Chapter Two
Marie sat at the breakfast table, staring at her schedule as she chewed her breakfast very slowly. Notoriously a slow eater, Marie was one of the last remaining Ravenclaws in the great hall that morning. She had received a brief note from Sophie, enchanted to fly to her in the form of a folded paper bird.
Marie! Survived the night- imagine that. I believe we have charms and defence against the dark arts together. See you in class, rapscallion! Love, Soph.
Marie had folded the note and tucked it into her robes. As the dining hall continued to empty, Marie quickly scarfed down the rest of her meal before departing for her first class: charms. She smiled to herself, knowing her best friend would be seated in class already, likely drawing something in her textbook or entertaining the rest of the class with a joke. Sophie was, without a doubt, a comedian. She was even known to have made professor Snape crack a smile 3rd year. Marie wouldn't have believed it, but she witnessed the event first hand. Professor Snape was in fact capable of smiling. Imagine that.
"Charms" said Marie aloud to herself, tossing her long brown hair over her shoulder. She loved the idea of Charms, first thing in the morning on Mondays. She found Professor Flitwick's class to be to the perfect mix of challenge and relaxation (Charms being much less of a Science than Transfigurations).
"MARIE!" Sophie's familiar voice greeted the Ravenclaw as she entered the Charms classroom.
"Good morning!" She said excitedly, sitting next to her friend, who was dressed in the required Hogwarts Uniform she despised so much.
"I miss my pants already" grumbled Sophie under her breath, fussing with the pleats of her black skirt.
"Oh Sophie, don't fuss. You look fine." Marie's eyes flicked down and she studied her friend's long, skinny calves. Sophie was wearing her favourite boots, a pair of ankle high riding boots. The black leather was worn and supple, and dulled from years and years of being worn in the dirt.
"I like pants." Sophie's voice was flat and cool. But she resisted to pursue the matter further, and instead asked Marie how she slept.
"I slept pretty well" said Marie, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Although I woke up and couldn't for the life of me figure out where I was! I expected to wake up and see my own bedroom." This made Sophie laugh, and she thought back to being in Marie's bedroom, just the other day...
"Let's get you settled in!" Said Marie, grinning at Sophie in the backseat of the car. Sophie quickly got out of the Abram's family vehicle and popped the trunk. She hauled her heavy leather trunk from the back, and proceeded to drag it up the short drive way to her friend's family's house.
"It's so nice to be back" said Sophie, the biggest smile splitting across her face. She let Mr. Abram carry her trunk into the house, and proceeded to greet Bobby, the family dog.
"Bobbykins!" Cried Marie, kneeling down to stroke the big mutt's fur. Bobby Woofed happily and loped up the stairs after the two girls, excited by the arrival of their guest. Sophie held the belt loop of her black American Eagle Jeans with her index finger, to keep them from slipping down her backside as she charged up the stairs after Marie.
"It's so nice to be home!" She cried, once at the top of the stairs. The Abrams were, more or less, family to Sophie Phillips.
"It's so nice to have you home!" agreed Marie with equal gusto. The two girls grinned at each other for a moment before Marie suddenly remembered something. "Oh! I painted my room!" She cried, swinging open the door to her bedroom. Sophie peered inside, and nodded her approval.
The walls were painted a cheery, summery green. The bedspread of course was also green, but the rug on the floor was a soft bronzy color. The walls were adorned with Ravenclaw posters and flags. Sophie walked over to the double bed pressed against the wall and sat on the soft, sinking mattress.
"Hogwarts in two weeks!" She said, grinning from ear to ear.
"I can't wait!" Marie proceeded to dance around her bedroom, nearly bumping into the oak desk tucked away near the window sill. "Do you want to go outside?" Asked Marie, glancing out the window. It was hot and sunny outside, and she knew her energetic friend hated to be cooped up indoors on such days. Sophie nodded and sprang up from the bed.
"Yes!" The girls charged downstairs, as rowdy and energetic as thirteen year old boys.
"Holy-Moly!" Mrs Abrams stared wide-eyed at the bounding girls from the kitchen counter. "What are you up to?"
"We're going outside" said Marie, striding towards the back door, Bobby on her heels.
"Are you two taking the brooms?"
"Yes m'am" said Sophie, anxious to straddle her sleek Nimbus broomstick.
"Will you be playing Quidditch again this year?" Asked Mrs Abram, her beautiful brown eyes dancing as she considered the skinny teenager before her.
"You bet! I'm really looking forward to Quiddich season... I've been missing the game so badly." Sophie couldn't help but let a smile pass over her oval shaped face.
"Well you be careful out there" said Mrs Abram. A smile, nearly identical to her daughter's, spread across her face. "I wouldn't want to find you in a hospital bed at St. Mungo's!"
