Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I do however own some leftovers in my fridge. Perhaps J.K. Rowling and I could make a trade?
Chapter Two: Heroines
"We like the wrong sorts of girls, they wrote. They are usually the ones worth writing about." ~Catherynne Valente
(Brutal Honesty)
Lily Evans was a smart girl. Most would even go so far as to say that she was the smartest girl in the year. And yet, in that same way, Lily Evans was a bit daft. Sure, she could master almost any spell in a matter of hours or brew a potion without breaking a sweat, but when it came to people, Lily Evans was nearly as dumb as a rock.
Yet, in this circumstance, she was in her area of expertise. She marched along the shelves of the library with purpose. Whenever Lily had a sense of purpose, she was able to block things that she did not want to feel, letting her goal be the only thing on her mind. She dragged books and books off the shelves and sat down, flipping through with such speed, a first year a few tables away was sure that Lily would hurt herself with a paper cut. Across the table, a chair screeched as it was pushed away, and only after a few more pages, did Lily look up.
There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Dorcas Meadowes was beautiful. Lily thought bitterly of why people assumed that beauty was equated to good, when there were people like Bellatrix Black and Dorcas around. Although, she supposed, that Dorcas wasn't exactly evil, yet she wasn't approachable at all. Dorcas was easily much lighter than Lily (much to Lily's chagrin), and yet Lily could not help but feel a bit of fear as she looked at the girl.
"Ethans," Dorcas greeted her. A surge of annoyance rose in Lily. She loathed that Dorcas never said her name right. She loathed that she loathed it.
"Hullo Darcie."
"Someone's annoyed."
"Why do you never say my name correctly? L-I-L-Y. Four letters, as easy as that."
An amused smile broke through Dorcas' face, "Why should you care? Always hoping that someone will remember your name? Is that an attention thing, just like how you strung Pottie for years? Well face the facts, in a few years, you'll probably be dead because the death eaters murdered you and people won't remember your name."
Lily scowled, yet the words rung in her ears.
"Leave Meadowes."
She arched an eyebrow, "The thing is Lilian, Marlene's sick. And all right, so you may not be the prettiest girl in our year," Lily crossed her arms and wondered why she was even listening, "And you're definitely not the most athletic," Lily's frown deepened, "In all honesty, and as you know I have no qualms about being brutally honest here, you're really just an attention-seeking book worm. Although I will give you snaps for defending yourself. At least you've got a spine."
"What," Lily murmured through gritted teeth, "Are you trying to accomplish here?"
"Patience, Lacey," Dorcas said calmly, seeming relaxed, "Look. Marlene's my closest friend."
"And only friend," Lily muttered under her breath, causing a harsh glare to be sent her way.
"And right now, she's really sick. Pomfrey is busy sorting out some prank gone wrong. It could be any sleeping curse or potion in the book. Dumbledore is away, for whatever reason. And all the teachers are too busy preparing their lessons to check on her."
"Meadowes, I don't think you realize that I was already checking on whatever has afflicted her before you oh-so-rudely barged in and continued to insult me."
"Yes, I was there," Dorcas, said without a hint of apology.
Lily huffed, "Well just stay quiet and let me read and look. You take that pile, and we'll sift through this together," She winced a bit at the word "together". Dorcas and Lily, she thought dismally, what a very unusual pair.
"Anything?" Dorcas asked as if the information would've come to her in the few seconds that had passed when she asked the same thing.
"Dorcas," Lily said, her patience wearing thin, "I'm not Marlene. I do not have the patience of a person who has tolerated James Potter her entire life or been friends with you. Don't treat me like I am. I require that you do not speak again while I'm researching."
"I don't know why you bother ordering me around. You know it'll never work."
Lily seethed, and Dorcas leaned back in her chair with a satisfied sneer, picturing smoke coming from Lily's fiery hair. She bent her head back down to read.
"I found something," Dorcas murmured, "It's…a History of Magic lesson. Ugh, what a snooze. It's called Sleeping Beauty. At least it's got an interesting title."
