Written In the Stars | s.b |

FIFTY-EIGHT

The group cheered, Dylan rolling her eyes but trying hard not to smile. "You guys are so weird..."

"Okay, okay!" Remus called. "Peter - get them to stop."

Peter blew the trumpet once more, bringing the rest of the group to a silence. Ariah tensed at the sudden blaring noice, causing a cautious eye from Meeka.

"Thank you," Remus said. "Now, the rest of todays meeting will be going over the rules of our day of pranks.

"It will last from twelve p.m this afternoon until twelve p.m tomorrow. Whoever is pranked will be out — this room is the only safe zone — the winner of the day of pranks will be crowned king or queen of the marauders for the year. The winner will then be allowed to come up with an action the losers must do every time the winner says the phrase....."

Remus sighed. "Hungry like the wolf.... is that really what we're going with?"

"Yes!" Everyone chorused.

"You guys are the worst," Remus mumbled. "Whatever. It's twelve, let the games begin!"

Everyone began to bolt out of the room, preparing for these next twenty-four hours. Ariah watched everyone run out of the room, calling Sirius to stay behind. James and Peter gave wolf whistles and hoots before leaving the couple.

"I wanted to see how you were doing," Ariah said. "Make sure you were okay - I haven't really talked to you since New Years."

Sirius stared at the ground, biting his lower lip. Ariah fought back the urge to tune into his emotions. Was it so wrong to want to understand how her boyfriend was feeling? She supposed it didn't matter what she thought, if he found it intrusive then she would respect him.

"Wait.... how do I know this isn't some prank...?" Sirius asked, slowly looking up at her.

Ariah rolled her eyes. Deflection. He was deflecting.

"Sirius we're in the safe zone," she said. "I can't check in on my boyfriend after he had a traumatic experience?"

"Exactly what you would say to throw me off trace," he said, backing up out of the room. "Well, I'm not falling for —"

Sirius suddenly fell back on his butt, hitting the ground with the third.

"Looks like you did," Ariah said with a smirk, nodding to his shoes, which were tied together. She wiggled her wand.

"But — safe zone!" Sirius exclaimed.

"You're not in it anymore," she said, walking to stand over him. "Maybe you should have just talked about your emotions."

"I'll get my revenge next year," Sirius pouted.

"Awe. You're so cute Sirius," she cooed, ruffling his hair with her hand before walking off to potions.

"Wait up ya bully!" Sirius called, frantically untying his shoes. He took off, running frantically to Ariah's side.

By the time they reached potions, Sirius, Peter and Lily were out, leaving Ariah, Remus, James, Meeka and Dylan in the running. The classroom was quiet as they all worked on the pre-exam in preparations for the O.W.L's. Ariah was sure she wouldn't get higher than an Acceptable but considering her potions tutor no longer spoke to her boyfriend, she might just receive a fat P. Of course, there was Lily -- but Ariah quickly found out the hard way that, though Lily was excellent in potions, she did not have the gift of teaching it. Lily teaching Potions was as humorous as thinking of Severus Snape as a professor.

Ariah chortled to herself as she threw in eye of Newt into her cauldron,. Suddenly, an explosion from her cauldron interrupted the  silent classroom. Kids in the class began to chuckle loudly as they took in Ariah covered in the green potion. But Ariah, after jolting out of her chair, was frozen in sheer terror.