[December 13th; Winter]
The first snowfall came and went as quickly as the sun would set in December. On the 11th of the month the castle woke up to a thin layer of soft white covers, but by the morning of the 13th it had all gone. Disappeared into the cold ground, soaking it and creating puddles and slippery mud stains across the grass. The scenery made the beginning of the week that much less pleasant. The whole castle seemed to have been entranced in an eerie feeling brought on by the loss of snow, and the perpetual grey clouds that hovered over the Great Hall. Breakfast that Monday had been rather quiet too, as if the whole student body was yet to wake from the weekend slumber.
"It's a horrid day," Monroe groaned poking around her scrambled eggs. She lifted a fork that held a small sized bite up to her lips. Looking at the soft yellow mush of eggs just an inch from her lips she gave up. Groaning once again she dropped the fork back in to the plate. "I'm not even hungry."
Lily looked up at the enchanted ceiling, her mood taking on the ever so greyer appearance of the sky above. "It really is a dreadful morning."
Across the table, Marlene was spreading apricot jam on her second crepe. "At least the food is always good." She licked the spoon and rolled up the crepe taking a rather large bite out of it.
"Sure," Monroe sighed, pushing the plate away and reaching for the cup of tea she had set to the side to cool down, "where's Mary anyway?"
"She'll be down soon," Lily replied, "it's not even half past… Anyway, you know she only grabs some fruit in the morning."
"Yes, but we have Potions all the way in the dungeons," the Irish girl pulled out a small notebook bind in leather. "Yes, it will take us 10 minutes at least to get there. And you know I…"
"I know you want to take a good seat, not too far up front but not in the back either, Mon."
The pretty girl next to her smiled, the dimples in her cheeks showing. "Exactly."
"Here she is," Marlene cut off their conversation, nodding her head towards the entrance to the Great Hall where a small brown haired girl rushed inside carrying what seemed to be a rather heavy bag. Her skirt seemed neatly pressed but she had somehow misbuttoned her shirt, and her hair had somehow managed to turn extra frizzy on that particular morning, most likely due to the humid air.
"Oh, God," Mary MacDonald dropped down next to the blonde, her bag thudding as it hit the floor. "Why didn't any of you wake me up?!"
"What do you mean wake you up?" Marlene looked at her, an eyebrow raised, as she spread a different flavoured jam over her fifth crepe. "You have your alarm clock set for 8:10 every single morning. The three of us are usually on our way down here by that time."
"I like my sleep, Marlene." Mary muttered, reaching for an apple and a banana.
Lily sighed looking up at the ceiling once again then checking her watch. "You're not late, anyway." She looked down at her plate where half a toast with cream cheese spread over it stood uneaten. The red haired girl sighed again. "I really do hope the weather clears up, it's a horribly grey morning… Oh, hey Alice." She greeted the older girl who seemed to have been half-asleep.
Alice grumbled taking a seat next to Marlene. "Don't talk to me, give me some food." She grabbed Marlene's last bite of crepe unceremoniously shoving it in her mouth. Marlene made a few noises of protest as her older cousin reached across her plate to pile waffles onto it. "You're done eating, right?" Without waiting for a response, Alice took the plate and finished the waffles in under a minute then ate a crepe just because she loved those, the rest of the girls watching on in mild shock. Once done with food she tied her hair in a high ponytail, poured herself a cup of orange juice, and smiled at her friends. "Good morning!"
"Glad you're finally awake," Marlene noted. "You ate my food."
"Mar," Lily begun, "you were on your fifth crepe, you needed to be stopped."
"It's not my fault that you've given into the weather, Lil." The blonde retorted. "Besides, if I don't eat enough then my stomach hurts before lunch."
Mary groaned. "Stop being so loud, my head hurts."
"An awful day," Monroe muttered once again shoving the last bite of scrambled eggs into her mouth.
"It will clear up just fine," Alice smiled, "trust me."
Lily looked up at the ceiling, sighing once more. "I hope. Where's Dorcas anyway?"
"Oh, she has decided to sleep in and come to History class whenever she wakes up."
"What?"
"Binns never notices anything."
Out of the blue, Monroe slapped her friend's shoulder, causing the other four girls to jump in their seats ever so lightly. "Lily! We have twelve minutes to get to the class and take some good seats."
