The news that Colin Jackson had kissed a girl spread quickly throughout the Houses, until it seemed that the entire first year knew. The Gryffindor girls first found out about it at breakfast, where Sirius and James seemed to have taken it upon themselves to not only interrogate Colin, but every possible girl involved. The pair brought it up at every unlikely moment, trying to force them into giving various, and mostly meaningless, details of the previous night. Surprisingly though, they were not the ones to take the most interest in the now infamous kiss. This prize went to Amelie Bureau. The young French witch quickly became obsessed with the scandal, talking about it incessantly with anyone who would listen to her wild speculation of exactly what had happened and who it had happened to.
"I was speaking to a very well informed source earlier this morning," she explained importantly to Mary MacDonald as the pair walked to potions, "That it might have even gone further than a kiss on the cheek." She paused, taking a dramatic breath in before continuing, "Rumour has it that the kiss was, in fact, on the mouth." Mary gave a small gasp, as was expected of her, before Amelie continued talking, ignorant of her friend's poorly masked worry. She was so caught up in her own ridiculous theories on what had happened that she missed the way Mary's stomach knotted and face cringed at each inaccurate detail.
"-I mean it really makes you wonder what type of girl would kiss so freely."
"Yeah," Mary nodded in false agreement, desperately trying to think of a way to change the conversation. She dreaded to think what would happen if Amelie found out about her little indiscretion; the blonde witch had already made her thoughts on the matter quite clear. But she was wrong. This was a fact that Mary had to keep reminding herself about over and over, she was not the type of girl Amelie was making her out to be and she certainly hadn't kissed Colin on the mouth. Really, it hadn't even been a kiss and was in no way romantic- the boy had merely helped with her Herbology homework and the kiss had simply been a friendly thank you.
"Really, it makes you question what a girl like that is doing in Gryffindor. She obviously has no morals and is quite clearly-"
"A massive slut." Said a voice behind them, " But of course Colin, being a boy, is still simply Colin. Really, he should be congratulated. But she- this girl, being a girl, should feel ashamed and-"
"Alright Evans, we get the picture," Amelie snapped, turning round to face the girl who had been walking close behind them. Mary almost let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Lily Evans, the voice of reason and a clear signal to the end of Amelie's gossiping.
"I'm just saying that it's the seventies and we don't have to put up with this sexist, 'get back to the kitchen' nonsense anymore," Lily said simply, looking to the girls she had been walking with for support.
"Sounds about right to me," Martie said with a nod, "We don't need more people like my mum."
"Well, maybe you're only saying that because you're hiding something," Amelie said with a sniff.
"I didn't kiss Colin if that's what you're suggesting," Lily said quickly.
"No, you had detention last night and came straight back to the dorm to avoid Potter," Amelie mused, giving Lily a brief and somewhat forced smile before turning to Martie, "You however, Miss Matilda McClowers… well, not only do you have the correct initials, but I also don't seem to remember where you were for a large chunk of last night. You certainly didn't help us rectify the boy's dormitory."
"I was in the common room working on my Charms."
"You were in the common room working on your Charms," Amelie repeated, raising her eyebrows suggestively.
"Yes."
"And would those charms be directed toward Colin Jackson in any way?"
Martie rolled her eyes. "What do you think? We have Charms straight after break and I still can't even levitate a feather- even Peter can do that! You know Flitwick threatened detention if I hadn't mastered the spell. Do you really think I would be wasting my time snogging Colin?" she said incredulously, arms flailing in frustration. "Besides," she added, "he's not my type."
"Well, we will see about that," Amelie said ominously as the girls finally arrived at potions. She flipped her long, blonde hair over her shoulder as she entered, giving the bewildered girls yet another brief, forced smile before walking off to her seat. Mary started to follow her but stopped when Amelie turned around, giving her a confused and somewhat belittling look.
"There's a seating plan."
