Chapter 9: Winter Break [pt.1
As I moved in closer to her, I wrapped my arms around her and made a silent promise to myself never to let her go.
-9-
I ducked behind a tapestry as a red spell shot right past my ear. My back thudded against the cold, grey, stone wall and I let out a quick grunt of pain. The cold sent a shiver up my back, even though I was wearing my winter cloak and dragon skin gloves. I growled away the goose pimples and shot a full-body bind at my competitor from behind the frigid, red tapestry.
"You soddy wanker!" I shouted as the competitor knocked down the tapestry I had been crouching behind and charged at me. I ran out right as he was about to hit me, letting him crash into the cold stone. I rolled over and then crawled up to my feet and ran. I didn't stop until I hit the library. It seemed empty but I knew better.
I tiptoed, on edge, around the shelves of colorful and dense books. I heard a steady breathing coming from the aisle over and I held my wand out in front of me. I shook my hair out of my eyes and drew my cloak in closer so that it didn't make in noise, brushing against the dusty book shelves. I held my breath and went around the corner of the row, taking a brief pause before I looked around the bend. I saw-
Nothing. what the-
"Ahhh!" I heard someone shout at me as they jumped on my back. Dark brown hair fell in my eyes and I realized quickly that it wasn't mine. I moved my hand back and covered Lora's mouth quickly.
"Lor, it's just me!" I whispered quickly and she jumped off of my back quickly. I noticed that she was blushing as she whispered, "Sorry, I thought you were one of them."
I put my finger to her lips and made a mental note of how soft they were. I licked my lips greedily and grabbed her gentle hand. I quickly pulled her down underneath one of the many library tables. I crawled on top of her and locked my legs around her waist. I set my hand firmly over her open mouth. I leaned down next to her ear and tried to resist the urge to nuzzle against her warm and sweet smelling neck. I breathed in her scent and then whispered three little words in her ear…
"I hear them."
I heard foot steps fall gently against the plush carpeting in the icy library. I looked down at my divine Lora and a slow smile formed on her face. I returned the smile and lowered my head so that our noses were touching. If I had gone any farther in our lips would touch but I resisted the urge to do that.
"On the count of three…" I whispered softly.
"One…"
"Two…"
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" a deep voice shouted at us. I saw Lora's arms and legs stiffen up as I rolled off of her. I grabbed her, hoisted her up on my shoulder and ran.
"Expelliarmus!" I shouted and I heard someone grunt as their wand came flying into my hand. I laughed loudly and threw the wand in the hallway and then ran down the opposite corridor. I set Lor up against the wall and giggled as I muttered the counter curse. She shook her arms around and then grabbed my hand.
We went running down the hallway at full speed until I felt a sharp spell shoot into my back. I recognized it as a full-body bind curse, much like the one I just rescued Lora from. I moaned in frustration and immediately racked my brain for an idea. I grunted in pain as I hit the hard, cold ground with all my force.
I sighed deeply as I saw Lora getting shot in the back and watched as she tumbled to the floor in a full-body bind for the second time in less than an hour.
What to do, what to do?
"You bloody wanker! You'll pay for this!" I shouted at the person who had shot the spell at me. I listened as the click-clack of their steps came my way.
"Oh, really? And how will I pay for this, Mr. Black?" an annoyed voice asked me. McGonagall muttered the counter curse, gripped my shoulder and pulled me to my feet. She didn't let go as she walked me over to Lora and did the same to her.
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Lupin are already in my classroom. Why don't we go join them?" she asked as she marched us off down the corridor to her office. We entered the classroom and sat down at a desk in the front row. The four of us exchanged smirks as McGonagall sat down at her desk.
"This is not something to smirk at. I have told you all countless times not to play 'War' in this school. Just because you are the only ones here for Winter break and it is your last year, doesn't mean that you can run around this school, breaking into classrooms, shooting dangerous spells at each other! Why can't you all just act like normal children?"
We burst out into laughter at this last bit.
"Professor, we're bored! We're normally at James' house this time of year but they had to go visit James' grandmother and not all of us could go so the only other option was to stay here and there's nothing to do!" I moaned. McGonagall rolled her eyes and dismissed us. We made our way back to the common room, huddling together to keep warm.
"Oh, Remy, hold on tighter!" James shouted at Remus. We all laughed loudly as Remus shoved James away and then made his way to Lora to take some of her body heat. My heart gave a little jump as I saw him cling onto her arm and I suddenly felt the need to jump at him and just pound his face in with my fist. I shook away these feelings and raced James to the common room. I won.
We entered the common room, ran up to the boy's common room, grabbed the sheets and blankets and then raced back downstairs. We gathered in a circle and crawled underneath the blankets. Remus poked the fire until it was to our liking and soon enough, the whole common room was warm and homey.
"Oh man, did you see McGonagall's face when she caught us?" James laughed as we threw pillows at each other.
"Ah, today was so much fun! We should play war more often!" Remus said, throwing a gold pillow at Lor's head.
"Yep, Siri is such a good little spy!" she said, bashing the soft pillow into my head.
"Just call me Black, Sirius Black."
We laughed the rest of the evening. Along with having a full-on pillow war (James and I won), we built a fort out of the blankets, sang at the top of our lungs and tried to build a human pyramid. The latter wasn't the best idea. We ended up breaking the coffee table.
James then suggested that he and I go down to visit the house elves and get some snacks. When we departed the common room, leaving Remus and Lora in there, I noticed that it had grown dark while we were joking around. I guessed that it was around ten 'o'clock, meaning that we weren't supposed to be out. But that only made it more exciting.
We raced down the hallway, tickled the pear and entered the warm kitchen. Dozens of house elves were running around, cooking food but when they saw us, they stopped in their tracks.
"Master Potter! Master Black!"
"Let me get you some smores!"
"Hold on while I fetch cupcakes!"
"Would you like some cookies?"
I watched with joy as the house elves ran around, preparing sweets and cakes for us. They filled trays with delicious foods and brought it over to us. We stacked the trays, trying not to let any of the food fall in the process, and clambered out of the kitchen, repeating 'thank yous' on the way out.
While walking down the corridors, trying not to make any noise, we started talking about what we got people for Christmas.
"What'd you get Remus?" James asked me curiously.
"Some book about werewolves. I saw him looking at it on our last trip to Hogsmeade," I said, balancing the tray carefully, "you?"
"A big basket of chocolate. You know he's addicted to that stuff."
"What'd you get Lor?" I asked while looking down corridors incase professors were coming.
"That new Jumping Mermaids album. You?"
"You'll see," I said with a coy smile. I know that my present will easily beat out all of theirs.
"So are you going to tell her that you like her?" James asked, greedy for answers.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, trying to push the question away.
"Puh-lease, Padfoot! It's so obvious that you like her! The only one that can't see is Lor!" James practically shouted at me, causing him to lose a few muffins on the top but we left them on the corridor floor and kept on walking.
"Whatever," I said as I told the Fat Lady the password and she swung open.
"We come bearing food!" I shouted as we entered the warm common room once again.
"Yay!" Lora yelled as she raced over and grabbed a handful of brownies from my tall pile of food.
The rest of the night, we just sat down around the fire, ate our snacks and gossiped. Lor told me all about how crazy the rest of the girls in the school were (beside's Lily and Addie).
A little less than an hour later, James, Remus and Lora had fallen asleep amongst the toasty sheets and blankets. I laid down next to Lor and gently set my arm around her waist. I nuzzled my head against her neck and let her soft snoring lull me to sleep.