DISCLAIMER: J.K. Rowling owns the setting and everything that you see in the Harry Potter books. Thanks to Rowling for a brilliant world to write of. However, I do own a few original characters and ideas. If anything in here seems related to another story/fanfic, sorry! It's really not.
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---Chapter Two: Enemies and Friends---
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"Faayeee!" a voice said in my ear. I groaned and turned over. "Waake uuup!"
"Go away," I mumbled grouchily.
"Someone's not a morning person. Come on, you don't want to be late for your first day of classes," Grace said. She was right. Grumbling half-heartedly, I reluctantly left the warmth of my bed to go shower and dress. After I was done, Grace beckoned to me. Standing next to her was the person I recognized as Leah Cricklin, Grace's friend for four years, or so Grace had said. Leah was rather short and compact, with a slightly plump frame and ordinary features.
"Since you guys already know each other, I don't have to introduce," Grace said happily. "Let's go down to breakfast together." Leah smiled shyly at me, and I returned the gesture.
"We're getting our schedules today," Leah commented. Oh no, really?
"Oh, what's electives are you taking, Faye?" Grace asked, covering her mouth as another yawn assaulted her.
"Study of Ancient Runes and Divination," I yawned back. "I'm lousy at Divination, though," I added.
"So are most people," Leah said matter-of-factly.
I had to follow the two to the Great Hall, as I wasn't sure about my way around the school.
"So, Faye, what do you think of the Marauders?" Leah asked. I was getting tired of people pelting me with questions about them. They weren't that great.
"Does it matter?" I asked rather grumpily. I was definitely a bear in the morning. "All I know is that all the girls swoon over them when they're not really that cool."
"Speak of the devil. Look who's coming now," Grace commented, taking a swig from her glass of pumpkin juice.
Four boys appeared at the entrance to the Great Hall. Two of them were, of course, Sirius and James, looking as good as I suspected they usually did. I didn't let myself think 'handsome' or 'dashing.' The third one was the sandy-haired, blue-eyed young man I had seen with Sirius talking to Fiona. The fourth one looked as if he didn't belong with the Marauders at all. Small and plump, he had watery blue eyes and thin, mousy brown hair.
"Who are the other two?" I asked Grace.
"Remus Lupin is the taller one and Peter Pettigrew's the short one," she replied, a bit of pink staining her cheeks. A realization struck me.
"You fancy one of the Marauders?" I asked her, aghast. "Don't tell me it's the short one, Pete or whatever!" Both Leah and Grace choked on a bite of food.
"WHAT?" Grace practically screamed at me. "No way! He is so not hot!"
"I didn't think you were so shallow that you'd go for looks alone," I said, feigning innocence. I ducked as Grace threw a bit of shrimp at my face.
"He's not my type," Grace said with dignity and went on to nibble on a bit of bacon. Leah and I exchanged glances and burst out laughing. Well, at least Leah did. I only chuckled. I still didn't feel comfortable enough to relax completely around them. So Grace either fancied Sirius, James, or Remus.
"Oh, look, our schedules," Grace changed the subject, her cheeks still pink. I struggled to hold my laughter in. "Here's your, Faye. And Leah's, and mine." There was silence for a moment as we all went over our schedules.
"Great. Our classes are all the same except for your Ancient Runes class," Grace said, leaning over to look at mine.
I looked up into the Ravenclaw table and started searching for Fiona. No doubt she was already settling in quite nicely. Sure enough, a few minutes later, I spotted Fiona getting up from the Ravenclaw table with a whole train of people behind her. It was disgusting how they all fawned over her. Honestly, didn't these people have any lives of their own?
"Whoa, Faye, you're sister's climbing the ladder of popularity pretty quickly," Grace followed my gaze to where Fiona was bounding away with her followers trailing dazedly along behind her. I shrugged, trying to look nonchalant.
"She's like that," I said simply. But I pushed down my little fit of jealousy. I was well enough anyway. I didn't think I would be very comfortable with a dozen or more people surrounding me at all times. Besides… Fiona was too small a deal to get jealous over, as I'd always told myself. I occupied myself with stuffing my food down my throat.
"What are classes like?" I voiced presently.
"You'll see," Grace said tiredly, dragging a hand through her brown hair.
We had Double Transfiguration with Hufflepuffs first. To my relief, I wasn't very much behind everyone else. I wasn't the best in the class, as I had been at Drake's, but if I worked hard, I could probably do well. At least I managed to turn my porcupine something resembling a pincushion, even though it still had a tail that shot quills at passersby every so often. I took sadistic delight in apologizing profusely to a boy who had several quills shot into his butt by my pincushion. Grace had somehow managed to vanish all of her porcupine except for the quills, and Leah had made a pincushion that still breathed.
My first day passed rather uneventfully. The only class I wasn't very prepared for was History of Magic; Professor Binns set me to sleep in five minutes flat.
Over the next few days I slowly got used to Hogwarts. It was far vaster and more confusing and dangerous than Drake's. The endless moving staircases and trick doors and steps were constantly getting me all muddled up. But nothing very exciting had happened to me. I was beginning to think that Hogwarts would a bore.
A few weeks into the start of the term, I had to drag myself up to the Astronomy tower to finish my Astronomy homework. Though I usually finished my homework early, I had totally forgotten about this particular assignment until Grace had mentioned it at dinner that day. So here I was, trying to finish the stupid assignment.
Sighing with agitation, I dumped my things onto the ground and took out my telescope and set it upright. Rummaging around, I spread out my map of the planets and grabbed a quill before staring into the telescope, searching for the Seven Sisters. At Drake's Institution, we didn't have Astronomy as a required subject, so I was far behind my other classmates in this particular subject. I wondered how Fiona was doing with this subject. I hoped she was failing.
"Faye Prewitt?" a voice said, seeming to come from nowhere. I jumped violently and upset my telescope, causing it to crash down over my map.
"What?!" I said in exasperation as I bent down to straighten the things. I was seriously going crazy with frustration; how else would I be hearing things when nobody was there?
I heard a footstep. Sirius Black appeared out of the shadows with his usual cocky grin in place. His appearance set my heart beating a little too fast for my liking, which I attributed to the fact that he had startled me. Faye Prewitt did not fall for any guy, no matter how hot he may be.
"What are you doing up here?" he asked, bending down to help me pick up my things. What does it look like? But I decided to grace him with an answer. He hadn't done anything bad to me. Yet. Shaking my head, I told myself not to be so pessimistic. After all, he hadn't done anything to me. I really had to shake off my paranoia about others.
"Astronomy homework," I said quietly, quickly resetting my telescope. "What are you doing up here? Shouldn't you be off traipsing around with some loose girl?" I didn't even hide the bite in my voice. I didn't much like most guys; I had had the worst experience with them, excepting Andrew. Most guys I met were interested in me because they wanted to get closer to Fiona or for some other harebrained reason. I didn't trust them.
He merely laughed. "Even I need my days off," he said. "Besides, I just like looking at my namesake." Of course. Sirius was the Dog Star and the brightest star in the sky. I thought it was pretty cool to have been named after a constellation. Maybe I should have been named Cassiopeia or Andromeda instead of Faye.
I peered into my telescope again, searching the sky for anything that might even remotely look like a constellation, hoping that he would leave. Over the weeks I had been here, I had found at that Sirius Black and James Potter were the renowned troublemakers and pranksters of the school, and, to make things worse, they used their good looks to their advantage. That is to say, they got their kicks from charming girls. And from what I had seen of Sirius, he really liked the attention; he was a sort of ladies' man, which was a more polite way of saying playboy. And he was a prankster, along with his best mate, James Potter.
"Need any help?" he asked. I raised my head in surprise at his offer.
"I don't—" I cut off at the genuine expression on his face. I looked down at my messy charts and hurried calculations. "I'd like that," I whispered. I didn't think that I could pull through this assignment without some help anyway, and I didn't want to fail. But I felt so small accepting help… I had always prided myself on being independent.
