The Beaver
"Who was your friend, Evans?" Sirius asked, watching Lily busily collecting up her belongings from the train compartment while he waited for an answer.
Stood with his hands in his pockets, he took care to adopt the usual air of indifference he had long since mastered years ago, not bothering to rush himself in his departure of the train.
"If you didn't know who it was, why were you staring at her?" Lily asked knowingly, propping one of her bags up on her shoulder.
"What's this?" James asked, only just tuning in to their conversation.
"Looks like your friend has a little crush," she replied easily, resting her jacket over her arm.
James raised his eyebrows, looking to Sirius. "On who?" he asked. "The blonde girl who just left?"
"Blonde girl?" Lily said, furrowing her brow. "Cheryl's got brown hair."
James shrugged carelessly, as if this was a minor detail.
Lily rolled her eyes, side-stepping past him towards the exit.
"Wait, Evans, I'll walk with y-"
"She's gone, Prongs," Remus pointed out.
"Cheryl..." Sirius repeated, something about the name rang a bell, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Wonder why would the Beaver would come back to Hogwarts," Peter mused out loud, absentmindedly pulling his suitcase down from the overhead compartment.
When he turned back around he found three sets of eyes all facing in his direction, and he looked over at them all with a start.
"What?" he asked obliviously. "Do I have chocolate on my face or somethin'?" He rubbed his chin and mouth with the back of his sleeve as if to clean away the imaginary food.
"The Beaver?" James said. He pointed towards where Cheryl had been sat, then pointed out of the door she'd walked out of. "That. That was the Beaver?"
Sirius shook his head slightly.
"You didn't know?" Peter asked, feeling a sense of satisfaction that he knew something his friends didn't for a change.
"Come on," Remus said, wanting to change the subject. "We should get moving."
The boys didn't have to struggle with the crowds like Cheryl had done. People seemed to just part for them as if they were surrounded by some kind of invisible force field.
When they stepped off the train, Sirius peered around the mass of people. He could see most of them quite clearly because of his height, but found no sign of Morland.
Though he would rather hug his mother than admit it out loud, there had been something strangely attractive about the girl he'd met on the train. Before he had found out who she really was, obviously.
She must have used magic, he was sure of it. Some kind of allurement charm to reel him in.
He let out a quiet scoff at the absurdity of it all. Him, attracted to the Beaver. The idea was ridiculous. To think he had unwittingly lowered himself in trying to charm her on the train.
One thing was for sure, Sirius Black did not fancy beavers. Even the attractive ones.
.oOo.
I lay on my bed that night and looked out of the Dormitory window. My first night back.
The dark sky looked really peaceful and clear.
The stars had always seemed brighter around Hogwarts than anywhere else and I'd never been sure if it was the result of a charm or just a natural phenomenon.
Whatever it was, it was helpfully calming after my stressful first day back at good old Hogwarts.
I just couldn't believe I was actually back.
The place even smelt the same. A slightly musty, sweet smell that you often get in old buildings. Or really old books.
I looked around at my roomates, all of them fast asleep by now.
I'd met most of them briefly before lights out. So far I was pleased -and a little surprised- that I actually really liked all of them. Though I realised that would probably change. I wasn't a natural people pleaser.
For a start I now had no idea whatsoever of their names. They had told me, but I'd just kind of blanked, more focused on smiling and trying to be friendly. I really hoped that oversight didn't come back to bite me on the rear later on.
One good thing was the fact that like Lily not one of them seemed to recognise me from fourth year and my time known as 'the Beaver'.
I wasn't about to fill them in either.
Yeah right, 'Oh you remember, I was the geek with the big teeth and freckles, but you may know me better as the Marauder's favourite target.'
I actually wanted to make friends, not scare them away.
I was under no allusion that if I was to admit that the Marauder's used to pick on me everyone would avoid me like the plague.
No-one would want to be unpopular by association.
They did say they were going to have a bit of a midnight party in our dorm room sometime later that week though so we could all get to know one another properly, which I felt would be interesting to say the least.
I'd actually tried to talk to my old group of friends, briefly - acting on out-of-date sentiment alone, I think.
