"Will you walk a little faster, please?" Nadia asked, although it was more of an order. "I'm hungry." She dug her nails into her sister's wrist.
"Ow, stop it!" Sierra yelled, yanking her arm out of her sister's grasp.
"Stop being such a baby," Nadia said angrily. Sierra's face flushed from embarrassment, but she sped up her pace.
"You could just go ahead," she mumbled.
"I should," Nadia snapped, "but I can't. Mum said to stay with you so you don't wander off."
"I wouldn't wander off!" Sierra said crossly, her face getting even redder. Nadia only rolled her eyes and grabbed her little sister's wrist again, yanking her along the muddy path from the carriages to the warm, waiting castle.
*
"This lesson is making me stupid," Sierra groaned, shoving her equipment into her bag and filling a glass vial.
"Don't let Snape hear you say that," Sydney warned, filling up her own glass vial. Her potion was a shade brighter than Sierra's. "He'll give you a detention, and you'll miss Quidditch try-outs."
"I won't make the team anyway," Sierra shrugged, handing her potion over to Professor Snape. He looked displeased, but he was just as displeased looking with Sydney's perfect potion, so the youth didn't take it to heart. "Second years never make the team."
"Fred and George Weasley were in second year when they made the team," Sydney reminded.
"But they're nuts on the pitch," Sierra said, and Sydney nodded. The two left the dungeon classroom together in silence, surrounded by over-talkative Gryffindor classmates and Slytherin enemies.
Neither of them spoke until they surfaced from the dungeons and sunk into the crowds swarming into the Great Hall for lunch. Double Potions first thing had put Sierra in a sour mood, and she pointedly sat as far down the table from Nadia as she could manage.
"I guess you're not happy that Nadia got Prefect, huh?" Sydney asked, ladling herself some vegetable soup. She offered the instrument to Sierra, who took it and poured herself some soup as well.
"Would you be if you had a sister like that?" Sierra asked pointedly. She didn't wait for Sydney to answer before firing off a rant. "I mean, she acts like she's all that just because she's a stupid Prefect and everyone just adores her. She snogs like, five different boys a day."
"Ew," Sydney said, sticking her finger in her mouth and pretend vomiting into her soup.
"I know. They have slimy worm lips. Snogging is gross."
Sierra jumped when she felt a slim-fingered hand on her shoulder. She looked up into the sweetly smiling face of Nadia, whose hair was in gorgeous, tumbling black curls, and a half-updo. Sydney blushed scarlet, and busied herself with soup.
"Oh Sierra," Nadia sighed, "you really need to stop talking about me all the time. And it's none of your business who I go with. You'll never have to worry about it anyway, so it's a good thing you don't like it. Unless he's blind, no one's going to want to snog you."
Sierra's face turned as crimson as Sydney's. Nadia strutted off, cackling with her posse, and scattered students along the Gryffindor table let out little giggles and snickers.
"Let's go," Sierra mumbled, standing up and tugging Sydney by the sleeve beside her. That wasn't the worst Nadia had ever said or done to her – not by a long shot – but it was the most embarrassing thing she'd accused Sierra of in public.
"I'm hungry," Sydney muttered grudgingly, pulling her sleeve out of Sierra's hand. "And we don't even have class for an hour."
"So?" Sierra said, whipping around angrily to face Sydney. Sydney stopped short, nearly bumping into her best friend. "I just got publically embarrassed in front of the whole house! Nearly all of them were laughing!"
"Yeah, so? And I was embarrassed when your sister jinxed my robes see-through last year at the sorting. I still got sorted."
"You didn't even notice until you sat down and someone told you," Sierra reminded angrily.
"You're never going to get onto the Quidditch team," Sydney shot, realizing she was stuck in a corner on the previous argument. "Don't even bother trying out. You're barely good enough to stay on your broom."
"It's you who can't stay on her broom," Sierra screamed after her friend, who took off up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room. Grumbling bitterly, Sierra stomped off to Defence Against the Dark Arts almost an hour early. The door to the classroom was still closed, so she ended up sitting on the ground outside the door until her classmates started showing up. She rocketed up from the ground then; sitting on the floor was a hugely lame thing to be doing.
*
Sierra sat alone at the back of the classroom to wait for Sydney. The new professor – Professor Lupin – hadn't arrived in class yet either, but when the bell rang the door had unlocked. Their fights usually only lasted twenty minutes at best, but it had been an hour and still Sydney hadn't shown up.
She's going to be really late, Sierra thought worriedly, fiddling with the straps on her bag. She kept glancing quickly around the room, and then staring at the door for two or three minutes.
"Are you okay?" a little redhead asked, sitting in the seat beside Sierra. Sierra ripped her gaze from the door and gave her attention to her friend.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said assuredly.
"You look upset," Ginny said bluntly. She always used that tone when something was wrong and you wouldn't tell her what.
Sierra sighed. "I think Sydney's still mad at me. And I think she might be skipping lessons because of it."
"I don't think she's that dumb," Ginny muttered. But Sydney didn't show up by the end of the lesson.