Katica
Charlie guides me through Charms- which is my most dreaded subject. Apparently he's quite good at it. I manage not to break things this time, mostly because there isn't really anything to break out here.
"Tired?" he asks, and I nod. "Good. Let's keep going. Cheering charm. Chin up, you can do it."
We continue on, but my wand isn't cooperating and keeps sparking cantankerous instead of obeying. At some point, Charlie sits me down and hands me my mug of butterbeer, except it's not butter beer, it's fire whisky.
I cough violently, not expecting the burn that sears my stomach, and then feel the heat shoot through me, a very faint light buzz begins to spread at the top of my head. I take another sip, but Charlie takes it away from me and chugs down the rest, a fierce grin spreading across his face.
"Better?"
By the end of the day, I'm exhausted, but exhilarated, and Charlie laughs and throws a snowball at me. I throw one back, and suddenly there's a barrage of snowballs flying back and forth between us. I've sort of got snowballs making themselves beside me, and I just throw them one after another, as fast as they're made.
"Okay, okay, stop!" Charlie protests, and I stop. He takes this opportunity to lunge at me and smash the biggest snowball I've ever seen straight onto my head.
"GAH!" I fall back onto the ground, then clear my vision of snow and launch myself at him. "That was a cheap trick, Weasley!"
"But it worked," he laughs, similarly falling to the ground as I barrel into him and throw a snowball point blank at his face.
We collapse onto the ground, and I shake the snow from my hair, spraying him with flecks of snow. Charlie slouches and rests against the seat of the bench, then sighs, leaning his head against my shoulder.
"I'm sorry, but I think I fell in love with you today," he says, after a moment, the words rushing from him. I sort of just blink at him, and he flushes. "I'm sorry. Was that too direct? I told you I'm not good at talking to people. Fuck, I'm sorry. Is this weird?"
"No."
"No?"
"It's alright." If I could just put the butterflies aside, get rid of my stupid crush, maybe gorge out my eyes so I couldn't see how much I like Charlie, if you strip it all down to an emotionless structure of reason, I'd be interested to see Percy's reaction to all of this. Just out of sheer spite, I think I'd do pretty much anything. Which maybe is why I'm in Slytherin, or which is maybe why I'm a jerk.
He looks away, ears turning bright red. "I mean, I liked you at first. But it's not the same as falling in love. It's different. It's easy to fall in love with someone when they're in love with you first."
"I know."
"You don't mind?" he asks awkwardly.
I shrug. "Do I look like I mind?"
"Not really."
"Well, I don't mind."
"Good." He shifts a bit, so that he can rest his chin in his hands. Then he looks at me. "You want to do the thing?"
"What thing?"
"The holding hands thing? The thing? Merlin, I messed that up. Wait, wait, I can do it." He takes a deep breath, and then blurts out, "You wanna fucking date me or something?"
"Yes," I say, simply.
"Really?"
"Really," I assure him, then start laughing. "You're so awkward."
"Sorry."
"No, no, don't apologize."
"Sorry."
We look at each other, and then start laughing again.
We walk back through to the main road, and as we do, Charlie reaches down and laces his fingers through mine, callouses rubbing against the inside of my palm. About halfway back to the castle, we pass Percy and Oliver, but Charlie doesn't notice because, he's turned away from me so he can point out constellations that hover over the snowy ground.
Oliver sort of looks at us eyes wide, and Percy glares at me.
"It's pretty cool, huh, how they all have stories," Charlie says to me.
"You could make up your own stories," I say. "I used to. There are enough stars for everyone."
We walk on in silence, Charlie very conspicuously putting an arm around my shoulders, even if he's trying not to be conspicuous. At some point, from beside me, Percy sticks out a foot and I pitch forward.
"Percy!" I very faintly hear Oliver scold, but in a split second, Charlie catches me and rights me.
"You alright?"
"Of course."
Very, very, quickly, he kisses me, and my eyes go wide, then look over at Percy, who's scowling, and I swear to you that this is the most triumphant feeling I have ever experienced in my life. As quickly as he had kissed me, Charlie pulls away.
