Chapter Eight:

Is Never Enough For You?

Sirius had checked every bloody secret passage in Hogwarts, and there was still no sign of Mattie. All he`d gained from his efforts were cobwebs and dust in his lungs. She`d left the lake, where James and Lily had instructed that he`d find her, hadn`t gone to the pitch, and the Shrieking Shack, a long shot, was vacant.

After searching every square inch of the castle, even the library (Sirius had walked in by accident, having forgot why he never visited that room), he finally decided to go back to the common room, and wondered why he hadn`t just checked the map. Upon checking that, Sirius` suspicions were confirmed: Mattie wasn`t anywhere on the grounds.

"Okay, Lilykins. Where is she?"

Looking up from her book, Lily was as lost as Sirius had gotten in the library. "Who? Mattie? By the water."

"No she's not, or anywhere on the grounds for that matter. Is this a bloody joke?"

James, who was sitting with his arm around Lily, perked up. "Ask Mary and Mel. They'd know if she was doing something."

Over at Remus`s favorite window seat, the girls in question, along with Alice and Frank, were busy hanging Christmas baubles in the sleeping Marauder's hair.

"Where's Mattie?"

"Shhh! Not so loud. You'll make him wake up on my turn!" Alice whispered sharply as she hung a new ornament.

"Tell or I'll wake him up."

"Okay, okay. I don't know. She was by the lake last I saw." Melody strategically hung a bright red one in his long bangs, just so it would droop over his nose.

Maybe she was eaten by the giant squid, or worse, kidnapped by Slytherins! Sirius rushed out of the room and out into the hall. He was halfway to the dungeons when he heard a familiar laugh.

Turning, Sirius saw Mattie walking down the hall, beaming, and she wasn't alone. To her right was a slender girl with sparkling brown eyes, eating a bag of only blueberry Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and on the other side, some freckled guy was laughing at something she`d said, and spewing food everywhere as he did. Each of them was carrying a large amount of shopping bags.

They hadn't seen him. Yet… Sirius pulled a tapestry up, tapping the bare wall with his wand, and ducked into the revealed passageway. Thankfully, the walls were thin enough to hear the passing conversation.

"… just love Honeydukes. It's the absolute best place. And that lady didn't even bat an eye when you asked for twenty bags of Ice Mice! We totally got all the supplies for a party and she didn't even stop us! All that`s left is to figure out what exactly the party is going to have to be thrown for." The girl with the glasses was saying.

"Does there need to be a reason to party?"

"Typical Gryffindor." There was a smirk in the voice of the guy, and Sirius clenched onto his wand tightly.

"Speaking of, we could probably hold the party in the Come-And-Go Room, and then people from other houses can come. I can get my friends from Gryffindor to help us set it up. It'll be awesome." Mattie's voice quavered a tiny bit, regained strength in the end. "By the way, thanks for everything, guys. I really needed that. You guys rock."

"No problem. We should skip and go to Hogsmeade more often! Well, if you need us, you obviously know where to find us." The boy said.

Sirius though they had passed, but thankfully stopped himself from exiting at the sound of Glasses Girl suddenly squealing excitedly. "Oooh! I know what we can have a party for! We can have a costume or masquerade party! That would be soo fun! What do you think, is Friday too soon?"

"Of course not, that`s a great idea Vi! I'll get the word out. You guys tell Ravenclaw and your friends from Hufflepuff, and I'll tell Gryffindor and my friends in Hufflepuff, okay? I don`t know if you know any decent Slytherins, but I suppose you can invite them to, I suppose. Should we have it start at seven pm.?"

"That's fine with me. We'll have an half-hour after dinner to get ready."

"Excellent, see you guys later."

"Bye Mattie!"

So that's her game. Skipping and scheming with Ravenclaws, how could she?

Sirius Black was never jealous, but Matilda Bell also never skipped school with and instrumented parties for Ravenclaws.


"So there were two of them? And they said she knew where to find them?"

"That's right." Sirius confirmed, and Lily felt her heart sink. He had come in five minutes ago, running, to the common room with tales of Mattie skipping school and going off grounds with Ravenclaws. Lily had promptly called a meeting in the Marauder's shared room, since Mattie would probably be suspicious if they`d held it in their own room.

Why hadn`t Mattie asked them if she wanted to go to Hogsmeade?

"Well, all I care about is that I get invited to that party." Alice leaned back in her chair casually as she spoke. "Ravenclaws are alright, I suppose."

"Yeah. It sounds pretty awesome."

"We should bring in a dragon and pretend it's someone in a dragon suit."

"Okay. Let's get serious here people." Lily huffed, not at once registering her error in word choice.

"YEAH! LET`S GET HIM!"

Peter, Melody, Remus, Mary, and Alice all tackled on top of Sirius in a giant pig pile, ignoring his muffled protests. Lily sighed, knowing a lost cause when she saw one.

"James? A little help here?"

Her boyfriend gave her a sheepishly apologetic look, and jumped on the pile.

Lily rolled her eyes. Getting this bunch back on topic wasn`t going to be easy.


Okay. Time to solve this problem once and for all.

After the excursion to Hogsmeade, my brain cleared up. My little planning genus elf had come back, and it had decided on using Violet`s approach to solving the Sirius problem.

Dear Sirius, I started, my hands steady.

I am done.

I can't keep playing this game.

I don't know why you're doing this. I'm guessing you must have been mad at me for following you guys the other night, and knew I've really liked you for a while, so you decided to get revenge by taunting me and fooling me in to thinking that I meant something, anything to you more than just another girl you occasionally flirt with to mess with her head. There`s way to many of those out there, and I just can`t be one of them.

Really, you`re not the only idiot around here. I`ve seen you pull this gag a thousand times; I was just too in over my head to think I was not any different.

But don`t think for a second I`ll let you trick me again for a second.

All bets are off, indefinitely.

Goodbye. See you never.

Mattie

That should do it. Mary and the others were off somewhere, so I couldn't use her owl. Instead, I decided to just put it in an envelope with his name on it and slip it under his door.

I was right outside the door of the Marauder's room when I heard Lily's strong, commanding voice ringing out from behind the door, saying, "…and really guys, if you don't cut it out, we'll never find out what to do about Mattie!"

Excuse me?

"Nothing needs to be done about her. She's fine. Let her plan a party, it's not our business." Thank you, Melody.

"But why do you think she ran off? With Ravenclaws!"

I walked in. "Because I needed a break from certain things and people."

Dropping the envelope on the floor by Sirius' feet, I calmly turned to Melody, not even attempting to feign happiness. She would get the sentiment anyway. "Thanks for sticking by me."

She saluted me, trying to sire a smile.

I manage to nod before having to flee before they could see the moisture building up in my eyes.


"Mattie? Mattie!? No, wait! Come back!" Sirius scooped up the parchment she`d left at his feet, and dashed after her, but in vain.

When he reached the common room, she was gone.