Chapter 2
Mia awoke with a start when her curtains were wrenched apart and the bright sunlight streamed through them burning her eyes slightly as she struggled into consciousness. Bella's head loomed into view blocking some of the sunlight off and Mia opened one eye to look at her friend who was raising a disapproving eyebrow at her friend's situation. Definitely too early to be up.
'Leave me alone' Mia moaned turning over and pulling the sheets over her head hoping to get a few more minutes sleep
Next thing she knew the sheets were being ripped off her and she was assaulted by the cold that was rippling through their dorm room from the open window by her bed. Mia growled aggressively and tried to snatch the sheets back but Bella stood up and help them out of reach smirking slightly at Mia's dazed expression and the quite spectacular bed head which had manifested itself in her hair during her all too brief altercation with sleep
'Lils and Mary have already left for breakfast you idiot, get your arse out of bed' Bella then took a pillow from under Mia's head and hit her with it raising it again as Mia held up a hand in defeat and wondered idly whether they may have pancakes for breakfast
Mia sat up and found her uniform already folded on top of her trunk, you had to love the house-elves. She pulled it on wearily and visited the bathroom to wash her face and put on some mascara and eyeliner to try and make her eyes look less tired and vaguely presentable. The first day was always the worst. When she came out of the bathroom Bella was sat lazily on her bed inspecting her perfectly manicured finger nails
'You ready?'
When Mia and Bella got to breakfast they took their places next to Lily and Mary respectively and Mia pulled two slices of toast onto her plate before lathering them in butter and jam and taking a satisfying bite. With that and a large gulp of pumpkin juice her tiredness seemed to drip away until she was left feeling quite excited for the day ahead.
'Pass the pumpkin juice will you Evans' James said appearing from his seat further down the table
'There's one right by you Potter'
James turned back to where the others were sitting and examining the jug which would've ordinarily contained the juice 'Sirius and I may or may not have tried to change it to rum…..it's some sort of coffee or tea mix' he looked sheepishly at Lily and dragged his hand through his messy black hair, a nervous reflex he often employed when round Lily
'Why doesn't that surprise me?' Lily shot sarcastically looking down the table at the other marauders with disdain
'Sorry about calling you Evans, force of habit'
Lily rolled her eyes and lazily handed him the jug of pumpkin juice 'No worries'
James looked at her demeanour and then back at the other marauders who had now spilt their charmed drink over their section of the table where the varnish was starting to bubble and crack 'Don't mind if we move up here do you? I'm worried for my health'
Lily gave a short nod and James turned round and motioned to his friends to join him. Mia was somewhat surprised when James sat down next to her instead of Lily on the other side of the table it was a well-established fact throughout the school that James Potter used any excuse necessary to be near a certain red-headed Gryffindor. Sirius shuffled up to sit next to Lily and opposite James, and Remus and Peter tacked onto the end.
'Quidditch try-outs are going to be next Friday by the way Mia' James said with a mouthful of egg spraying her somewhat in the salivary mess. On top of everything else he had going for him James had also been made quidditch captain and held the Gryffindor and school record for most goals scored in a season. It was one of the only things that Mia looked up to him for; she was a chaser herself.
'Reckon you'll be able to get family secrets on the snitch?' Sirius asked winking from across the table, this too Mia noted, was an almost annual occurrence to the beginning of the quidditch season and every time Mia regretted mentioning her relation to Bowman Wright since the moment James walked into the common room on the first day during first year.
'Why do you insist on believing I can magically communicate with a dead relative Black?' Mia grumbled
'You're still a Wright'
'Sirius I genuinely wouldn't be able to tell you how to even start thinking about forging a snitch' Mia sighed aggrievedly, she could've probably told the two boys that the wings were stitched on by Cornish pixies and they would've believed her such was the extent of their delusion
'Well thoughts are you're weak point'
'Reckon I'll still be on the team then?' Mia said turning towards James and resisting the temptation to turn round and slam Sirius' head into his bowl of cereal
'Better be, I don't want to be the only remaining sixth year from last year, and I'm pretty sure Vance wants to hex me since I got captain'
'What? So I'm supposed to be your "protection"?' Mia raised a quizzically eyebrow at James and formed quotation marks with her fingers
'I wouldn't think so. Women can't duel so you'd be more…..of a witness I'd be the protection' Sirius shot from across the table flexing his rather large and defined muscles, once again demonstrating his outsized ego and sexist mentality Mia thought with a sigh, he too happened to be an excellent beater and the season previously had knocked the Slytherin keeper out for a week. The boy in question, Hamish Boden-Doyle, was a second year and needless to say had dropped out of the team as soon as he'd come round in the hospital wing fearing further vicious attacks. Poor kid.
