A/N I feel so bad. I have no reviews. That sucks. My friends seem to like it thought, which is good.
I had no ideas; thank goodness the guys who I based Jason Dropper off of had a HEHE!!!! That's an understatement. I now have all the later chapters stored in my brain.
Now I do have a plot, although some of my friends complained I didn't. ::CoughJuliacough::
Thanks to Montana Magic, the fellow Minnesotan, who helped me see that I need to write out the numbers in story writing, so this chapter's for her.
I realized that it doesn't seem that I hate this Andrew Gewstone as much as Peter Mc Greg, when in reality I hate them both just as much. And I will get more Slytherins in there, so it doesn't seem as if all the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuff boys are mean assholes. I need to make the Slytherins meaner.
Sorry for the long author's notes, I just felt like typing all this information out.
"Nothing Endures but Change"
Chapter 3 "Birdie, Birdie in the Sky…"
Things were going relatively normal for Marissa Irvine. She had her friends and they were all happy. She had only been called a mudblood by Lucius Malfoy twice and three times by Severus Snape. She continued to get mad at Peter Mc Greg about once every two days and was spiteful to Andrew Gewstone at least once a day. It was fun to get Andrew back for all his mean comments by being spiteful to him. She could tell he really liked Lauren though, and it annoyed her. Why did her best friend have to like one of her worst enemies?
One hazy Sunday morning she made her way down to the Quidditch pitch. Mari liked to ride her broom; she just didn't have the taste, talent or time for Quidditch.
Mari never liked to wear anything but her pajamas in the common room, but outside she had to wear a pair of ill-fitting bad looking crushed black velvet pants and a blue plaid shirt which was, as most of her shirts were, extremely baggy and used.
She got on her broom and floated gently up into the sky. She zoomed around awhile on the pitch. Going here, there, and everywhere. She liked to "commune" with the sky her friends said. It was considered among them another one of Mari's foibles.
Thank goodness that Andrew Gewstone or Peter Mc Greg had never got wind of her flying excursions, she would have never heard the end of it!!!! Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape were one thing, but they only cared to know that she was muggle born and that was it. They didn't have the time or energy to care to tease her about every little thing.
Mari loved everything about being out in the sky, like she was a bird. Mari had always wanted to be a bird when she was little. She suddenly remembered her Grandpa saying that if he were an animal he would love to be an eagle. Mari wouldn't want to be an eagle somehow, she had thought hard of what she would be, she had said a blue bird because they were "pwetty", but that didn't seem right now. She wanted to soar, over everything, but still enjoy the satisfaction of being on earth. Yes, she thought, she'd be a dove. Soaring above everything, yet always loving and loved by humans. She would be a dove.
Now although, as you have probably seen, Mari had a temper the size of Texas, she had a sensitive side that very few people ever saw. She could be quiet or meek, or scream at people in the middle of class if she wanted to. She was not afraid to be either of those, but right now she was just thinking out loud and never laughing. In her private thoughts Mari rarely laughed, it was only on the outside she did that all the time.
"I suppose fall is the prettiest time of year" she said aloud to herself, "It's almost depressing though, like it's the old year dying. Man that grass looks like green velvet." She continued on for sometime in this fashion, just talking to herself. Then she started to hum her favorite Beatles tune "Yesterday". Mari thought the lyrics were very appropriate to the scene. In the late September afternoon it looked so dead and old. And beautiful.
Suddenly Mari heard someone say, "How can you sing on a broomstick? Aren't you going to ride it?"
It was a voice Mari had never heard before and certainly didn't recognize. She turned around and was face to face with a girl who looked about 16. She was rather thin, with dark curly hair and dark large eyes. She looked friendly enough, but also very reserved, and almost like she was smirking and looking down on Mari.
"Who are you?" Mari asked almost gruffly, she didn't like to be disturbed when she was alone.
"I'm Angel Thompson. Who are you?"
"Marissa Irvine."
"You're the one who hit that little moron Mc Greg with a text book, right?"
"Yeah, I did," the creases of Mari's lips formed a smile, the vengeance of that had been sweet, "He deserved it."
"You're telling me. You're in Ravenclaw aren't you?"
"Yep. What house are you in?"
Angel shuddered, "Slytherin, I hate it too!" she exclaimed, "Everyone is so secretive and they all will end up as Death Eaters. I don't want to be a Death Eater, and they would gladly betray their friends for power."
"I'm glad I'm in Ravenclaw," said Mari honestly, if not almost naively, "I think that the Slytherins are malicious, no offence. Why were you put in there?"
"I don't know, I think the hat was confused. That's the only reason I can see."
"You should be proud to be a Slytherin." Malfoy's voice came behind Angel
"Get lost you little creep." Mari exclaimed
"Its Slytherin Quidditch practice, we have the pitch Irvine, its you who should get lost mudblood."