Lily snorted, "That's not a history of magic lesson, it's a Muggle fairytale."
For once, Dorcas Meadowes was stumped as to what Lily meant.
"A fairy tale is basically a Muggle equivalent to stories like the Warlock's Hairy Heart and Babbity Rabbity and her Cackling Stump," Lily explained without even looking up, having snatched the book from Dorcas.
"Then why is it in the History of Magic textbook?" Dorcas returned.
"Because…" Lily trailed off as she continued reading, "It's here. What we've been looking for is here," Lily said as she pointed to the page, her eyes glowing with a light that came to them when she had accomplished something. Her smile grew, and she became relieved.
"Marlene's going to be okay," She thought and let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding.
And across from the table, Dorcas Meadowes ducked her head to hide her smile with her hair. She didn't let anyone see it, but she was relieved. Dorcas did not have any friends, just the one. And without her, she would be completely alone. She may have put up a front that she was perfectly all right on her own, warding off anyone who dared venture too close to her, but she knew that if she was alone, she would go mad.
(Sleuths)
It's truly interesting how the small moments can shape one's life. If something had occurred on November 7th 1963 that required Dorea Potter to fulfill her Auror duties, Marlene Mckinnon and plenty of other stories would've been drastically different. But, as it was, November 7th 1963 turned out to be a relatively non-eventful day.
Because of that, Dorea Potter was able to witness her son, James, dangle a house elf from her ankle. And furthermore, she punished James to de-gnome the Potter's large garden. James, being mischievous as he was, hurried away and stumbled upon a small playground in a park with a small girl. He found her, perched on a Quidditch broom, struggling to hold a Quaffle with her four-year old arms. He offered to help. It was only later, as the two were reminiscing, that James discovered Marlene had been teased by Marcell about Quidditch and ran to her safe haven to practice.
It was that small moment that gained Marlene one of her best friends. It was that small moment that made them almost like siblings. And it was that moment that James Potter was currently turning over.
"Prongs, are you even listening?" Sirius asked, leaning his chair on the back two legs with ease.
"No," James shot back, causing Sirius to frown.
"What's on your mind, Prongs?" Peter asked, leaning forward.
"It's Marlene."
The other two Marauders nodded (Remus was studying elsewhere, anticipating that if he went with the Marauders he'd get nothing done), knowing full well that James may have been a brother to them, but he was also a brother to Marlene (although goodness knows that she didn't need another brother).
"About that," Lily Evans said, as she broke the silent atmosphere. She sat down at the table, a heavy book in her arms. She dropped it unceremoniously onto the table, causing the Marauders to wince. Following her example was Dorcas Meadowes, who caused even Sirius and James to shudder at her presence.
"I found something," Lily declared, her eyes shining. She paused, as if she were prepared to hear well-earned applause, and scowled inside when she didn't. Dorcas caught her eye with an amused smirk, and Lily felt as if she knew exactly what Lily had wanted and was thinking that Lily was an attention-seeker.
"Define what you mean by 'found something', because in all honesty, without any more context, you could simply be referring to finding something on the ground such as a nice knut or perhaps a strand of hair," Sirius said, and Lily found herself glaring at him fiercely, which he returned. Sirius had never liked Lily. It went without saying that Lily had broken James' heart before, and so Sirius took personal offense.
"I found something about Marlene," Lily clarified. At this, James' ears perked up and he looked at her intently.
"Read this passage," She instructed and she pointed her finger into the withering parchment so hard, that an indent was caused.
"That…that makes sense," James said as he breathed out a relieved sigh. Sirius snatched the book before James could go over it again and nodded. He passed it to Peter, who after read it, scrunched his forehead in thinking.
"In our year it could only be you or Snape who did it," Peter declared, addressing Lily. She paled at the mention of her old best friend.
"Snape doesn't have a grudge against Marlene," Lily argued, although she wasn't sure if she was defending him or not.