'Now, now Sirius' Remus said ruffling Sirius' wavy black hair and avoiding the punch in retaliation 'play nice'
'We only need 3 players don't we?' Mia said deftly ignoring Sirius' comment
'Mmm chaser, seeker, beater' James said gulping down some pumpkin juice 'Although frankly I'm worried we won't find a seeker as good as O'Hare that boys probably the reason we won the cup'
McGonagall came down the table person by person after breakfast had finished and worked out their timetable for them. Mia wasn't too worried she'd got the grades she needed to continue the subjects she wanted to and was particularly pleased with her O in herbology, something she hadn't been expecting and a subject she needed at N.E.W.T level to have even a slight possibility of making it as an auror. McGonagall turned to Mia after the other girls had had their timetables worked out for them.
'Miss Wright I was very impressed by your results, your transfiguration result was particularly pleasing' McGonagall chuckled as she gave Mia a wink and smiled warmly at her 'I believe you wanted to continue Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Charms, Transfiguration and Muggle Studies, is that still the case?'
'As long as professor Podmore is happy to take me with an E' Mia said knowing perfectly well that an E was fine but liking the fact she was getting praise from the head of house not something that happened all too often, Mia wasn't exactly the epitome of the perfect student
'Perfectly happy' McGonagall tapped an empty piece of parchment and handed it to Mia with a smile and a flourish
Mia examined it carefully and noted that double potions was the first thing she had. Brilliant. Not, it happening to be the subject she found most tedious, being one of Slughorn's favourites definitely had its downside. Then Defence and then free lunch free Muggle Studies.
'Do any of you have double potions first?' Mia asked slightly depressed by the idea of spending the morning in the dungeons when it seemed to be shaping up to be a pretty nice day outside from the pale blue colour of the magical ceiling
'Unfortunately' Lily said raising her hand, although Mia didn't know why her friend would be dreading potions when it seemed to come so naturally to her
'Snap' Sirius said from across the table. Great a lesson with the marauders. Although that could end up with some interesting distractions and Mia definitely wouldn't be complaining about that
Their cosy conversation was broken up suddenly by McGonagall's raised voice from just by Mia where James was obviously trying to arrange his timetable in an extremely annoying fashion, as per usual. As per every other year.
'Mr Potter I have told you before and I will tell you again I will not be providing you with a timetable which gives you the maximum possibility of becoming a professional quidditch player' the distaste was obvious from McGonagall's voice and Mia edged slightly away from James in case spit started to fly in a heated argument, something she had witnessed only once before from McGonagall to a pupil. The pupil in question had been James when he had tried to arrange his timetable last year to be exactly the same as Lily's even though he didn't do the same subjects.
'Is that because all I'd need is free time?' James said cheekily looking up at McGonagall
'That would be why' McGonagall said frostily, she took a deep breath and threw a knowing look at the others watching the conversation intently
'I wouldn't think that would be an issue professor' James said letting a small grin parade itself on his lips 'less stress for the others professors'
'As true as that might be Mr. Potter' McGonagall began in a tightened voice hitching one of her eyebrows up so high it was almost touching her hairline 'I thought we'd agreed what subjects you were taking last year when you last raised this preposterous idea'
'Fine' James said with fake resignation throwing his arms in the air in dramatism and Mia had a sneaking suspicion that James had always known this would be the outcome
McGonagall threw a filthy look at James, tapped a piece of parchment handed to him and moved onto a group of fourth years sitting further down the table without a word more to James. Despite the underlying dislike Mia possessed for the marauders courtesy of Lily and her own experience, she had to admit to herself some of the encounters that they had with teachers were highly amusing to watch.
