"Can I help you?" Harmony Sea asked half angrily and half humorously as she whipped around in her seat to face Sirius Black. He was grinning like the Cheshire Cat and had one finger still poised as if he was going to poke her back again.
For the past hour of their last class of the week, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Sirius had been relentlessly trying to get Harmony's attention by jabbing his finger into her spine repeatedly.
"No, no." Sirius raised his hands and Harmony turned back to the front of the class.
He wanted nothing for about fifteen seconds until Harmony felt a sharp poke in the centre of her back again.
She turned slowly around to him with a sickly sweet smile on her face. "What do you want? Because I will hex your sorry arse into next week, Sirius Black. Expulsion doesn't scare me."
Sirius looked at her face for a moment, then he grinned, not taking this threat seriously. "You have bumps on your spine."
"Shocking! Wait, I've heard that everyone has bumps on their spinal cords, Black!" Harmony said sarcastically.
"Oh. So, Harms, what's up?" Sirius asked casually, leaning back on his chair, arms behind his head.
"If you poked my back for the last hour because you wanted to ask 'what's up' then I will personally remove your manhood." Harmony hissed.
"It's true, she'll do it. Ask Parker Thomas, that bloke that graduated two years ago? Yeah, he grabbed her arse in the halls once. It was a terrifying experience - even for me. And I had all my parts attached." James piped up from beside Sirius.
Sirius actually looked scared for a moment. "Okay, okay, no need for that. I just wanted to know if you could help me with the more complicated non-verbal spells? Like in Transfiguration? Remus refuses to help me because apparently I 'continuously abuse his knowledge' and I'm too scared to ask Lily because, well, she's a bit scary."
"I have ears, Black." Lily called from the row in front of Harmony's desk, not even glancing up from her paper.
"I'm sorry, how many people are listening in on this conversation?" Harmony asked, annoyed.
Peter, Remus, James, Lily, Liven, Becca and Alice all raised their hands.
"Glad we had that respecting privacy talk, guys." Harmony commented sarcastically.
Sirius snorted. "So is that a yes? Can you help me?"
Harmony turned back to Sirius and said, "Fine. No funny business. Eight sharp, tonight, library."
"Yes! Thanks, Sea. You're the best." Sirius smiled, but it faltered. "Wait, tonight, eight?" he glanced at James.
James just nodded and glanced at the Slytherins.
"Uh, can we make that nine?" Sirius asked, suppressing a grin.
"No." Harmony said quickly. But then she added on, "Unless you have a valid reason why you can't make eight."
Sirius looked at Remus, pleading with his eyes for Remus to make an excuse to Harmony. Remus just smirked and shook his head slightly.
"Well. You'll know soon. I can promise you that you'll laugh." Sirius added on hopefully.
"Uh huh. Now it's eight tonight or you get even more detention from McGonagall." Harmony smiled sweetly.
"Fine, we'll have to reschedule this, mates." Sirius told his friends, who all glared at him.
Sirius sighed. "Or...just do it without me. I want some credit though!"
Remus, James and Peter grinned. "We'll tell you all about it." Peter said.
Lily chose that point to rejoin the conversation, "Tell him about what? What are you planning?" she snapped at James really quickly.
"N-nothing, Lils." His reddening cheeks gave him away.
"If you break any rules, James Potter, my punishment will be worse than McGonagall's. And Remus!" Lily screeched, turning on the werewolf. "You're a prefect! You can't go around breaking rules after curfew on the first Friday night back at school, at that!"
Remus kept his calm, surprisingly. "We aren't breaking a single rule, Lily."
As she turned around with one last glare in James' direction. But Sirius added under his breath, "Technically. It's not clearly stated that they can't, so they're good."
Harmony snorted, and Sirius winked. But right as Lily turned around to tell them off about snorting or something like that, their DADA teacher turned around.
"Is there a problem back here? Does someone need help with a question in your book?" Professor Hinkly asked, oblivious to their actual conversation.
"Oh no, Professor H. Just swell." Sirius flashed her a winning smile which made the old teacher blush from her grey hair to her wrinkly toes.
"That's-that's good." She turned away before she could make a fool of herself even more.
Sirius just winked at Harmony as she shook with silent laughter, earning them another glare from Lily.
At 7:50, Harmony left the comfort of her dorm bed and all her mates who were giggling away about something or another to go tutor Sirius.
As she grabbed her Transfiguration book and left the dorm, Liven called out, "Use protection!"
Harmony sent her a rude hand gesture as she walked down the stairs, listening to the loud laughter from the sixth-year girls' dorm.
