Dog-Ears and Earrings at Nineteen
Don't you hate it when your friend finds one thing that bugs you, and then randomly, yet constantly, brings it up? Be it the fact that you've never tried black coffee or that you slipped up that one time by saying "Hungarian" instead of "Honduran," or maybe they'll say a word like "insinuations" that just brings you naughty thoughts. You detest it when they do it, and you'll glare and curse at them and they'll only grin at you, knowing they struck a nerve.
James, an old friend of mine, had the messiest hair in the world, yet he used to ruffle it all the time, saying it gave him a "wind-swept" look. He'd do it whenever he saw Lily and it buggered the hell out of everyone after a while. Sirius had once threatened to cut it all off and, when Lily had sarcastically said that it was a fantastic idea James had allowed him to do it. He had looked absolutely ridiculous and Lily had turned a bright red every time she saw him, but it had grown back the next day, thanks to his preposterous genes.
Lily had a bad habit of sucking on the end of her quill and she had an even worse habit of losing them, and I, being the ever-prepared one, always ended up letting her borrow one of mine and I'd always get them back nearly bald of their feathers. After I confronted her about it, she had been embarrassed, but after a bit she started sitting next to me just so that, when she had the urge to suck a quill, she could swipe mine and when she'd done put it back, snatching it right out of my hand on more than one occasion. This became a regular practice and she eventually stopped sucking on them, but continued to swipe my quills just to annoy me. Then she would just fiddle with them, brushing them against her lips as she idly wrote some essay or test and I would just sit there and impatiently wait for her to give it back. In a sour mood, she could keep a quill for two or three class periods straight.
Kathy took a tendency to lounge about in my den and take catnaps at any hour of the day. This was somewhat reasonable, seeing as she was an Auror and worked long hours on any given day, but she insisted on sleeping in my armchair – possibly my most favorite piece of furniture (besides my bed) in the house – and with my blanket, this soft, fluffy quilt-like thing I was given many aeons ago by my grandmother shortly before I started Hogwarts and have carried with me my entire life. She knew darn well I was rather possessive about my "whoopy", as she called it, and constantly tormented me about it, sometimes draping herself in it and dragging it behind her into the kitchen only to be sent back by me to put it where it belongs "and properly!" She also eventually got me into the strange habit of sucking on her earrings. The bizarre textures of the jewels or ornaments on the adornments in question were always a source of amusement for me and we both enjoyed the closeness such an exercise required. When she felt like bugging me, however, she'd take her earrings out so I'd come up and go for a nibble only to find them gone, much to my annoyance. To tell you the truth, I still get peeved at any woman who doesn't have pierced ears, as I think every man should be able to do that with his lover, but I never say anything on the topic to anyone.
Sirius, however, was probably the worst. He loved to play the poof, taunting me and calling me "lover-boy" and asking me to dance, especially if there were ladies present. He even goosed me once and told Lily, "You know, you think you saw him jump now…whoo, baby!" He also had a habit of dog-earing my books and, no matter how many times I asked him to stop it, I'd always be enjoying one of my books only to find a dog-ear in the middle of Chapter nineteen. If there wasn't a Chapter nineteen, it'd be on page 19. His obsession with the number nineteen was always a trivial curiosity for me, and whenever I asked him about it, he'd say, "Wouldn't you like to know?" with a smirk. Even years later, when in Grimmauld Place, I asked him about it and he only smiled. He knew that the unanswered question would drive me mad.
They say in Heaven any question you could ever ask will be answered, so I shall have to wait until then for why James insisted on mussing his already messy hair, why Lily would steal my quills for her own amusement, why Kathy insisted on stealing my favorite spot and blanket, and why Sirius purposely vandalized my books. I know I probably sound bitter, but these are just the lonely thoughts of a werewolf, awaiting the full moon once more to change me, and I simply ponder the useless things in life at this time that we really ought to ponder more on. Like why my favorite book is blue, what one could use to make Wolfsbane Potion sweeter, and why the little things that used to make me so mad before now make me smile in my sleep. These answers and more are still to come! an excited voice rings in my head, and I grin sadly.
Emmeline used to do that.