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They all sat bored to death for an hour, listening to Professor Lorenthas drone on about the importance and history of Transfiguration. Yawns and sighs could be heard randomly across the room. Heads nodded as students tried to stay awake.
"…and that's how Transfiguration was discovered," ended Lorenthas. "I'll expect a two page essay on different ways Transfiguration can be used, and it will be due on Monday." She waved her hand towards the door and it opened with a creak. "Class dismissed."
Students rushed out the door, relief showing clearly on their faces. Once outside the classroom, Holly pulled Lily off to the side. "I'm going to go back to my common room. I need to start on my homework."
"Alright, I guess we'll see you at dinner?" she said questioningly.
Holly shook her head. "I'm not really hungry. I think I'll just skip dinner tonight."
"Well, that's your choice. You know you're always welcome in Gryffindor."
Holly quickly hugged Lily and nodded her thanks, then turned around and began pushing her way through the crowds of kids. It was an uneventful journey until she came to the portrait that covered the entrance to the Slytherin common room.
There stood Lucious Malfoy, watching Holly through slitted eyes. Oh god, I'm in for it now. I better get this over with. She sighed and moved over by Lucious, with her head slightly down. She tried to move past him without being noticed, but failed. He caught her by the wrist and spun her around.
"Just where do you think you're going?" asked Lucious slyly.
"Unhand me you slime ball." She escaped his grasp and turned around to leave, but was astonished when Lucious pinned her to the wall.
"I admire the way you stood up for your friends, but it was a very bad idea to jinx me. Though…because you're a Slytherin and you're pureblood, I'm willing to give you another chance." He pushed a strand of Holly's blonde hair out of her face and held a hand out to her.
Holly couldn't believe what she was hearing. Lucious, admire her? Yea right! A shudder ran through her body when he touched her face. Who gave him permission to touch me? She glared at him and slapped his hand away. "I don't need a second chance! I've done nothing wrong, and I don't need any second chances from you." She turned to walk into the common room. "Oh, and don't touch me!" with that she left a stuttering Lucious, fuming outside the common room entrance.
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"I hope Holly's alright." Said a worried Lily. "She said wasn't hungry and went back to her common room." Lily picked up a bright red apple and sunk her teeth into it.
"Maybe she's just tired, or maybe she's actually becoming sick." Stated James as he began to eat the food, that's piled high on is plate.
Sirius winked at Remus and they both began to get up and leave. "Where do you two think you're going?" asked Lily with a sideways glance.
"We're going to go check on her," said Sirius. With that Sirius and Remus quietly, but quickly left the Great Hall and made their way to Slytherin common room, by taking shortcuts. They got there just in time to see Holly slap Lucious's hand away, and walk into the common room, while Lucious stalked off in the opposite direction.
They turned to each other, somewhat confused, and waited a few minutes before quickly walking over to the portrait.
The portrait eyed the two warily. "Password?"
"Dracona Learth." Stated Sirius confidently. The portrait slowly swung open, still grumbling. Sirius snickered a bit, and the two Marauders quickly stepped into the common room.
They both pulled their cloaks closer around themselves and shivered from the draftiness. Their eyes peered around the room and Remus pointed to a figure lying on a couch in front of the fire. It was Holly, and she was asleep. She had a quill on her right hand, and her Transfiguration book was open on her stomach, with a piece of parchment on a nearby table.
Remus held a finger to his lips and slowly moved over to Holly. He knelt by her side and pushed a strand of her hair from her face. The movement startled Holly and her eyes snapped open. A look of pure confusion was frozen on her face.
"Wha…what are you doing here?" she stuttered.
Sirius showed one of his goofy grins. "Lily was worried about you, so we volunteered to check on you."
"Well Sirius, that's truly considerate of you, but I'm just fine. Maybe a little exasperated and tired, but I'm fine."
"Remus glanced from Sirius to Holly, "Uh…if you don't mind me asking, what happened out there with Lucious?"
"You saw that?" Holly asked, wincing a bit.
"Only the end of it," stated Sirius.
"Well…uh..." Holly stuttered, searching for the right words. "It was just a…quarrel. That's all."
"Well I guess since you're ok. We'll take our leave." Remus and Sirius both made mock bows and left the Slytherin common room.
Holly stuck her tongue out and looked at her essay. Only a paragraph was written and it seemed like an eternity had passed.
"Vincent…?" a voice questioned from the shadows behind Holly. "Was there a boy named Vincent in here a second ago?"
Holly shook her head and turned expecting to see some other snot-nosed Slytherin, but instead saw a decently handsome boy. His hair and his eyes were jet black, except for the tips of his hair, which were bright blue. He had his left eyebrow pierced and a tattoo of a dragon wound its way up his arm from his wrist. "There's been no one here named Vincent, at least that I know of."
The boy shrugged his shoulders and grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I haven't even introduced myself. The name's Marshall, Marshall Vance." He put out his hand for Holly to shake.