"That is true. Though don't plenty of seventh year birds have a grudge against her? What with her stealing their boyfriends and all?" Peter suggested. James' glare caused him to shrink.
"Marlene isn't like that. Those are all rumors," He defended her earnestly.
"Well, I'm telling Pomfrey. She's got to have a store of the cure. And even if she doesn't, I can brew it," Lily said, standing up, leaving the Marauders to bicker.
Dorcas watched her amusedly, before she stood up and left the table herself. Dorcas Meadowes had never met a person as defensive as Lily, and even she had to admit that perhaps, maybe just this once, she had met her match.
James Potter liked pranks. A muggle psychologist may say that it stemmed from his lack of respect towards authority, but the simple matter was that James liked pranks. He was so filled with life and vivacity, that he loved seeing laughter. If he wanted revenge, he wouldn't throw out his right hook like Sirius would (depending on the circumstances. Sometimes he'd be throwing the punches as well), instead he would prank them. Effective, yet very humorous for the public (but not so humorous for his detention sheet).
There weren't many besides the Marauders who played pranks. But when an especially good one came along and even McGonagall could not figure out the culprit, James would slowly solve the logistics until he placed the plan, piece by piece.
This time, he didn't like the prank at all. In fact he loathed it. Not only that, but he couldn't figure it out for the life of him. The anger bubbled in him, and he turned towards the wall of the corridor and punched it hard, ignoring the pain and the bruises that came with it. He ran his shaky fingers through his hair, and winced at the movement.
"Prongs? I heard something…" Peter trailed off as he glanced at James' bruised knuckles.
Peter Pettigrew was a lot of things. He was not dumb, nor was he unattractive. In fact, Peter was perfectly normal and average, but compared to his friends, he was the Marauder who didn't make sense.
"Prongs, we need to get you to the hospital wing," He said, guiding his friend towards the hospital wing. James did not put up a fight. He was completely compliant. As Pomfrey guided him to a bed, a strangled noise came from his throat as he passed Marlene's bed.
Marlene had been asleep for two days now. When he had come to visit her in the morning on Friday, the day after the Feast, she had seemed almost dead. In fact, that was his first impression. He'd nearly cried.
There's something infinitely sad about a boy, so close to being a man, crying. While sexist, there's a bit of truth lying behind the thought that men are support. They're supposed to be there to hold one when they need to, offer a shoulder. But when one cries, there's something wrong in the world.
Pomfrey sent Peter away, claiming that company wouldn't be good for James at the moment. She gave him a calming draught. His nerves soothed, he lay there for what seemed like hours, or perhaps it was minutes. In the hospital wing, time worked a bit differently. It usually stretched for hours on end. Nothing happened, not really. Occasionally, someone would come in for a bit of pepper-up potion. But James just lay there. His mind blissfully quiet and unthinking. Lily Evans may have protested and said that it was that way frequently, but his friends knew the truth. James Potter had ideas and thoughts turning in his head at every moment, and he rarely let them stop.
"Hello Mckinnon. Do you need me to tend to you?" Pomfrey's voice filled the air, breaking James out of his trance. He looked up, glancing towards Marlene's bed, but she was still asleep. His eyes flickered to the doors. He saw Maxwell Mckinnon, marks of a fight evident in his bloodied face and torn clothing. As his own parents were Aurors, James knew that these were a result of the vigorous Auror training, likely supervised by Alastor Moody. He waved her off and stood near Marlene's bed.
"Max," James murmured and Max's eyes instinctively shot towards James. He managed a small smile.
"Hullo James. How are you?" He asked, but James knew that he never really wanted an answer. Maxwell had his focus on his sister.
"She's going to be all right, Mr. Mckinnon," Pomfrey said, bustling over to where Maxwell stood. She glanced at his frame, her lips forming a frown at his muddy footprints, "I already administrated the Wiggenweld potion."
His face went through a series of expressions. First surprise, then confusion, and finally anger.
"That's the remedy for the Draught of Living Death, isn't it?" His voice drawled out, but in his voice, there was a tension. It was the tension of a lion before he sprung and attacked.
