Sunday 5th January 1975
Fourth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 10:30
Sirius jumped as the door opened. Something he definitely had not been expecting this early in the day.
"Sirius?" James asked in amazement, standing in the doorway with a rivalling look of shock on his face.
His trunk even fell to the ground with a 'BANG' in his shock. Sirius hoped that there was nothing breakable in there.
Sirius gave a small and awkward feeling wave. "Hi. Good hols?"
"Yeah, I did. I thought I'd be the first back," James said questioningly.
Technically, he would be if Sirius had been coming back to Hogwarts today. Mother and father never sent them back too early - it wasn't good manners. But he hadn't been returning to Hogwarts today, had he? Not that he wanted to explain that to James. Too many awkward questions that he could do without.
"I was early," Sirius answered with a shrug.
It wasn't like he was lying. He had been early. Days early in fact.
"You got up early?" James teased.
Sirius just stuck out his tongue at that. It really was the only appropriate response.
"How come your early?" Sirius changed the subject.
James was definitely never the first back. His parents actually enjoyed spending time with them and they usually at least had lunch together on the last day of the holidays.
"Dad had to catch a Portkey. He's off to some Potions Conference in Germany and mum's going with him. She loves Berlin."
"Oh."
What else was there to say to that? Suddenly, James grinned at him.
"This is great!" James declared, bouncing himself onto Sirius' bed. "I thought I was going to be all bored and stuff for hours until one of you showed up but now, I'm not!"
"We're just going to be bored together instead," Sirius said.
What could they really do when basically no one was in the castle? Gryffindor was particularly abandoned, it looked like no one had stayed over the Christmas holidays. Which explained why McGonagall had said that she hadn't been in the castle in days when he had first arrived. Even when she went home for Christmas she checked in every day if people stayed in the Tower. That's what Remus and a few others said anyway.
"Boredom is not a word in my vocabulary, my dear Sirius!"
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Dear Sirius?" but James ignored him and continued to prattle on.
"We cannot be bored, not worth our great minds."
The latter was something he could agree with but he was still bored. Before he could point this out, James continued.
"For, I, I have a plan! And it involves a new spell I found..."
Now that definitely did sound promising...
Professor McGonagall's Office, 20:00
"Hi, Professor," Marlene greeted her Head of House around her open door. "Is Lily back yet?"
She didn't think so, as she hadn't seen her, but it was good to check. Lily might have gone straight to the Potions Lab or something - knowing her but it was quite late for that. Hopefully anyway and Marlene would like to think that Lily would at least say hi to her before rushing off down to the Dungeons.
"Not yet, Miss McKinnon, but she is due," Professor McGonagall replied, eyeing the fireplace. "The Evans were quite happy to get a temporary floo connection set up again so she and her sister should be coming through soon."
Sure enough, just as she finished saying that, someone appeared in the flames. It was Chryssie and she stumbled out of the fireplace, just managing to catch herself before emailing flat on her face.
'Hi, Professor!" she chirped happily, shifting the bag on her back. "Marlene."
"Hello, Miss Evans, did you have a good holiday?"
Chryssie nodded. "Oh yes, lots of family was over so it was lots of fun. How about you, Professor?"
"Also, good. Too much good food," McGonagall replied pleasantly. "Don't forget to step away so your sister can come through."
"Oh yeah."
Just in time too because the fire turned a bright green and Lily appeared.
"Oof!"
Marlene had to bite back a laugh as Lily literally fell out of the fireplace. She quickly looked away so Lily wouldn't see her face and caught the expression on McGonagall's. She was smothering a smile too! Chryssie, of course, had no such compunction and was giggling like crazy.
"Why can't I ever land right?" Lily complained, picking herself up and frowning down at her soot-covered robes.
"Most Muggleborns do get a knack for it after a while," Professor McGonagall informed her, handing her clothes brush specifically designed for brushing soot off.
"I have!" Chryssie said brightly, earning a glare from her sister for her trouble.
"How come Lily hasn't?" Marlene asked, receiving a disgruntled look from her friend.
"I'm not sure," their Head of House admitted.
"It's not like I like travelling by it anyway," Lily grumbled, handing back the brush. "Thank you, Professor."
