"So let me get this straight." Samara frowned, piling shepherd's pie onto her plate as the group all gathered around for dinner. "You have single-handedly managed to start a war?"
"It's not a war!" Anna protested, although the effect had worm off slightly after a whole hour of doing it. "Sirius is just mad at me because I hurt his pride. And we all know that his pride is almost as important to his as his looks."
Beside her George was unable to contain her laughter and snorted loudly into her pumpkin juice.
"Oh how very ladylike." Anna grinned, brushing a few droplets of juice off her robes.
"Well I don't think you've got the year off to a very good start." Lily sniffed. "Not only were you late for your first lesson of the year you've managed to start a feud with some of the biggest trouble makers in the school. This could have disastrous effects on your NEWTs. Which, may I remind you, are this year."
Anna, completely aware that the NEWTs were at the end of the year after having been reminded by every teacher they'd had that day did her best to ignore Lily by quickly moving onto a different subjects.
"Mhm, talking of being late you and dear old Severus were rather late for Herbology Samara." She smirked glancing over at the petite Egyptian. "What happened?"
George jumped on this little titbit like a Niffler to gold, her green eyes lighting up and a slightly wicked laugh coming from her mouth.
"Ooh, did you get up to a little naughty business in the potions classroom? Your eyes meeting over a simmering cauldron, you unable to resist his hooked nose and the glow from his greasy hair."
Samara was slowly getting redder and redder but she didn't say anything, making the mistake of letting George get into her stride. Once that happened she was near unstoppable unless you hexed her and a couple of the girls groaned, Anna even chose to watch the scene from between her fingers, half afraid of what would happen next.
"Is he a good kisser Books? Or did you get further than that? How about a quick shag in the supply closet?"
Samara looked well and truly affronted and angry by now, her face a brilliant shade of red that matches the stripes on her tie beautifully. Crystal was biting into her first in an effort to stop herself bursting into loud peals of laughter, her face also a rather attractive shade of pink. Lily's eyes had widened in fear and Anna still hadn't come out from behind her hand.
"Georgina Louise Edwards." Samara hissed. "If you don't button it right now I'll hex you to hell and back."
George was grinning still but now there was a mixture of apprehension and anger in her eyes. You didn't call George by her full name unless you wanted to get into a muggle brawl, but then again they rarely heard Samara use that tone of voice with anyone unless she was incredibly angry.
"Come on Books, I was only teasing."
"Don't you 'Books' me." She growled, pointing her wand at George's face. "I've had it up to here with your 'teasing'. You know full well that unlike some people I am not that kind of girl, and you also know full well that Severus has no interest in me. He's far too caught up in obsessing over Lily."
"Hey! Leave me out of this." Lily yelped.
"And slurs on my moral standards, whatever they may be are not appreciated." Crystal added in, folding her arms over her chest.
"Come on Samara, calm down." Anna murmured, still not looking her friend in the eye for fear of being yelled at as well.
"No! She is always winding me up and I've had enough." She snapped, sending the plate full of Shepard's pie flying at George's face before standing up and storming out of the Great Hall.
The rest of the group sat in silence watching her as she stormed out. Several other people had looked up at the commotion as well and there was a small ripple of laughter as a couple of them noticed George's pie covered face, although most were quickly silenced with glares from her. The only ones who refused to quiet down were James, Sirius and Peter, although that was to be expected. Anna and George both leant forwards and glared down the table at them which Sirius returned with equal vehemence.
"She'll calm down soon enough George." Anna sighed, glancing back at the hall doors as if she expected Samara to re-appear any time soon.
She didn't.
"Yes, but you shouldn't have pushed her like that. You know how sensitive she is about Severus and you do always push it too far." Lily put in.
Leave it down to Lily Evans to speak her mind. If there is one person you can always count on to speak their mind it would be Lily Evans, it's a bit of a bad habit really. There was a nervous silence at the table, it was expected that George would snap at Lily but to everyone's amazement she just nodded, pulling lumps of meat out of her hair.
"Yeah well…" She mumbled. "I'm going to go and wash myself off and get changed. I'll see you guys 6th period."