"Oh," the girl hurriedly stood up, motioning for the other two—Marlene and Mary—to come with, "We're going, we're going."
"I knew it we'd be late," the pretty girl muttered while chugging down the rest of her tea. If there had ever existed a thing Monroe Dohoney despised it had to have been tardiness. She liked being on time, even better if she were to arrive somewhere a couple of minutes early. This gave her time to collect her thoughts and prepare for what was to come, be it a lunch-date or a class.
The four of the rushed away from the Gryffindor table with a chorus of 'bye, Alice', and Monroe muttering that the next time she will just leave them to be late, and would not even try on saving them seats. The other three girls were tempted to laugh at her empty threats, which she regularly repeated whenever they were remotely late to any of the classes. They descended the quiet staircase down to the dark hallways, dragging their school-bags and rushing their footsteps with Monroe leading the chase after time. Lily did not have it—the breath—in her to mention how they would be early even, if they kept up the pace. Instead she hurried after her friends as their footsteps echoed against the dull, cold walls.
The dungeons, although usually dark and gloomy, seemed to have been even more so on that Monday. On some days, such as that, the hallways and classrooms would take on the scent of freezing air and lakeside mornings. The group of Gryffindor girls arrived to the entrance to dungeon classroom just as Professor Slughorn had opened the door for the students. Monroe, though thin and frail looking, pushed her way through her fellow students and had entered the classroom among the first ones claiming the four seats in the fourth row to the right. A moment after she had already sat down and spread her belongings to make sure no one else would take the seats, the rest of the girls joined her.
As always Professor Slughorn waited until five minutes after nine to start the lessons. The very first time they had had the Monday morning Potions class he had told them how he very much understand that on a Monday morning it can be very hard to get out of bed and rush to the dark dungeons classroom, thus promising he would spare extra five minutes for those extra sleepy students. It also gave him time to pour himself a cup of tea to sip on while holding the lecture.
Precisely a second before Professor Slughorn was about to start the lectures James Potter rushed inside the classroom, his hair a complete mess, followed by Remus Lupin, a rather quiet boy whom Lily had met while studying Transfiguration in the library a couple of weeks ago. She had gotten into a silly argument with Severus over none other than James Potter himself. The boy took off after the argument, promptly grabbing all of the inkbottles on the table. Lily had not brought a spare one in her bag, and had decided to approach Remus who had been studying on his own. The boy was not talkative, but knew answers to any question Lily had been slightly confused about.
The two Gryffindors apologized profusely as Slughorn waved his hand and repeated 'no harm done, boys, take your seats' at least three times. Lily watched as James scoured the classroom, looking for Sirius. The boy in question shrugged his shoulder apologetically once James found him, to his left sat Frank Longbottom, and to his right Peter Pettigrew. In the meantime, Remus had already spotted two seats just behind Lily and Marlene, and had tugged on James sleeve. The dark haired boy followed his lead and soon took a seat right behind Lily. For the first five minutes of the class, she could hear his shallow breaths as he tried to regain his composure, the two boys must have run all the way from the Gryffindor Tower to the dungeons.
Seven minutes later, as Slughorn had just enchanted a chalk to write down the important parts of the lecture on the blackboard; Lily felt a tap on her shoulder.
"Evans," tap, tap, "hey, Evans. Lily."
She turned to face James, who was still a bit flushed in the cheeks. "What, James?"
"May I please borrow a quill… and a piece of parchment?" The boy smiled sweetly at her.
Lily sighed, turning away and bending down to dig up one spare piece of parchment and her shabby backup quill out of her bag. She turned back to face him, handing him the two items. "Here, I only have one ink bottle. Sorry."
James grinned, taking the quill and parchment from her. "No worries, Remus has one."
The girl turned back towards the front of the class, diligently taking notes again.
Tap, tap, tap; she felt his finger on her shoulder again. "Potter!" Lily turned back to face him, a stern look on her face. "What?"
"Just wanted to say thank you, Lily." He grinned. The boy was cute, she noticed. "You really should pay attention, this stuff is important."