"Okay, let me see your charts," Sirius said, pulling one of them over to him. I watched in embarrassment as his brow furrowed.
"I've never taken Astronomy before," I rushed to explain. "At my old school, we never had Astronomy as a required subject." I would hate for anybody to think that I was stupid. Some people back at Drake's had thought that I was stupid just because I was ugly and I hung out with Andrew. It was so annoyingly stereotypical.
Sirius glanced at me. "It's okay. Come on, I'll show you how to do it right." He gestured for me to come closer. So I walked over to him—making sure that I wasn't too close to him— and leaned over the charts, listening intently as he explained the complicated thing. He was really quite smart, which surprised me. I had thought, with all the time he spent charming girls, that he wouldn't have any time left for studying.
It was nearly two hours before we were done working over my assignment. "Thanks," I said gratefully as I gathered up my things and stuffed it into my bag.
"No problem," Sirius said easily, lying back down on the ground to look up at the sky. I remained standing, looking down at him uneasily.
I felt awkward; he had spent so much time helping me struggle through this when he could have been off doing whatever he wanted. I felt like I owed him. "Is there anything I can do for you?" I asked bluntly. "I mean, you didn't need to help me…"
"It was pretty fun," he assured me. "Besides, I have to pass on some of my wisdom. But—" at this point he sat up and grinned at me in a very suggestive way, "you could do this one little favor for me…" I had a very good idea of what he was implying.
"Sod off," I snapped as I slammed the door. I could hear him laughing. I felt a surge of irritation and anger. I hated guys who did that. It was insulting that he had suggested… that. He probably did that to every girl he saw. I grimaced as I remembered that he got a new girlfriend almost every week.
I was so absorbed in my own thoughts that I didn't notice when I took a wrong turn and found myself at the entrance to the labyrinth that led to the Slytherins' dorms. I stopped and stared at the stones in dismay before backtracking.
I didn't escape soon enough. A voice shouted, "What are you doing down here, Mudblood?" I turned around and stared into Bellatrix Black's dark eyes. Several more people surrounded me; they were all students that I didn't know.
"I need to get back to my common room," I said, trying to sound calm and collected. I tried to back out and leave, but more people blocked me, grinning maliciously. "Which should be obvious, even to a brainless buffoon like you."
"I don't think you're going to go anywhere," a boy with silvery blonde hair and pale skin sneered, his wand out and pointing at me. "You dirty little half-breed, running around here as if you actually belong here… HAH!"
"Diffindo!" another girl said, and by bag split open. Bottles of ink crashed out, staining my Astronomy homework and books. "We're so tired of seeing you filthy Mudbloods here, taking up our space! You aren't any good! You're inferior to us!"
The mob of students pushed in closer to me, and I bit my lip, looking around at all the hate-filled and contemptible faces staring at me with such animosity that I was truly afraid that they would hurt me.
"Impedimenta!" another student shouted, and I flew backwards with the force of the spell, landing painfully against the wall. I struggled to get up, but the spell held me still and defenseless.
"So, Prewitt, you're all alone," Bellatrix said, strolling up to me. "There's no one to help you now. My trashy cousin Sirius isn't here, and nor is that muggle-loving Potter. Now why don't we continue where we left off at the train?" she asked sweetly, grabbing a cruel handful of my hair and pulling out her own wand.
I was suddenly angry—rage coursed through my blood, setting fire to me. A funny tingling raced throughout my body, and I felt as if hot needles were sticking into every part of my skin. How dare they do this to me? Why did they like to torture me, bully me, make fun of me like I was an inferior brat? I had swallowed enough of this at my old school and my old home; I wasn't about to let the same thing happen to me here. Who was I, to let them get this far?
"Incendio!" Bellatrix shouted. I felt the heat on my hair, and my rage soared. The tingling sensation heightened, and suddenly the spell holding me still fell apart. I lurched to my feet, and in the next instant my fist had made contact with Bellatrix's nose. She fell back, holding her nose and staring at me with something akin to hate and bloodthirsty murder. I didn't care.
I pulled out my own wand and shouted, "Reducto!" My spell blasted the students in front of me off their feet and flying across the hall. My next hex took out the rest of the surprised students surrounding me. I didn't care if they had gotten bad injuries. They deserved it, those no-good bastards. Then I quickly gathered up my things and ran for it. This was often my tactic: hit-and-run. Andrew and I had practiced it all the time. It was actually very effective, no matter how dishonorable.
I ran as hard as I could, not caring what direction I was going as long as I was escaping from them. I finally collapsed near a staircase and a suit of armor, dropping all my things to the ground. I reached up and touched my hair tentatively, wincing when the strands on my right side fell short. At least it wasn't singed too badly. The strands were only about two inches shorter. Heaving a shaky breath, I muttered a spell to repair my things.
I stood shakily to find my way back to Gryffindor tower. Would they report me? If they did, I would make sure to tell my side of it as well. I wearily walked back to the common room. There were few people left sitting around the fire. Grace was sitting in a plush armchair and snoring softly, her head lolling onto her shoulder. I had to smile. Was she waiting for me all this time? Grace reminded me of a little kitten sometimes, playful and innocent.
"Grace," I said softly, walking over to her and poking her shoulder gently. "Wake up. You have to sleep in your bed." No duh.
"Huh?" she awoke groggily. "Oh, Faye. It's about time you got back." She hid a yawn behind her fist and got up, stretching her back. "Faye?" Grace suddenly sounded wide-awake. "What happened to your hair?"
I quickly brushed the burnt strands back. "Oh, it's nothing. I just had an accident…"
"But your bag… it's covered in ink," Grace protested.
"I spilled," I lied. I was proud of my lying skills; over the years, I had polished it to perfection.
Too bad Grace saw right through my 'polished-to-perfection' lie. "Faye, what happened?" Grace sounded completely serious. I looked away. "You can tell me," she continued softly. "We're friends, right?" I looked up and saw the genuine concern in her eyes.
"After I was done doing my Astronomy homework," I mumbled, "I took a wrong turn and ended up by the labyrinth by the Slytherin dorms. I-I met Bellatrix Black… and her crowd…"
Grace gasped in sympathy. "How did you get away?"
"I-I had to… I fought…" I said, looking down at my ink-stained shoes. "They were surprised, and I ran for it…" Why did I suddenly feel like crying? That was totally weak of me.
"It's all right now, Faye," Grace said soothingly, taking my arm and leading me towards out dorm. "Here, give me your homework. I'll clean it up."
I handed my Astronomy homework over. Grace quietly muttered a spell, and then the ink that had spilled on it disappeared, leaving my work there. "Thanks," I mumbled.
Grace laughed. "No problem. Let's get some sleep now."
The next day, I was surprised when I didn't get hauled in to receive any sort of punishment. It was obvious that the Slytherins were equally surprised that they weren't getting their punishments either. But I knew that from now on, the fight would be vicious and merciless. So I steeled myself for a hard day.
And a hard day it was. I was pinched mercilessly and I had to watch out whenever I walked past the Slytherins—they would stick their feet out and try to trip me. If anybody else noticed, they tried to pretend that they hadn't noticed. Typical. At least Grace was on my side. She would glare daggers at anyone who snickered at me.
By the end of the day, I was feeling quite miserable and thoroughly depressed. While Grace and Leah headed off for dinner, I went outside and made my way over to the lake. Plopping down by the water's edge, I stared over the black, calm surface of the lake. At the moment, I fiercely wished that I were back at Drake's with Andrew. We would probably be devising another scheme to get revenge on our hecklers….
But right now, I was just here, alone. Grace was obviously torn between Leah and me and I had felt a bit of guilt when I thought about how I was cutting into their friendship. I had a feeling that Leah didn't really like me, but there was nothing I could do about that, even if I wanted to, and I didn't really want to. Sighing, I picked out a pebbled and skipped it across the lake, watching the ripples that formed.
