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Genevieve had never felt so on-edge in her entire life. The sides of her fingers had red marks dinted in them from gripping her quill so tightly, her hair which had been so neatly curled and styled that morning had grown frizzy from gripping her roots out of anxiety and her limbs felt stiff for being fixed into a sitting position for so long.
"God my neck aches from craning over," Lily groaned to Genevieve while gathering up all of the tests that Flitwick had sent hurtling towards him.
"I'm pretty sure I'm forming a lump there," Genevieve added before pausing and breaking out into a grin, "Like Quasimodo!"
Lily looked Genevieve up and down, inspecting her head to toe before humming in agreement. "You would make a good hunchback."
"Of course I would," Genevieve scoffed in playful vanity, gathering her own stack of tests and handing them to Professor Flitwick.
"Thank you, girls! 10 points to Gryffindor for each of you," Flitwick smiled up at them before walking off, a floating stack of parchment trailing behind him.
Genevieve looked over at Lily, "What do we do now then?"
Lily went to open her mouth before Genevieve cut her off with a finger, noticing the look on her face. "Say study and I will bring down a wrath so fierce upon you that would make even Petunia look friendly."
"We need good grades!"
"We also need good mental health! My will to live decreases whenever you recommend we study," Genevieve nagged.
Lily looked out the window, her eyes following the rays of sun that shone brightly over the grounds of Hogwarts. "Well it's quite a sunny day, it would be a shame to let it go to waste," She started, grabbing Genevieve's hand and pulling her out of the hall.
"You're going to pull my arm out of it's socket," Gen complained as Lily indeed tugged her arm along.
"Let's hope I do," Lily grinned over her shoulder, flashing her perfectly straight and pearly white teeth.
"Watch your mouth, carrot top," Gen tugged her hand out of Lily's and sped up her walking pace so the two were now shoulder to shoulder.
"I'm going to pretend you never said that," Lily cautioned Genevieve.
"That's probably for the best."
Birds chirped around them as they made their way towards the outskirts of the Black Lake, breathing in the air around them that seemed so fresh and clean that they felt relaxed.
Eventually they made themselves comfortable on a grassy bit, laying on their backs with hair scattered around them as they watched the clouds drift by so smoothly. Their shoes and bags laid beside them.
Lily squinted her eyes up at the sky, spotting a deer shaped cloud that was slowly drifting apart so it now looked like nothing but a white smudge in the air.
"This is very..." Genevieve started, but she couldn't exactly find the right word.
"Peaceful?" Lily guessed, looking over at Genevieve's side profile.
"Awkward."
Lily giggled. "It is a bit awkward, isn't it?" she agreed.
"You would think it would be cute," said Genevieve plainly, "But it's so silent."
Lily laughed, her head tilting back upwards towards the sky. "I guess silence isn't our thing."
Genevieve snorted. "Remind me too never go sightseeing with you."
A large outburst of cheers sounded from a little bit over, making them both sit up and look over in the direction.
"Why is there a group over there?" Lily asked, her index finger pointing over at a forming group.
Genevieve's eyes widened when she realised where the cheers were coming from. Their tree. The tree herself and The Marauders would lounge around under whenever they felt they needed a break from being social, or they planned a new prank, or thought of new ways for James to win over Lily.
"For fucks sake," she grumbled under her breath, thousands of ideas popping into her head about what they could be possibly doing.
The problem with boys like Sirius and James was that they were the unknown. They were the definition of the unknowing, so she had not a clue what they could be doing. Remus and Peter both preferred more planned out and laid-back encounters to everything but that could easily change while being under the presence of the unknown.
Genevieve slipped her shoes back onto her feet and threw her bag over her shoulder, Lily doing the same and then running over to the huddle of people.
Genevieve pushed their way through people until they were at the front and couldn't help but instantly feel mad at the sight in front of her. It was like a switch inside of her flicked the other way and she couldn't flick it back.
Snape was practically choking as pink soapy bubbles streaming from his lips. Genevieve felt sick.
Sirius and James were taunting him mercilessly while Remus hid himself in the pages of his book. Peter was bouncing with excitement.
"Leave him ALONE!" Lily shouted with as much fury she could, her knuckles turning white from being clenched so tightly.
Genevieve would have chuckled at how he instantly ruffled his hair to appear more attractive, but right now she was trying to tame her own anger.
"All right, Evans?"