"Yes, Mr. Mckinnon," Pomfrey found herself stuttering, and James realized he would've too, had he been in her place, "The staff is working to find the culprit, but currently Dumbledore is on…business." The last word she whispered, and James watched as the clench of Maxwell's jaw loosened. He nodded.
"Are any of your other brothers coming?" Pomfrey asked as an afterthought, her eyes darting towards the closed doors.
"No, they're at the ministry," Maxwell smiled dryly, "If you can still call it a ministry," He added under his breath.
They all waited. It was a half an hour before Marlene's eyes opened and James let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding.
(The Awakening)
There was darkness and I was submerged in it. It was like drowning, but without water. Deeper and deeper I plunged. I struggled to breathe, even though I knew I could. It was as if something had grabbed a hold of me and continued to drag me down. Eventually, the grip loosened, before it fell away completely, and I kicked and struggled my way back to the top, where I let out a gasp of air and my eyes fluttered open.
There was stone, there was light, and there was my brother. He lifted his head from his hands and called out to Madame Pomfrey. And then James entered my sight and in that moment, everything was all right. I'm no longer drowning; I'm no longer lost in the shadows.
I cough, and someone brings water to my lips and all of sudden a feeling of dizziness sweeps over me until I have to sink back into the pillows.
"Take it easy Miss Mckinnon," Pomfrey said as she helped me back into the pillows. A feeling of helplessness arose in my chest and I made a sound of protest.
"Same old Marley," Maxwell said affectionately and he rumpled my hair.
"I sense relief in your voice, were you actually worried about me?" I teased, and Max rolled his eyes.
"Course we were," James said after clearing his throat. I couldn't have hid the smile that came over me if I wanted to. A serious expression takes a hold of Maxwell's face and he glanced at a patronus, which stands beyond the Hospital Wing doors.
"Duty calls. I'll see you later Marlene. Glad you're okay."
It was like a switch had flipped in Maxwell. He had gone from my brother to my brother, the Auror.
I sighed and James piped up, "Well hey, at least you have my lovely company."
I bit back a laugh, "Of course, it'd be a bit nicer if your ego wasn't so suffocating."
He laughed too. We both knew that despite what Lily said, James' ego wasn't as large as she made out.
"How are you?"
"Oh, absolutely, stunningly lovely. The poison in this year's Welcome Back Feast was a pleasant surprise."
His laugh ran through the otherwise silent Hospital Wing before silence once again fell over them.
"I haven't talked to you in a while. You didn't really write during August."
"I didn't talk to anyone in August."
"Any particular reason?"
"None to worry your head about."
"You can tell me anything, you know that right?" His words came out uneasily, unsure.
"Course. Doesn't mean I'll actually tell you everything."
"Why not?" I squeezed my eyes shut, ignoring the pitiful kicked puppy voice that James was using.
"You don't tell me everything."
"That isn't fair."
"Life isn't fair. War isn't fair. School isn't fair."
"You don't sound all right."
"I'm not all right. But I'm okay," I whispered, "Sorry, I know I'm being rude to you. It's just…a bit jarring to be poisoned on my first day back and not know why. Also, I'm a bit nervous about classes. I still haven't talked to McGonagall about which classes I'm taking."
"Oh you'll be all right Marls, you're a clever girl."
"Says the boy who got 8 O's."
He shrugged, but a smirk came across his face nevertheless.
"What do you even want to be?" I asked him.
"An Auror," He said without an ounce of hesitation, "Partially because of my parents, but also because it seems that there's a drop in Aurors these days and they need all the people they can get."
"When did this new development happen?"
"Since I started reading the Prophet."
"I didn't know you could read."
He snorted, "Shush you."
I laughed, and for once, things felt as if they were beginning to go back to normal.
McGonagall possessed a stare that made even James flinch. And currently, that stare was directed towards me.
"Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, Transfiguration, Defense against the Dark Arts…all fine," She said, skimming through my O.W.L. results. I had gotten E's in each of them (some of them, just barely by one or two questions) and one O in DADA.
