Like always, Adeline had awoken long before all her fellow Gryffindors on the first day of classes. Much to the horror and disgust of her friends, she was truly a morning person, through and through. Loyal to this habit, she tugged on her uniform and treaded lightly on her feet as she made her way out of the dorms and down the long stone halls of the castle.
Breakfast hadn't even made its appearance by the time she had taken her usual place at the Gryffindor table. The Great Hall was as empty as it could possibly be. Not a single sound could be heard apart from the occasional turning page of her book and the mutterings of a passing prefect or teacher.
Professor McGonagall- also an early riser- greeted her passingly with a silent nod as she took her place at the long table at the front of the hall, a large stack of papers in her hands. Adeline lingered on the plausibility of asking for her schedule, but decided against this.
Though Adeline adored the beauty of the Great Hall at feasts, there was something about it- the way that the rising sun cast brilliant, bursting beams of orange light through the high windows- that set it apart from the nights. The edge of dawn. It was the line she loved to observe the most.
She thought perhaps that it had something to do with the fact that it never was beautiful due to an enchantment- it simply was stunning in its own natural dance of un-touchable fire.
As more early bird students drifted into the Hall, Adeline's thoughts meandered back to Marlene's letter. She wouldn't be able to avoid Betram for much longer, but she was convinced that she'd rather kiss a dementor than face him alone.
The prospect of a confrontation between herself and Betram made the girl sick. All night she had tossed and turned as she imagined what it might be like. A strange and exceedingly unwelcome sense of unknowing had invaded her life. How would the boy she loved explain away Marlene's story? Would he be open and honest? Would he admit it had happened at all?
Debating the possibilities, she had been lost in her thoughts for long enough to lose her sense of hearing. It was the sudden slam of a book hitting the table beside her that made her jump as if she'd just sat on a screaming cushion. She managed to hold back a yelp as the culprit exclaimed loudly, "I swear I'm going to murder the man who decided it would be a good idea to write this book."
Lily Evans and her unmistakable bright ginger hair slid into the seat beside her. The girl let out a groan as she slumped over the book and laid her head on her forearms. She let out a whine, "Addy please let me burn this book."
Adeline laughed as her heartbeat returned to a steady drum, and she shook her head, "Sorry Lily, but Madam Pince would kill me if I let you do that."
Lily snorted, "As if she'd ever kill her favourite student. I still can't believe you even managed to convince her to let me borrow this book over the holidays. What did you bribe her with?" She lifted her head to pinch her eyes suspiciously at her.
The blonde shrugged, "Half of my soul and a signed copy of 'He Flew Like a Madman' by Kennilworthy Whisp."
An appalled expression tugged at Lily's face. She spoke in a singular soprano note, "Do you mean to tell me that that woman likes Quidditch?"
Adeline could barely contain her own grin, "She'd never admit it to me, but I think she does- or she fancies the author but I doubt it."
Lily grimaced, shutting her eyes tight, "No don't say that-"
The shorter girl guffawed, "too late." She laughed loudly without any reservations- the hall echoed with the sounds of both girls' uncontrollable giggling.
As more students and teachers began to pool in through the entrance, taking seats at their respective houses, breakfast began to make its appearance. The laughter softened as the two gryffindors began piling their plates with various foods, and filling goblets with the nearest jugs of fruity beverages.
"So how was your holiday?" Lily asked, sticking a triangular slice of jam toast into her gob. Adeline's hand paused, her goblet halfway to her mouth as her friend spoke.
"Uh, oh-" Right as she had taken in a deep breath to answer the lady, she felt a pair of thin arms wrap around her neck and a chin laid on her shoulder. Marlene's familiar low voice groaned in her ear, as they rocked slightly side to side.
Lily laughed at Marlene's drowsy face, "Morning Marlene."
The tall auburn haired girl grumbled, the girl's pointy nose pushing into the side of her neck, "Mmstooearly."
Adeline snorted, "It's almost eight o' clock Marly."
Another much more awake voice drawled, "No, she's right. It's too early." From the other side of the table, a mocha skinned girl slumped into the seat across from Lily. She looked much more conscious than Marlene, but appeared disgruntled by it- as if it were an accident that she'd awoken and this had offended her.
"If you got up any later, you'd be late again- It's the first day of class," Evans began. The two girls let out loud groans over the top of her voice, whining about how they thought the second day ought to be the first day of class instead, so they could sleep in longer.
