Hollis felt completely alone at the Slytherin table for the sorting of the new first years. Usually, she would at least have Regulus with her to talk to or exchange annoyed glances at the rest of the people around them or Dumbledore with. Now, though, she had only Narcissa sitting next to her with an enormous amount of tension between them after the day at St. Mungo's when she had declined the offer for friendship.
Hollis looked past Lucius's head to see her six best friends sitting together, and wished she could join them.
Remus and Peter were whispering under their breaths about something while Lily and James were pointing at someone a little way down the table. Sirius and Marlene were both leaning against one another and fidgeting with the other's hands to cure their boredom.
Hollis was bored as well, and she decided to make the sorting more entertaining.
She slowly pulled her wand out of the interior of her emerald green robes as not to disturb anyone, and clenched her teeth slightly with concentration. A tiny, dark skinned first year walked up to the stool with a nervous shake in her small hands at what house she would be placed into.
The whole hall was silent except for a few small murmurs of conversation and the creak of students adjusting their positions on the wooden benches as she sat down on the stool, her feet not touching the stone ground.
Just as the Sorting Hat was about to open its mouth, Hollis flicked her wand and quickly slid it back into her robes to disguise she had been up to anything.
Instead of English as the wrinkled old hat opened its leather mouth, it was Swahili instead that came out.
"Bora kuwa Hufflepuff-"
The hat cut itself off as it noticed the different dialect coming from its mouth with confusion and more wrinkles than before.
A few shocked glances were exchanged, but Remus and James just grinned at each other.
"Kwanini siwezi kusema kwa Kiingereza?" the sorting hat asked in a questioning tone, but not a single person in the hall understood what it was saying.
Sirius turned around on the bench he was on next to Marlene to look at Hollis with raised eyebrows. It only took a few moments for her to look at the Gryffindor table again, only to see that the other five's glances had joined the Black's.
Hollis just shrugged innocently as if she had nothing to do with this interruption of the sorting. They all turned around beside Remus, whom she winked at one she was sure no one else was looking.
Remus tensed his jaw in order to keep from laughing at her creative idea before turning around to see the rest of the hall had burst out into laughter at the hat's predicament. The sound made Hollis grin, it was exactly what she had hoped for.
From the front of the enormous hall, McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Flitwick among many other professors were trying to suppress their laughter because they knew it would be inappropriate.
"Silence!" McGonagall said, a small smile twitching on her face. "Hollis Rosier, my office after sorting."
All heads that weren't already looking at the Slytherin girl now turned her way, making Peter and Marlene laugh even harder than they had already been.
Hollis's eyes widened in alarm at how easily McGonagall had been able to guess it was her out of the Marauders. That alarm quickly turned into a laugh as she saw James's admiring expression and Remus's amused shaking of his head.
"Sorry, professor!" Hollis shouted back with her hands cupped around her mouth, making the giggles in the Great Hall get louder. "Just thought the first years should know what they were getting into."
Her devious comment instantly served its exact purpose of making all of the eleven year olds bunch together tightly and pale their chubby faces in fear of what was in store for them.
McGonagall had to hold in a laugh herself as she unrolled the yellowed scroll of parchment and continued to read names after she had unenchanted the hat to speak in English again once more.
"We're an hour into being in the castle again and she already has a trip to McGonagall," Lily chuckled under her breath. "It's rather-"
"Admirable," James cut in. "I think that's honestly a record."
"You need to put on your badge," Lily declared, fishing her hand in James's robe pocket to dig out the shiny crimson and gold pin. "I have mine on"
James dramatically slammed his head down on the table.
"It should have been Remus!" he exclaimed. "Why me, I am not Head Boy material! Like, I just can't get you guys in trouble!"
Sirius giggled as Lily forcefully pinned the badge on his robes.
"Maybe you can actually keep us out of trouble," he said mischievously. "To get out of punishment."
"And I'll just get you right back in it," Lily retorted quickly. "Some of the things you five do are dangerous."
"Hollis!" Sirius yelled, a sudden idea occurring to him. "You have to control over her, she's not in your house."
Lily set her head on the table next to James's.
"Who are the Head Boy and Girl anyway?" Remus asked, looking at where Hollis was using her wand to levitate a bunch of grapes to slowly drop through the Bloody Barron just to annoy him, and because she was bored.
"Lucius and Narcissa," Peter said sourly, having seen them bossing around a bunch of prefects earlier. "Creepy couple, creepy house, creepy job."
"They sort of look like siblings," Marlene said contemplatively, making Sirius snort with laughter and aggressively kiss her on the cheek. "I mean, their child would be ugly as hell."
"Yea, imagine a pasty little Malfoy lurking around," James added on with an exaggerated gagging motion. "Ew."
"Aren't you guys all related?" Lily asked with a raised ginger eyebrow as she took a bite of her peas.
"Purebloods?" Remus clarified, and the redhead nodded.
"I mean, sort of," Sirius said, scratching the back of his head. "If you go back far enough. Plus, I would bet a shit ton of us are lying, no way the Sacred Twenty-eight are all really pure. But if you say a lie long enough, it sticks."