"Alright, I'll talk to her in transfiguration for you. You know she'll be right as rain by the end of the day." Anna smiled reassuringly, not entirely sure whether she believed that herself.
George nodded dejectedly and headed out of the hall up towards the bathrooms, shooting death glares at anyone who even dared to smirk at her as she passed.
"What a start to the year."
Crystal and Anna were heading up to the common room after lunch for their free period together when Sirius made his move to get revenge on Anna. He spotted her brown hair bobbing along through the crush of students, taking slight sadistic pleasure as her face twitched with discomfort every time her bag bumped into her hip. Carefully he pulled his wand out of his pocket, silently thanking Professor Lambert for teaching them non-verbal spells so brilliantly before he left. A spark of light left the end of his wand and there was a loud ripping noise and the clatter of quills and books hitting the floor. He gave a short bark of laughter as he spotted Anna scrabbling about on the floor to gather up her things, earning him a sharp jab in the ribs from Remus, who wasn't looking best pleased.
"That was brilliant mate." James laughed, slapping his friend heartily on the back.
Sirius completely ignored Remus and smirked arrogantly at James.
"Well I always was brilliant." He chuckled, starting to walk towards the mess that was Anna's belongings.
He stopped a few feet away from her, twirling his wand expertly between his fingers and laughing as she struggled to collect all her fallen possessions. She heard him and her head snapped up, eyes burning with humiliated rage, Sirius merely smirked.
"Told you I would get you back."
She glared but didn't say a word so the group of Marauders walked past, James and Sirius laughing between themselves. Sirius didn't see was Anna pulling her wand out of her robes and pointing it at his feet, but he heard the incantation and felt the effects.
"bCadocorpo./b"
With a grunt Sirius fell flat on his face, to uproarious laughter from his friends and a wicked giggling from Anna. Pleased with herself she quickly gathered the last of her things muttering "breparo/b" at her bag and getting to her feet. Crystal, who had been chasing down a couple of ink bottles that had rolled down the hallway returned to her side and linked arms with her best friend.
Heads held high they walked past Sirius, Anna even pausing to smile sweetly at him.
"See you in the common room Black."
Sirius growled and whipped his wand out of his robes, pointing it at Anna's back. He had just opened his mouth to hex her when he heard Professor Sinstra's piercing voice from behind him.
"Sirius Black, no magic in the corridors! Five points from Gryffindor."
Just to add to his humiliation Anna and Crystal had heard as well and their giggling carried down the hallway towards him. Gritting his teeth he got to his feet, willing the professor to disappear before the two girls got around the corner and were safe from his hexes.
"Don't you have something to say?" Sinstra asked irritably.
Growling as his targets disappeared Sirius turned slowly to the professor, placing his wand back into his pocket.
"Sorry professor won't let you see it happen again." He grumbled.
"Very well." She sniffed, briskly walking away down the corridor.
"You're not going to do magic in the corridors?" James asked him, hazel eyes widening in disbelief.
"No." Sirius smirked. "I'm not going to let her isee/i me doing magic in the corridors."
"Brilliant." James chuckled.
"Like I said, I know I'm brilliant."
"Come on; let's get back to the common room while your head had still fit through the door." Remus sighed. "And be glad we're getting a little peace and quiet to study in while Peter has History of Magic."
Sirius let out an echoing bark of a laugh and nodded, starting to walk towards the common room again, Remus and James just behind him.
A little further up the corridor Anna and Crystal were walking arm in arm, talking between themselves about what had just happened.
"Well, I don't think he's going to get off your case any time soon. Not after you tripped him up in front of so many people." Crystal grinned, glancing down at her friend. "But on the plus side, Lily is going to have a fit when she finds out he lost us five points already."
"How is that a plus?"
"Well she won't be yelling as us will she?" Crystal grinned.
Anna laughed and nodded, her eyes catching sight of the portrait of the fat lady that hid the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. She tugged a little harder at Crystal's arm, increasing her speed ever so slightly. When he friend held her back at their usual slow pace she turned pleading eyes on her.
"Hurry up Crystal; I need to get this potions essay done today."
