Disclaimer: All characters and events in this are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. J. K. Rowling owns this world – and most of the characters in it – I probably own what you don't recognise.
AN: American/British dictionary –
Wee – little, small
Din'ni ken – don't know (Scottish)
Nary – no, no a one (Scottish again)
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Unforgettable, In Every Way
Part II – In Which There is Betting and Note-passing
The greenhouse door slid open just as I had fished out my books for this lesson from my bag.
Sharon Watson and Andrew Kirkcaldy sauntered in. Sharon was clinging to Andrew's arm, a slight flush on her cheeks and both their lips were slightly swollen.
"Oh, Professor Hinks!" Shona gushed, while most of the girls' attention was riveted on Andrew; how his dreamy blue eyes seemed to soak up all the light and his short brown hair was lying perfectly – his fringe was spiked up at the front, creating an air of… 'Popular-ness' was the only way to describe it.
"We're soooo sorry that we were late…" Shona fluttered her lashes at the professor – I had to restrain myself from groaning but I couldn't help my eyes rolling in their sockets, "But my bag split, and Andrew had to help me collect my papers that had blown everywhere!"
My eyebrows rose so quickly, I almost expected to get a cramp.
Hinks sighed a long-suffering sigh and glanced out through the glass of the greenhouse. The breeze wasn't even powerful enough to stir the dry blades of grass, let alone to cause papers to fly away uncontrollably. But the air was filled with humidity and the tenseness that came just before a thunderstorm; clouds obscured the sky, creating a grey blanket that had been drawn across the earth, blocking out the sunlight.
"I won't gi' you a detention this time 'cause – I remember when I was at Hogwarts and had a girlfriend…" quite a few snickers erupted from people at the back, me included; but they were quickly muted, "But I'll gi' you a wee tip. Next time, make up an excuse that's actually plausible. Now sit down and at least pretend that you're interested in my lesson."
"Thank you, Sir," Andrew said quietly, immediately drawing everyone's attention. His soft voice could make the knees weak of any girl; I could even see some of the girls at the front of the room swooning in their chairs.
Shona turned with a huff and almost dragged Andrew down the isle of desks.
As she passed Stewart McPherson, she winked at him and when he quickly averted his gaze – a blush staining his cheeks; a smirk appeared on her lips and her hips dipped a fraction of an inch lower as she continued back to her desk – as if inviting Stewart to look at them. Andrew followed behind her with both of their bags, Shona's in perfect condition – not that there was any doubt, of course.
"Of course not… idiots," I muttered under my breath and then deliberately turned my gaze back to Professor Hinks, who was at the top of the room and seemed to be miming taking something out of a pot, shaking it and then stabbing it down, like a dagger.
"Sorry, what did you say?" Kate asked me in a whisper, seeming to have caught my mumbling.
"Wha?" I started, surprised that Kate would say anything to me, "Oh, I was just mumbling to myself," I shrugged it off.
"No, I could have sworn that I heard you say something!"
Why won't she drop this? It's not a big deal, "Yes, I admitted that I said something – I talked to myself!"
"Are you jealous of Shona?"
That was blunt - understatement of the year. I replied in kind, "No."
"I think that you are," she stated, sounding so certain that it set my nerves on edge.
"No, I'm not. Why would I be? I don't care about her, I couldn't care less if she flirted with every boy in the school," I looked her straight in the eyes, trying to convince her that I was truthful. But it just served to convince her.
"If you weren't jealous of her, you wouldn't try to convince me so hard," she stated, revealing her trump card. Her voice rose in victory, attracting the attention of Professor Hinks.
"Miss. Anderson," he said with a sigh, his deep voice rumbling in his throat, "Do you have something that you would like to say to the class?" He paused, waiting for her to say something.
"No, Professor," she whispered, so quietly that I had trouble making out what she had said - and I was seated beside her!
But Hinks appeared to be in a foul mood, completely doing an about-face from his earlier leniency, "If it was so important that you could not wait to tell Miss. Evans after my class – do, please, tell us so that we might also be enlightened."
Conversation and the usual rustling had ceased as soon as Hinks had started talking, and now people appeared to be too absorbed with their work for them to actually be concentrating on it. Instead, mental ears could almost be seen twitching, trying to pick up a juicy morsel of gossip that they could then further relate to all their acquaintances.
"Lily's jealous of Shona," Kate relented in a quiet tone, but either Kate said to too quietly to be heard by anyone other than me, or Hinks' old age had caught up to him; he asked her to repeat it in a louder voice, so that the whole class could hear.
"Kate thinks that this years' Ravenclaw Quiddich team will beat Griffindor," I interjected quickly when Kate opened her mouth for a second time, hoping that it would get a rise out of our classmates.
"Not likely!" Jay exclaimed shrilly, her outburst starting a tirade of comments.
"We will so beat you!"
"Rubbish!"
"In your dreams!" that was from Karen, whose voice I could recognise anywhere.
"I don't bloody well think so!" Sirius exclaimed from the back.
"Language, Sirius!"
"Not with Sirius and Jay as beaters and me as a chaser!"
"Don't get too overconfident boys," Shona replied smugly, "we have Andrew as our Captain this year."
"He missed the last two games against us last year!"
"Ha! 'Supposedly' off ill!"
