Once Upon a Miserable Girl's Plight...

Disclaimer: Read this and weep, for I am not J.K. Rowling and thus have no secrets to give you about anything concerning Harry Potter. The plot is mere speculation on my part and the characters most definitely do not belong to me.

Chapter Six: Wasted Clues on the Oblivious

June, Fifth Year

Somehow, I've found myself in the company of Marlene again.

She and Alice have taken it upon themselves to settle into the train compartment and basically keep me company. I can't say that I object to that. They saved me from almost ending up with Bertha Jorkins in the compartment. She's been quite nosy around me ever since that encounter with Potter and Black down by the lake.

"I still think they're quite handsome," Marlene said quietly while she blushed at me.

Alice just laughed as she glanced at my reaction. "Are you serious?" I asked, looking up at her in surprise, "They were hexing Snape for no reason. Granted Snape is a git, but that doesn't mean you hex him for no reason."

I had become a little less popular since I took my stance against Potter and Black a few days ago. A far amount of people thought me to be stupid for sticking up for Snape. 'He's a slimy git,' they'd say, 'Those two were quite right to hex him.'

Alice looked at me again. "You're right," she started but wrinkled her nose in dislike as she continued, "But Snape was foul in calling you a 'mud-blood'."

I nodded and glanced out the train window, staring at the countryside fly past me. I thought some more about what Potter had said to me.

"Well, it's more that fact that he exists, if you know what I mean..."

And for as angry as that made me feel, that someone could be that biased against someone (A/N- A little humor for you, as Lily's pretty biased herself), I couldn't help but think about something else he had said—

"It was nice how James stuck up for you," Marlene commented, playing with a lock of her golden hair between her fingertips, "He looked really angry with Snape, even once you'd left."

Thinking about what she had just said, I smiled slightly. Even though I hadn't wanted Potter to make Snape apologize to me, it was kind of nice to know that his fury about the incident hadn't flamed out once I took the liberty of leaving. Even if I still thought he was a prat, himself.

But when I thought about it, that still didn't excuse what he had done. He had originally attacked Snape (from what I could see down by the lake) on his own accord, just because he seemingly had nothing better to do.

I was shaken out of my reverie as Alice piped up again.

"I personally thought it was wonderful when Lily was yelling at James," she said, a slight grin playing on her face. "What was it again…? Something like, 'I'm surprised the broomstick can get of the ground with your fat head on it.' The look on his face was priceless."

I have to say, I was a bit shocked to here Alice say that. Usually, she was so shy; the quietest in our dormitory. I shared a glance with Marlene, who by the looks of it, appeared just as stunned as I felt. Nonetheless, I felt my cheeks go a bit red as Alice went on.

"He deserved it though," she stated fervently, "People regularly expect to be hexed in the corridors because of him and his mates, as handsome though they may be."

She added the last bit as an afterthought and winked at me, already knowing my opinion on those boys' charm.

Marlene sighed dreamily while Alice and I exchanged a laugh.

Charming and handsome… It was a pity they didn't come with a pin to deflate their heads. Then they might actually be attractive.

"It's a shame," I added, smiling slyly, "All of that allure and good looks wasted away…"

Marlene sat up straighter and snorted in disbelief. She couldn't even get any words out to disagree with me.

The train ride was quite enjoyable after that. We played a game of exploding snap which took quite a bit of time and every now and then people would come and visit with us, talking about what was now referred to as 'the lake incident'. A couple Prefects and the Head Girl actually came in at one point to congratulate me for, as Frank Longbottom put it, "Handing Potter his arse on a plate."

"Really," Gideon Prewett said proudly, smiling at me, "He's been too arrogant for too long. Setting of fireworks in the corridors while Prefects were on night patrol wasn't exactly the nicest thing to do. And the hexing in the corridors never helped us either."

"I keep telling Remus that his friends are a little, well, crazy but he doesn't seem to notice. Though he did help me out when Sirius was about to hex me once," Davey Gudgeon interrupted resolutely.

Alice smiled at me and I noticed her blush as Frank Longbottom stole glances at her in between snatches of our conversation. I had to hold in the feeling of laughter rising up to my lips.

The ride went on much like that and eventually, after some more conversation, Marlene declared that she was going off to find James Potter and Sirius Black to catch one last glance of them before she left the train for summer holidays.

She left Alice and me laughing quietly in her wake.

"See," she told me, smiling once more, "Most of the school thinks you're brave yet crazy."

"Crazy?"

I gave her a look of inquiry.

"Well," she looked back at me quite plainly, "You did stand up to Potter and his friends."

"I see your point," I replied, shifting in my seat a bit. Those boys hadn't been to keen on me after that. Mostly they avoided me in the common room and the corridors. I didn't truly care that much, to be honest.

"It was odd, his reaction, though," she remarked as I watched her smile twist into a puzzled expression and her eyes glaze over as she remembered the incident. My gaze followed her intently as she continued. "He seemed quite surprised and almost hurt after you left."

She looked up, trying to gauge my reaction.

"Probably from that gash on his cheek," I responded logically. "It looked like it really hurt."

"Maybe…," she agreed half-heartedly and trailed off, looking out the window.

I sensed the feeling that I was missing something big but I didn't quite know what it was. Alice had always been much better at reading people's emotions than I had. James didn't seem too put out to me. I don't know. Maybe I had missing something. Oh well. It wasn't like I could be expecting a memo on his feelings anytime soon, especially, as Alice had said, after the way I had insulted him.

A/N- Okay, still not as long as I had expected but this is where I'm going to stop writing the chapter. Although, I like how this chapter turned out better in comparisonthan the last one. I'll just hope that next time I'll write more. Please review and tell me your thoughts on this.