Mari almost lunged towards him and tried to knock him off his broom, but she held herself back.
"Shut it you little twerp." Angel exclaimed
"I would talk, mudblood wannabe."
"Oh, I'm just trembling on my broomstick."
Mari almost cracked a smile. Sarcasm to Malfoy was always enjoyable to see. And she decided that she liked Angel, all the other Slytherins would have joined in with Malfoy, but she had defended Mari, maybe it was some mistake that she was in Slytherin.
"Well, I'll just let you hang out with this reject Thompson." And with that he flew away. Mari almost wanted to go push him off his broomstick again.
"He is such an asshole!" she exclaimed
"Don't worry about him Marissa, he is just so pitiful that he has to boost himself up by hurting others."
"Where did you learn that shit." said Mari a wee bit sarcastically
"My mom's a counselor." She said simply
"I suppose its true, only he's so provoking!"
"Ain't that the truth?"
"Yeah, and why they let people like him into the school is a mystery to me."
"Because, the people who started Hogwarts were morons in some respects, but we shouldn't be prejudice, that would be stooping to their level, and we shouldn't do that."
"You spend too much time with your mom."
"Not true, I just get told this shit over and over till I can't help memorizing it."
"I see."
"Yeah, well I got to go, Quidditch practice. Nice meeting you."
"You too."
With that Angel swept away on her broomstick and Mari flew out of the pitch to leave the Slytherins to practice. She went over to her favorite spot by the lake. There was a small waterfall there and the last time she had been there, there had been many beautiful flowers. Now though, she knew, it would be full of fall colors and dead leaves.
Sure enough, the leaves were floating in the water, like dead yesterdays, forgotten and dead, but still there. (A/n remember the symbolism, it will come in later)
"Oh, fall is so depressing, everything that was alive in spring is dead and forsaken now!" she said to herself
"True, but it has to for it to be spring again when everything is alive. If everything stayed the same there would be nothing new or beautiful, like spring." Rang a taunting voice.
"That was beautiful, I wonder why you weren't a poet." said Mari sarcastically knowing the persons voice
"Yeah, well, its true, and you know it." Rang another taunting voice
"Why are you two here? Don't you have girls to flirt with?" The last people on earth she wanted at her secret spot were Peter Mc Greg and Andrew Gewstone.
"Yeah, well we were taking a walk." Rang another third voice Mari recognized as Alex Rent, one of the little Mg Greg/Gewstone group of dwebs.
"What are you doing here?" Andrew said as if she was in the wrong for being there, not them.
"I went out for a ride and the Slytherins kicked me off the pitch, I came here, happy? No go continue on your walk."
"No, we like annoying you better." Peter was pushing it
"I will go then, Good bye." She picked up her broom and soared off trying not to make a fool of herself and make a somewhat grand exit. She didn't fumble or fall off, until her rode got caught in a tree about one minute later.
She was horrified to see she was still viewing distance of the waterfall and the boys who were there. Why did this always happen when she was trying to make a clean exit?
Mari stopped and tried to get her rode untangled, but found she couldn't. She groaned in frustration. Suddenly Angel appeared and helped her untangle it.
"Don't you have practice?" Mari queried
"It's over, and I saw you tangled up in the tree."
"Thanks, I was trying to make a clean exit from jerk and jerkier, but I didn't succeed."
"It happens to all of us honey. Don't worry about it. Why should they care anyway?"
"Cause they'll tease the life out of me for it for the next twenty-four hours!" Groaning Mari and Angel flew back to the pitch and got into the locker room. They then walked up to the castle and found it was time for lunch. Mari went over and sat by her friends.
"What were you doing hanging out with that sixth year Slytherin Angel Thompson?" asked Ellie, none too nicely.
"She's nice. She helped me untangle my robes from a tree when I was flying." Mari explained.
"Ok then Mari, but be careful."
"I don't need any warning for being friends with a Slytherin, I can handle my own friendship thank you."
"Hey, we left you alone with Mc Greg, and look what happened."
"Be quite Ellie," Emily butted in, "We shouldn't be prejudice against the Slytherins.
"Thanks Em." Mari told her over her shoulder
"Don't call me Em. My name is Emily."
"Fine then, but it'll be hard." Mari smiled her almost superficial smile
"DO it!" Emily protested
"Ok, ok." Mari continued eating. She loved the food at Hogwarts. It was so good it almost seemed to taste just like she wanted it too, made tailored made to her taste. That was just one thing that made Mari love Hogwarts.
The next morning Mari groaned at the first class she saw on her brightly decorated schedule. It was Herbology. If Mari hated any class more than Care of Magical Creatures, Flying or Muggle Studies, it was Herbology.