"You're cute," he says.
"I'm short, not cute."
"Well, maybe you aren't. I just meant that I like you."
"I know that, stupid. I like you too."
We continue to walk, and in a few moments Charlie notices Percy and Oliver, staring at us. "Hello," he says, momentarily letting go of my hand, as if he was contemplating being embarrassed, then taking it back and gripping it tighter.
"H-hi," Oliver says, and Percy doesn't say anything at all. "We waited for you at the entrance, I didn't know you had... um, a date? Didn't you see us?"
"No," I lie, even though I literally made eye contact with Percy when I left the building. "Sorry."
"It's alright," Oliver says easily. "I thought you were mad at us."
"Me? Why would I be mad at you?"
Percy glares at me suspiciously.
"Because Percy said you were," Oliver informs me.
"I'm not mad at you, Olly," I say, subtly putting the accent on 'you'.
"That's good." He falls into step with us, and grins. "So, Kat, you managed to end up with Charlie, huh. How'd you get the courage to ask him?"
"Actually, I asked her," Charlie says, sheepishly.
"Oh! Really?"
"Really."
"Whoa, I guess I owe you eight sickles, Perce-," Oliver says, grinning, then looks beside him. "Wait, where's Percy?"
We look up ahead, where Percy's running straight to the castle, barging through people and lowering his head so no one can see his face.
"Percy? Percy!" Charlie calls, and then takes off after his brother. Oliver and I hang back, not wanting to be involved in whatever is about to go on between them.
"So you got Charlie to fall in love with you," Oliver comments. "Nice job."
"I didn't do anything," I admit.
"I can believe that."
"What does that mean?"
"Nothing."
"What's wrong with Percy?"
"Clearwater got mad at him because she saw him kissing someone else in front of the library. Did you see who it was?" he asks, eager for information. "You were still in the library with him after I left."
"No," I lie.
"She's really mad at him, but he's been trying to convince her that it wasn't him."
"There aren't that many other redheads like him," I laugh.
"I know, that's why he's so screwed. I'll be glad when he breaks it off with her. Honestly, I think she hates us. Do you really think he kissed someone else?"
"If he's feeling especially dumb that day," I shrug, and he laughs.
"I know. Lately Percy's been really stupid. When he's not studying or writing in the Tare- which he's been doing a lot lately, by the way, have you been reading the entries?"
"No."
"Anyway, when he's not doing all that junk he's just been staring at things and doing absolutely stupid things. Do you know, he half fell asleep and nearly fell into the fireplace yesterday! And then at lunch at the Three Broomsticks today he wasn't looking at what he was doing and just straight poured his pumpkin juice on me! He's thinking about something, and it keeps distracting him from being himself. And I don't know what it is. He may have written it down, do you have the Tare with you?"
"Yeah, it's in my bag. I don't want people to get it, so I carry it with me everywhere."
"Should we read it now, before he gets back?"
"Do you think he's coming back?" I ask doubtfully.
"No. We can walk up to the library and read it then, I guess, and we can read it there," he decides. "I just don't know what's wrong with him. You think Clearwater is bothering him? Maybe he's really cheating on her!"
"Maybe."
"You're awfully quiet. Still star struck by Charlie?"
"I wrote things down in the Tare about him," I say. "And you guys kept making fun of me for it, remember? You think he read that?"
"That sappy stuff? We did make fun of you. But that was 'cause we didn't really know what else to say. I mean, I knew you were a romantic, but I didn't know you'd go for people like Charlie. He probably likes it. He doesn't have many human friends, does he?"
"Well, at least he's smart enough to stay mostly away from humans."
We reach the castle, and there's no sign of either Weasley, so we continue on into the library, where we sit at our usual table and crack open the Tare. I have to flip a few pages back from the most current entry, until I reach the picture of Percy and Oliver arguing that I took a week ago.
We speed through all of my current plans to blow up the Ministry of Magic and Oliver psyching himself out for the Quidditch match, focusing more on Percy's handwriting.
