Sooo... I swore to myself I'd never be an author that would beg for reviews, or threaten to withhold a chapter until I got a certain amount of reviews, and that's not what I'm trying to do now! I'm just mentioning to the people that just read this fic, that if I'm putting in my time and energy to write this, and you're putting in your time and energy to read it, maybe you could put in a little extra time and energy to review? Even a smiley face would make me happy. One word? Just throwing it out there. I'll try to post again next week, but I don't want to make any promises I can't promise I'll be able to keep. I just got a new golden-doodle puppy, and he's taking up quite a bit of my time. But he's adorable, so he's totally worth it.
Sleep is the best meditation.
~Dalai Lama~
Chapter 3
I rode to the castle in silence, Lupin and Sirius joking the entire time at Peter's expense. He really didn't seem to mind, even laughing with them. He seemed to just enjoyed the fact that he was "friends" with them. Peter's relationship with them was difficult for me to piece together. I couldn't tell James, Sirius and Lupin actually liked him and were constantly just joking around, or if they didn't like him and he hadn't realized it yet. I thought the first was the most probable. They usually made it perfectly obvious when they didn't like someone. But if the second thing were the case, then eventually he would probably turn on them, like a rabid dog.
I sat in the carriage, trying not to think. My head hurt and I was completely drained. I hadn't done anything more physically stressful than finish packing, catching my energetic cat, and dragging my trunks and said cat who didn't like to travel, through Kings Cross Station, but emotionally it had been a tough day. I tried to think what would be for diner, and figure out how long it would take for the sorting, the ravenous boys to finish eating and Dumbledore to give his annual speech, before I could curl up in my dorm bed and hide from the world until I had to start classes the next morning.
We reached the castle a little after the other carriages and a little before the first years. I hurried out of the carriage, giving a little wave with out a look behind me to the boys, and caught up to Lily and James. Everyone was generally milling about outside the Great Hall, waiting for the doors to open so we could head in. Slipping through the crowd, I said hello to familiar faces, but didn't stay to chat with anyone. Maybe a bit rude, but I knew that's what we'd do for the next week, and I saw no reason to get a head start. I just wanted to sleep.
"Hey Addy!" Lily forced out rather cheerfully as I came up to her and James. They had been standing in silence, neither looking at the other, but at the floor in between their feet. Lily was playing with her rings, her trademark gesture of nerves. James was dragging a hand through his hair- Lily had always complained about that habit of his- but it now clearly was an unconscious action, much like her playing with her rings. Maybe if I were in a better mood myself I would have made some cryptic comment about it, causing James to look puzzled and Lily to laugh hysterically at his expression, but I couldn't. Lily seemed very glad to see me, but I wasn't sure why. He obviously hadn't done anything, otherwise she'd be yelling or glaring at him. I was too tired to expend the mental energy to figure it out. I would soon, but for then I just pretended I didn't notice any tension.
"Hi guys. What's up? Was your carriage that much better than everyone else's you're still in awe over its beauty?" Not something I would necessarily say, but I couldn't claim to be at the top of my game.
"Err- Yeah! It was really nice!" James went into a quick rant, describing every detail of the carriage to me, from the lint on the floor to the cushions which were the exact same shade of maroon as his Quiditch robes, and I ignored him to focus on Lily's face. It was rather red, not in rage, but embarrassment? I couldn't be sure. I looked at James. His face was slightly pink as well, but it couldn't be embarrassment. Rage didn't make sense either. I couldn't figure it out.
The double doors to the Great Hall thankfully opened, sweeping slowly outwards pushing people back and other through the now open doorway.
"What's your hurry?" Sirius asked, breathless, as he caught up, and walked beside me into the Great Hall. I hoped he wasn't talking to me, but James was still discussing the color of those fascinating cushions, so he must have been. I didn't think I had rushed through the crowd, but by Sirius's out of breath breathing, I plainly had been going much faster than I assumed. I was fortunately saved from answering when Lupin and Peter caught up as well.
"We'll- ah- see you later!" James said when we walked through the doorway. The four of them dropped behind us and started mumbling, causing Lily to once again blush.
"Nothing!" I heard James shout, causing most of the Hall to turn and look at him. He blushed. James Potter actually blushed. I was shocked. I think everyone else was too. James Potter? Blush? Used in the same sentence? Shocking.