"I was pleased by your Transfiguration grade," She commented, "you're quite good at the spell work and I know you have the ability to will things into other things since you are quite persistent. You have some trouble with the essays and theories, do you think you can handle the course work?"
"Yes, Professor," I nodded. This year would be different.
"You have two A's in Potions and Charms, and yet you applied to be in both. How do you think you'll fare?"
"A-All right," I murmured, "I'm trying to be better about school work this year, reforming and all that."
She nodded gravely, "I'll let you take both, however I suggest you drop Care of Magical Creatures in exchange. And if your grade in either classes drops below an A, seek help or else I'll consider pulling you out."
I nodded gratefully and accepted the class schedule. I hurried out of her office, heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast. I had been out during the first day of classes, but received a copy of notes from Lily. McGonagall had requested that I come to her office early in order to sort out my class schedule, and I found that I was now the only one at the Gryffindor table, save for a third year boy.
I suppressed a yawn, and drank my cup of Wizarding coffee. Wizarding coffee, a bit like wizarding cigarettes, were very similar to their muggle counterpart, but only a bit stronger due to the added magic. I pulled a piece of parchment from my bag and began writing my brothers about my class schedule. Once done, I blew on the ink, pulling out other pieces of parchment, and performing a spell that copied the contents of the first letter to the others. It was spell Lily had discovered, which would copy material from any resource to another. Handy for copying down instructions for potions, or sometimes in Mary and my case: Lily's essays. I tucked the letters into my bag and prepared for the new year.
It would be different.
At least, with the help of my (apparent) persistence.
Maddox had been sending me letters of congratulations and studying tips each day for a week now. Some were useful, but sometimes I wanted to smack him.
"Go to the library. Unless you're allergic to reading and knowledge, which sometimes I still think you are."
"There's this concept called studying. You should try it sometime."
While Lily and Mary found his "witty and dry" humor quite hilarious, I was less than pleased. However, I did follow his advice to go to the library a bit more often. James, unable to find me, had somehow discovered me in the library, and was certain that I was Lily who had consumed Polyjuice potion in order to lure him into the library to somehow prank him or snog him.
Apparently he was not the only one surprised by my new studying habits. Lily was delighted, Mary had an air of quiet suspicion, and Dorcas was certain that I was becoming Lily Evans and could no longer associate with me. This grudge lasted for a day, before she realized that a day without any human communication wasn't as cheerful. McGonagall was pleased as well. James helping me understand theory had improved the quality of my essays and I knew that she was monitoring my marks. Regrettably, there were quite a lot of marks. The teachers seemed to have no qualms about loading us with essays and warnings of future graded assignments. It was because of these afore-mentioned essays and tests that Lily had managed to drag Mary and I out of bed and out to the bank of the Black Lake on a weekend in the morning, nonetheless.
I had transfigured a broken branch into a silver chalice, and was currently practicing the Aguamenti charm. Once we succeeded in doing it ten times continuously, Flitwick had told us to write an essay on the theory, usage, and for extra credit: uses of the spell historically. After two hours, my essay was nearly finished, and for the sake of earning as much extra credit as I could, I was flipping through the book Lily had used for her essay on historical usage.
"The Aguamenti spell was used secretly by witches and wizards who formed together in the fourteenth century for the purpose of putting out the witch burnings," I murmured as I wrote the sentence down. The startling crunching of leaves startled me and I cursed as my inkbottle overturned onto my red and gold Gryffindor sweater, staining it. I performed a quick cleaning spell and bottled my ink, looking up to see the Slytherins, walking across. They were a daunting group, all of them were attractive and held a sanctimonious attitude that radiated ten feet from them. Even in the muggle world, people like that were dangerous. But add a wand and an affinity for the dark arts, and you got the Slytherins. They traipsed and they seemed to smirk even more prominently as they passed our group. Mary shrank against the tree, curling into my shadow.