"We need our sleep- it's very important," Marlene spoke indignantly.
"You'd sleep better if you didn't stay up so late," Adeline chimed, slicing through a long piece of bacon on her plate.
"You mean go to bed at a reasonable time like you do?" Mary's voice was amplified as she spoke while raising her goblet to her mouth for a drink of orange juice.
"Yes, it's really that simple," She nodded.
Marlene finally released her hold on Adeline and slid into the next seat as she asked, "Do you still go jogging every morning Addy?"
The girl shook her head, "Not recently," she patted her tummy, "I've let myself go a bit actually since last Christmas."
Mary put her hand up, "Hold on a minute, jogging? Jogging in the morning?"
Adeline's cheeks puffed up as she held back a laugh whilst she chewed on a mixture of bacon and eggs. She shook her head as Marlene grumbled, "Yes our dear Addy is so responsible that she actually goes jogging in the morning."
Said girl swallowed her bite and looked both bemused and distraughtly at her, "I swear I don't anymore!" She wasn't actually ashamed of this, but pretended to be so for the sheer amusement of it all.
Marlene hissed at her dramatically, pointing her fork at her, "Liar."
Mary withdrew her hand and held herself away from Adeline, looking at her as if she had turned into a cornish pixie. "B-but- why? You're not even on the Quidditch team!"
The blonde girl raised her brows, "So? What's that got to do with anything?"
"It means you don't have an obligation to be up at ridiculous times in the morning for physical exercise."
"I enjoy physical exercise in the morning thank you," Adeline barked. Her cheeks hurt from grinning so much. How she had missed her friends over the holidays. All her problems seemed to just melt away when she was with them.
"Does snogging your boyfriend in the morning count as physical exercise?"
Lily and Mary both giggled, but from beside her she felt Marlene tense. The pain in her cheeks faded, and she licked her lips as her head seemed to grow lighter upon her shoulders.
At the lack of laughter from the pair, and the odd glances that they exchanged, both Lily and Mary seemed to silently pick up that not all was right at the table. They looked curiously around at each other- but right as Mary opened her mouth to speak, Lily looked up and greeted, "Morning Aubrey."
Both Adeline and Marlene jumped in their seats, swiveling to lay eyes on the bearer of the name. Her Gryffindor courage felt as if it had left her completely as she looked up into the cerulean gaze of her boyfriend.
She didn't speak- couldn't, as a lump had formed in her throat that prevented her from even greeting the boy. He looked somewhat ruffled that morning, his blonde hair askew and messy, unlike how neat he usually kept it. If it had been any other day, she might have blushed at how handsome he appeared with his blue eyes a shade darker than ordinary- still blinking away the lingering embrace of sleep.
Knowing that if she didn't do something, he'd likely take a seat beside them- she rose quickly out of her seat. She'd always been a small girl- her chin didn't even reach his shoulder. Beside her the boy smiled at her, stepping closer to brush shoulders as he greeted, "Sorry girls, didn't mean to scare you."
Marlene spoke quickly, her face flushing red as she avoided his gaze, "Ts'okay." She looked warily up at Adeline.
Betram politely asked how the girls' holidays had been, and while Lily and Mary responded in kind with the usual chipper answers, both Marlene and herself remained dubiously quiet. Adeline's friends had always liked Betram- much like her mother, they thought he was a handsome young gentleman and that he'd grow to be a fine man someday.
It wasn't uncommon for him to share a seat at the Gryffindor table with them, but he didn't always participate in the conversation, preferring to read a book or write his essays as he sat with them. They didn't mind- they held no expectations that he participate in idle discussion. It was simply nice that he would sit with them.
At the clear lack of responsiveness, there was an injection of awkward tension into the atmosphere. Betram didn't seem to notice this however and spotted the book beside her plate. Immediately he looked at her curiously and asked, "What are you reading at the moment?"
The girl looked down at it. She couldn't remember the title of the book, but desperate to say something she blurted, "A History of Hogwarts."
They all blinked at her, taken aback by her blatantly incorrect answer. The girls stared at her in confusion. Marlene looked like she wanted to crawl under the table.
Betram gazed down at the small book, and the blurb stared back up at him. He would know from the mere size of the book, that it certainly wasn't a Hogwarts history book. There was a slight pinch to his brow as he glanced between the book to his girlfriend's tense expression, "Are you okay Addy?"