Whilst Mia was distracted by laughing inwardly at memories from over the years she felt her timetable being tugged out of her hand and whipped her head round in time to see Sirius looking gleeful at his victory flattening her timetable on the table in front of him
'Give it back Black' Mia said stretching out her hand 'It's just a timetable'
Sirius slapped her hand a way and Mia nursed the warm patch now emanating from the spot 'Just checking something Wright'
Sirius' eyebrows furrowed and a sunbeam hit his face and for a second Mia could see what everyone else saw. One heck of a gorgeous boy. She shook her head as if to rid herself of this thought and set her mind to retrieving her timetable 'Finished?'
'Brilliant' Sirius handed Mia the timetable back and locked eyes with her across the table 'We have exactly the same timetable'
'Stalking me are we? Asked professor McGonagall to make sure we were together?' Mia said snatching the parchment back and smiling tautly at Sirius trying to resist smiling at her own sarcasm
'Got me there' Sirius said letting out a bark-like laugh and turned to Remus to continue a conversation they'd obviously began before they had affixed themselves to the girls.
After breakfast all of the Gryffindors, except for Peter who had only got an A in potions at O.W.L and Mary who didn't need potions, headed down to the dungeons and they all heaved a heavy sigh when they saw they'd be sharing the class with a number of Slytherins. One of which Mia recognised as Catrionna Pennifold a chaser on their quidditch team who Mia'd hexed last year to try and increase Gryffindors chances of a win, Mia swore she saw Catrionna put a finger to her throat. With this sign it was with some trepidation that Mia entered the classroom as Slughorn opened the door, Mia, Lily and Bella placed themselves at the second from back well away from the Slytherins who had oddly opted for seats at the front, they were usually adverse to any thoughts of hard work. A rather large amount of shuffling, talking and laughing alerted the girls that the marauders had decided to occupy the seats behind them.
'It's weird' Lily said so quietly that only Bella and Mia could hear 'They haven't hexed Severus yet'
As if she had jinxed it a jet of light shot over Lily's shoulder and hit Snape two rows in front and he immediately got jelly legs, the jelly legs hex was one of James' favourites. Snape immediately looked towards James with a scowl and had half raised his wand when Slughorn's cough echoed round the dungeon and he was forced into silent compliance.
'Right as you know Potions is a step up this year and I will be throwing you in the deep-end by asking you to pair up to make' Slughorn stopped and Mia rolled her eyes, this was his way of trying (emphasis on trying) to create suspense 'The Draught of Living Death'
There was a bang from behind them and the Mia turned to find that Sirius had dropped his head onto the table in mock dismay and James was rubbing his back as if to comfort him like a child, Mia smirked at the sight, provided a smile to Remus and turned back around.
'Also, to make this more interesting I will be choosing the pairs' Slughorn glanced around the classroom and eyes settled upon the group of Gryffindors at the back 'Bella Newby shall pair Macnair'
Bella groaned as she moved slowly from her perch to partner the Slytherin she looked back to Lily and Mia with a grimace as she sat down next to the heavy-set boy
'Lily shall partner Severus' go figure, Mia thought, the two best students in potions had be paired together, and Slughorn's two favourite pupils
Lily got up stiffly, she hadn't spoken to Snape since the incident down by the lake during O. last year. Mia also noticed that James was clenching his wand unnaturally hard, tapping it on the desk so sparks flew out the end landing on the cold grey flagstones of the floor.
Mia zoned out as Slughorn paired off the rest of the class until she heard her name
'Miss Wright?' Slughorn said questioningly and for what seemed the thousandth time she rolled her eyes at his inability to immediately recognise the students who weren't his absolute favourites 'You can go with Black'
Mia half-heartedly moved her belongings to the back desk beside Sirius who was now rocking back on his chair with a smirk decorating his aristocratic features
'Don't pretend you can resist me' Sirius said with a cheeky grin
Mia chuckled at Sirius inwardly cursing his good-looks and flickering with annoyance at his blinkard arrogance 'Got me there. Now if you wouldn't mind being a darling and getting the ingredients and I'll set up my cauldron' Mia smiled sweetly and batted her eyelashes sardonically
Mia had set the cauldron up within thirty seconds and stood waiting for Sirius' return, he had stopped to have an animated discussion with James who was sitting next to a Hufflepuff girl, someone Mia recognized as a member of the unofficial Sirius Black fan club, Sirius shoved a finger in lily's direction pointedly and mustn't have said something good because seconds later he was retreating back to their table after James had dismissed him with an angry shove.
