Revolutions
Chapter 6: One Down
By Seadragon
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Well Alex was a little off, it was only eleven o'clock, but the other boys had finally made their way up the stairs. And we still had an hour before we could go, we would just have to hope the others were tired.
Alex was right about one thing though, Thomas and Garrett were not exactly friendly with me. I suspect that the only thing that kept them from actually voicing their opinion of me was Alex's presence in the room. Apparently, he was quite well known. The fact that he was a couple inches taller than both of them helped too.
I was careful to step lightly around them, I had more than enough experience with bullies. These two were nothing compared to Roger and his gang. I can rest easy at night knowing they are slightly afraid of me as well. I don't know why they are, but you could smell their fear even if you had your head in a bucket of onions. Also, they tried to stay as far from me as possible.
Hunter Moon was quite nice though. He told me about his family, which was a group of pureblood wizards and witches from centuries ago. I had never heard of them, but I smiled and nodded anyways.
Thomas Longbottom was also a pureblood. Garrett's mum was a Weasley, which made him Natalie's cousin, but she had run away after she graduated from Hogwarts. His dad was a muggle she had met in L.A.
And I already knew Alex was a muggleborn. Which made it easy for me to relate with him. But these people knew a lot more than I did about this world. They had been living here for a year already, and most of them had been living as wizards for their entire lives.
I had woken up early on a Sunday, and then this happened. Within less than a day, I was already doubting myself, my parents, and the past. It didn't exactly make me want to wake up next Sunday. Maybe I would just sleep right through Sundays for the rest of my life?
Wouldn't really do me much good, except I would miss a perfectly good day of freedom. Luckily, before I began tearing my already messy hair out, the others were getting ready for bed. Alex and I just kind of slipped into bed with all our clothes on. The others didn't even notice, that's how tired they were. The second they fell into bed, they were a sleep.
Alex and I waited for a while, until we were sure they were completely out. It wouldn't really help my cause if they caught us sneaking out in the middle of the night, on my first day at this school.
It was 11:51 when we crawled out of bed. I took my wand and flashlight off the shelf and put them in my robe pocket.
"Hey, Alex? Why exactly am I bringing my wand? I have no idea how the hell to use it." I asked him in a whisper, fingering the wood in my pocket.
"Right." He said slowly. "When we're in the common room I'll show you a simple spell. So you can actually see where you're going."
At that, we opened the door as quietly as we could, and slipped out into the hallway. We actually managed to get down the stairs without anyone demanding to know what we were doing. I, for one, was surprised.
By the time we actually got to the common room, Natalie was waiting. She was sitting on one of the red chairs, wand in hand.
"Are you two all ready?"
"Uh, Nat?" Alex said slowly. "Would we be down here if we weren't?"
The redhead's usual scowl was back, by now, only an idiot would bait her when she was looking like that. Which is exactly why Alex does so. Sure, I've only known the guy for less than a day, but he really seems the type.
I just smiled. "Er, guys? Can we go now? It would be nice what I'm getting myself into before I'm knee-deep"
Nat turned to look at me for a second. "Knee-deep? You're drowning in this already James." She said frankly. "But, let's go." And she turned and marched over to the portrait hole. "Light."
"Right." Alex said, pulling out his wand. "Lumos."
The end of his wand lit up much like it had a light bulb just sort of shoved onto it. Again I was worried about how much catching up I would have to do, as I was a whole year behind. I would just have to put in extra hours, maybe pull a few all nighters if I wanted to stay with my class, not miles behind them. Alex and Nat might be willing to help me, who knows? It was one of those things only time would tell.
I think Alex may have forgotten his promise to teach me a spell, but that didn't matter. I probably wouldn't have had much luck with it anyway. There are two things I am good at. Football, and math. And spell work, unfortunately, involves neither. As I followed Nat and Alex out the portrait hole, I wondered if Alex knew how to play football. He was, after all, from a muggle family. 'Muggle' was one of the first things he had explained to me.
I wasn't really a muggleborn, though it sure seemed like it. According to Alex, Da was a pureblood as far back as it is possible to go, and the same with Dad, on his father's side at least. His mum, my grandmum, was a muggleborn witch.
I would have to ask Alex about football tomorrow, right know I would rather learn what my parents have been keeping from me.
As we set off down the hallway, a voice from behind us called out.
"Oy! You! With the black hair!" I turned around, there was no one there. "Bloody hell you're daft, over here, in the portrait."
I walked slowly towards the portrait, ignoring Natalie's warning hand on my arm. "What do you want?" Only the boy with the longish black hair was left, the other three were no where to be seen.
"What's your name boy?" The teen asked me curiously, still lounging against the tree.
"What's your name?" I shot back. The painting only smiled.
"Fair enough." He paused. "The name's Sirius Black. Now, what's yours?"
I stared at the portrait. He had answered one of the questions I had had for my entire life. And he had done it so casually, not even knowing what he was doing. This was the man that made Dad look like he wanted to cry. "Er, it's James." Apparently this was exactly what he wanted to hear, because he let out a whoop.
"I told him! I knew it! But did he believe me? No-o, no one ever believes the dog." He had lost me with his ramblings, I just kind of waited for him to snap out of it. "Wait a tick, what's your last name?"
"Uhm…" I felt sort of inclined to tell him the truth, since I was partially named after him. "Potter-Malfoy."
I didn't expect him to slide down the tree trunk with a look of shock.
"Oh no. This is not good. No good, none." He sighed. "What have you done Harry? What have you done?" He was mumbling and muttering, and I sort of wished I could say he was incoherent, but sadly, it was not to be. I could hear every single word that came out of his mouth.
It was obvious he wasn't going to recover for a while, so I edged away slowly until I was a few feet away, then broke into a run and caught up with Alex and Nat.
"Who is that?!" I asked in a sort of loud whisper. Alex shoved a hand over my mouth and pulled me in the other direction, away from the portrait and Gryffindor Tower. "What'd you do that for?" I demanded angrily as soon as he released me.
He gave me a wry half smile. "Can't be too careful. Don't want you waking up all the portraits do we?"
I rolled my eyes. "It wasn't me. It was the boy in the portrait, Sirius Black. You heard him. Back to my other question, who is he?"
"Was. Who was he." Natalie corrected, glancing around for who knows what. "He died just over 17 years ago. He was your dad's godfather, and your granddad's best friend."
It still irked me that a girl I had known for just over twelve hours knew more about my family than I did. But I was about to learn. Almost all of my questions would be answered. But some of them couldn't be answered by books. Some of them need to be answered by my family. They need to explain why they had lied to me. True, they hadn't told me outright untruths, but they had lied by omission. And it wasn't just a little white lie. It was a whole other world. And according to what people had told me, they were largely responsible for this world's continued existence. That wasn't the sort of thing you just forgot. They had a lot of explaining to do, and that will start as soon as I can get a letter to them.
I am going to find out everything. Even if I have to beat it out of someone.