The debts had been repaid, and things were back to normal between Fallon and Cassius. Well, normal in the sense that they were once again bickering on a regular basis, and therefore content.
Except there seemed to be a difference in their bickering, ever since each had helped the other out. True, Warrington was still the only one who could succeed in making Fallon lose her temper completely, for the girl, though easily aggravated, generally kept her cool for the sake of dignity. And Fallon still went out of her way at times to make sure that he remembered her promise when she'd just started out, to spend the next six years driving him nutters. But... the bantering back and forth had made an indefinite shift towards the benevolent.
It was rather strange how it happened, but the jibes had lost their mean nature.
For the others, it was all very amusing.
That summer, when the term was over (with exams canceled due to more Harry Potter heroics... or rather reckless antics, as the Slytherins were wont to say), Fallon and Cassius left for vacation in a fairly benevolent mood towards each other.
* * *
The summer came, and there was news that Sirius Black, the most infamous prisoner ever to be incarcerated in Azkaban fortress, had somehow escaped from prison. None of this mattered particularly much to Fallon; it wasn't like crazy life-threatening things ever happened to Slytherins. If Sirius Black was out for blood, it would not be hers, or any of her friends'.
It happened to be that period, in a girl's life, when time flew by like a brisk wind, and she seemed slightly more grown-up with each new day, blooming like a rose in early summer. The girl-child Fallon Anderson who had left the school at the beginning of the summer was not the same as the Fallon Anderson who returned to Diagon Alley in August.
It seemed as though she was not the only one to undergo a transformation over the summer. When she had met up with the girls, every single one was surprised to see everyone else: they had all gotten taller, and many of them were in line to get new, fitted robes and uniforms from Madame Malkin's.
Warrington had given her a rather odd, "Who-the-hell-are-you-and-what-did-you-do-with-skinny-twit-Fallon" look when they'd met in Diagon Alley. But he seemed rather more concerned and excited about the fact that this year, he was officially a Chaser on the Quidditch team than anything else. There'd been many new additions to the Quidditch team that year: Vittorio Derrick and Kevin Bole were playing as Beaters, as Warrington was a Chaser. Unlike Warrington, Alexander Montague, also newly made Chaser, seemed rather bowled over when Morrigun, newly made Prefect, had smiled at him. The usually gentlemanly, unflappable Montague had blushed slightly, and the girls had grinned to themselves. before Morrigun had given him a coy wave, and all of them had filed into Flourish and Blotts.
* * *
Fallon soon found out, after the start of the term, that there were great advantages to being friends with the Prefect. For one thing, Morrigun had her own room, a large, elegant boudoir in true Slytherin splendor, which she willingly allowed all of them to congregate in. Akasha's couch had been brought in, and the girls had spent a good amount of their spare time helping Morrigun decorate.
Early on in the year, Malfoy got injured by a Hippogriff in Care of Magical Creatures class. The girls spent several hours debating the seriousness of the injury, and denouncing Pansy Parkinson, who used the opportunity to throw herself at him in a most undignified, grotesque manner. Ravyn seemed particularly annoyed, but Malfoy had been seen to smirk and roll his eyes at her fawning, and the girl was somewhat appeased.
One day in mid-January, Akasha returned from her classes with a mischievous grin. "We had a most INTERESTING Divination lesson today," she remarked that evening in Morrigun's room.
"That's news," Xanne snapped. She had started the class that year and disliked it immensely, for Trelawney kept on making gruesome predictions for everyone's future and particularly lugubrious ones for Harry Potter. "What did the oversized arthropod have to say today?"
Akasha gave a smirk towards Fallon, "She was just walking by, and she said to me, 'Be aware of the actions of your friends, Miss Noctifer. Quarrels hide the love that resides in their hearts.' Now... who could THAT be referring to?"
Almost reflexively, Fallon seized a pillow and threw it at Akasha, hitting her in the face. "Oh, you're asking for it!" The older girl seized another pillow and threw it back at Fallon, who ducked. The pillow hit Ravyn instead, and within minutes, the room filled with shrieks of silvery laughter as the girls, nearly women, went back to childhood for a while, indulging in a pillow-fight.
Just as Fallon threw a lawn-covered feather pillow at Xanne, who was standing close to the door, the door opened, and the pillow hit Alexander Montague squarely in the face. The pillowcase tore, and feathers flew everywhere, a lot of them settling in Montague's hair.
There was dead silence, and the girls looked, owl-eyed, in shock. Morrigun was mortified.
A moment later, a bemused Alexander Montague was bombarded by an earful of profuse apologies, and then, found himself and Morrigun alone in the room. The other girls seemed to have disappeared right after they'd apologized.
