Chapter 6
The week passed in a flurry of activity and anticipation on my side. Was a week long enough for the news of my presence at Hogwarts to reach home? However much I panicked, there was no word from anyone in the family, in any form. Andy met me in between classes, and we chatted sometimes, but as we had entered October, the teachers had been unrelenting with homework. I liked the work, so I could keep up happily, but that was not the case with the other fifth years.
Friday evening found us gathered around in front of the fireplace, sprawled lazily on the warm armchairs, struggling with one piece of homework or the other. Actually, Mary was the one struggling most. Lily was naturally brilliant at everything she did, though I did blame it on her study sessions with Remus, who was nothing if not hardworking and helpful. Peter was a part of those so he got double benefit, which was probably his reason for not metaphorically pulling his hair out like Mary was doing right now.
Peter and James were slowly muttering 'just two minutes, a minute more now…' under their breath, watching Mary with unblinking eyes, amused by her struggle. Lily and Alice were bent over a book, frowning and talking quietly, while Remus was lying face down one of the larger sofas, snoring. James and Peter were on the floor by his feet, chanting, while a highly ticked off Mary was scribbling and scratching her quill, on the table opposite Lily. I was at my usual place, as near the fire as possible, toes tickling slightly with the heat. Sirius was absent.
Sirius had been the bane of my existence ever since that night. That day at dinner, I had brushed it off to his wounded ego, thinking he would recover sooner or later. Unfortunately, that had not happened. His absolutely unfounded vendetta seemed to be set permanently against me; he snapped, sneered and argued over the littlest of things, mostly as an excuse to fight with me and probably piss me off, which he succeeded in doing every single time.
But I was not one to lose easily, and I gave him a taste of his own medicine as many times as he dished it. It wasn't like he felt guilty about picking the pointless fights; I would have felt better if he did, but he continued to talk to everyone else normally as soon as I stopped insulting him. The git even laughed five minutes later, and I was at my wits end about the whole point of it all. This time, I couldn't blame it on his mood either, because he didn't behave that way with anyone else, and I didn't know if I should feel special about that or not.
The only baffling thing was why did he bother at all? He never lost a chance to snobbishly make clear that whatever I did, or said, was stupid but I couldn't, for the life of me figure out what I had done to make him hate me so-
"SHUT UP!" Mary roared, slamming her quill on the table and snapping it in half. James and Peter stopped, looking stunned, before adopting matching grins and high fiving each other.
"Do you want to live the rest of your life in St. Mungo's James?" she growled, pulling out her wand and glaring at the two.
"Mary, Mary, Mary." I began, scooting towards her, and pulling down her hand, "Calm down girl. You don't want Gryffindor to lose the match now, do you?"
I winked at James, and Mary sighed tiredly, looking like she was about to cry. "No. But I'm going to fail Herbology if they don't shut it!" she wailed, her voice unnaturally high-pitched. I was rather surprised to see tears in her eyes, but she quickly rubbed them off, and I scooted over closer.
"James, how do you handle quidditch and homework together? I'm going to go insane." She complained, balling up her parchment and throwing it into the fire with a little more force than necessary.
"Detentions too," He said, puffing out his chest like an overgrown peacock, "And I'm a natural" he added, grinning crookedly at Mary, who simply glared back.
"Not helping." I said, frowning at James and turned to Mary. "Why don't you leave this for tomorrow? It's the weekend, you have loads of time to complete it."
"Hogsmeade trip tomorrow." She said, though no longer sad.
"Oh, I'd forgotten." James said, perking up again, "First Hogsmeade weekend of the year." He grinned at Peter in some silent recognition, and they both proceeded to try and prod Remus awake.
"Hogsmeade," I murmured, thinking past. It was the only completely wizarding settlement in Britain, a village established in the medieval times by Hengist of Woodcroft, who had settled here and founded the village, because of having driven away from his home by muggle persecutors. I'd read a lot on the subject, but I hadn't realized that it was that close to Hogwarts.
