So first chapter of a new story.
Let me know what you think with a review ^-^
- formalkitty -
"Hey, Ethel wait up!"
Ethel continued walking but slowed down a little allowing Lily to catch up to her.
"Geez Ethel, I didn't know you were that desperate to get rid of me."
"Well, you catch up to me didn't you?" The blonde haired girl retorted with a shrug, "plus, you've really got to work on your fitness Lily, it's horrendous."
The two girls walked towards the great hall casually talking about homework, teachers and Lily's new crush Elias McCarran. Once inside the hall they split up and went to their respective tables: Lily to Gryffindor, Ethel to Ravenclaw. Secretly Ethel was happy that she didn't belong in the same house as her friend, that would mean she belonged in the same house as James Potter and Sirius Black and they were, at least according to Lily, not very nice people. Not that Ethel was nice in any way, people just kept on misinterpreting her, thinking it was humour and not her bitchy attitude that led her to say mean things.
After breakfast Ethel found Lily arguing in the corner with Potter.
"I'll never go out with you James Potter, I'd rather bathe in undiluted bubotuber pus!" Lily's face mashed her hair nicely and Ethel allowed a smile to creep onto her face. Only Potter could withdraw such strong emotions from the otherwise calm witch.
"Tough life loverboy," she laid a hand on Lily's shoulder, ""put I'll have to kidnap your Princess since she has to get to advanced arithmancy with me." Potter just looked dumbfounded at her, as if trying to figure out who she was. Ethel chuckled a bit, good luck with that Potty, it's not like you ever pay attention to anything else than Lily.
"Come on Lils, we are going to be late if we keep on standing around." She tugged at her friend's shoulder making her follow suit.
"He is, he's just so, so, so infuriating," Lilly spluttered, "and then he calls me his Lilly, or little flower bud. I'm not his, and I'm definitely not some stupid garden flower." In her fury, Lily almost stumbled on the staircase only to be caught by Ethel.
"Watch where you step Lils."
Lily waved her off, "yeah, yeah… will do, okay?"
They continued on at a faster pace. They finally reached class where Professor Averill, a tall lanky woman with long honey blond hair, awaited the few students that had actually made it into the class. When they entered she gave them a small grin. Ethel frowned, while both Lily and Ethel had made the class, she held no delusions her teacher like her as much as Lily. Probably an effect of her, so called, lack of enthusiasm in the lessons: Ethel never answered any questions if she could avoid it. The lesson began shortly after when Lucius Malfoy and her brother Rodolphus.
Ethel quickly became bored, she had hoped the lesson would bring some new material to the table but it seemed she had wasted a wish. Her thought drifted to her brother. They were so different. Sure, she looked a lot like him as they both had curly black hair, alabaster skin and the same high cheekbones, that made their aunts coo over them, but that was it. The resemblance stopped there. He was a Slytherin, the perfect pureblood heir her parents wanted while she was the black sheep of the family. The process of excluding her from the family had started when she was sorted into Ravenclaw, only to intensify when she became fast friends with Lily Evans and didn't want to join the Slytherins in mocking the muggleborn students. It had escalated this summer after her fifth year at Hogwarts. She had received a letter just before the summer break telling her that she wouldn't be allowed to come home. It didn't say any more than that, nor any less. Just one line: 'Ethel, please do refrain from coming home with your brothers'.
She hadn't told anyone and had instead gotten herself a summer job as an assistant at Ollivander's wand shop. This had made it possible for her to rent a room at The Leaking Cauldron. A sharp voice that could only belong to Professor Averill broke her train of thought.
"Miss Lestrange, I see you are not paying attention, you must think yourself too good for this class."
Lily shot her a pitying glance, Ethel just sighed. This was troublesome.
"Well then, tell me what is the reduced number of Anapneo." Ethel could already see the triumphant smirk forming on Averill's lips as she waited for her to fail. A certain stubbornness took hold of her, she'd be damned if she allowed the witch to ruin her favourite subject. Quickly she did a mental math '1…3..11..18 and then 6, yes that was nineteen, that meant the result had to be two, right?'
Ethel answered the question making sure her voice was smooth and even.
"Two, Professor."
Judging by the sour look on Marian Averill's face she knew she had answered correctly, Ethel smirked a bit.
"As the spell is meant for clearing a person's airways I think it makes sense too. The number two symbolises harmony and opposing forces, so it makes sense that the basic number this spell is based on is two."