The group was followed quickly by another, albeit smaller one. This time it was the Marauders. They were led by James, whose face seemed to betray the anger he had inside him.
"Oh no," I said as I shook my head, standing up to stop James before he did anything rash. I ran towards James, put a hand on his chest and stopped him. He gritted his teeth.
"Marlene, take your hand off of me."
"Stop it James, don't go seeking a fight."
"You don't even know why."
"Whatever it is, it's not worth it!"
"IT'S BLOODY WORTH IT!" His voice boomed across the Black Lake, and a silence fell. I winced at all the attention now directed towards us.
"Do you want to know why I'm seeking a fight?" His voice was lower, but still held all the ferocity of a tiger waiting to pounce, "Because they," he uttered the last word with disgust, "are the ones that poisoned you."
Applause broke the tension, and everyone's eyes shifted towards Bellatrix Black.
"Well done Potter," She said, her voice crawling with superiority, "I must say, you figured that out a bit quicker than we had initially thought. You must've been working alone, after all what use is my daft cousin to you?"
"Must be because of all the in-breeding," Sirius snapped back, not missing a step, "Although you'd know all about in-breeding with purebloods, wouldn't you Bella?"
A seventh year Ravenclaw was slowly standing up as if to get a teacher, but was stopped as Lucius Malfoy sent a silent body-binding hex her way.
"Any one who tries to even report this, will face the consequences," Alecto Carrow said.
"Why me?" I spat at the Slytherins.
"You're a dirty half blood whore and blood traitor who happened to steal Cissy's boyfriend last year. Also for a bit of fun and laughs," Bellatrix shot back easily.
"You're sick."
"So I've been told."
"I hope you rot in Azkaban."
"Enjoy your cell with Regulus," Sirius added, "although it'll be a bit hard to raise your children."
Rumors of intermarriage between purebloods often times held a bit of truth, but they were never mentioned out loud. To do so, even by a Gryffindor, seemed to violate an unspoken agreement about purebloods. The Slytherins drew their wands, and reflexively we drew ours as well.
Lily had been teaching me non-verbal magic ahead of time. I racked her words and advice.
"Don't say the spell mentally. That doesn't work. You have to use emotion. Think about what you're trying to accomplish, don't focus on the spell itself. Focus on the emotion and the magic inside of you."
Bellatrix smirked, and fire came curling out of her wand forming a circle around us. I heard Sirius curse as he took in the circle. A body binding charm came towards me and I set up my shield charm. I was on the defensive, feeling an increase in the difficulty of the spells as they came towards me. I bit my lip, struggling with the strength of the shield. They came faster and faster, some of them were very dark and others were complex.
It wouldn't be enough to be on the defensive. Peter, while reasonably good at defense, was already body-bound and struggling with it. It was a variation of the spell, and kept the person bound for a longer time, even if they knew the counter curse. My brothers had employed that on me for a while now. Remus was also on the defensive, and James and Sirius were a team, acting as defensive and offensive, trading off. I shot a simple hex, which startled Carrow, enough for him to pause, allowing Sirius to shoot a nasty stinging hex. It was a full on duel now, a flash of lights and occasional muttered curses.
Bellatrix landed a stinging spell on my leg and I gasped at the pain that arched through. I crumpled on a knee, the weakness causing me to be flung back onto the ground. I struggled and stood up.
Regulus Black seemed to have it out for me, and he sent a curse while I was still shaky that I barely managed to block. Spell after spell, and Regulus and I became immersed in our duel, that I didn't even notice that it was only Sirius and I battling now. James was struggling on the ground, but looked as if he wouldn't get up anytime soon. Peter had been struck down and was alarmingly close to the fire. Remus dangled by his ankle, unconscious, as a target for spells. I landed a spell on Regulus that knocked him out of the fighting.
Bellatrix disarmed me before I could even realize it and then I was pulled to their side. Lucius Malfoy held me with a wand digging into the flesh of my neck.