"Oh, yeah. Sorry," Mary said awkwardly before rushing over to her seat. She was normally good at remembering where each classroom was and always had the correct equipment for each lesson, but for some reason the young witch never remembered the seating plan in potions. In her muggle primary school they had been seated alphabetically and at Hogwarts most Professors didn't pay much attention to where they sat. Slughorn, however, was different, insisting that they remained in the same seat as the first lesson until he moved them to work with someone else to form a more efficient 'potion partnering', as he had happily dubbed it. For the time being Mary remained with her original partner, Remus Lupin. She sighed as she looked at the empty seat beside her. Whilst Remus was seemingly the nicest and most polite of the Gryffindor boys, he was always just as late as the rest of them. She had once had to wait fifteen minutes into the lesson for him to arrive, but it rarely took this long for the Gryffindors to turn up; indeed, only five minutes later, he stumbled into the dungeons with his friends.
"Sorry," he said as he walked through the door before quickly seating himself down as Slughorn began the lesson. "Sorry," he repeated to her, "This whole Colin kissing business kept Sirius and James distracted over breakfast." She smiled at the excuse but said nothing, insides squirming at the mention of the kiss.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes," she said stiffly, determinedly avoiding eye contact, not even daring to glance at the boy, afraid he would guess her secret.
"Are you sure? Because if you need to go to Matron I can take you."
Forcing herself to smile she said, "No, I'm fine."
Remus gave a small smile, unconvinced. "Okay, but if you need to go, tell me." She nodded. "Now with what I was saying before- James and Sirius have become a little obsessed over this whole kiss thing and I don't know if you realised but you have the same initials as the girl who kissed Colin so they have asked me to ask you if it was you and where you were and stuff. "
Mary froze in fear. It felt as if her heart had stopped and the whole world had slowed down, intensifying this one moment. What would Amelie think of her? Well she knew what she would think; whilst what Lily had said was sarcastic it essentially summed up Amelie's view of Colin's mystery girl. 'Slut'. Why had she kissed him?
"Don't worry," Remus said quickly, giving her yet another smile, "I'm not going to actually ask- I mean I was also meant to be subtle about it and I don't think that 'subtle' would ever be considered as a definition for what I just did. I just wanted to let you know that if you want to tell me where you were to clear your name and stop them hassling you, then you can do that, and if you don't then that's cool and I will say that you caught on to what I was doing."
"Right," Mary said, a little confused.
"Sorry, I don't think that quite made sense. Do you want me to explain again?"
"No, it's fine, let's just get on with the work," Mary said, quickly turning to read the instructions Slughorn had written on the blackboard. "So for this one I think we need to add the newt's eyes first?"
"Yeah," Remus said, quickly scanning the board to double check, "Sounds about right to me. I don't have any though, do you?"
"No, I'll go get some from the store cupboard."
"You sure? If you're still feeling ill, I can go and-"
"Remus, it's fine. I'll go."
Mary quickly weaved her way through each pair, keeping her head down as she passed the Slytherins before finally arriving at the store cupboard and quickly rummaging around. She couldn't find any newt's eyes, so she took a few dead newts from a jar, wrinkling her nose slightly at their smell and slimy texture, resolving to somehow cut the eyes out once she was back at her table.
"Miss MacDonald, what are you doing with those newts?" She almost dropped the jar in shock at Slughorn's sudden booming voice. The professor stood in the doorway, looking at her curiously.
"Sorry professor, my partner and I don't have any newt's eyes, so I was going to cut them out of the newt," she said quickly.
The rounded Professor smiled and shook his head. "Even if you somehow manage to do it without ruining the quality of the eye, it will take too long. Are there any newt's eyes in the cupboard which aren't attached to a newt?"
"No. Sorry Professor."
Slughorn sighed and scratched his head, "Have you switched potions partners yet?"
"No Professor."
"Well, this would be the perfect opportunity to do so," he said, beaming. He quickly ushered her out of the store cupboard and made his way to his desk, where he extracted a long list of names with odd symbols next to them. She immediately spotted her own name written next to Remus's in red ink. Next to it stood a large M with a line through it, a question mark and the number 5 followed by various incomprehensible squiggles. She frowned at this, unsure of what each meant.