Averill mumbled something that sounded like 'stupid Ravenclaw brains' and continued on with her lesson. Lucius and Rudolphus just remained silent and gave her a dirty look.
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The lesson finally ended! Ethel hurriedly packed up her backpack hoping that she could reach the door before…
"Ethel, could you stay behind."
Well, bullocks. There went her chance for freedom, so close yet so far.
She turned to Lily, "Lils, you go on without me. We'll meet up later in the library right?" Lily nodded.
The two girls only had this one lesson together on Mondays, since Lily had dropped herbology to make space for runes, so Ethel knew she would be a loner for the rest of her day. Sighing, for what felt like the thousandth time that day she rubbed her eyes and walked back to the pulpit where she was sure impending doom would await her.
"I thought that since you seem so bored in my lessons I ought to give you something to, ahh, motivate you!" Ethel nearly began crying then and there. She knew all too well what Professor Averill had in mind: A mountain of extra homework.
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10 minutes and several assignments later Ethel Lestrange walked down the pathways to Greenhouse number 6, a lesson she knew she would share with one Sirius Black as her partner. Oh God, what had she done in her former life to deserve this misery?
She turned left and reached the greenhouse, opened the door and silently joined the group of gathered students. It turned out they had to work with extracting snargaluff pods, an awfully hard job if you asked Ethel. To her dread, Sirius seemed to look at her more intensely than he had in previous lessons.
"You're the girl that hung out with Evans, right?"
Ethel nodded, concentrating on tying knots on the murderous bramble-like vines that sprang at her every time her hand neared the plant.
"Is there possibly a chance that she'd go out with James sometimes soon?" Ethel snorted, now that was an unlikely scenario. The vine caught her wrist and she had to beat if off with her other hand. panting heavily she looked at Sirius.
"Listen, dude… If you help me control this monstrous plant I'll talk to you guys about Lily and her… preferences in men, okay?" He looked at the plant, then at her, then back at the plant. Probably contemplating whether or not his friend's romance it was worth risking a hand.
"I bet he's really irritating, whining about her all the time, all the time Sirius." She tried enticing him.
It worked, for some reason beyond her imagination listening to James Potter's complaints about Lily was worse than the possibility of losing a couple of body parts to a plant.
Together they 'defeated' the snargaluff and handed over the pods to Professor Sprout. She smiled toothily at them.
"Good job my dears, you are free to go but remember to hand in the assignment on today's lesson next time."
Ethel split with Sirius, promising him to meet him and his friends in the library tomorrow after school. She then went on with her day: going to classes, zoning out in those same classes…
While the lowlight of her day had been herbology class the highlight was studying with Lily in the library, that is of course until she began considering how to tell Lily that she wouldn't be free to meet her the next day…
'Should I tell her why? no, that's probably not the best of ideas, she'd go ballistic if she knew if was spending time with "The Marauders", voluntarily or not. So, then no reason at all? No, that would be weird… God, why did you make me awkward like this? Maybe I should just make up a fake reason, say I'm going to talk to some friends, Lils would probably believe me if not because it's believable then because she wants it to be real for me. Yeah, that is a good idea.'
As always Ethel felt her inner dialogues could best be described as the ramblings of a drunken old woman trying to escape a family meeting. Preferably her great aunt Edith trying to get out of going to the annual family reunion. God, she loved that woman.
"Lils," Lily looked up from her book.
"Hmm?"
"I'm not going to be able to meet up tomorrow," Ethel tried to avoid twisting her hands nervously. Lying usually came easy to her, just not with Lily, probably because she was the only person Ethel really wanted to like her.
"Okay, why not?" Lily's curious stare only made it harder to stay calm and collected…
"Well, I've been writing with one of the Ravenclaw girls from my year throughout this summer. I thought it would be a good idea to get some other friends, not that you aren't enough it's just that I, I don't want to be entirely alone anymore and…" Crossing her fingers Ethel hoped that Lily would take the bait and when the redhead's eyes softened she knew that avoided disaster, at least for now.
"Oh Ethel, of course, it's okay for you to go get some new friends, I think it's a brilliant idea. I can go hang out with Marlene and Alice then!"
Ethel just smiled meekly, oh joy.
