𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 - 𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 3

He wanted to tell them the truth, but their expectant faces made it hard to do so. "I talked to her, but she was really rude. Didn't accept the apology and told me to sod off".

"What? Why? You were being nice, weren't you?" Remus narrowed his eyes, trying to make sense of the situation in his head.

"Of course! I don't even know why she was so mean, even said some things about my... appearance." The lie rolled naturally off his tongue before Peter could stop himself.

Sirius scoffed angrily, he couldn't believe why she was so rude. And to say something about Peter, who was an angel! "She did? What an... arse!" 

Next morning at the Gryffindor table, the Marauders saw Lily Evans, the girl from the train, looking for an available seat; Sirius moved to make room. She merely shot him a look to let him know she recognized him from the train, crossed her arms and firmly turned her back on him.

(Y/N) saw this interaction from the Slytherin table and chuckled: something Remus and James heard and proceeded to shoot the girl a death glare. Peter heard it too, but didn't look up from his plate due to embarrassment and a little bit of fear.

The Slytherin was taken aback by the look on the boys' faces and gave them a glare in return. Remus was the first one to break eye contact, seconds after (Y/N) returned their look, but James took his sweet time looking away. But once he finally did, his fists were clenched in anger, and his face was pink.

Although immature, the (Y/H/C) haired girl felt like she had won that battle and continued eating her breakfast like she usually would.

• • • • • • •

Roan, the captain for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, decided that the tryouts were postponed until Wednesday, instead of Monday due to a scheduling confusion with Slytherin, and needless to say, James and Sirius were beaming with excitement.

After lunch in the Great Hall and a ball of nerves in their stomachs, they headed towards the Quidditch field. There weren't a lot of students there, maybe 14 or 15 in total, minus the official Quidditch team, which left only 7 people trying out. The team's seeker separated everyone into two different lines, one for seekers (which was notoriously longer) and the other for beaters. There were Gryffindors of every year, even first years, but Roan and the rest of the team seemed to dismiss them.

"Alright everyone, welcome to this year's try-outs! We are looking for 1 chaser and 1 beater, as you all know by now. We will start with us," he said, referring to the rest of the team. "Against you, to see how you do, and then we shall end by playing one or 2 games without the Golden Snitch, to see how you are in action."

Everyone nodded, and the tryouts started. James had to try to score as many goals as he could, but it was difficult since the keeper was excellent even if he was going easy on him.

Sirius, on the other side, had to try and hit as many bludgers as strongly as he could, with the other beater sending them his way. In normal games, James managed to score 5 times. His most impressive shot was when he tricked the keeper, and instead of shooting to the left—as he had made the keeper think—he shot it left. Even Roan seemed to be impressed by this since James was just a second year. At the end of tryouts, he patted James in the back as he congratulated him. 

Sirius wasn't so successful, since a bludger almost hit him, and he hadn't been able to hit bludgers as fast or as skillfully as a 6th year that was also trying out. The sky was dark and decorated with stars when the tryouts finished, and both James and Sirius made their way towards the Great Hall to have dinner, but on the way there, Sirius decided he was no longer hungry and wanted to go back to the common room directly.

James wanted to go with his friend, but the boy insisted it was fine and that he should eat.

• • • • • • •

Cassia, the Slytherin quidditch team captain, had just made public the announcement of who had made it in. And to no one's surprise, (Y/N) and Louis were now the official keeper and chaser of the team. The next game would be in 3 weeks, and it was against Ravenclaw, so training started at 5 pm and ended between 7 and 8, sometimes even later.

Louis and (Y/N) often came back to the common room exhausted and went straight to bed, though sometimes they did their homework with Sam's help. Regulus was there too, but he didn't talk much and sometimes threw a sarcastic comment or a new gossip he had heard.

Regulus knew all of Hogwarts' gossip and secrets; Merlin knows how. (Y/N) often tried to make him tell her how he knew everything, but he refused profusely. Her theory was that nobody really noticed that he was listening since he mostly didn't talk.

It was now Charms, a class shared with Gryffindor, something (Y/N) wasn't exactly happy about. Since Louis and Sam were on the other side of the classroom, they left the (Y/H/C) haired girl in a corner with a Gryffindor boy to her right. That class was one of her most despised classes of the entire year. For one, because of the previously mentioned seating assignments.

Second, because she could hear James and Sirius whispering and laughing in the row behind her, no idea about what. Normally this was bearable, but this specific day they decided to be even more annoying, and started throwing little paper balls at her. The first 5, she ignored. The other 15, she let out several groans and almost broke her pencil in half in frustration.

She glanced at Louis and Sam to see if they had noticed the two boys behind her, but they seemed oblivious. (Y/N) turned back and threw both of them a glare, which they happily returned; she turned back to try and pay attention to Professor Flitwick, but the two dark haired boys wouldn't just give up.

"The incantation for the Knockback Jinx is 'Flipendo' .This jinx is the most utilitarian of Grade 2 spell, in that it will allow the caster to 'knock back' an opponent or object and can also be used to push and activate certain magically charmed switches", Flitwick said, (Y/N) repeated the spell under her breath. 

But the stupid papers wouldn't stop coming, even the two Gryffindors besides her turned around to see what was happening, since two or three little ball papers had hit them too. Once the paper balls stopped coming, (Y/N) assumed they had gotten tired since she didn't give them the reaction they wanted. 

Professor Flitwick was still talking, "Like many Grade 2 spells, Flipendo can be targeted. Here, Mr. James Potter, come here, please, and show us". (Y/N) had to hold a smile when James stood up, disoriented since he wasn't paying attention. To make matters worse, he almost fell down as he tripped on someone's feet.

More specifically, (Y/N)'s feet. No one else but Sirius and James noticed the cheeky grin that adorned the girl's face, but the by with glasses just went up with Professor Flitwick and performed the spell. Correctly, to (Y/N)'s misfortune.

Oh, this was war, Sirius thought as he watched the Slytherin girl twirl her (Y/H/C) hair between her fingers.

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𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓: 1921 words