P.S. I hate you
A figure darker than the shadows themselves shifted its weight just a few metres from where I was stood.
One thing I was sure of, it wasn't human. No person's eyes shone that devilishly.
The low violent growl resonated through the air yet again and I knew now it had come from whatever that thing was.
My eyes finally adjusted slightly, cutting through the darkness until I could see the beast's vague outline; it was the size of a small bear.
I thought I could make out another large animal just behind it, but if I didn't know any better I'd have said it looked like a deer.
The bear let out yet another low rumbling noise from the depth of its throat, attracting my attention back to it.
When I glanced back toward the antlered creature, it had disappeared. What were those things?
My hands shaking, I pulled my wand from the inside pocket of my cloak, thanking Merlin it had been cold enough to need the extra layer.
My desperation dragged the names of various spells into my mind, each one more useless than the last.
A charm for tidying, one for tying shoelaces, even one to change the shade of a person's hair. Though something told me zapping the creatures fur from ebony to rainbow coloured would only make it even more ready to rampage me into oblivion.
Think of a high impact one I urged myself. The killing curses. No, I couldn't. My mouth couldn't even voice them.
.o.
The bear-like beast took a worrying step toward me and I felt my nerve falter, but it was too late to run now. It was too close. I'd left it too late.
Leaning back on its haunches, its eyes were piercing and focused. I knew it was going to leap at me even before it happened.
A mere quarter of a second passed before it lurched its weight forward and sprang, immense and terrifying.
I screamed the first spell that shot into my mind.
The beast was met mid leap by the intense red light that had erupted from my wand tip.
Its huge black body was dragged unseemly upwards, pulled snarling and furious into the air.
The fine sliver of the evening's moon cast an eerie glow on its writhing body and I could tell now it wasn't a bear at all. It was in fact the biggest dog I had ever seen. Humongous would have been a gross understatement.
It looked almost wolfish in size and body, but wolves hadn't been reported in these parts since the eighteenth century at most. All hunted to the point of extinction.
I couldn't seem to bring myself to stop staring at it. I had honestly never seen anything like it before in my life.
The mid-air writhing had now stopped. Now it just glared, cold steel grey eyes, gruesomely intelligent. As if securing the details of my face.
I knew this was my chance. I wasn't sure how long a basic levitation charm would work on something so heavy, even one that had been conjured with such desperation.
Without another glance back, I ran. As fast as I could toward the lake, for the first time praying that Anthony would be early.
I could just about make out the faint glimmer of the moonlight dancing across the surface of lake in the distance. I was almost there, almost safe by the light of the lake. Almost.
Heavy thudding footsteps echoed behind me, far too fast to be human.
I did what every horror story tells you not to; I looked back.
The man-eating dog had escaped from my bindings, padding one gigantic paw after the other towards me with alarming speed. The spell had broken. It was gaining on me.
And then I'm not quite sure what happened, but suddenly the deafening footsteps were gone and there was Anthony. Large and muscular, the sight of him far more welcome than I could have ever anticipated.
"Were you that excited about meeting me?" he joked as I ran at him with break neck speed, his expression a mixture of surprise and good humour.
"Anthony," I gasped, coming to an abrupt halt in front of him.
His brow furrowed.
"Are you alright?" his tone was uncertain now. He hadn't been expecting the giggling girl from earlier to be quite so intense and... a bit of a mess I suppose.
I bent over. My lungs seemed to burn anew with each ragged breath. My long hair whipped wildly around my face, any semblance of a style now long gone.
Finally managing to regain some sense of composure, I straightened my body to look him in the eye. He towered over me by what had to be a good seven inches.
"You're tall," I breathed aloud, the relief making my mind a useless babble.
He just chuckled, looking slightly awkward.
"6ft 3," he confirmed.
I nodded slowly, inwardly grimacing at how foolish I must have looked.
"So what happened?" he asked. "You seemed upset."
"There was a dog," I blurted out. "It chased me."
His eyebrows rose upward.
I shook my head. "But it was too big. It wasn't right..." I drifted off weakly.
"Hey, it's okay," he reassured me, his tone calm and kind. He seemed to be in two minds whether to give me a comforting hug, but in the end settled for a quick rub of my left arm.
