Chapter 6:

I sighed as I buried my face in my pillow. It was seven, which meant I had to get up. I didn't want to. I sat up in bed, groaning. I barely registered how my hair strangely didn't fall into my face like a long curtain but shrugged it off; I must have left it in a bun at the top of my head. I got up and walked half-awake half-asleep to the bathroom. Lily was reading while lying on her bed. She was already dressed and so focused on her book she didn't even look up. Marlene was dressed and her hair was damped but she was taking a little nap. Mary, however, looked up when I walk into one of the legs of her bed. Her eyes widened to the point I was afraid her eyes would fall out of their sockets.

"Oh... my... God..." she said slowly. She quickly got out of bed and walked up to me. "Mere, please promise me you won't freak out."

"What do you mean?" I asked as she dragged me to the bathroom.

Mary opened the wooden door and led me inside. I shuddered as my bare feet touch the cold marble of the bathroom's floor. Mary took a step back and signalled for me to see my reflection in the mirror. My heart skipped a beat when I saw what the mirror showed me. There was a reason why my hair hadn't bothered me at all. Instead of reaching my waist, now it barely reached my shoulders. And instead of being my golden blonde, it was now a light lavender colour. Although I had to admit the cut was perfectly done, that wasn't the point. The point was my hair was gone and purple, a colour I don't even like. I couldn't help myself, I screamed.

Mary covered her ears, flinching. Outside the bathroom, I heard the distinctive sound of something falling to the floor, followed by a loud 'Ouch!'. I supposed my scream had woken Marlene up. I turned on my feet and stormed out of the bathroom. Lily gasped as she looked at me, while Marlene simply gaped at me from a heap of sheets on the floor. After grabbing my wand from the bedside table, I opened the door to our dorm angrily and slammed it close.

Walking up to the Boy's dorm, I started to knock on the door as hard as I could and repeatedly. No one answered me but I could hear some ruffling inside.

"James Potter, open this door this instant!" I yelled to the door.

"Fuck," Remus said, although it was muffled by the door.

"James, open the door or I'll use my wand! I'm being serious," I warned.

A few seconds later, the door was opened by Peter. When he saw me, he burst out laughing but was nice enough to cover it with a cough. I rolled my eyes and went past him, glaring at anyone who got in the way, until I reached the four-poster bed I was aiming for. With one swift motion I tore the covers away from its owner. A loud groan escaped Black as he rolled over, trying to find the covers again. When he realized they weren't anywhere to be found, he sat up, rubbed his eyes and slowly opened them. He blinked at me repeatedly, a little confused. When reality reached him, he burst out laughing. I narrowed my eyes at him and pointed my wand at his nose.

"You cut my hair off?" I exclaimed. "And turned it purple? You know I hate purple!"

He kept laughing at me so I did the most mature thing I could think of: I walked forward and smacked him over the head with the back of my hand. I hit him again and again until he stopped laughing and started to try and avoid the hits.

"Ouch, Meredith, that hurts," he says, moving out of the way.

"Yeah? Wait until I actually get started, get over here." I tried to reach him again but he got out of the bed and stood at the other side.

"Oh, come on! You dyed my hair orange, remember?" he pulled at his still orange hair. The orange from his face had already vanished but his hair was still bright orange.

"Yes but I didn't cut it off! Have you any idea how long it took me to grow it out?"

"Well, you'll have plenty of time to grow it again. Don't worry, I'm sure Fabian will love it." He mocked me. I gasped.

"The trip to Hogsmeade is today," I said as I slowly sat down on James' bed, right next to Sirius'.

I had totally forgotten about that, in my haste. Fabian would hate the hair, I knew it, and it wasn't like I could ask Black to unspell it. I didn't deserve that kind of kindness.

"Oh, no, I—I can't go like this. It's too embarrassing." I shook my head. Then my eyes found Black again and my anger came back. "You couldn't get revenge tomorrow, could you? It had to be today!"

"Well, you didn't ask for my schedule. Why should I ask for yours?"

I hesitated before looking at the others. Remus was looking at me sympathetically, shaking his head once in a while. I knew the guys would get lectured once I was out of the room. Peter would have to hold back laughter every time he looked at me and James' smile had long vanished. This sucked big time. But I couldn't complain, I had done the same to him, he was only getting even. But I did know something: this was it; I would not get revenge ever again. At least not on Sirius Black.

"Fine, you win. I'm not going to Hogsmeade anymore. I hope you're happy," I told him bitterly before getting up and turning to the door.

