Chap-3

Dina sped along the corridors, her heart thudding, stopping whenever she heard a noise, or anything she imagined as a footstep. Turning a corridor into the fourth floor, she heard something that made her blood run cold.

Snape's voice, whispering, whimpering, as another voice, much deeper, said, "You have to. If you don't, you will have the Dark Lord to answer to, and his wrath will not be as easy to face as mine."

Below the low rumbling of the second voice, which Dina recognized as Avery's, she could hear a fainter whimpering that didn't belong to Snape, that seemed in fact, to be a woman's voice. No, a girl's.

"Please. Please, let me go. Just let me go, and I won't tell anyone what I saw."

And then Dina heard a swift whooshing sound that seemed to stop all time.

"Crucio."

The next morning Dina woke up when a large mass landed on her. Not unused to Toni and her pillow throwing habits, she stayed under her blankets and mumbled. "Just a few more minutes, ok, Toni? Just wake me up in five minutes, and I'll go to the loo after you do."

"It isn't Toni, you jackass, it's me, Marl. Come to breakfast, and come now!"

Dina struggled out of the warm, encasing folds of her blanket. The sunlight was slanting in through the windows and falling on Marl as she stood with her back to the windows near Dina's bed, and she looked almost as if she was encased light. Damn these blondes with their beautiful hair, thought Dina as she sat up. She felt anything but beautiful this morning, having not caught much sleep, what with strange dreams where she was being chased by some unidentifiable monster that she was shooting arrows at with hitherto unimagined skill, while someone next to her held her hand and ran through a rather red landscape. Shaking her head to clear the last bits of foggy sleep, Dina got out of bed.

"Why do I have to go to breakfast now? It's barely seven in the morning, this is inhuman. And what are you doing up and in my dorm right now?"

"Toni let me in, she's been up for hours practicing the piano in the Common Room. I just came to tell you guys that the Marauders- which is some sort of nickname those four idiots have for themselves that I have finally been authorized to tell you- are having an early morning celebration of last night's exploits."

"Probably because they were too tired to talk last night, let alone celebrate," Dina had moved to the bathroom and mumbled through the foam on her toothbrush.

"Doesn't matter, you daft bimbo! It means they've got enough food to feed a small army, and a lot of it is rather mysteriously tarts and pies and some candy from Honeydukes that would make even you pig out. Now, move!" Marlene pushed her into the shower and went to her wardrobe to pick clothes out for her. "I'm putting out your black slacks and one of those lovely loose T-shirts you seem to wear."

"Put out a scarf too, Marl. Be out in a second."

Dina soon rushed out of the bathroom, shivering as she put her clothes on. She always bathed in cold water, no matter what the weather, insisting it did her good and kept her from keeping warm all day. The others thought she was nuts, of course, but they had long since stopped asking. As she pulled her slacks on, adjusting the length absent mindedly with her wand, she looked at Marlene sitting by the window, now flipping through one of the books she had left on her bed. It was a Muggle saga titled Watership Down that at first look seemed to be a simple book written for children, but had a lot more hidden to it. Marlene seemed to be engrossed in the first few pages, and Dina smiled to herself. She already looked a lot happier than before, and calmer, none of the previous air of anxiety she'd always had surrounding her. Somewhat hesitant to disturb the picture she made, Dina tiptoed to the edge of her bed and picked up her camera. It was a Muggle find she prided herself on, that she had enchanted herself to suit her requirements so she could adjust it to the light. Now, she picked it up to her face as sneakily as she could and framed the picture she saw before she snapped the shutter, dispelling the quiet that had spread through the dorm.

"Oh, Dina, I wish you'd warned me, I'm sure I look like a right prat in my pyjamas and with my hair all like this."

"You look absolutely lovely. I'll hand you the photograph as soon as I develop it, and you'll see. Now let's go see about that food you were talking about." The two girls linked arms and strolled to the Common Room, where they found Toni, and soon, the three were on their way to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Once they had climbed through the portrait hole, a wonderful sight hit their eyes. The Marauders sat around a table on lots of plushy chairs, surrounded by cushions, while Lily sat there, grudgingly smiling at a joke Sirius was making, and a few other girls, one of whom was Dorcas, a blonde from Hufflepuff Dina had seen before. The table itself was groaning under the weight of at least two tarts, four or so pies, and steaming cups of chocolate and one sparkling jug of pumpkin juice. There also seemed to be a heap of candy next to where Remus was sitting, his brown hair slightly ruffled as he looked at his friends. He looked up when the three girls entered and sent a warm smile their way as James boomed out, "Welcome to the Gryffindor way of life, ladies! I bet you don't do it quite so well up in your huffy Tower. Now join us for this sumptuous feast that we have-"

"Oh, shut up, jackass." Sirius cut across James' eloquence and stood up to say hello to the girls, clearing space for them so they ended up quashed on some very comfortable seats on the ground, with Dina next to Sirius, Toni between her and Marl, and Marl next to Peter, who suddenly looked as though he'd rather be anywhere but next to Marl, blushing furiously as he scuttled to make space so his arms wouldn't knock against hers. Dina had always known he was painfully shy around people other than his friends, and she felt some sympathy for the boy, who looked a lot smaller than the others around him, overshadowed even by the quiet Remus, who exuded a sense of calm confidence that he lacked. She leaned across Toni and extended her hand to touch his knee. "Hi, Peter. That was a great job you did last night, I've almost never carried out a plan quite so successfully."