"What's making you so eager to do homework? Are you secretly Lily Evans in disguise or has Sirius cast some spell on you that's rattled your brain?"
Anna laughed dryly. "I just figured I better get this done and do it well. You know, to make up for the fact that I was late this morning and for the fact I nearly blew up the potions classroom last year." She raised her voice as they got within a few feet of the portrait. "Flobberworms."
Crystal smirked. "No to mention that you put Slughorn in the hospital wing for a week."
"I thought we agreed never to speak of that again." Anna grumbled, stepping through the opening and throwing her bag down on the nearest available table.
"Oh don't be like that." Crystal laughed. "Come on, what was the essay on anyway?"
"Potions to Confuse: Their Properties and Uses." Anna quoted in what was a passable impression of Professor Slughorn's wheezy voice.
Crystal chuckled and nodded, pulling out her parchment and quill. They both bent their heads down over their homework, quills making a scratching noise as they flew over the paper as quickly as the owners hands would allow. For a long while the only noise in the common room was the scratching of quills and the rustling of parchment or the turning of a page, occasionally punctuated by the portrait swinging open and the footsteps of a student entering or leaving. It was unusual for the common room to be so quiet even during a free period, but as it was still summer those students who didn't want to study were relaxing in the school grounds.
"You're as bad as he is! Hexing whoever you feel like just because you can."
Several heads shot up as Lily's yelling cut across the calm and quiet of the common room. Anna winced and hid her face behind her hair, Lily was making a scene and she wasn't even inside yet.
"Don't look at me like that Black; you know perfectly well that I'm right. And Remus, couldn't you have at least tried to stop him? You're umeant/u to be a prefect. Honestly, every year the four of you single-handedly loose us more points than the rest of the house put together and it's with stupid stunts like that!"
The portrait swung open and every pair of eyes in the common room moved towards it, hoping to see some sort of duel, anything to pull them from the constant tedium of study. A couple of people smirked as a rather defeated and angry looking Sirius Black clambered through the portrait hole, Anna among them. James and Remus took advantage of this distraction to slip into the common room unnoticed and disappear up to their dorm. Sirius, not realising his friends weren't following him, stormed over to the only free table left, which was unfortunately the one Anna and Crystal were currently working at. Glaring at them darkly he threw himself into a chair and pulled out a piece of parchment, stabbing moodily at it with a quill while muttering something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like 'we wouldn't loose so many points if Evans didn't bloody keep taking them off us'. Glancing worriedly at Crystal Anna silently side out of her seat and went over to Lily, who was sat in a comfy chair with a pained expression on her face and rubbing her temples.
"What did he do this time?" Anna sighed, slowly sitting down next to her friend and sinking into the cushions.
"Hexing some poor third year. I don't even know what the kid did, probably looked at him in the wrong way or something knowing Black." She groaned. "He was in a foul mood."
Anna frowned, feeling a pang of guilt. This had been her fault. "Ah, that was probably partly my fault. I sort of tripped him up in the middle of the corridor."
Lily glared at her fiercely.
"He split my bag first!" She protested, holding her hands up in mock surrender.
Lily gave her another of her infamous looks, one that sent Anna jumping from the seat in a dash back towards the table and the safety of her homework to avoid a severe ticking off. When she landed back in her seat Crystal looked up, sending her a sideways smirk that she chose to ignore, burning her eyes into her parchment.
Last lesson of the day was Transfiguration which meant two things: one, Crystal and Anna had to talk to Samara for George- neither of them wanted tow of their closest friends to fall out so early on in the year- and two, they both had to be on their guard because James, Sirius and Peter were all in that class too. Almost as soon as the class had assembled in her room Professor McGonagall started her customary speech on how this was their seventh year and the exams they would the sitting, their NEWTs, were the most important exams they would ever take and would be a huge deciding factor in their futures. Already having heard it twice that day Anna groaned and slammed her head against the desk.
"They're not pushing us hard or anything." She grimaced, running a hand through her messy brown hair.
"McGonagall is right Anna." Samara snapped from her seat beside Anna, clearly still wound up over what happened at dinner. "NEWTs can be the deciding factor in what profession you can go into in later life. It would do you good to do more studying this year, and to not get involved in stupid feuds with Sirius Black."