Rolling her eyes, she turned once again, towards the front of the classroom just in time for Professor Slughorn to vanish the current notes on the blackboard. Lily groaned peeking at Marlene's notes and quickly copying those to her own notebook. For the following half an hour Professor Slughorn went through the basic ingredients needed for the Forgetfulness Potion and the three different methods of brewing it, each of which had varying periods of lasting and produced a slightly different consistency of the final potion. He had just begun talking about the second method of brewing which they would be attempting on Friday, when Lily felt another tap on her shoulder.
"Sorry," James started, "I'm all out of parchment."
Lily silently passed him another scroll turning forward in time to hear Professor Slughorn mention how the first method of brewing is the most complex one, and thus they would not be attempting it during this semester but rather after they had covered at least three more, less complicated potions. They would, however, be attempting the third method as well the following week, also during the Friday double Potions. She jotted down the information and assignments, and then checked Marlene's notes to see if she had missed anything.
The blonde smirked at her. "Maybe you should stop whispering to and fro with James, Lil," she offered, "and pay attention to the class."
Lily's cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "I was not whispering with James, Marley. He asked me for a quill and some parchment."
"Whatever you say, Lily," she chuckled quietly, "whatever you say."
"Oh, stop it." The redhead groaned, leaning closer to her friend. "You know he annoys me half the time, which does not mean I am going to be rude to him. We're all mates here, anyway."
Marlene nodded. "Alright, no need to get defensive."
"Besides, you need to stop ditching us for chess with Sirius." Lily retorted, a victorious glint in her eye.
"Oh, shut up," the blonde next to her scoffed, "You know very well we're both just sore losers."
"Who's winning anyway?"
"Mar," Monroe, who had been sitting quietly on Marlene's left side, suddenly elbowed Marlene in the ribs.
The blonde paid her no attention as she continued talking to Lily. "I think I'm in the lead. But Sirius refuses to count the first time I've won and calls it a tie. Which is ridiculous", Monroe elbowed her again, "if you think about it because anyone who knows," and again, "anything about chess—"
"Miss McKinnon", Slughorn's voice sounded, much closer than it had before, "Miss Evans." The two girls looked to their left where Professor Slughorn was standing right next to Mary's desk, at the beginning of fourth row. "I've mentioned a couple of times that this would be the most complex potion we've covered so far. Not to mention the first concrete potion you all are expected to brew, if not to perfection, then at least to some acceptable standards. It would do you both well to pay attention to what I say." The plump professor looked at them expectantly, but not menacingly, waiting for them to agree. Once they had nodded their heads, he beamed at them and proceeded to talk about the importance of Valerian springs in the brewing of said potion.
At the end of the class James attempted to return Lily her quill but she had insisted he keep it at least until lunch, seeing as he couldn't possibly have time to go all the way back to the Gryffindor Tower and make it to the beginning of Defence Against the Dark Arts.
"And need I remind you, James," Lily started as the two of them walked out of the classroom, her carrying a bag over her shoulder and a notebook in her hands, him holding a quill and a few scrolls of parchment, "that Professor Atwick does not tolerate students being late."
James sighed dejectedly. "Fine, you're right. But, I promise, I will give it back."
"Okay." She nodded.
He did give it back, in fact. It had just been a couple of years too late.
[James; Detention]
James Potter and Sirius Black had not planned on getting a detention when they discovered a charm that turns a person's skin an ugly shade of vomit yellow for 12 hours in a random thin book in the library. They had also not set out to get themselves a detention when they practiced casting the spell. They had vague ideas about the possibility of getting a detention when they had decided on casting the said charm on Thomas Charmichael, which had of course been Sirius' idea but James had done the execution. Nevertheless, despite them not setting out to get an afternoon's worth of detention, they were not as surprised when Professor McGonagall told them to stick around after the Transfiguration class. The magical clock on the wall of the classroom showed 3:14 once she had finished talking to them, and promptly told them that they were free to go but to report to Mr. Filch in his office in half an hour.
The most disappointing thing, though, had been the information that Miss Pomfrey had successfully reversed the charm, and that Mr Charmichael was back to his standard colour. Despite that, the two of them descended the staircase on their way to Filch's office rather cheerfully. Having never served a detention together, the two boys were quite ecstatic to see what they could achieve during those few hours of hard work.
The hard work, it had turned out, was scrubbing cauldrons from what they presumed had been horrible brewing mistakes. Mr Filch had taken away both of their wands, though that may have been in vain since neither of them had any concept of a scrubbing or a cleaning charm. After confiscating their wands, he had locked them in the rather large dungeon room with seven cauldrons that needed to be cleaned and polished, his own words.