"I think I've seen something similar skulking around the grounds before," he told me, "But I've never known if it was just my imagination playing tricks on me."
I wasn't sure if he was just saying that to make me feel better, but it worked.
.o.
"So how did your date go?" Marlene asked me as I tossed my cloak on my chest and collapsed on the bed later that night.
I sighed into the palms of my hands, the image of the furious beast still wavering in front of my tightly closed eyes.
"It wasn't a date," I corrected her tiredly.
"Oh," she said, taken aback, "But Mary said-"
I sent Mary an irritated questioning look.
"I thought it was," she replied would-be innocently.
"He just wanted to meet me for some reason," I explained to Marlene and the rest of the girls, avoiding eye contact with Mary. "It wasn't a date. We don't even know one another-"
"You do now," Mary cut in. "So are you officially his girlfriend?"
My blood boiled.
"No, like I said we've only just met. I don't like him like that."
Mary gave me a look of fake understanding. "Of course, I forgot. You like Sirius."
Those three simple words rang out deafening in the small room.
They seemed to reverberate around the beds before they finished their circuit with a hard slap against each of my cheeks. That would certainly explain the intense blush on my usually pale face.
I glanced at the girls. All eyes were wide and focused solely on me.
Lily's mouth was agape.
Dorcas looked sheepish once again.
"You fancy Sirius?" was all Lily could muster.
"No-" I tried.
"You told me you did," Mary blurted out.
"Actually Dorcas told you I did," I corrected, my body practically shaking from embarrassment and anger. After the night I'd had this was the last thing I needed.
"So you're saying Dorcas was lying?" Mary demanded.
I looked over at Dorcas, her eyes apologising silently over and over.
"No," I said louder than necessary.
"I liked him for about an hour," I told the ginger haired girl, trying to make my voice sound more offhand than I felt. "It's old news now, I'm over it."
Lily looked like she wanted to ask me so many questions, but she couldn't seem to voice any of them around all of the girls.
"That's a shame," Mary said, her voice low and sneaky, "Because I let Sirius know that you liked him."
There was a collective gasp.
"You did what?" I practically shouted. I knew it, I knew that she had. That explained the mutterings from him and Potter in Herbology. I was only surprised he hadn't approached me to brag about it. Mary was such a big mouth!
Mary forced her expression into naive confusion. "I didn't think you'd mind."
Her voice and expression were simpering until my hand urged to wipe them forcibly from her face.
"How else are you two going to get together if he doesn't know you like him?"
"We're not," I snapped. "Because I don't like him and he definitely doesn't like me."
"But you told me you did like him," Mary spoke over me.
I let out a sigh. This was pointless. We were going round in circles.
She was obviously still sore her little crush preferred a girl he'd never even met over her.
Mine and Anthony's meeting actually hadn't gone that badly after the whole 'running for my life' thing.
He actually seemed like a really nice, genuine person. I could totally see what Mary saw in him. Despite his looks being on the average side, he was a big and phenomenally friendly giant.
And really, who wouldn't want someone like that looking out for them, caring about them?
He had walked me all the way back to the entrance of the Gryffindor common room after our meeting.
I couldn't get over how much I'd misjudged him. He wasn't annoying at all, he was probably more miffed off with being the object of Mary's slightly over the top obsession.
"So who do you like?" Marlene asked me, interrupting my musings on Ant.
"No one," I blurted out a little too quickly. And even if I did, I knew well enough to keep it to myself from now on.
.o.
I woke with a start, my reflexes causing my body to jolt. It was still dark out and I could tell from the gentle rise and fall of their shadows that my roommates were all still sleeping peacefully.
I twisted my body, unravelling the sheets that had wrapped themselves around my damp skin. It felt humid. I raised a hand to my brow and wiped away the moisture that had settled there, pushing the hair back from my face.
All through the night the nightmares about the horrible, growling black dog had tormented me. My nerves had been left jangling.
The strange thing was, though, in almost all of them the dog had altered half way through its pursuit of me.
Its body had shuddered and shook grotesquely as it ran, its face contorting, shrinking. Until eventually it resembled something human, though just as rabid and snarling as the dog.
Something even stranger; the human always looked like Regulus Black.
It was probably because Sirius had warned me so insistently away from him that Regulus was now carved into my subconscious as the epitome of evil.