Lily hurried me to a seat, one as far away from the boys as she could find. I slid in beside her, near the head of the table. Sitting across from us was Alice Ketteridge and Frank Longbottom. They were best friends, they said. And had no romantic interest in each other, they said. They didn't care who the other dated, they said. There was no chance of them ever being together, they said. Which totally explained why they inexplicably hated whom ever the other went out with, and why their other relationships never seemed to last longer than a few months.
The Great Hall was a mass of black robes. The walls were covered in banner of green and silver, yellow and black, blue and bronze, and my own scarlet and gold. The four long tables held the students, and the head table on the rise sat the professors. The ceiling tonight was clear, offering a look at the waning moon and million stars. The cream taper candles were lit and floated above our heads, setting the mood for the terrified first years waiting outside the now closed, heavy oak doors.
After sorting, our house gained a few names. Alice's younger cousins was one of the first years sorted into Gryffindor andAlice made us all wave encouragingly to her. The first years all looked so small, and helpless; terrified even. I couldn't imagine ever looking like that but I knew that I had only six years previous. Lily immediately began making friends and introducing herself to all the first years sitting near us. They flocked to her like they were moths, and she was the only speck of light in a dark and lonely tomb.
Lily shocked me by pointing to James farther down the table and introduced him as the Head Boy, and waved him over. He proceeded to shocked me even more by coming over and making a brief appearance and said hello to them, and didn't even scare one. James and Lily introduced the first years to all the prefects, and seemed like they had a handle on working well together.
I picked at my dinner, not really interested in anything there was to offer. I couldn't even bring myself to show interest in desert when it was brought around. Lily normally would have bugged me with a mixture of bossing and cajoling until I ate something, but being so occupied with her first years she didn't notice my food being pushed around, not eaten.
"Hello Miss Addy Darcey." Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington said quite seriously as he rose up through the table, causing a few first years to shriek in alarm. Less formally known as Nearly Headless Nick, due to a beheading gone wrong, or Nick to those he counted as friends.
"Hello Nick!" I said, happy for a distraction. "How was your summer? Lonely?" I asked every year to be polite.
"Dreadfully, dreadfully. You would be surprised, but somewhere in the middle of August I start to miss some of you yelping whelps. It surprises me every time."
I laughed. "Missed you too Nick!" He was a sweetheart. Like a grandfather you loved, only one you weren't able to give decent hugs to, unless you minded hugging only air and a shiver afterwards.
"How was your summer Miss Addy?" He asked that every year too. We had been close since third year when he found me sobbing in an empty classroom. He showed me the Room of Requirement and we spent hours in there morbidly discussing death and less morbidly discussing life.
"It was okay. Mum was working the entire time, so I just hung out by myself at home or at Diagon Alley… nothing too special." My summers never were. Mum worked at the Ministry, doing who knows what, leaving me to my own devices the entire summer. Our conversation drifted to what I planned on doing this year, my courses and such, until Professor Dumbledore finally announced the feast over everyone left, tired and wanting their beds. I couldn't wait until I could curl up and sleep, nut I loved talking with Nick.
I saw the Gryffindor prefects leading the first years away and Lily hurrying after James to talk to McGonagall, leaving Nick to float and I to walk, the long way, very slowly to the seventh floor, where Nick left me to join his "fellow breath lacking brethrens in a formal meeting to discuss and decide what was to be done with Peeves this year."
I walked the hallway to the end, where The Fat Lady in her startling pink dress sat, surrounded by her gold-guild frame. I stared in shock at her for a minute, wanting to pound my forehead against something very hard, like my old History of Magic textbook. I was so used to Lily finding out the password and then us walking up to the dorm together, I had completely forgotten to ask someone what the password was.
"Any way I could get in without a password, this one time?" I asked The Fat Lady, with very little hope. She never let anyone in without the password, even when she had known them for years. Usually I'd call that safe, but now it was just annoying. I could feel myself swaying on my feet, and almost feel my crisp sheets and soft pillow calling to me.
"Certainly not! I cannot be seen making any exception, I'll have you know!" She replied, putting her nose up in the air.
"Not even worth the shot." I had to berate myself, for being so reliant on Lily and forgetful, and sat back against the wall, preparing for a very long, uncomfortable night.
