International Wizarding School Competition

WWN - Writing School

School: Durmstrang

Year: 7

Topic: Clarity in writing

Prompt: (word) sweat

Word Count: 789

Warning for a slice of life full of fluff, and mentions of WolfStar for those of you who aren't fans of the couple. I hope you all enjoy Beating the Heat.

The heat of the summer day was sweltering. It was the sort of day that you could visibly see the heat rising off of the pavement in front of in waves. Shimmering in the sunlight and making a thin sheen of sweat run over the brow of anyone foolish enough to be caught outside.

The cool-looking dark red fabric of the couch that was sitting under the window burned the backs of my legs as I sat down. Looking towards Lily as she shook her head and sat down on the floor. Remus taking a seat beside her. James and Sirius were standing by the fireplace in hopes that staying out of the sun would make them cooler.

"It's hotter than Merlin's saggy wand hostler in here," Sirius murmured, causing me to cast a slight glare at him.

My temper did tend to flare more during the early spring and summer. Today appears to be summer wanting to butt into spring though which made it much worse. I wiped a thin sheen of sweat off my face.

"It is awfully hot though," Remus commented, smiling gently over at Sirius. The two of them had been dating since Sirus and I broke up during the summer. "You don't have to glare at him like that, Mar."

I cocked my head at Remus and let the remark pass. "What do you guys want to do today?" I asked, feeling a pool of sweat begins to form in the curve of my cleavage.

"I vote for not a blessed a thing," Sirius said, walking over and laying down with his head now in Remus's lap. Remus's finger carding through the long hair.

"Of course you do," I said, rolling my eyes. "What about the rest of you guys?"

"What's that supposed to mean, Marlene?" Sirius asked, looking up at me. Anger shining in his eyes in an attempt to hide how hurt he was by what I'd said. I'd dated Sirius since our third year and knew him well enough to know when he was hiding something like that. "Why are you always so angry with me nowadays?"

I raised a blonde eyebrow at him. He dared to ask that when we had broken up the way that we had. I shake my head as the memory of finding Remus and Sirius together in the Quidditch locker room tried to come to my mind.

"Fair enough," he murmured backing down. "But still…."

"Why don't we go down to the lake for a swim?" Lily suggested, heading off the argument that she must have known was coming. "It's very good swimming weather and we could bring a picnic lunch with us. How does that sound?"

The rest of us agreed with Lily's plan with the exception of Sirius. It was always Sirius that wanted to go against what everyone wanted. That was one thing that I couldn't stand even when we had been dating.

"Why don't you want to go swimming?" I asked, folding my arms over my chest as I noticed the attention that our little group was starting to garner.

"My hair will get all messed up," he said, putting his hands protectively around his long black locks which Remus had taken to braiding at some point. "You know how I feel about my hair getting mused, Marlene."

I rolled my eyes once more feeling anger well up in my gut. Did Sirius ever think about anyone besides himself? I almost felt sorry for Remus who was whispering in Sirius's ear as I glared at them.

"Why don't we put it to a vote?" Remus said, prodding Sirius so that he could stand up. "All in favor of going down to the lake and swimming for a bit and then having a picnic, say aye."

Seven voices rose saying the word aye. Two or three hands raising in the air along with those ayes of agreement. Peter seemed to be jumping up and down in excitement. The sweat running down his face in torrents. It was almost comical in a way.

"All opposed say nay," Remus said, looking around although he knew that there was only going to be one naysayer.

"Nay," Sirius said, folding his arms over his chest in annoyance. "I thought you were going to agree with me, Moony."

"The ayes have it," Lily said, pulling me up by the hand and dragging me up to the girls' dorms.

As we trooped down to the lake Sirius included, although he complained about the sweat and his hair the whole, I couldn't help but think that today was turning into a pretty good day. And it would get even better once we all got into the nice cool water.

I hope you all enjoyed Beating the Heat as much as I enjoyed writing it.