Laurel pov

The next day was so much better than the first one. Breakfast was a much quieter affair than yesterday. In a way, it's a relief; I don't think I could've handled seeing the snakes again. Then again, no true prankster does the same exact prank twice. Having been a prankster when Alexis was…alive, I know a few things about that particular topic. Dorcas, Lily, Alice, Raven, and I were just enjoying our breakfasts. True to their word, none of the girls brought up Alexis. Instead, we talked about the first day of school and the Marauders. Lily had a lot to say about the latter subject.

"They always pick on my friend Sev!" she complained. "What did he do to them? Absolutely nothing! All he's ever done is fight back in self defense! It is not fair to him! Plus, do you know how much work that we prefects get because of them! It is unbelievable! You would think that with Remus being a prefect that they would slow down so their friend doesn't lose his badge! They don't slow down at all! They get away with so much more! Plus, Potter keeps hitting on me all the freaking time! He obviously does it to annoy me! Can't he just leave me alone? I don't want to have to listen to the biggest bloody prat in the world!"

Alice, Dorcas, Raven and I just looked at her amusedly. If we tried to defend the Marauders at all, we would probably be hexed into the next century. Hm... I think that I can dodge whatever she throws at me. If I can't, Raven has my back. Besides, the Marauders can't be that bad.

"Lily, they can't be that bad. They made Raven and me feel welcome here when we were on the train," I stated calmly.

"Ugh! You aren't listening to me Laurel! They only care about their little prankster group and making trouble! Sirius is a huge player and was just trying to get in your pants, James is a hopeless flirt, Peter just follows them like a lost little puppy dog, and Remus...was probably the only one who genuinely wanted to welcome you to Hogwarts there! But don't be fooled by his kindness because Remus is an evil mastermind when it comes to pranks. Once I heard him planning to turn everything in the Great Hall into chocolate! They are ALL bad!" she ranted.

"I knew there was a reason that the prank hadn't worked," Sirius grumbled from his seat three seats down.

"Hey Evans!" James loped up to where we sat.

James squeezed between Lily and Alice across from Raven and me while Sirius sat on Raven's left and Remus on my right. Peter sat next to Sirius looking a little disgruntled. I guess Peter doesn't really like his fellow Marauders sitting with us, or he heard Lily's comment about him. Well that's too bad for him. Sirius started grumbling incoherently all of a sudden. James looked pretty upset too. Remus just looked really amused at his friends' abrupt behavior change.

"Remus," I whispered, "what has their wands all tied up in a knot? They look like someone killed their puppy then stomped on it before throwing it in a lake."

Remus chuckled at the metaphor and pointed to Ravenclaw that was walking to his table, "That is Casey White and he is the Ravenclaw team captain. Last year, Gryffindor had a humiliating defeat by Ravenclaw. James and Sirius were upset that their "superior" quidditch techniques hadn't won them the match. The only way Gryffindor could win the quidditch cup that year was if Hufflepuff crushed Ravenclaw. She however," Remus motions to a smiling blonde Hufflepuff, "was sick and there weren't any reserve seekers available, so Ravenclaw won by default. Those two have been very...upset since then. They swore eternal vengeance on Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff."

I stared at Remus like he just grew two heads. Then I glanced at Sirius and James disbelievingly. Are James and Sirius really that upset? Who holds a grudge over something like that? What I was thinking must have been written all over my face because Remus chuckled.

"Yes," he said, "they are still very upset about it. Now that James is captain though, he will be hard on the team so they don't lose."

"...and we will win!" James ended.

"Huh?" was James listening to us talk? Wow, weird.

Raven chuckled, "James was telling me that he is going to lead the Gryffindor quidditch team to victory. Hey James, didn't you say that you guys need a chaser and a seeker since last year one of your chasers and your seeker graduated?" Oh please no...

"Yeah, we do. Why?" James responds.

"Oh no reason. No reason at all James," I say before Raven signs us up to play quidditch for the madman.

"Actually," Raven gets an evil look on her face, "We want to know when tryouts are."

Oh god. I don't want to! What if James schedules practices so often that I die? (If what Remus says is true, I don't put it past him.) I am too young to die! Raven must have noticed my distress because she patted my shoulder as if to say, 'It'll be okay. Trust me."

I sigh. The last time I was told that my best friend and fellow Huntress died. But... I trust Raven. If I can't trust Sharpeye, who can I trust? My trust doesn't exactly come easily. I still don't completely trust these Hogwartians, and my trust of authority figures disappeared years ago when Raven told me about her home life...

Flashback

I tore through the halls of Salem Academy. For once in my life, I am going to be early for a Huntress meeting! I glanced at my watch, only twenty minutes until the meeting starts. The meeting place isn't that far, so maybe I can fix some of my cross breeding plans and my prank plans. I was thinking about doing something with flitterbloom. It won't take more than five minutes and I'll still be early to the meeting. I looked out at the lush fields that surrounded the school and chose an area that had a shady tree and was about thirty yards from the meeting spot. Since it's still September, the grass is still green and it is still incredibly hot. I sighed happily and plopped down onto a particularly shady area. I was about to plug in my iPod which I got last year. 'Thank god for babysitting jobs!' I thought. Then, I heard a muffled sob followed by a wail. Curious about the sound and worried for the person or thing crying, I gathered my things and searched for the source of the sounds. I was surprised when the sounds led me to the meeting place; I was even more surprised when I saw Raven curled up into a ball heavily sobbing.

I gathered her into a hug. "Sharpeye, Raven, what's the matter?" I asked gently. When I got no answer, I realized that she was sleeping. Raven never ignores Alexis or me.

I know that I'm not supposed to wake someone up when they're having a nightmare, but Raven looked like she was in pain! What else can I do? The girl who is the big sister I never had is crying her eyes out! I racked my brain for a spell that would wake her up gently or stop the dream.