"I'll be extra careful" Sophie smiled sweetly before following Marie out into the backyard. Their broomsticks were propped up against the back porch, and Marie was busy strapping a helmet to her head. She wasn't particularly graceful on a broomstick, and always took measures to protect her noggin. Sophie, who was cocky, summoned her broom and stood on the sleek stick like a surfboard.
"Hey Bud, Let's party!" She drawled, quoting the particularly crude movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Marie, always oblivious to her friend's Muggle references, didn't acknowledge the quote and instead cautiously mounted her broomstick.
"You be careful, Sophie Phillips" she warned as Sophie began to zip about the yard in her frivolous ,dangerous manner. Bobby woofed and loped after the girls, wagging his tail as he chased the floating teenagers through the back yard.
The afternoon spent in the back yard ended when Mr. Abram called the girls in for supper. They walked into the house, adorned in dirty jeans, rumpled shirts, and sunburns (although only Sophie was sunburnt, as Marie's skin was bronzed and olive toned). They ate corn on the cob and apple-chicken sausages. Long after the sun had set, the girls retreated to Marie's green bedroom, where they lay in bed, giggling about past experiences at Hogwarts.
"Have your eye on anyone in particular?" Asked Marie with a giggle, groping in the darkness for the bowl of cherries on her bedside table. Sophie laughed in response.
"Yeah, right." She said, chuckling. "Potter's good looking."
"Agreed" said Marie, her voice distorted behind the cherry in her mouth.
"And I dunno, I find Ernie Macmillan to be a bit cute."
"The Hufflepuff?"
"Yeah" Sophie smiled in the darkness. "He's cute." Marie contemplated this, trying to remember what it was this Ernie fellow looked like. "What about you?"
"Oliver Wood was hot" said Marie, in her matter-of-fact tone.
"Oooh! Yes!" Sophie, who was laying on her back, clapped her hands over her eyes and smiled broadly at the black ceiling. "Too bad he's graduated!"
"No kidding." Marie sighed.
"Any of the Weasley boys?"
"Nope."
"Not even Fred or George?"
"Ok, well they're alright." Marie smiled to herself. She yawned heavily, and rolled over onto her side. She examined her room, which looked dramatically different when only lit by the moonlight peeking in through her window.
"Good Morning, Class!" the tiny professor Flitwick entered the classroom, smiling enthusiastically.
"Good morning, Mr. Flitwick" replied the sleepy bunch of 7th years. Marie sat upright in her chair, and pulled her textbook from her bag.
Charms class seemed to end as quickly as it started. Flitwick began the class with a tedious speech on the difficulty of N.E.W.T level courses. The lesson that followed was a review of some of the past years trickier charms. Marie breezed through the class with little to no difficulty, as did Sophie.
"Well, I'm off to Arithmancy" said Marie with a sigh, while flinging her book bag over her shoulder. "What class do you have?"
"Care of Magical Creatures" she said with a laugh.
"Oh, Lucky you!" Pouted Marie, stomping a foot while scowling like an angry two-year old.
"I don't get why you bothered taking Arithmancy in the first place' Sophie furrowed her brow and shook her head sympathetically. "See, while I'm petting Unicorns, you'll be mulling over a math book." Sophie winked and laughed when Marie's scowl deepened.
"Don't rub it in" she said, genuinely annoyed.
"Alright, alright. See you later. Potions this evening before supper."
Marie parted for Class 7A, which was located on the 7th floor of the castle. Though the Ravenclaw didn't particularly enjoy her elective class, it was something she was considerably capable of doing, once she put her mind to it. But a groan built in the back of her throat when she thought of her professor, Septima Vector. She was an incredibly cranky witch, strict with a sharp tongue. She tolerated no foolishness in her class, and took it a bit too seriously in Marie's opinion.
Marie poked open the heavy wooden door to the Arithmancy classroom 7A. The windows on the far side of the room were stained dark blue, which made Marie feel sleepy, like she was attending maths class late at night. She padded across the worn stone floor and took a seat next to Hermione Granger at the front of the class.
"Good morning" murmured Marie, pulling her textbook from her bag.
"Good morning" replied the Gryffindor. "Or should I say, good night? Oh, those windows are just terrible!"
"I Know!" Marie's eyes opened wide as she agreed whole-heartedly. "As if it wasn't hard enough to stay awake in this class anyways..." She rolled her eyes, but quickly quieted down as Professor Vector entered the room. Marie sighed as she studied the older woman standing before the class, dressed in heavy red robes and a pointed hat. Here we go she thought miserably.