The teacher Dr. Joseph was so hard she often made students cry with worry. Yet Dr. Joseph herself was nice enough, but she gave them so much homework and expected so much of them that they all basically hated her. They called her Dr. Bitch behind her back and good lord did she deserve it.
Mari was well liked enough by her, but she had something in for Emily. She always called Emily lazy and it got on Emily's nerves.
She graded so hard that Mari had only pulled off an A- despite her best efforts. In short, Mari hated Herbology more than any other subject on Earth.
TO make matters worse it was Andrew Gewstone's best subject, and he let Mari know it. Tabitha also competed with him for the best grade in the class. And Tabitha usually won.
Worse still about Herbology was that they had it with Slytherins. Ugh, as if it wasn't bad enough to have to work her little butt off for an A-, but now, she had to do it with the Slytherins and Andrew Gewstone and Peter Mc Greg watching. IT was just not Mari's class.
She walked down to the greenhouse in low sprits. It was not a pleasant prospect to sit in the cold, damp greenhouse on the cool misty morning, and listen to Dr. Joseph prattle on and tell jokes, then assign them 48 questions due in two weeks. You couldn't even hear her say it if you didn't sit in the front of the class. Which Mari had been assigned to. Across from Peter Mc Greg and next to Andrew Gewstone.
Why was there no justice in the world? Mari couldn't even have the revenge of reading during class and getting the homework done and done well just the same, thanks to Tabitha's tutelage, because she was right under Dr. Joseph's nose. Ugh. Mari was so sick of Herbology.
Thanks to having Peter and Andrew near her she was in a bad mood. She felt stupid and ditzy and like she wasn't worth anything. UGH. Mari was not having a good day. Being woken up by Lauren jumping on her and telling her to get up, fifteen minutes earlier than she had to!!!! Then at breakfast she had spilled her milk over her robe. Now she had Herbology, gosh, this day was getting better and better.
Mari was having trouble with the lab they were doing. It was hard, and time consuming and very research based. Dr. Joseph was never gave them time or resources for research. Plus, to make matters worse, Andrew was complaining about how easy it was. Damn him!!!!! Damn him and his smart-ass ways!!!!! Mari spat in her thoughts.
Mari was bubbling up in her temper, but she needed to keep down. She went and asked Tabitha and Lauren about the lab, and they knew only little more than she did. Ugh, it really wasn't a good day.
Mari looked out the glass and she could see the sky. It was dull and gray. Just like my life, she thought. Her hands felt as cold as ice; she rubbed them together. Was it just her hands that were cold? Wasn't her soul a little chilled as well? God, I will not get depressed! My life is great! Only, then why am I longing for the past so much? She just didn't know.
Mari then went to see if Ellie, Janice, Chat, and Emily had the answers; Alex had a headache, so she had gone to the Hospital Wing. Janice was arguing with Ellie about the assignment, and Chat was working diligently on it; Emily was arguing with Jason Dropper, about how you could take over the world. Mari thought this a pointless argument and was pleased to join in and stop it.
Herbology droned on and Mari was consumed in the hard class, she kept staring out the walls though, and almost seemed to be in what people artfully call "La-La-land". If Mari wasn't there she certainly was somewhere thousands of miles away from Dr. Joseph's Herbology class. Mari didn't even hear her name being called to answer a question.
"Ms. Irvine…" She heard a voice loudly say
"Huh, what?"
"Could you answer the question?"
"What one was that?"
"The one I just asked you."
"I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention, what was the question?"
Mari answered the question, whatever it was, and didn't dare go to La-La-land for the rest of class. The minutes crawled on, as if it was the turtle in the race, and Mari practically counted the minutes until lunch. Finally the bell rang.
Mari practically ran out the door when the bell rang and went up to the castle, her friends, except Ellie, who was a Londoner, were trailing behind. She wanted to get out of the Ravenclaw dorms fast to avoid any meetings with Peter Mc Greg or Andrew Gewstone. She was not in the mood for humiliation.
She flew to the table before anyone else and sat down. Then Kate appeared on the other side of the table. Kate had just come from Muggle Studies and she was as un-happy as it was possible for Kate to be.
"Ugh, Muggle Studies is driving me nuts! It's so preposterously easy and he actually expects us to do work." Kate's voice was not complaining, more matter of fact. Kate never really complained unless someone else started it; she must have been really mad.
"Well, dearie, that's why they have lunch. So we can get away from Muggle Studies." Mari laughed as she impersonated Janice's motherly act
Tabitha and Lauren got there just then and sat next to Mari. Mari noticed that Tabitha looked a little worn, but she knew that Tabitha was working very hard on her grades. Lauren's big brown eyes were also somewhat strained; everyone seemed to be nowadays.
"Hey," Lauren said as she sat down next to Mari, "We didn't have to finish that essay for Transfiguration, did we?"