Wait...that spell wasn't made for this purpose but, "ENERVATE!"

Drowsily, Raven opened her eyes. She was still breathing heavily, and tears still ran down her face, but at least she wasn't convulsing anymore. Her eyes widened when she saw me hovering worriedly over her still trembling form.

"Laurel! What are you doing here?" she asked flustered.

I pulled her into a hug, "Sharpeye, what were you dreaming about? Please tell me, you can tell me anything!" I tell her soothingly.

Raven thought for a moment; most likely she was weighing the pros and cons. It seems that the pros outweighed the cons, "Well," she started, "you know that I live in an orphanage right?" I nod. "Well, I used to be bullied a lot. It got to the point that this group of people would beat me up daily just because I was different. My accidental magic was usually aimed to protect me from them. They would bully me even more because of that. Every summer it gets worse. Why do you think I buy so much foundation? To cover the bruises. The nightmare I had is based on their "goodbye" for me. They threatened to kill me!" Raven was sobbing now. "They even had a knife on them! All I could think was that you guys wouldn't know that I died, and you guys would thing I ditched you!"

"Why don't you tell the adults? They'll help you!" I suggested trying to ignore that she was more worried about Raven and me than her own life.

"They don't listen!" she said bitterly. "They brush it off. Apparently, they can't focus on fixing the bullying when they have important lunch breaks to go on." She started sobbing again.

"Shhhhh, it's okay now. It's okay. They aren't here. They won't hurt you," I consoled the trembling girl.

Even though I looked calm on the outside, I was boiling with rage on the inside. What did she ever do to them to warrant this? When summer comes around, Alexis and I will be busting some heads. No one gets away with hurting our big sister. NO ONE! If I'm really subtle, which normally im not, I might even get away with shipping those two bullies out of the country. I'll send them to Africa, no, the Amazon Rainforest. They'll never hurt Raven again. Not if I have anything to say about it.

Alexis arrived to our meeting place later to see Raven's head on my shoulder while she slept. Poor Raven had cried herself to sleep after telling me her story. I quietly relayed the story to the reptilian animagus. While her expression was calm, her eyes held a rage that Satan himself would never master and even be afraid of.

The Huntresses' meeting officially began immediately after that while Raven slept. Today's pranks are planned for a certain group of bullies. Those people will go through hell for what they did to our sister and best friend. Raven will be avenged.

Flashback end

I am jerked back to reality when Sirius asks me to pass the toast. I oblige after subtly using sign language to tell Raven that I'll go to tryouts even though I don't want to.

The rest of the day was rather easy. It helped that there is no Herbology today. I made up for my inattentiveness yesterday by participating in class as much as Lily and Remus. My hand was constantly in the air asking questions and providing answers when the situation called for it. Raven wasn't too far behind me. We were model students today. Last period was never so welcome; especially since last period is a free period. We spent our free period pouring over books on Spanish and French. There are surprisingly few books on the subject. I found only two books on French while Raven only found four on Spanish.

"This is kind of sad," I remark after sitting down at one of the tables.

"No kidding! I swear that there are more books on gobbledygook and mermish than on mundane languages," Raven sighs.

"Well, this is what we have to work with. Let's pick the best books and check them out. We are both mastering these two languages if it kills us. Hogwarts isn't teaching us, so we will teach each other," I state.

"I still can't believe that foreign language isn't a course here. It's not right," Raven mumbled.

I nod sympathetically. No one loved foreign language class more than Raven. She loved learning Spanish. I love French; don't get me wrong, but Raven has a passion for Spanish. I have a good teacher to teach me Spanish now. (I never liked my Spanish teachers all that much.)

Raven and I spent the rest of the day looking at the books. We want to teach each other, so we started making curriculums of sorts. I only had the first two months' lessons when Raven and I were interrupted by a quartet of people.

"Well if it isn't the newest gryffindork duo," a pretty girl with long black hair sneered while flipping her hair. She kind of looks like Sirius, except Sirius doesn't look like he stepped it dog crap.

"Now now Bella, there is time to salvage them," a bleach blond guy said seriously. "We want to help you." Somehow I doubt that. "You girls don't have to associate with Gryffindor scum. You can make ties with the elite of the magical world. Both of you can join us in cleansing the world of mudblood scum."

I stared at him for a moment. Then I glanced at Sharpeye. Then I laughed in his face. Loudly. This is a great joke. This guy couldn't be serious! What he is proposing is so old fashioned that it's not even funny.

"What are you laughing at?" Blond dude asked.

"Oh don't tell me you're serious!" I said incredulously.

"I told you that this wouldn't work," the guy with greasy black hair remarked. "They have already been contaminated by those...marauders."

Raven, being the calmer of us, spoke next, "May we at least know your names. It's rude that you didn't tell us them. If you really are the," she sneered the last part,"elite of the magical world, you must know your manners."

The same blond answered, "Of course. That, "he gestured to the girl version of Sirius, "is Bellatrix. This is her cousin, "he pointed to another Sirius lookalike," is Regulus. Standing next to Regulus is Severus and I am Lucius."

"Okay, well Lucius, Severus, Bellatrix, Regulus, we are busy right now. Please leave us alone." Raven politely said.

The quartet of Slytherins had no time to respond when another quartet came.

"Snivellous, are you bothering these two lovely ladies?" James began.

"It's not nice to gang up on helpless girls," Sirius continued.

'Helpless?' I signed to Sharpeye. She just shrugged.

"Hypocrites," Severus muttered.

"What did you say?" Remus demanded.

"We were just leaving," Lucius cut in. "Goodbye."

With that, the Slytherin quartet left.

AN: Review please. They keep my muse alive.