"Looks like Clearwater really is bothering him," Oliver comments, reading a section in which Percy complains that Clearwater has been nagging him about not spending more time with her.
"That's just how she is. Look-" I say, pointing at the tiny letters "PW" and "PC" at the top of the page. "He's okay with her at this date, here."
"Yeah, but then look," Oliver says. "What does this mean?"
Katica, what's wrong?
"I don't know," I lie, and we look over the rest of the page, only to see a few more carefully scripted comments from Percy.
Katica, what are you doing to yourself?
Are you reading these?
Katica?
"What's he talking about?" Oliver asks me, putting his hand down on the page so I can't keep staring at it. "Katica?"
"I don't know," I lie again. "When did he write these?"
"Four days ago. What were we doing four days ago?"
"Nothing special, right?" I ask, contracting my eyebrows in mock concentration, the deception rolling easily off of my tongue. Lying is easier than I'd ever thought it would be, a fluid medium rife with opportunities to paint a facade of yourself so that no one can see you.
"I don't think so." He lifts his eyebrows and shrugs. "I wonder what he's talking about. Here. How about the next page?"
We turn to the next page, which is completely Percy's handwriting. I hadn't done any more entries after this day, so the whole three pages after this must just be Percy and Oliver.
Katica, I don't know what's happening but you need to tell us.
Katica, you have the Tare, why aren't you reading these?!
How else do I get your attention?
Listen, if I saw what I think I did, you shouldn't be cutting yourself, okay? I don't know why or how you can do this to yourself, but you just need to stop. STOP, Katica. I never thought that this was something you would do, and I have no idea what drove you to do it, but if you're not telling anyone what's wrong, no one can help you. Olly and I are your friends, alright? Maybe we don't get to hang out as much, maybe you think that Remington or Mac and Lachlan are better friends, but I wish you'd just tell us what's wrong.
Is it Clearwater? Does she bother you that much? I know you and Oliver don't like her, but there's something about her that makes me feel important. Of course, you guys make me feel important as well, and I don't have any friends besides you two, so if you really hate her that much, I'll call it off, but you need to tell me. You never tell me anything, how am I supposed to do what you want me to? Am I supposed to be able to read your mind?!
What's wrong, Kat? Is Chancer bullying you, is it about your mother, is it your wandless magic, is it something you never told us about? Just TELL US, Katica, for God's sake.
And then, a few days later, he writes again.
Are you IGNORING me? Katica, I'm on the verge of setting Oliver on you.
I'm sorry I did that thing yesterday, are you going to come to Hogsmeade with us? Olly's driving me insane.
Katica why aren't you talking to me?
After we skip Oliver's scribbled, nonsensical, scattered Quidditch thoughts, we reach another one of Percy's entries, except it's being written as we watch.
Charlie...
Go on, suck it up, buttercup.
But-
Percy!
Fine! Katica, I'm sorry I sold you out to Dumbledore, but I was really concerned about you, and if you're still mad at me, you shouldn't be, just because I kissed you or whatever, I don't see why you didn't like it-
PERCY
I shouldn't've kissed you when I'm with Clearwater, but I swear, I'll call it quits with her if you want, just let me help you-
Katica's mine.
Says who?
She's my girlfriend.
Yeah but you're not going to be in school next year, you're a seventh year.
So?
So you're not going to be dating her then.
I will.
Lies!
I will!
You won't!
Percy, I'm capable of long distance relationships.
You're not even capable of normally distanced relationships- OW!
Katica, it's Charlie, I know you're reading this, I have the other copy, remember? You're open to this exact page, I can see it-
Gah, Charlie, stop taking the book away from me.
-what Percy is trying to do is APOLOGIZE, although it seems to be a foreign concept to him-
Shut up.
-but now he's aware he shouldn't be going around kissing you and he's also aware that I'M your boyfriend so he'd better stop trying to move in on you when he has a girlfriend already.