"My name's Holly, Holly Brandrith. It's…er…nice to meet you." She said shaking his hand. Marshall hand a firm grip, but his hands were soft. Color rose to Holly's cheeks and she quickly averted her gaze, dropping her hand. "So…what year are you in?"
"I'm in my seventh year," he said with a smirk. "How about you?"
"I'm also in my seventh year. I'm somewhat surprised that I haven't seen you before now."
"You probably did see me, but didn't notice. No one ever really notices me." He turned to walk away but stopped. "I'm going to go get a snack. Want to come?"
"Sure, I'm not getting much done on my essay anyways." She got up and began to follow Marshall, who offered her his arm, and Holly, not wanting to be rude, accepted it.
They talked the whole way to the Great Hall, about whatever came to mind. Marshall pushed open the large oak doors, and Holly's eyes scanned the lingering students' faces. She saw Lily and the Marauders. What are they still doing here? I can't let them see me. She let Marshall lead her to the Slytherin table as she tried to hide behind him.
"Here you go." Marshall gave Holly a sideways glance when she sat down silently. He walked around the table and sat in front of her, raising an eyebrow. "Are you ok " Marshall asked, concern in his eyes.
"I'm fine, just a little bit tired." She picked up a roll and began to spread butter on top of it. "Do you know the Marauders?" she asked suddenly.
Marshall shook his head. "I know of them, but I don't know them personally. Why do you ask?"
"Well…uh," Holly had to think quickly. "I was just curious as to what you thought about the. I mean most people say they're a mean group of kids."
"Well I can't truly judge them, because I don't know them, but from what I've heard they're a bad bunch." He stated flatly.
"I see," said Holly, "well, if you look at the Gryffindor table there's a group of three boys, possibly four, and a girl with fiery red hair. The boys are the Marauders. Lily is James's girlfriend."
Holly watched as Marshall turned his head to the Gryffindor table and let his eyes scan it. She was pretty sure he saw them when his eyes narrowed and a line appeared on his brow.
"Do you know Lily or any of the Marauders personally? Lily keeps looking at you…."
"Yes," Holly said hesitantly, "I know all of them personally. They're all my friends. Sometimes I wish we weren't though, because I get teased about it all the time." Holly dropped her gaze and focused on her drink.
They both sat in silence for a few moments then Marshall glanced back at the Marauders. "Here comes Lily," he mumbled.
Holly's eyes followed Marshall's and saw Remus looking in her direction. She suddenly could feel heat rising in her ears.
"Hi Holly. Are you feeling better?" asked Lily, with a questioning glance.
"Yes Lily. I'm feeling much better." Holly sighed and threw the rest of the roll away from her. "How long have you been watching me, and do the others know I'm here, instead of the common room?"
Marshall gave Holly a sideways glance as she waited for Lily to reply.
"I've known since you walked through the doors. I think Remus is the only other one who might have noticed before I walked over here."
"I see. Well, I guess you guys could join us if you'd like. Oh, this is Marshall. He's also a seventh year Slytherin."
"Nice to meet you Lily." Marshall stood up and extended his hand.
"Lily shook his hand, "Nice to meet you too, Marshall. At least there's one Slytherin gentleman." Marshall blushed at the compliment. Lily then winked at Holly and she too blushed a little bit.
Out of the corner of Holly's eye, Remus got up and slowly walked over to the table. They locked eyes for a second and Holly was pained by the hurt look she saw in his eyes. It's not like she had even done anything, she was only talking to someone who wished to know more about her.
"Hi Remus, want to join us?" asked Holly with a pleading look.
"Oh, no thanks I don't want to interrupt anything. Besides I was just coming by to say I was going to bed." He leaned over and gave Holly a quick hug. "Well, good-night."
"'Night Remus," said both Holly and Lily. Holly watched Remus walk away with his shoulders slumped over a bit and sighed.
"Well, I think I'm going to also go to bed." Stated Holly. I really must get my essay done. Sorry to cut it short like this." With that Holly rushed out of the Great Hall, hoping to catch up with Remus.
"Was it something I did? Did I say something wrong?" Marshall asked Lily with a confused look in his eyes.
Lily shook her head, her auburn hair bouncing about her shoulders, and sighed. "No, you did nothing wrong. Holly is just behind in things… Lily's eyes lingered on the table with the Marauders and Marshall's eyes followed her gaze.
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"Remus! Wait up, please!" Holly ran to catch up with Remus, who had stopped but still had his back to her, her feet pounding through the empty corridor. "Remus…please don't be mad. We were only talking and eating...besides it's not as though we're a couple or anything."
"I know we're not a couple, and truly you're right, I have no right to feel the way I do." He sighed and turned around, his eyes locking with Holly's. "At least you were having a good time…." Remus's eyes glittered in the torchlight as he ran a hand through his messy hair, and Holly could find nothing to say.