Bloody Black. Always messing around with my mind one way or the other.
Except this last dream had been something slightly different, even more terrifying in a way.
Instead of being my saviour, Anthony had turned out to be something even worse than the dog.
.o.
It had been a dull day of nothing more than dull lessons and even duller weather, and yet what with the many recent events my mind was a buzz of activity, trying to mull over many things at once:
Why was Black ignoring me, and why had I even bothered to notice?
Would Lily break down and finally give in to the idiot Potter?
What on earth was that dog doing at Hogwarts and why had it attacked me like that?
And finally my brain settled on a hazy image of Anthony and how sweet he had been the previous evening.
Reaching down, I grabbed a Doxy egg from the pile the Care of Magical Creatures Professor had left out for us, ready to take back to my partner Lily.
I'd had more than a few girls ask me if I really did fancy Black as Mary had told them, and to each one of them I repeated the same answer.
"No, not at all," I addressed Laurel this time, a Ravenclaw sixth year who caught me on my way back to my table. "I don't know why Mary would say I liked him," I told her, shaking my head.
I left a dramatic pause before an exaggerated look of realisation swept across my face, "Maybe Mary likes him but is too embarrassed to admit it?"
I was smug to find that my voice came out genuine and perhaps even a little bit… kindly?
Laurel seemed to think on it a second before nodding. "Hmm," she mused before walking away.
I let an evil smirk spread its way across my face; I should go into acting, really. Perhaps Mary would think twice before spreading vicious rumours in the future.
Turning around to walk back to my desk, I found my face engulfed by a mass of cotton. I had stepped face first into the white shirted chest of one of my classmates.
Sirius. Of course it was.
Pulling back, I steadied the egg in my arms, wondering just how long he had been loitering behind me. He let out a short laugh at my guilty expression.
"You know, that really wasn't very nice, Morland," he chided, gesturing over to Laurel, who was now busy collecting her own Doxy egg.
"Spreading rumours about your friend like that?" he pretended to tsk, "And here was me thinking you were supposed to be a good girl."
It was the first time he'd addressed me in days.
"Mary's not my friend," I stated before moving past him. I wasn't about to get into this with him today.
He bent to grab his egg from the pile and stepped easily to keep pace with me.
"In fact a little bird told me you've been getting up to all sorts recently. Cavorting with strange boys at night," he continued.
I froze. How could he possibly know of mine and Anthony's meeting? Unless Mary had blabbed yet again, I reminded myself.
Now that he had my full attention, he lowered his face toward mine so that only I could hear.
"You want to watch yourself, walking around the grounds on your own. I'm sure there are plenty of things out there that wouldn't mind a piece of you."
He straightened up, his face roguish.
I stared at him hard. Did he know about the big black dog attacking me?
I tried to recover myself.
"There's nothing in the grounds I wouldn't rather face than talk to you," I kept my voice calmer than I felt. "And as for Anthony, he's no more strange than the rest of the boys around here."
Black let out his bark of a laugh.
"Merlin, Morland, where has all this attitude come from lately? You're practically rivalling Evans. Maybe we should thank this Anthony for putting some of that fire into you?" His eyes danced with amusement at my expense.
"I'm sure even you could do better than Ant Javerhops," he shook his head with amused disdain.
"What's wrong with him?" I demanded as Black strolled alongside me en-route to my work space.
He threw his egg from one hand to the other carelessly.
"I never said anything was wrong with him," he shrugged. "Some people prefer the all brawn no brain type. Obviously you're one of them. I'm sure he could wean you into the male species well enough."
"Oh, I don't need 'weaning' into the male species thank you very much," I spat, lying through my teeth.
"-It's just James and I reckon you've never even been kissed," he continued as if I hadn't spoken.
My blood ran cold.
I forced a careless laugh. "You two clearly have too much time on your hands. Why exactly do you care so much about my love life anyway?"
"So you're saying you've had experience with a boy before, then," he responded, ignoring the question.
"It's none of your business is what I'm saying," I answered immediately. "It's not like you'll ever get to find out just how 'experienced' I am."
"Thank Merlin for that," he replied.
"Seconded."
"Good."
"Good."
"You know, Morland, if you weren't so completely intolerable..." He paused and shook his head. "...You should work on that," he finished instead.