But I couldn't just give up. After all, I liked Hogwarts, and I really liked Grace. I just had to adjust….
ll----ll
Three weeks passed before I got a reply from Andrew. I couldn't really blame the owl, as it had looked pretty banged up from its long journey across the planet, but I had really missed him.
"I'm going to the library for a sec. I just need to finish up a few things," I assured Grace. So after making sure I remembered the directions, Grace and Leah set off back to the common room while I kept on walking towards the library. After an hour or so, when I had finished my letter to Andrew, I stepped out of the library to go back to the common room. The last thing I expected to hear was laughter.
I stopped in my tracks, swiveling my head to see where it was coming from. As it echoed faintly again, I started down the hall, padding along as silently as I could. And when I rounded the next corner, I saw a scene that made my stomach churn.
Sirius Black and James Potter were laughing and had their wands out and pointed at a lank boy with startling pink hair who was at the moment stuck in the full Body-Bind Curse. Remus Lupin was standing well back, looking away uncomfortably, and Peter Pettigrew was watching the whole thing with something akin to hunger in his plump face. It made me sick.
--FLASHBACK--
I was in my first year study hall, looking over some notes for the Transfiguration exam that was to be held later that day. I was fresh from home and hoping that everybody would like me. Andrew was off sneaking into the kitchen to get something for us both to eat. I was so absorbed in my work that I didn't notice the Golden Gang come up behind me.
"Prewitt, you nerd! Still hanging out at the library?" Greta Langston asked with a contemptuous sniff. I was startled almost out of my wits, and I dropped my book and tried to stand at the same time, almost resulting in a catastrophe as the table leg caught my foot and I nearly fell.
Laughter rang out as I tried to right myself. "Mobiliarbus!" Alexander Stoops said, and I was suddenly lifted into the air and thrown back down to the ground.
I looked up at my torturers through a lock of my hair that had tumbled over my face. "Why are you doing this to me?" I whispered, choking on the burning sensation in my throat. "I didn't do anything to you…"
"Why, indeed?" Greta replied lightly. "Oh, no particular reason. Other than the fact that you're the black sheep in the flock, Prewitt. And besides, it's funny."
"Wingardium Leviosa!" someone else in the crowd said gleefully, and I was lifted into the air and suspended there. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the jeers and laughs from the crowd. Why did they do this? I had never met most of them, never even talked to seven-eighths of them. Why did they think it was funny to make fun of someone who was shy and didn't have many friends? It was so unfair.
I opened my eyes and glared at the crowd, willing myself not to cry. If I cried, then they would see how weak I really was, and I couldn't stand that. And if I let a single tear escape my eye, then they would find even more pleasure in making fun of me, and they would do it over and over again.
"Revolvo!" Alexander said lazily, and I began twirling in the air, spinning upside down and from side to side. I tried to fight it, but the spell had me firmly in its grasp.
I squeezed my eyes shut to avoid seeing the faces that flashed past me—the faces that held amusement and contempt for me.
And I didn't want any of them to see the tears in my eyes.
At that moment, I promised myself… I would never let them do this to me again. Never.
--FLASHBACK--
"What are you doing?" I asked as loudly as I could, stepping out and facing them. Sirius and James looked startled, but then they smoothed their faces back to ease. My blood was pounding in my ears.
"Having a bit of amusement, Faye," Sirius grinned at me. He didn't even seem guilty!
"Amusement?" my voice rose. "You call bullying another student amusement?!" Memories of all the times I had been made fun of rose in my mind. "You guys are disgusting!" I hadn't really liked them before, but I hadn't imagined that either of them would sink this low!
"I don't think it's in your best interest to say any of that," James said seriously, straightening. "This is none of your business."
"Is that a threat?" I asked coolly. "I wouldn't say either of you look remotely threatening! You both look like overblown pinheads that happened to bribe your way into school!" Turning around furiously, I was about to mutter the countercurse to the Body Bind when Sirius spoke again.
"We have a personal grudge against Snivellus, so you just stay out of it, Prewitt, before you get hurt," Sirius said smoothly. I turned around, my anger still boiling off, and his wand was pointed right at me. "Unless you want a part of it as well. We don't usually do this to girls, but you can be an exception."
Fear replaced my anger for a second, but then my rage pushed past and promptly stamped out that feeling.
"Personal grudge? What makes you think that gives you the right to do this? What did he do to you? I can't believe you! You two, the most eligible bachelors in the school, my ass! If you're the best this school's got to offer, Hogwarts really needs some help!" I shouted. "You strut around the school, thinking you can do anything 'cause everyone loves you! You don't understand—you have no idea what it's like to be on the receiving end of pranks and jokes and taunts! I thought you were decent!" Well, at least more decent that this. In a second, my wand was pointed at Sirius's face as well.
"You don't want to do that. There's four of us against one of you," James said, messing up his already messy hair.
"I don't care! You think I'm afraid of you?" I yelled. "You guys are no better than Bellatrix Black and Lucius Malfoy, thinking you can go ahead and jinx whoever you feel like! Go on, admit it!"
"I'm warning you, Prewitt—" Sirius began. He had gone strangely still and his eyes were smoldering with anger.
"Guess it runs in the family," I hissed, all my logic and caution flying into the wind. "You are just like that Bellatrix. You think you're so special…. Hah! You two are nothing more than scumbags walking around with bits of fluff in your overlarge, empty heads—!"
"What's going on here?" another voice said. I turned around to see Lily Evans standing there with a surprised expression on her face. Her gaze moved on to Sirius and James and she rolled her eyes with understanding.
"Remus, I thought that you would at least try to keep your friends in hand," Lily said, anger evident in her voice. James hurriedly messed up his hair. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for torturing another student. Now get out of my face."
Sirius and James cast wary looks at Lily's wand. It was obvious that they had been on the receiving end of hexes from Lily for quite a while. They turned to leave in quite a hurry.
Sirius turned around and cast a look at me that made my bones tremble, though I didn't show it. His eyes were angry and serious. "Take it back." I stared at him defiantly, remaining obstinately silent, daring him to force me.
"Fine! By the end of this week, you'll be the laughingstock of the whole school, Prewitt."
Then they were gone. Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew turned to leave as well. Before Remus did, I caught his gaze. His eyes were mesmerizing, blue and calm and with a hint of an apology in them. But it lasted only for a minute. Apology? Why should he apologize? It only made me angrier that he thought his apology could make up for his friends.
"I'll never take it back!" I shouted after their retreating backs. "It's true, and you know it!"
With my blood still boiling, I turned back to Lily, who was lifting the curse off of the boy. "What did they do to you?" I asked the boy. He had pale, unhealthy-looking skin and his hair was greasy and limp, even though it was a shocking pink color.
"What does it look like?" he asked sourly. "And I could have gotten out of that fix by myself!" With that, he stomped off the opposite direction. So much for the thanks I was hoping for. Amusement rose within me, though. After all, I had done that Sirius and James on the train. I knew exactly how that boy must have been feeling.
"Hey," Lily said at my shoulder. "Don't worry about Sirius's threat. I'm in it, too. Besides, it doesn't really matter what other people think as long as you know that what you did is right."
"Yeah," I sighed, straightening up. There was no use in brooding over it right now. "You know, I can't believe they really scrammed when you told them to," I said, looking over at Lily's pretty face. Lily laughed softly.
"I think they want to preserve their handsome features," she replied, and I snorted. "My thoughts exactly," Lily responded. "Let's get back to the common room. But walk slowly. If they're still in the common room, we're going to have a face-off that won't be pretty."
"Who was that boy?" I asked, falling in step with Lily.
"Oh. Severus Snape. Same year as us," Lily said tiredly. "They always rag on him. He's their official punching bag, you know what I mean?" I felt a sudden surge of compassion for Snape. "I don't know why, but they just pick on him."
"I can't believe most girls like them," I muttered darkly. A tongue of anger stirred inside of me.
"They are the most insufferable prats," Lily said, and we shared a little smile.
"Oh, how can you do that?" I asked, remembering how Lily had taken points off Gryffindor. "Taking points off, I mean."