"Very," he called after me and I had to fight the urge of going back there and hitting him again.

"Woah, what happened to you?" Professor Grace exclaimed as he opened the door to his office.

I stormed in, huffing. I started to pace around the office, reading through the book's covers and trying to see if there was one about charms so I could get the damn purple colour out of my hair.

"Sirius bloody Black happened. I swear I hate him," I said as I gave up and sat down on a chair.

I looked at Tobias only to realize he was stifling a laugh. I gasped.

"Don't laugh at me!"

He cleared his throat, clearly amused, before nodding and walking to his desk. He was wearing muggle clothing, some jeans and a The Beatles shirt. I found it weird. Tobias Grace was definitely a bizarre wizard.

"Well? Do something, please. The Hogsmeade group leaves in twenty minutes and I will not give Black the satisfaction of not seeing me there." I crossed my arms across my chest.

"Why would he not want you there?" he asked, lifting an amused eyebrow.

A light breeze went inside and pushed my now short hair into my face, I pushed it back angrily. Now that it was short, it got into my face for pretty much any reason. I hated it. It was much easier to manipulate when it was long.

"Because Fabian—he's my boyfriend.—will be there and he makes me happy. Black hates seeing me happy," I said, matter-of-factly.

Tobias looked up from his papers and I looked down.

"And, well, because I dyed his hair fluorescent orange," I added, embarrassed.

"Yeah, that was a good laugh." He chuckled.

Walking up to me, he took his wand out of his jeans' pocket and pointed at my head. After muttering a spell under his breath, he smiled at me and put his wand away.

"I'm blonde again?" I asked hopefully.

"Yes, you are."

"Thank you!" I beamed at him. "You know it's not fair. My spell was supposed to last almost two days, Minnie unspelled him this morning. Sometimes, I think she does favouritism even if she says she doesn't."

"Who's Minnie?" he asks, confused.

"Oh," I laughed. "It's Professor McGonagall. We call her Minnie."

He nodded, understanding dawning on his face. I couldn't help to realize how handsome Tobias Grace actually was. His blue eyes shined with the clear light and his American accent was kind of endearing. Dressed like he was and if I found him in a party, I'd definitely flirt with him.

"Do you want my opinion?" he suddenly asked.

"About what exactly?" I asked, suddenly very aware of how British I sounded. It was weird against his American accent.

"Sirius Black? To me, it sounds like he's jealous." He told me.

I snorted. "Black, jealous of me? No, sir. He's got girls lining up."

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean he doesn't like you," he told me. I frowned. "Fancy you," he corrected.

I thought about it. He did seem uncomfortable that time at the ice cream parlour, and lately he only dated blondes and was acting more strangely than usual, and he had been pretty worried about me since the whole library accident. But that did not mean he fancied me. That only meant we were, on some level, still friends.

"Aren't you supposed to leave for Hogsmeade?" Tobias reminded me. I snapped myself out of my reverie and nodded. I walked to the door.

"See you Monday, Professor Grace." I waved at him.

"See you Monday, Meredith." He answered me as he gave me a smile.

"It's sad she's not coming, though." Alice commented to Lily as they made their way toward town.

"Yeah, I was hoping she'd help me buy Marlene's birthday present." Lily frowned.

I was only a few people away from them and could hear them perfectly. I passed a few people and ran up to them, jumping in-between them. Alice shrieked, while Lily jumped and put a hand on her chest.

"Surprise! I've decided to come and, look, I'm blonde again." I laughed, showing them a strand of my hair.

"You are, this is so great." Alice beamed at me.

I looked around and was disappointed not to find the marauders anywhere near us. The entire road was filled with some orange and brown leaves; this year's autumn had reached us faster than usual. That could either mean winter would be longer but not so cold or that it'd be colder than the North Pole. I was praying for the first one. I unbuttoned my coat but didn't take it off completely.

"Where are the others?" I asked Lily.

"Well, Marlene left early with her date and Mary left with the guys a few minutes ago. They're going to the three broomsticks so we'll get a table. I invited Alice along," Lily said.

"Oh, all right."

We reached town around ten minutes later. They went to the three broomsticks but I made my way to Tomes and Scrolls, my favourite bookshop. On my way there, someone called my name, making me turn around.

"Heather?"

"Fabian!" I exclaimed happily.

He chuckled and walked up to me, I stood on my tiptoes so I could give him a peck on the lips. When we broke apart, he took a strand of my hair and lifted an eyebrow. I blushed slightly.