"Is that really the best place you could find to spend your night?" A light, cheerful voice asked from above me. Even half asleep I knew that voice. Great. Just who I wanted to see as I wake up from sleeping out in the hallway. Without opening my eyes, I turned my neck, trying to get the cricks out of it. It cracked, rather loudly, and if I were fully awake I knew I would have been dieing with embarrassment.
"It was the only place at the time." I said, disgruntled. Finally opening my eyes, I looked up to see Sirius leaning against the wall beside me. I looked way up, him being so tall. He was always leaning against something, looking so completely relaxed and at ease with his surroundings. I envied his laid back attitude most of the time, but fully enjoyed the view the rest of the time.
He was looking down at me, confused. His face was adorable. I had to still be half asleep if I could willingly ogle him like that and not scold myself about it. Whatever. I could only enjoy it while it lasted!
"Why were you sleeping out here?" He still looked adorably confused. I had to rein myself in before my tired brain said something that would certainly embarrass me when I woke up the next morning.
"No password." I said, trying to keep things simple.
"Oh." He seemed to think that was too logical of an answer, and waited for me to go on.
"That's it. I didn't know the password, and after Nick and I finished our walk I got back here and everyone was already inside. I forgot to ask Lily what the password was earlier, so I just fell asleep out here."
"Nick?" He asked rather dangerously, focusing on a detail, that was rather minuscule to my sleepy brain. As tired and uncomfortable as I was, I snapped.
"Yes. Nick. Now can you tell me the password so I can go to bed? I'm tired and my neck hurts and I want to sleep in a bed." I paused, waiting for him to say something. He didn't, so I continued. "And if you don't want to let me in would you please just go away so I can try to sleep out here, as uncomfortable as it is?"
"Aquarius ulta." He said after a minute, and walked into the common room leaving me on the floor outside.
"He seems rather displeased." The Fat Lady's knowing tone made me more frustrated than I already was. I didn't know anything, so how did she think to presume that she knew something?
"He was thinking about something else." I brushed off, as an excuse. He was obviously displeased about something, but I had no idea what. He wouldn't be mad that I growled at him, those things didn't bother him. It had to be something else.
"What ever you say dear." She said with a smile as though she knew where my thoughts were. "Password?"
"Aquarius ulta."
"Of course." She said as she swung aside to reveal the common room. "Have a good night my dear!" She laughed, as I steeped over the threshhold. I was home. The fire crackled cheerfully in the fireplace, casting its warm golden tones around the room. The scarlet and mahogany armchairs and couches, already in a jumble, made the room look happy and lived in.
I looked around for Sirius, hoping to find him and apologize. Maybe not apologize, but say that I didn't mean to be grouchy. And then ask him what he was doing out so late. I didn't see him in any of the seats or leaning against the wall, hidden in shadow, so I knew he went straight up to his dorm. Obviously he didn't want my apology, and if he was going to be difficult I wasn't going to go out of my way to give him one.
I walked up to the dorm, this year with one less student. Lily had her own dorm now, I didn't know where, but I'd find it soon enough. That left Alice, Greer Kirkpe, Dalia Webber, Ashby Suzza, Turquoise Maile, Scout Hemmingworth, and myself in our seventh year dorm. We got along fairly well. We had been sharing the dorm since first year so we all knew each others' habits and we got along much better than other dorms. Not all of us were as close as Lily and I were, but everyone was nice enough and I counted them all as friends. We had all laughed about the horror stories of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin dorms, and were all extremely grateful for each other.
They had all picked beds, leaving me with two choices; one by the door or one by the window. I immediately went to the one by the window. My trunks were already surrounding the bed, showing how well they or the house elves knew me. Not bothering to unpack, I didn't want to wake everyone one up and I was too tired to even try to be quiet, I just grabbed my nightgown and my bathroom kit, and went to the bathroom to get ready.
Coming back, I found Artemis had already discovered my bed. Artemis was my seven year old, lovely calico. She was a sweetheart, but temperamental, and I loved her completely. We were perfectly alike in attitude; slightly shy, but generally sweet-tempered, possessing a wicked temper, but unleashing it very infrequently. I saw her when I first went school shopping all those years ago, and I just knew she was going to be mine, and she had been my baby since. Moving her off my pillow, I laid down and let my exhaustion take over.
Well... What do you think? Artemis is a figment of my imagination, but her temperament is somewhat based off my old cat Simone.