Elsewhere on the grounds, Sophie sat on her own on a bench, waiting for Hagrid's Care Of Magical Creatures class to start. The young lady sighed and crossed one leg over the other, bobbing her foot impatiently as she waited for class to start. The sun was hot, and streamed through the tees. The forest floor was dappled with warm sunlight, and Sophie was incredibly thankful that she was out in the trees instead of cooped up in a maths class like her dear friend.
After lunch, Sophie and Marie walked together to Defence against the Dark Arts. The last two classes of the day they shared together, Defence and Potions.
"I hear Professor Lupin is teaching Defence against this year" said Marie, pushing her glasses up the short bridge of her nose.
"Oh yeah?" Sophie smiled. She had enjoyed Lupin as a teacher, though found him to be a bit strange. He was absent on a regular basis, and was always covered in a number of scratches and wounds. Very strange indeed. "Needless to say, I am considerably excited for this class."
Marie withdrew her Confronting the Faceless textbook.
"Have you seen some of the spells in this book, Soph?" Her brow knit in a frown. Sophie considered the thick N.E.W.T Level volume in her friend's hands, and a smile split across her face.
"It's going to be a good class."
As the girls entered classroom 3C, they saw Professor Lupin standing at the front of the class. He didn't notice their entry, but as they sat down side by side at a desk at the front of the class, he suddenly turned to face them. Sophie offered a shy smile at the professor, towering above them at an impressive 6'4.
"Good afternoon, professor" said Marie.
"Good Afternoon Miss Abram, Miss Phillips." The man's scarred face crinkled slightly as he smiled close lipped at the two of them. As other students began to file into the class, Sophie dropped her N.E.W.T level textbook onto her desk with a heavy THUNK! Marie jumped, rather startled, and acknowledged the puff of dust that rose from her friend's book. She could only roll her eyes.
Professor Lupin strode along the front of the classroom, his hands folded behind his back as he paced. After everyone had taken their seats, he turned to face his class with an awkward smile on his face.
"Welcome to Defence against the Dark Arts" he said. As he spoke, introducing once again the heavy significance of the N.E.W.T level, Sophie found herself narrowing her eyes at the man. There was something about the way he looked that was rather odd, she thought. Yes, indeed. Something seems a bit off. She couldn't help but stare, and felt uncomfortable doing so. But the Gryffindor felt the need to place exactly what it was about his features that seemed peculiar to her. It wasn't his scars, she decided, as the facial wounds held a certain appeal to them. No, not that she mused, narrowing her eyes further. It's something else. Frustrated, Sophie decided to ask Marie.
"Marie" she whispered under her breath, as the professor continued to address the class about their N.E.W.T examinations.
"Yeah?"
"Something seems a bit odd about Mr. Lupin, wouldn't you say?" She struggled to keep her voice low.
"Hmmm" Marie narrowed her eyes, contemplating the peculiar conundrum her friend had posed her with. "Is it his scars?"
"No, no. Not that. There's just... something about him."
"I think that perhaps his nose might be a bit too big for his face" murmured Marie, keeping her eyes up.
"Perhaps." Sophie frowned, and though she found her friend's suggestion to be amusing, she knew it wasn't it. "It's not that he's bad looking" she added, not wanting to seem rude or disrespectful of the man teaching her favourite class.
"Oh I know. I agree with you, there is something peculiar about him."
They spent the rest of the class in comfortable silence, listening to their professor give a run-down of the course, and the benefits of being a N.E.W.T level Defence student.
"Off to potions we go" growled Sophie, packing her bags.
"Yes indeed. We get to spend the last class of the day with the most joyful professor in the castle" Marie raised her eyebrows and compressed her thin lips into a straight line. "Lovely."
The walk to the dungeons seemed unnaturally long, and the girls knew they would make it to the potions class just in time.
"Can you imagine if we were late?" said Sophie with a laugh, as she neared the door to the classroom.
"Ha! Professor Snape would hang us from an iron light fixture by our skivvies." Marie began to laugh at her own joke, but the sound of a man clearing his throat behind them made both girls freeze in their tracks. Sophie hunched her shoulders and bit her bottom lip, while Marie's back went as rigid as a rod.
"Ahem" Both girls slowly turned to face the man standing behind them. Sure enough, looming in the dungeon hallway, all 6'1 of him clad in long, black robes, was professor Snape. He considered the women before him over the bridge of his hooked nose, and very slowly an eyebrow raised up his forehead. "An interesting suggestion, Miss Abram" Snape's tone was dry.
No doubt about it: he's picturing us hanging from a light fixture by our underpants. Marie couldn't help but shift nervously from foot to foot. She regretted opening her mouth in the first place.