"It is the easiest way to travel," she was told. "Apparition takes a bit of skill and does have some limitations depending on how powerful you are."
"Well, I'll just make sure I'm really good at that then."
"Bet you'll still land on your bum!" Chryssie crowed.
Which, of course, did nothing at all to sweeten Lily's mood. In fact, Lily dove at her younger sister who yelped and promptly ran out of the office. Lily was soon hot on her heels. Marlene laughed.
"Please make sure they don't hurt themselves, Miss McKinnon," Professor McGonagall instructed.
"Yes, ma'am," Marlene agreed, giving her a wave and running to catch up.
"And no running in the corridors!"
Tuesday 7th January 1975
Gryffindor Common Room, 20:00
Frank was sitting quite stiffly on one of the coveted armchairs by the fire. His elbows were on his knees and his head was in his hands as his stared into the flickering flames. Something that was usually soothing to him but not now. He couldn't focus on them now. Not when he had something serious to concentrate on.
That something serious was the Career Talk he and the rest of his year were going to have with their respective Heads of Houses. Because they were fifth year students. Doing their OWLs. Something no one was letting the forget this year. As they shouldn't. Their exams were in less than five months. Five months! That was barely any time at all!
But before those it was going to be this Career Talk where, again, he had no clue what he was going to talk about. Was learning how to manage his family's accounts and how to run the Family estate a career? It wasn't like it was a traditional career but that was what he was going to do. He was literally born into it - not much choice there. Not that he needed one. Of course, he didn't. He was proud to be able to carry on the Family Name and work hard towards it. He just didn't know if Professor McGonagall was going to see it the same way. Or if he was going to have to talk about it.
Like he had had to do over Christmas and that really had been enough. It would have been enough for anyone, quite frankly.
He loved his family, he really did. Well, most of them. Uncle Algie was a bit weird and talked a lot about toads but he was family so it was okay. Most of the time. Just like he loved his family. Most of the time. Except when they all wanted to give him their opinions. And they really enjoyed giving their opinions. Apparently, they had a lot of them. And that was the problem.
See, fifth year was when you had the Career Talk with your Head of House. It was to help you decide what NEWTS you were going to take in sixth and seventh year. Which was all very well and good but he wasn't going to be going into a career, was he? He was going to be helping in the running of his Family. What sort of NEWTs was he meant to take for that? It was like chasing electives all over again but this time he was restricting his subjects instead of expanding them. Which made this much more serious! What if he dropped the wrong subject? Was there a wrong subject for him?
He buried his face in his hands. It really was Second Year all over again. Only worse. And he didn't like it. Who knew when you had less choices people's opinions got louder? There was a lesson in that somewhere but Crank really didn't have the brain power to decipher that right now.
The sofa dipped next to him and he tried not to sigh too loudly at the intrusion. He just wasn't up for any social interaction right now.
His shoulder was nudged softly, making him turn around to meet the worried gaze of his girlfriend.
"Hi, Frank," she said softly.
"Hey," he responded, giving her a small smile.
She always made him smile. Even when he was thinking too hard. Especially when he was thinking too hard so he really needed to smile now.
"What's got you so serious looking?" she asked as he tried to think of a way to explain what he was thinking about.
He didn't want to come across as crazed or something.
"It's nothing."
"It's obviously something if you're staring at the fire like you want to put it out with your mind."
He snorted quietly and shook his head, a small smile briefly crossing his lips. Alice smiled at him, making his heart flutter. But even her pretty face couldn't distract him.
"Frank," she said gently, covering her hand with his.
Well, covering wasn't the right word as hers was so dainty and small but it was on top. He almost jumped at the contact. It felt nice.
Frank explained his dilemma to her and she listened patiently. And seriously too. Which is not something he expected from Alice considering that this was something that definitely wouldn't interest her. Of course, she was far too well-mannered to give away that a conversation was boring - she was brought up well after all - but she actually looked like she was thinking about what he was saying. Which was a nice surprise.
"What I'm hearing is an awful lot of opinions that aren't your own," she said finally.
"Because I don't have an opinion."
"Everyone has an opinion."
"Well, I don't," he said shortly and almost immediately regretted it.