"Well... " he started. Morrigun, blushing furiously, walked up to him, waved him to a couch, and hurriedly started brushing feathers from his shoulders and head. Montague blushed as well, and cleared his throat somewhat nervously before speaking, "Er... may I have a word with you, Morrigun? I... wanted to talk to you about something..."
* * *
"I suppose I best go and apologize to Montague, and help Morrigun clean up her room," Fallon sighed somewhat about five minutes after she and the girls had scampered out of Morrigun's room. Getting up from her spot by the fire, she walked back to Morrigun's room, and opened the door.
... Only to see Morrigun and Montague, sitting together on a couch, the latter holding the former gently in his arms as they kissed. It took them only a moment to realize that they had an audience, and they sprang apart, faces scarlet.
But not half as embarrassed as Fallon, who face-faulted and backed away, stammering, "Er... sorry, don't mind me... just.. carry on..." before shutting the door and rushing back to the Common room, her eyes wide.
"What's the matter, Fallon?" Kate remarked curiously when she'd stumbled back, looking as though she'd just been asked by Sirius Black to join him for a spot of tea.
Fallon pointed a shaking finger at the general direction of Morrigun's room, "M-Morrigun... Montague... s-snog..."
She was nearly trampled when the girls all leapt up from their seats and rushed back towards Morrigun's room to listen at the door.
* * *
"I'm so terribly sorry," Morrigun remarked a few moments (and snogs) later, "About the feathers, and Fallon bursting in..."
Alexander smiled down at her, caressing her cheek with one hand, "No harm done, ma belle ange." Then there was silence, which could only have been the effect of more snogging, and the girls outside the door grinned.
Finally, Alexander pulled away somewhat, and whispered, "I'll see you tomorrow, then."
Morrigun gave him a nod and a dreamy smile, and he got up, shaking the last of the feathers from his hair, and walked towards the door. He pulled the door open, and Akasha, who had been leaning against it, fell inwards.
More mortification of all involved parties ensued.
It was much, much later when the girls, after apologizing and hugging Morrigun, cleaning up the feathers, and pumping that particular girl for details, finally went to bed. As Fallon shut the green velvet curtains around her, she reflected that it was very well, after all.
In the Morrigun-Montague excitement, people had forgotten about Trelawney's preposterous prediction.
* * *
End Chapter 6
* * *
Wheee! More soon!
Except there seemed to be a difference in their bickering, ever since each had helped the other out. True, Warrington was still the only one who could succeed in making Fallon lose her temper completely, for the girl, though easily aggravated, generally kept her cool for the sake of dignity. And Fallon still went out of her way at times to make sure that he remembered her promise when she'd just started out, to spend the next six years driving him nutters. But... the bantering back and forth had made an indefinite shift towards the benevolent.
It was rather strange how it happened, but the jibes had lost their mean nature.
For the others, it was all very amusing.
That summer, when the term was over (with exams canceled due to more Harry Potter heroics... or rather reckless antics, as the Slytherins were wont to say), Fallon and Cassius left for vacation in a fairly benevolent mood towards each other.
* * *
The summer came, and there was news that Sirius Black, the most infamous prisoner ever to be incarcerated in Azkaban fortress, had somehow escaped from prison. None of this mattered particularly much to Fallon; it wasn't like crazy life-threatening things ever happened to Slytherins. If Sirius Black was out for blood, it would not be hers, or any of her friends'.
It happened to be that period, in a girl's life, when time flew by like a brisk wind, and she seemed slightly more grown-up with each new day, blooming like a rose in early summer. The girl-child Fallon Anderson who had left the school at the beginning of the summer was not the same as the Fallon Anderson who returned to Diagon Alley in August.
It seemed as though she was not the only one to undergo a transformation over the summer. When she had met up with the girls, every single one was surprised to see everyone else: they had all gotten taller, and many of them were in line to get new, fitted robes and uniforms from Madame Malkin's.
Warrington had given her a rather odd, "Who-the-hell-are-you-and-what-did-you-do-with-skinny-twit-Fallon" look when they'd met in Diagon Alley. But he seemed rather more concerned and excited about the fact that this year, he was officially a Chaser on the Quidditch team than anything else. There'd been many new additions to the Quidditch team that year: Vittorio Derrick and Kevin Bole were playing as Beaters, as Warrington was a Chaser. Unlike Warrington, Alexander Montague, also newly made Chaser, seemed rather bowled over when Morrigun, newly made Prefect, had smiled at him. The usually gentlemanly, unflappable Montague had blushed slightly, and the girls had grinned to themselves. before Morrigun had given him a coy wave, and all of them had filed into Flourish and Blotts.
