A/N: Chapter 6! BRB… feeling accomplished. Hehe. Anyways, read on! :)
Rachel had only one thing that she could not believe by the end of the week.
Once you were an actual part of the Quidditch team, practice made swimming in a hailstorm sound favourable.
Rachel dragged her feet into the girls' dormitory and overdramatically fell on the ground. Lily grimaced.
"I'm surprised the spell on the stairs didn't recognize you as a boy," she commented.
Rachel looked up and glared at her. "Oh, fuck off, you try being on the Quidditch team. It's a living hell. James is off his rocker."
"Why don't you just quit?" Lily asked matter-of-factly, stepping around Rachel to get something on a dresser. Rachel gave her a look of disbelief.
"Quit? Quit?" Rachel exclaimed. "I do not quit!"
"Okay, okay," said Lily defensively. "Fine, put yourself through this."
Lily exited the dorm and Rachel got up from the floor with a sigh. There was no denying that Lily was right, but Rachel never really quit anything in her whole entire life. With a shake of her head, she decided to settle all of this when she got back from Christmas break. She was going back home in a week anyway.
Lily and Rachel entered an empty compartment and got comfortable. They sat across from each other and smiled. Already they were leaving for Christmas break. It seemed like sixth year had started only yesterday, though.
Mary and Dorcas entered the compartment after, Dorcas pointedly sitting down next to Rachel who only closed her eyes and pretended to be tired. Which wasn't much of a feat considering she was always tired. Mary took a seat next to Lily.
"Don't you have prefect duties, Lily?" Mary asked.
Lily shook her head with a smile. "Remus offered to complete all the duties so I've got the whole train ride just for my girls."
"Speaking of," Rachel started, "where're Alice and Marlene?"
"Alice is with Frank, obviously," Dorcas replied, "and Marlene is with Henry."
"Still?" Rachel asked, genuinely shocked. "This is one of the longest relationships she's had."
"Yes, well, she has had her eye on him for awhile," Lily commented.
"Just like I have my eye on you."
Rachel groaned. Not this again. "Honestly James," Rachel started. "Leave before I smack you or Lily starts raging. Don't you torture me enough in practice, anyways?"
Lily had only rolled her eyes and stuck her nose back in her book, taking to ignoring James. More rational than usual.
Dorcas smirked. Merlin knew what was going on in her head. She'd been more secretive and deceiving since sixth year had begun, in Rachel's opinion anyway.
Mary seemed disinterested. Possibly the smartest person on the train.
"Oi! Prongs! Where're you?"
Rachel's blood began boiling just at the sound of his voice.
"Ah, that would be my fellow superior calling," James said. Sirius came into view right behind James and his eyes landed on Rachel a little too quickly for her liking. The smirk on his face wasn't to her liking either.
Nothing related to him was really to her liking.
"Hello there, Fredricks," Sirius greeted. "Snog any good-looking chaps lately?"
"Why?" Rachel asked. "Are you finally admitting your sexuality and need somewhere to start?"
He only smirked and laughed.
Why did he never get insulted by anything Rachel said? He always just smirked and laughed. It infuriated her.
"Wow, I had no idea Rachel was so funny," Dorcas said. "Or maybe you're the only one amused by her."
Rachel was quick to glare at her friend. She'll have to stop at one point, Rachel thought. Right?
"Anyways," James began, "I was just looking for Moony. Happen to know where he is?"
"He's doing prefect duties," Mary piped in quietly.
"Er, thanks."
The two of them walked off. Quite awkwardly, might I add, Rachel thought with amusement.
Rachel got off the train, her trunk trailing behind her with her barn owl, Barney (she was eleven when she named it and not very creative), obediently perched on the large case. Rachel walked quickly, trying to see over people's heads, despite her short stature. Finally, she saw her dad and she immediately ran up to him.
She crashed into him and hugged him tightly. Her father hugged her back warmly. She looked up and smiled at him. He had dark circles under his eyes from all the graveyard shifts he worked. He was a muggle-born and he was a healer for some time, but he switched to being a muggle doctor the moment he had met Rachel's mother.
But it pained the both of them to even think about that.
"Hello, Rach," he greeted her warmly. "How were the first few months of school?"
"Quite… interesting," she replied.
Her father didn't question it farther. He only smiled and the two of them walked out of King's Cross and to her father's parked car.
Sirius watched as Rachel warmly hugged an older man who he guessed was her father. All he could tell was that she seemed awfully close to him.
He felt someone harshly bump past him and his face turned into a scowl when he saw it was his younger brother, Regulus.