It wasn't Alice's fault that he was having problems, after all.
"Sorry," he apologised before she could say anything.
"It's fine."
No, it wasn't but he didn't want to get into a pointless argument. He did, however, shake his head so that he got the last word in.
"And you have no idea what you want to do?"
Another head shake. That was why he was staring at the fire so intently.
"Well, you're not going to have that talk until around Easter, are you?"
Frank let out a long breath. "Yes."
"Well, there's not much point in worrying about it now, is there?" she said matter-of-factly.
"I can't help it."
He could literally hear everyone's voices in his head all telling him different things.
"What if I forget something?" he added. "Something important someone told me."
Some of the things he had been told would be useful, wouldn't they? His family wouldn't be giving him advise if it wasn't useful...
"Then write it all down," Alice said with a dainty shrug. "That way you have it and can forget about everything until you need it."
Frank gaped at her and her cheeks turned a lovely shade of rosy pink.
"It was just an idea," she said, dipping her head down in embarrassment.
"A bloody good one!"
"Frank! Language!" she hissed, looking around them to see if anyone heard. She blushed again. "Do you think so?"
Deciding to use a little of that Gryffindor boldness, he quickly pressed a kiss to her cheek. It made them both go a bright shade of read.
"You really are."
Wednesday 10th January 1975
Third Floor Corridor, 11:00
Remus huffed at his friends and rolled his eyes at their antics. Usually, he would find them somewhat funny but not today. Today he was annoyed with them.
"You aren't still sore about that are you?"
Remus glared at his two unrepentant friends who were not intimidated by his glare at all.
"You made us glow!"
"For three days," Peter added unhelpfully.
He did not look at all miffed by this statement despite being caught in James and Sirius' little prank as well. Peter had actually quite happy that he glowed in the dark. Even declared it cool. Never mind the fact that both of their skins had a faint tinge of whatever colour they glowed in during the day. It made them look downright ill (in Peter's case as he glowed yellow at night) or poisonous (in his case as Sirius had ensure he glowed purple). Did you know how odd it was to have a faint purple tinge to your otherwise pale skin? Remus swore it made him look like he was outline in purple in certain lights.
"But you looked so pretty, Moony!" Sirius teased. "You glowed. Like the moon!"
"The moon doesn't glow purple, you idiot."
"Well, this Moon-y does," Sirius said proudly, making them all groan.
"That was so bad," Peter complained.
"No, I think you'll find that it was very good."
"Definitely not," Remus disagreed. "Just like your little glowing stunt wasn't good."
"You aren't even glowing anymore," James tried to console him.
"Haven't for twenty-four hours," Sirius added unhelpfully.
"It was still four days!"
"Yeah," James scrunched up his nose. "It was supposed to last for a week. That's what the book said."
Remus decided not to mention that the spell hadn't worn off, he had just found its counterspell.
"We'll just have to try it again," Sirius said.
"Not on us," Remus warned.
Sunday 14th January 1975
Hogwarts Grounds, 12:30
Lily yelped as she landed for the third time on her bottom in as many minutes. It was starting to get sore now. Grumbling, she picked herself up and dusted the snow off herself.
Yes, she loved the snow but that didn't mean she liked falling into it nor did it mean that she enjoyed the ice that inevitably came with it. She was as clumsy as that multicoloured girl in Hufflepuff in the year below was when it came to ice. Marlene, frustratingly, was not like this. Must be those farm genes or something.
"Ow!"
There she was, on the ground again. This would have been easier with ice skates.
"Tell me again why are we doing this?" Lily asked as she picked herself up again.
"Because Hagrid invited us!" Marlene said in an isn't-this-obvious tone.
"Couldn't we have done it inside?" Lily couldn't help but complain. "We could have gone down to the kitchens or something."
Not that she did that often but the House Elves wouldn't have minded.
"Hagrid invited us, not the other way around."
"Hagrid invited you."
Yes, okay, Lily was a little bit grumpy but so would you if you had fallen as many times as she had and had snow in your shoes and down your back. The snow
"And any friends I wanted," Marlene reminded her. "Don't you like Hagrid?"
"Of course, I like Hagrid!"
Who didn't like Hagrid? Honestly. What a stupid question.