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The very next day after classes Ethel slowly moved towards the library, she was in absolutely no need to rush, like at all. Surprisingly she still reached it before the boys and plopped down on a stool near the entrance so that she could see them when they walked in.
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all, maybe they'd forgotten her. She wasn't really that popular and therefore easy to overlook, they might have already forgotten that she even existed. Realistically Ethel knew that it was too much to hope for and decided that she might as well get started on one of her countless arithmancy assignments.
Engrossed in her work she didn't even notice Sirius Black approaching her before he stood right in front of her.
"Uhm, what are you doing?" Startled by the sudden sound she jumped in her seat. Impressive Ethel, very impressive. Now say something cool...
"It is an extra assignment. Just for me. A punishment for being smart."
As Sirius cracked a smile she knew she hadn't done that bad. Maybe this really wasn't going to be horrible.
"Okay, think you can find the time to lay away the punishment and join me and my friends miss…?" Realising that he didn't know her name Sirius became quiet.
"That's alright, nobody knows me anyway. It's Ethel by the way." She made sure to send him a small reassuring smile and then gestured for him to sit down. Sirius, in turn, gestured for three boys, whom she recognised as Lupin, Potter and Pettigrew, to sit down too.
Sending her a boyish grin that would have made any other girls heart flutter Sirius leant in over the table looking her deep in the eyes.
"Now, tell me Ethel, how come Lily won't go out with James?" James nodded excitedly at the question.
"Do you want the sugar coated version or the harsh honesty?"
"Harsh honesty?" James stated, but it really sounded more like a question. Ethel just rolled her eyes, of course, they wouldn't let her take the easy way.
"She thinks you are a dick," she thoroughly enjoyed their shocked expression, "You're just too immature for her, Potter. The way you always bully Snape, I know that they are not exactly on speaking terms at the moment but he still means a lot to her. I also think that she's afraid that you don't really love her at all."
At the last notion James looked visually confused, "how can she not know that? I tell it to her every day."
Ethel sighed.
"There's a difference between telling and showing. Ask yourself, do you really know Lily, James? Did you know that her favourite colour is orange? Or, that she loves reading those stupid romantic muggle novels? Or, that she always eats chocolate pancakes for her birthday breakfast?"
By then James looked at her as if she was an alien life form that had descended upon earth to overthrow the government.
"If you really care about her, try to become her friend before you become her lover, James." With those finishing words, Ethel began scribbling down notes for her assignment once more.
.
.
As the boys exited the library James was still in shock. Remus, however, was glad that someone finally told James to listen to Lily, to get to know her. He had tried himself but the message just hadn't sunk in. That girl, though, had really made James think.
"You know what, Prongs I think she is on to something." James looked at him in wonder.
"Yeah Moony, I think so too.
.
.
Sirius Black wasn't thinking about James problems with winning over Lily. He was, instead, wondering why Ethel hadn't swooned at his boyish charm like every other girl did. She was a challenge and he liked that.
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It was Saturday afternoon and Ethel was sitting with a panicked Lily at the banks of the school lake.
"And he has been weird all week, asking me questions like 'what is your favourite colour?' 'Do you have any siblings?' And so on. It's really unnerving me, Ethel, I just can't figure out what he wants!" Lily threw her hands up above her head in frustration.
Ethel, however, remained calm on the outside. On the inside, she was laughing her head off. Lily might be book-smart but she wasn't always smart when it came to love.
"Maybe he just wants to get to know you, Lils."
Lily let out a disbelieving huff, "as if. No, I'm telling you, Ethel, he's up to something, I can feel it in the core of my very being."
"If you say so, Lils." Ethel directed her attention towards braiding Lily's hair in an intricate manner. Their relaxing moment was destroyed when Sirius Black and Remus Lupin came lounging by.
"Hey, Ethel!" Black's loud voice boomed across the entire area making people look around in confusion. Who was this 'Ethel' They'd never heard of?
Yay, attention, just what she had always wanted. Since she knew it was too late to flee now, he had already seen her, she just waved him over. Lily's reprimanding glare didn't really help all that much on her mood, which had suddenly turned gloomy.
"Oh well, at least he remembers my name," she remarked trying to lift the depressing atmosphere. The award for her efforts came shortly after in the form of a chuckle from Lily.
"Hey Ethel, Lily," Sirius plopped down beside them, he didn't really seem to care that Lily was sending him unfriendly vibes.