"You're currently partners with Remus Lupin?" Slughorn asked as he began examining the parchment.
"Yes Professor."
Slughorn nodded and began muttering quietly to himself, tracing his wand across the piece of paper, dragging hers and Remus' names about and realigning them with various other people. It was a few minutes before a satisfied smile appeared on the Professor's face.
"Okay, Miss Macdonald, if you want to gather your things I will take you to your new partner."
Colin Jackson. Slughorn had paired her with Colin Jackson. Mary felt her face immediately flush with a mixture of anger and embarrassment as she sat herself down next to the boy she had kissed less than twenty four hours before. Slughorn couldn't have known or even guessed what had happened, she knew this, yet she couldn't help but feel angry towards the dumpy professor. It made no sense; whilst she was nowhere near the bottom of the class she also wasn't close to the top. Colin, on the other hand, happily showed off his superior knowledge, loudly pronouncing every correct answer and good mark. Remus's pairing also didn't make sense. Slughorn had put the intelligent and hard working boy with Allie Adams. Whilst the girl appeared nice enough, she was, quite simply, hopeless at Potions. Only the previous lesson she had somehow managed to add asphodel to hers and Colin's potion, an ingredient that was not even on the list, turning the liquid an odd, gloopy, mustard yellow, opposed to the light blue it was meant to be. However Allie and Remus's odd coupling was none of Mary's concern, instead she had to turn her attention to more important matters at hand, namely the kiss she had given Colin.
"Hello Mary," Colin said coyly, scooting his chair over so it was closer to hers.
"Hi Colin," she said, not daring to look at him. Instead she set about awkwardly rearranging the items on her desk.
"I think we need to talk."
"So do I," Mary said quickly, taking a deep breath, "We need to talk about that-" she stopped, unable to say the dreaded and embarrassing word, "about that… you know…" she looked at him uncomfortably.
"Kiss?"
"Shh!" She said quickly, practically leaping out of her seat as her hand shot up to cover his mouth. "It wasn't a kiss, alright?"
"Mmhm," he nodded through her hand.
"Sorry." She took her hand away from his mouth and gave him an apologetic look, "Sorry."
"It's fine," he said as she quickly glanced around to make sure no one was watching them.
"I haven't told anyone about us if that's what you're worried about."
"Thank you," she said, missing the hurt in his voice, "And see, this is the thing Colin- there is no us."
"What?" His voice suddenly went high pitched, a sting of tears appearing in his eyes.
"There's no us."
She hadn't meant to sound so harsh and cold, but she had to stop any kind of relationship with him, if only for the sake of her friendship with Amelie. She knew how stupid it sounded to sacrifice one friendship for another, but it had to be done. Amelie, a beautiful and confident person- the type Mary would never have even dreamt associating with, had been nice to her. She had wanted to be her friend. Amelie made her feel special and pretty. She leant her hair and beauty products, gave her makeovers and the pair stayed up later than all the other girls at night to gossip about them. They were already planning spending their Christmas holidays together; Amelie had wanted to go to Mary's house and the girl was only too happy to say yes. The only thing that threatened what to Mary seemed a perfect friendship was her kiss with Colin. She simply dreaded to think what would happen if the girl ever found out. Severing all ties with Colin was the best, and admittedly only, way she could think of making sure that that never happened. If she and Colin even spoke to each other, let alone began to spend time together, she could only assume that people would talk.
"There is no us?" Colin repeated in disbelief.
"That's what I said Colin."
"But- but- you kissed me?" his voice trembled as he said it. He looked at her, desperately searching for some sign in her face that contradicted the words coming out of her mouth.
"I'm sorry Colin, it didn't mean anything." Mary was about to comfortingly place her arm on the boys shoulder when she spotted Amelie's bright blue eyes staring at her from across the classroom.
"Don't cry Colin," she said instead, retracting her arm and turning to the potion that they were meant to be working on.
"I wasn't about to," Colin said stiffly.