CHARLIE
And we're in the Gryffindor common room so it's better if you just come up. You're with Wood, aren't you? We can sort this out like normal people.
Merlin, Charlie, don't invite her up!
"Let's go," Oliver says, standing.
He pulls me up after him, and takes the liberty of very quickly and lightly kissing me chastely on the forehead, "since everyone else seems to be doing it."
We go up to Gryffindor tower and Oliver gives the password so I can walk through. No one is here, since there's still a ways away until the end of dinner. The common room is much warmer and cozier than the Slytherin one, which is just fancy, expensive furniture no one wants to sit in.
Oliver leads up to the boys dormitories and into what I assume is his room. When we enter, I'm sure it's his room, because there's one immaculately made bed with homework neatly stacked on it m, two ordinary messy ones, and one chaotic one with Quidditch posters plastered on the wall above it and one of Oliver's Quidditch jerseys on the floor.
Percy looks apprehensive and Charlie looks grim, making room for me to sit snugly between him and Oliver on the floor beside the fireplace, so we're sitting in a half circle. He looks at Percy, who frowns and looks into the fire.
"So," Oliver says, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Let's have it all out, shall we? Percy goes first."
"Why me?" he protests, but Oliver is adamant, and so we begin. "I like Penelope, and I know none of you do, and you all think I act all pompous, but sometimes I just wish you'd listen to me. Anyways, it was me that kissed Katica in front of the library, but Penny is livid about it, so I've been denying it. And last week in Potions I saw the inside of Kat's left forearm, and I just panicked- I mean, Katica, why-"
"It doesn't matter," I snap.
"Katica," Charlie says gently, "what's on your left forearm? You're not a Death Eater, are you?"
"No," I say, laughing slightly.
"Well, then what is it?" Charlie takes my hand and reaches for my sleeve, and in a moment of trepidation I grab Oliver's arm so hard he yelps. Charlie pulls my sleeve down, and involuntarily, Oliver leans forward, gaping at the nest of white raised scars and dark, discolored scabs.
"Oh, Katica," Charlie says, letting out a hiss through his teeth. "You didn't write about this. You didn't tell anyone about it."
"I did," Percy says, "but that was just yesterday."
"Merlin," Oliver finally manages to breathe, reaching out a hand and feeling my scars gently. "Where did these come from? Did you do this to yourself?"
"Yeah," I say, and just admitting it sends my stomach dropping out from under me, a sinking, panicky feeling overtaking me.
"Why?" Oliver asks, completely bewildered.
"I don't know. It's not a big deal. It feels nice."
"It does?!"
"Yeah. Why not?"
"You're hurting yourself! Doesn't it hurt?"
"I don't know. It feels nice, even if it does hurt. The hurt feels nice, I suppose," I shrug, not knowing what else to say. "You can forget about things with it. I don't know. It's like an escape."
Oliver looks dubious "Not a very nice one."
"You've never done it, you shouldn't be talking," I snap.
"I don't understand! You like it?"
"Sometimes. Other times I just feel miserable about it."
"What are you escaping from?" Charlie interrupts.
"Stuff. You'd think it was stupid."
"No, no, tell us."
"Just... Things. My mother's dying, Chancer has been hitting me hard for anything at all that he can find wrong with me. I can't do magic right. I nearly killed people last year, just because I got upset. Snape is going to give me extra lessons and he's just going to be scary and bat-like the whole time. There's something weird going on with Mac, and I don't know how to help her. I don't know how to help Lachlan, either, even though he's obviously beating himself up over something no one wants to talk about, and he hates his own family because he's always so lonely. Remington knows something that he won't tell me, and he refuses to let anyone tell me, on top of that, and I hate Clearwater because she makes me feel dumb because she's a smartass and she's pretty good looking except for the zits, but no one seems to care about those, and the whole time I wallow around here crying and feeling sorry for my stupid scarred self."
After this outburst, I look around in the silence. Charlie is very gently rubbing my fingers and palms and doesn't look as disturbed as I thought he'd look, although Oliver looks very concerned and Percy is frowning again.