But after joining them at a table in the common room after the Sorting feast, and sharing a few enthusiastic 'hellos' and 'wow, you've changeds', I pretty much just sat there in silence while they gossiped about the year I'd missed and all of the amazing things they had done together in the holidays.
Thanks to my brand new standards of what friendship should actually look like, it had soon become crystal clear that I'd rather spend the rest of the year sat completely on my own than have to hang around with them a second longer. And I'd made my excuses and left.
I glanced at the clock now. '1.03AM'.
Trying to still my whizzing brainwaves, I rolled over and pulled the blankets up, feeling the tiredness start to overcome me.
.o.
The next morning I made my way to Professor Slughorn's classroom for Potions, my heart fluttering uncomfortably with nerves.
My first lesson at Hogwarts for over a year.
As none of my roommates were in that lesson, I was super aware that I had no-one to cling to. But I had to remind myself that I didn't need anyone.
Be strong, be strong, be strong. I chanted it over and over in my mind in the hope that it might finally stick.
Mostly I was worried about everyone else's reaction to me coming back more so than the lesson itself.
I just prayed to God that they didn't remember the Beaver.
Grasping the mottled brass door knob of the Potions room door, a light hand on my shoulder stopped me in my tracks and my already frazzled nerves made me jump up a mile.
I turned around abruptly, not having heard anyone approach.
My stomach dropped when I saw who it was.
"Hello Cheryl," the figure spoke in my close vicinity, apparently finding scaring me highly amusing.
The perfect face of Sirius Black stood before me, his height and looks forming an imposing figure. The way his lips had wrapped themselves around my name sent an unexpected feeling streaming down my body. He knew who I was now then.
"Welcome back," he said, a slight smirk growing on his face.
Too shocked to say anything, I just stood there staring up at him, knowing I should assert myself but having no idea what to actually say.
Seemingly picking up on the fact he'd managed to make me dumb struck, his smirk grew.
"Well, I suppose I'll see you in there," he said, sounding more like a threat than anything else.
Twitching his eye at me in what I could have sworn was a wink, he breezed past me through the Potions room door, letting it swing shut behind him.
Fu-.
I cursed myself silently. This was not how things were supposed to go down.
Trying desperately to remind myself of the confidence I had gained over the last year, I forced myself to follow in his tracks, pausing when I got to the closed door.
I was a different person now, and that didn't change just because I was back at Hogwarts.
Sirius Black would find that out if it killed us both.
Taking a deep breath, I walked determinedly into the classoom. It was just like Shakespeare had always said, 'Fake it until you make it'. And if he didn't say that, then he should have.
When I got in, there were bodies everywhere. First day enthusiasm was alive and well it seemed, and with no teacher present just yet, the students were all milling around and chatting to one another and calling across the classroom.
I could already feel the many eyes on me as a new student and knew Black's was amongst them somewhere. A foolish thought that I was walking abnormally shot its way into my head and in a bid to avert attention I ducked behind a table and pretended to tie my nonexistent shoelace.
After a few seconds, the faint hum of conversation started up again and I knew it was finally safe to resurface. They were wrapped up in their own worlds again.
Taking the opportunity of everyone's attention being distracted to scan the room for a seat, it was hard to see clearly what with most of the people choosing to stand and lean across the tables rather than take their stools.
Finally I spotted an empty table of two; absolutely no one around it.
Taking it gratefully, I was finally able to look around the room properly.
Much like the train station, the room itself looked the same as I remembered it back in fourth year. Oddly it had always felt rather cheery, considering it was full of rather sinister looking vials and potions marked with skull and cross bone symbols.
The glistening liquids from the beakers scattered around the shelves caused shards of multi-coloured light to dance across the dark walls. Similar to the inside of a swimming pool.
There was something strangely comforting and mystical about it.
I felt my heart skip a beat when I finally spotted where Black and his cronies had taken up residence, right in the corner of the room. It was likely no accident that they were perfectly positioned where Slughorn would not be able to immediately see them.
All four of them were sat together, laughing and joking amongst themselves.
The majority of them were too wrapped up in playing a rather exuberant game of catch with a deadly looking black potion. All except one.