"Maybe you should take a long look in the mirror," I shot back. He had a nerve to tell me that I was intolerable.
With that, I took myself and my Doxy egg safely back to Lily's side.
"Already did," he called after me, "turns out I'm perfect!"
As I walked over, Lily's face was apparently amused.
"What?" I said, more snappy than intended.
She gave me a look, tucking a strand of dark red silk behind her ear.
"Oh, nothing," she replied, letting me know that it almost certainly was something.
I ignored her, setting the large egg onto the upturned wooden box we were using as a make shift table.
Her mouth twisted. "Oh come on, Cheryl. It could be worse," she said consolingly. "I mean, at least he's not Potter."
"No, he's worse than Potter," I replied. "At least Potter pretty much leaves me alone now. He's too preoccupied with-"
"With me?" she finished dryly.
I gave her an awkward look, trying not to let on how grateful I was that Potter had better things to do than bully me now, even if that did involve pestering her.
"But Black just won't leave me alone," I continued. "He's been-"
"- Staring at you all lesson?" she enquired simply.
"No," I said, losing my train of thought."...What?"
I turned around reflexively, and sure enough found Black looking our way.
Almost as soon as our eyes met, he shot me a wink.
My head snapped back forward, a furious blush on my cheeks. "Remind me never to rescue you from Potter ever again," I told her mutinously.
.o.
When Potter came strutting over to our workplace not a minute later I nearly cracked into laughter.
Lily's face was an absolute picture.
"It could be worse, Lily," I mimicked half-jokingly. "He could be Black."
"Oh, ha-ha."
"Morland," he greeted curtly, catching me offguard. Since when were we openly registering each other's existence?
"Evans." Her name seemed to roll from his tongue like dripping honey. He had it bad, he had it very bad indeed.
"Do you mind?" he asked, and then without waiting for a response promptly stole an unsuspecting Ravenclaw's stool.
When the poor sod went to sit back he fell straight onto his backside. The boy took one look at who had taken it and decided it wasn't worth the effort.
Lily let out a sigh of impatience.
"I suppose it's too bad if we did?" she asked Potter shortly.
He shook his head sadly.
"Evans, Evans, Evans. I wish you'd stop trying to hide your love for me. It's getting embarrassing."
Lily's bright green eyes flashed angrily.
Potter carried on, ignoring her silent fuming. "Besides, Morland here doesn't mind if I join you. Do you, Morland?"
I looked away without answering, wanting nothing more than to flee the scene.
He leaned into Lily, bringing his lightly tanned face closer to hers. It was an action that would have had many of the girls at Hogwarts go weak at the knees. It seemed Lily was impervious.
"So, Evans. Mind if I sit with you at dinner this evening?"
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Potter, please, let me explain something to you." She leaned in toward him, and I could tell it had made his breath catch. "There will never be a time that I will willingly sit next to you. If it were the last seat on a four hour bus ride, I would still not sit next you. Get the picture?"
He gave her a crooked smile. "You're so cute when you exaggerate."
.o.
Potter had continued his assault on Lily's last ounce of patience all day.
Eventually the last of her resolve had been nagged away and she agreed he could sit next to her at dinner. It seemed like the easier option to get him off her back.
Just this once though, she had said, and on the condition that he left her alone for the remaining hours of the day. Oh, and also as long as he didn't bring his friends along -minus Remus of course. Or speak. Or put breadsticks in his mouth and grunt like a walrus like last time.
I passed through the empty Entrance Hall on my way down to join everyone else at evening meal.
I was running late and my friends were supposed to be meeting me in there, each having a different last lesson to myself.
My heart must've skipped at least a dozen beats when I spotted an all too familiar face waiting just outside the floor to ceiling double doors.
Black hair, grey eyes, a slight scowl.
There stood Regulus Black. The other brother. Looking as bored and disdainful as ever as he lounged against the wall.
My nightmares flooded back at once. He was the dog. I pushed them from my mind. It was nonsense.
Animagis had to be registered, then there was the fact it was an extremely lengthy, not to mention complicated process to undertake. Far too advanced for any high school pupil.
No, it was impossible. The dog was just a dog, and Regulus was just Black's younger Slytherin brother.
