Chapter 5:

"Hey, where have you been?" Lily asked me as I sat down beside her.

"Oh, Professor Grace wanted to share a word with me after class," I said as I poured some water into my goblet.

"'bout what?" James asked with his mouth full of food.

After I had explained to Professor Grace that I had seen Emilia's funeral, he had demanded that if I ever had another vision like that or something to do with the future, I had to go to him. He didn't let me go until I promised I would, and then I had come down to the Great Hall for lunch.

"Pretty much the same bloody thing Professor Shirtcliff wanted to talk about." I shrugged.

"Are you joking?" Marlene rolled her eyes. "This is getting ridiculous; you're just good at guessing."

"That's what I said, he doesn't believe me." I shrugged. "So, what are we doing—"

I stopped mid sentence when raised voices reached us. Regina was angrily walking into the Great Hall, her arms crossed and her robe flying behind her, showing everyone her skirt and disheveled shirt. Sirius Black was walking behind her, an angry look on his face.

"What do you think that's about?" Marlene asked, glancing curiously at the couple.

"I don't know," Lily answered.

"Shhh, they're talking," James hushed. We turned all our attention to the angry couple.

"—can't believe you!" Regina's voice reached us.

"Regina, it's not what—" Black started but Regina cut him off.

"Do not say it's not what it seems because I'll use my wand, Sirius Orion Black!" Regina yelled back.

"He told her his middle name?" Marlene asked me confusedly.

Lily and I shared a conspiratorial look before looking back at the couple. Black was telling her something too quietly for us to hear, she was shaking her head rapidly.

"You are a total toe rag! I hate you; don't talk to me ever again," She shrieked before storming down the aisle between the Gryffindor table and the Ravenclaw table.

As she passed us, Regina locked eyes with me and I noticed her eyes were rimmed with red and her nose was puffy. She had been crying. We watched her go and then turned back to Black who was walking toward us with a frown etched to his features. He flopped down on his seat next to James and across from Lily and me. Remus shared a look with James before glancing at his frowning friend.

"Everything okay, padfoot?" he asked him.

"What happened?" Lily asked as well.

"Well," Sirius started. "We were… we were in a broom closet—"

"Oh, no," I muttered, shoving my plate aside. "Unwanted mental image."

Marlene giggled as I put my head on the table, winking jokingly at Remus who was trying to keep his smirk from showing.

"Don't mind her, she's the seer of the group and most likely saw what happened and how bad it was," Marlene told Sirius as she patted his hand.

"I hope not," He muttered under his breath. I frowned and lifted my head, looking at him curiously.

"Okay, you got me. I'm curious now, spill," Marlene said, clearly hearing what he had muttered.

"Well, we were in the broom closet and well, we were about to—" Black started, fumbling over his own words. I'd never seen Black so flustered about a girl before.

"Sirius, mate, we want the final act not the whole play," Remus stopped him before he could give us any details.

We all leaned in as Sirius Black mumbled something as he played with his food. James' eyes widened as he started at his best mate, apparently he was able to hear what had been said.

"What?" Lily asked for the first time. She had been focused on her copy of The Prophet and hadn't said anything, pretending to not be interested on this piece of gossip. Apparently the story was too good for her to miss.

"All right, I screamed out another girl's name, are you all happy now?" Black blurted out.

Lily's eyes widened, Marlene covered her mouth to stop her laughter and Remus simply blinked. I, however, did something very unlike me when it came to him. I laughed. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt and, no matter what I did, I couldn't stop laughing. Mary and Marlene soon joined me, as did Peter, who let out a few nervous chuckles.

"Meredith!" Lily gasped, slapping my shoulder with her folded copy of The Prophet.

"Oh, God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," I said between laughs. "It's just that—it's you. That kind of stuff doesn't happen to people like you, they happen to people like Ryan Mathews or something."

Remus chuckled, nodding. I glanced at James, expecting him to agree with me but he was eyeing me curiously. Black was simply staring off into space. I frowned. What the hell was wrong with those two?

"You're too experienced, I thought you knew better," I added as I shook my head. My laughter finally subsided.