"Hey, I've never been to Hogsmeade." I wondered aloud, and Mary turned to me with an unrecognizable expression. She exchanged a glance with a newly interested Lily and Alice, and then, as if in slow motion, she smiled.
I had never really appreciated the strength of Hogwarts before, I noted, as I watched all the third years and above pile into the entrance hall, huddled together in close groups. A faint line had formed near the doors, where the caretaker, a nasty man called Filch, seemed to be scanning and poking the students with a long rod before sending them off.
"I understand they might bring dungbombs or dangerous stuff into the castle, but honestly, what's the point of this while going out?" I muttered to Alice, who was on one side of me, while Lily and Mary were giggling on the other side.
The girls had decided to make a whole day out of it, claiming that they needed to make sure my first experience of Hogsmeade village was a memorable one. Not to mention, Mary and Lily had not been asked to go with anyone, so I felt a bit less guilty for monopolizing the girls.
"Oh he just likes to torture the students as much as possible." Peter said, strolling towards us, followed by James and Remus, all three decked in multiple jumpers, James and Peter's looking lumpy in some wrong places. Sirius had reportedly left already, with the blonde Ravenclaw, who I had learned was called Marlene McKinnon.
The other boys had apparently decided not to bring dates, and automatically joined us in the line. "Yeah, the one before him was tolerable. He didn't fantasize about hanging the students." James added, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
"Yeah, Pringle, his name was, right?" Mary said, breaking off from her conversation with Lily, "Apollyon Pringle. He was even good to some students."
"Yeah. Filch is awful. It's rumored he has chains and whips in his office." Alice said, shuddering with a mildly disgusted expressed on her face.
"That he does." James said, and then grinned enigmatically at the raised eyebrows.
"It doesn't help that he has some permanent vendetta against James and Sirius after last week. He's dying to catch them just one more time." Peter said, sharing a grin with James.
I looked blankly at Mary, Lily and Alice, while Remus pointedly looked away. We were definitely missing something.
"I don't think I want to know." Lily sighed, as we moved to the head of the line.
As we were cleared and moved towards the gates, I spotted Sirius standing to the side, Marlene by his side, looking on edge.
"About time!" he boomed, as we neared, and quickly made his way towards James, not sparing anyone else another glance. He towed Marlene behind him, not leaving her hand, and I averted my gaze.
"Marlene just found out about a guy who can help. Listen…" he said, then pulled James away from the group, continuing as he we went ahead of them.
Remus was by my side; we were on the head of our little group, and I kept my mouth tightly shut, not wanting to ask what that was about.
Remus had questioned me, of course, about what was going on with Sirius and why we kept arguing for no reason, on Wednesday in the library. I had flared up at him, angry that he would ask me and not clarify with his best friend first. Maybe then he could have given me some answers; I was as clueless as him. He had then explained that he had talked to Sirius about it but he had simply replied with a nonchalant 'Nothing. She's just annoying.' I had honestly tried not to take offence on that statement, but it was rather impossible, even though Remus claimed that he knew Sirius was lying and something else was the matter entirely. I only believed him because his theories were usually right.
Lily had tried too, but I had simply closed the matter with the old 'I don't want to talk about it' excuse.
We walked the whole way mostly in silence, the others chattering loudly around us, Sirius and Marlene somewhere in the very front.
"Right then. See you around, girls." James said, pulling himself and Peter to the side, as we reached the main street of the village.
"Where are you going?" Lily asked, folding her arms and looking suspiciously at his pockets.
"Ah,Evans, you know, we have some business to attend to. Work to do, places to be." He said airily, and turned around without another glance, walking fast towards the crowds of students, Peter huffing behind him.
Lily opened her mouth, but Mary spoke loudly before she could get another word out. "Right then. We need to be off too. Evy's first trip and all. Remus, care to join us?"
Sirius turned towards us, stopping whatever he was whispering in Marlene's ear, looking interested, but as his eyes fell on me- he turned back with a bored expression, and continued to talk to her.
"Sure. That would be great. I have no other engagements." He said, smiling and fell into step beside us as we trudged in against the wind, roughly following the dark shapes of Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon.