When I got within a foot of him he pushed himself off from the stone wall and started to walk in the opposite direction.
"Bye," I muttered pointlessly after him.
Without warning, he turned back around and looked right at me, though he continued to back away.
"You like my brother," he stated. It wasn't a question.
His expression was mocking, one fine black eyebrow raised.
"I thought you knew better than to listen to rumours," I replied easily.
He snorted and shrugged.
"Sometimes."
Turning his back to me once more, he was gone.
I stared after him. He looked so much like his brother it was unnerving.
A mere second after Regulus had slipped out of the door, the faintest of tremors echoed under my feet and the next thing I knew three extremely burly looking Slytherin fifth years were pounding their way in my direction.
For the tiniest of moments I thought I was going to be hexed into the ground. Until they looked over my head as if I was nothing more than a pointless statue set in the middle of the walkway.
They made their way past toward the Great Hall doors. I vaguely heard them muttering Regulus's name. They looked incredibly put out.
It seemed they had been stood up.
Maybe Regulus didn't want to conduct his little meeting with someone who knew his brother in the vicinity.
Not really wanting to go past them to finally get my food, I followed in the younger Black's footsteps and walked toward the Entrance Hall doors that led out into the cool evening air. I would wait until the three Sumos had finally given up and left.
Taking a deep breath in, I almost choked on it when I noticed the hulking figure lurking by the low stone wall in the grounds.
There, sat just a few feet away, was the great dog.
It caught my gaze, its head and ears pricking up. Did it recognise me from the previous night?
I stared into the unnerving liquid silver of the large dog's eyes, once again being reminded of Regulus.
Though there was something different about it this time, it seemed calm, in control. Perhaps even a little morose. Or was that boredom?
From what I could tell there was no deer with it this time.
I stole a glance behind me, unsure what to do. The Slytherins were still there blocking the entrance to the Great Hall. They were talking so conspiratorially amongst themselves that I knew they would hex the first person to interrupt, even with an 'excuse me'.
When turned back to the big black dog I saw its position had not changed.
So which was it to be? I asked myself.
The three ox-like Slytherins, or the black beast?
.o.
Without so much as a bark, the beast rose to its feet and started to walk away, away from the warm light of the school and further into the twilight.
Now please don't ask what possessed me, but the next thing I knew I was following it.
I was following the horrid, vicious creature that had growled and chased me down only the night before.
Why?
I don't know if it was Gryffindor bravery or just plain curiosity.
Besides, it was practically beckoning me to follow it. It could have easily sprinted away and left me faltering in its wake.
I watched the creature's immense shoulder blades rise up and down, up and down as I followed. Hypnotic and gliding with a grace more akin to a jungle cat.
It was only when we'd travelled a sufficient distance from the friendly light of the school walls that I really realised what I'd done.
I paused to frantically check my pockets, confirming the worst. I had none. So there was no place for me to have stored my trusty wand.
I was powerless, yet again. Idiot.
The beast seemed to sense my halting steps, or rising panic, and for the first time turned back to look at me.
This was it, I was done for.
"So," I addressed it, trying to make my voice sound confident even as I could hear my own pulse in my ears. "Did I really catch you off guard last night, or are you going to finish me off?"
The beast only cocked its head, pinning me with an oddly aware gaze.
Its expression seemed overtly innocent in comparison to the other night. Like it was trying its best to come across as placid as possible.
"You're far too clever to be an ordinary dog," I murmured to myself.
It rumbled an affirmative bark.
I took a slow, curious step toward it.
The dog stared right back at me, its gaze unfaltering.
It had either glazed over or was watching me very carefully indeed.
Putting out a tentative hand, I reached out to touch it.
The very tips of my fingers grazed its head ever so gently, and the dog responded by closing its eyes.
Taking this as a positive sign, I dared to edge a little closer. My increased proximity seemed to be a step too far, however.
A terrifying growl rumbled through its body, and I managed to pull my hand away just in time as its teeth snapped at my fingers.
I stepped back quickly and the next thing I knew it was on its feet and sprinting away.
By the time I looked again it had already disappeared into the night leaving me to stare after it, utterly perplexed.
.o.
It seemed to take an age to walk all the way back up to the caste; the black dog had lured me right the way out.