Before Peter could speak, though, Black had answered, "Wormtail's got quite a hand with the charms. We often say he should have ended up in Ravenclaw, and not here. He and Remus here do the fine work on the detailing of most of the pranks we've pulled off, you know."

Dina and Toni looked around at Peter, surprised. Both of them had guessed as much about the role Remus played in the group, but they hadn't guessed at Peter's talent; he mostly stayed hidden, becoming what seemed from outside the group the butt of the others' jokes. Now, he squirmed a little under their regard and smiled at them, a grin wider and more open than any Dina had ever seen him aim at people other than Remus. She smiled back, feeling nice to have learnt something new about him, finally seeing why these boys stuck with each other. Through the course of the breakfast, she saw how James was often kind to Peter too, his momentary noticing of Peter shining like the sun on Peter's face- the boy clearly held James and Sirius in awe. Sirius was conversing with Lily in a rare moment of seriousness, and talking to him seemed to brighten Lily up and make her more at ease with the world, her face more open than usual as she chucked Ice Mice at him. Remus and Toni were talking to each other, and both of them seemed to be having an intense conversation about Muggle music. So he likes Muggle music too. Interesting. Dina's eyes roved back to where Peter had been sitting, and to her surprise, he and Marl had begun to talk, both of them hesitating a little, but quite enthusiastically talking about the use of Charms when it came to cooking.

Dina felt a deep sense of contentment as she cut off a large slice of lemon pie and leaned back in her chair. Her camera was lying at her feet, but no charm and no technique could quite capture the quiet warmth and beauty of this scene. School was really, after all, a lot nicer than she had thought it would be this term.

After breakfast, Dina went to her classes that day quite satisfied with the food and the conversation she'd had. After classes, which were a bit light today, she planned to develop the photographs from the vacation she'd gone on, and the ones she'd taken in the morning. She glided along the corridors until she was brought rudely to a halt by Toni whispering in her ear.

"Look, there's Snape and Macnair. Fuck, they're coming towards us." Sure enough, the two boys were heading towards them with decidedly ugly looks on their faces. Macnair had his wand drawn out. Dina fingered her wand in her robes, ready to defend herself. Just then, McGonagall walked up to them. "Adams, Ruthers, help me with these books, will you? And you two, what are you doing here? Don't you have a class with Professor Slughorn now? Hurry up, move along, or I'll have to put you in detention and that won't be pleasant for anyone involved." She swept into the Transfiguration classroom, with Toni and Dina running after her, both quite relieved to see Macnair and Snape skulking off. They hadn't seen Avery around, thankfully.

"Thank goodness for McGonagall. It's a good thing the Slytherins are scared of her, at least." Toni was smoothing her hair carefully, something she always did after she'd had a bit of a fright.

"Yes, I'm not a little glad that we share just Charms and Care of Magical Creatures with them. If we saw them for the rest of the day, I'd probably run screaming out the door." They settled in for class, with the rest of the students filing in.

Black and Potter were nearly always late to class, and by now McGonagall was used to their antics, only raising an icy eyebrow when they stumbled into class ten minutes late, claiming research in the library as their excuse.

Research, my sainted uncle. I bet they were up to something. Dina looked across at Remus to where he was sitting, and made a quizzical face at him. Curiosity had always been her weakness. He glanced across at her and shrugged, keeping an impassive face very carefully though his eyes were twinkling. McGonagall gave Dina a well-timed glare, and she returned to trying to convince her teacup to walk on legs that were a tad wobbly at the knees. Or was she?

When they were heading out of class, Lily caught up with them, rather excited, in a bit of a flurry.

"So, this strange thing happened today."

"What, Potter lob about a chunk of his hairgel at you instead of trying other ways to get your attention?"

"No, Toni, you dumb jerk. So I was sitting in the class with, you know, that parchment you all charmed to write to each other on. And suddenly, while I was fiddling with the teacup, the parchment had a new message. It read, 'hi, there.' And I, of course, was intrigued, so I wrote back, saying hello. Turns out there's someone who found a piece of it near the Astronomy Tower and realized that it absorbs ink and tried writing on it. The upshot of which is I have a penfriend. In Hogwarts!"