Anna snorted and nearly started to protest but Samara fixed her with what was a very McGonagall-like glare and Anna immediately shut her mouth and turned her eyes back to the front where Professor McGonagall was waving her wand at the blackboard.
"I thought we would start with something simple, to get you back into the habit of Transfiguring objects. Do not think this means you can mess about in my lesson." She snapped. "And do not leave under the false impression that you will have any more transfigurations lessons this year that are this simple. Right, now that's clear, today we will be turning birds into dinner plates. I think it is safe to assume you all remember how to do that…" she surveyed the class "well go on, what are you all waiting for?"
There was a sudden rush of noise and the class set about their project.
"Have you forgiven George yet?" Anna asked warily eyeing Samara's wand and getting ready to dodge a hex at a moments notice.
Samara just raised one finely arched eyebrow and turned her back on her friend, focusing on the crow sat in front of her. Anna sighed in relief, realising this run in with Sirius had already put her far too much on edge and made her expect the worst of people. i'I must be getting more unhinged than I though'/i She chuckled to herself. Samara muttered a few words under her breath and tapped the bird a few times with her wand; it almost immediately turned into a rather ornate dinner plate.
"Samara…"
"She took it too far."
"But that's just what George does. She thinks the line is further forward than it is." Anna said, sounding for all the world as if she were reciting something she'd said a hundred times.
"I know she takes things too far. She ualways/u takes things too far." Samara groaned. "But it gets to me. You know I don't like people prying into things like that. I want my privacy to be respected, not made into some long running joke."
A small frown graced Anna's face as she realised they had all taken part in a little teasing of Samara over her crush on Severus, just they same way they did with Lily and her denial over her love of James, or Crystal and whoever her latest beau was. None of them had known she took it so seriously.
"If it bothers you have you told her about it?" She asked.
"I… I couldn't do that!"
"Why not?"
"She should know." Samara sighed, turning the dinner plate back into a crow. "She should be able to tell how upset I get."
Anna sighed heavily, about to reply when she looked up to see Professor McGonagall glaring at her. Smiling sheepishly at the stern teacher she turned to the crow and tapped it neatly with her wand while murmuring the required incantation. With a disgruntled look the crow turned back into a dinner plate, although this time it was very plain looking and still had the black colouring of the crow's feathers. With an irritated snort Anna tapped it with her wand again, muttering a quick colour-change charm so that the black plate turned shiny gold.
"In case you haven't noticed George is about as observant as Sirius Black. You need to tell her these things." She reasoned, not looking at her friend. "And to be fair Samara, you have to admit you're about as easy to read as an Ancient Runes textbook."
Samara's regal-looking nose flared. "You wouldn't understand, it's not like you try hard to notice."
"Well forgive me. I mean it's not like it's the first day of term and I already have two of my friends falling out and somehow got myself involved in some sort of hex war in one of the most arrogant troublemakers in the school that we're both too proud or too stupid to call off. Oh and it's not like we have important exams coming up at the end of this year that we're already being pressured about." She paused for a moment, eyeing her friend with a mix of anger and scepticism. "Nope, nothing this year that would mean I haven't got the time to evaluate every little thing everyone does just to see how their feeling. How very stupid of me."
Samara's chocolate brown eyes darkened, but whatever she was about to say was cut off by a ruckus at the back of the classroom. Several people had stopped what they were doing and were looking around to see where the commotion was coming from. It didn't take long to spot the cause, James and Sirius were having a transfiguration competition at the back of the classroom. They were pointing their wands at what Anna guessed used to be their crow and taking turns at transforming it, each time turning it into something bigger and better. First it was a plate, then an ornate hand mirror, then a golden cage. With every transformation the chubby blonde boy that was Peter Pettigrew squeaked happily and applauded. With a look of inherent disgust Samara turned back to her own work, muttering angrily under her breath about how ridiculous they were and the effect this could have on her education. Anna rolled her eyes, a small smile playing about her lips, as distracting and childish as the boys little competition was even Samara would have had to admit they were doing some pretty impressive pieces of transfiguration. Apparently Professor McGonagall thought so too because there was the hint of a smile on her stern features as she told them off and she neglected to deduct any house points, not something that usually escaped her notice.