I realised afterward that he must have already been looking at me when I spotted him, because his eyes were already fixed on mine when I caught them.
It was Lupin.
Acting reflexively I immediately looked away, noticing that my heart rate had already increased to a fast paced thud thud thud in my chest.
From that moment on I kept my eyes trained to the front of the class, refusing the urge to turn and look again. Would he still be looking at me if I did?
I could've physically vaulted over the tables and hugged Slughorn when he waddled his way in beaming genially.
The portly teacher caught my eye as he took a seat at his desk and nodded to let me know that he was aware of my presence.
Dumbledore had obviously already told the staff of my return to the school, something I was extremely grateful for.
Slughorn dove right into his 'Welcome back after the holidays' spiel. But all I could make out were senseless words.
Without fully realising my mind was still preoccupied with replaying the scene between Lupin and myself. There had been something strange about his eyes.
They were full of something. An emotion perhaps. But I wasn't sure what.
Loathing? Pity? …Or something else entirely?
I vaguely noticed that Slughorn's mouth was still moving and I tried my best to zone back in.
"..and in the spirit of getting to know your new Potions classmates for this new year, you will all start this task by getting into pairs," he boomed.
Hold on. What?
.o.
Oh my God. Oh my God.
I looked around helplessly as each member of the class excitedly paired themselves up with their friends.
I had no partner. I was sat by myself. This was going to get embarrassing.
But Slughorn gave a grim smile as he watched the hubbub around him.
"I will be choosing your pairs," he corrected.
I felt a sick pleasure as the excited voices cut off abruptly and were followed by disappointed groans. A few of the girls who had been linking arms happily now let them fall limply to their sides.
I happened to glance over at Black in the corner and it hit me somewhat belatedly what would be far worse than being by myself.
But surely my luck wasn't that bad?
Slughorn picked up the sheet of seemingly innocent parchment that listed all of the future pairs.
Reading them off, he chuckled along with the rest of the class when some names seemed to warrant groans from one or both of the pair, obviously discontent with the professor's choice of partner for them.
I tried to join in but my throat felt suddenly dry. I knew in the back of my mind that my own name would probably secure the same chuckle from Slughorn.
I listened intently to the names being listed off, dreading the inevitable.
"Rosemary Jordan and Edward Davies."
"Sally Sparrow and Sirius Black."
My heart soared briefly, and I had to bite my lip hard to prevent myself from outwardly smiling. One down, three to go.
I chanced a glance at Black to see his reaction to the girl because no-one ever seemed good enough for him, but I was surprised to find that he gave hardly any reaction at all, merely nodding his head in a kind of lazy shrug.
I watched intently as a blonde girl, who I could only presume was Sally, got up from her seat and made her way over to Black because he was too arrogant to move.
She didn't look too pleased that she was being paired with him, but maybe that was just my imagination.
While I had been focused on them, I realised that I had missed a few of the names being called out.
Had my name been mentioned and whoever it was, was now waiting for me to go over to them?
I listened again but could not hear my name.
Suddenly I heard the chair scrape out next to me and a masculine form take his seat.
I peeked up warily and found my eyes meet with warm amber. My breath caught in my throat.
I had missed my name.
It was Lupin. I was partnered with Lupin.
I vaguely heard him mutter a weak 'hello', but I didn't have the coherency to reply.
My eyes were still wide even when he had moved his attention back to the front of the class, pushing his hair back off his face.
He was just so close. I could practically smell his deoderant.
His presence seemed large and even slightly intimidating in this vicinity. How on earth was I going to work with him? I could barely look him in the eye.
I vaguely wondered what his reaction had been upon learning he was to be my partner. I just really hoped it hadn't warranted a groan and a laugh from the class.
If only I hadn't been so distracted.
.o.
When the Potions master had finally stopped speaking there was an awkward pause where Lupin and I were both putting off the inevitable.
We would actually have to talk to one another.
I vaguely noticed he had somehow got himself a Prefect badge. My mind boggled at how an accessory to countless crimes could possibly deserve an award.
Oh, well done... on being completely and utterly spineless!
I thought again of the way he had always just looked on while his friend's tormented me. Occasionally shooting me a pitying glance once they had moved on.