"Well, come on then."
"I'm coming, I'm coming."
Wednesday 17th January 1975
Entrance Hall, 12:30
Kingsley frowned as he felt his feet squelch in his shoes. That was definitely not a nice feeling at all. His feet were wet. Drenched actually. That's what happened when you had to walk between the Greenhouses and the castle in the snow without boots on.
He didn't think it would be so bad if they just walked on top of the snow. Sure, your feet might get a little cold but they wouldn't get drenched. Not like when you had to walk through drifts of the stuff.
Why was snow always fun on the run up to Christmas but as soon as it was over it just became too much? Kingsley always found himself getting annoyed at s ow when he came back from the Christmas holidays. Probably because he got two weeks free of it back home. Coming back to masses of it was always a bit of a shock. Especially when it just didn't seem to go away. Not until March anyway. That always surprised him.
He stomped his feet to free the outside of his shoes of it. The inside of his shoes would have to wait until his was able to get up to his dorm. Food or dry shoes first? That was the real dilemma.
His stomach rumbled. Lunch first. He took a step towards the Great Hall, flinching as his feet squelched again.
"Are you okay?" Frank asked, suddenly appearing from behind him.
"Feet are cold," Kingsley grumbled, glaring down at his feet.
"Are they wet?"
Well, that was a stupid question, wasn't it? Why else would his feet be cold?
"Yeah."
"You need boots," Frank recommended, raising his foot to show him the black, leather ankle boots he was wearing.
"What I need is a wetsuit," Kingsley grumbled.
That would at least keep every single bit of moisture away from him. Maybe they could even get it in House colours for school.
Kingsley's thoughts trailed off as he realised that Frank was giving him a confused look.
"What's a wetsuit?"
Didn't purebloods know anything?
Sunday 21st January 1975
Library, 14:30
Severus was doing homework in the Library with Lily. Correction, he was doing homework and Lily was most definitely not. She was too busy talking about what she and McKinnon had been doing the other day. Apparently, they had gone down to visit the Groundskeeper, Hagrid. For tea? Severus wasn't sure, he hadn't caught that bit of Lily's rambling.
"You should come down sometime," she suggested.
Severus turned his nose up. "Down to Hagrid's?"
She smiled brightly at him. "Yeah, he's great."
Great was definitely not a word he would use to describe the Groundskeeper of all people. Especially one like Hagrid. What interesting things could he talk about? How to upkeep the grass or something? He almost chuckled at his own little joke there. But no, he did not want to go and talk to Hagrid. What on earth would his housemates say? He was just getting their attention, their respect. There was no way he would throw that all away over some sort of silly meal with someone who didn't even matter.
Because Hagrid didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. His standing in Slytherin House however did. Mulciber and Avery were starting to talk to him without that odd curled of the lips they usually had when talking to him. For that matter, they were actually talking to him instead of at him or asking him about schoolwork. They seemed to really admire his Potions skills and were one of the few to ask for more than just cosmetic potions. It was interesting to actually put some of the things he had learned from his mother's books to good use. Not that any of them had particularly strained him but sometimes brewing wasn't all about the challenge. They had even promised to show him some things his mother's textbooks had just touched on, which was exciting. Even given him their word which was really something and he couldn't wait. This was definitely a sign of better things to come for him, surely? He was definitely not going to ruin it by hanging around "the wrong crowd", of which Hagrid was definitely a part of.
Lily technically was as well but not as much so. And she was really skilled so people sort of begrudgingly admired her so she didn't cause him any problems. Which was good because he really liked being friends with Lily.
She was the only person in his life that didn't have any ulterior motives (Severus didn't think she was capable of then) and she was just really, really nice. He needed that in his life.
What he didn't need was Lily trying to persuade him that going down to Hagrid's hut in the middle of winter was a good idea. It just wasn't.
Lily was still talking about the man. Surely there wasn't that much to talk about?
"He knows ever so much about the forest and has some really interesting stories-"
Now that got Severus interested. The forest she said? Where all the plants were that he needed? The place where he still couldn't make himself go past that one clearing because the shadows and roots freaked him out? Not that he told anyone that. One, the Forest was out of bounds and two, he would never admit to being afraid of anything.