Genevieve presented her wand from where it was tucked into her skirts waistband and pointed it straight at James, and if you followed the tip of it you would see that it was aiming straight at his chest. "Leave him alone James. We both know I won't hesitate to hex you," she warned.
James showed no fear, although he most definitely was, but lowered his wand anyway. Snape grasped at his neck and spat out the left over soap in his mouth, grimacing deeply at the disgusting after taste.
"What has he ever done to you?" Lily spat out, her usual emerald eyes turning dark, almost as if her irises were slowly consuming them.
"Well, it's more the fact he exists, if you know what I mean..." James trailed off, smirking as his remark received a loud applause of laughter from the watchers. All except Remus, Lily and Genevieve.
Genevieve, who still had her wand pointed at James's chest in warning, spoke up in a tone much a like his mothers. "You're pushing your luck –"
"You think you're funny," Lily cut Genevieve off. "But you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone."
"I will if you go out with me," James quickly bargained. "Go on, go out with me and I'll never lay my wand on old Snivelly again."
Genevieve scoffed and threw her arms up in the air before lowering them again, her wand now pointed at the floor. "Always the charmer, aren't you, you bloody prat!" She mocked him.
"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid," Lily replied coolly.
Genevieve thought back to her reference at the start of the year while on the Hogwarts Express. And we are right once again, Genny she thought to herself.
"Bad luck, Prongs," Sirius tutted and turned back to Snape. "OI!"
Genevieve snapped her head around into the direction Sirius yelled, seeing Snape pick up his own wand that had been previously strewn across the floor and directed a nasty spell towards James.
James hissed and touched his cheek with the buds of his fingers before inspecting the blood on them. His face turned into a foul scowl and in not even a second later, Snape was hanging upside-down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of greying underpants.
Genevieve looked between James and Snape in shock as the people behind them roared with laughter. She was even positive she saw Lily's lips twitch before returning back into a thin line. Peter looked like he was about to burst from laughing so much.
Remus poked his head up from his book guiltily and made eye contact with Genevieve, silently apologising to her. Genevieve's eyes only glared back, and he could feel himself shrinking.
"Jesus Christ James, stop being a show off and put him down!" Genevieve snapped, although her wand still remained pointed down at the grass.
"Certainly," James grinned, and watched in spiteful amusement as Snape crumbled in a heap on the floor.
He shot back up into a fighting stance and was about to send his own hex towards James, but Sirius had already casted 'Petrificus Totalus' on him, leaving him to fall over quite harshly once again.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lily shouted, her own wand out.
Genevieve felt a sinister smirk crawl across her face as she saw both James and Sirius undermine their skills against such a powerful witch.
"Don't make me hex you, Lilyflower," James spoke earnestly, but Gen shook her head in disbelief at his empty threats.
"Take the curse off him, then!"
James did as she ordered reluctantly, muttering something about 'stubborn women' under his breath. It was taking everything in Genevieve not to clout him around the ear in front of everyone.
"There you go," he said as Snape struggled to his feet. "You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus –"
"I don't need help from filthy Mudbloods like her!"
Genevieve's face went blank at the name. Not for herself, but because she could feel Lily's own pain radiating from off her clothes and deep into the atmosphere.
Genevieve raised her wand at Snape, aiming straight for his head and rolled her shoulders back, preparing to cast the biggest hex she had ever performed in her life. Lily noticed this and put a gentle yet stern hand on top of the raised hand and shook her head.
"Fine," she said coolly, "I won't bother in future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."
"Apologise to Evans!" James roared at Snape, his wand pointed threateningly at him.
"I don't want you to make him apologise," Lily shouted, rounding on James. "You're as bad as he is."
"What?" James yelped, his eyes going wide. "I'd NEVER call you a – you-know-what!"
"Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing whoever annoys you just because you can – I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK."
Genevieve silently applauded Lily and watched as she walked away.
"Lilyflower!" James shouted after her. "Hey, LILYPAD!"
Lily didn't so much as spare a second glance in fear that everyone would see her crying, so instead she raised her middle finger and flipped him off from over her shoulder.
Genevieve watched as Sirius and James silently conversed before James once again hauled Snape into the air with an almost bored-like flick of his wrist.
"Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?" He shouted out to the crowd.
Before he could so much as blink, Genevieve had flicked her own wand and performed her own spell. With one upwards swoop, James's robes had came over his head, restricting him from sight and with another sideways swoop, James had been tripped up by his own feet and landed harshly on the floor with an elbow to his side.