It was because of this that I felt both angry and embarrassed by his presence now.
No matter how much I had changed on the outside, he still knew the real me. I didn't want to be pitied or patronised because of who he presumed I still was.
I think he could tell I was still a bit off with him because he gave me a funny look.
"Shall we get started?" he tried to ask casually.
We were supposed to be making an age reversal serum, which trust me sounded much better than it was. It only worked on small things like flowers and insects.
I gave him a brief, non-committal shrug, "Why not?" I replied would-be breezily.
Grateful to get away, I headed for the table next to Slughorn's desk where the ingredients were all laid out ready.
When I got back to our table Lupin had already set the apparatus up.
I started to measure out the potion ingredients I had collected and place them into the prepped cauldron, following the instructions on the board while Remus dutifully made the required notes alongside me in silence.
I had nothing to say to him and for once I didn't feel bad for the awkwardness, or like I had to make forced polite conversation to ease it as I usually did in these situations. He had been the bully, not me.
The half formed liquid serum had just begun to bubble as I added the next item on the list: bat droppings. They fizzed satisfyingly.
In my peripheral vision I was surprised to see Lupin pause in his note-taking and roll his eyes.
Slightly taken aback, I looked at him more fully.
His gaze was focused on something on the other side of the room. Or rather, someone.
I watched on as Potter smirked at him from across the classroom and held up a finger for him to 'hold on', before turning his back to us.
Intrigued now, I dropped all pretence of working on the Potion and watched openly.
Wrapping his arms around the upper half of his body, Potter started to... he started to hug himself.
And I don't just mean hug; it looked like he was going to second base.
His hands moved up and down his own back, and I could just about hear the comedy smooching noises even from across the room.
Finally finished, he turned back around, grinning inanely, before nodding his head suggestively toward Remus and myself.
Black and most of the class -who had of course been watching Potter's little display- all laughed loudly.
Without thinking, I slammed the small petri dish of bat droppings onto the table.
What was so wrong with me that it would be highly amusing if Lupin and I did get along?
The dung I had flung onto the table jumped out of its shallow container from the sheer force and I watched as it practically flew all up the front of Lupin's school robes.
His arms shot out comically in surprise.
I heard the gasps echo around the class.
My eyes met with the other Marauders and I was shocked to find them all laughing uproariously at their faeces-covered friend. Even Pettigrew.
Seeing Potter and Black laughing gave the green light to a few more chuckles from the rest of the class.
I muttered a brief apology to Lupin and sat down.
Annoyance flitted across his usually placid face. "It's okay," he managed, not completely genuinely.
I watched him as he tried to brush the small pellets of dung from his lap.
His hands brushed against it forcefully and honestly, I half expected one of them to...
Remus groaned when, sure enough, a long streak of bat excretement was smudged all down the length of his thigh.
Before I could stop myself I felt the recognisable bubble of laughter form in my chest. No sooner had it arrived, it was pushing its way out of my mouth.
Lupin's head shot up in shock that I, of all people, would laugh at him, and I noticed with some surprise that his face had taken on a faint tinge of pink from embarrassment.
We both looked from his soiled trousers to each other's faces.
It was kind of a relief when he dropped his head and let out a breathy laugh. Shaking it he looked back up at me again and muttered, "You think this is funny?"
The entire class was laughing at him. He was embarrassed. It was pretty hilarious if you asked me.
I lifted a shoulder. "Kind of?" I admitted.
The only downside was the fact it hadn't happened to Black. Seeing him walk around with bat crap on his robes would've made my year.
To my surprise though, Lupin held his hand out towards me.
"Truce?" he said, looking at me expectantly.
I peered down at his offered hand, the same one I had just seen wiping the droppings.
He seemed to realise what I was thinking.
"Right," he nodded, retracting it. "Maybe later, eh?"
I couldn't believe I was actually even considering it, but maybe Remus wasn't that bad after all? Maybe he just had a bad choice in friends.
"Here, I'll fix it if you like," I offered, gesturing to his ruined trousers as a sort of peace offering.
"Sure, thanks," he said.
I muttered the cleaning spell and the dung obediently vanished.
