I'm so very sorry for the long wait! My semester began again and let's just say my professors don't intend to make this an easy one. Also, I'm knee-deep in planning for my semester abroad this fall, so most hobbies are put on hold for now. However, I decided to put some time in today to finish this chapter at least. Have fun!
When the bell finally rings and ends the lesson, everyone brings their phials to professor Slughorn's desk, I catch a breath and pack my bag. And since I'm in desperate need of a battle plan I hurry out of the classroom. I don't intend to lose this bet, no matter the chances!
"Wow!" Chester, who had been propped against the wall, looks suprised and musters me with a frown on his face.
"What kind of a flobberworm crawled up your behind?"
"The usual suspect." I answer him in a toneless voice and grab my friend's arm to drag him into one of the side corridors that lead towards the Great Hall. I have to take a walk through Mother Nature right now. I'm sure that will help me think and Chester will most likely be happy as well, what with the opportunity to throw some leaves around.
"What happened? Was Bello mean to you? Do I have to suss her out?" He starts to roll up his sleeves. I laugh a little. His creation 'Bello', which is obviously derived from Farabella, never fails to amuse me.
"I don't think that would do me any good. I wasn't able to keep my mouth shut again." I admit and furrow my brows in frustration. Chester looks at me curiously.
"Really? Don't tell me you dropped blasphemous remarks about Sirius Black?"
My shoulders slouch deeper. "It started with that but I proposed a bet: She has to convince the older Blacky-Sweetie to go to Hogsmeade with her and I … well, I have to do the same with his most likely dearest brother."
Chester falls back but catches up to me quickly. His eyes are big and round. "Are you serious?"
"Sadly, yes. And the stakes are just terrible and inhuman."
"You would have to blow Snape's nose?" He scratches his forehead thoughtfully. "That would take aeons of time and would be utterly disgusting."
"That's not it." I disagree coldly and lower my voice because a group of Gryffindors are coming our way.
"I'd have to announce my undying love for S. B. Publicly." Just to be saved I had opted for his initials, with my luck these Gryffindors had Regulus' hearing.
"That you love Sirius Black?" Yells Chester which renders my efforts useless. The lions are passing us now and stare at me with disgust.
"Not everyone needs to know that!" I snap at him and hit his shoulder. He giggles a little.
"I'd say you're in deep trouble, darling."
"You said it. I mean, if I were to confess my alleged love to Sirius I would tear my self-respect apart. I would never be able to look into the mirror again."
"No matter, you don't do that often anyway."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask him with an edge to my voice. Chester laughs again – he has a terrible sense of humour.
"Well, statistically speaking you look at yourself in a mirror only four and a half times a day. You would be able to stand that, right?"
I furrow my brows while we are approaching the entrance hall. "How can you look into the mirror not once but … just half?"
"I guess you could do that if you were Frankestein's monster. You could just take off half of your face at a whim." He shrugs.
"Oookay. Seems plausible. But since I'm not going to lose the bet, I doubt S. B. is going to be an issue. I just have to convince Regulus to go to Hogsmeade with me. But how?"
"I look at my companion but he doesn't look like he's thinking about anything at all. I sigh irritatedly. I always have to drag everything out of him.
"Ches, that wasn't a rhetorical question. Say something!"
"Plumpudding."
"Something within context!" He giggles like a child that just did something forbidden and I have the sudden urge to smack him against the wall with a well placed Levi Korpus. After he nearly suffocates himself after he sees the dangerous glint in my eyes, he pulls himself together and explains to me in a objective tone: "Well, I guess you would have to sleep with him just to make sure he knows you exist. If you take that in consideration, you would probably have to kill someone for him in order to get him to go to Hogsmeade with you."
I think about telling my accomplice that Regulus Black knows full well that I exist and most likely even knows my name but I refrain from doing so. I can imagine what that kind of behaviour would lead Chester to think. "I'm pessimistic about your romantic relationship with Black. Your chances are black like the Black." He laughs at his own stupid joke and I shake my head. We are walking down the steps toward the grass in front of the castle.
"Just great." I let my gaze wander over the estates of the castle and realize that it might be forbidden to be outside at this hour. Chester may be a prefect (yes, I doubt the sanity of our Headmaster on this specific decision) but I'm sure that doesn't allow him to be outside at the brink of curfew. Let alone myself. "Maybe we should have gone to dinner instead of loitering around here." I say thoughtfully and look at the cabin of the gamekeeper. I had been terribly afraid of his apprentice Rubeus Hagrid my first year.
"Why? Are you afraid of the dark?"
"I'm not. I just don't want to be caught."
"Ne-e-rd."
I don't get a chance to counter him because four Gryffindors just materialized in front of us – thanks Merlin, my day isn't rotten enough already. They are the notorious Marauders. Of course, it's almost a certainty that you would meet them outside in the dark. They fancy punishments, I say.
Well … we stop almost at the same time. They scrutinize us for a second until they notice the Hufflepuff emblem stitched to our cloaks. Their expressions turn to faked concern.
"Have you lost your way? I heard it happens to your kind, you know … losing your way between the greenhouses and the castle and ending up in the forbidden forest. So, can we show you the way back?" Mr. Everyone-loves-me-Black takes the opportunity to address us and sends me a blinding smile. Potter just laughs. I almost feel my fuses blow. Would you remain calm if someone doubted your state of mind like that?
"Black." The vigor in the small word prompts him to raise an eyebrow. I guess he expected a thankful 'yes'.
