The inevitables

“Protego!” Mary yelled after Marlene shot a hex at her. They were preparing for the defense against the darks arts exam. We woke up before the sun, although I’m not sure how much sleep I actually did last night. Exams were so nerve racking even though I’ve been studying for months and felt mostly prepared.

“Ok so I turn into you and take transfiguration and history then you take potions and herbology for me.” I told Lily and Mary shot Marlene with the jelly legs hex and Marlene blocked it.

“We would have to have made polyjuice potion a month ago!” Lily’s eyes widened as she looked at me in disbelief.

“Ok then for next year.”

“We can’t switch places for exams, we don’t even have the ingredients and I’m pretty sure Slughorn would notice if we stole a ton of his supplies.”

“Entomorphis!” Marlene yelled, Lily and I raised our wands and casted protection. I wasn’t sure if the two of them were actually studying or just dueling. Marlene had worked up anger towards Mary’s boy problems and Mary never understood why she didn’t care.

“What if all through next year we take one ingredient every so often?”

“Still doesn’t get you out of this years test.”

“Darn!” I laughed and Lily rolled her eyes smiling.

“Inferno!” Mary yelled which got mine and Lily’s attention. We looked up to see flames soaring to Marlene’s bed. Now I knew they were no longer studying.

“Aguamenti!” I yelled taking out the flames.

“Woah woah! What’s going on?!” Lily yelled, “Expelliarmus!” Lily summoned the two girls wands.

“You lit my bed on fire?! You crazy bitch!” Marlene yelled. Lately, Marlene and Mary have used a different type of curses in their language. The boys as well. I never found a need to swear or anything of the sort, but I was fine with other people using them.

“I’m crazy? You called me a crazy boy addict!” Mary yelled back.

“I’m won’t wrong!”

“Hey! Look we’re all stressed out about exams today and we’re saying things we don’t mean. Let’s just go get breakfast or some air.” I raised my hands as if I was surrendering.

“Yeah, let’s just forget it all happened and we’ll get some food.” Lily’s voice was calming and sweet.

The M’s nodded and walked with us to breakfast. They still seemed fired up with each other but chose not to talk about it. I looked at Lily concerned and she returned the glance with the same look. Mary and Marlene were always closer then Lily and I, but now I wasn’t sure.

*****

In transfiguration we had to turn rabbits into slippers. I couldn’t help but wonder if the rabbits were still conscious and alive as slippers. It seemed weird to think that you could put your feet into animals.

Mary and I were partners because she didn’t want to be with Marlene. Lily and I decided it was ok to keep the calm.

James and I turned the rabbits into slippers around the same time, Sirius was close behind. My slippers looked like real normal slippers. So were the rabbits still living?

Mary’s slippers were good, just not as good as mine. They still looked real.

“What happened to the rabbits?” I whispered.

“What?”

“Are the slippers alive?”

“No they’re… wait..”

“We didn’t kill them right?!”

“Excellent work Miss Potter, Miss Macdonald.” Professor Mcgonagal spooked them from behind.

“We didn’t kill the rabbits did we?!” Mary yelled. Mcgonagal was so surprised she looked down at us and almost smiled.

“Of course not Miss Macdonald. Finite.” She waved her wand at Mary’s slippers which became rabbits again. We both sighed in relief and Mcgonagal moved onto the others.

“Did you ask if you killed the rabbit?” Sirius looked to us.

“You turn the animal into an object!” I said.

“Huh..” James contemplated and so did Sirius.

When everyone finished, Mcgonagal started he duties as our head of house. She told us about the extra classes we can take next year.

“More classes?” Mary whispered to me.

“Just two. But at least there’s Hogsmeade.” I shrugged.

“The wizard village? We get to go there?” Mary smiled bright when I nodded.

“What classes will you take?” Lily asked me when Mcgonagal finished speaking. The four of us began walking to our next class.

“I think muggle studies.” I said, all my friends eyed me.