"Privilege of being a prefect," she shrugged. "I assure you, the job's much harder than it sounds, especially when we're dealing with gits like Potter and Black."
"I can sympathize," I agreed. "So tell me, what did Black mean when he said I was going to be the laughingstock of the whole school?"
Lily blew a sigh. "It means you've earned yourself a prank-fest. They're going to be playing pranks and tricks on you all the time, so you've got to be on guard. It's even worse if you don't know your way around the school; you won't know where to run." That didn't sound pleasant at all.
"I'm sorry you have to go through all of this so early in your first year here," Lily said. "You can always come to me if everything gets too overwhelming. And you do have Grace, Leah, and your sister." I just shrugged.
"Looks like I blew it big time," I grumbled. "Do you know anywhere that's always quiet? I'd like to go… you know… just have some alone time to mull over things and prepare for the battle."
Lily laughed. "Well, there's always the East Tower. Don't go up to the West Tower. That's the place most people go to make out, so it's not exactly that quiet."
"That's definitely not the best place to be," I said gratefully.
"You shouldn't go right anywhere right now," Lily said. "Filch will probably catch you."
"Okay," I said. We walked in companionable silence for a little while until another question popped up in my mind.
"Lily, were you ever the object of their pranks?" I asked, then immediately regretted it. "No, never mind. That's a stupid question."
"No, I don't mind," Lily assured me. "I was. A lot. I just got used to it. Don't take anything a stranger offers you. Watch your back all the time; they like to hit when you least expect. Watch out for other students as well. Everyone's always on their side, so they'll be helping Black and Potter. But don't back down in front of them. That'll inflate their ego even more," Lily said. "Just some advice on how to take the prank-fest."
"Thanks," I said dryly. "You have so much experience with this." We stopped in front of the portrait hole.
"Just passing on my wisdom," Lily laughed.
"You want me to peek in and see if they're in there?" Lily asked.
"What, and make it seem like I'm scared of buttholes like them?" I scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. Let's go."
When the portrait hole opened, I was surprised when nothing dropped on me from above. I spotted Grace and Leah and hurried over to them, murmuring a quick goodbye to Lily.
"Faye, what did you do?" Grace asked me. "Did you have some sort of run-in with Sirius and James? They came in a while ago, muttering profanities about you and Lily."
"Yes," I said heavily. "They were bullying someone, so I spouted a bunch of nasty—but true—things about them."
"They were pretty pissed," Leah said. "Especially Sirius. You don't see him mad very often. He's usually carefree and fun. What did you say to him?"
"I don't care if he's angry or not. He had no right to just kick another student around like that. All the stuff I said… he deserved it! But," I stopped and rubbed my temples, "I don't think it was such a good idea to make so many enemies in my first week here." I reached into my pack and pulled out my letter to Andrew, adding what had just happened to the end of it.
"Who are you writing to?' Grace asked, leaning over. "Andrew?" she read. "Who's that? Your boyfriend?" I threw her a dirty look.
I pulled the letter towards me, ignoring Leah's annoying 'ooh!' "He's my friend. My only friend back when I lived in California."
"Ahh," Grace said understandingly. She knew that I didn't want to talk about it. "Are you going to turn in early? I think you need some sleep if the prank-fest starts tomorrow."
"I should…" I trailed off as another horrifying thought struck me. "Will they start picking on you guys, too? If you hang out with me?"
Grace remained unfazed. "I 'spect they will. But don't worry. We're friends, right? We stick!" she said, laughing. Leah looked less sure.
We headed up to our dormitories to get ready for bed. While I was washing my face, I noticed that my skin felt tender and sore, as if I had been sunburned. That was strange… it had been a cloudy day today, and I had barely gone outside. There was no way that I could have gotten sunburned.
ll----ll
"Faye, wake up! Come on, we're going to be late for classes!" Grace shouted in my ear. Groaning, I reluctantly opened my eyes.
"Don't have to scream in my ear," I muttered. I hated waking up in the morning, especially when I felt like I was still lacking a few good hours of sleep.
"Good morning to you, too," Grace said, throwing me my robes.
In less than five minutes, I was dressed and stumbling down the stairs, mainly because Grace was hounding my heels.
"Where's Leah?" I asked, still half-asleep.
"Leah gets up early, unlike you," Grace said tartly.
"I'm sorry," I rubbed my eyes. "It's just that I had a lot of things on my mind yesterday."
Grace looked at me sympathetically. "It's about the prank-fest, isn't it? Don't worry, they'll forget about you in about a week or so."
"But you'll get involved, too," I said miserably, dragging my hand through my tousled curls. "And just think of Fiona's reaction when she hears…" She would probably be fuming that I was ruining her chances with Black.
"Faye!" a voice shrieked down the hallway.
"And there she is right now," I muttered. I spotted Fiona's bright head moving at an alarmingly fast pace, weaving in and out of other students.
"What did you do?" she snapped when she reached me. "Sirius was positively fuming! The rest of the Marauders had to steer clear of him! You must have said something personal about him."
"Personal?" I repeated. Remembering how Black had treated Snape last night, I got angry all over again. "I didn't say anything personal, only things that were too obvious. And if he's angry or upset over it, it serves him right."
Fiona was staring at me with an odd expression in her face. "What's wrong with you?!" she exploded. "You're such a prig! You're even worse than before!"
That struck me. "Really?" I asked. I thought about how I had blurted out all those insults to the Marauders and even pointed my wand at them, but I didn't think I would have acted any different than if I were back at Drake's. Then I remembered that Fiona had just called me a prig.
"You're one to talk about being a prig," I said coolly. "Come on, let's go to breakfast," I said to Grace, walking off towards the Great Hall. Grace followed me, wearing an expression of puzzlement at my attitude towards Fiona.
Bring it on. I'm ready.
Well , maybe not entirely ready, as it turned out. Just as I was walking into the Great Hall, I slipped on a bit of slime and went flying and sliding between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. At the end, I was awarded with quite a bit more of slime. Sputtering and trying to wipe my face clean, I succeeded in standing up after more slipping and sliding on the whole trail of slime. It was probably, I realized sickeningly, the slime from the Flesh-Eating slugs that Professor Kettleburn showed our class last week.
I almost cringed as the Great Hall erupted into laughter, but I reminded myself that Black would be watching it all with delight. And I had not undergone all the teasing at my old school for nothing. Composing myself, I pulled out my wand and muttered, "Scourgify," and "Evansco," cleaning the ground and myself up.
Trying to keep the remaining shred of my dignity intact, I marched over to the Gryffindor table and plopped down, ignoring the laughter and jeers from many other people, mainly girls. I stared hard at the table before me. Only when Grace sat down next to me did I reach out to pile some food onto my plate.
"I'm going to tell them to stop," Grace declared, swinging her legs over her seat and actually standing up. "I can't let them just bully you around like that." I can take care of myself, you dolt. I immediately scolded myself for that thought. She was only trying to help.
"No, don't," I said, tugging on her sleeve. "Then you'll get some of this prank-fest as well. I can handle it. I need to fight my own battles."
"B-but," Grace sputtered, looking uncertain. "They just made fun of you in front of the entire school!"
"It's my fault," I said stubbornly. "And I don't want you guys to get any part of this embarrassment. Please." I said, looking into Grace's clear blue eyes. I'd always fought my battles, and this time would be no different.
"Fine," Grace sat down reluctantly. "But if it gets really bad, I'm going to tell them off a good one!"
I laughed and tried to block off the jeers and catcalls as I forced down my breakfast. This was going to be a long day. But I caught sight of Black and Potter's smug faces down the table and felt another stab of fiery anger. They weren't going to get the satisfaction of seeing me crumble. I hadn't cried in front of anyone for years; I wasn't about to now.
The day was a nightmare. People whispered behind my back and pointed, laughed, and mouthed things like, "slime-ball" and "git" at me. I was sure I was going mad. Students—girls, mostly—elbowed and pinched me as well as walked on my heels as I was going from class to class. Grace and Leah weren't spared any. By the end of the day I was worn out with all the animosity and viciousness that I had endured.