"No thank god." Mari told her; relief seemed to be flooding over Lauren's face. There was a reason she was in Ravenclaw; she tended to be uptight about her grades sometimes, especially Transfiguration.
Chat, Emily and Alex were the next to show up; Alex had just gotten out of the Hospital wing and was looking slightly blanched. Chat wasn't her usual smiley self, Mari was getting worried about her friends, and they all seemed so overworked and tired. Ellie was even spending her lunch hours in the library to have time to get her homework done.
She glanced analytically at the Slytherin table. They were all as sallow looking as ever, but somehow triumphant looking. Like they knew some sort of happy secret. In her first year Mari had wondered what their secret was, but now she knew it as well as she knew that there were stars in the sky at night. Voldemort was out there, growing in strength everyday. Hence the triumphant look in their eyes, except Angel. Mari could see that there was no such look on Angel's face.
Weird…though Mari, she's a Slytherin, but she doesn't look as though she's triumphant, she looks just as worn and unhappy as some of us. I wonder what kind of mistake there was putting her in Slytherin… Words from Andrew Gewstone broke in through Mari's thoughts
"Oh, and Ms. Irvine here has wonderful potential for the empty spot on the Quidditch team, she has good flying skills, especially around trees." Andrew Gewstone was saying sardonically to Phillip Derek's, another gang member and one of the prominent teasers of Mari.
Mari could have hit him. She wanted to hit him. But Lauren grabbed her arm. Mari sometimes needed Lauren or Tabitha or Emily or Janice to grab her arm. Mari could not really have a temper around Chat; Chat was just too nice to have a temper around. She also couldn't spout sarcasm or retort things around Kate. And Alex and Ellie always told her she needed anger management. Mari always got infuriated when they said that. It made her more irritated than what she had originally become mad from, and didn't all of Ravenclaw know it. She had been known on occasion to become absolutely livid whenever anyone said that she needed anger management.
Mari groaned at the next thing on her schedule: Muggle Studies. This was not going to be a good day was it? She only had Muggle Studies with Lauren and Tabitha because her other friends were in intermediate flying and Mari was in beginner and Lauren and Tabitha advanced. Mari frankly did not like flying at all as a class and did poorly in it. Chat was supposed to be in advanced flying, but they wanted her in Intermediate Arithmancy and so she didn't take Muggle Studies and had to be in intermediate flying.
Mari, Tabitha and Lauren stared out the window in Muggle Studies room. The fog had cleared and it was clear cerulean blue and only a few dots of puffy cloud were to be seen. The glorious October colors dotted the green velveteen like grass. Mari wanted to run out into it and leave boring Muggle Studies behind.
"Man, I wish we leave this boring class and escape through the window." Lauren voiced Mari's thoughts.
"Yeah, only," Mari jested," What would we have to eat if we ran away?"
"I've got it, we could have fried Marissa" Tabitha said with a laugh
"Yeah, and fillet du Mari, and Mari burgers and a Mari satay." Lauren giggled uncontrollably, Mari joined her as well as Tabitha.
The rest of the class they giggled about "fried Mari", and didn't even notice the scowls they were receiving from their classmates.
Mr. Tim (the very boring dorky Muggle Studies teacher) was droning on about Muggle history and inventions.
"You know, we learned all this crap in Year 6 at my Muggle school." Mari couldn't help saying. This was boring; it was all stuff she knew.
Through the window she could see a bird flying. She imagined herself flying on her broomstick by that bird.
Birdie, birdie in the skyDon't drop whitewash in my eye.
Wasn't that the old Muggle rhyme? Mari gazed more, maybe it wouldn't matter how much "whitewash" you had in your eye, you could always be free in the sky. Voldemort was nothing there.
A/N Et volia!!! Chapter three is done and finished. Only about 20 to go!!!! I hope I'll get them all done too. I've been seriously short of time lately!!!! This 8th grade thing sucks!!!!! SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!!! Anyway, hope ya'll like this chapter and as always, R&R!!!!!!!! I really would like some more reviews, just cause I'm selfish little authoress!!!!! Thank you!!!
Zarmina: Thanks so much for reviewing Vash!!!!! I'll put you in there soon, pinky promise!!!!
Genevieve: That is so cool that you're from Minnesotan too!!!! We should start a Minnesotans obsessed with Les Mis club!!!! EHHEHE!!!! E-mail me back soon sil vous plait!!!!
Julia: I have a plot. You know it now!!! So there:: sticks out tongue::!!! Although I changed it a little. HEHE, you'll just have to see if I'm nice enough to e-mail the change all out to you guys!!!
abby-micheal: thank you sooooo much!!!!!! I'm glad you think they are like real people, cause they are based off of real people!!!!
The Minnesotan in England
aka Mr. Zelgadis
aka the hopeless 8th grader
aka the homework procrastinator
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