"Yes, so did I," Black mumbled, lifting his gaze to mine.

"Wait, you know what this means?" Marlene suddenly said. "It'll be all over Hogwarts: A Gossip tomorrow morning."

A general sigh filled the Gryffindor table as we all rolled our eyes at the thought. I put my head back in the table, closing my eyes. Lately Hogwarts: a Gossip hadn't been the nicest media in the world. Somehow, they had found out about Marlene's pass at Remus and now they gossiped about anything those two did together. They weren't happy about me not behaving like a whore or the fact that James hadn't try to write "Lily, will you marry me?" in big bold letters on the Great Hall roof. They didn't like the fact that we were changing, I supposed.

"We should go, mate, don't want to be late for DADA," James commented, patting Sirius on the shoulder.

"Right," Sirius nodded as he got up.

My eyes followed both of them until they disappeared through the door. I had DADA with them and I knew for a fact class didn't start until 1:15 P.M. that was ten minutes away.

I was lazily drawing on the back of my book, bored out of my mind. I loved DADA but I hated shielding charms, I perfected those when I was ten years old. Marlene sighed to my right and I glanced at her.

"This is the slowest class ever." She mouthed at me.

"It's only been fifteen minutes," I whispered back at her.

"The longest fifteen minutes of my life," She whispered back, making me giggle.

I shook my head and went back to my book, finishing the tail of a cute fluffy dog. I didn't like dogs much but it was the only thing I was able to draw, that and diamonds. No matter how many times I started drawing something else, it always went back to those two. I jumped when a big drop of something splashed down into my book. It was pitch black and soapy at the touch. Soon more drops started to fall down, filling my entire desk with black ink.

"What the hell?" someone shouted.

I looked up. Thirteen people out of twenty were covered in black ink, a black cloud levitating over their heads. It was raining ink over my head. Marlene let out a frustrated yell and turned to face me.

"I'm gonna kill them," She muttered.

I instantly whipped my head toward the end of the class where James Potter and Sirius Black were fighting off laughter and failing. I grabbed my wand and readied at them. I was about to jinx them to Asia when my wand slipped from my grasp.

"Do not think about it," my mother ordered, fingering my wand.

I crossed my arms and walked over to James and Black, Marlene close on my tail. Their laughter died down as we approached them.

"You stop this and you stop it now," I said, having to yell over the commotion that was now the classroom.

Kids were yelling at each other, papers were flying around and my mother was close to having a fit. She hated it when people misbehaved during her class. Sirius sat up on his chair, he had been balancing on the back legs of the chair, and shook his head.

"No can do," He said.

"What do you mean 'no can do'?" Marlene snapped at him.

"Oh, no, Marlene, darling, you can," He said, putting on a fake Irish accent that sent James into another fit of laughter. "She can't." He finished, pointing at me.

"What?" I shrieked, taking a step forward.

"Marlene's will wear off in around two minutes." James explained to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. I kept glaring at Black. "Yours… not so much."

"Why?" I questioned him. Oh, how I wished mom hadn't taken my wand away.

James eyes went silently toward Black and then back to me, he looked down. I bit my lip to prevent the tears from forming. He was the biggest idiot in the entire Wizarding world, no, scratch that, he was the biggest idiot ever. I couldn't believe it, I hadn't done anything to him and all he did was hurt me. Breath, Meredith. I thought to myself as I stopped biting my lip.

"What did I do?" I demanded. "What did I do to make you ha—" I stopped mid-sentence, my voice cracking.

Black blinked at me, his silver eyes suddenly filled with surprise and a little regret. Did I really almost said what I was about to ask? That question had been around my mind for a while now but it was never meant to be said out loud.

"At least tell me how long I'll be dancing in the bloody rain," I told him sarcastically.

"It'll be away by 10 tonight," Black mumbled, suddenly not so happy with his prank.

In all honesty, I saw red. It was 1: 32 P.M. and this stupid jinx would last until after dinner. That was eight hours and a half. I wanted to rip his little head off and skin James alive while I was at it. They were wrong, my mom wouldn't skin them alive, I would.