"Good. Can you pass me the bottle of flobberworm mucus?"
"What?" Colin said, surprised not only at the sudden change in conversation, but the sudden change in Mary. The girl had made her voice uncharacteristically light and the smile that graced her lips was undeniably forced.
"The bottle of flobberworm mucus," She repeated, "can you pass it to me?"
"Oh, yes. Sorry." He passed the girl the labelled bottle.
They continued throught the lesson in near silence, exchanging only the odd word, wincing every time their hands brushed against each other. Mary felt as though she was in a bad rom-com, like something her mother watched. Despite the boy's over bearing ego, Colin had been nice to her and helped her out a lot- she certainty wouldn't have been able to do her homework by herself. And, whilst romantically she had no feelings towards him, she wouldn't have minded becoming friends. But she had to push these thoughts to the back of her mind. Her main priority was keeping her friendship with Amelie intact and keeping her reputation clean. She did not want to be labelled a slut. Still, she couldn't help but wonder if she was being too harsh towards Colin. She should at least have apologised for kissing him and accidently leading him on. She was about to turn to the blonde boy when she yet again noticed Amelie staring at her from across the room, eyes narrowed and smirk firmly imprinted on her face. Mary flushed and turned immediately to the potion, not even daring to talk, let alone make eye contact with Colin whilst Amelie was clearly observing them. She remained like this for the rest of the lesson, becoming fixated with the potion and re-checking the instructions, determined not to look at the boy standing next to her. She couldn't help but audibly sigh in relief when Slughorn dismissed the class and she could finally gather up her books and leave.
"So," Amelie said, running to catch her up as she made her way down a corridor, "did you enjoy the lesson?"
"Yes," Mary said, trying to maintain neutral and in control of her features.
"Oh that's good," Amelie said, still staring intently at her friend. Mary nodded, unsure of what to say next.
"You know, I was doing some thinking in the lesson Mary," Amelie continued, "and it has only just dawned on me that you have the same initials as that- well I don't like to use such language, but you have the same initials as that slut who kissed Colin."
"Oh really?" Mary said, fighting to keep her tone vague and uncaring.
"Yes, really," Amelie repeated, suddenly spinning round on her heels so she was face to face with her friend, blocking her and making them both abruptly stop in the middle of the corridor, "yes, you do."
"Oh."
"Did you kiss Colin Mary?" Amelie had lost all kindness from her voice by now. Instead the tone she took was threatening, every syllable coated in an underlying menace. Yet she still smiled. Coaxingly she said, "Come on Mary, you can tell me, we are friends."
Mary nodded, unable to speak. But she couldn't tell Amelie the truth, she didn't want to lose her. She couldn't lose her.
"No." She heard the lie easily escape her mouth, immediately feeling the relief in bought.
"No?" Amelie's eyebrows shot up, her eyes boring into Mary's, "Are you quite sure you're telling me the truth. Only enemies lie to each other."
Enemies. The word struck Mary as odd, yet still evoked the reaction that Amelie had sought after.
"I'm sorry Amelie, I didn't mean it, it wasn't on the lips, I-"
"I can't believe you."
"I'm so sorry Amelie, I won't ever speak to him again, I'll do whatever makes it right in your eyes-"
"Well it isn't just me that you have to please, imagine what everyone else will think of you if this comes out," Amelie said, absentmindedly twiddling a strand of long blonde hair around her finger.
"No! Amelie please, don't tell them!"
"Mary, honey, we're friends! Do you really think I would tell everyone your secret?"
Mary felt relief immediately rush over her, "thank you so much Amelie."
"Don't mention it," the French girl said, waving her hand through the air, "I'm sure you'll make it up to me. Besides, what you did with Colin will probably come out without my help."
"What?" Mary asked, confused.
"Well James and Sirius seem pretty intent on finding out who kissed Colin," Amelie said, still smiling.
"What can I do Amelie?" Mary asked, looking up pleadingly into her friends blue eyes.
