Raylynx's POV
I found Julian in the center of a very large group of friends he had brought with him. There was a tan-skinned boy with high cheekbones named Raphael, a rather short but good-natured, freckly boy named Fredrick, a very fit boy with light brown eyes and dimples named Gabriel, a very thin and haughty-looking boy with jet back hair named Ezra, a plump girl with bright hazel eyes and a bushy mane of strawberry blonde hair named Karina, a small girl with a rosy complexion and a shy smile named Wren, and finally, Julian's very pretty sister, Lorraine, whom we had met back at the Welcoming Feast. To my complete surprise, she had linked arms and was laughing heartily with none other than James Potter. They looked like a couple rather than simply friends and I wondered if that was really the case. Besides them, Sirius, Remus, and Peter stood, all looking faintly embarrassed at the pair besides them. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lily stiffen. Dorcas and Marlene were going together, separate from us, which by this point was only to be expected. Alice would walk down with us, but she had planned to meet Frank at the Hogsmeade entrance.
"Raylynx!" Julian greeted me cheerfully. "You're here, excellent! Shall we head off then?"
And we did.
As we made our way down, Julian asked me, "Are you staying for the holidays?"
I tried not to grimace as I replied, "Yes. I suppose you are, as well?"
Julian smiled. "Of course. Though I must admit I was quite tempted to go home when I found out about the dance."
This time, I let myself grimace as I said, "I don't understand who could possibly come up with such stupid traditions."
Julian laughed and I felt myself slowly become at ease in his company.
"How is Hogwarts for you?" I asked him.
"It's been amazing," he answered sincerely. "Although there is one thing I can't quite figure out."
"What's that?"
"Your Houses. There's four of them. But what defines them? I've heard Ravenclaw is wit and wisdom and Hufflepuff is kindness and fair play. But what's the difference between Slytherin and Gryffindor?"
I hesitantly gave him the general answer. "Well, Gryffindor is supposed to be centered around courage while Slytherin is supposed to be geared more towards er- ambition."
"You mean the Dark Arts," a voice interrupted us. "Come on, Kingsley, don't give him the generic answers."
I turned to look, though I knew that voice well enough to know before turning that it was Sirius Black.
"I'm Sirius," he introduced himself and held out a friendly hand to Julian.
"Julian."
"I can give you the real differences, the ones that matter. Hufflepuff's a bunch of duffers. Ravenclaw's a bunch of nerds. They like to call themselves 'artsy'. I like to call them 'uncomfortably weird'. Slytherin's a bunch of arrogant purebloods that are freaks interested in the Dark Arts. And Gryffindor- well, there's the home of the bravest and bestest." Sirius smirked.
"And of course you're not biased at all," I found myself saying, with a snort. "You speak like Slytherin's the only House to produce Dark Wizards, like Gryffindor and Ravenclaw aren't equally as guilty."
"We're not. We've produced some, but not every single-"
"They're not all bad at Slytherin!" I retorted. "And bestest is not even a word!"
Julian raised an amused, but confused eyebrow at my sudden outburst and I suddenly realized how impolite I was being.
I quickly turned to Julian and said, "What about Academie des Talonxs? Do you have Houses like we do?"
"Yes," he replied. "Though we have eight Houses and they're named about astronomical constellations rather than our Founders. We have Casseiopeia, Aries, Eridanus, Aquarius, Pyxis, Serpens Major, Leo, and Volans."
He described each House to us* and the conversation carried us all the way down to Hogsmeade.
Hogsmeade looked like a Christmas card. The little thatched cottages and shops were all covered in a layer of crisp snow, and there were holly wreaths on the doors and strings of enchanted candles hanging in the trees.
We stopped by Zonko's first. I paused to lood for Lily. To my surprise, she was no longer with us. I scanned everybody's faces again and saw that Lupin was also missing.
Has something happened to them? I wondered worryingly.
My mind was distracted though I tried my best to respond cheerfully to Julian's friends whenever they addressed me. James came to me, too, his arm wrapped tightly around Lorraine's shoulders.