"Not just a pretty face is she?" a voice drawled.
Remus and I both looked up to find Black stood there, a smug expression plastered across his face like he knew something nobody else did.
"Leave it please, Sirius," Remus muttered, his eyes fixed firmly downwards on his text book.
Black just snorted and walked, no, strutted, around the table until he faced me head on.
Casually dragging a stool from behind him, he dropped down onto it.
Making himself comfortable, he made a gesture with his hand. "Pray, continue."
Remus looked a little disconcerted, glancing up at his friend. "Continue what?"
"Just carry on with your conversation," Black explained, a self satisfied smirk residing on his face. He started to rock back on his chair arrogantly and I inwardly willed him to fall on his backside. "Pretend I'm not here."
He looked directly at me, a challenge in his eyes.
"Sirius..." Remus murmured.
Black dropped his chair back down. "What?"
Remus gave him a look that said, 'you know what'.
But Black just shrugged and stared right back at him. "Well, you seemed to be getting along famously from what I could see, so I was just intrigued as to just what she had to say that was so riveting." He laughed to himself.
I sighed tiredly, "Why are you always such an arrogant berk, Black?"
My eyes widened as I realised what had slipped out.
Black's face was an absolute picture.
His eyes narrowed, practically pinning me to the chair with his glare.
"What did you say?" he asked, all traces of false humour momentarily wiped from his face.
I looked back at him unsure of whether to repeat what I had said or just shut my mouth altogether, but then a familiar thrill of adrenalin coursed its way through my body.
"I said, why are you always so arrogant, Black?" I repeated, emphasising the last word and imitating his haughty expression.
Time seemed to stand still, but finally his annoyingly perfect lips moved to form an answer.
Thank God the rest of the class were too wrapped up in their own conversations to hear what was divulging.
I waited for him to respond with baited breath, refusing to show the way I was practically shaking with anticipation.
Finally Black clapped his hands together in a one-man applause, making some of the other students in the class peer over to see what was going on.
"Bravo!" he exclaimed, the amused expression set firmly back on his face. "The mute has finally spoken up for herself. Don't worry, it's only taken you six years."
I stared back at him coldly. I didn't find anything he was saying remotely funny and wanted nothing more than to permanently wipe that smirk off his ridiculous face.
Bringing his body forward on his chair, he leaned towards me and I automatically leaned back, his grey eyes burning into mine.
"Just because you don't look like a Beaver anymore, doesn't mean you can beat me," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"What are you talking about?" I hissed. "Beat you? This isn't a game."
He flashed his teeth at me in what looked more like an animal's snarl than a smile and chuckled humourlessly.
"Isn't it?" he asked, somehow managing to make it sound like a threat.
"Whatever," I shrugged it off, feeling goosebumps creep up my arms. "I don't want to play any kind of game with you."
With his face still uncomfortably close to mine, I actually welcomed the old smirk that spread across it. Anything was better than the eerily serious route the conversation had taken.
"'Course you don't," he replied.
Still within the uncomfortably close proximity, he raised an eyebrow, studying my face in a way that made my heartbeat quicken.
"What is wrong with your eyes?" he asked eventually, cocking his head to one side. "Have you seen them, Moony? One's green and one's brown. Like a dog."
He glanced at Remus for a reaction, but he refused to give one.
"Woof," Black taunted me regardless, starting to laugh at his own joke before trailing off as though a thought had occured to him.
Frowning curiously, he looked at Remus again and this time they shared a knowing look for reasons I couldn't even begin to fathom.
What the heck were they on?
Reaching out a hand, Black guided my chin up, searching my face as if trying to read my mind. Finding it impossible break his stare, I watched frozen in horror as he moved to graze his knuckles across my cheek, so tenderly that it was hard to believe it was the same taunting person from a minute ago.
Urging myself to move, I jolted my head away from him, pushing his arm back as I did.
All at once the gentle look on his face disappeared and he let out a barking laugh.
He gave Remus another smirk, but Remus just looked back at him seriously.
"Just leave it now, Padfoot," he murmured.
But Black only smirked again, clapping a hand on his shoulder from across the table before pushing himself backwards and lifting his lean body from the stool.
