Selenophile // Marauders

|80| Ralph Sherman, Sixth Year

A/N:

Chapter 80! We're getting close to 100! This fic will be longer than I expected, there's no way it'll be finished in twenty chapters. It'll probably be over 100 chapters :)

———

January 16th, 1977

Riley walked to Hogsmeade, alone. She was meeting up with Ralph again. Hogsmeade was once again bustling with people. Riley spotted Three Broomsticks and opened the door. But someone grabbed her arm.

"Let go—" she said but then realized who it was. Ralph.

"Come on, let's not go to Three Broomsticks," he said smilingly.

"Where then?"

"Come on," he said. He walked through all the people and Riley followed. They reached an area with a fence, some trees, and nobody else. There was still snow around the school, Riley looked over to see what was over in the fence, it was the Shrieking Shack.

"It's peaceful," she said. "Unlike the rest of Hogsmeade."

"Yeah, you should've seen Three Broomsticks, it was absolutely crazy," Ralph said as he sat on the floor and leaned on one of the tree trunks. "How was your week?"

"It was good, nothing strange," she said. 'Except for the part where we took the wrong rat from the forest who was also an animagus. We were taking care of a werewolf,' she wanted to say. "How was yours?"

"Good," he said. "No pranks this week?"

"No," said Riley laughingly. "If you want us to make your hair go red, it would be a pleasure though." Ralph chuckled.

"No, thank you," he said as he laughed. "I'm sure I can live without my hair going red!"

"What do you do in your free time, anyways? You didn't really talk about yourself," said Riley as she raised an eyebrow. "Tell me about yourself, Ralph," she said.

"All right," he started. "I was born on the twenty-fourth of February. I'm a pureblood — not that I care about blood status, just letting you know — and my mum was a maledictus. She didn't actually die because of her blood curse, though. They haunted her down because they simply didn't want any beasts around. And then they killed her. I was four. I don't really tell that to everyone, I dunno why... It's not that I'm ashamed or anything."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know much about maledictuses... Does that mean you're one?"

"No, it only passes to someone's daughter from her mother. She hadn't transformed into an animal when she was killed." Ralph paused for a second. "I miss her."

"But now I'm fine. I was sorted into Slytherin. And my father is a great person. I try to make friends from different houses and different years, which doesn't always go well. And I hope to be an Auror. " he said. "Nothing much happened after my mum, it was just a normal childhood."

"That's good," Riley said. "Glad to know you're happy."

"So tell me about yourself, Riley," he said suddenly.

"Well— I was born on the sixteenth of November. My family is muggles. We're not very crowded, just me and my mum now. I'm a Gryffindor and on the quidditch team."

"I also tried out for the team as a keeper," said Ralph smilingly. "But I didn't get in, I'm quite horrible at quidditch, I don't even know why I tried to get in."

"Your team can't beat us anyways..." said Riley with a grin.

"Oi! There were games where we won!" said Ralph.

"We still got the cup," she said.

"Yeah..." he said. "That's true. And McGonagall really seems to be interested in quidditch. Someone told me that she used to play quidditch herself in Hogwarts!"

"Really?!" said Riley. "Wow, but for some reason, I can see young McGonagall playing quidditch..."

Riley chuckled and then continued.

"My sister was also a witch, was sorted in Ravenclaw. She was brilliant, really, she used to be a healer. And I looked up to her—" she paused and took a breath. "But then muggle school wasn't very easy either. Not the classes or anything, people tend to be— mean. I got beat up and punched by this girl very often, but then I got to beat her up last year, so that was something good!" she said with a laugh.

"Them not knowing magic doesn't make them any less scary, right?" asked Ralph. "I don't know why wizards don't like them, they are smart."

"Wow, this is the first time I'm hearing a Slytherin say this... Impressing, really!" she said.

"I don't discriminate people like that, that's horrible."

"Good to know!" Riley said with a grin.

"Go on, I'm listening," he said.

"Y'know what? The rest is just the same. Nothing different," she said nervously.

"Come on, I won't judge you for it," said Ralph. "We're just getting to know each other."

"Fine," she said. "In 1973, my dad was murdered, by death eaters. So, after that nothing was the same. In 1995, there was an attack on the hospital by the werewolves. And— Ivy died."

"Oh— I'm sorry—"

"No. It's fine. I'm fine, really."

"Really?"

"Really." She then smiled. "Look, I don't want to talk about it. That's just it."

"Okay," said Ralph. "Wanna go wander around here?" he then asked.

"Yeah, sure," said Riley.