* * *
Fallon soon found out, after the start of the term, that there were great advantages to being friends with the Prefect. For one thing, Morrigun had her own room, a large, elegant boudoir in true Slytherin splendor, which she willingly allowed all of them to congregate in. Akasha's couch had been brought in, and the girls had spent a good amount of their spare time helping Morrigun decorate.
Early on in the year, Malfoy got injured by a Hippogriff in Care of Magical Creatures class. The girls spent several hours debating the seriousness of the injury, and denouncing Pansy Parkinson, who used the opportunity to throw herself at him in a most undignified, grotesque manner. Ravyn seemed particularly annoyed, but Malfoy had been seen to smirk and roll his eyes at her fawning, and the girl was somewhat appeased.
One day in mid-January, Akasha returned from her classes with a mischievous grin. "We had a most INTERESTING Divination lesson today," she remarked that evening in Morrigun's room.
"That's news," Xanne snapped. She had started the class that year and disliked it immensely, for Trelawney kept on making gruesome predictions for everyone's future and particularly lugubrious ones for Harry Potter. "What did the oversized arthropod have to say today?"
Akasha gave a smirk towards Fallon, "She was just walking by, and she said to me, 'Be aware of the actions of your friends, Miss Noctifer. Quarrels hide the love that resides in their hearts.' Now... who could THAT be referring to?"
Almost reflexively, Fallon seized a pillow and threw it at Akasha, hitting her in the face. "Oh, you're asking for it!" The older girl seized another pillow and threw it back at Fallon, who ducked. The pillow hit Ravyn instead, and within minutes, the room filled with shrieks of silvery laughter as the girls, nearly women, went back to childhood for a while, indulging in a pillow-fight.
Just as Fallon threw a lawn-covered feather pillow at Xanne, who was standing close to the door, the door opened, and the pillow hit Alexander Montague squarely in the face. The pillowcase tore, and feathers flew everywhere, a lot of them settling in Montague's hair.
There was dead silence, and the girls looked, owl-eyed, in shock. Morrigun was mortified.
A moment later, a bemused Alexander Montague was bombarded by an earful of profuse apologies, and then, found himself and Morrigun alone in the room. The other girls seemed to have disappeared right after they'd apologized.
"Well... " he started. Morrigun, blushing furiously, walked up to him, waved him to a couch, and hurriedly started brushing feathers from his shoulders and head. Montague blushed as well, and cleared his throat somewhat nervously before speaking, "Er... may I have a word with you, Morrigun? I... wanted to talk to you about something..."
* * *
"I suppose I best go and apologize to Montague, and help Morrigun clean up her room," Fallon sighed somewhat about five minutes after she and the girls had scampered out of Morrigun's room. Getting up from her spot by the fire, she walked back to Morrigun's room, and opened the door.
... Only to see Morrigun and Montague, sitting together on a couch, the latter holding the former gently in his arms as they kissed. It took them only a moment to realize that they had an audience, and they sprang apart, faces scarlet.
But not half as embarrassed as Fallon, who face-faulted and backed away, stammering, "Er... sorry, don't mind me... just.. carry on..." before shutting the door and rushing back to the Common room, her eyes wide.
"What's the matter, Fallon?" Kate remarked curiously when she'd stumbled back, looking as though she'd just been asked by Sirius Black to join him for a spot of tea.
Fallon pointed a shaking finger at the general direction of Morrigun's room, "M-Morrigun... Montague... s-snog..."
She was nearly trampled when the girls all leapt up from their seats and rushed back towards Morrigun's room to listen at the door.
* * *
"I'm so terribly sorry," Morrigun remarked a few moments (and snogs) later, "About the feathers, and Fallon bursting in..."
Alexander smiled down at her, caressing her cheek with one hand, "No harm done, ma belle ange." Then there was silence, which could only have been the effect of more snogging, and the girls outside the door grinned.
Finally, Alexander pulled away somewhat, and whispered, "I'll see you tomorrow, then."
Morrigun gave him a nod and a dreamy smile, and he got up, shaking the last of the feathers from his hair, and walked towards the door. He pulled the door open, and Akasha, who had been leaning against it, fell inwards.
More mortification of all involved parties ensued.
It was much, much later when the girls, after apologizing and hugging Morrigun, cleaning up the feathers, and pumping that particular girl for details, finally went to bed. As Fallon shut the green velvet curtains around her, she reflected that it was very well, after all.
In the Morrigun-Montague excitement, people had forgotten about Trelawney's preposterous prediction.
* * *
End Chapter 6
* * *
Wheee! More soon!