The said girl had been growing paler by the second, and from the corner of her eye, she could see that Marlene had started to reach out to her. She hastily quipped, "I'm fine, just um- lots on my mind you know." She reached a hand over her shoulder, picking at her low ponytail nervously.
This seemed to only serve to increase the boy's concerns, and with a glance at the table he asked, "Could I speak with you alone for a moment Adeline?"
"No you may not," she immediately bit. Without meaning to, a trickle of hostility had leaked into her tone.
Stepping back slightly, the taller boy looked at each of them with worry in his eyes. The tension in the air had grown so thick that Adeline felt as if she were choking on it. "Is this about your mother's birthday? I'm sorry I couldn't come- I really did try but father wouldn't let me because some stupid relatives from France were staying with us."
Her stomach lurched, and she felt a sudden flush of anger, as she repeated, "France." She nodded as she spoke- her head felt heavier on the left side, and she forced herself to stop as she grew dizzy.
She looked meaningfully at Marlene, feeling the heat rising to her eyes. Without words, she almost conveyed her thoughts through pure expression- France.
Marlene stood and slipped her hands around Adeline's forearm. Lily and Mary rose as she did, both wearing expressions of deep concern and confusion at their friend's behaviour.
Interjecting, the auburn-haired girl fumbled over her words, "We just um- Addy's not feeling the best this morning."
Betram reached out to put a hand on her shoulder as he asked, "Do you need me to take you to the Hospital wing Addy?"
Adeline stumbled a bit on her robes as Marlene yanked her back by her arm. She looked at her as she spoke curtly, "No that's okay Aubrey, I think you should go." For a moment, she could see that glint in Marlene's eyes. They were darker- almost black. Her grip on Adeline's arm grew tight, and the girl had to stop herself from wincing. She realised she'd started holding her breath- waiting.
The Ravenclaw, thoroughly confused and concerned spluttered, "But-"
Marlene insisted, "We'll see you later." With her grip slightly loosened, she tugged Adeline back into their seats, and following her lead- the two kept their backs to the boy.
She could feel his stare on the back of her head- but at such a firm and final dismissal, he was left to awkwardly shuffle off toward the Ravenclaw table in a mess of confusion and worry. The blonde girl felt Lily's gaze boring holes into the side of her head, but she kept her eyes stuck to her plate.
Her face burned. There was something in her that felt so… so wrong. She wanted to get up; to run into his arms and kiss him with everything she had. To embrace him and listen to his heartbeat as she had so many times before. The anger she had felt moments before suddenly seemed so much less important than it was to just be with him.
She hadn't felt the tear run down her cheek until Marlene reached out and wiped it away with her thumb. Lily leant over and held a hand over her own, "Adeline what's going on?"
When she didn't respond, she looked to Marlene. The girl merely shook her head, "Not now Lily."
The Pevrette took a deep shaky breath and tried desperately to reign in her emotions as the Great Hall filled with hungry students. Without needing to convey it, Marlene directed the conversation elsewhere, and whilst she didn't participate, she listened intently- needing something to focus on other than her boyfriend.
Lily didn't remove her hand until she shook it off- grabbing her goblet to re-fill it with more juice. The early morning passed without any more fuss thankfully. They took their schedules and set off to the first class of the day- potions with Slughorn.
It had been a rather uneventful class, which suited her just fine. Right up until James Potter had decided to flick a dung bomb into Severus Snape's bubbling cough potion. Needless to say, there had been quite the commotion that followed.
The explosion had been quite exuberant, and the majority of the contents had landed directly upon Snape himself. Covered from head to toe in a mess of slimy blue goo that smelled like the excrement of a Crup, the Slytherin fumed silently as both of the boys laughed quite loudly from across the classroom.
His friends seemed content to laugh at him as well, and adding insult to injury when Slughorn turned around to see what the giggling was about, he seemed to assume that Snape had used the incorrect portions of aconite or daisies.
Though the boy appeared more humiliated than in pain, Slughorn escorted him up to the hospital wing. This wasn't before the boy could send a small jinx under his arm at Sirius, who had been laughing so hard he'd taken to holding his nose as he bent over to try and quell the urge.
At first, it hadn't appeared to have any effect at all, but Lily, Mary, Marlene and Adeline had seen the sneaky movement- witnessed the boy muttering under his breath- as none of them had found the joke very amusing. They were too occupied with the lingering tension of unanswered questions. This tension kept them from finding much of anything to be funny at all. Lily, in particular, was rather displeased by this display of immaturity from the boys- and continued to scowl across the classroom at Potter and Black.