I felt especially bad as Grace and Leah were also nursing little bruises of their own. I didn't think they could stand more of my company. "Look, you guys, head on to class without me. I need to… run to the library really quickly," I said to them. Grace looked at me worriedly, but Leah looked relieved.
"Are you sure? It'll go pretty badly if your hecklers corner you," Grace said.
"Yeah. I'll only be a minute. I'll be fine," I assured her. Grace let Leah pull her away. I was glad that most people in the mob behind us didn't detach themselves to follow them. I turned, wincing as someone else jammed an elbow into my side. It looked like Black and Potter had set the whole school on me.
"Bloody gits," I muttered under my breath, walking quickly towards the library in hopes of losing the crazy mob. As the bell rang, most people dispersed until only a little group remained on my tail. I figured missing Transfiguration was less important than getting my butt kicked, so I broke into a run, whipping around the corner and quickly casting a Disillusion spell over myself. It was a tricky spell that I had picked up from Andrew at Drake's, and it was one that proved immensely useful in getting out of scrapes. The crowd rushed right past me, grumbling and yelling nasty words at me. I breathed a sigh of relief after the last footsteps had retreated down the hall.
Quickly disabling the spell, I turned and ran hard towards the Transfiguration classroom. I was at least fifteen minutes late. I arrived gasping for breath and with my hair and clothes in disarray. Once I pushed open the door and stepped inside, the class tittered with suppressed laughter. Professor McGonagall looked sharply for a moment, and then glanced at Black and Potter, who were obviously turning blue from lack of air for laughing.
"Take your seat," she said curtly. I was glad nothing further happened.
Slipping into my seat beside Leah, I looked over at her. But Leah was avoiding my gaze like it was poison. I dropped my gaze back down to my desk, not surprised. She was probably regretting that she ever became my friend. Most people did. I shifted in my seat, and from the corner of my eye I saw Black laughing again. I turned right around and glared at him coldly, rage boiling in my veins. All he did was flash a toothy grin at me before turning back to speak to Potter.
Potions was even worse. Professor Gadgen was totally unsympathetic when I arrived late for class yet again. He gave me a night's worth of detention and took ten points off of Gryffindor, and I couldn't do anything but grind my teeth in frustration. This was only my first day and the prank-fest was already wearing on my nerves.
The day dragged on miserably. I couldn't even go to the bathroom without a person pulling some prank or another. I had to watch my back every second, just like Lily said.
"Ugh…" I sighed as I slid into my seat for dinner. I let my head thump down onto the table. "Did you get a lot of it?" I muttered into the table. To top it all off, my face still felt sore and sunburned, and now I felt rather hot around the collar as well.
Grace shook her head reassuringly. "They practically forgot about us, Faye. But how are you?"
"Just chirpy," I mumbled, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "I think I received enough pinches to last a lifetime. Why is everyone helping those stupid Marauders?" I exploded.
Grace looked down unhappily. "It's just a school thing, you know? People always follow their leaders, and Black and Potter are definitely leaders."
Before I had a chance to reply, I suddenly felt the warmth of a spell hit me. Before me eyes, my waist-length hair blew up around my ears. Before I could do anything, it was a towering, neon yellow mass on my head. I could feel my cheeks and neck burn with embarrassment and anger.
And what made everything immeasurably worse was that Grace got hit with the same thing. We both tried in vain to flatten our hair, but to no avail. It just stuck straight up, as hard as rock. Mine was worse, as I had longer hair. I saw Fiona laughing at the Ravenclaw table.
"Just ignore them," Grace whispered, though I could tell that she was having a hard time doing just that. "They're not worth it." She muttered a quick spell that made both our hairs flatten, but nothing we did would make our hair change back to their normal colors.
"If you show that they get to you, it'll only get worse," Grace whispered. Leah only looked away, as if she wished for the world that she wasn't there. I lifted my chin defiantly and stared around at everybody else, daring them to say something to my face. None of them did.
But as I looked down the table, I saw Black and Potter sitting down a ways, laughing as usual. Remus Lupin was sitting with them, though he wasn't laughing with them. He glanced down the table, and I met his eyes for the second time. They were a mesmerizing light blue, and I didn't perceive anything in them but a little pity and a hint of an apology. I made sure to glare at him before tearing my gaze away, furious all over again. Why did he think that he could apologize for his stupid friends? It made me even madder.
"Hey, Grace. Let's go to the library. We might find some spells that'll turn our hair back," I whispered quietly.
Grace agreed quickly, getting off her seat with her neon hair hiding a face that I knew was scarlet from embarrassment. "See you later, Leah." Leah nodded, looking a bit self-conscious.
We walked in silence to the library. Once we were in there, I turned to Grace, feeling terribly crappy about myself. "Grace, I'm so sorry! You shouldn't have gone through that; you weren't the ones that made Black and Potter angry…" I looked down at my toes.
"Nonsense, silly," Grace forced a smile. "You shouldn't have gone through that either. It's not your fault those two jerks are complete imbeciles. Besides, I told you that we're friends. And friends stick. So no more sorries, okay?" Grace walked over to the shelf and pulled out a book. "Well, start looking. There're too many books for me to go through."
I smiled to myself. Grace was really a friend. Walking up beside her, I leaned over and whispered, "Thanks. You're a great person."
Grace awarded me with a bright smile. "I do try," was her airy response.
This is what I get from complimenting a person.
ll----ll
Madame Linelle had to turn our hair back to out normal color. On Thursday evening, I reported to Professor Gadgen's Potions classroom for my detention. I felt so ashamed. Barely three months into the school year and I had already gotten a detention. Tracy and David hadn't been very pleased when Professor McGonagall wrote to tell them about it, and who wouldn't be? Gloomily, I knocked on the door.
"Come in," I heard Professor Gadgen say from inside the room. I stepped inside, and was surprised that there was another student there already. "Good. Both of you are here. Get to bottling the new supplies that just came in." Gadgen pointed to tubs full of slimy things and rows and rows of jars. "Get going." With that, he left the room.
I walked up to the other student timidly. He looked slightly familiar. With a jolt, I realized that he was the student the Black and Potter had been picking on, Severus Snape. The pink hair was gone to be replaced by black, greasy locks.
"Um… hi…" I said hesitantly. "It's Severus Snape, right?" Snape glanced at me briefly, his greasy hair falling into his pallid face and dark eyes.
"Just cut the chatter and get to work, Prewitt," he said coldly before turning back to his jar. I was taken aback by his biting tone, but I decided to ignore it.
"So, uh… what got you landed in detention?" I asked hesitantly as I got to work. I didn't want to work in silence through the whole detention.
"None—of –your—business," he snapped, punctuating each word with a vicious twist to the cap of the jar he was working over. That, and everything else that had happened over the day, finally got under my skin and succeeded in goading me into anger.
"Well, sor-ry for trying to friendly! And I don't try to be friendly to a lot of people!" I snapped back, slamming a jar down with more force than necessary. "I don't even know you! You don't have to be so… such a prig! And I think what I did for you the other day is warrant enough for a thanks from you, you over-inflated jerk!" As I slammed another jar down, the glass broke and spilled its contents—cacti pus—all over my hands. Getting even more frustrated, I pulled out my wand and angrily muttered, "Reparo!" and "Evanesco!"
It took me a few moments to realize that Snape was actually laughing—well, chuckling. It completely contrasted with his pale face and scowl that he wore most of the time. He didn't strike me as the laughing type of guy, or even a talking type of guy, come to think of it.
"You're amusing," was all he said after he stopped chuckling.
"Thanks," I said tartly, starting on another bottle. "Ready to talk?"
He scowled at me again. "Sod off."
I decided to persevere despite his discouragement. I could match his every bit of nastiness, anyway, if he wanted to be like that. "So what got you landed in detention?"