"Well," the girl took a long pause as she continued to twirl her hair with her fingers, "I guess the only way to make people forget about it would be to distract attention from yourself."
"That's fine, I can handle becoming near invisible."
"No, that won't be enough," Amelie said, becoming serious for the first time in the conversation, "You need to find another scandal, one that is so big and so outrageous that it will blow yours out of the water."
Mary gulped. "Ok, but what if I can't find one?"
"Then make it up!" Amelie said brightly, "as long as it's realistic and plausible enough it will work. Oh and also you need to keep away from Colin and not kiss any other boys," Amelie added as Mary quickly nodded in agreement, "I have many a boy chasing me at the moment, but I don't give in and I would never be so sluttish as to actually give them a kiss."
"Who?" Mary asked, the words escaping her mouth before she really thought them through.
"Huh?"
"Who are the boys' chasing you?" Mary asked shyly, keen not to reaffirm her position in Amelie's bad books.
"Oh," Amelie giggled, turning a girlish pink, "Well every now and then I find a few boy's looking at me and what not. But today, in potions, I realised that there is this one boy who is constantly looking at me. I think he might be a little obsessed."
"Have you spoken to him?"
"Not directly, no. I think he's a bit shy, bless him. But the way he looks at me- he's obviously got a crush." Amelie smiled to herself, almost forgetting about their previous conversation in which she had labelled girl's who kiss boy's 'sluts'.
"Who is it?" Mary asked.
"Well, I shouldn't really say as I don't want to embarrass him. But, as we're friends," Mary couldn't help but beam at the word, "I really should tell you." She paused dramatically, taking a deep breath, "It's James Potter."
"Really?"
"Yes. He is absolutely simply smitten with me, I swear the boy is infatuated- not that I would ever give in to one of his advances, but still…" Her voice trailed off as the two girls began to make their way down the corridor, linked arm in arm. Mary couldn't help but think how lucky she was as she listened to Amelie talk about James. Despite disapproving of what she had done, Amelie had not only forgiven her, but showed her the way out of the difficult situation. All she had to do now was dig up a scandal big enough to eclipse her own. Or make one up.
update: once again I have decided to make two chapters in to one so I have decided to put both the authors notes for the two chapters below :)
AN: Dear readers, if you are expecting a long, garbled apology on why this is so late and short (although, to be fair this chapter isn't my shortest) accompanied with various, mismatched and unrelated excuses, then I am afraid to say that you are absolutely right (and that I am getting rather predictable). Sorry. I am honestly so, so, so sorry for leaving this so long. Please forgive me :) (and now for the excuse...) basically my lovely parents forgot to tell me that we were going down to my Grandparents for about a week until less than a day before. unfortunately my Grandparents don't have internet so not only have I have been unable to upload anything, I also didn't bother taking my laptop down (forgetting that I could still write fanfiction without the internet I'm stupid, I know) so haven't written anything for a week :/ so yeah, I am so so so sorry :( also I might be going on holiday later this week so if that happens I obviously won't be able to post or write (no internet/can't take my laptop anyway) anything :( sorry :( (hopefully I will be able to update before I go on holiday to confirm this) now, onto other stuff :) I would like to give a massive thankyou to Dndchk for beta-ing this :) I would also like to give a massive thankyou to every single one of you for just reading this story :D and a special thankyou to those who favourite, subscribe or review (especially if that review contains constructive criticism as that is always ridiculously helpful) :) and I'm not just saying that to make you like me or appear like a nice person, each and everyone of you truly inspires me to continue writing this story and if you review then you are especially helping me out with it :) you are all amazing :D thankyou :) this kinda-ish brings me on to my next thing. I received a review from the very lovely Athena's-Dragon-138 asking me to stop replying to the reviews at the end of each chapter. I have thought long and hard about this and decided that what she (or he) is saying makes perfect sence so, following her (or potentially his)advice I will instead reply to reviews through PM (private messaging) unless they are very important (like this one) and need to be addressed either in the authors note or directly below it :) however as I obviously can't reply to anonymous reviews in this way I will still reply to them at the bottom of the chapter :) I have also decided that as reviews are so so so important to me (incase I have neglected to mention this: they are truly amazing, especially if they are constructive, critical and encouraging) I still want to acknowledge them within the story in some way :) now I know this is stupid, and not nearly enough for what you wonderful reviewers really deserve, but I'm going to dedicate each chapter to those who reviewed the last and leave a list of names at the bottom of each chapter (if this doesn't make sence scroll down and you will see what I mean) as I just said I know this isn't enough, but yeah, it's my (very) small way of saying thankyou :) so thankyou wonderful people of fanfiction :)
millie~mae
p.s.- guest asked if there was going to be any remus/sirius slash and I am sad to say that there won't :( Although I personally love wolfstar and belive that it works completely in the world of cannon, but some (really wierd) people (who don't seem to own a heart) disagree, so I have decided not to (maybe I should write another story eh?).