"You will do no such thing," Genevieve spoke harshly through gritted teeth. She turned on her heel to face the crowd and raised her voice. "Get lost, all of you! I'm sure that was a good enough show!"
They all obliged quite quickly given her daring expression, all except Snape.
She grabbed him harshly by the neck of his robes, and although he was much taller than her and towered over her she was more than frightening right now.
"You've ruined the only true friendship you've ever had by your own ego and need to prove yourself."
"Get off me–"
"Don't go near Lily ever again. If you do, I'll have you do circus acts in the great hall much like a performing monkey. I'm more than positive that would be more embarrassing than what you've been through today,"Genevieve warned him, her eyes not straying away from his even as he attempted to squirm away from her surprisingly strong grasp.
"Now piss off." She let go of his robes and watched as he ran back in the direction of the castle, rubbing the sore parts of his body.
It had now gone awfully quiet. Gen loved how uncomfortable she was making them.
Genevieve looked down at the ground once Snape was no more than a black dot and reached for a pebble on the floor in front her. Swivelling herself around quickly, she launched the pebble straight at James's head.
James rubbed the spot on his head where it had hit, moaning ow's and drawing in sharp breaths dramatically.
"Why do you all never listen to me?" She spoke calmly, a tone of voice that put them all on edge.
"We do listen to you," Peter offered, but she spared not even a side-eye look to him and kept her glare on James.
Genevieve scoffed. "Clearly."
"Don't be so uptight, Genny," Sirius waved her off dismissively, making the anger that she had kept tamed finally release itself from her.
"Don't be so uptight?" Genevieve repeated in disbelief. "Don't be so fucking uptight?"
"Calm down, Gen," James looked at her hesitantly, bringing his arms up in a sign of surrender.
"No! Why must you always take things a step further than they need to go? You just humiliated Snape, and while I don't like him myself, do you see me throwing hexes at him?"
"It was only for a laugh, come off it," Sirius chuckled nervously, but his boyish smirk once dropped when he saw her start advancing towards him.
She lunged for him, sending them both plummeting further and further towards the Black Lake. Genevieve quite obviously had the upper hand as no matter how hard he attempted to push her off him, she remained wrestling him to the ground.
"This is abuse!" Sirius shouted theatrically.
"It's not abuse, it's discipline!" Genevieve shouted back.
Remus didn't want them both to fall in the lake because of their fighting antics. It would have been an amusing sight, but Sirius would constantly start complaining about his hair and he figured Genevieve wouldn't do well being soggy and angry at once.
Seeing as she was on top, he wrapped his arms around her waist and forcefully pulled her from Sirius, leaving her thrashing around in his grip.
"Get off me!" Genevieve ordered him, which he quite gladly accepted. She turned to James and pointed a finger at him. "You're an idiot, an absolute idiot! I should have strung you up in the air put your underpants on display!"
"Not to burst your bubble or anything, but I think most girls within that crowd would have liked that," James tried his best to make her crack a smile, but her medusa-like stare only kept burning holes into his skin.
Genevieve turned to both Remus and Peter."You two could have stopped them but you didn't."
"I'm sorry," Peter hurried his sentence out so it came out in one word. "Please don't be mad at me."
Peter didn't like it when people were mad at him. Seeing Genevieve, one of the only people who actually payed attention to him so enraged made him feel lonely.
"Too late for that, Pete," Genevieve raised her eyebrows and bit down on her tongue in order to stop herself calling him spineless.
Remus watched Genevieve with sad eyes, ones that longed to go back in time and rethink all of his actions. He wanted to tell her how he wished they would stop but he put his own selfish needs before anyone else's. Fearful he might loose his only friends for sticking up for Snape. But instead he stayed quiet.
"Lily probably needs me right now," Genevieve told them all and turned around to start walking towards the castle. She turned back around briefly to face them, her mouth agape like she wanted to say something more but she only closed it again, turned back around and carried on walking.
Should have just studied instead, she thought to herself.
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a/n: you guys have no idea how shamefully excited i have been to write this chapter.
thankyou thankyou thankyou for 1k votes and 24k reads already! to think i only started this book like three months ago is unbelievable.
i'm aware i have been posting as much, and for that i'm sorry for, but i've managed to get me grades up and finish uncompleted homework, which means you can all expect a lot more from me now. it's easter holidays in three days aswell, which means i should be posting a lot more.
also this has NOT been reread, so sorry if there are any errors.
thankyou, again!
chloe <3
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