"Mate," Sirius began circling around the room and peering into cauldrons, "don't know how to break this to you but I've never cleaned a thing in my life."
"Mate," James looked at him, "I am an only child, and my parents are… well, really rich."
The two of them stared at each other before bursting out in laughter. Sirius picked up a cloth and a bottle of cleaning solution. "I am curious… Do we spray this onto the cauldrons or onto the cloth?"
The other boy picked up his own pair of cloth and cleaning solution. "I say you spray it on the cauldron. I'll try the other way. We'll see which works better."
Sirius nodded. "Good." He sprayed the cauldron to his right, the scent of the cleaning solution spreading through air. Or rather, the stench of the cleaning solution. "Oh, Merlin. This smells like rotten eggs, James."
James held up the cloth to his face and grimaced. "Eugh, disgusting."
"I can't do this."
"I am going to be sick if I have to breathe that in."
"Oi, look!" Sirius pointed at the small cabinet to a stack of neatly folded clean sheets of cloth. In two steps, he had reached the cabinet and was tying a cloth around his face and mouth. "Better than nothing." He threw a cloth at James who caught it without a blink.
"Let's get to it."
The two Gryffindors each grabbed a cauldron and started cleaning. Soon after they had realized the trick was to spray the solution over the crusted potion leftovers, rather than soaking the cleaning cloth in it. Once that had been figured out the work seemed to have gotten easier, though they could both still smell the rotten stench of the cleaning solution, even through the now double cloths covering their nose and mouth.
"We're never getting detention again," James muttered, his voice muffled behind four layers of crisp white cloth.
[Alice; Early, Early Supper]
"Why are we doing this again, Alice?" Asked Dorcas, trying to keep up with her best friend and simultaneously attempting a French braid, her thick brown hair instead flowing in every possible direction.
"We promised Georgie that we would come." Alice replied.
The other girl groaned, giving up on braiding her hair. "I haven't even started my Potions assignment!"
Alice smirked. "I'm sure you will manage somehow, Best First Year Student of 1970."
Dorcas groaned again, tying her hair in a high ponytail.
It had all started, as she would remember a few years later, because of Amos Diggory. Not that many things could be attributed to the boy. He was five years their senior, near the end of his Hogwarts education when his younger sister, Georgiana, had started school. The petite girl shared many similarities with her older brother, specifically the promise of being as beautiful in the future as the boy was handsome. Granted, nothing else could have been expected. Their father had been an accomplished Quidditch player before retiring early and instead opting for the job of a reporter, whilst their mother modelled for a fair share of dress robes companies, once even having travelled all the way to Chile for a job, or so the story went. Hogwarts was suspect to many exaggerated rumours, having hundreds of teenage students living in it yearlong.
Amos Diggory, though, was not entirely at fault. The boy actually had very little insight in what his younger sister had been up to during her first year at Hogwarts, though she had not been up to many things save for befriending Dorcas and Alice. In fact, he had been much more invested in his budding relationship with a fellow housemate, Daphne, which is of course where it had all begun… at least for Georgiana.
Daphne McLaggen was not particularly tall or short; she was of average height and of average built, but a rather fantastic Beater, which indicated that behind the average looks she hid an enviable amount of strength. Having inherited her mother's ashy blonde hair and her father's deep brown eyes, her looks were not striking at first. Not many boys had been infatuated with her throughout her first years at Hogwarts, and though she had been asked on various dates none of them harboured any long lasting ideas of them together; although rare things can truly be long lasting when one is barely a teenager. Nevertheless, most of her dates had ended amicably after which she rarely spoke to them again. Daphne was not the kind of girl to let such a thing bother her, instead focusing on schoolwork, her friends and Quidditch.
Yes, not many people would describe the girl as beautiful. Amos Diggory, though, disagreed. That, however, must be attributed to the boy's absolute infatuation with every aspect of the girl's existence, which started the time she had knocked him out with a Bludger during a routine Quidditch Practice. It had been love. A year younger than him, the two met through mutual friends at first, though neither of them spoke to one another afterwards. Then followed Daphne's fifth year (or Amos' sixth) when she agreed—after her friends' continuous persistent insisting—to finally try out for the Quidditch Team where she was then reacquainted with Amos. The Bludger incident happened only four practices after she had been chosen to fill the position of the new Beater for Hufflepuff.