Hogsmeade was tiny for the only completely wizarding settlement in Britain. There was the main street, with a merry looking place called The Three Brroomsticks, which seemed to be the highlight, as most of the students headed for it to escape the wind. At the end of the street was a shop called Honeydukes. Remus made a beeline for it and we followed.
The inside was packed with students and lined with stacks and stacks of all kinds of chocolates. I opted to stay away from everything that looked like moving animals, but when we came out, my pockets were definitely heavier and my money bag considerably lighter.
Then there was Zonko's Joke shop, where I spotted James and Peter trying to hide away behind a pile of Stink Pellets, and leaving as soon as we were far away from the door. None of the others seemed to have noticed though, and James cast me a pleading look, miming zipping up his mouth. I let it go and concentrated on the various displays in the shop.
Zonko's was better than Honeydukes and I regretted spending so much on chocolate; I wanted to buy almost everything here. There were Whizzing worms, stink pellets, frog spawn soaps, a set of sweets that gartered different reactions from those who ate them (hiccough sweets, pepper imps, drooling drigbums, etc.) and many other nifty little items. I realized why James and Peter might be trying to hide from us, as Lily and Remus were both prefects and I was sure some of these items were not allowed in Hogwarts.
Mary wanted to drag us into Gladrags, a wizarding clothes shop, but I tagged along Remus instead, who had to buy a set of new quills from Dervish and Bangs, the equipment shop. We set off towards the south side of the village, ignoring Lily's furious mutters and pleading looks as Mary towed her in the opposite direction.
Dervish and Bangs was nice, there was also a book section in the back, though it didn't stray much from the topics of syllabus covered in Hogwarts. I bought a book named An Anthology of Eighteenth Century Charms, and helped Remus choose the quills, which he explained were for all the four boys.
Remus wanted to show me the post office next, but it was a little deeper into the residential part of the village, a large red building surrounded by little huts and cottages on either side. We were walking towards it on a relatively less crowded street, talking idly about charms homework, when I spotted him.
He was standing outside an old cottage, trying to blend in with the walls, looking shifty and twitching rather edgily, head bent downwards towards the blonde by his side. They were muttering to each other in low voices and holding hands.
"What's he doing?" I heard Remus mutter, mostly to himself; he had apparently followed my gaze and recognized Sirius and Marlene outside the old house.
Almost as if forgetting I was there, Remus started walking towards them with large strides, irritation emanating from his every pore. His jaw was clenched, and his gaze was focused on the back of Sirius' head.
"What's going on here?" He said loudly, and Sirius and Marlene jumped about a foot in the air.
Sirius looked shocked to see him there, but when his gaze turned towards me, he looked suddenly angry.
"What are you doing here?" he exclaimed, turning back to Remus, adopting an incomprehensible look on his face. Marlene refused to meet my eyes, and frowned at the ground, fidgeting with her robes.
"We were going to the post office." Remus said in a measured voice, but I could sense his irritation creeping into anger at the lack of answers.
"So were we," Marlene said quickly, ducking her head when Remus glared at her openly. She was pretty stupid for a Ravenclaw. I mean, what was the point of lying if it wasn't even believable?
"Sirius, is this what I think it is?" he said, eyes boring into best friends, who looked suddenly uncertain. Sirius looked at me for a split second, before nodding tightly, "Yes."
Remus looked ready to shout at him, he had taken a deep breath, and expanded in a few seconds, and I realized for the first time how tall he was. He easily towered over me, and though Sirius wasn't short either, he had to look up to see into his face.
"What 'r ye lot doin' 'ere?" a confused voice said, and we all turned sharply to see a huge man standing in the door of the small house. He was old, covered in hair and black ink and had a short beard which hid the lower part of his large face. His eyes roved over all of us, settled on Marlene, and he smiled crookedly.
"McKinnon's daughter, ye? These 'yere friends ye mentioned?" he said cheerily, and I looked up at Remus, thankfully noting that he looked as confused as I was. Sirius looked more shifty than ever, and grabbing Marlene's hand, stared at Remus for a second before speaking lowly, "Just go, okay? What I do is none of your business."