"Black and Potter," he muttered. "Isn't that what got you as well?"
"Yeah," I said gloomily as I picked up a jar and turned to a tub containing toadskins. "You'd think that they'd be kicked out of the school by now," I muttered.
"Hah. They still have a chance. One more years to go, two counting this year," Snape said sourly.
"Wouldn't get my expectations up. It's too much to hope for," I said, scooping up the toadskins and slapping them into the jars with a little more force than necessary. Again, I was surprised when Snape let out a small laugh.
"I'm glad that someone else hates them as well," he said, "other than those over-ambiguous jerks in my House."
"Bellatrix Black?" I asked.
He snorted. "Who else? Her and her whole gang, 'specially Narcissa Black and Rodolphus Lestrange. Constantly badgering me… as if I don't have enough to worry about."
"Are they worse than Potter and Black?" I asked doubtfully. But then I remembered how Sirius had told Bellatrix to scram on the train and how Sirius had helped me on my Astronomy homework. I promptly dismissed it. They were probably just currying favor.
"They don't publicly humiliate their victims. They just make sure that their victims never get a moment's rest," Snape said expressionlessly.
We lightly chatted for the rest of our detention period. Snape wasn't actually that bad. He could crack jokes and laugh and converse the way an ordinary person would. He was occasionally cold, sarcastic, and stand-off-ish, but I had a feeling that that was just his cover-up over his true emotions. Everybody had cover-ups, so I couldn't blame him. I didn't get why Black and Potter picked on him.
Four hours later, Professor Gadgen walked in on our conversation, looking slightly surprised that a Gryffindor and Slytherin was getting along so well.
"You may both leave," he said shortly, gathering up the jars and disposing of the tubs with a wave of his wand.
Thankfully, Severus and I turned away from the table and slumped tiredly out the door. We walked in silence for a while until we came to a hallway. I turned right; he turned to go left.
"Well, see you around," I said as a goodbye, turning to go down the hallway.
"Prewitt?" I heard Severus say a bit hesitantly.
"Faye works too," I answered.
"Faye. The spell to turn your hair color back is 'Finite Colorus,'" he said. "I think both you and I are going to be using it a lot."
I felt something tickling at the back of my throat, and it emerged as a full-throated laugh. "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind," I said. "Watch your back."
"You, too," he said briefly and turned to go. I headed back towards the Gryffindor tower, feeling slightly more cheerful. Not all guys were complete jerks.
Just when I was about to enter the Gryffindor common room, Grace came rushing out. "Oh, great! You're finally here, Faye! I was just about to go look for you! Come on! You have to come with me to the West Tower!" She grabbed my hand and started dragging me with her.
"But—wait—what? Why?" I said, tugging on Grace's hand to slow her down. I suddenly remembered Lily's words about the West Tower. "But that's a kissing point! Why would you want to go there?" A horrible thought occurred to me. "Grace—you're not as good a girl as I thought!"
Grace turned around exasperatedly. "Pervert! I heard that Leah was heading up there with Sirius Black! She's had a crush on him for ages! I need to go see for myself!"
"Why don't you just go by yourself?" I asked, confused. I certainly didn't want to see Leah kissing up to Black.
"Go by myself?" Grace asked in horror. "You can't be serious! Nobody goes up there alone! You can't go up there without someone else! It's just not done! It's the tradition here! If I get caught going up there all alone, then I'll be—embarrassed until the end of my days!"
I raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Oh, come off it. I think it's actually better if you go alone. What if someone catches us? Then two heads will roll!"
"No one will catch us!" Grace begged. "You have to come! We'll be able to tease Leah for ages!" Grace looked at me imploringly, her blue eyes big and beseeching. "We'll never let her hear the end of it! Isn't this tempting?"
"Oh, all right," I snapped. "But you can't expect this to happen all the time. You should be glad that I'm in a good mood right now."
"Good mood?" Grace asked, confused. "But you just had detention!" We started walking towards the tower, Grace leading the way.
"I made a new friend in that detention that those smartasses Black and Potter gave me," I said lightly.
"Who?" she asked, intrigued.
"Severus Snape," I said promptly.
"WHAT?" Grace yelped, turning around to stare at me incredulously. "NO! You can't be serious! Snape? Of Slytherin?"
"What's so bad about him?" I asked, frowning. "I think he's a decent enough guy. A lot better than Black and Potter, anyways."
"Hello?? Severus Snape! He's bad news!" Grace said seriously. "He knows, like, more about the Dark Arts than anyone else in this school, and he's a Slytherin involved with Bellatrix Black's gang. Not to mention he's a bloody, ugly, greasy git…"
"Don't say that," I said sharply. "Besides, he said that Bellatrix was giving him trouble."
Grace shrugged. "You don't want to hang around with people like him," she said simply.
"Listen, I can hang around with anyone I want! Besides, he's not as bad as you think! He's just been misunderstood," I said rather testily. "He doesn't have a lot of real friends, I'll bet you."
"Oh, whatever," Grace threw up her hands in defeat. "You know best, after all. Be careful around Black and Potter, though. They'll probably blow that you're hanging out with Snape and include you in even more pranks. They bloody hate Snape." She glanced at her watch. "Bloody hell—come on! It's been almost 20 minutes since I heard that Leah was going up!"
Grace broke into a run, with me in tow. Fifteen minutes and too many stairs later, we found ourselves on the West Tower. It actually had a wide, graceful balcony that extended out to the side.
"Wow," I breathed as I stared up at the velvet sky that was hung full of sparkling stars. "It's beautiful."
"Why do you think couples come up here to make out?" Grace asked dryly. "Aw… Leah's not here… Oh, I'll get Sarah for lying to me! I'll think I'll curse off the hair that she spends so much time over… that'd serve her right. Urgh, let's go."
"Wait, I want to stay here for a bit," I said, moving out and leaning my elbows against the balcony rail.
"Now look who wants to stay," Grace said, grinning wolfishly as she came to stand by me. "So, anybody in mind?"
I shoved her. "You have a one-track mind."
"But really!" she protested.
"No one," I said immediately and with certainty. "No one at all. I'm serious!" I said at the disbelieving look on Grace's face. "You?"
"Remus Lupin," Grace replied dreamily, without hesitation. "I think he's so sweet."
"Oh, him," I teased. "Blech!" I pretended to retch, and Grace pushed me.
Before we could say anything else, footsteps sounded behind us. I looked at Grace in panic; we would get in trouble if we were found here! Grace tugged at my sleeve and pointed to a curtain behind a stone statue. Wasting no time, we both dove behind it, trying to calm our breathing. Two people walked onto the balcony, and even from here I could tell one was Sirius Black. The girl wasn't short enough to be Leah. Feeling an angry clutch in my stomach, I debated on whether or not I should burst out and jinx Black into oblivion, but Grace, probably thinking that I would do just that, put a detaining hand on my arm.
"Don't do it!" she whispered frantically. "We don't want to be caught up here together, or else wild rumors will be stirring about whether we're straight or not."
I turned an incredulous gaze on her. "You're not serious." Were all the people in this school perverts? "You could have told me before I decided to come with you!" Grace shrugged.
We heard a sickening noise as the couple began what they came here for. "You know what, I think I'll stay," I hastily changed my mind. I did not want to see them. Hearing them was bad enough.
"Hell, what are they doing that's so noisy?" Grace hissed. This suddenly struck me as very funny. Here we were, stuck behind a curtain and Sirius and another disgusting kiss-up girl was snogging themselves senseless on the balcony of the West Tower.
Grace saw me sputter with laughter. "No, don't you dare," Grace growled. "He'll catch us for sure."
A particularly loud, wet sound reached our ears. Grace started to crack up, too. We fell on each other, holding our sides and struggling to hold in our laughter.
"They sound like two wet sponges," I whispered, my voice cracking halfway as I dissolved into silent laughter.
"Don't!" gasped Grace, who was turning red from the effort of controlling her laughter. "This is too much work for my stomach!"