"Ray! I didn't think you were the Hogwarts friend Julian was going with," he said. His brown eyes seemed to shine in happiness. He seemed so content there, besides Lorraine. And although I'd always thought it was impossible that Lily would ever accept James, the idea of him giving up on her was admittedly, odd and a little disappointing.
I simply smiled and tried to say something civil, but I was glad when they left me to look at the different types of playing cards Zonko's offered.
Where is Lily, anyways?
When we exited Zonko's (with each of the Academie dex Talonxs students carrying a bulging bag of goods), I spotted Lily and Remus huddled under Honeydukes together. Unsure of where we were, they were waiting for us.
I called to them in utmost relief, though I felt a bit of annoyance at their leaving us so abruptly now that I knew they were safe.
"Where were you?" I said chidingly. "I was worried something had happened to you!"
"Don't worry so much, Ray!" Lily said.
Telling a girl who's entire family had been attacked and in so many ways, wiped out, not to worry was like telling a dog to stop being a canine.
She must have read something in my face because she immediately apologized. "I'm sorry. It's just that it was so urgent…"
"What was so urgent?" I asked, but as Sirius had pulled Remus into Honeydukes, Lily abruptly took off after him.
Feeling more than a little irked, I followed them into Honeydukes.
Honeydukes always put out its best for the holiday season. Hanging from the ceiling were thick streamers of gold, silver, red, and green huge ornaments that were really all sorts of chocolates wrapped in shimmering foil and traditional ribbon candy in vibrant colors that wound themselves into all sorts of pretty ribbon shapes. Ezra and Wren were taking turns jumping to try to snatch one; finally, Gabriel reached over and plucked a few. They sold sparkling snowflakes made of iced sugar and milk or from crystallized blueberry and vanilla that melted in your mouth and gave you the same tingling sensation as real snow did. Karina, Raphael, and Fredrick were laughing delightedly at these, and picking out the ones they thought looked the prettiest. There were also glittering Christmas cakes in the form of Christmas trees, made of thick chocolate bread stuffed with raisins and walnuts and coated with glittering white chocolate fudge cream. Julian, Lorraine, and James were running their hands through the barrels of chocolate coins in the flavors of eggnog, peppermint bark, crème brulee, wintery mint, and pumpkin spice. They were of course, shaped like Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts, save there were five coins in the entire eighteen balloons that had Saint Nick on it. Whoever found one got a bar of free peppermint white chocolate. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were standing in front of the traditional chocolate section, scratching their heads over what to buy. And then there was a barrel overflowing with gold-foiled stars, which were really five-pointed dark chocolate that broke apart into five different pieces of chocolate each containing fruit centers like strawberry and blackberry wrapped in foil. And standing there, thoughtlessly and slowly rummaging his hands through the stars, was none other than Regulus Black.
I hurriedly looked away and instead quickly appealed to Julian. "You've never been to the Three Broomsticks, have you? We should go soon if we want to try the butterbeer!"
At the Three Broomsticks, we made a large party and situated ourselves around four combined tables. In the middle sat Ezra, Wren, Katrina, and Fredrick. At my end, Julian, Raphael, Gabriel, and Lily. At the other end, Lorraine, next to James, sat with Sirius, Remus, and Peter.
"I'll get drinks, shall I?" I offered and got up. At the same time, I saw Sirius rise and offer to do the same with his end of the table.
We both reached the bar at the same time.
Without acknowledging each other, we simultaneously blurted out, "Seven butterbeers."
"And maybe a Firewhisky with that," Sirius added, winking at Rosmerta flirtatiously.
Rosmerta laughed and said, "Sirius Black, you may be of age now, but you are still a Hogwarts student."
"I am," Sirius said smoothly, "but I'm also so much more than that, you know. And I think I deserve a little reward, since I refrained from sneaking in at night during midterms."
He said the last part in a whisper, but Rosmerta laughed and shook her head, her beautiful blonde curls shimmering in the light as she did so.
"Fine," Rosmerta said, "but just this once."
And she filled up a Firewhisky for him.
But when she put it on the table, Sirius suddenly suggested, "If I can drink this all in one go, can I get a kiss from you?"
Rosmerta immediately became stern and horrified with his suggestion, but even she couldn't hide the blush spreading slowly but surely across her pretty features.