Her glare eased a bit, as Snape's jinx finally materialised after a moment. Sirius's hair became long and took on a very unabashedly bright shade of magenta. Nonetheless, the girl let out a sigh and glanced over at Adeline who rolled her eyes and shrugged.
It was no secret that Lily had once been close companions with the Slytherin boy- but after a nasty fight the previous year, she had swiftly ended the friendship and had stopped attempting to end these ridiculous prank wars. This was about the time that the four girls had truly started to grow closer, and whilst Lily clearly missed her old friend on some occasions, Adeline liked to think that it had been a good thing to come from such a bad time in the girl's life.
The blonde girl jumped as something soft hit her head. She dropped the knife she'd been using, and it clattered to the floor, drawing a few eyes who glanced at her and then resumed their own potions after a moment.
The Gryffindor ran a hand through her hair and plucked a small piece of parchment from the tips of her ponytail. As Marlene picked her knife up from beside her, muttering about how she needed to be more careful, Adeline looked behind her for the person who'd thrown the ball of parchment.
She locked eyes with him for but a moment, and then swiftly turned- holding the paper under Marlene's nose as she spoke softly, "Can you read it?"
The brown-haired girl jerked back a bit, looked over her shoulder and scowled at Betram- who looked back at her in confusion. Marlene grumbled as she unwrapped the paper and read it quietly, crumbling it back up within a mere few seconds of looking at it.
"He's asking if you could stay after class to chat."
The girl nodded absently, "I figured."
Her friend spoke softly, "I can stay back if you want to talk to him."
As Marlene began stripping off leaves from a sprig of holly, she responded while watching the girl's hands work the small knife, "I don't know- I can't even think of what to say to him Marly."
Her potions partner stopped, looking at her with a reserved concern in her gaze as she spoke considerately, "Well, I suppose I could tell him what I saw if you want. You weren't there so really you're just going off my recount."
Adeline shook her head, "No- I'm not going to put you on the chopping block like that. I have to be the one to say it- I just don't know how… but," she sighed, looking down at her open potions book, "Maybe it's better to just start and not over-think it."
"That might be true- It's not like an exam you can prepare for."
She nodded, "And we've had fights before, just not about…"
"Right."
"Yeah," she turned the page, moving onto the next section as she stirred the potion clockwise three times. The pale green concoction began to shimmer slightly, and as Marlene fed it another holly berry, it bubbled softly.
"Do you think you'll break up?" Marlene whispered.
Adeline paused mid-stir, her face became a shade lighter. She swallowed, "I suppose that depends."
"If he lies?"
She didn't respond. She didn't really need to.
This chapter is edited to the bare minimum, so it might go through some minor changes in the next few days if I get the time. I wanted to post something because while I'm bogged down with due dates and assignments, I still try my best to fit in as much writing time as I can. This chapter was particularly difficult to write, but I'm excited for the next one.
I'm so happy the previous chapter received quite a few reviews! Thank you to everyone who commented, I appreciate you all.
Reviews:
Ghostwriter71 - Thank you so much for your kind words! You're right it is a bit sad for our dear Adeline, but what's life without ups and downs? I only very recently came upon the sub-genre of marauder stories, and I have deeply fallen in love with the concept of it. You're right though, James and Sirius were certainly both arrogant and bullies- for almost the entirety of their schooling. For the purpose of making my life as a writer a bit easier, they likely will be a bit more tolerable for story writing purposes, but I'll do my best to keep them in character and as true to how they were written in the books! Also whoops! That's me and my Aussieness slipping into the writing again! Sometimes I don't even realise I'm using slang when I write, so you'll more than likely find more of it in future chapters. It's challenging to be accurate when you've never been to the country you're writing about- but I promise to do my best! I hope you like this chapter too- thank you so much for your review. :D
PrincessMagic - Ahaha thank you kindly! I hope you enjoy this chapter too. :D
naimam380 - You'll have to read on if you wish to find out! I hope you enjoy this chapter, thank you so much for your kind words and interest. :D
CrackHeadBlonde - I'm so glad you like what is here so far! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well then. :D
lotttieifif - Why thank you! Hope you like the new chapter. :D
Thank you for reading this chapter, please leave a review if you have time or hit that favourite/follow button for updates on the latest chapters! See you in the next chapter. :)