As she made her way down to the library, Harmony pondered about how much time she had been spending with the marauders. It was odd, she mused, that those boys could grow on her so quickly.
Not anything significant, but just hanging out with them in the common room, even going down to the library with Remus and James a couple times.
She was beginning to piece together bits and pieces of them, what they are actually like - not the rumours created and egged on by the group of boys.
It was like a hard puzzle that people said they have done thousands of times, but really they only remember which pieces are the corners.
Harmony rounded a corner as she thought about this odd relationship she had with Sirius all of the sudden. It was almost totally non-existent until just the past week, when he sat down next to her at the start of term feast. Then suddenly, she found herself and Sirius talking and laughing as the rest of the group walked up ahead while going to Charms, or Sirius smiling at her when the teacher paired them up for Potions on Wednesday. Even today, when he asked her to help him with nonverbal spells, because truthfully, he was terrible at them. But he could have asked anyone. Why her? She wasn't special.
Harmony's thoughts stopped as she reached the library at last. She searched quickly for an empty table, which wasn't that hard considering it was a Friday night. She was shocked, however, to find Sirius already waiting for her at a table near the back.
As she made her way over there, she checked the clock on the wall above the librarian's desk. The hands read 7:59.
"I thought you were going to be late, Sea!" Sirius cried dramatically as Harmony dropped her textbook onto the table with a slam.
She pulled out a chair and sat down. "Me? Late? Never."
"That's funny," Sirius placed his hand in a V shape under his chin, pretending to think. "I recall Lily yelling at you the other day, I quote, 'You'll be late for your own funeral, you will!'" Sirius said the last part in a high-pitched voice, like that was what Lily's voice sounded like.
It was way scarier than that. He should've known, with James around all the time.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. No need to remind me."
"Well, I'm glad you came when you did. Another minute and Madam Pince might have eaten me. She's not used to seeing me anywhere near this place, I mean. Last time I was here I accidentally set the table on fire."
Sure enough, that old bat was eying Sirius like she wanted to rip him to shreds right there.
"Are you sure it was accidental?" Harmony smirked.
Sirius cracked a grin as he said, "Nah, you're right. It wasn't." But he added on, "It was so worth the three weeks of detention. The look on her face! Priceless." He pretended to wipe a tear of laughter from his eye.
"Oh, I'm sure it was." Harmony laughed. Sirius just grinned at her.
"Okay, so I thought we'd read about the theory of nonverbal spells first." Harmony said, serious this time.
"Ah, hence the textbook." Sirius looked less than pleased.
"Oh, it just a book. They don't bite."
"The ones in the Restricted Section do." Sirius looked resentfully at the textbook.
"Grow a pair, Black. Are you scared of a book?" Harmony smirked and poked Sirius in the chest.
"I already grew a pair, thank you very much. Any girl would kill to see them. They're beautiful." Sirius straightened up proudly.
"Ew, Black. I didn't need to know that." Harmony's face squished into a mask of disgust.
"Oh, that's not what she said."
He dodged the smack from Harmony as she said, "Aren't you a little man whore this evening?"
"What can I say? Who can resist this?" Sirius gestured to his chest.
"I'm not going to answer that, I don't want brain on me when your big head pops." Harmony smirked. "Now, lets get going on these nonverbal spells. Page twenty-four, if you please."
"It's my pleasure." Sirius grumbled as he flipped pages in Harmony's textbook.
Two hours, many cuss words, dirty looks and flying textbooks later, that old bat that called herself a librarian stomped over to Harmony and Sirius' table and declared that they were 'unreasonably loud', 'disrupting the quiet of the library', and 'disrespecting the studies of the students around them, herself, and the books'.
There were no regrets when they finally left the pressing environment of the library.
"You don't seem fazed. Been kicked out of the library a lot?" Harmony shot a grin at Sirius as they walked down the dark, silent corridors.
"Too many times to count, honestly." Sirius laughed quietly.
They stayed in a comfortable silence for a couple moments, until Harmony stopped walking and pulled Sirius' hand close to her face, examining his watch.
She stood looking at it for a couple seconds, squinting into the dark. "Use the light from the window." Sirius suggested.
"Good plan." She dragged him over to the huge window closest to them. Moonlight lit up their faces as Harmony looked at the watch again. Her lips formed the words 'ten-oh-five', then, 'shit'.
"We're five minutes over curfew!" Harmony exclaimed. "Let's go!" She gave Sirius a little tug by the hand before she dropped it.
"Calm down, it's five minutes." Sirius said, rolling his eyes.
"I know, but Lily's on patrol tonight!" Harmony told him frantically as she whipped her head back and forth at the corner, checking to see if the halls were empty.