"So, change of style, uh?" he asked me.

"I... not really—umm, well I pulled a prank on Black, you see," I started.

I told him everything that had happened so far. He laughed out loud when I told him about the fluorescent orange and had the decency to frown deeply when I told him it had been Black the one to cut my hair.

"You hate it. Does it look that bad?" I pouted.

"No," he said quickly, putting his arms around my waist. "Of course not, Mere, but what bothers me is that he did it without your consent. And it's not like you can make it grow overnight; he crossed the line." He added, looking down at me.

"Yeah, I suppose. But let's not talk about Black, please." I requested as I took his hand and started to walk.

Some people waved at us as we passed; old school mates of Fabian and some of my friends. I tried to talk to almost all of them and not show my annoyance at the same time. We got into the library and I bought four new books, then I bought hot pink ink for the tittles of my notes and Fabian got me a new scarf, which I put on right away. Eventually though, we ended up at the Three Broomsticks.

The place was packed and so full of chattering that it was hard hearing each other. We managed to find a table in a secluded corner and sat down. I rested my head in his shoulder as he started talking about work. I found his work very dangerous but in a way fascinating, which was natural. Almost my entire family worked as aurors, either that or politics. So I guessed it was in my blood.

"James showed me the article of The Prophet. Have all those disappearances really happened?" I asked him.

"Yes," he said gloomily. "And there have been even more. The Order is going crazy; there've been a few battles but nothing too big, although they expect it'll be worse."

I bit my lip and squeezed his hand. The worry I had placed in the back of my mind came rushing back and made me wanna cry. But I wasn't about to cry over this. He wouldn't tell me stuff anymore if I did.

"Will you promise you'll be careful?" I asked him as I turned to face him.

He reached out to me and put his hand on my cheek, his thumb caressing my bottom lip. He looked me in the eye for a moment before smiling and leaning in to kiss me. I melted into the kiss as butterflies erupted in my stomach. As we broke apart, loud laughter, louder than the one already surrounding us, reached our ears.

"Oh, come on, moony! You know it was funny," Black said.

"I don't think so," Remus retorted.

I frowned and turned to the left, where the conversation was coming from. Two tables away from ours, and clearly not knowing I was there, the Marauders plus Alice, Mary, Dorcas, Lily and a blonde whose face I couldn't see sat. My frown deepened when I realized they were talking about me. Lily was saying something about the cut being too short and that it'd take years to grow to its former length, and how in hell had they managed to get into their dorms? Up until that particular point, James was nodding along with her. When she mentioned how they got to our dorms, the Marauders shared a slightly nervous look.

"Wait, you agree?" Lily asked, surprised. "You don't think Sirius was hilarious as always."

"No, I actually got mad. He wasn't supposed to cut it," James said, turning to look at Lily with a hopeful look on his face.

He was most likely surprised Lily was willingly talking to him. I watched as Alice asked something, too low for me to hear from here, to James, who turned to Sirius in return. My eyes followed and my mouth fell open. Sirius Black had his arms around a very pretty blonde, with sparkling blue eyes and fair skin. Her hair was in a fish-tail braid, one exactly like I had braided on Marlene's hair this morning. The girl looked up at Black and smiled, he smiled in return and she pecked him on the lips. I gasped. My best friend was dating my ex-boyfriend. This was a girl's worst nightmare.

"What?" Fabian asked when he heard me gasp.

He followed my gaze and looked at me again. I kept my eyes on the couple. They must have felt my burning gaze on them because they both turned to look my way at the same time. Marlene looked like she was chocking on air while Black had a frown on his face as he stared at my blonde hair. The others got quiet and followed the couple's gaze. I didn't see their reactions; I couldn't tear my eyes away from the other two.

"Marlene is wearing my sweater without asking, I had planned on using that one today," I finally said, forcing myself to tear my eyes away from the group and look at Fabian.

"Isn't that what you girls do?" he joked.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." I laughed, although it came out a little forced.

I hate to admit my day was pretty much ruined. Marlene tried to meet my eyes at least a hundred times but every time we agreed on looking over at the same time, I averted my eyes. At five, we went back to the castle. Fabian accompanied me as far as he could go.

"It's not fair," I pouted. "I never get to see you."

"Yeah, well, I'll come to the next trip." He pulled me closer.

"But that's on November, the end of it to be exact." I complained.