"This is war, Black." I spat before turning around, grabbing my stuff and leaving the classroom.

It seems like a storm is brewing in the Gryffindor house. A tricky joke backfired and the princess is more than livid. Now, now, Meredith angry at Sirius Black is no news to us. What is new is the fact that the Marauders pulled a prank on their favorite girl. The motive, unfortunately, remains unclear. What we do know is that our girls are fighting back, a close source told us her Highness herself announced war had started. We sure are looking forward to seeing this so-called war start. The event happened last week and nothing has happened yet. But don't worry for 'good things to those who wait' and you all know we're more than happy to.

I closed the article and sighed, running a hand through my knotted hair. I needed a brush but the Gryffindor tower was pretty far from the owlery, where I was right now, and the wind would knot it again. There was more written but, honestly, I was a little afraid to read it. I hadn't spoken to James at all and I knew they'd comment about it. Marlene and I were a little distant, too. She was constantly bothering me about my reaction to the prank, so I chose to avoid her as much as you could avoid your roommate. I took off my glasses and closed my eyes. I'd talk to Marlene tonight. As for James, I didn't know what to do. I missed him and I knew he missed me even if none of us had made an attempt at apologizing. But I felt betrayed. They've pulled pranks on me over the years but they're usually silly, nothing that truly embarrassed me. I knew I was overreacting but I've known James my whole life and, yet, he chose Black over me.

"So… hi," A voice said and I looked up.

James and Peter were there. James' hair was even more disastrous because of the wind but his uniform was immaculate, he was smiling down at me carefully. Peter, however, was biting his lip nervously as his eyes went from James to me. He hated fights, I knew that, so maybe he was uncomfortable with the tension between us.

"Hello." I eyed my cousin warily before smiling at Peter. "Hi, Peter. What are you doing here?"

"Sending mum a letter. Sugared butterfly wing?" he asked me, handing one out to me.

I took the offered sweet and bit into it, enjoying the taste of chocolate and coconut. James sat down next to me in the stairs, while Peter moved quickly past them to find an owl to use.

"So you read the article, uh? It's full of bullshit," James mumbled next to me.

"I haven't finished it." I answered out of politeness. My tone was still bitter, though.

"Then don't," James replied, reaching over and taking my copy. "Instead, I want you to read this."

He handed me a copy of The Prophet, no doubt today's copy, but I didn't take it from him. He sighed and put it away, running a hand through his messy hair.

"It says there's been many disappearances, all muggleborns or half-blood families," James explained to me.

I remained quiet for a moment. That was bad. I should get over my anger at James and ask about it, I really should. But instead I said nothing, although concern started to brew in the back of my head. It seemed like Voldemort was serious, after all. I felt bad for all those people who were probably dead. Once you disappeared it was only a matter of time until your body was found. I couldn't imagine what the muggleborns must be feeling. I was a pureblood, I was out of danger. Even if Regulus said I was on their list, I didn't care. He was in school; they were only acting like they were actually death eaters and it wasn't like they'd ask Voldemort to kill me, I'm not worth their master's time. But the ones kidnapping people were the real deal, the ones closer to Voldemort. Then I remembered something: Lily was a muggleborn.

I glanced at James. His hazel-colored eyes were darker than usual, something that happened when he was upset. His brows were scrunched up together. I didn't think I had ever seen James frown like this, ever. I wanted to hug him and tell him that everything would be fine. That, yes, there was a war going on but that, no, none of us would get hurt. But I knew it was a lie because our entire family was part of the Order, they were all involved. A wave of concern for Fabian overtook me and I bit my lip. He was only twenty years old, he had all his life in front of him, he couldn't die. I shook my head lightly, he wouldn't die.

"Lily will spend Christmas over at my house. She'll be safe there and you will be able to woo her," I told him, nudging him with my shoulder at the end to try to lift up his mood.

Even when mad at him, I wanted him to be happy.

"I thought you were mad at me." James eyed me carefully.

"I am and I'm still waiting for you to apologize," I told him. "I know you came here for that and I also know Peter is here so I won't kill you."

