By Adaia Swordmaiden
Disclaimer: I am J.K. Rowling, of course it belongs to me!
Chapter 2: Tea-leaves and Minnie
The three girls climbed through the portrait hole, Lily and Vanessa laughing about something and Guinivere smiling more than she had all day.
"Hey, Guin!" Lily rolled her eyes as they heard Sirius' call across the common-room. Guinivere turned to face the long-haired boy who was sitting with Remus, James and a boy called Peter Pettigrew over by the fire. Sirius waved and grinned. "Come over here!" Guinivere hesitated, looking at Lily and Vanessa. Their faces were carefully blank.
"I…I'll be over in a bit," she called back and turned back to Lily and Vanessa. "Where is our dorm?"
"This way," Lily said, turning and leading the way towards one of the staircases. They went up to the dorm and Guinivere quickly found her bed as it was the only one which, according to Vanessa and Lily, hadn't been occupied the day before. Guinivere put her bag on her bed and opened her trunk, pulling out a few things and arranging them on her dressing table. A hairbrush, a jewellery box, a smallish sketchpad and a pencil. "Hey Guinivere," Lily said, coming up behind her. Guinivere turned and half-smiled at her friend.
"Yeah?"
"I know it's not my place to say who you should and who you shouldn't make friends with," she said slowly. "But watch out with those guys. There're not the best people to hang out with." Guinivere half-nodded.
"Okay," she said slowly. Then she turned and left the dorm without another word. She walked slowly down the stairs into the common-room. She wandered over to where Peter, Sirius and James were playing Exploding Snap with intense concentration and Remus was apparently asleep. She sat down on the only seat left - next to Remus on a small couch. All of them but Remus looked up in surprise and suddenly the deck exploded in their faces. Guinivere giggled slightly through the smoke at their surprised, slightly charred faces. James coughed and, waving away the smoke, grinned at the girl.
"Scourgify," he muttered, pointing his wand at his face. The charcoal on his face disappeared. He glanced at the sleeping Remus and sniggered.
"Heh," Sirius laughed softly. "Let's wake him up." He whipped out his wand and transfigured the remains of a playing card into a huge feather. While he did this, James whispered something with his wand pointed at Remus' free hand, causing a pile of cream to appear in said hand. Then Sirius began to brush the feather under Remus' nose until the sandy-haired boy reached up with his cream-covered hand to brush it away.
"Wha-!" Remus jumped as the cold cream splattered all over his face. The Marauders were laughing at him and Guinivere was smiling. Remus, however, hadn't noticed the new girl and, with a grin, scooped some cream off his face into both hands and threw it at Sirius and James. Their surprised faces made Guinivere giggle and Remus jumped, turning quickly to face her. In doing so, cream went flying and splattered on her robes and face. "Oh, sh- sorry," Remus said. Guinivere just smiled and quickly Scourgify-ed herself. Remus followed suit and, with a glare at the other Marauders who were laughing even harder than before, sat down again.
"So, how come you started late? I mean, term started almost a month ago," Sirius asked. Guinivere's smile faltered a moment but then returned.
"Well I've been home schooled up until now," she said. "I was going to be home schooled for this year too but then something came up and so I got sent here."
"What's home schooling like?" Peter asked, curious.
"It's fun in some ways but in other ways I hate it," Guinivere murmured. "I find the work easier because I work better on my own but I don't make many friends."
"I dunno how I'd get on without Prongsie, Moony and Wormtail," Sirius laughed.
"Why exactly did you have to come here?" Remus asked. Guinivere looked at her hands and then stood.
"I've got some homework to do," she said abruptly. "It was nice talking with you." She nearly ran off to the girls dorms. Sirius cuffed Remus over the head. Remus yelped and glared at his friend.
"What was that for?" he demanded.
"Why'd you have to scare off the cute ones, Moony?" Sirius scolded.
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"Come on," James hissed, glancing at Professor Mimir. "She's coming our way."
"It's not clear," Guinivere murmured, peering at the dregs of tea at the bottom of the cup. "I think that's a…crab or something…" She glanced at the page of her Divination book. "That's something to do with betrayal...but it can mean either betrayal by or to you." She turned the cup. "Um…and a fox…that can either mean cunning or loss…"
"Hmph, I haven't got that great a future have I?" James muttered. Then he picked up Guinivere's cup. "Okay… a fox…loss or cunning…a wave…sudden, unexpected things…and…" He frowned and began flicking through the Divination book. "Ah, found it. A seal, meaning choice." He looked at Guinivere. She shrugged and the bell rang. They quickly packed up their books and made for the door.
"You're really good at Divination," Guinivere commented. James shrugged.
"My grandma has the Sight, apparently," he said. "So I get extra tutoring whenever I visit her."
"Transfiguration next, right?" James nodded.
"Sirius and Remus'll be there. Trust Peter to come down with a cold overnight," James laughed and Guinivere smiled. They reached the Transfiguration classroom through and entered to find only Sirius, Remus and a tall Gryffindor girl all laughing and something.
"Welcome, Young Seers," Sirius joked when he spotted James and Guinivere. "Hey Guin, meet Minnie. She'd be a Marauder but-"
"But I'm smart enough not to join these idiots," the girl cut in. "Minnie McGonagall, at your service. Nice to meet ya, Guin is it?"
"Guinivere, actually," Guinivere corrected. "Sirius made up Guin."
"How much do you like Transfiguration?" Minnie asked. Guinivere shrugged. "Well don't expect to learn that much for this lesson."
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"Miss McGonagall!" Professor Varian roared over the screams and laughter of his students. "Change your desk back before I give you detention for a month!" The tall Gryffindor girl grinned and, with a wave of her wand, the rats that were scattered all over the classroom came zooming back to her. Then another wave of her wand turned them back to her desk. "As it is, detention and twenty points from Gryffindor. SILENCE!" The noise quickly died down. "Now, return to transfiguring your goblets, not your desks." He sighed and returned to walking up and down the aisles, commenting on wand movement and the pronunciation of incantations.
A/N: whoa! thank you to all but one of my reveiwers! cookies all around but one! And now the comments...
JS: sarcastic thank you soo much for the flame. the least you should have done is made it a signed reveiw. it's quite cowardly not to let people know who you are, to a certain extent.
lil nik: thank you for pointing that out, although i've already had it planned. Prf. Gordie is just a substitute Potions teacher (like Prof. Grubbyplank) while Slughorn's on holiday. I didn't want to bring him in so soon and I wanted him to go on about his holiday.
Stella9876: I wasn't really thinking about pairing Vanessa up with anyone really...but it's an itnteresting idea... I'll think about it!
And just downright thanks and cookies to the rest of you! I'd put up your names but I'm in a hurry to update. But if you ask a question or say something very interesting, you'll defintely get your name up!