Too Honest ~ James Potter

Chapter 37

"That is fascinating magic." Lily exclaimed, her voice a combination of confusion and awe. "Where did you get it?"

Mariya smiled even wider at her enthusiasm, "It's from a small shop in Ukraine, my Dad used to buy it for me when I was a kid because he thought that it was far funnier when my mother couldn't understand what we were writing about. Though admittedly, he was far less impressed when she started using it with me too."

"That is incredible!" Lily was inspecting the parchment from as many angles as possible as though trying to see if there were any flaws in the spells that would let her read it.

"I could probably get some for you next time I go to Ukraine." Mariya offered, before seeing that the other witch was itching to draw her wand and saying, "You are welcome to try any spell you like. If you find one that works, I will report back and they will find a way to fix the error."

Lily grinned at her and the rest of their break was spent with her casting spells at the parchment whilst Mariya happily considered her impending date with James. Soraya had managed to persuade Mattai to join her in her daisy-chain making and he had proven himself more than adequate at the task. So much so that by the time they were standing to leave, everyone bar the Ravenclaw boy - who had angrily exclaimed that he was above such things before going back to his sulk - was wearing a flower crown.

The group had continued to make good progress by the time they reached lunchtime and Mariya knew that after the break they would be getting on to her part of the course. This would mean that she couldn't really help so much as she had in the morning and that Lily would probably have to team up with the Ravenclaw - who she had found out was called Oliver - for most of the afternoon.

The hall was already packed when they arrived, most students having decided to take a break and enjoy the company of their friends for a while before continuing. There were a few empty spots which Mariya presumed belonged to those people who wouldn't stop until something was done. Unfortunately for them, they would soon find that the Marauders had anticipated this reluctance to stop and had so limited their ability to continue by making every clue lead them to the hall once more than half of the school had stopped.

As their group split up, Mariya and Lily both began to walk towards the Gryffindor table. However, whilst Lily moved further up the table and collapsed into a seat in between Marlene McKinnon and Alice Fortescue, Mariya dropped onto the bench beside Jasper - who seemed to find himself sitting at the Gryffindor table more often than the Ravenclaw one - and across from James. She gave him a smile and a nod as she sat down and his eyes lit up with a sparkle she had never seen before. Remus clearly also saw this look as he cast her an inquisitive gaze that might as well not have happened for all the attention she paid to him.

"Could you pass me the croissants, Sirius?" Mariya asked and the boy frowned at her request before picking up the plate and holding it closer to him.

"No quiero (I don't want to)." He grumbled petulantly in Spanish, making Mariya scrunch up her nose and narrow her eyes at him grumpily.

"No me importa (I don't care)." She responded flatly and held out her hand to take the dish. Sirius simply moved it further away to inconvenience her.

"¿Por qué habláis en español? (Why are you speaking in Spanish?)" Jasper asked, not seeming to struggle at all with the other language. Nobody in the group had heard him speak a language other than French and English before though so they were all rather surprised, a fact that was emphasised by James's following exclamation.

"You speak Spanish‽" He asked incredulously, his voice about an octave higher than usual and his eyes wide.

"Sí, es mi tercera lengua." He answered before going back to his own lunch like it was nothing.

James spluttered incoherently for another few minutes before rolling his eyes at his cousin and picking up his own plate of food. Mariya took advantage of Sirius's distracted state to lunge forward and grab the plate of croissants from his grip, the boy making a noise both surprised and irritated as he realised that he was no longer holding the pastries. Dropping a few onto her plate, Mariya offered it back to him and started to eat.

"How are your groups?" She asked as she took a bite, looking around at the five boys surrounding her.

"Well Wormtail and I are on the same team," Remus answered as he reached for another ring of pineapple from the pile in the middle of the table. "We are paired with quite a few people from the lower school but they have got a few things that we haven't noticed. It is difficult to answer some of them because we know each other so well that one sentence could mean multiple things, but we haven't reached either of our sections of the castle yet and it will be much more difficult letting the other students do most of the puzzles without any help."

"I quite like my group," Jasper offered, "I didn't really know any of them before today but I have been making good friends with a few of them, especially one Slytherin boy from our year."

"Really?" Mariya asked, surprised by this development but glad that the Treasure Hunt was inspiring inter-house relationships. "Which one?"

"Him." Jasper answered, pointing out across the crowded hall. All of the Marauders and Mariya craned their necks to see who he was gesturing to and were shocked to see the slightly greasy head of black hair that they all knew very well.

Turning back to Jasper incredulously, they all exclaimed at once.

"Snape‽"