“Why?” Marlene asked.

“Because I know nothing about muggles! Once I take the class I can understand what you lot talk about 90% of the time!” I teased them and they laughed. Mary started making excuses like ‘we don’t talk about it that often’ but we all knew that was a lie. I didn’t mind they talked about their life as a muggle, I just wanted to understand it.

“What’s divination?” Mary asked.

“It’s like about future and prophecies right?” Lily checked.

“Yeah, but I don’t really believe in it.” I shrugged as we walked into Professors Binns class. He had us write a 16 inch parchment about the history of gargoyles. So boring.

Slughorn had us make a good smelling elixir which I thought was just perfume, Sprout had us label every part of the healing herb Dittany, and we dueled in defense against the dark arts (now Mary and Marlene chose to be partners).

“Can we talk?” Lily asked us after the exams were over. We walked the halls and I had a feeling we were headed to the kitchens for comfort food.

“What about?” Mary asked.

“About whatever happened this morning.” I read Lily’s mind.

“It’s nothing.” Marlene sped up a little.

“Look, all I said was that it’s not my fault she’s not as interested in boys.” Mary told us.

“She chooses boys over me everyday then tells me it’s not her fault!” Marlene whipped around. Lily and I were stunned into silence.

“I’m sorry I like boys! Holy high maintenance can I not like boys?!” Mary shot

“All you ever do is like boys, and talk about boys. I’m sick of it!” Marlene fired back.

“Well join in! I know loads of guys who want you!”

“I don’t care about boys! I don’t even like-! I just want to hang around you lot like we used to..” Marlene got quieter and less hostile. I had no idea what she was going to say about not even liking something. But if she wasn’t ready to blurt it out, she definitely wasn’t ready to talk about it.

“I suppose I spend too much time with boys.” Mary walked closer to Marlene and smiled.

“Seriously?” Marlene asked, she looked like a sad puppy who was just been told it was being adopted.

“Of course, you’re so much better than boys anyways.” The two girls hugged and I noticed we were outside the kitchens.

“How about some ice cream?” Lily smiled.

****

We walked with our ice creams outside getting fresh air. Now that we had nothing to worry about, outside seemed nice and relaxing. The sky was blue and the birds fluttered because even the world knew that it needed to be calming. Unfortunately, James and mates were also outside.

"Oi oi, Evans!" James called and practically jumped to us. He was beginning to act like Mary did around Sirius. Now I was certain he liked her.

"I'm not a dog, Potter," Lily, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with James, "Don't yell at me like one." 

"Hi Sirius," Mary smiled and waved and dropped the promise to Marlene immediately.
Marlene looked at me like is she for real? I just shrugged and tried to be sympathetic. The two of us waved to Peter and Remus since there was no one else left.
 
"All right, MacDonald," Sirius moved his fingers through his hair and grinned. I looked to Marlene like holy hormonal teens. She nodded and widened her eyes. The boys seemed to notice our treat and eyed them with envy.

"Give us a lick, then," James winked at Lily, I wanted to vomit. Marlene shoved her face into me and began laughing at my brothers idiocy. I tried my hardest not to either laugh with her or die from second hand embarrassment. Lily, surprisingly, stayed calm and content. All she did was raise one eyebrow at the boy.

"You do look like you need cooling off. Aguamente!" Lily smirked and doused the boys in water with one wave of her wand. Well, not all of the boys, just Sirius and James.
Now I couldn’t contain myself. Marlene and I burst out laughing, actual tears formed in my eyes. Mary and Lily joined our excitement.
  
"What'd you do that for?" Sirius hissed at us. He was soaked like a wet dog, his hair covered his face and his chin dripped. James didn’t look much better.

"Thought you lot liked practical jokes.” Lily smiled and lead us away from the boys. Marlene and I were still cackling.

“Sirius looked so defeated!” Mary smiled, and so did Marlene. Looks like Mary stuck to her promise after all.