James chuckled softly, glancing behind us at Peter. I knew he was listening to our conversation even though he hadn't come back yet. No one took so long while choosing an owl.

"I'm sorry for pulling another prank on you. It's the last one, I promise," He told me.

"See, that's not what I'm mad about," I explained, not even bothering to believe what he said. It wasn't the last one, I knew that.

"Then what…?" he asked me, confused.

"You chose him, James, him!" I exclaimed, exasperated. "You chose him over me and you helped him do that horrible and completely embarrassing thing only because he hates me and I do not believe it was right on your part. You are my family."

James blinked at me, his eyes widened. I shrugged and looked down, playing with the hem of my skirt. This was embarrassing, I wasn't planning on telling him all that but the words just spilled and I ended up word-vomiting. A hand reached over and stopped my hands from wrinkling my skirt further, I looked up.

"I didn't know… is that how you constantly feel?" James finally asked and I nodded silently.

"Oh, Meredith, I'm sorry, I had no idea. I didn't choose him over you, you're both important." He tried to explain. "It won't happen again. Now, am I forgiven?" he smiled at me and I burst out laughing.

"Yes and don't say it's the last time. You'll be helping him next week again," I said as I got up.

"What? No, Meredith, he's sorry. Don't make this worse." James whined after me as I started to descend the slippery stairs.

"I promised him war, little cousin, and war it's what he'll get," I told him. "Peter, are you coming?" I called out to the chubby kid who was still somewhere inside the owlery.

"Wait for me." was the answer.

"You and padfoot will be the death of me," James muttered under his breath.

I threw my hands around his neck and gave him a floppy kiss on the cheek, laughing as he whipped his face with his hand, a disgusted look on his face. Then, he smiled at me. Yes, it was good to have James Potter back.

"Hey, Mar, are you still angry about the ink rain?" I asked.

"Kind of, yeah." The answer came from my left, where Marlene's bed was.

I was lying on my made bed, staring at the photo Andromeda Tonks had sent me today. It was a picture of little Nymphadora, with shiny fluorescent orange hair, dancing around the Tonks' parlor, her arms outstretched beside her. Getting the ink out of my hair had taken four hours, and I used my wand. Marlene had the same problem and it had infuriated her even more. She loved her hair almost as much as I did.

"I hate your cousin, Meredith," Lily huffed, entering the room with a frown on her face.

"Here we go again," Marlene muttered.

I sat up at the same time Marlene jumped into my bed and Lily sat at the foot of it. She sighed and pulled her flaming red hair out of her ponytail.

"What's wrong, Lils?" I asked, putting the picture in the top drawer of my bedside table.

"I ran into him and we started talking. I was kind enough to mention the Hogsmeade trip and he said nothing. He simply nodded and went away," Lily mumbled.

I remained silent for a second, glancing at Marlene from the corner of my eye. I didn't want to be hopeful but I was pretty sure I heard heartbreak in her voice. Did Lily finally realize she fancied James?

"Okay, Lily, sweetie, did you want him to ask you to the Hogsmeade trip?" I asked carefully.

"Of course not!" Lily's head snapped up, her green eyes widened. "But he's asked me every time there is a trip ever since we were 13 and now he has the nerve not to." She ranted.

"And wasn't that what you want? For him to stop harassing you?" Marlene asked, I shot her a look at the word 'harass'.

"Of course, that's what I wanted for the last six years." Lily frowned.

"Lily, you are not making any sense," I said softly to her.

Taking my brush and staring to brush her hair, I searched inside my mind for something to tell her. Marlene looked at me and lifted an eyebrow, widening her eyes and tilting her head toward Lily. Her message was clear to me. Lily was sad because James wasn't paying any attention to her. I wondered if Lily herself knew that.

"I know, I—I'm being ridiculous, right?" she laughed, shaking her head. "He'll get over it and be his normal obnoxious self."

I don't think so, at least not until you want him to. I thought as I put the brush down and started braiding the red main. I envied her hair; it was shiny and full of life instead of my golden locks that made me look paler than I naturally was.

"Can we go together to Hogsmeade? I don't have a date." She asked us.