"The loyal half-blood whore herself," I struggled against the grip, but this was clearly a bad idea, as Narcissa Malfoy shot another painful stinging hex towards my wand arm. I bit my tongue to keep from crying out, refusing to give tem the satisfaction. Sirius had been disarmed and looked at the scene.
"Just…let her go and let us leave," Sirius finally managed.
"Take back what you said, bastard. If she gets hurt, it's your own fault. And unlike you, we have our pride to steal back."
"Take back the truth? Now why would I do that dear Bellatrix?"
"Take it back."
"And give what little pride you have back? Not a likely chance."
"You fucking bastard. Cruci-" Bellatrix began to say. My eyes widened in slight fear as I saw her wand turned towards me.
"Stop," Narcissa said, putting her hand across her sister's mouth, her own eyes wide, "I'm not losing a sister to Azkaban because of them."
Bellatrix reluctantly nodded and I was thrown to the ground roughly as she extinguished the flames. They headed towards the castle, heads held high.
"You'd think that at least one of them would've reported it," I said as I walked quickly to match James' brisk pace towards the Quidditch locker rooms.
"Be glad that no one did."
"Slytherin would probably get more points deducted," I pointed out.
"Just drop it, it was forever ago."
"It was four days ago, James."
"Marlene, it's Quidditch practice. Focus on Quidditch or for the love of Merlin, we're never going to win that cup."
I rolled my eyes and went to the bathroom to change. There weren't many girls who played Quidditch, which meant that the Quidditch changing rooms weren't separated by gender and the few girls who did play Quidditch changed in the bathrooms. Once into the Gryffindor Quidditch uniform, I joined up with the rest of the Quidditch team. Although James was only a sixth year, he had become the unofficial co-captain of the team and concocted plans with the real Gryffindor captain Richard Carter. Carter was a more quiet but diligent fellow whereas James was…bold, outright, and completely un-afraid to work the team into the dust, which was probably why James was currently shouting at the people who wanted to try out for the team.
We needed a chaser and another beater and a few reserves. In James' mind, this meant that the entire team had to endure the five hour long process of try outs. Although unlike poor Daniel Boot, the seeker, Sirius and I actually had something to do. Sirius was the other beater and James and I made up two thirds of the chaser section of the Quidditch team. Since those were the open positions, the other additions to the team would have to play well with us. After try-outs, James told the few left over that he'd post the results after thoughtful deliberation while Carter congratulated each and every one of them.
Sirius and I headed back to the common room, leaving James and Carter to decide the newest members of our team.
"So I had an idea."
"Shocker, and here I thought you were just a mindless pretty package."
"Don't tease, it's not flattering."
He rolled his eyes, "All right, what is your oh-so brilliant idea?"
"What if we started a dueling club? After the…Lake event, I thought that perhaps students could use some guidance in dueling in case they become targets."
"Not bad Princess, not bad at all," Sirius said as he turned the idea over in his head.
A/N: Hey guys! Alison here! First, I'm going to say sorry for making you wait for so long! I hate authors who don't update for a month or even more and I can't believe I'm becoming one of them. I promise I'll be better about it, but I've been absolutely swamped with school. Peace offering of Draco Malfoy and Sirius Black? But I just finished school and you'll be happy to know that the first thing I pretty much did was outline The Butterfly Effect (I hadn't outlined before and was just going with the flow), worked on some character development, and wrote! Anyway, so as you may have noticed, my chapters are usually split into sections, separated by parenthesis. Yes, Marlene is the main character and I love writing for her in first person, but occasionally one of these sections will be third person. So just a heads up! Also, check out my profile. I share a writing account with my best friend Francesca. She wrote a really wonderful fan fiction called Moon Daughter, which I beta, and she betas The Butterfly Effect. Also thanks to Julie London, Luise, Mary Liz, Nonna Nitto, and a guest who reviewed my story! You guys absolutely made my day! Thanks to everyone else who faved or followed my story. You're the best! Also, check out my profile for my new chapter image. Will update soon. I swear on it!
Preview: James Potter was absolutely insane and this moment was my irrefutable evidence.