Sirius understood now. Lily would eat them alive if she found them. She's a scary being - especially at the beginning of a new school year.
Sirius lunged forward and grabbed Harmony's hand, leading her in the other direction.
"What are you-" Harmony started, trying to pull her hand away.
Sirius just tightened his grip and said, "Shh. Being a marauder means that you know your secret passageways."
Harmony stopped resisting Sirius' pulling and went along with him, ears sharp for any sign of Lily's voice. Or anyone's voice, really.
Sirius drew a tapestry aside and gently pulled Harmony through, never dropping her hand.
As they stepped out of the passage, they heard angry voices and the thumping of running footsteps. Harmony turned on Sirius, eyes wide.
Before they could do anything else though, an arm was around Harmony's waist and she was yanked sideways into a broom closet, her hand no longer linked with Sirius'.
She blinked into the darkness, not quite processing what was happening.
An arm was still tight around her waist, a hand resting on her lower back, and she had her nose buried in someone's cologne-smelling t-shirt.
"Wha-?" She questioned before she looked up into the grinning face of James Potter. He put a finger to his lips, signalling her to shush.
She turned slightly to see who's hips were pressed into her back. It was Remus. He just grinned, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
Then it hit her.
They talked about doing something in class today, a prank probably. Sirius couldn't make it because he was studying with Harmony.
"Lock the door, Pete. I don't think any of us can reach our wands or the door." Harmony assumed it was Sirius, whispered.
Angry voices were hissing just outside the tight closet.
Harmony's hip was beside the door handle, so when Peter reached to lock it, he somehow messed up the spell, causing water to come out of his wand and splash on the pocket of her jeans. There was silence and then:
BANG.
BANG! BANG!
Suddenly the dark cupboard was filled with bursts of colour and light, shapes and neon lights wizzing around their heads.
WOSH! WEE! BANG!
"Shit! RUN!" James yelped and he kicked the door open and ran down the corridor, the others hot on his heels. Harmony glimpsed a pink-haired burly Slytherin before she bolted after James.
They ran solid for a good two minutes, laughing so hard that they kept falling up the stairs. There were still yelling voices and heavy footfalls behind them, surely attracting every prefect and teacher patrolling the school. The group reached the Gryffindor common room at last.
Sirius screamed the password at the Fat Lady and she swung forward, lecturing them about curfew, loud voices, all that crap.
When they got inside the nearly deserted common room, all five of them kneeled down with laughter and panted until their lungs could hold no more air.
"You-you had fireworks in your pockets?" Sirius burst out laughing, causing everyone to lose it again.
"Any other time, but it had to be when we were crammed in a broom cupboard hiding from Slytherins!" Remus laughed.
They literally crawled over to the couches near the fire and collapsed into them.
"Why the hell were you carrying no-heat wet-start fireworks in your pockets, Harmony?" James asked, grinning from ear to ear.
Harmony shrugged, "I don't feel right without something like that with me at all times. Tonight just happened to be fireworks, unfortunately." She grinned, standing up and emptying her pockets.
She took out eight matches, the remains of a couple fireworks, a muggle lighter and a bag of gunpowder she grabbed from under her shirt. The marauders just gaped open-mouthed at her.
"You, Harmony Sea, are a Gryffindor." Sirius said, breaking the silence. Everyone started laughing again.
She rolled her eyes. "Why thank you, Mr Black. But I don't think that'll save you now. Those Slytherins are going to beat the living shit out of you. And possibly me, but probably only you guys."
"True that, couldn't have said it better myself." Peter mumbled, looking into the fire.
"We'll deal with that tomorrow. New day." James said casually, as if getting the living shit beat out of him was a regular thing.
"But that was the best thing that's happened to me in a while. Oh man, the luck we have. Five sixteen-year-olds jammed in a cupboard while a couple of burly Slytherins are out to get us. Then what happens? The pyromaniac has fireworks in her pockets which explode in the closet. Nice!" Sirius laughed, and pretty soon everyone was rolling on the floor again.
Alice came down a little while later. "What the hell? Harmony?" She asked through tired eyes.
The group stood up slowly, letting out the odd chuckle. Harmony gathered her stuff off the couch from earlier and stored the gun powder in her shirt, grinning and winking at Sirius as he raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I'm off to bed, kids. Goodnight." she saluted them, still grinning like a maniac, and then following Alice up the stairs to the dorm rooms.
It was really nice to feel included with the exclusive group of marauders for once - bizarre and completely unexpected, but nice. Oh, this year is going to be interesting, Harmony thought, eyes glinting with mischief in the dark.
A/N I hope you enjoyed reading this and the chapters will keep getting longer!