When I made my way into the Entrance Hall, the Slytherins were thankfully gone and Lily was sat over with Potter just as she'd promised.
I passed Black, Pettigrew and Remus sat a few seats away talking in muted whispers about something. Black's hair looked oddly windswept.
Remus didn't seem too pleased. His expression reminded me of a parent long tired of berating his children.
"You take things too seriously, Moony," Black said with a shrug, his voice just loud enough for me to hear. "I only did it as a bit of fun. Besides, I would have thought you'd have made an exception this time." He grinned and flicked his eyebrows suggestively.
Remus narrowed his eyes at his friend. "You know full well I don't like her in that way, Sirius, and this isn't a laughing matter. You're compromising everything."
Black rolled his eyes.
"Just stop showing off around her, okay?" Remus said. "If you really don't like her, just leave her alone. It's getting tiresome."
I double took. I had never seen Remus that openly pissed off at Black. I wondered what poor girl they could be talking about. I hadn't seen Black for hours, so I was pleased that for once his target couldn't have been me.
As soon as they noticed me, all three boys glanced in my direction, immediately halting their conversation. Peter seemed ready to wet himself from nerves.
Remus gave me a perfunctory smile, which I returned half-heartedly.
Marlene attracted my attention with manic waving and beckoned me over to a seat Dorcas had saved next to them.
As I sat down and helped myself to the roast dinner, I made the decision not to tell the girls about my meetings with the dog, not right then at least. They probably wouldn't have believed me anyway.
"Anyone know what's up with Remus?" I asked casually, spooning out some roasted carrots.
Marlene and Dorcas both shook their heads.
"Sirius is always getting him into some kind of trouble," Dorcas said. "Maybe he's done it again."
.o.
Alright, so remember how I said Anthony wasn't all that bad?
I was wrong. So very, very wrong.
It all happened during our trip to Hogsmeade.
Lily, Sally, Marlene and I had taken a booth in the Three Broomsticks and were talking about pointless things like the strange little living balls of fluff Zonko's had started selling.
Sally pulled a purple one out of her bag. The ball of fluff sighed dreamily to itself.
"Can I hold it?" I asked her.
She handed it over to me.
"Hello," I cooed to it in my best baby voice. "Ooh, you're so cute aren't you. Yes you are. You little squishy thing you."
Marlene burst out laughing. "Merlin, Mori, do you want me to get you and the pygmy puff a room?"
I laughed and handed the pygmy carefully back to Sally who pocketed it. "Gross."
"So, anyway-" Marlene carried on, still grinning. "I told William he could just get lost, there was no way I was putting that in my-"
Just then, Potter, Black, Remus and Pettigrew all trooped through the pub door sending the wind chime jangling loudly.
I groaned inwardly, as long as Lily was with us there was no way we could avoid a meeting with them.
Sure enough James grinned over at us.
"Girls," he greeted as he stood before our table, though really it was clearly only meant for Lily.
Peter stood just behind his friend, paling beside James's height, charm and looks.
Remus gave us a small smile. His mood had obviously improved since the other night.
"So how's your day going?" he asked, glancing around our table. His gaze landed briefly on me but did not linger there.
Sally beamed warmly up at him. "Brilliant thanks, have you seen the new broomstick on the market? Solid wood, none of the hollow rubbish the school provides. Mahogany finish." Sally was on the school Quidditch team.
"It's a beauty alright," Remus agreed with a smile.
"Yeah, beautiful price too," James interjected. He pulled out a brightly coloured catalogue from his inside pocket, Snitches and Bludgers dancing across the cover.
He pointed out picture of what looked to me like just another broom.
Remus let out a low whistle. "'Two hundred Galleons'. Better start saving up I think, Sal," he chuckled.
"Christmas present anyone?" James agreed.
Sally rolled her eyes. "It's alright for some. Not all of us have stinkingly rich parents, James."
Black lowered himself down on the end seat next to me making my stomach perform an uncomfortable backflip.
James shrugged. "Don't hate the player, hate the game."
"Too right," Black agreed enthusiastically, raising his pewter goblet and taking a swig.
He turned to face me and frowned. "What are they talking about again?"
My mouth twitched in a repressed smile and he grinned.
"Oof, careful," he pretended to be concerned. "Don't want your face to crack."