As it goes with some love stories, theirs was ultimately the one of developing an awkward friendship that consisted of half-nods, as they would pass each other in hallway, and occasional note passing during study sessions in the library. It, of course, had ended—or rather started—with a kiss in the Owlery on February 2nd, which had not been the most romantic of spots but they had run into each other, quite literally, and the kiss followed almost as if they had meant for it to happen.
In the end, it would be fairer to say that for Georgie Diggory it had started with Daphne McLaggen. Because Daphne came to visit the Diggory household on more than one occasion the following summer, and sometimes she would bring along a boy, her younger brother Tiberius. It was not planned, nor did Daphne intend on playing matchmaker but Tiberius' sweet disposition had an effect on Georgie, who had never really given any boy a second thought until that summer. Although young love is often disregarded as foolish and naïve such instance of innocent affection can set in motion many following events that would end up being far more important than anyone could have ever imagined they would be when twelve-year-old Georgiana Diggory started exchanging long letters with the quiet Ravenclaw.
One, then, might claim it had started with Amos Diggory, or with Daphne McLaggen but really it had started on a summer's day in 1971 when Georgiana Diggory met Tiberius McLaggen. The rest would be history, the rest meaning whatever came from their awkward, yet swift friendship, which led Alice and Dorcas to the moment they had been in, rushing through Hogwarts hallways on their way to the Entrance Hall where they were meeting Georgie.
"I don't understand why we have to join them on their date," Dorcas muttered.
Alice sighed. "It's not a real date, more like a friendly hang out."
"They could have friendly hung out on their own," the brunette muttered.
"Don't be such a spoil sport, Dorcas, socializing will do you some good." Her friend suggested. "You've been far too engrossed in schoolwork lately."
"You're such a social butterfly, Alice," Dorcas added sarcastically, "why just yesterday and the day before I swear I saw you hanging out with your friends, textbooks, all day. In the library."
The other girl chuckled. "Yes, yes. I am the kettle, and I'm calling the pot black."
"Nice to know, kettle." Dorcas elbowed her lightly, a smirk on her face.
"Atta, pot."
The two girls descended the staircase to the Entrance Hall where their friend had already been waiting, rather impatiently too. Her eyes widened and she let out a sigh of relief when she saw the two of them approach her. Upon exchanging a couple of hellos they headed towards the Passageway to the Kitchens for the very first time since the three of them had stepped foot into Hogwarts. It was the very same passageway that Sirius Black, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew would take on the day Remus Lupin would mysteriously reappear—having gone missing days before—an hour after dinner had ended. The two boys would learn of the passage from their other roommate, Frank Longbottom, who would learn about it from Alexander Barnes who only ever knew about it because he had nothing better to do when his neighbour, Tiberius, asked him to join him and his Ravenclaw housemate Iain on their strange meetup with the three Gryffindor girls. It was during that particular day that the young Alexander developed a sort of fascination with Alice MacDougal, which would lead to him chattering about the girl to his best mate, Frank Longbottom. This would in turn be cause for quite a scandal in the years to come. In the not so distant future, there would be a duel, a string of insults, an enlarged ear, and a couple of well-aimed jinxes.
One might say it had all started with Amos Diggory, but poor Amos had no idea of the events to transpire after his departure from Hogwarts. Daphne McLaggen would leave him a few years later, being unable to balance the workload her internship required and their long-distance relationship. Amos would be sad for exactly 7 days.
[Peter; Dittany]
The boy sat in the armchair in the left corner just beside the fireplace. Gryffindor Common Room had grown uncharacteristically quiet during the last fifteen minutes. It had seemed odd to him but, having forgotten it was nearly 6 o'clock, Peter disregarded the possibility of his housemates leaving for early supper. Peter usually ate after 7, which allowed him an extra hour in a rather peaceful Common Room. He needed that extra hour to practice for the upcoming Transfiguration exam, as well as the Charms pop-quiz. Flitwick loved his unannounced announced pop-quizzes, and usually had one at the end of the month. However, an exception had been made for the month of December and he had decided to have one during the ongoing week so that the studying would not interfere with the Christmas spirit. Either way the Charms quiz did not pose much of a problem. Charms had been incredibly easy thus far.