"You didn't tell me your mother was dying," he tells me. "You said she was sick and would get better."
"That's what I thought then."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be."
"But I am."
"I don't want you to be. I don't want you to feel sorry for me."
"No one feels sorry for you," Charlie interrupts. "You are perfectly capable with dealing with all this, you've just fallen into a rut. We can help you out."
"Yeah, do you want me to drop Penny or what?" Percy asks, and Charlie snacks him. "Ow!"
"One thing at a time," Charlie says, ignoring Percy. "First things first, you don't worry about anyone except yourself, alright?"
"But I want to be able to help people."
"You can't help anyone if you can't help yourself."
"I don't care about helping myself!" I snap. "I want to help my mother, and Mac and Lachlan and Remington and Chancer, but I don't know how!"
Charlie shakes his head. "You've got a big heart in you, kid. But you can let other people help you help other people, you know. We want to help you. Let us."
"This isn't pity Katica time," I mutter.
"We're not!" Charlie insists. "If nothing else, if you think Percy or Oliver are pitying you, if you're going to resist us, you'd better know that I fucking love you, and you'd better let me help you, because I'm going to help things get better for my girlfriend Katica Natsworthy whether you want me to or not. Got it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good girl." He pulls me into a tight hug and I hug him back with a ferocious feeling of gratefulness. "And you two," he says to Percy and Oliver, "you'd better help her too, or I'll kill you."
"No problem."
"Of course."
"Now, apologize, Percy."
"I'm sorry, Katica."
"And you," Charlie says, swinging to face Oliver, who looks faintly alarmed. "You're a good kid."
Oliver smiles, and looks pleased with himself, then slightly embarrassed because he idolizes Charlie as Seeker and Quidditch Captain. I can see the thoughts flying through his eyes and can't help but laugh at him.
"What?" he demands, indignant. "What's so funny?"
Mercy
By fourth year, Regulus has stopped talking to everyone that doesn't deeply immerse themselves in the Dark Arts, save for Carter and me, because we still meet up on Sunday afternoons at the library. He sort of grew his hair out and half of it covers his face like Severus does, except he is much more classically handsome than Severus' narrow eyes and slim jaw that's usually clenched in some form of annoyance. Regulus really hates it, but to me it seems pretty obvious that he's Sirius' brother, the two perfect models of male attractiveness.
On his return from summer vacation, Regulus had been re-immersed with his dark, scary friends, much to my dismay, but he promised to return to my house the next summer. The only thing stopping his parents from complaining that he hadn't been over for the summer is the nature of his friends. As long as he was becoming who they wanted him to, they were okay with him not being home.
"They don't really care," he tells me. "There's never been an emotional thing between us. Not like Aunt Callie and you."
"Oh, well, Callie tries. She's my father's cousin, she feels as bad about the accident as anyone else. Besides. Callie loves you."
"Yeah, she's nice," Carter chips in, looking up from his homework.
I'm sure there's something wrong about Carter- he acts like things are perfectly fine, but then I'll find him hunched over in some abandoned hallway or crying in an empty classroom. He won't tell me why, either. It's infuriatingly worrying, but whenever I ask him about it he pretends like I never spoke in the first place.
I have, on the other hand, begun to sing with Sirius, which is more amusing than anything else, except for when he drags me down to Hogsmeade and we perform to get money and free butterbeers. I've gotten him out of his old fashioned music a bit so that he listens to things that came out within the last twenty years. He's been delighted to discover that I enjoy spitting out verses rapid-fire with Tyler Joseph, and that his voice range fits perfectly with Andy Biersack's.
But, as Remus apparently had bet thirty more Galleons on, I've begun to go out with Felix. I swear, Remus is just making money out of me- and Sirius is very quickly losing money. He spent the summer with the Potters, so it's not as if he needs money, anyway. He's getting to be as spoiled as James is.