"Come on, blood traitor," Regulus said to him. "I have to share a home with you for two weeks."
"Who knows, maybe you'll die first," Sirius muttered resentfully as he trudged after his younger brother.
"Is this the real life?" Rachel sang, "Or is this just fantasy!"
Lily turned to glare at her. "It's just a chocolate cauldron, for the love of Merlin!"
"Excuse me," Rachel said. "These are firewhiskey treats. No one at Honeyduke's even lets me touch these! And I've got to wait until August until they'll let me taste them. So I'm rather happy."
"I don't get what's so amazing about them that you have to start singing Bohemian Rhapsody," Lily muttered.
"They're like the wizarding world equivalent of rum balls," Mary said as she happily took a bite out of one. "Except with more alcohol. How'd you get these anyway, Rachel?"
"Peeves, of course," Rachel replied. "And Creevey. Cost quite a bit of galleons though, so I wouldn't eat it all now."
"Are those chocolate cauldrons?"
The six girls in the compartment turned to see Peter and the rest of the Marauders standing there.
Rachel widened her eyes and threw the treat in her bag. "Uh, no."
"Merlin, what's the big deal about these things anyway?" Lily suddenly exclaimed.
"What's the big deal?" James asked. "What's the big deal?"
"Evans, these aren't just any treats," Sirius said.
"They're alcoholic treats," Rachel said. "Heavily alcoholic treats."
"You're a drunk," Lily stated matter-of-factly.
"No, I have further developed taste buds than you do," Rachel replied. "I understand why you would be jealous. You have five year-old taste buds."
"Speaking of five year-olds," Marlene started. She turned to the Marauders. "State your business."
"We're here to steal your chocolate cauldrons," Peter said.
"Well, that's if you don't kindly give them to us," James added.
"What chocolate cauldrons?" Rachel asked, feigning cluelessness. "I don't have any chocolate cauldrons. Do you, Dorcas?"
Dorcas shook her head. "No, not me. Mary?"
Mary smirked and shook her head as she opened a chocolate frog.
"All right, be that way," Sirius said. "But we'll get them eventually."
Rachel scoffed. "What are you going to do?" Rachel asked smugly. "Look through my underwear drawer?"
Sirius smirked. God, she hated that smirk. "If that's what it takes, I definitely wouldn't mind."
Rachel rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "It's nice to see nothing changed, Black," she said. "Still arrogant as ever."
"I could say the same to you," he replied.
Rachel narrowed her eyes but quickly decided to move on and ignore his comment. She turned her head and looked outside the window.
Suddenly, she was being lifted into the air.
"What the fuck is going on?" she exclaimed, somewhat screaming. She was slung over someone's shoulder and she soon realized it was Black when she saw the longish dark hair. She burned with anger.
"Black, you put me down right this instant!"
"But it's more fun this way, love," he replied.
She screamed angrily and hit his back with her fist repeatedly. All the other activity in the compartment was James holding Lily back from going to save Rachel, Mary taking her time hiding the remaining chocolate cauldrons, Alice trying to stay out of the line of fire, and Dorcas... Dorcas had the fucking brightest smile Rachel had ever seen.
It infuriated her further and so she hit Black again.
"Honestly love, that doesn't do anything," he said. "Bloody hell, where'd you hide them?"
"I swear on nargles and firewhiskey that if you don't put me down this instant, I'm going to fucking kill you in your sleep!"
"Quite rude, but I can deal," he replied.
She hit his back once more.
And the whole compartment was filled with screams and flying candies and candy wrappers.
Suddenly, the door flew open.
"What the bloody hell is going on here?" Frank exclaimed.
Sirius set Rachel down and said, "Just a bit of fun." Rachel smacked him as hard as she could.
"They were trying to steal our food," Marlene intervened.
"They had chocolate cauldrons!" Peter exclaimed suddenly.
"You rat!" Rachel shouted.
Frank sighed and rolled his eyes. "We're not even at school and your forcing me to take points," he said. "Five points from Gryffindor... Unfortunately."
He left the compartment, not wanting to see anymore.
Rachel turned to Sirius. "You can leave now," she said harshly.
He smirked again. "Not over yet, Fredricks."
And with that, the four Marauders left the compartment.
Rachel sat down angrily and crossed her arms, fuming. "The nerve!"
"That was quite amusing, to be honest," Dorcas said. When she saw Rachel's glare, she added, "Or not…"
Now I understand it's technically Friday (for me), but I was trying to get a head-start on the next chapter so apologies :)
-Grammar/spelling?
-Hehe... who got my rat pun?
-Was the fight a little too far-fetched?
Amelia :) xx