"That really is strange, and Lily, you should know better than to reply to random magical objects that seem to sprout a consciousness," Dina was really worried. She went over the charm they'd applied to the paper in a head, trying out variations and wondering if they had somehow performed Dark Magic.

"Oi, Dina. Let her be. You know she's always wanted someone she can write to she doesn't have to meet. Don't bug her. Let's go, I want to go watch the Quidditch practice for the team. They're always so particularly… sweaty when they practice the day before the match. It's quite exciting to watch, if only you'd ever notice. "

Dina groaned. Toni had a habit of hanging out at Quidditch practices after classes sometimes. You'd never know it to hear her talk about the game- she only ever mentioned the finer points of how the Seeker's hair dropped over his thick brows to someone she didn't know- but her friends knew that she was quite the Quidditch expert, even though she didn't play herself. She was possibly one of the most ardent fans of the sport Dina had ever seen, and she truly worshipped the only all-female Quidditch team, the Holyhead Harpies, with a fervor most reserved for the spiritual. Dina trudged along with her to watch practices sometimes, usually burying her head in a book, enjoying the sunlight on her shoulders while Toni watched the game, muttering suggestions under her breath to the players. Of course, none of them knew that Toni was such an expert, or that she even played the game, since she was incredibly private about her passions and shared them with very few. Shaking her head at her own malleability, Dina went with Toni, searching among her books in her bag for the one she had been reading. Drat, I left it on my bedside table. She had soon Summoned it, however, and they reached the Quidditch pitch within a matter of minutes and Toni dragged her to the seats she considered the best for viewing.

Dina whipped out her book and started reading. It really was a beautiful afternoon, ripening slowly into evening, the orange cast of the sky turning into a hushed mauve in bits, framing the players prettily, making the game even more wonderful to the watch. The Ravenclaw Quidditch team was a very efficient one, their only weakness being their Seeker. Though the team functioned like a perfectly oiled machine, the Seeker, Jules Ramirez, was so organized that he often missed more impulsive, spontaneous moves made by his opponents, his own capability for a rational game slowing them down more than it should. Dina watched them for a bit before returning to the book, looking up only when she heard distant shouts on the pitch that sounded a lot like-

"Hey, Hofstader! We booked the pitch from five to six this evening, get out!" James Potter was striding up the field, to the side of the pitch where the Ravenclaw Keeper hovered in front of the hoops. She flew down to meet him. Toni had already rushed to the field, expecting a confrontation. Not to be left behind in seeing the incident unfold, Dina shut her book and followed.

"- no, Potter, we have the pitch till five thirty at least. And come on, try to understand. We have a match with Slytherin tomorrow, don't do this. I know you and your team need the practice, what with the new Seeker you've taken on, but honestly, this is unacceptable. Who booked your pitch anyway?"

"It was me, actually." Sirius had strolled up to the small group, looking as unflappable as ever. "I must have mixed up the dates or something. Nothing to it, Hofstader, you need to leave."

Dina looked from one to the other, feeling awfully small surrounded by the tallest in their year and more. Finally she spoke up, and said, "Listen, there's no need to get into this. If you've both booked the pitch, why don't you both play?"

Both teams turned towards her, and she gulped a little under the scrutiny of so many eyes. Looking straight at Elena Hofstader's tiepin she explained. "Well, Elena, you have your game strategy planned out already, and from what I've seen, you've gone over it about ten times." She gulped again.

Toni chimed in. "She's right, Hofstader. Your team's beginning to look a little jaded running over the same moves. It might do them some good to be up against a challenging team like this one for a change." James flashed her a grateful look, and a faint expression of surprise crossed Sirius' face for a moment before it settled back into its usually cold lines.

"Fine. Let's have a friendly match. First one to score a 100 wins, or the first to catch the Snitch." Hofstader strode off, looking a little annoyed but convinced that her team was going to be more than up to the challenge.

"So, you're the new Seeker for Gryffindor, then?" Toni was running her eyes over Sirius, sizing him up almost. To Dina's surprise, he looked vaguely discomfited- an expression that hardly suited his face.

"Yes, I tried out, and it seems to have worked out well."

James piped in, oblivious to the strange air of tension. "He's really good, guys! You'll see, I've been playing with him for years. He's our surprise for the match against Slytherin next week. Bye, get good seats. Friendly match my arse." He grinned at them before running to inform the rest of the team, including the Captain, Fabian Prewett, who had been standing to the side looking a tad disgruntled.

Dina saw Toni and Sirius still exchanging cold stares and hurried to interrupt. "I'm going to go get seated, Toni. You coming?"

"Yeah, sure. Hold on." The two of them scrambled over the makeshift fence to get into the top rows, and then sat there waiting for the match to begin. They were to keep score. Dina sat well into her seat. This was going to be interesting.