There was a long awkward silence and Holly cleared her throat then found her voice. "Do you still want to go to Hogsmeade with me? If you don't want to it's fine, I'll jus go with someone else…"
Remus grasped Holly's hands and pulled her closer to him. "Of course I'll go with you, even with the danger. You were only talking to Marshall, I'm sorry." Remus bent his head towards Holly and pressed her body against his as their lips met. At first Holly started to pull away, but gave up and deepened the kiss, letting herself go.
Holly finally pulled away slowly and when Remus started to say he was sorry, she put a finger on his lips. "Don't apologize. You have no need to…" she said softly, "I wanted it."
A grin spread across Remus's lips and he turned to leave. "Good-night Holly." He then left for the Gryffindor dormitories and Holly was left in a silent corridor. She turned to go back to the Slytherin common room when she spotted Lily leaning against a wall with her arms crossed and a smirk on her pretty freckled face.
"What are you looking at Lily?" asked Holly, as she too crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.
"Oh, nothing." Said Lily as she quickly walked over to Holly, her skirt swishing about her knees. "So, are you and Remus an item now?" she asked trying to sound innocent.
Holly uncrossed her arms and fiddled with the little red ball of light she kept clasped around her neck on a silver chain. "We're not officially an item if that's what you mean."
Lily made a scoffing sound and pulled Holly's hand away from her necklace. "Come on, I saw him snogging you in the corridor." She decided to continue quickly before Holly could interrupt. "What do you mean by not official anyways? Has he not asked you yet?"
Holly shook her head and began playing with her necklace again. "No, he hasn't asked me anything, of course except for going to Hogsmeade, but that doesn't mean mush to me. It's just going to be a friendly outing from what I understand." She nodded mainly to herself and sighed. "Well I really should go to sleep now. I don't want to be caught out after hours. Not tonight." She added with a smirk that Lily returned as she headed off towards Slytherin.
Little did she know that when she got to the common room she'd find Marshall sitting on a couch across from a blazing fire, reading over what looked to be the finished product of Holly's essay. "Marshall… is that my essay?" asked somewhat surprised.
Marshall jumped a bit at the sight of Holly and nodded sheepishly, causing strands of his black hair to fall into his eyes. "You seemed so worried about it, and I felt like I had done something wrong so I decided to help you out." He motioned to a spot on the couch next to him. "Care to join me? I've noticed it's awfully drafty in here." He said with a slight grinned, pushing the hair out of his eyes.
Holly walked over to the couch and carefully sat down, smoothing out the wrinkles with the palm of her hand, then looked at Marshall grinning. "Thank you for helping me with my essay. I don't think I would have gotten it done in time." She grinned at him and noticed he had put his arm around her while fake yawning. She had a giggle behind her hand and smirked at him. "You think you're pretty smooth don't you?"
Marshall fained a hurt look and grinned, what Holly guessed was supposed to be a seductive smile and laughed. "I don't think I'm smooth, I know I am." He shifted his body to where he was closer to Holly and looking at her eyes.
"My, aren't we a little bit conceited?" said Holly looking at Marshall's eyes and thinking she could easily lose herself I them.
"I'm not really conceited…I just know what I want." He continued inching closer to Holly, never breaking his gaze.
"You just know what you want huh? Well then my friend, what do you want?" she asked leaning towards Marshall. Holly hadn't really meant to, but it just seemed to happen even with her telling her body to stop.
Marshall grinned and whispered into Holly's ear. "I want you…I've never met anyone quite like you, and I'd be a fool to let you go." With those final words Marshall wrapped his arms around Holly's waist and pull her against him, kissing her all the while.
Holly's mind screamed that this wasn't right, but she seemed to be under a spell and could resist. She moved her body half onto Marshall's and ran her fingers through his messy hair, deepening the kiss. Their bodies melted together and as Holly could finally tear herself away, she had lost track of everything. She jumped up, and held a hand to her lips as if she had just bit them. Turning she fled to the safety of her dormitory, leaving Marshall on the couch, happily confused.
Shutting the door quickly and quietly, she jumped onto her four-poster bed and buried her face into one of her pillows. Tears streamed down her face. She had snogged two people in the same night and for some reason felt guilty, even though she wasn't with either of the two.
The night seemed to drag on for Holly, who had finally fallen asleep, but was now plagued by nightmares of the day's events. No matter how many times she woke up, almost in tears, and rolled over and went back to sleep, the same nightmares seemed to visit her. Some of the more recent ones even contained images about the upcoming trip to Hogsmeade and this worried Holly. They kept becoming clearer and more vivid until the finally it was the day of the big trip, and Holly was thankful she had been able to avoid Marshall till now, but wasn't so sure she could keep doing it. She had kept the events of that night to herself, until Lily had finally pried it out of her, making her feel much worse. Today though, she had to get over of it, in order to be happy during the trip to Hogsmeade.
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Well, I've finally finished chapter 4 and here it is for all to read. I hope everyone liked it and can't wait for the next chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter up here a lot faster. Well, please send me some sort of comments, and criticisms are always welcome to. I mean it's the only way to get better, so send away!