CHAPTER NINE: AMERICAN COWSLIP

Reviews:

moonwatchersilveny: cool, cool... thanks for reviewing!

true-fangirl1204: oh, no, this isn't a Dumbledore-bashing fanfiction. I personally don't feel like Dumbledore deserves to be hated, because although he did make some mistakes, he's still human, so... yeah. Anyway, I agree. If I were Raven, I'd want to get revenge, too—no matter how simple it is. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

BabaLooWho: yeah, I just really wanted to show that Alderton is that inept. And, yeah, I agree. And... I usually do, I'm just attempting to update two chapters a week. We'll see how that turns out, I guess. Thanks for reviewing!

Word count: 1,770

ONTO THE NEXT CHAPTER!

Monday rolled around once more.

The first week was boring. Mondays were even more boring. She only had two classes, and they were History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts—and both were arguably the worst classes. History of Magic was taught by Professor Binns, a ghost with a supernatural ability that allowed him to be so boring, it put people to sleep. And Defense Against the Dark Arts was taught by Professor Alderton. Not much more was needed to prove that class was awful, but she just had to say that he clearly had no idea what he was doing.

It was no wonder that Raven woke up in a bad mood.

Lily, of course, woke up on time. She wasn't a morning person, but incredibly dedicated to her studies, and although she wouldn't cry like Hestia, she didn't like being late. She just wasn't as chirpy as she normally was—but she wasn't a zombie, either.

Hestia was a morning person, though. She had a personality as warm as the sun, and rose with it. She and Raven were polar opposites. Hestia was excessively kind. Raven was borderline rude. Hestia was always cheerful. Raven was so grumpy, cheerful wasn't even a part of her vocabulary. Hestia cried easily. Raven didn't remember the last time she cried.

(Well, she did, but she desperately wanted to forget it).

Marlene was the same in the mornings as she was at any other time—which is to say, she was always weird. But weird in that way that seems to attract everyone. Even though she spent most of her time with Raven, Hestia, and Lily, she was constantly being approached by others. Everyone wanted to talk with her, it seemed. Raven didn't get it. She was also pretty annoyed with Kadara (even though he didn't actually exist), because of courseshe, the one person who didn't want to talk with Marlene, was one of the three people Marlene wanted to talk to. Just her luck.

And then, there was Raven's fourth roommate, Mary McDonald. She was... actually normal. So normal, it was painful. She made Raven wonder if she actually had a personality.

Yet, somehow, Hestia, Lily, and Marlene managed to befriend her.

Mary wasn't necessarily a bad person. She was nice enough to wake Raven up when Hestia, Lily, and Marlene ditched her. Lily and Marlene probably forced Hestia to go with them, because she was still doing her best to earn Raven's forgiveness. It was stupid, because there wasn't really anything she had to be forgiven for, but Hestia was so intent on being a thorn in Raven's side, she wouldn't listen to reason.

Still, Raven couldn't help but feel odd around Mary McDonald.

For one, once Raven finished washing up, she found Mary outside just... sitting there. On her own bed, but still; it felt weird. And when she asked her why she was still there, Mary just said that she was "waiting for her" like it was obvious.

Despite this, Mary hadn't actually done anything that was downright malicious. Raven would just keep an eye on her. For now.

Raven was sick and tired of Professor Alderton. He continued his lecture on heartless that was everything but accurate, and he kept giving Raven pitying looks because he had somehow deluded himself into believing that she was a victim to the heartless' cruelty.

Good grief.

But as she was walking out of another torture session (at the end, of course; no matter how dumb the class was, walking out would draw too much negative attention), she heard something that made her heart (yes, Professor Alderton. Heartless do have hearts) sing:

"Forgive me for saying this, but Professor Alderton is a fool."

Raven's eyes grew wide as she looked around, frantically trying to pinpoint where those words of wisdom came from.

"I'm serious. Stop laughing, James."

James! Whoever said that was talking to a James! And there was...

A lot of people named James in this class.

Why were there so many Jameses?

Then, she heard a snicker coming from the same direction: "No, I'm Sirius; you're Remus."

That... was an unfortunately familiar voice. It was Sirius Black's. Raven scowled, mentally preparing herself for having to deal with his stupidity. It took her about a minute, but she managed to catch Remus before he left the room.

"Hey," She tapped his shoulder. He turned around and looked down to her, because he was very tall, standing a good three to four inches over Raven, and she was relatively tall—or, at least, medium height. "You're Remus, right?"