I bit my lip. I was going with Fabian and I kind of wanted it to be only the two of us for as long as possible. I hadn't seen him since I had come to Hogwarts and I missed him. I wanted to kiss him and hug him and for that to happen we needed to be alone. Being such a big group of friends, being alone for more that three hours was very difficult.

"I'm going with Fabian, Lily, sorry," I said.

"And I got a date," Marlene added, sending me a worried look.

"Who?" I asked curiously.

Marlene flushed bright red, the blush clashing against the blonde straight hair. "Nobody, just… a boy."

"Okay…" I said slowly, looking at her weirdly. We always told each other everything so it was weird that she didn't tell me who her date was. Shrugging, I turned my attention back to Lily.

Lily nodded, looking down at her hands. I moved over to the bedside table and got the picture of Nymphadora. Sitting between Lily and Marlene, I flied the picture around, a big smile on my face.

"Would you like to see my revenge?" I asked them both.

Marlene took the picture away from me and smiled fondly at the little girl. Lily laughed lightly.

"What do you mean?" Mar asked as she gave me the picture back.

I shrugged, tapping the picture with my fingers. Black had found the fluorescent orange funny; I wondered how funny it'd be to him if it was on him. Marlene's eyes followed my fingers' moves while Lily stretched out across my bed. Suddenly she gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.

"No," she shook her head at me. "Mer, he'll be furious."

"Not as much as we were. Do you remember how hard it was to get all the ink out?" I asked Marlene, raising an eyebrow.

Marlene's face darkened at my words. Lily sat up, frowning at us and already shaking her head.

"That's a bad idea, Mer. He's very sorry, don't make it all worse," Lily begged. "Why can't you two be friends again?" she pouted at me.

I scoffed at the idea, looking down at the picture again. I wasn't just angry, what James had told me about the disappearances had worried me. I wanted to keep my mind off of things for a few days.

We were now in Transfiguration, I was sitting beside Alice, a round-faced girl with black hair and brown eyes from Gryffindor, because Lily had decided not to take part on my little revenge. Marlene, unfortunately, didn't share this class with us. James and Sirius were sitting in the middle of the room, only because Alice and I had taken the last desk at the end of the room.

Professor McGonagall was explaining the process of turning a tulip into a canary but my mind was elsewhere. I didn't know when it'd be best for me to jinx Black, should I do it now or at the end of the class? I had no bloody idea. When Professor McGonagall ordered them to start writing their essay, I knew that was my cue. It was the perfect time. Taking my wand and pointing at Black, I focused hard on the exact shade of orange I wanted and whispered the spell. I hid my wand and watched in amusement how Black's hair slowly turned from black to a fluorescent orange, I put a hand to my mouth so no one would hear my laughter.

"Mr. Black, what, in Godric's name, have you done to yourself?" Professor McGonagall exclaimed, eyeing Black weirdly.

James turned to Black and burst out laughing, this brought the attention of the other students and soon the entire class was laughing at Black. Lily turned in her seat and shook her head at me but even she had a smile on her face. Black frowned at James and conjured one of the mirrors on the walls. I couldn't help but burst out laughing when the reflection showed his face was also orange. At the sound of my laugh, he looked my way. Our eyes met through the mirror and I knew I was in trouble, but I didn't care.

"I told you it was war, Black," I called out to him.

"Funny, undo it right now, Potter," he said, getting up and walking toward me.

The room suddenly grew quite. Everyone's eyes followed him as he walked toward me. It was no secret that every time Black and I fought things got ugly. I tilted my head to the side, considering him. He was glaring at me with such hatred that I was surprised I hadn't combusted into flames. I considered giving him the counter spell but I remembered how much he had enjoyed my distress and all sympathy evaporated.

"No can do, darling," I threw his own words at his face.

He went to open his mouth to reply, his grey eyes flashing with anger, when Professor McGonagall reached us.

"Miss Potter, are you responsible for this?" she demanded.

"Yes, I am, Minnie," I smiled.

I knew admitting to do that was not the best option but still, I was enjoying my revenge a little too much and it had been a long time since I had gotten detention. And McGonagall loved me, there was no way she was giving me a tough detention.