Sirius grinned and raising the Firewhisky to his lips, began to drink.
"Sirius Black, I'm telling you to stop that right now!" Rosmerta said warningly. "You'll only make yourself sick, you will!"
But he was already half-way there. He tilted his head back.
"I'm not going to give you no kiss! I've warned you," Rosmerta said.
But Sirius was nearly done- three more gulps and- he slammed the glass down on the table victoriously and then put his elbow down on the bar and leaned forward, presenting her with his cheek.
Rosmerta gazed at him icily for a long while and I almost pulled Sirius back, sure that he had gone too far and she was going to slap him, when suddenly, she laughed, leaned forward, and quickly pressed her cherry red lips against his waiting cheek.
Sirius smirked and said, "Ta. Thanks, darling." He stood up, quite steady on his feet, and magicked the butterbeer to float to our table.
I wanted to hit something, but as it were, all there was for me to do was to resentfully return to the table and drink my stupid Butterbeer, which I had suggested in the first place.
Alice and Frank had joined us for drinks and they sat between myself and Lily at our end of the table.
Alice's POV
I was so happy from having spent such a lovely day at Frank that it took me quite a bit longer than it should have to realize that not everyone was as happy as me.
On my side, I couldn't help but notice how often Lily scowled, generally when the very pretty blonde girl named Lorraine happened to make a witty comment that made the rest of the table laugh loudly.
On Frank's side, I thought Raylynx also looked strangely irritated, though, having heard what had happened between her and Marlene, I wasn't surprised to see her out of sorts, only was it just me or was her glare always directed towards the other end of the table? Specifically, towards Sirius.
He glanced our way once and she hurriedly looked away, cleared her throat, and engaged Julian in conversation.
I stared at her in amazement.
Did Raylynx like Sirius?
Was there even a possibility of such an absurd possibility?
And yet, I hadn't put the idea in my mind myself. I had had no reason to think of such a crazy idea before but the way her eyes constantly watched him, the way her cheeks blushed and she'd turned her head every time he looked our way…
I was astounded.
Was she relieved to be fighting with Marlene? Would she throw her away and then, with that relationship severed, see herself free to be with Sirius?
But no, how could I even think that? If that had really been Raylynx's intention, she wouldn't have confronted Marlene the way she had yesterday. Rather, she would have quietly kept her head down in favor of letting time sever their relationship.
Clearly, that wasn't the case. No, no, her loyalty was to Marlene before Sirius…to Marlene before herself.
Because looking at her eyes now, I could see- I could see and it killed me to see: She didn't believe that she deserved love. At the same time that she liked Sirius, she threw away her hopes of ever being with him and that had nothing to do with Marlene, but with herself.
I bit my lip. How long, I wondered, had I been blind to this?
When we returned to the castle that night and had bid farewell to that happy group from Academie des Talonxs (Lily's expression might as well have been carved from stone when James kissed Lorraine's hand good-night), I gently pulled on Ray's cloak to entreat her to stay behind.
She did and in a matter of seconds, the rest of the party, with Sirius teasing James while Peter's Drooble's gum bubble burst and engulfed in face in a sticky pink mess and Lily and Remus linking arms and speaking together in quiet tones, disappeared around the corner.
"I wanted to speak with you too," Raylynx said.
I looked at her curiously. "What about?"
She shook her head. "No, you go first."
But I insisted. If she was going to bring up Sirius first, it would be far less awkward.
"It's about Marlene. I realize I haven't been fair to her. And I said something the other day that I shouldn't have said. It was… harsh, to say the least."
"What did you say?"
"Something like, it's because I don't have a parent to come watch me, that I'm not good enough to be Champion."
We both winced.
I felt ashamed for her, but also ashamed of myself. Raylynx never talked about how much she missed of parents, but of course, it was only natural that she think of them in everything she did or in everything she heard.
When we told her about Marlene wanting to see her father, of course her thoughts would jump immediately to her own parents- who could never come see her.