Lily's beginning to come around with James- excruciatingly slowly and reluctantly, even though the rest of us just wish they'd kiss already. Obviously this has left Severus somewhat more lonely than he's started out, and he's been sour about it for months. He's just starting to come around, which might just be because it's now summer or because I've been bothering him a lot about actually going outside- which he rarely does.
"Listen, Sev," I say, one Saturday in May when we're all outside, as he glares at Potter, who's fooling around with Sirius and flirting shamelessly with Lily. "Don't you ever get tired of working the death rays on Potter?"
"No."
"Oh, come on. You must not want to be that angry all the time."
He looks away, and towards me, as I stare up at the sky, completely relaxed. "I'm not angry," he says calmly. "I just don't like him."
"Right, right." I smile. "Lighten up."
He rolls his eyes. He's only let me persuade him to hang out with me because I'm from America and I don't have an official blood status. He usually has to find time to talk to Lily when the rest of his friends aren't there, because he's afraid that he'll get her in trouble.
"Don't look like that. You're lonely, I'm lonely, maybe being lonely isn't too bad after all," I say.
"You always say that."
"It's true."
He rolls his eyes again and crosses his legs beneath him. "It seems as if every word that comes from your mouth is true."
"Why, thank you, Sev."
Eye roll.
"Oh, relax."
We go back to reading and staring at the sky, and I'm sort of squinting at a cloud shaped like a huge dog when something very lightly touches my shoulder.
I've tossed my cloak aside, but Sirius dyed my shirts a gross orange color in revenge for my releasing of grasshoppers in his school bag, so I've been forced to wear Muggle clothes and not the thick collared shirts the school provides, which means I can very acutely feel it when Severus touches me.
Severus is resting a finger right where my collar bone meets my shoulder, exactly on top of the beginning of my scar. I glance over at him, but he continues to read, smiling slightly but not looking up. An unusually personal gesture on his part, because he doesn't touch people. After a few more moments, he drags his finger lazily across my scar, until his finger rests dead center on my chest. Then he continues on until he reaches my hip. He looks at me and smiles shyly.
I grin back, pulling the book out of his hands and yanking him flat onto the ground beside me. "Ready?"
"For what?"
"For being relaaaxed. Close your eyes."
"But that's stu-"
"No it isn't-"
"But-"
"If Potter comes over I will personally kill him."
He shuts his eyes. I press my palm against his, and he hesitantly curls his fingers around mine. We lie there in complete silence, and for a moment it feels almost as if we're floating.
"How's this for relaxing?"
"It's okay."
"Ah, come on," I say, rolling onto my stomach and leaning my elbow on the grass beside him and my chin in my elbow. "It's was pretty good, I thought."
He opens his eyes. "Maybe," he admits, and then laughs, which is another unusual thing for him, nowadays. "It's just the mood. Outside, sunny, with a good friend and all that stuff."
"I'm your good friend?" I tease, batting my eyelashes. "I'm flattered."
"Don't be," he teases. "I was talking about myself."
"Right." I very carefully place my finger between his eyes, which very nearly cross, and draw it down the bridge of his nose. He shivers a little, pushing my hand away. "Has anybody told you that you've got a ridiculously straight nose?"
"No."
"Ah, it's just because usually you can't see it very well, because of your hair-" I lift a chunk of hair from his face.
"I am not letting you cut it, Mercy Gaffery." He bats my hand away.
"Oh, stop it, Severus, you'll look better."
"No!"
"I don't feel like arguing with you right now. I guess I'm off my game today."
"Or you've decided to be nice for a day?"
"Ha ha."
"Edminston's behind you," Severus says, and I straighten as Felix approaches, tugging uncomfortably at his tie.
"Hi, Mercy, Severus. McGonagall's in a foul mood. She yelled at me because my tie wasn't tied properly."
"We set fanged frisbees and dungbombs off in the hallway in front of her office," I explain, looking over at Sirius, who has a struggling Potter held over the lake, where a few tentacles of the Squid rise out of the water. "And one of the frisbees got into her office. We didn't mean it to, it just happened."