"Does he know about all the plants?" he interrupted her.
Lily frowned at him but answered, "Yes, he knows how to use a lot of them medicinally for the animals."
Why on earth would you waste good potions ingredients on animals? Now that was just ridiculous. But what would you expect from someone as poorly educated as Hagrid? It was no big secret that he'd been expelled.
"Hmm."
Now that was interesting. Why hadn't she started off with that? It was actually useful information. You always started with the useful information, it drew people in.
Lily nudged him. "Come on, it would be fun."
No, definitely not his idea of fun, making small talk with a half-giant. But it could have its uses. Even if he got the location of some plants it would be worth it. He could play nice for one afternoon. And he could always make the excuse of homework if it got too boring.
Severus put a smile on his face. "Oh, okay."
"Great! I'll send him a note!"
Wednesday 24th January 1975
Hogwarts Grounds, 12:30
'SPLAT'
"Marlene! That's not funny!" Lily complained, wiping the snow off her cheek.
Marlene just grinned at her and bent down to scope up another snowball. It was such a shame to let all this snow go to waste, wasn't it? In a few weeks it wouldn't be here anymore.
"Don't you dare, Marlene McKinnon!"
Oh, it looked like Lily meant business. Serious business. She had her wand out and everything. Marlene knew that her friend knew a few charms that allowed her to manipulate snow. A lot of it. Which would probably end up all over her. Definitely not worth a snowball over.
Marlene looked down at the snowball in her hands. It was a shame to waste it, however. It was a perfectly formed one - if she said so herself. Just right for throwing. Just not at Lily. But who?
Her eyes narrowed as two figures came up from behind them. Perfect. Lily followed her gaze and shook her head.
"Don't," she warned.
Of course, Marlene was going to pay her no mind at all. Actually, she was going to improve this whole situation. As she was bending down to gather more snow something hit her on the back of the head. Something cold. And wet. And it was sliding down her neck!
Annoyingly familiar giggle floated over and Lily was actually laughing. Marlene swung around; snowball raised high only to come face to face with a grinning Alice Smith.
"Not like that, McKinnon?"
Monday 27th January 1975
Fourth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 16:30
He was done. Done with the nasty, wet weather that was worse than rain to play Quidditch in. Done with the blisteringly cold winds that wrapped around them as they trudged over to the greenhouses. Done with the still too short evenings that made it dark before school was even over for the day.
Flinging himself backwards onto his bed, James sighed. He couldn't wait until Spring.
Spring where the browns and grey turned into fresh greens and pastel colours. The air would no longer be sharp and make the inside of your nose feel raw. Or any other part. There would be no more need to remember to don hats and scarves and the only brown he would see would be in his Easter Eggs. Yes, Spring certainly couldn't come fast enough.
Glancing over at the empty and very neatly made bed across from him, James frowned. Spring couldn't come fast enough for Remus even more so. Yes, he didn't seem to feel the cold like the rest of them did - he was always like some sort of portable heater - but it still affected him. Made him feel achy, or, well, his muscles. Especially around the full moon. And hot water bottles or heating chairs didn't help Remus because he couldn't stand them due to him already feeling so warm! Which sucked. James wished that there was some way that Remus could deal with the symptoms that occurred all the time and not just at the full moon. Not that there was anything that helped at the full moon - just healing potions after. After he had injured himself. Which was always horrible to see. But he needed something for the lower level, constant stuff. Not that he ever asked for it.
James didn't know why Remus was so awkward about asking for or receiving help. It was like he didn't want it or was trying to prove himself. Which was stupid. They all needed a bit of help sometimes. Especially if they were hurting. And Remus was always hurting in some way or another for at least a third of the month.
James sighed again and kicked his feet aimlessly in the air. His curtains around his bed fluttered, giving him a brief glimpse of the window.
Another thing that sucked about January. Night still fell a lot quicker which meant the full moon rose all the sooner. Remus had to miss the last class of recent months during the full moon. Which was awful for him. James did not like seeing Remus so tired and ill looking. He was pretty sure he wasn't eating right either and it wasn't like Remus had any body fat to spare!
He really couldn't wait until Spring!