A/N: Hi! Firstly I am so, so sorry about the stupidly long wait for a new chapter. Everything's been quite hectic! I'm going to try and get back into the swing of things now though so thank you so much for sticking with me and I hope you enjoy!
16th October 1973
We had a slightly strange conversation with Alana today.
I was sitting in the Common Room with James, Remus and Peter when I saw her walking towards us. I felt my heart pick up a little bit and my face suddenly felt all hot. It was not a feeling that I liked.
"Hi," she said. Her voice sounded determined, like she wasn't going to leave until she'd said what she needed to.
"Hello," replied James politely (although he quickly flashed a wicked smile in my direction), "how can we help?"
For a moment she looked unsure about whether or not he was being sincere or sarcastic but carried on anyway.
"Listen about the other day, I wasn't sure at the -"
I interrupted before I could stop myself, "you haven't told Snape it was us have you?"
"No," she replied looking stung, "all I was going to say was that I wasn't sure at the time, but you had a cloak," she looked directly at James now, "and I know it sounds ridiculous but I was wondering if it, well, if it was a real invisibility cloak?"
All four of us froze slightly. Even though to be honest none of us really knew the quality of James' cloak, we did know it was one of his most treasured possessions and if it got out that James Potter had an invisibility cloak of any quality, it would no doubt be common knowledge throughout the school by the end of the day and that would mean, least of all, that pulling pranks would become a lot harder. It was Remus who came to his senses first.
"What do you mean real?" he asked.
"Well I'm not sure really, is it just an ordinary cloak with a charm on it? Because there have been stories about true cloaks of invisibility like-" she cut herself off abruptly looking embarrassed and finished in a quieter voice, "like in The Tale of the Three Brothers."
"That's a fairy tale Alana," James pointed out, "it's not really true."
"I know!" she responded, her cheeks slightly pink, "but like I said I was just curious..." she trailed off uncertainly.
"It's just a disillusionment charm," James said convincingly," it'll probably wear off soon."
"Oh, right, well ok then," she started to turn around to leave but James continued,
"All the same, we'd appreciate if you kept it to yourself that we had one, it's just easier, you know?"
Alana nodded, "I will. Um, I'll see you later then."
We all murmured our goodbyes with James adding, "see you at Quidditch practice!"
"Do you think she's right?" I asked, after watching Alana climb the stairs to the girls dormitory, "is there such a thing as a true cloak of invisibility?"
"Some people think so," Peter answered," there's a few stories about things like that. They're just stories though."
"Imagine if it was," I said in wonder, "it could last forever!"
"Who knows?" James shrugged, "I guess we'll just have to keep an eye on it, see if it does wear off or anything."
"Do you think she'll keep her promise? That she won't tell anyone about the cloak?" Remus questioned.
"I think so. I don't think she's the type to go looking for gossip," I said. The other three nodded.
A comfortable silence settled, each of us lost in thought.
I replayed the conversation in my head and remembered Alana saying that she hadn't given our prank away. Not only that but she'd looked offended when I'd asked if she had. She'd said she wouldn't give us away, that must mean that she likes me! Well likes us as a group, maybe, lots of girls do. Or maybe it just means she likes us more than Snape. I was unsure whether that was actually comforting or not so I decided that to take my mind off it, I'd try and start the foot long essay Professor Slughorn had set that was due in tomorrow. However, despite my best efforts, my mind still kept wondering back to Alana and honestly, I didn't mind.