He laughs, and finally manages to get his tie off, pulling it over his head and shoving it into his pocket. "Oh well. What're you getting up to?"
"I need a pair of scissors."
Severus scowls. "No, Mercy!"
"Yes, Severus!"
"No scissors on me, I'm afraid," Felix shrugs.
"Aha! I've got an idea." I yank Severus up into sitting, and he looks at me suspiciously as I scoot to sit behind him. I pull the hair tie off of my wrist, and in a few seconds pull his hair up into a ponytail, like Carter does.
"Pretty good," Felix says diplomatically, and I move to survey my work.
"I like it," I say, as Severus glares at me. "Look Severus, you can see out of both eyes now!"
"Very funny."
"Hey, Mere," Felix says, lying down in the grass. "The last Hogsmeade trip is next week. Want to come with?"
"Whatcha doing?"
"We might go to the bookstore and get butterbeers with Taliesin and Quirinus and a couple other of the guys."
"Sure," I agree amicably. "Want to come, Sev?"
"Well, I don't think-"
"Come on," Felix says. "It'll be nice to have you."
"We're just going to the bookstore like Ravenclaws do," I tease, "even though they've read all the books before."
"Don't objectify me," Felix protests, crossing his arms.
I lean forward and grin. "But you have read all the books, haven't you. Then you eat up the newest shipments. Don't lie, you have."
"Point, but not all of us have."
"You really think so?"
"Well, I'm not sure," he admits.
"I guess this means I win."
"No it doesn't!"
"I wiiiiin," I sing out.
"No, you haaaaven't," he sings back. "It's an unsure victory. So I win too."
"Nuh uh."
"Well, anyway, the point of it all-" Felix says, turning back to Sev. "Severus, will you come with us? One of the last trips of the year, you know. Might as well spend it with friends worth having."
Sev shrugs, then sighs reluctantly. "I suppose."
"Yes!" Felix and I exchange high fives, and Severus rolls his eyes again. Felix pulls Severus towards him, catching him in his elbow, and twisting his knuckles against the top of Severus' skull, giving him a noogie.
"Gah!" Sev protests, struggling to get free. "That hurts!"
He leaps to his feet and runs off down the side of the lake. Felix and I give chase, Felix repeatedly tripping on the ankles of his oversized, second hand pants and his untied shoelaces. He pauses to tie his shoes, and I tackle Severus, the two of us crashing straight into the lake.
Severus grabs me before I can sink farther way down, dragging me up, gasping for air as he hoists me up to the surface. "Stupid!" Severus pants, readjusting his grip on me. "Do you want to drown?"
"I'm glad you remembered that I can't swim!" I say, laughing.
"Stop laughing, it's making us sink!"
We see Felix as he stands there laughing as well. "You can't swim, can you?" he hollers to me, not moving to help. In an instant, Sirius appears and begins to manically wave his wand around, sending green sparks into the air.
"Oh, great Squid," he calls, "please accept this offering as a sign of my allegiance to you!"
Remus and I have long figured out that Sirius' whole things with the Squid has really just become his disparaging parody of his cousin Bellatrix's weirdly obsessive devotion to this 'Voldemort', the Dark Lord of the millennium.
"Sirius!" I complain. Severus is treading water, gripping me around the waist as hard as he can, to prevent me from sinking under the surface, but we're very slowly beginning to sink lower and lower. Sev doesn't dare swim for fear that he'll drop me. Eventually, Sirius and Felix help us out, and I push both of them into the water, and they fall, arms wheeling, simultaneously shouting in surprise.
"Mercy!" Felix howls, soaking wet.
"Where are you, Master? I love you!" Sirius says, after shaking his head like a dog, in a surprisingly good imitation of Bellatrix, looking down into the water.
He laughs so hard at his own imitation that he stops treading water and starts to sink, until he's completely underwater. Felix has to dive under to get him, before the grindylows do or the Squid does.
"Idiot," Severus says, pulling off his soaking wet cloak and struggling to remove the hair tie, wincing when he hears something rip.