"Potter, Black, stop that right now. And Pettigrew please control your excitement." She snapped. "As for the rest of you get back to your transfiguration, unless you want extra homework tonight!"
Thankful for the small reprieve Anna turned back to her friend.
"So?" She asked.
Any anger Samara had previously felt towards her friend had been transferred onto the Marauders, her favourite people to hate and after cursing them under her breath for a while she was greatly mollified.
"So what?" She smiled, flicking her wand at the poor crow who was looking greatly disgruntled by now at being changed into a plate so many times.
"So are you going to forgive our dearest George?"
Samara pretended to think for a moment, but her eyes had lit up and she smiled broadly.
"Of course, it's a stupid thing to fall out over. And anyway, being mad at her might distract me from my studies."
Anna started laughing, not stopping until McGonagall appeared behind her and coughed loudly, something which nearly sent her flying from her seat in shock. When her breathing and heart rate had finally returned to normal she turned to the professor, her face flushed.
"Sorry professor." She muttered.
McGonagall's nostrils flared and she tutted. "I wasn't aware my lesson was so amusing." She sniffed, brushing past them.
Anna looked guilty. "Oops."
Samara just chuckled and pointed her wand at George's crow, which was stubbornly refusing to turn into anything for her. Seconds later it was a gorgeous gold dinner plate, far more ornate than the one Samara had produced earlier. Startled George looked around to see how this miracle had occurred, a broad smile spreading over her face when she spotted Samara waving at her.
"Consider it a token of friendship." She called.
If George had smiled any wider her face would have ripped open.
At the end of the day the girls found themselves sat in front of the fire in the common room while the sound of games of wizard's chess and exploding snap filled the air around them. George started thoughtfully into the flames, their orange light making the freckles on her nose glow.
"It's been an eventful first day hasn't it?" She said softly.
Crystal gave an exaggerated hah.
"Not half! If the rest of the year is going to be like this I think I'm going to have to quit and book myself in St Mungo's now."
"Why?" Anna asked, absentmindedly making a small coal dance about in the fire with her wand.
"Oh do be serious Anna; we've already started a war..."
"It's not a war!" She cut in.
"It's a war." A voice insisted from behind them.
"Go away Black, I've had enough of you for one day." Anna growled, not taking her eyes away from the dancing coal.
"I just didn't want you getting the wrong idea." He growled. "You've started something you're not going to be able to finish…"
"Some days I wonder why you weren't sorted into Slytherin with the rest of your family." George muttered to herself, just quiet enough so that he wouldn't hear.
Lily shot her a warning glance- if Sirius caught wind of that George might find herself in the hospital wing. He wasn't someone best known for his gentle temper and if anything was going to spark him into a rage it was comparing him to his family, people of whom he had an intense and well-vocalised dislike.
"Don't be so bigheaded." Crystal said calmly, her eyes drifting over Sirius and James who stood slightly behind him. "Do you not have some desperate girls you can go and bother?"
"I can't help being so well-liked." He smirked, but he didn't push the matter any further as both he and James turned and went back to their friends.
"That was… different." Anna chuckled.
"George! You should know better than to start saying stuff like that, you could have gotten yourself into some serious trouble." Lily snapped. "I know you have a big mouth, but you should really think about what comes out of it sometimes."
"She's right you know. If you get into a fight because you've said something like that I can't guarantee we'll stand up for you." Samara muttered.
George frowned but nodded. "I know, I know. I should think more, speak less. But I have a point."
"I'm not saying a word." Anna smirked, holding her hands up.
"I'm going to not say a word all the way up to bed, I'm shattered." Crystal yawned, turning and heading for the stairs. "See you girls in the morning."
"I think I'll turn in too." Lily agreed, following Crystal up the stairs.
The rest of the girls stayed behind, talking around the fire for a while, but one by one they too departed until only George was left staring into the flames. She stayed there for a long time, frozen still and deep in thought, but finally fatigue claimed her too and she retreated up to the girls dorms.