They turned and went inside, shutting the door behind them.
Remus stood staring at the door, still as a statue, breathing hard. I had no idea what he was thinking, but I suspected it was something along the lines of breaking the door and demanding answers. I knew the boy that much.
"Let's just go." I said, looking uncertainly between the door and Remus, and slipping my hand into his. It was unnaturally warm.
He looked up, as if coming out of a stupor, and nodded, walking back the way we had come, forgetting all about the post office and not looking backwards at the old house they had disappeared into.
His movements were swift, agitated, as we walked through another deserted lane and I had matched his strides to keep up. I had no idea where we were headed, but Remus kept walking and only slowed once we had reached a part of the village which was completely deserted. There were no houses around here, just a bit of foresty land, and at the far end of a vast expanse of ground, was an old wired house.
I recognized the Shrieking Shack, allegedly the most haunted place in Britain; it was old, withering and looked like it was ready to crumble from the inside out. I had no patience to spare for the rumors of ghosts and ghouls that apparently lived inside the shack and hoped Remus did not too.
He didn't talk about the shack, however, and kicked a stray glass bottle angrily as we neared the shack. It hit a lonely tree on the edge of the ground, and shattered into a few thousand pieces, glittering in the faint sunlight. I watched him silently, waiting, as he slowed into a walk till we reached the fence. He glared at the building, hands clenched on the fence, and I stood by him, silently watching as he fumed, and all was quiet for about ten minutes.
"He's lying to me." He said quietly, and I didn't have to ask who he was talking about. His anger seemed to have abated, and he looked just miserable now, as opposed to someone who would like to tear apart a building or something.
"About what?" I said, equally as quiet, though there was no one in sight who could hear us. I wasn't going to pretend that I understood any part of their conversation; the whole of it had gone above my head.
Remus sighed quietly, and looked downwards, brows furrowed again, and remained like that for a minute. "I thought he was going to do it with Marlene today, you know, have sex. He had every intention of it in the morning, when he was talking to James. I don't really interfere when his conquests are involved, but I think that's even more out of the line than usual. I did tell what I think of it, but he didn't listen. He was intent on carrying on anyway."
Well, that explained the first part of their conversation and why Remus had looked so angry. "Why does that bother you so much? What he does with his… girlfriends?" I said shyly, it didn't really make sense, unless Remus was, well, gay.
He snorted, looking darkly amused, "It's complicated. You won't understand."
I contemplated his words for a minute before replying, "You could try. I'm not that thick."
He looked at me with half a smile. "It's not that. Sirius is… hard to understand sometimes. I do think lowly of how he behaves with his flings, not caring about girls' feelings has become ingrained in his behavior now but they're not my main concerns. It's him. He doesn't realize what he does to himself. And now, with Marlene, I thought he's just lashing out, and he would regret it later." He said, shaking his head and frowning darkly.
"Lashing out?" I echoed, mirroring his expression, this was getting confusing.
"Yeah. Mostly because of that letter." Remus clarified and turned to look at me then, contemplating, like I was a puzzle.
"What?"
He shook his head, "Nothing. It's just that… how he's been behaving with you - I think that's a part of it. It's not his normal behavior, as you know. There's something bothering him and he's hiding it and lying."
"And I hate it." He added, kicking the fence faintly again.
"But he wasn't doing it with Marlene, right? At least, it didn't look like that…" I trailed off, unless he had a fetish for old men. I shivered disgustedly.
"Yes. And that's the problem. He's up to something else and he won't tell me. By the looks of things, it was dangerous. He's going to get himself into trouble again. It what he does." Remus kicked the fence again, with more force, and it trembled like a leaf in a storm.
To be honest, this was very confusing. And Remus, was right, complicated. I decided I would give up on the whole thing. Since it didn't concern me, it would be better if I kept my nose of their business. I could see though, that Sirius had hurt Remus, and my only concern for now, was this boy.
Sirius Black was hard to understand, but I wasn't going to waste more brain cells on understanding someone who thought I was 'just annoying'.
What do you think? Any guesses?