Usually, Hogsmeade trips were four per trimester but this year, and thanks to the war, Dumbledore decided to make it only two trips. It sucked.

"I know." Fabian frowned.

I put my forehead against his and he leaned in to kiss me softly. I sighed as I put my arms around him and hugged him. I would miss my red-headed prankster slash auror very much.

"I'll miss you," I said.

"I'll miss you, too. And I'll write constantly, all right? The rest of October and November will pass by in a rush, I promise." He kissed the top of my head before burying his face on the crook of my neck.

"Meredith, let me explain..." Marlene started the moment they all went into the common room.

I was sitting near the fire, one of my new books opened on my lap, and Lyanna, Mary's cat, resting between my feet. When the door opened and Marlene's voice reached me, I looked up. Only to look down again and keep reading.

"There's nothing to explain, Mar, you got yourself a date, who happens to be my ex, and chose not to tell me." I shrugged as I passed a page slowly.

"No, you don't get it. I was going to tell you but—but I thought you wouldn't let me go." At this I looked up.

"Why? It's a free country, you can do whatever, sorry, whoever you want." I corrected myself.

The boys looked at the staircase longingly, obviously not wanting to be a part of a girl's quarrel, but one look from me stopped them. Meanwhile, the girls shared a look before taking a step forward. Mary reached me first and took the book away from my hands, while Lily cautiously took my wand, which was on the table, out of reach.

"Mere, really—" James tried to defend Marlene but I interrupted him.

"Don't, or you'll be next." I warned him. He took a step backwards.

"It is not like that!" Marlene protested angrily.

"No? Then how is it? Do tell," I said sarcastically.

Marlene hesitated. "I—he's nice and loyal and not the arse you make him seem."

Sirius smirked cockily next to James while James nodded along with Marlene. Remus was watching everything quietly at Sirius' other side, Mary at his side, and Peter was eating a chocolate frog nervously. Mary awed a little at Marlene's words before shaking her head. I rolled my eyes at her comment. Please, they had never even been that close.

"So, you dating him has got nothing to do with his 'arse' being incredibly hot?" I asked sarcastically, forgetting that said arse was in the room and using quoting marks with my fingers at the word 'arse'.

Black turned his face to me so fast, I was sure his neck would hurt him tomorrow morning. All the boys were looking at me like I had grown a second head. Seriously, what was such a surprise? Just because Black wasn't exactly my closest friend did not mean I didn't know he was hot. I wasn't blind.

"Well, that, too." Marlene admitted, laughing a little.

"Obviously," Mary muttered before turning a hot pink.

The four of us looked at each other silently for a moment. My anger slowly subsided when I noticed the ridiculousness of the situation. I was arguing with her because she was dating my ex? Really? Sirius and I broke up a long time ago, it didn't matter who he dated. Marlene was free to go after him. I was being ridiculous. When Marlene and I met eyes, we burst out laughing. Lily and Mary joined us. Mary covered her face while Lily returned me my wand.

"I'm sorry, Mar."

"Don't worry about it." She hugged me. "You sure you are okay with all this?"

I met Lily's eyes over her shoulders. She sent me a message I understood clearly. I pursed my lips. Was I okay with this? No, and Lily knew that. But there was no need for Marlene, or Black, to know that.

"Yes," I said, trying to keep all tension away from my voice. I broke away from the hug and smiled at her.

"I will never understand girls," Peter said.

"I don't think any of us will, mate," James replied.

The girls and I laughed at that and assured the boy that, in fact, no, they'd never be able to read us. Then, just for good measure and to make clear to everyone that I was not mad, I added dramatically as I put a hand to my forehead and looked at both Marlene and Sirius: "You have my blessing."

Everyone laughed at that and the remaining tension went away. We sat down close to the fire as the Common Room started to fill with other students. They told me about their day and what they had bought and I told them about mine. Black kept frowning at my hair all the time until James got tired of it.

"Padfoot, stop it! It won't turn purple again just for staring at it." He exclaimed.

"Shhh, I think it's working," Black muttered in return.

"No, it's not," I said quickly, taking one strand and looking at it nervously.

The boys snickered at my reaction and I glared at them fiercely.

"Don't laugh, I might be all rays and sunshine right now but I haven't forgot you all helped," I told Peter and James. Their smiles melted off.

"Mmm, maybe we should go to sleep. We've got Quidditch practice tomorrow." James rushed as the four Marauders stood up, stumbled a little, and ran up the stairs. Leaving us girls to do what we really wanted to: gossip.