They worked in silence for the best part of half an hour, Mia barely noticed the time until Sirius sighed and put down the knife he was using to try to cut a bean 'Look I know we haven't seen eye-to-eye as such'
'You could say that' Mia scoffed looking across at Sirius as he scraped some hair out of his eyes
'And I know we sometimes get on' Sirius said raising his voice, Mia had to credit that at least he was trying 'but I just thought I'd let you know I've grown up and I'm willing to put our differences aside. If not do it for me, do it for quidditch' Sirius gave her a small, genuine smile and Mia saw his honesty through his clear grey eyes
'Agreed' Mia said almost glad they'd cleared the air, they hadn't really been okay since she's been an unwitting guinea pig for one of James and Sirius' more brutal pranks last year which had involved three days of painful rehabilitation to remove several discoloured boils just before the beginning of O.
'Shake on it then' Sirius said offering his hand
'Are you serious?' Mia said realising her mistake too late as she clamped a hand over her mouth and wishing she could hex herself, or at least turn back time
'Well now that you mention it….' Mia cut off his sentence by hitting him round the head with her dragon hide glove that was lying on the desk beside the brewing potion
'Don't!'
'I thought we were going to be civil' Sirius said rubbing his head but the corners of his mouth twitched upwards slightly
'And I thought you'd grown up' Mia shot back
'Don't be an arse' Sirius said grabbing Mia's hand and shook it before she could snatch it away and they both dissolved in giggles until they realised their potion was turning purple not the dark blue it should've been at that stage
'Ah the bean' Sirius said matter-of-factly and chopped the bean in half and dropped it in
Instantly it became apparent this wouldn't have been advisable as acrid black smoke started billowing from the cauldron and the flames underneath turned blue and started lapping up the sides of the cauldron. Whilst this may've been a situation to try and take control of Mia couldn't help but laugh and was glad to see Sirius laughing too. Professor Slughorn made his way over to their desk and with a wave of his wand cleared the smoke and returned the cauldron to its normal state
'Mr Black, I am most surprised that you are behind this mistake usually one of the better ones' he said the last comment more to himself 'I believe you didn't stir the potion fifteen times anti-clockwise before adding the bean?'
Mia looked to Sirius to see if he was going to answer the supposed question put to them, but found that he was looking at her with the same quizzical look. Mia saw the side of Sirius' mouth twitch and turned away quickly to avoid laughing.
'Yeah that was probably it, my bad professor' Sirius said sitting back on his chair
Slughorn looked appraisingly at Sirius and seemed to forgive one of his favourite's mistake 'No harm done my boy, no harm done', with that he shuffled to the front and mere moments later dismissed the class on completment of the lesson
A wave of frustration passed through Mia as Sirius merely grunted a goodbye and then ran after James who had already left the dungeon. Obviously they had reached a truce rather than a base for a friendship; an uneasy alliance was Mia's way of thinking of it.
'I don't know how you messed that up' Lily said chastising Mia as the two girls and Bella were making their way to defence
'Hey not all of us are potions genii' Bella said 'but even me and Macnair didn't screw up as badly as you did Mia, and you say you got an O in potions?' Bella chuckled and patted her long brown hair into an appeasing shape
Mia raised her eyebrows at her friends 'I'll have you know that it was Sirius who caused the explosion, didn't read the instructions right the idiot'
'That's so unfair though' Bella moaned pulling a pained face 'we all know that when it comes to the real exam they're going to ace it'
'I wouldn't be so sure, if they fail too badly even Slughorn would be forced to kick the marauders out of his class' Lily said scathingly looking across to her two friends as they arrived at the door of the defence classroom
All the marauders were there already, this being the only class they bothered turning up to on time. They looked up as Lily's voice carried down the corridor.