Lounging back on the worn purple velvet, he parted his knees wide. The side of his body pressed against my own, the warmth radiating into me.
"Merlin, all this Quidditch malarky bores the snot out of me," he sighed half to himself. "I'll watch the odd match, gladly, but I can't ruin my pants with excitement over the newest pair of dragon hide Keeper gloves or what have you."
He turned his head to me.
"So, how's it going Morland? Up to any new tricks?" his disinterest was evident.
"The usual," I answered shortly.
He nodded. "More secret meetings then?"
"What?" How did he know about the dog?
He looked as though he was fighting back a laugh. "Surely you haven't forgotten your boyfriend already?"
Oh. He was talking about Anthony.
"He's not my boyfriend."
Black snorted. "Sure he isn't. Hey," he nudged my arm eagerly, "Isn't that him now, over there. Hey… Javerbops, over here!" he called loudly.
"Javerhops," I corrected without thinking, before noticing that it actually was Anthony. Sat with a friend over at the bar.
Anthony caught my gaze and grinned embarrassedly, muttering something to his friend.
Next thing we knew his friend was coming over, a strange grin plastered across his face.
"Ant told me to give you this," he muttered before walking away.
He'd tossed a note onto the table.
I snatched at it before Black could, scrunching it tightly in my hand.
Anthony's face had turned a bright pink and he promptly stalked out of the pub doors. I was left wondering whether it was worth my life to open out the note in front of everyone.
Glancing around, I saw the rest of our group was still too busy talking amongst themselves to have noticed.
"Go on then," Black urged, his attention piqued now. "I could do with a laugh."
I turned to face him with the note in front of me so that he couldn't read it and begrudgingly opened out the neatly folded paper.
What could Anthony possibly have to tell me that he couldn't just say in person?
Cheryl
I know you probably don't like me the way I like you and I know you'll probably never see me as anything more than a freind.
But these past few days I haven't been able to stop thinking about you.
When you looked at me the other night your pupils were so expressive.
I feel like we could really have something special.
Love, Ant x
Three words were running through my gobsmacked mind.
What. The. Hell.
"Well?" Black asked impatiently.
"Your pupils are expressive?" Marlene let out a laugh from behind me. "What the hell is that about?"
I didn't realise she had been reading it over my shoulder.
Black's eyes lit up with interest. "It doesn't actually say that?" he cried incredulously.
He snatched the note from me at once and everyone's attention was firmly on the two of us now.
"Oh Merlin, that's hilarious," he said with a shake of his head. "He does realise the pupil is the little black dot in your eye, right?"
He pretended to look deep into my eyes and put a hand to his heart. "Oh Morland, he's right. Your dots are so expressive."
At this almost everyone at our table laughed, whether out loud or having the decency to at least try to hold it back.
"And he misspelt friend..." he added.
Lily put a hand on my back for support. Only she would realise how embarrassed this was making me.
"Who wrote it?" Potter asked.
"Javerhops," Sirius replied.
"The rugby player?"
Black nodded.
"Wow, weird."
"He's clearly touched in the head," Black scoffed. Peter donkey-laughed at James's side.
Remus just seemed disturbed by it all.
Lily took the note from Black and skimmed through it.
"I didn't know he was so obsessed with you," she said.
Marlene looked at me and grinned. "Just don't let Mary know about this," she warned, "you'll have a cat fight on your hands."
"Don't get our hopes up," Black cut in appreciatively.
The wind chime by the door let out another ringing noise and who should be re-entering the pub but Anthony.
I groaned. Why me? Why did I always get the freaks or the weirdos?
Everyone around the table stared unabashedly at him, and I almost felt a touch of sympathy. Until I reminded myself that he was the reason I was now the butt of the joke.
I glared over at him. Stupid Javerhops. Just what the bloody hell was he thinking going psycho on me like that. He'd been fine the other night.
It was as if he had been stewing on it since our meeting.
He glanced over at me, probably to see if I had read his little note.
Without missing a beat, Black put a firm arm around my shoulder and leaned in against me as far as he could.
Making sure Anthony was watching, he pulled me toward him until we were practically on top of one another.
Then, with his free hand, he cupped my face and edged his lips towards mine.
All I could think of was please, don't let this be my first kiss.