Izora stormed back down to the common, her blue-green eyes dark and her expression set in a fierce frown. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, all eyes turned to her but once the other Gryffindors saw the look on the normally quiet girl, they hurried back to what they were doing. Izora paid them no mind and continued on her way up to the boy's dormitory.
She stalked up to the where the sixth years' dorms were threw open the door that had Marauders carved into the wood.
"Bloody fucking hell!" A partial naked Sirius yelped, whirling around and tripping on the pair of trousers he'd just taking off and falling on his face.
Izora felt her cheeks grow hot with a mortified blush when she saw that Sirius and James were in various stages of undress and Peter stared at her blearily from his bed. She opened her mouth to apologize when the door to what Izora guessed was the bathroom opened and Remus stepped out clad in only a towel. If possible, Remus' face turned even redder than Izora's when he saw her standing near the open door.
All poor Izora could do was stare at the tall boy, her blue-green eyes larger than saucers and her lips parted slightly in shock as she took in Remus' lean muscled frame and the multiple scars that created a lattice work across his upper body before disappearing behind the towel.
Oh my… She thought blankly, completely flustered but unable to tear her eyes away from him.
Likewise, Remus couldn't take his eyes off the pale haired girl, he was sure she was disgusted by his scars. It wasn't until Sirius cleared his throat that the two tore their eyes away from each other.
"Was there something you needed, Izzy?" Sirius asked, having recovered from his shock and put on a pair of trousers and throwing some clothes at the still startled Remus.
Izora jerked her eyes away from Remus to stare at the grey-eyed boy, "Um…" Suddenly remembering the reason she had barged into the room, her frown returned and her eyes darkened.
"Yes, actually there was." She stomped over to James and smacked him upside the head.
"Ow!" He yelped and rubbed the back of his head, "What was that bloody for?"
Izora scowled at him, "For been a git and a moron!"
James just looked at her confused and she threw her hands in the air.
"You idiot!" She shouted and placed her hands on her hips, giving the bespectacled boy a glare, "You can't go around hexing your dream girl's friend just because he was an ass!"
James' eyes widened before they narrowed into furious slights, "I had every right to hex that bastard!" He yelled, "He called Lily a filthy mudblood and said that she was worthless! I couldn't, no wouldn't just stand by and let my dear Lily be insulted by that grease-ball!"
Izora growled, actually growled, which startled all the boys before snapping at James in a livid shriek.
"LILY WOULD HAVE TAKEN CARE OF SNAPE HERSELF! YOU JUST MADE THE SITUATION WORSE BY ATTACKING HIM!"
Izora took a deep breath and held it in an attempt to rein in her temper, which was notorious among her family, Galen and Dmitri. The four boys stared at the normally quiet and shy girl with mixed expressions of shock, indignation, and awe.
Letting out the breath she'd been holding once she felt like she had regained her equanimity, Izora pointed a finger right at James' face.
"Tomorrow, you will go to Snape and apologize for hexing him," She glared the messy-haired boy into silence when he opened his mouth to object, "Because it was not your place to interfere and I will make sure Lily sees you do this. Understood?"
James scowled and glared at the wall, his arms crossed over his chest stubbornly.
Izora flicked his forehead, "Am I understood?"
Sirius, Remus, and Peter all watched in amazement and awe as James, THE James Potter nodded in agreement to the skinny girl's demands.
Izora smiled brightly and patted his head in a moment of condescension she had picked up from Dmitri, before leaving the dorm.
The four boys looked at each other with confounded expressions.
"What just happened?" Peter asked, causing the three other boys to sigh in exasperation.
"Nothing, Peter." Remus said, taking pity on the fourth Marauder when the others didn't offer an explanation.
Izora flounced down the boys' dormitory stairs and into the common room, but froze at the foot of the stairs when she saw everyone staring at her in either admiration or in the girls' case, fury. With a raised eyebrow, Izora walked towards the portrait hole, feeling decidedly unnerved when her fellow students' eyes followed her. Even more unnerving was the abrupt explosion of distinct chatter about what happened in the Marauders' dorm room once the Fat Lady's portrait had closed behind her.
"Curious." She muttered staring at the portrait for a moment before shrugging and heading towards the Hufflepuff common room which, ironically, was quite close to the kitchens.
Izora hummed quietly to herself as she slunk down the stairs leading towards the Entrance Hall before sliding down the banister of the stairs just to the right of the main staircase, landing lightly on her feet at the bottom. She walked past the fruit portrait that led to the kitchens towards a still life portrait of some long since past wizard and knocked three times on the frame then stepped back.
A few minutes passed before the portrait swung open, revealing a slightly disheveled Dmitri. Blinking blearily at the waifish blonde, Dmitri let Izora into the common. The Hufflepuff common room, like the other houses, was decorating in their house colors of yellow and black. Izora smiled slightly when she saw Galen slumped in one of the squishy yellow armchairs in front of the fire, a Potions book in his lap. Dmitri walked past Izora and sprawled across the couch to the left of where Galen was sitting.
"'Lo Zora." Galen murmured quietly, trying not to disturb the Hufflepuffs that were working in the common room.
Izora's smile widened and she gratefully collapsed at her level-headed friend's feet with a sigh.
Galen closed his book and set it to the side of the chair before giving his friend his full attention.
"We heard what happened between Potter and Snape." He said, "How's Lily doing?"