"If you don't have anything better to do than to harass other people with your questionable offers of help, then please do us all a favour and shut up. It's stupid of you to assume people like me don't have a sense of direction, especially since my IQ is most likely much higher than yours." Black lets out a guffaw and I can just stop myself from ramming my wand between his ribs.
"That was a good one!" He wipes a few tears out of his eyes and rubs his stomach.
"Pad, I think she's serious." Remus Lupin who I have pegged as the smartest of the bunch, is of course dead on. Black hiccups a couple of times before he looks at me again. I can still see his dark-grey eyes laughing.
"What's your name, Hufflepuff."
I put my arms akimbo and beg Chester in my thoughts to punch Black but it doesn't seem like my friend is willing to do so, given the muscles of these guys.
"That's none of your freaking business." I'm cocky, I admit it. I try to hold my own against his urgent gaze. He grins again and I have to ask myself whether he likes being insulted. Maybe I have discovered a perverse strand of his? I should definitely rub Fara's nose in it.
"Touchy much?" He dares to ask me. Instead of me, though, Remus groans lowdly – I start to like Remus, but Black doesn't pay him any attention.
"Honestly, Black. It's too late for me to move down to your standard. So how about we each go our own way?"
James Potter appears to have experienced a flash of genius because he flips his fingers and points at me. Black is spared of any answer.
"Now I remember where I have seen you before!"
"Merlin save us all! He used his brains!" I groan again, but he ignores it. My God, are all of them so ignorant concerning insults? Maybe I should do a study on it. I could start a marathon of insults and create a bar graph with all the results – what a great idea …
"You play Quidditch for Hufflepuff, right? Now that I think about, you are a beater!"
"Wow … if that isn't a position just made for a petite girl like you." Black says ironically and exchanges a look with his bosom buddy, presumably because of an inside joke.
"Buy yourself some glasses, Black, I'm not petite, okay? And besides, it was the only vacant spot and it's still much better then the 'I-utilize-shouts-of-joy-and-throw-tomatoes-at-the-other-team spot' you seem to own.
"Mini-pumpkins."
"What?"
The siamese twins start to laugh out loud, then Potter starts to explain with a few giggles here and there. "He used mini-pumpkins: hard on the outside, very soft on the inside. Quite sticky and they stink to high heaven."
"Disgusting – they were almost impossible to get out of my hair!" I shriek, maybe a little bitchy. I ask myself whether Chester has turned to stone. Maybe I should check his pulse, just to make sure he is still alive?
"Oh, I'm sorry about your pretty curls. Next time we won't throw them at you, darling." I groan – this conversation, if you can even call it that, is making me tired. I reach for Chester's hand and I drag him away from the club of brain-amputees.
"Hey! Hey, you could at least tell me your name, honey!" Black shouts after me and Chester sucks in air because I'm probably squeezing his hand too hard.
"Breathe in … breath out. Ems, I know you can do it. Breathe in, breathe out."
"Shut up!" I shriek and try to ignore the laughter of the so called Marauders. "And you could have opened your mouth when I was verbally attacked by those idiots!"
Chester cocks his head and sports one of his charming smiles. His mohawk sways with the movement of his head. "Ems, please. You didn't even need my support. Your oestrogen as good as killed my testosterone, biologically speaking."
"Don't get smart with me - you could have punched him or something!"
Chester scoffs and we turn at the same time to avoid the Forbidden Forest. "You did notice his muscles, right? I mean his chest alone is huge, almost frighteningly so."
"So? You could have cursed him to rescue our honour at least." I won't relent on this.
"I think that guy has more OWLs than allowed, honestly. And I should have put him in his place with magic?" He sighs. "It doesn't matter now, does it? We shouldn't let these negative thoughts ruin the pretty sunset - think of your feng shui!"
I mutter in my non existing beard and decide against a retort. Instead, I shove my hands in the pockets of my black cloak and come to a halt next to Chester in front of the lake. The sun is sinking on the horizon and with one brave glow disappears from the sky. The sudden darkness makes me shiver, and the continuing silence irks me.
"See, that's the North Star right there." I disrupt the silence and point to the star. Chester raises his eyebrows and looks at me.
"That's the handle of the Plough."
"Not true!" I exclaim as if surprised and and ironic smile appears on my lips. He grins as well and pinches me playfully. It doesn't appear very playful to me, since I am balancing my weight on one leg only and his pinch sends me stumbling down the slight hillside. Of course a rock has found its way into my path and after my foot catches on it, I fall and suddenly sit on my buttocks right beside the lake. Of course I also have to endure the laughing fit of my - former - best friend ...
"Sorry, Ems!" He keeps giggling but soon after realizes the deadly sincerity of his current situation. He starts running away from me - the Hufflepuff version of You Know Who - in order to escape my wrath. But my nickname "furious boar" is no accident. In fact, it stems from one of my more primitive phases. Like a panther I take up the chase and jump onto my prey's back, which is still giggling like crazy.
Chester is stronger than he looks, I have to find out, because he simply takes hold of my legs so I can't climb down again. He starts running like crazy, right across the grounds of Hogwarts. I feel like a little girl, because my father organized a pony for my seventh birthday. Sadly, the pony thought it was supposed to perform a rodeo show ...
Well, the lesson is clear: Gryffindors really are as disgusting as I always though and my I will be able to complete my homework tonight with much more precision. Chester will most likely sleep in an armchair for most of the evening due to exhaustion. He will most likely have a stiff neck from that tomorrow, and that thought turns my smile a little gleeful.