"Oh dear, Moony, you have it worse than I realised," he said.
Turning his attention back to me, this time I could tell for sure that he winked at me, and it was only then that I realised this really was a game, and I was Sirius Black's latest choice of chew toy.
All of that; the weirdly intimate touching and strange split-personality behaviour, it had all been to see how far I would let him go. Knowing full well the effect he had on the opposite sex and testing it out on me.
I shivered in disgust at the thought of it. All I could do was hope that I had proven what an intense dislike I had for the arrogant pig.
"Til we meet again" he said, skimming his eyebrows at me.
And with that he was gone.
When we saw that he'd definitely gone back to his own workspace, Remus turned to me with a serious face and I half expected him to say something about what had happened, barely able to meet his eyes because of it.
But instead he shot me a grim smile and motioned to the cauldron we had been working on.
"I think our potion's ruined," he said simply.
I peered down at our now clotted age reversal serum. It really did look awful.
Allowing Remus to get started on mixing up another batch, I thought again about what had happened.
Black had been mocking me, I knew he had, but because he wasn't doing it verbally anymore there was nothing I could do about it.
What could I say back to his disingenuine flirting? I was just so inexperienced when it came to boys that by targeting that area he had found my weak point.
I could only hope he hadn't realised his advantage.
.o.
The common room was nearly empty that night and I was thankful. I just wanted to go and sit by myself somewhere and wallow in my own self-pity.
My second day at Hogwarts had not turned out as planned.
So far I'd thrown bat crap over Lupin, had an argument with Black -which I had a bad feeling he'd won- and spoiled my very first age reversal potion.
The only thing I could be grateful for was at least now Remus and I were now on speaking terms.
He really wasn't so bad. At least he'd managed to laugh about the dung incident afterwards. Not every boy would.
Just as I was about to take one of the empty chairs by the window, I heard my name being called.
Turning around to the source of the voice, I saw a small group of girls I recognised from my Dormitory sitting around a small table to one side.
When they saw me looking they beckoned me over with excited grins.
Walking slowly over to them, I could practically feel the excitement radiating from them, though I had no idea what it was about.
As soon as I was within reaching distance, the brown haired girl to my right pulled me down into the spare seat. I recognised her as the one from the bed next to mine, but couldn't remember her name.
Marl-a? Mar…Crap, I couldn't think. Mar- something.
Marlene.
I looked around briefly at the two other faces. I recognised Dorcas opposite me -she'd been really friendly when we'd met last night- and there was another blonde girl on my left, but I was fairly sure she wasn't in my Dorm room.
Strangely though, her face did seem extremely familiar. I quickly ran through my brief time at the school so far inside my head, pushing the snippets of unfocused images along.
I'd got it. She had been Sirius's partner in Potions.
Something Sparrow, wasn't it?
"This is Sally," the girl called Marlene helpfully explained, nodding at her.
Sally smiled and did a little salute-like wave at me.
I saw her eyebrows furrow as she took in my face, "Hold on, weren't you in my Potions class?"
Wow, she actually remembered me.
I nodded, "Yeah."
Her smile grew to a knowing grin, "You were the one who-"
"Please don't," I grimaced.
She gave a laugh and shook her head slightly, "Remus's face was a picture."
Marlene and Dorcas looked at one another questioningly.
"Hang on a minute," Marlene said. "You can't just mention random bits of what sounds like a juicy story without expecting us to want to know details."
Dorcas nodded in agreement.
"So tell us, Cheryl, just what did you do to Remus?" Marlene raised her eyebrows suggestively making the other girls laugh.
"If you're expecting that kind of juice I think you're going to be disappointed," I replied.
I stalled, not really wanting to have to tell any more people about the embarrassing incident.
"She threw bat droppings at him," Sally interjected, as if it was something you did everyday.
There was a stunned silence before both Dorcas and Marlene gave confused laughs.
"Bat droppings?"
"It was an accident though," I said.
"You should've seen it," Sally said. "It went all over him. The whole class were in tears."
While Marlene looked strangely impressed, Dorcas just covered her mouth with her fingers and shook her head.