"Black," She sneered before turning to Lupin, "hello Remus had a nice day?"
"Yes, thank you, Lily. I did some reading in the library earlier and the elf served pumpkin pastries today so it has been an enjoyable day."
"No fair," Sirius put on a whiny face, "Why am I just Black when Moony is Remus? Tell her it's not fair Ethel."
Sirius stared at the black haired girl as if expecting her to actually do what he told her to, she just raised an eyebrow.
"And why would I do that, Sirius?"
"Because I'm incredibly handsome and has the cutest pouty face you've ever seen?" The suggestion bore an ounce arrogance that Ethel didn't find attractive at all.
"You know what Sirius? Sometimes your shallowness is so thorough, it's almost like depth."
Lily burst out laughing, clutching her sides whenever she pulled in shallow breaths. Remus just chuckled.
Sirius smiled fondly. His suspicion had been right she was very different from other girls. She didn't even seem to notice his good looks, which normally would have annoyed him but ultimately, at that moment, didn't. Ethel also possessed a sarcastic humour: She could make a good friend someday in the future if he kept talking to her.
"So Ethel," Sirius tried to start a conversation, "how's arithmancy going? Finished yet?"
"Nah I've been busy procrastinating all day, actually I've been busy procrastinating all week."
"Too bad."
Lily looked over at Ethel with a mixture of surprise and hurt, "why didn't you tell me you got an extra assignment?" Ethel immediately understood that Lils wasn't asking her why she didn't tell her, but why she had told Sirius before her.
"It really didn't seem that important, the only reason Sirius knows is because I mentioned it in herbology a few days ago."
Remus had decided to sit down too and was now reading a muggle book that Ethel didn't recognise. Sirius wasn't a big bookworm and the calm atmosphere was gritting at his nerves. He wasn't used to not moving around and would normally play quidditch with James or flirt with some girl by now. But today James had been absolutely insufferable, complaining about his misfortune and his dearest 'Lily flower'.
Still, it couldn't be healthy to sit here all day, could it?
Looking over at Lily and Ethel he saw that they had resumed the earlier conversation.
"Hey, girls… isn't it a tiny bit boring to just sit around all day? Come on let's go exploring."
Ethel couldn't help but think that Sirius looked like an eager puppy as he awaited their reply. She wanted to say yes, truth be told she liked being active but Lily was more of a non-sporty person so they usually just read, or talked about their various problems. Not that she didn't like talking to Lils, she absolutely adored the girl but it became a bit repetitive after some time.
Saying yes would be nice but at the same time, it would draw unwanted attention to herself so she decided on a middle ground.
"Maybe some other time, Sirius?"
"Aww, but come on Ethel, can't we go play quidditch or something? What about a game of exploding snap?"
.
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Lily watched in amusement as her otherwise shy friend bantered with Black getting more and more heated up by the moment. Ethel's comments were, well they were Ethel: Polite but with an edge of sarcasm. The discussion had started with Sirius trying to get them to do something else than 'just sitting around' but had taken a drastic change and now revolved around some new broom and whether or not it was better than the old one in the cleansweep series.
"I'm telling you, Ethel, there's a major difference!"
"I do not believe so Mr Black."
"But there is!"
"Can't you just be quiet?"
"No, cause there is a difference, it's way easier to do stunts with the new edition. Besides, how would you know? It's not like you play quidditch on a regular basis."
"Actually I do Mr Black, now please be quiet your horrendous voice is making my head pound, and you know what they say: Silence is gold."
Sirius looked like he was about to protest when Ethel shot him a murderous glare.
"The other option is silver… Silver is dutch tape."
Lily giggled, judging by the horrified expression Sirius now wore on his face, he was aware of the muggle invention called dutch tape.
They all looked over at Remus when a book snapped shut.
"I think we should get to dinner, eh?" The boy scratched his neck sheepishly.
"Yeah I guess so," Sirius sent the girls an award winning smile, "I guess we'll see you around."
Ethel just sighed. Stupid jerk, saying she didn't play quidditch. She did so, thank you very much, just not on the Ravenclaw house team. Why would she want that? It would only put her in the spotlight and Ethel Lestrange really didn't need the public looking into her life.
Well, at least Sirius would forget about her soon...
.
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That, however, didn't happen and over the coming months the two grew closer due to Sirius' constant barrage at her mental barriers.