"And Miss Phillips, I suggest you check your watch, as you are, in fact, late." He made a point to over enunciate the word late, and after scrunching his lips together, spoke again. "Five points from Gryffindor." He kept his gaze locked solidly on Sophie as he deducted house points, and she stared right back. She locked her jaw, and kept her smoldering blue eyes connected to Snape's dark eyes. He raised an eyebrow, as if to invite her to argue his actions. Sophie tore her gaze away, and adjusted her attention to the toes of her boots. Snape smirked to himself, before reminding the two that they had class to attend. Sophie and Marie walked into the classroom, heads lowered, as Snape walked in behind them. As the two of them took their seats, Snape took his place in front of the class.
"Well fuck me" whispered Sophie to Marie. "Isn't he just lovely?" Her eyelids became heavy as her facial expression changed to one of pure discontent. Marie didn't reply, afraid of catching the professor's attention.
Needless to say, Professor Severus Snape made sure to assign a hefty amount of reading for his 7th years.
"He really is a miserable Twit, isn't he?" Growled Marie to Sophie as they let the dungeons (she made sure to check over her shoulder before speaking badly of the tall Potions Professor).
"Yep. He's a real git." Sophie's response made Marie chuckle. Sophie, who spoke in a Canadian accent, couldn't quite utilize British slang properly.
"What are you doing tonight?" Asked Marie.
"Quidditch" Sophie grinned.
"Lucky you. I'm buried in Arithmancy!"
"Oh you poor thing" Sophie drooped her head in sympathy. "Good luck with that." And so they parted once again.
The Quidditch pitch was rich green and bathed in golden sunlight. As the sun began to sink in the west, Sophie found herself placing a pair of Muggle Green tint Aviator Sunglasses over her blue eyes. Her long black lashes grazed the lenses as she blinked lazily in the September sunset. The weather was uncharacteristically warm for that time of year. The Quidditch player walked towards the pitch at a brisk pace, carrying her Nimbus 2000 broomstick. She noticed a small group of other Gryffindor Quidditch players already on the pitch, tossing the Quaffle back and forth.
"Hey there, team!" Cried the Beater, smiling. Her team acknowledged her presence and waved.
"How's our favourite Beater?" asked Harry, the lenses of his glasses suddenly opaque with the reflection of the golden sunset.
"Ready to practice" she replied, blushing from the attention she was receiving from the boy. She quickly swept her long dark hair into a pony tail.
"You heard the lady" said the team Captain. "Let's get going!"
Sophie sung atop her broom in a swift movement. It was only after she had mounted up that she remembered she had forgotten her bat.
"Weasely!" she called, addressing Ron who was standing nearby. "Can you pass me that bat?" She pointed to her bat, which was discarded on the manicured grass near his feet. Ron nodded and threw it over to her. "Thank you."
Quidditch practice progressed normally. The team passed the Quaffle, and tested Ron's keeper abilities. Sophie noticed, as she stood atop her broomstick as if it was a tight rope- that a teacher was walking across the lawn, making his way to the bleachers. She frowned, wondering what teacher would want to watch the first Quidditch practice of the year. She stood atop her broom, blatantly staring at the lanky man walking over. She realized that it was Lupin, from the mere height of him and from the sandy brown color of his hair.
"SOPHIE LOOK OUT!" Harry's voice caught the woman's attention, and she realized that the Quaffle had been thrown in her direction. Suddenly her balance was broken and she teetered on her broomstick before slipping off the side. She grabbed the length of her beloved Nimbus just in time, suspended in the air as the Quaffle soared above her head before plummeting to the lawn below. And there she hung, flashing her flat, tight tummy to the rest of the team as she tried to figure out how she would remount her broomstick.
"Smooth moves there, Sophie!" Called Jimmy Peakes, her fellow beater. Sophie's cheeks flushed red in embarrassment, and she quickly swung herself back onto her broom, straddling it properly. She couldn't bear to look in her Defence against the Dark Arts professor's direction, knowing he had seen her embarrassing near-tumble.
Sophie made sure to focus for the rest of practice, and remained properly positioned on her polished broomstick. As practice was winding down, she did finally glance at the bleachers, where Professor Lupin was seated. Sophie noticed her had his briefcase with him, so no doubt he had grown sick of being indoors, and had wanted to do his marking outside. Though when practice had ended, it was twilight and the students walked back to the castle in semi-darkness. Sophie was looking forward to showering, changing into her sweatpants, and doing her assigned Potions homework.
Author's Note: I really hate to be one of those writers that whores for reviews, but... I really can't resist... if you wouldn't mind dropping a quick comment (if of course you have been enjoying my little story so far), it would be much appreciated. Thank you very much for taking the time to read Duet. Cheers!