"I've got it," I say, as Felix hauls Sirius feet first out of the water and drops him onto the ground, the two of them gasping for air. Sirius is coughing up water and Felix is empathetically smacking his back, until Sirius looks like he's about to die. I untangle the elastic and then comb his hair back better so I can tie it in again.
"Mercy, I don't want it in again!" Severus protests, turning towards me, which brings his face dangerously close to mine. His eyes widen, then slide half shut as we move closer together. In a split second, Sirius goes from lying on the ground, coughing up lake water, to getting straight up in our faces and pushing us apart.
"No! No! Baaaaad, Snape, baaaaad," Sirius says, bleating like a goat, "this is Felix's girlfriend." Severus just sort of blinks at Sirius in distaste.
"Sirius," I protest, "we weren't-"
"Nuh uh," he interrupts. "No, Mercy, only Felix and I are allowed to get that close to you."
"Since when are you included?"
"Well, to be fair, you two do scream in each other's face a fair amount when you sing," Felix says.
"Shhh," Sirius orders, pushing me so I'm standing next to Felix. "You're my OTP."
I gape at him, then laugh. "Liar!" I say, and he takes off running. "You're a liar! I know your OTP! Sirius! Come back!"
"NEVER!" he yells, voice faint, and I take off running after him. "YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME, ARMREST!"
"I'M SHORT, NOT SLOW!" I holler back.
Felix outstrips me, running as fast as his 5' 11'' frame allows, which is faster than me and Sirius- he's almost as tall as Carter is, and is mostly leg. When he's near to Sirius, Sirius looks back, and squawks in alarm as 5' 11' and 61 kgs barrels straight into him.
"Not fair!" he gasps, struggling for air as I approach and he leaps up and tackles me.
Halfway through running away, I stop short and step to the side, so that Sirius trips and runs straight past me into the ground.
Severus is talking to Antonin Dolohov and Thorfinn Rowle, and I very slowly walk over to him. Sirius, doubling back, slows and quiets, joining Felix and slowly following me towards Severus.
"Well, Severus," Dolohov is saying, "if you're done playing with your girl toy-"
Severus grits his teeth and I see his hand go to his wand in his pocket. Both of them notice this, and they laugh, drawing their own wands as well.
"You can't possibly think she's in love with you, really now," Rowle sneers. "Doesn't she already have a boyfriend? Come on, we've got business to attend to."
"What business could there possibly be?" Severus hisses.
"Followers, Severus, he's looking for followers."
"Do we have to do this now?"
"Why, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were... not completely loyal, hmm?"
"Jerk," Sirius mutters, under his breath. "Do you want me to stun him? I can stun him, you know."
I ignore him and take quick, long steps towards them, even though Felix protests. The three of them look at me in mild surprise, Dolohov and Rowle sneering slightly.
"Here she is, the pretty little girl herself," Dolohov says. "Hello." He holds out a hand to shake, but Severus knocks it away.
"Don't touch her."
"Something wrong?" Dolohov sneers. "A bit more possessive than I thought, I must admit, Severus."
"Go away," I say, since Severus seems unsure about saying it himself.
"Mercy," Severus mutters. "Don't let them make you the enemy or you'll be in trouble."
"Well," Rowle laughs. "At least she has more spirit than you." He lifts his wand and I reach to grab mine, but he's too quick and he yells out a spell.
Sirius hurls himself between us and the spell hits him. He collapses down on the ground with a howl of pain and then falls unconscious. I look at Rowle in horror, brandishing my own wand at him, but before I can do anything, Felix steps between us, using his height to tower over all of us, pushing both me and Severus back behind him.
"Get out," he says.
In almost slow motion, I see Dolohov raise his own wand, and I push Felix out of the way.
"Crucio!"
"NO!"
I'm blasted at least a foot back, and I hit the ground hard. I hear Felix's horrified scream before it overtakes me. It arrives. It strips me of reason it leaves me devoid of proper thought...
Cliffhanger yay! And Dancing-Souls, who ever you are, thanks for reviewing ';)