2nd of December, 1971
Riley shifted in her seat, trying to get closer to the fireplace as she was writing her Potions essay.
"Oi, Spade, can you help me with my essay too? You are good at potions and I don't understand this topic—" Sirius said as he brought an empty parchment and sat next to Riley.
"Fine. But you'll help me with Transfiguration, McGonagall always deducts points off of my essays for some reason," Riley said. "Are you going home for Christmas?" she asked.
"Er — well, it's complicated," Sirius said looking down.
"What do you mean?"
"See — they're a bit scary. They like to punish me, they favor my brother a lot though. Perfect Regulus! 'You'll never be like him, Sirius!' Ugh, freaks..." Sirius said.
"I'm sorry I didn't know," Riley said softly.
"S'okay," Sirius said. "Did you see Lupin around today? It's night and he's still not here."
"I don't know, he was a bit moody today, but look at the moon, isn't it beautiful, I've always liked the full moon, it looks so magical," Riley said.
"Maybe he's just stargazing downstairs, wait until McGonagall gives him detention for sneaking out... He must really love the moon."
Riley finished her essay and set the paper down. The common room was very peaceful that night. It was a Thursday and everyone was either completing homework or reading books.
Riley took a piece of parchment and started copying down Sirius' notes on it. As promised, he had given him his notes for Transfiguration.
"Oi, I have news, very good news!" James came into the common room as he sprinted towards the two.
"What? Did you find Lupin?" Sirius asked excitedly.
"No, but I haven't seen him after Transfiguration, he looked sad but — Black! Stop ruining the fun!" James said as he sat. Sirius seemed a bit disappointed.
"Stop babbling and tell the damn news already Potter!" Riley said impatiently.
"Blimey Spade... Anyways, so, you know that greasy git Snape? His hair turned red! He looks like a Gryffindor, like the Prewetts! Apparently, someone slipped something in the bathrooms, professors say that it is a complicated spell but he looks so absurd and funny. I want to take a picture and frame it so I can give it to him as a present, can you imagine the look on his face?!" James exclaimed. Sirius covered his mouth and was laughing hard. Riley had a smile on her face.
"Actually, I think I know who did it..." Riley said still smiling.
"Who?! I want to get their autograph!" James said.
"I might have slipped some muggle hair dye in the bathrooms by some help from that ghost there..." Riley said. James' eyes went big and he looked shocked, almost astonished. Sirius was jumping up and down in his seat muttering.
"What — How?! You have to teach us how that works, Spade! It was brilliant!" James said smiling.
"It was easy, I did it to my sister once, I slipped blue hair dye in her shampoo bottle and she looked so funny for like a week, the dye isn't permanent. I was so annoyed at him! He kept teasing me about everything! How I'm a muggle-born, how I messed up a potion in class, how I'm a Gryffindor, and lager shit. So I was so annoyed and just wanted to get revenge in a way he wouldn't understand it was me," Riley said confidently.
"That's absolutely amazing! We have to do this pranking thing more — it will be so funny, imagine us getting very good at it and we would be unstoppable! The whole school would be talking about our pranks! Just think about it..." Sirius said while his eyes sparkled with joy and excitement.
***
Riley added more ingredients to her potion after Slughorn taught everyone how to make a more complex potion. She was very focused but was distracted as the door opened with a creak.
"Professor, sorry I'm late," Remus Lupin said as he entered the classroom. He looked very exhausted, and Riley noticed a scar on his face as well as his hand.
She had noticed that Remus had scars the first day they met on the train, but they looked as if they had increased. Riley squinted her eyes, then shook her head and realized that Remus was coming their way.
"Where on earth have you been all day yesterday?" Riley asked as she whispered so that nobody else could hear them.
"My mum was sick I had to go home, I didn't sleep at night," Remus answered.
"Oh — I'm sorry, I hope she gets well soon, but what's up with the scars?" Riley asked. She felt a bit bad for directing a lot of questions at him at once but she couldn't help herself.
"Floo network is a bit tricky and I ended up in a different spot than I was supposed to," he answered. He was talking very fast that Riley sensed something was off.
"Oh, I see," Riley answered with a confused look.
"Can I take your notes from yesterday? I don't wanna fall behind on classes, exams are soon," he asked kindly. Riley replied with a quick "sure!" and looked back down at her potion.
"Why is Snape's hair different? It isn't as dark as it was before, it sorta looks brown—"
"I'll explain later, trust me," Riley said smiling.
They got out of Potions, it was by far the hardest class Riley has ever been in since the year started. She went to the owlery to see if her sister had left her a letter from last week. She went up to the tower and saw a couple of owls standing in an almost perfect line.
She knew a specific owl which she called "Ollie." She didn't know if it was even someone's owl but it looked cute. It was a tawny owl with flashing black eyes, it had brown feathers and was smaller compared to the other ones.
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Dear Riley,
I'm sorry I couldn't reply earlier, but the hospital has been hectic lately that I can barely go home and rest. There were a lot of death eater attacks, and I won't lie Riley but I can't help but get scared. There are a lot of patients coming in after being tortured or being cursed and... I won't get too much into this Rey. I missed you, see you on Christmas.
Love, V
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She felt joy seeing her sister's neat handwriting. She loved how she called her "Rey" and how she called herself "V". They were nicknames they called each other when they were very little — at least when Riley was very little. She couldn't speak properly and she was muttering words when she called her "V".
She made her way to the library and picked her books for over the holiday. She wandered around the hall when she found a section named "Magical Creatures." She looked for the specific book she wanted and stopped when she saw the letter "W" marked on the shelf.
She ran her finger through the books and grabbed the book named "Werewolves, General Knowledge For School Years."