'Think we're epic fails do you Lils?' James said leaning casually against the door raking a hand through his hair
'No I just think there isn't a lot of room in your head for anything else since your egos are so big' Lily said indignantly and this gained a chuckle from Sirius, Remus, and Peter who were leaning against the wall a little further down from James
'Think she got you there prongs' Sirius laughed clapping his best friend on the shoulder
As if to prove a point Lily turned her back on James and started an animated discussion with the Ravenclaw prefect who had just arrived at the classroom and was taken by surprise. James stared after her with puppy dog eyes but seemed to get over this knock down quickly and turned his head to talk to Sirius.
'I think she doth protest too much' Mary said announcing her arrival with a grin
At this point Professor Benson decided to announce his arrival to the class, he flung open the door, upon which James had been leaning, and James tumbled to the floor right at his feet. This ensued much to the hilarity of the waiting class and Remus had even conjured a camera to glorify James' embarrassingly red face as he stumbled to his feet and picked up his bag.
'Ah, I believe you must be Mr Potter' Benson squinted his eyes as if to take a good look at James' face 'yes the outgoing professor warned me about you, something about blowing up the dragon skeleton yes?'
James gulped and pushed his stylish glasses back up his nose 'Simply a…..misunderstanding' James ventured trying to regain some of his bravado and repair what damage may have been done to his reputation when he fell to the floor. Ironically enough it wasn't "just a misunderstanding", James and Sirius had taught themselves confringo and to taunt Professor Greten (an absolute bitch as it turned out) they blew up her prized skeleton in one of their last lessons before exams had started, she wasn't overly pleased.
'No worries my dear boy, I once did something similar myself at your age, in fact I commend you' Benson was pushing potter into the classroom now and motioned for the rest of the class to follow
Everyone was relaxed now and the Gryffindors sixth years settled in the back row with Mia sitting on a desk with Bella with Lily and Mary on the left and Remus and Peter to the right and James and Sirius in front. No one was settling down and bewitched paper animals were flying overhead morphing into different things as different spells hit them. Mia took her opportunity to participate in the chaos by bewitching a scrunched up piece of parchment to soar quite violently into the back of the Slytherin prefect's head and then ducking down so he couldn't see her
'Order class, order' Benson seemed to have an odd power over the class and everyone fell silent 'now as I have no idea of your capabilities I thought we would start off with something fun and have a little bit of light duelling practise so I can observe you all'
Mia was silently looking forward to this, duelling had always been one of her strong points as, when her dad was at home, he took the opportunity to teach her all the advanced magic he though relevant which included most spells they were taught at N.E.W.T. Mia ended up with Lily as Bella had pranced off to fawn over Remus and Mary had elected to not participate in the practical lesson and was currently lying underneath her desk and stealthily eating a chocolate frog
'Let's not take it too seriously' Lily said as Professor Benson moved all the desks to the side with a flick of his wand 'I don't want to have another teacher fawning over me all year'
'Sure?' Mia said suggestively waggling her eyebrows up and down
'Carry on like that and I'll change my mind'
Mia consented to the watered down duelling practise and the two friends lazily flicked spells at each other and defended themselves with protego which they had learnt years previously.
In a break between their lethargic spell casting, and after checking that James was well positioned at the other end of the classroom in a heated duel with Sirius, Mia breached a conversation 'So Lils when are you going to admit you fancy James?'
'Be careful or I might dock points for insolence' Lily said her green eyes blazing
'I think it'd be worth it if you finally admitted it' Mia said chuckling as Lily through a glance towards James to see if he had caught any snippet of their conversation
'Stupefy' Lily yelled and Mia easily performed a shield charm silently 'God I hate that you know everything' Lily grumbled
'Hmmm yes' Mia said and took a step towards Lily raising her wand slightly 'And now back to more pressing matters Lily Evans, tell me or I'll rictumsempra you'
'I don't think I'll dignify that question with an answer' Lily said turning her nose up
'I gave you the choice, rictumsempra' Mia said dramatically sighing as she shot the tickling spell towards her friend
As Lily lay giggling on the floor as the effects wore off the professor halted the duelling and stood on his desk at the front 'Now I think is the time to make things interesting, we shall have a demonstration duel from two of you, and the winner shall gain…..let's say our respect, now clear to the sides all of you to lead an open area for the selected pair'
Everyone shuffled to the sides quickly obeying the professor's commands.