My eyes sparkled with tears, "Ray, I'm sorry. We should've realized that-"
Ray shook her head, "No, Alice. No. It's not right of me to reduce other's sorrows in light of mine. And that's what I've been doing to Marlene. Pretending her troubles aren't as important as mine simply because mine are more absolute. But it's not fair to Marlene. So I, um, I was thinking… what if I wrote a letter to her father asking him to come see her? Do you think that's too invasive? I mean, maybe it's not my place to do something like that and…"
She rambled on, but I hardly heard her. She had a heart of gold.
Raylynx looked at me and then blurted out, "If you think it's stupid, say so. I won't be offended."
I smiled. "No, it's brilliant. Let's do it."
She seemed relieved for a moment, but then she turned to me and asked, "What did you want to talk about?"
But I shook my head. Tonight was not the night.
"Never mind, Ray. We'll talk about it some other time. We should catch up to them, I think they must've noticed our absence by now."
Lily's POV
I couldn't sleep. The image of James kissing Lorraine's hand was imprinted on the inside of my eyelids.
But that wasn't what was infuriating.
What angered me to no end was that image had somehow ended up on my eyelids in the first place!
What was I doing!?
I had never desired James' good opinion of me, never desired his company or any of his flirtatious attentions, nor even a single word from him.
So why now?
I tried to sleep again, wrestling with my mind for the next few minutes, but found myself losing.
At breakfast the next morning with Marlene, the first breakfast of holidays, the entire Hall glowed with happy students. I was peeved.
I scowled through my eggs and hardly touched my daily toast. Finally, Marlene threw her hands up and said, "Okay, out with it. What's got your wand in a knot?"
When I didn't answer, she continued, "I know you're little miss perfect and you thrive in school, but are you really so disappointed that we're on break?"
"Of course not," I snapped, "and stop calling me that."
"Then what is it?"
I deliberated and finally I managed to whisper, "James Potter."
"What?" Marlene frowned, leaning in. "Come again?"
"James Potter."
"Well, what about him?" Then, Marlene suddenly groaned. "Oh, Lily. Don't tell me he's suddenly on your mind because you've seen him with that blonde girl."
"No, I wouldn't- That's not-" I spluttered, feeling heat rise up into my face, "Why do you say that?"
"Because that's so predictable. Of course, you would spurn him for the past two years and then suddenly fancy him because he's with another girl!"
"No! Who said anything about fancying him? Besides, have you forgotten that I hate his guts and want a Thestral to mow him down?"
But Marlene's eyes were twinkling as she openly laughed at me.
"Ugh! I knew I shouldn't have told you," I said in frustration. "You were bound to misinterpret! I should have told Alice first, or Ray-"
I suddenly cut off as Marlene immediately sobered and averted her eyes from me.
"I'm sorry," I said hastily. "I didn't mean to- God, I'm just messing up everything, aren't I?"
Marlene shook her head. "It's fine. I mean, just because I'm not friends with her anymore doesn't mean you can't be."
There was a pause.
"How is she, anyways?" Marlene asked, not looking up.
But I knew, I knew from her expression and tone of voice. "You miss her, don't you?" I said gently.
Marlene blew out a puff of air. "I don't know. I don't know anything about her anymore. I've never seen her lose it like that before. Ever. Not even when her parents died."
She was referring to the event that had happened a few days ago. She'd told me about it later that night, and how even Sirius and James had berated her for not standing strong next to Raylynx.
Sirius had said to her, "I thought you were better than that."
"That's because she cares about you," I said softly. "And it's not a weakness if you care about her too."
*The eight different Houses are sorted thus:
Casseiopeia: Charismatic, attractive, and captivating as the foremost traits. Julian is a Casseiopeia.
Aries: Passionate, concentrated, and rebellious as the foremost traits. Lorraine, Julian's sister, is an Aries.
Eridanus: Rational, cool-headed, and always moving towards a practical point of action. Raphael is an Eridanus.
Aquarius: Adapts easily, sociable, and humorous. Fredrick.
Pyxis: Creative, witty, and colorful. Wren.
Leo Major: Bold, solemn, and purposeful. Karina.
Serpens: Like challenges, adventurous, and free-spirited. Gabriel.
Volans: Contemplative, philosophical, and articulative. Ezra.