Remus smiled hesitantly. "Yes, I'm Remus Lupin."

Of course he was. Why did Raven even have to confirm it? Her hearing was impeccable.

Despite her inner (rather narcissistic) thoughts, she said, "Well, I heard you say that Alderton is—quote unquote—a fool. And I was wondering—"

"Whoa!" James Potter interrupted her, hazel eyes wide. Apparently, Sirius Black wasn't the only annoying one. "You heard that? But you were all the way across the classroom! You must have superhuman hearing."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Yes, that would be correct. Anyway, Lupin, I was wondering, why would you say that?"

Remus shuffled his feet, and he almost sounded ashamed when he said in the softest voice imaginable, "Well... everything he said about heartless is just wrong."

But he didn't stutter. He was clearly confident in his knowledge about heartless, and did Raven dare to hope that he'd actually know the truth?

Yes. Yes, she did.

Raven had to fight her facial muscles to not grin, because Remus Lupin might've been the single decent human in the world.

One thing led to another, and Raven found herself agreeing to study with Remus Lupin sometimes. And all this happened without having to deal with Sirius Black! An accomplishment!

Raven was silently celebrating this during dinner. Marlene, Lily, Hestia, and Mary wanted to celebrate, too, but not her success; they wanted to celebrate their first week at Hogwarts.

Raven scoffed when Lily suggested this to her. "Really? So are you going to celebrate after our first month, too? First year? It's pointless. Besides, surviving one week in school really isn't an accomplishment. Good grief, you guys have such low standards."

This left the four girls gawking at her, and at first, Raven thought they'd be angry at her. She kind of deserved it; she mocked them and called them underachievers at the same time. She'd be furious, herself, if someone said something like that to her.

But then Mary exclaimed, "That was six sentences! I've never heard you say so much at a time."

Marlene agreed. "Did something nice happen or something?"

Raven glared.

Lily gasped. "Something nice did happen! Your glare isn't half as scary as it normally is."

Hestia giggled nervously. "Uh... It's still plenty terrifying, though."

Marlene gasped theatrically. "You hear that, Nightshade? Your face is just that ugly!"

Hestia shook her head frantically. "No, no! You're very pretty! It's just... you're very intimidating!" Seeming to realize that Raven wasn't impressed, she cried out, "I'm so sorry! You're very pretty! It's just that you never ever smile, and it's... it's almost scary! No, it's very, very scary! But you're not ugly! You're beautiful! I mean... But not in a weird way!"

Marlene, Lily, and Mary cackled, because their sense of humor was just that jacked up.

Raven scowled as Hestia buried her face in her hands. "Are you trying to irritate me into agreeing to celebrate with you?" she asked them, ignoring Hestia. She was too dramatic.

Marlene grinned a grin that was so beautiful, it would make a lesser woman melt—even if they were straight. Raven was pretty sure she was straight, and it still took all of her willpower to not blush at something so unnaturally attractive.

Okay, that didn't sound like she was straight...

"I'll take that means it's working, then?" Marlene asked, grey eyes glittering with humor like sunshine on a frozen lake. Raven may or may not have felt her heart skip a beat as she stared at them. Her eyes were too gorgeous for Raven's mental wellbeing.

Raven summoned all the venom she had in her own eyes—silvery green eyes that she used to think were pretty but paled in comparison to Marlene's—and channeled it into her glare. Then, she sighed, because glaring can be exhausting.

Also, Marlene's smile completely destroys any and all wishes to fight in everyone.

Wait, what happened to being straight?

"Fine," she gave in, but only because it was hard to not give in to Marlene's prettiness—sorry, pettiness. "I'll celebrate this absolutely pointless occasion with you."

Marlene and Lily cheered. Hestia stuttered out an apology with burning cheeks for her earlier word vomit. Mary cursed when she knocked over her goblet of pumpkin juice—with no intervention on Raven's part.

Well, at least she found a defining trait for Mary; she was clumsy.

And maybe celebrating wouldn't be that bad... Celebrations have food, after all.

Still, to make herself feel better, she made Sirius Black's pumpkin juice fall onto him... for the tenth time.

In the language of flowers, AMERICAN COWSLIPS represent divine beauty (also known as Marlene McKinnon).

Wow. Look at Raven, being all teenage girly and mentally ranting about someone's beauty. And actually talking to someone without being forced to. Such character development.

Questions:

1. Favorite quote from chapter nine?

2. What do you think will happen during the "celebration?"

And, remember; please review!

~Sarcasticsnark13