'Now I think that Mr Black should be the first selected' Benson said as Sirius stepped forwards with a bit of a swagger and with much back smacking from his friends, and Mia couldn't help noticing that all the girls in the room were staring at Sirius as if in a trance 'and Miss Wright I saw you shoot a particularly good spell just now so you should do just fine'
As Mia stepped forward into the cleared space opposite Sirius and was gripped with an inexplicable sudden urge to take him down a peg or two despite their agreement a mere hour ago
'We'll do the best of three okay? Whoever ends up on the floor first loses that round. Now you both know the good manners, bow' the professor said and Sirius and Mia did as they were told 'And on the count of three, one, two, three'
As soon as three was said Mia thought 'Petrificus Totalus' and flicked her wand and was satisfied to see a stream of light come out of the end of her wand and hit Sirius in the chest and was even more happy to see him hit the floor ensconced in her body-bind curse.
'Well done Miss Wright, I didn't know any of you would know non-verbal spells, I'm supposed to teach you this year' Benson said as he hurried over to Sirius to remove the curse 'One nil Miss Wright and take ten points for Gryffindor as well'
Sirius scrambled to his feet pointing his wand at Mia and narrowed his eyes 'You cheated'
'I don't think so' Mia said flippantly her wand also outstretched towards Sirius
'You never said you could do non-verbals'
'And you never asked' Mia said raising an eyebrow at Sirius' confused and humiliated expression
'One, two, three'
It was Mia this time that felt herself flying through the air and felt herself hit the floor with a subdued thunk. She felt her cheeks flaming and stood up whirling herself round to face Sirius once more her wand outstretched. At least she knew what she was in for this time and was pretty sure she was ready.
'You cheated' Mia said mockingly impersonating Sirius' tone
'And you never asked' Sirius said in a high-pitched voice that more closely resembled a first-year than Mia
'One all, and this the last round. One, two, three'
This time they both thought of their spells at the same time and Mia's gold sparks collided in the air with Sirius' blue ones. Mia placed both hands on her wand and willed her spell to go further down towards Sirius, this was definitely the only opportunity she was going to get anytime soon to take Sirius down a peg or to in a "friendly" environment so to speak. Sirius too was concentrating just as hard Mia noticed and was rapidly trying to think of anything her dad had taught her to win a duel; distraction was something that rang in her head. Mia looked at the streams of light flowing into each other and flicked her wand out to the right so the spells flew out of the window smashing it in the process and Mia thanked God that Sirius' eyes followed it in surprise. Mia took the opportunity to place a stunning spell right in the middle of his chest, slightly more strongly than she had intended, and once he had hit the floor he skidded across it, gliding to stop metres from the back wall. The class erupted into cheers and Mia couldn't help but feel elated by her triumph. Remus had even got his camera out again, this was obviously an event worth documenting.
Mia wandered over to where Sirius was just returning to a standing position and said as innocently as she could 'What was that at breakfast about me not being able to beat you?'
'Yeah alright Wright don't get too cocky, there will be an opportunity to get you back'
'And what happened to being nice'
'I could ask you the same thing'
'It was for an academic example' Mia said twiddling a piece of her hair in her fingers innocently
'That last stunning spell wasn't for the class's benefit' Sirius said but he was smiling now and Mia could tell, or at least was hoping for the sake of her health, that he would stand by their earlier agreement
Mia was buoyed throughout the rest of the day by her success in defence and had people coming up to her throughout the rest of the idea asking if it was true and Mia thought wryly whether the event would pass into Hogwarts legend. She even made it through Muggle Studies without falling asleep, something which often happened due to the fact that she knew most of it and its simple nature. As she lay in bed that night she was quietly -happy with herself and the success of the first day. Bring on the rest of the week.