I tried to block out the sounds. It sounded as if they were pretty busy back there. I grimaced and tried not to think about it.
"God, when are they going to stop?" Grace said furiously. "I don't want to hear any more of their private doings…" she stopped and plugged her ears. I pulled her hands out of her ears.
"Is that what you're planning to do with Remus? Up here, a nice, romantic setting for your… your plans?" I asked her, trying hard to keep my voice down.
Grace's expression of horror was so comical that I couldn't help but let a squeak of laughter escape me.
"Why, you little—!" Grace stopped dead as another voice spoke.
"Did you say something?" Black asked the girl. His voice was rather lazy and casual. It was sickening.
"Noo…" the girl said breathlessly in a high, falsetto voice that made me want to plug my ears like Grace did. "Sirius…" There were more sounds of kissing.
I rolled my eyes as Grace giggled.
"This is going to be a long night," Grace whispered.
I nodded with irritation. "Honestly, what sort of hussy comes up here to make out? It's just plain nasty."
"These people would," Grace said, pointing to the wall, where hundred of carvings of names and hearts and whatnot covered every inch of the wall. It probably went all over the balcony wall and railing.
Grace and I exchanged glances and fought to hold in our laughter. I took out my own wand.
"I guess we'd better leave a token of out presence as well," I whispered.
"What? No!" Grace hissed. "What if someone sees it?"
"Come on. It's got to be a chance out of a thousand. It's done, anyway." There, etched on the wall, were the words, Grace Thompson and Faye Prewitt Were Here Together. PS. Don't think down that road!!
Grace and I sputtered with laughter.
"That looks too incriminating," Grace gasped.
"What will people think?" I asked innocently. Grace emitted a sort of strangled choking noise. After we had calmed down, Grace began peeping behind the curtain.
"What're you doing?" I hissed, trying to pull her back behind the curtain.
"Seeing who the girl is," she shot back.
"She's not Leah."
"God, the slut for the night is that Hufflepuff girl, what's her name? The one with way too much make-up on," Grace said, obviously wracking her brains for a name. "Prissy. Yeah, Prissy Carlson."
"Hm…" I thought hard for a second before I could dredge up a face. "Her? She's such a brat. She thinks she's so attractive. Perfect example of a preppy, loose girl. And he's no better; he's actually worse."
"Oh, you mean Sirius Black," Grace said, her tone perfectly neutral. I wrinkled my nose in disgust before replying forcefully.
"YEAH!"
"Shh!" We both held our breaths for a second to make sure that the couple hadn't heard us.
"Maybe we should stop for the night," Black said eventually. I would have thanked him on bent knees. The horror would finally stop.
"Ooh, but…" the girl squealed in disappointment. I pretended to gag, and Grace fought back her laughter. Thankfully, the sounds of kissing had stopped.
Their voices—mainly the girl's giggles— and footsteps faded off down the stairs. Grace and I exchanged glances and burst out laughing.
"Ohmigod, that was too funny!" Grace gasped out, pounding the ground.
"You should have seen your face when I said you wanted to make out like that with Remus!" I said breathlessly, breaking out into fresh peals of laughter as Grace swiped at me.
"Let's get out of here before anyone else comes…" Grace said weakly, holding her side. We leaned on each other and walked rather shakily down the stairs and back to the common room, where Leah was waiting for us.
"Having fun?" Leah said rather coolly, looking at me with a hard expression in her eyes. I was slightly taken aback, but of course I couldn't show her that.
"Oh, lighten up, Leah," Grace said, flapping her hand. "We went up there to see if you were up there!"
"I obviously wasn't," Leah snapped. "I'm going to sleep—leave you two to have fun." She stood up and disappeared up the girls' dormitories.
"Did we do something wrong?" I asked Grace.
"It's just one of her mood swings," Grace said lightly. I had a feeling that that wasn't all of it, but I didn't push her.
"I don't think I can clear my mind of the foulness!" she groaned anew, making me break into laughter again.
"It's too traumatizing," I said amid my fits of giggles, wiping the tears from my eyes. I couldn't remember having this much fun since Andrew and I had secretly jinxed a girl's face to look like a baboon's butt. That slut of a girl had walked around for a whole day before she'd realized why people were all laughing behind her back. She'd had to spend two weeks in the infirmary because our nurse had a hard time unjinxing her.
It was late before Grace and I finally calmed down enough to go up to our dormitories and sleep. I composed myself for sleep; after all, the prankfest was still going on. I had lasted through four days of it, but each day it seemed to get worse. Black and Potter were really wearing down my patience. I fell asleep contemplating what nasty new tricks they were going to get up to now. Whatever it was, it was bound to be cruel and unjust. Those stupid prats.
But… Black's furious expression that day I had defended Snape bothered me. It was like something I said had really hit a sore spot.
Whatever. As if I'd spend my time pondering why Black had gotten so mad. I had much better things to do.
ll----ll
I woke up suddenly. I rubbed my eyes and sleepily looked out of the window. A faint pink glow sat on the horizon, hinting at a glorious sunrise. I usually wasn't up this early, but oh well. Feeling wide awake all of a sudden, I perked up and silently got dressed before creeping downstairs and sitting right next to a large window. Opening the window, I propped my chin on my elbows and leaned on the windowsill, looking out with dreamy eyes at the majestic scene before me. The pink spread, and soon a soft yellow glow illuminated the sky, casting gentle pink, gold, and orange hues on the clouds.
Looking out at this glory, I thought back to all the times I had watched the sunrise at my own home and at Drake's Institution. No clear thought was on my mind of making a comparison of then and now. I missed Andrew, though, and the valley where my old school was located. And I missed the way that Andrew always slapped me on the back as a greeting…. But I couldn't help but admit that… Grace was just as understanding of me as Andrew.
Life here was really perking up. Except for the fact that I was the center of a prankfest, I was actually … happy. Most people at the school laughed at me, scorned me, and bullied me, but I didn't need the approval of all. I had never gotten that anyway. I was content with affection from the people I cared about. But… I did miss all the things that I used to do, like singing songs with Andrew and practicing dancing. I resolved to start practicing those again, as of this instant. I certainly didn't miss my old family in the least.
Except… except I couldn't shake off a feeling that something wasn't there. I'd always had this feeling as long as I could remember. Even when I'm laughing or having a great time, this empty, barren part of me keeps on tickling my mind. I know that something was missing in my life—I just didn't know what. I mulled over this as the sun slowly came up over the Forbidden Forest and flooded the grounds with a soft golden light.
I was starting to feel sleepy again by the time somebody came down from the dorms. The sun was fully up, and I was singing softly with my head propped on my hands and my face feeling the cool morning breeze. I hadn't sung in so long—ever since I had arrived at Hogwarts. At the sound of a footstep, I jerked upright and banged my head painfully against the glass of the window. Holding my abused head with my eyes watering from the pain in my skull, I turned around and stared into Remus Lupin's light blue eyes.
He raised his arms, saying, "I'm unarmed." I realized I was glaring at him.
Lupin was obviously struggling to hold in his laughter. Scowling, I snapped, "What are you laughing at?" The pain and embarrassment I was feeling right now—coupled along with my usual morning grouchiness—was making me especially rude. And I remembered how he had looked sorry for his friends' antics… ugh!
"You," he said simply before letting loose his laughter. He looked so attractive right then, with his sandy brown hair flopping over his amused blue eyes and his mouth crinkled up in a smile. He was handsome, but not in the way Black or Potter was. They were more of an up-in-your-face type of handsome while Lupin just had a more quiet handsome.
HANDSOME?? WHAT AM I THINKING? I DON'T THINK ANYONE'S HANDSOME!! I screamed at myself. What was wrong with me? I mastered the urge to hit myself before looking back at Remus.
He came over and stood by my chair, looking out at the grounds. "Why are you awake so early, Faye?"
I liked how he used my first name. "Just to watch the sunrise." I belatedly realized how stupid I sounded. "And getting ready for whatever other pranks your fool friends are going to throw at me today," I added. I sounded stupider by the second. Flustered, I turned back to the window and stared out wordlessly, fidgeting.