"Poor Remus," she muttered, even though I could hear the laughter in her voice.
"In that case," Marlene said, "I'm going to let you join in with our little game."
Dorcas pulled a face, "We were going to ask her to come with us anyway. That's what we called her over for."
Marlene waved an impatient hand, "Yeah, but now we know for definite she can handle it."
She stressed the last two words and flashed her eyes in what I think was supposed to look mysterious.
Sally snorted, "Yes…"
I asked her what they were planning, wondering what on earth it could be that it was a bonus I'd covered someone in bat dung.
Marlene looked a bit sheepish. "Technically, we haven't decided yet."
Dorcas rolled her eyes.
"But it will be good," Marlene assured, giving her friend a look. "We're just brainstorming at the moment."
When Sally pushed a piece of scrap parchment towards me, I saw that sure enough there was one solitary plan at the top in tiny writing.
'Let off a dungbomb in the boys bedroom.'
Not the most imaginative of ideas.
"Let's do it then," I shrugged. I don't think I expected them to actually agree, but right at that moment I had nothing to lose.
Dorcas shook her head, "We can't. There are too many people around."
I scanned the room. There were a dozen at the most.
"Not that many."
Marlene looked at me as though deep in thought. "You know what, you're right. Where's your sense of adventure, Dorcas?"
She turned to Sally.
"What do you think, Sal?"
Sally bit the inside of her cheek and seemed to think on it for a second.
"I think let's do it."
.o.
Less than a quarter of an hour later and we were actually sneaking up the stairs to the sixth year boys' dormitory.
I know you're wondering what on earth I was doing. I get it. I would too if someone told me the mousy geek was going to completely subvert everyone's expectations and just let go for once in her life.
It's just, I couldn't let Black's bullying define who I was at Hogwarts anymore.
I'd made a promise to myself to be a whole new person, take more chances, have more fun. And in my opinion there wasn't much funnier than making the boys bedroom stink of sewage for the next three months.
Marlene had insisted we wear balaclavas for disguise, because 'all the best spies wore them', and my breath was hot and moist behind the mask.
Cracking open the door, we stepped in and lit the lamps, surveying the mess that was the boys' room.
It was only our second night back at the school and already it looked as though a tornado had passed through it; a pungent aroma of dirty socks and stale aftershave clinging to everything in the vicinity.
Let's just put it this way, if one of them ever got lost on his way back there he could always just follow his nose.
Sally pinched her nose between her thumb and forefinger and pretended to swoon from the smell, making me snort.
I could see the stench hit Dorcas like a slap in the face, sending her stumbling backwards a step.
"Bloomin' heck!" she exclaimed. "Do you think they'll even notice the smell of the Dungbombs over this?"
"Whose room is this, anyway?" I asked.
Marlene didn't answer my question, and I felt my anxiety levels rise but Sally just laughed.
"Come on, get your ammo out," she said, already teaching for hers.
Obediently we all followed suit, each picking one out from our pockets.
To me, Dungbombs looked like an over-stuffed teabag. There was a small white cap on top that ripped off, and then you'd have five minutes grace before it exploded into a cloud of putridness.
I held it out in front of me, getting ready for the signal to release it.
"Ready, girls?" Marlene asked, her voice a bit muffled from the balaclava, but her blue eyes gleaming brightly in a way that put a whole knew meaning to the term 'evil glint'.
She actually looked rather manic, but in a funny sort of way. Possibly because I was in on the joke.
"After three?" I asked, my breathing slow and heavy.
They nodded.
"3, 2…1" We chorused the one and tore at the caps furiously, throwing the bombs onto the boys beds.
There was a pause where we all looked at one another, not quite believing what we had just done.
From somewhere in the distance, I heard Marlene's voice shout, "Run!"
As if they had been waiting for that command, my legs finally woke up and I ran with the rest of the girls as we bolted to the door.
I had just reached the halfway point of the staircase when I plunged headfirst into a tall, hard pillar.
Strong arms caught me around my waist, but even as I tried to push past it shouted back down the stairs, "Pete, Mike, stop the others."
I had been caught.
The pillar picked me up roughly around my waist and carried me back into the room. This was not good.