Izora shrugged, "Not so good, 'm afraid. She was distraught over what Snape did and James hexing the toerag didn't help things."
"Can't imagine anything that moron does actually helps anything." Dmitri piped up from his position on the couch.
"Hush, Dmitri." Galen scolded, causing the other boy to huff in irritation.
"She cried for over an hour then we just sat silently for another two before she told me what happened. She burst into tears right after and cried herself to sleep." Izora groaned and folded her arms on Galen's knees before hiding her face in them.
"You'll never believe what I did after I made sure she was asleep." She said, her voice muffled by her arms.
This caused Dmitri to sit up, his dark brown eyes lighting up with intrigue, "What did you do?" he asked eagerly.
Izora's pale face flushed a bright cherry red when she remembered seeing Remus in nothing but a towel, his hair still wet and water dripping across his sinewy shoulders and chest. She kept her face hidden until she was sure the blush had died down before lifting her head from Galen's knees.
"I was furious, so I stormed up to the boys' dormitory and barged right into the Marauders' dorm room." She began, her cheeks beginning to turn red.
"You didn't?" Dmitri crowed with vicious delight and was promptly shut up by a pillow hitting him in the face.
"Go on, love." Galen said after settling back into his chair.
"Well, Sirius and James were changing, so they were only in their pants and I think Peter had just woken up from a nap. I was about to apologize when-" Izora cut herself off, her face once again burning up at the memory.
"And what?" Dmitri demanded, leaning forward eagerly.
"IsawRemusinnothingbutatowel." She said really fast, her words meshing together.
"Pardon?" Galen asked confused.
Izora took a deep breath, "Remus stepped out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel. Oh it was absolutely mortifying! All I could do was stare at him like a complete dizzy!"
The two boys were silent for a moment before Dmitri threw his head back and guffawed loudly.
"It's not funny!" Izora shrieked as quietly as she could in annoyance.
Galen's lips twitched as he tried to suppress his only laughter, "Well, it is a little funny. You've only seen Dmitri and me without our shirts on a few occasions. This is the first time you have ever seen someone of the male gender with so little clothing."
"Aye, our little Izora is growing up!" Dmitri crooned.
"Ugh!" Izora threw her hands up in the air and stood to leave the common room giving both boys an evil glare, "I really and truly despise both of you right now."
"Oh come now Izora, we're just having fun." Dmitri said, snatching her about the waist and pulling her into his lap, taking care not to touch her bare skin.
"He's right, love. It's not too often we get to tease you anymore." Galen agreed after moving to sit by his two friends.
"Hmm, you've been spending most of your time with those Gryffindor gits." Dmitri added.
Izora frowned slightly when she realized that he was right, she had been spending more time with the Marauders than she had her two best friends.
"I'm sorry you two. I guess I have been letting them monopolize my time as of late." She apologized sincerely.
Galen shrugged and gave her an easy smile, "We understand, you've never had friends from your own house before. It's not surprising you're able to hang out with them more often than us."
"Let's just not make it a habit, yes?" Dmitri asked, giving Izora waist an affectionate squeeze.
The waifish blonde smiled and readily agreed; besides she wasn't so sure she could face any of the Marauders just yet anyway.
Author's Note: -le gasp!- An update at last! Haha, sorry my darling readers that I have not been updating more regularly, school is a nightmare at the moment. Thank you everyone that reviewed/faved/alerted this story, it really motivates me to continue writing it. Beta'd by SunnySmile13.
XxMixedXxLoverXx: Buahaha, more Galen and Dmitri in this chapter! I'm pretty sure I'll keep as close to the books as possible, because I don't really think Peter is a horrible person deep down (that doesn't mean I like him very much though), he was just easily manipulated. Ah, Slytherins, such an interesting house, they always seem to tread the fine line of being evil and just plain snotty.
Awesome Reader: I love questions! Ask as many as you want and I'll try to answer them to my best ability. I've never actually read the Harry Potter books (blasphemous, I know). In all honest J.K. Rowling is way to detailed in her writing that I have a hard time focusing on the storyline. I prefer books that give just enough detail to enable the reader to picture what's going on without it having to be spelled out for you. I've never really tried to write stories based solely on cannon characters, but I could give a Dramione one-short or novella a shot sometime. As for the names, well I googled unique names and found a few sites with a bunch of interesting names, Izora is actually a combination of Isolde and Zora. Dmitri is Romanian/Ukranian/Russian name that I fell in love and Galen is a Greek name that I absolutely adore as well. And of course, everybody's favorite marten's name literally translates to Demon Spawn.
Queer King Stephen: I know! All the other stories I've read with Lily in them have her as some sort of super-witch that is a complete snob with no feelings. It's so obvious that she just hides behind her book-smarts to avoid getting hurt.
DreamingODaisyChains: I'm sorry for making the children beg, plead and cry! I'm glad you like Izzy though! She was a bit of a pain to come up with, she's so multifaceted it's unreal. Heehee, you'll have to wait and see what happens when she gives our lovable werewolf a good snogging. XD Oh, I totally snorted when I read about the coinciding cycles, that would be the funniest thing ever!
Cheerfully Blue: I'm glad you like it so far and don't worry everyone's favorite mischief makers will have their serious moments, just probably not anytime in the future yet, they are sixteen/seventeen after all.