"Detention, Potter, for a week," she pointed at me with her wand before turning around and walking to her desk.

Black smirked at me, clearly thinking I'd be devastated over the week-long detention, but I simply shook my head.

"I might have detention but it was still worth it," I said, starting to work on my essay again.

"Mr. Black, please come back to your seat. I will not accept that easy after its deadline," McGonagall called out to him. He glanced at the professor before narrowing his eyes at me and starting to walk down to his seat.

"Oh, and Black? Don't try to wash it off or anything, it'll stay with you for two days," I called after him in a sing-song voice.

He stopped midway to his desk and turned around to face me. James noticed the exchanged and jumped up, moving to Black and talking to him lowly. I was pretty sure that if it hadn't been for James, Black would have hexed me to New York City. Rule nº 1 about Black: nobody messes with him and his hair.

Alice turned to me with an amused smile. The entire class' attention was fixed on Black and I, some of them laughed again their eyes found the Gryffindor prince but others truly looked worried for my wellbeing. I simply smiled back at Alice, knowing James would calm Black down.

"So, what did you think? Was it too simple?" I asked her.

"Are you joking? I have been waiting for someone to do that for years!" she laughed.

At the end of the day, we all met at the Common Room, just like everyday. Mary and Lily were talking about the Potions assignment due to next Thursday; James was playing a game of magical chess with Remus, although his gaze kept drifting back to Lily. I sat on the floor, behind me was an empty seat but I loved the soft carpet. Marlene was lazily sprawled on the couch, taking up all the room and playing with her wand. Peter was doing his homework. Black hadn't showed up all day. I hated to admit it but I felt like shit. The satisfaction that came with the prank disappeared the moment I realized the entire castle was continuously laughing at him. Even the professors had a hard time keeping a straight face when people said why Black wasn't present. But this was Black; surely he didn't care about all that. Right?

I cannot wait to see you, I miss you.

Love,

Meredith.

I folded my letter to Fabian and wrote the address. The Hogsmeade trip was this Saturday, and the faster it came the more excited I got. I missed Fabian and couldn't wait to see him. Then, the portrait door opened and my siblings came in. Ariadne and Christian were laughing at something they and their friends were joking about; Christian pushed Jeremiah slightly at something he said while he put an arm around his girlfriend, while Ariadne kept giving this one boy I didn't know the 'flirty eyes'. Suddenly, and unfortunately for me, they noticed me.

"Hello, little sister," Christian started.

"Rumour has it you jinxed the prince," Ariadne laughed as she leaned on the couch Marlene was using as a bed.

I made a noncommittal gesture with my face and pretended to be very interested on the game going on near me. Unfortunately, the twins' arrival had caught everyone's attention. The entire common room had fallen silent; most of everyone's stares were on us. I bit my lip.

"Fine, what if I did?" I asked.

"Well, someone's cranky," Ariadne laughed.

"Relax, sister, we only wanted to say, 'good job'," Christian told me.

I faked a smile and went back to my job. If Christian and Ariadne Potter said something I did was right, then it was totally wrong. Remus seemed to catch my internal suffering, because he got up and asked me to take a walk with him.

"So," Remus cleared his throat.

"No, please, I don't want to talk about it."

We fell silence after that and kept walking. I noticed how Remus looked a little paler than usual, and still had a nasty scratch on his left cheek, but apart for that he didn't look too bad. I was glad. Usually, he'd have to spend at least an entire week but this month he had only spent one day.

"Do you know if—if Mary has a date to Hogsmeade?" he suddenly asked.

"No, I don't think she does, why?" I asked. Then, an idea occurred to me. I gasped. "Do you want to take her?"

He chuckled nervously, a hand on his neck. He cleared his throat several times before he was able to talk.

"Well, there is an idea."

I squealed like a little girl and threw myself at him excitedly. He was going to ask her out. Mary was perfect for him. I spent the entirety of our walk talking animatedly about how he could ask her, while he kept being shy, and just like that all my worries about Sirius and the world disappeared. For a while.