.

Lily smiled idly at the boy, I would have to pester her later about how she was more in love than Mary was. I didn’t have a problem with crushes and that stuff, we were just too young to date! We are only twelve, we can’t date anyone.

After we ate we all walked to the quidditch stands. Lily and Remus walked in front with Lily carrying most of the conversation. Mary was with Marlene and the team and told us she would meet us there.

“Oh Remus, you look so ravishing today.” Peter whispered to me in a higher voice. I knew he was mocking Lily, but it was funny and I laughed.

“Oh please Lily, I’m blushing.” I smiled and the two of us laughed.

Lily and Peter picked front row seats which meant I wouldn’t be able to sleep without James and Marlene noticing. Peter sat on the end then Remus then Lily then me. After this morning I wasn’t in the mood to get asked to switch seats again.

"Cold, Remus?" Lily was watching him like a hawk. I was both freaked and impressed at her dedication.

"Just a bit." He shivered and rubbed his hands together. I was also cold but Lily didn’t seem to care about that.

"Here," Lily took out her wand and held onto Remus’s hands. She pointed her wand and incanted "Calidum Vestimenta."

"How did you do that?!" He looked at her in awe and Lily smiled, "We've been trying all morning!"

"I think it's in the annunciation." Lily blushed. I made eye contact with Peter and pretended to vomit from this interaction. Peter laughed as Lily protected Remus and Peter from the cold. I took out my own wand and warmed up myself.

“Oh sorry.” Lily told me.

“Oh yeah ha ha.” I said sarcastically, “it’s almost starting.”

Both teams were on the field, Marlene was the easiest to spot being the only blonde on the Gryffidor team. Next I found James who was reving up the crowd, when he found me he smiled and gave me a thumbs up. I repeated the action, he was going to crush this.

“I hope lack of sleep doesn’t cause Marlene the match.” I said to Lily.

“Honestly.” Lily whispered back as Peter was explaining quidditch facts to her. I didn’t care enough to listen.

I caught Remus looking around the crowd, it took a second before I realized he was looking for Sirius. Sirius was very easily noticeable nowadays with no hair, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. I’m sure he was doing something dramatic and chaotic, besides he wouldn’t miss this out. I knew he had troubles with quidditch, but James was his best mate.

Madam Hooch had started the match and fourteen kids started flying around. The goal of the game is to score as many points as possible before one person catches a small golden ball. The thing I find most ridiculous is that even if one team is winning the entire game, if they’re not winning enough before the other team catches the gold ball then they automatically lose.

James always told me that that was the exciting part. If your team wasn’t good enough before the seeker did their part, then they didn’t stand a chance. But if your team could work together and score enough times, then it didn’t matter what the seeker did. If you ask me, it’s foolish to make that the rules, but what do I know?

James scored easily and the crowd went wild, I covered my ears. When the cheering dialed back, a loud explosion of sound burst through the crowd like a rocket.

“Rrrrrroooooaaaaar!"

"What was that?!" Lily turned around and I followed her gaze. The lions on the banners were now alive and roaring. They looked at us like they were looking at their prey and started walking around as if getting ready to attack.

“Is that normal?” Remus stressed at the banners. I keep forgetting Remus is new to magic things.

“Not at all.” I replied while Lily and Peter shook their heads. All I could think was how ironic it would be if a bunch of lions attacked Gryffindor house. Luckily, Remus found the cause.

“Look!” He pointed to the one and only Sirius Black conducting the lions. He even had a lions mane covering his head. I couldn’t believe my eyes. After everything Regulas told me, this boy was still cheerful and happy. Sirius was a lot stronger than I had thought.

I saw Regulas in the crowd trying to cover up his smile around his mean Slytherin friends. Maybe there was hope for the brothers after all.

James managed to score three more goals bringing the total score to 40-0. That meant that the seeker could still easily win the game for Slytherin and this would all be for nothing. Again it’s a weird game.

Sirius lead the crowd through cheers and we all watched as Slytherin scored against us. I was just praying either Narcissa or someone on our team caught the snitch before the game became impossible.

Every now and then Sirius would move the lions either throughout the banners or through the crowd. I spent more time watching them then the game. I’m not sure how Sirius did it but the lions moved like real loomed would. They leaped and purred and roared exactly like lions did. I tried to think of spells I knew that could do this. There were animation spells but then Sirius wouldn’t be able to control them. There were transfiguration spells but that would bring the banners alive to real lions. I was thankful Sirius chose against that. The lions glowed and sparkled and I had to ask Sirius which spell did that.

“Pot-ter! Pot-ter! Pot-ter!” My attention snapped back to the game as the crowd shouted my name. Well, they meant to be cheering on James but since we share the name we share the cheer. I looked at the score to see Narcissa had gotten the snitch and the game was over.

"Oh well," Peter told Remus, "We lost, but we're still tied with Ravenclaw in the league table – still going through to the final!"

Lily and I left the crowd and found Mary who had stayed on the ground. We waited for Marlene who came at us running and smiling.

“Did you lot know he was going to do that?!” She asked us about Sirius.

“No but isn’t he just amazing!” Mary squealed.

“Fine, I’ll give you that one.” Marlene smiled.

“You were awesome out there today!” Lily tugged Marlene’s arm under her own. Mary and I locked on aswell.

“Did you see me hit Narcissas broom! Highlight of my life!” She cheered.

“We should start game to see how many slytherins you can knock down!” I laughed, maybe quidditch games weren’t so bad.