Peter sighed staring down at the A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration in, simply put, agony. He hadn't had any issues with Transfiguration so far, but usually he followed during McGonagall's lectures and would have all of it written down to the last detail in his notes. However, he had been sleeping dreadfully for the past week and had downright been unable to follow during any of the lectures. Add that to the fact that, while Peter assumed Mr Emeric Switch—the author of the Transfiguration textbook—must have been an incredible wizard himself, the man clearly lacked the ability to explain any Transfiguration topic to anyone except for himself. Without McGonagall's structured lectures, the book had turned into a useless mess.
Peter groaned.
Peter then stared into the fire crackling in the fireplace. He had considered burning the book, but that seemed to have been a rather irrational approach. He had also considered physically going to Professor McGonagall's office and asking her to help him. This had of course just been an entertaining idea, for he would never have the guts to admit he had not been following along during the lectures.
Peter sighed, throwing Mr Switch's textbook to the floor and picking up the least urgent homework assignment they had for that week. It was also, incidentally, his most favourite one, not because it was the easiest but because it involved drawing, something Peter had been rather good at ever since he was old enough to hold a quill on his own. With a tiny dose of guilt rumbling inside his stomach he reached for the Herbology textbook and proceeded to draw first of the three detailed sketches of Dittany.
"… you stink." The blond boy heard a voice as he was halfway done with the second drawing.
"No, you definitely stink more. You had that cauldron that needed half the bottle of the solution."
Sirius and James stepped into the Common Room gazing around cautiously. Beside Peter there was none other but a quiet girl practicing her wand work on the other side of the room.
"Hiya, Pete," James waved walking over to him, "what are you doing?"
"Herbology, Dittany sketches—" he paused, grimacing at the two boys in front of him, "—you two smell something awful, you know that?"
Sirius laughed. "We know, but James smells worse, eh?"
Peter looked at them and leaned forward giving each a careful sniff, then nodded in agreement. "Definitely. What happened to the two of you?"
"Filch."
"McGonagall."
"Charmichael."
"Oi," James exclaimed, "that is a great drawing, mate." He picked up the first drawing of Dittany that Peter had left on the floor next to the armchair.
"Thanks."
"No, seriously, I will pay you to do mine," the other boy continued, "I got such awful grades from the last two drawing assignments."
"Uh," Peter started.
"We'll pay you," Sirius cut in. "Because, if you're doing James' you can totally do mine. Or just let us copy and switch up your stuff."
The smallest boy considered the offer. "You don't have to pay me," he started, "but I do need help with Transfiguration," he kicked the textbook on the floor, "I haven't been paying attention during the last week and this book is horrible."
"Tell me about it," Sirius muttered, "you just have to learn to decipher the important information from the rest of the rubbish."
Peter chuckled. "So, we got a deal?"
James grinned, looking over at Sirius. "Deal?"
"Deal." Sirius nodded.
"Should we shake on it?" Peter asked, but James and Sirius had already spat each in the open palm of their own right hand. The third boy looked at the two with mild disgust before copying their actions. First James shook hands with Sirius, then Sirius shook hands with Peter, and the whole ceremony ended with Peter shaking James' hand.
"It's done." Sirius said as the other two boys wiped their hands on their robes. "We better go shower now, rotten eggs is not a good smell."
Peter nodded. The two boys were halfway up the stairs when James spun around. "Hey, Pete," the boy in question looked up, "have you been to dinner, yet?" The boy shook his head left to right, signaling a negative response. "Good. Good! Wait for us, eh?"
"Will do!" The boy yelled back. "I reckon it gives me enough time to finish this sketch anyway."
During dinner that day a friendship was born. Sirius and Peter shared their love of mashed potatoes while Peter and James shared their contempt towards pumpkin juice, instead opting for cranberry syrup diluted with water. Later on, as the year would progress the three of them would soon realize that Peter only ever needed Transfiguration notes, not their actual help. However, even when the deal had been done and there was nothing for him to gain in return he would continue drawing various homework sketches for both, James and Sirius, purely because it was what friends were supposed to do.
A/N: Hope you like, tell me how you feel about my OCs mixing with canon characters. Reviews are appreciated.