"Well James is our Captain - " a timid voice tried to cut in, but was drowned out by Shona.
"Irrelevant," Shona fluttered her left hand – as if to completely discard that fact.
The person who owned the tentative voice seemed to have thought that he had done his required duty, as he didn't speak up again.
"Ten Galleon that Griffindor win the match!" someone roared form the back, it was either James or Sirius; I couldn't tell which.
"Twenty!" I hollered. Oh, dear Lord! Please tell me that I had not just said that!
"Fine!" Shona and many other Ravenclaw students chorused, the spark of competitiveness lit in their eyes.
"In case you din'ni ken," Professor Hinks started loudly, startling many people; in all the excitement, they had forgotten that he was there, "It's against that school rules to bet!" He glared at us from under his bushy grey brows.
"I put 10 Galleons on to Ravenclaw to win. And you had better win, or Hufflepuff will have nary a chance to win the cup!"
A smile sprang to his lips. "Ahhhh… this reminds me of when I was here at Hogwarts as a student, and it was the second last match between Slytherin and…"
"Evans!" a hiss snapped me out of the coma-like state that I had gone into out of self-preservation. The hiss was quickly followed by a crumpled piece of parchment, that bounced off the back of my head and landed on the floor with an unmistakable dry sound and skittered under my chair.
"Who is throwing pieces of paper in my class?" Hinks thundered from the front.
Reacting quickly, I knocked some of my quills off my desk and they landed with a clatter onto the floor. The sound that they made was unbelievable in the silence that had again swept through the greenhouse.
"Oops! I'm so sorry Professor," I looked apologetically at him, playing the part of the clumsy oaf. I swiftly stooped down and gathered the quills, also picking up the ball of crumpled paper and sliding it up the sleeve of my robe. Placing the quills back on my desk, I again apologised to Hinks, who shook his head at my antics and went back to… what ever he had been doing.
Glancing nervously out of the corners of my eyes to check that no one was looking in my direction, I stealthily drew out the piece of paper and slowly smoothed it – so that it wouldn't make a sound and give me away.
It read:
Nice to know that you have some confidence in our skill.
In hastily written letters.
I grinned and shook my head, picking up my quill and writing a reply:
You had better win that game, or I will personally kill every last one of you – I don't have 20 Galleons!
I slowly re-crumpled the piece of parchment and leant back, still looking forward, the ball cupped in my right hand. It was quickly taken out of my hand.
I had no idea who had written than note – although I could guess that it was either James Potter or Sirius Black, as they were the only ones on the Griffindor Quiddich team, other than Jay, who was currently sitting two rows ahead of me and an isle to the left. I trusted that, while the person on the bench behind me was certainly not a Marauder; they would find a way to get the note back to the person who had thrown it to me in the first place.
Sure enough, a cough signalled a reply and I leant back to receive the message:
So why did you bet that on the game? – Good cover, by the way.
This was written in a different scrawl.
"And who, may I ask is this?" I whispered to myself, consciously making my voice quieter than usual – so that there would be no repeat of the little episode with Kate.
I again wrote my reply:
I have no idea whatsoever of what overcame me – I think I may finally be losing it. Thanks, it was just a reaction.
But instead of having to go through the same channels to get the paper to the Marauders, I faintly heard "Accio, parchment!" from the back of the class, and the crumpled ball flew out of my hands, narrowly missing Kate's head as it made a bee-line directly towards the back benches.
After a few minutes, some people shifted in their chairs at the back. I took that as my cue, and whispered as clearly as I possibly could:
"Accio – parchment!" and low in behold, the paper whizzed into my hand, the quick motion causing Kate to be distracted from the board and Professor Hinks' very 'absorbing' lesson and look over at me.
I shifted in my chair so that my sleeves covered the note and whispered: "Sorry!" accompanied by an insincere smile. Kate graced me with a glare before turning her attention back to the board.
The note read:
Finally? I thought that you had lost it ever since second year when you and Karen decided to have monthly rituals on the nights of the dark moon!
Yup! You had most of our year – and some of the other years too – thinking that you were practising 'DARK' magic!
Oh, did they have to bring that up again? It had been in second year! For some reason, I had a feeling that this incident was going to follow Karen and me throughout all our school days. Perhaps not even stop then.
Sighing, I picked my quill and started to write:
That was 3 years ago! And it wasn't 'DARK' magic.
Well what would you call it!? Sirius, it wasn't 'DARK' magic, it was… Lily, what was it?
Oh good, at least I know now that the person with the bold writing was Sirius Black, but that still left the other an enigma.
If you must know, it was
And then my quill ran out. I spent a few minutes debating with myself whether reaching forward with my quill to refill it from my pot of ink, sitting at the other end of my desk – just tempting me – would be worth the risk.
It was extremely doubtful that Kate wouldn't notice my movement, and worst case would be that Hinks caught me. I decided to risk it –
"Miss. Evans!" Hinks' voice thundered from the front, "what are you doing?"
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End Note:
That was fun! But aren't I evil! Hahaha! Cliff-hangers! Aren't they MARVELLOUS?!
I really enjoyed doing the different handwriting styles – you'll just have to deduce who's writing's who's!
See if you can solve it in your review and I'll post who's right at the start of my next chapter!