"Sorry about Sirius and James," Remus said. "They're just…"
"Conceited. Arrogant. Blown up. Prats," I supplied, feeling anger boil in me once again. Remus glanced at me as if trying to assess my feelings.
"They're not that bad, most of the times," he said softly. "Really, they want to be good people…"
I lifted a skeptical eyebrow. "Want to be…?"
Remus looked down, saying, "Okay, so maybe they don't really want to be… but they are… er… deep down inside…. They have a soft side they usually don't show to anybody." I just shrugged noncommittally. I didn't want to get into an argument with him. Grace would be horrified at me.
Remus seemed to sense my reluctance to talk about it. "You want to go to breakfast?" he asked. "If you get there earlier than Sirius and James, then they won't have a chance to hex you during breakfast time in front of the whole school."
I considered for a moment. "You aren't going to do anything to me, are you?" I asked suspiciously, suspecting foul play. Remus was, after all, Black and Potter's friend; he might have been asked to trick me or something like that. Andrew and I had learned about the nasty side of people as we spent out time trying to hide from our bullies.
Remus laughed again. "No," he assured me. Seeing the doubtful expression on my face, he said, "Seriously. No pun intended. I don't mess around with any of Sirius or James's prank victims. It saves me a lot of enemies." I understood all of a sudden why Grace liked him.
I grinned, and graciously accepted, saying grandly, "All right then. I'll grace you with my presence." I dropped a curtsy.
Remus was working hard to conceal his laughter as he bowed and offered his arm. "May I escort you to the table?"
I looked at the arm reluctantly, my laughter and amusement fading.
--FLASHBACK--
"Get down here right now, you good-for-nothing bitch!" Henry roared, swaying unsteadily on his feet as he hung onto the stair rail. I was shaking with fear… I was only ten. I meekly walked down the stairs, wincing with pain with every step I took. I still hadn't gotten over my last beating when he had severely bruised my leg.
I knew what was going to happen. Henry grabbed the bottom of my shirt and dragged me to the floor.
"When I tell you to come, you come fast!" he yelled. I smelled alcohol on his breath.
This was no time for any valiant sort of defense. I lowered my eyes and nodded.
"Well? Speak up!" he shouted. Whatever I did, he was never satisfied.
"Alright!" I said loudly… and I was rewarded by a hit—Henry's fist came smashing into my cheek, sending me sprawling to the ground.
"Don't raise your voice to me!" he yelled, bearing down on me.
I will if I want to!" I shouted back at him, my rage getting the better of me. How could he do this to me?No one heard my screams of pain, or if they did, they ignored it.
--FLASHBACK--"Faye?" Remus's voice broke me out of my vision. I took a shuddering breath and looked at Remus's concerned face. He had dropped his arm. "Is something wrong?"
"No…. Let's go," I faltered unsteadily, gathering my breath for a moment before leading the way out of the common room, hoping that he wouldn't mention it. He fulfilled my wish.
Remus was actually really fun to talk to. We bantered back and forth, and I felt very comfortable with him. He made me drop my guard and tenseness almost immediately, just like Grace did. He was so unlike Black and Potter that I had a hard time thinking of them as friends.
"Why are you so nice?" I blurted out, thinking of how arrogant and conceited Black and Potter were. I suddenly realized how weird that sounded. "I mean—you're so different from Black and Potter… you're actually kind of… decent. Not that I thought you weren't! B-but—oh… um…. Oh, never mind," I said miserably, getting my thoughts muddled up as he stared at me intently with his bright blue eyes.
Instead of scorning me, Remus laughed. "Almost everybody asks me that. I guess it's because I have an irresistible charm."
I snorted. "Irresistible. Right." We reached the Great Hall. Only a few students were sitting there right now. Remus and I took a seat at the Gryffindor table and loaded our plates with food.
"Hey, won't Black and Potter be angry that you're hanging out with me?" I asked, swallowing a bite of bacon.
Remus shrugged. "Not really. Besides, the golden Marauder rule is that no Marauder can prank another Marauder."
"There are rules to being a Marauder?" I asked disbelievingly.
"Of course! And we have to swear by an oath," Remus said solemnly.
"You guys need a life," I told him, buttering my bread. We passed the time chatting about classes. But then Black and Potter had to come and ruin it. As soon as I saw them flounce into the hall like the girls they were, I muttered to Remus, "I'm going to go now."
Remus glanced up and saw Sirius and James. "Okay. Seeya."
I quickly got up and tried to get out of the hall without them noticing. No such luck.
"Where are you going, Prewitt?" Black called. I hated his voice. "Not running away because of us, are you? And I thought you could live up to the name of Gryffindor."
I gritted my teeth and tried to block his annoying voice from grating on my ears.
"What's the matter? Feeling less brave without your friends?" Potter asked smugly.
"Oh, brother, c'mon. It's obvious that she can't think fast enough to come up with a witty reply," Black said dismissively.
I snapped. Just—snapped. I could take his crap anymore!
I had had enough of them making fun of me about being a coward and what not else, but they could not—COULD NOT—make fun of my IQ. It was the one thing that I matched Fiona in, the one thing.
Before I knew what had gone over me, I had marched straight up to Black and punched him on the nose with all the strength I harbored in my right arm. He staggered back, holding his nose and staring at me with complete and utter confusion and surprise. Potter was looking at me with horror and shock. Their expressions of disbelief looked so comical that in any other situation I would have laughed. But right now, I was just—too— angry.
"Don't you dare, Black! I already have to deal with all you and Potter's stupid jokes without you making cracks about my mental IQ! You are the most pathetic loser to walk the school! You think you're so cool… COOL, MY ARSE! Mentally challenged is more like it!" I shouted. Spinning on my heel, I stalked out of the Great Hall.
At the doorway, I turned and yelled, "You just wait! I'm not going to sit around and let you prank me anymore! You better watch your backs, you bloody, no-good, egotistical gits! You won't know which end is which after I'm through with you! If I have to rip off your butts and staple them to your heads to deflate your egos, then I'll do it! And with pleasure!"
I was too angry to care that all the other students around me were staring at me with the utmost amazement and shock. I left the whispering hall in a temper, kicking things all the way back to the Gryffindor tower, though I succeeding in doing nothing but make all ten of my toes ache and my sour mood grow even sourer.
"Good-for-nothing show-offs…" I muttered. I would show them that I had a backbone; I would. I wouldn't let them walk all over me! No matter what, I couldn't give in. Ohohoh… once I got them, I'd be gloating over their senseless, gibbering lumps… flaunting the fact that me, an American girl, no less,had managed to outsmart them….
"Faye! There you are!" Grace exclaimed as she came down the stairs. "I was pretty scared when I woke up and found your bed empty. I thought the Marauders had kidnapped you!"
I laughed sourly. "If they had, I would have knocked them silly. Not that I didn't already. I just punched Sirius Black."
"Oh," Grace said nonchalantly before doing a double take. "You WHAT?" Grace yelped. "No, tell me you're not serious!"
"I really did it," I said grimly. I remembered the stunned expressions on their faces with pleasure and a sense of fulfillment. "They looked pretty surprised," I said with satisfaction.
"This can't be happening!" Grace groaned. "What on earth possessed you?"
"Well, first, he spewed a bunch of crap about me, so then I went over the top," I said. "I told him that I wouldn't back down, and that he'd better watch his back. I've decided I'm going to pull off the biggest prank on the Marauders!" I declared. A sudden pain in my hand drew my attention. Blisters? And my face was feeling burnt as well.
Grace stared at me weakly. That only encouraged me even more. "And you're going to help me!" I stated firmly.
"What?" she asked, her jaw dropping. "No!"
"Yes," I assured her, grinning widely. A huge recklessness not unlike what I used to feel at Drake's Institute had overcome me, and I was powerless to stop it.
In fact, I welcomed it.
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