AN: so... yeah. I'm guessing I'm going to have to explain this chapter (and character) a little bit which is something I really didn't want to do. Basically I didn't want you to think I was going all Mary-Sue on you with, urm, Mary's character and her friendship with Amelie. I promise you that her weakness and the overly controlling relationship is completely intentional. I only realised after writing the chapter that I shouldn't have written from her p.o.v. but I kinda needed to. As I have said previously I don't plan what I write, the plot just forms itself, but I have created my characters properly (I promise) and know their entire history and personality and what not inside and out, and although I don't have a plot lined out I sort of know what I want to do with character development and stuff to almost every first year Gryffindor, and even a few from the other houses and years (some of which haven't even been introduced yet, or only seen briefly). (so despite the lack of plot I have already in previous chapters thrown in some foreshadowing, making me feel very smug indeed.) So what I am trying to say is:
1) yes, I was stupid to write from Mary's p.o.v. and I apologise in advance
2) no, she isn't a Mary-Sue, all similar traits are intentional (so I hope this somehow stops her being one. Also I would like to point out she isn't the main character and everyone doesn't love her- I think that this stops her being one too)
3)I know I should delete this and chapter 30, but it is needed for future (very, very, far, far, far future) character development, and also so you know them a bit better when they are just mentioned in general.
I was going to stop at 3 (and officially have, as I think it looks nicer... yes, I am a wee bit wierd) but also I promise I haven't made a classic harry potter fanfiction writer mistake in not making sure that the characters are suited to the houses, I know it won't be obvious yet, but I promise that I have thought it through :)
So I am sorry for writing such a long AN explaining my chapter, which I know is an absolutely awful thing to do (story's are like jokes- if they have to be explained then they tend to be a bit shit) but, in this case, I thought it might be necessary. Thank you so so so much to every single one of you beautiful, amazing and undeniably sexy people for reading this. You are all amazing. And a special thankyou to everyone who reviews, favourites or adds to their alerts :) you guys are just too cool. I would also just like to say that this chapter unfortunately isn't beta-ed (hopefully the next one should be) so I take full responsibility for any and every mistake :) love you guys!
~millie-mae
ps: I always forget to write a disclaimer and I think that we all know why. Yes, that is right, I, JK Rowling, the first person to ever become a billionaire from writing books, have decided to pose as a fifteen year old girl online and write fanfiction for my own creation.
pps (or pss, I can never remember): I was lying. I'm sure you are all very surprised. Just to reiterate: I am not JK Rowling, I am not making any money what so ever from doing this and I certainatly didn't create, or in any way own Harry Potter. If I did... well Umbridge would be dead for a start.
This chapter is dedicated to the lovely Athena's-Dragon-138, the brilliant SmartiesChocolate222, the incredible jamesprongslover123, the fantastic Zinnaella Amilie-Anne Black, the mysterious 'Guest', the down right amazing Sorenson Carlisle, the beautiful CoralFlower, the superb ladybug28, the spectacular Blue Luver5000, the magnificent Catalyste and the supermegafoxyawesomehot Dndchk. Thank you.