Just as they were about to all turn their heads back around, Narcissa said something to Hollis that must have obviously been very offensive to either her or one of the Gryffindors from the expression on the Rosier's face.
It only took a few seconds for Hollis to get up angrily, slamming her silver fork down angrily on the mahogany table with a rattle and stalk over to Remus.
They quickly made room for her between the light auburn haired boy and James, both amused and concerned.
"Well that worked longer than expected," Marlene said slyly. "Sirius and I had a bet you would only last for five minutes."
"What did she say?" Peter prompted curiously.
"That Lily didn't deserve to be Head Girl," Hollis muttered, clenching her fists. "So I told her to shove her pin up her ass so that it would touch her head that was also stuck down there."
James sprayed out part of his water in shock, and Remus let out a warm, full laugh.
"That, the hat speaking Swahili, and carving our initials into the train," Remus said, listing the things on his fingers. "We've been here for less than a day."
"And she's seeing McGonagall," Peter added on, making Hollis stick out her tongue at the blonde boy.
"You call it bad, I call it achievements," Hollis declared proudly. "I don't intend on making the last year here a peaceful one that no one's gonna remember."
Remus grinned and kissed her on the cheek. He would simply never get tired of her endless stream of mischief, even if it seemed to get them all in more trouble than necessary.
"Okay, can someone explain to me why my book has like twenty more pages than the school year ended with?" Marlene asked with a suspicious raised eyebrow as she set down her gold fork. "What on earth did you get into?"
James narrowed his eyes at Hollis and Remus.
"That's right, you two," he said sharply. "Would you mind sharing with the group what you got into?"
Hollis coughed as she choked on her pumpkin juice, while Remus sighed deeply and ran his hand down his face.
"I think she means the whole summer, not just-"
"Not just what?" Sirius shouted dramatically, standing up from the bench with gusto. "NOT JUST WHAT?"
Reaching across the table in panic, Hollis grabbed Sirius's hand and tried to pull him back down, but to no avail.
"Not just that you two FINALLY-"
A flying bread roll made stale by a crafty Aging Charm expertly performed by Hollis hit Sirius directly in the eye, cutting him off.
"That was not necessary."
"It most certainly was," Remus replied, wrapping his arm around Hollis's shoulders. "Good aim."
"Don't congratulate her aim," James huffed, crossing his arms. "Slytherin quidditch captain."
"Filthy Gryffindor."
"Arrogant pureblood."
"Reckless Potter."
"Pretentious Rosier."
The other five seventh years watched in amusement as Hollis and James went back and forth for a solid five minutes before some first years at the Ravenclaw table started to overhear the new vocabulary being used and Lily shushed them.
"You two are children," Remus said with his brows furrowed yet a smile on his face. "Two toddlers."
James and Hollis high fived with a loud smack.
"You should come to the common room with us," Remus declared, and all the other Gryffindors nodded along.
"No, that is not a good idea," Hollis said firmly, shaking her head. "Everyone here thinks I'm evil. And I don't blame them."
She wasn't wrong.
There were rumors of her being under the Imperius Curse, none of which had been confirmed and many people had thought were too extreme to be true. Her reputation as a true Rosier from the last few months of their sixth year was going to be hard to shake off. This was one of the reasons she had already played so many innocent, light pranks this year.
Hollis wanted to escape her last name again.
"They don't think you're evil," Marlene scoffed, looking behind her.
A group of second year Hufflepuffs were glaring at Hollis.
"Okay, yea so maybe-"
"It's fine!" Sirius interrupted, giving the blunt blonde a pointed look. "We know you're not, and that's all that matters."
"Fine," Hollis said with a sigh. "But-"
"No buts," Remus said confidently, grabbing her hand gently as they got up from their table. "You are coming and that's it."
"I swear to Merlin, only five full sentences have been gotten out tonight," Lily said truthfully. "Our knack for interrupting people is just getting more and more frequent."
The seven of them happily bantered back and forth for several minutes until they finally reached the Fat Lady.
"Password?" the plump, pale woman asked with a bored face.
"Abstinence," Peter said clearly, and the portrait hole flew open.
It was very similar to the Slytherin common room, except for everything that was cold, black, and emerald, the colors were instead warm, gold, and crimson. Hollis stopped in the doorway as Remus helped her climb through, slightly in awe of the room. The only time she had ever been here before, she was half asleep and in no state to think clearly.
"We aren't that bad," James said with a cheeky grin, and Hollis just rolled her eyes and flopped down on a well worn cushy orange couch.
Remus and Sirius piled in on either side of her, making Hollis feel even safer.
"What is she doing in here?"
That feeling quickly evaporated.
"Okay, listen up!" Sirius shouted, standing from the couch along with James, Peter, and Remus.
All heads turned to the five Marauders.
"As many of you know, this is Hollis," Remus said with a falsely unannoyed tone. "And if any of you are little gits about her being here again, you might as well just leave."
"But she's a Rosier!" shrilly cried a ginger fourth year. "She doesn't belong here!"
"She's braver than any Gryffindor," James spat at the boy. "So piss off before I hex you."
The entire common room went silent, and Remus smiled tersely.
"Carry on."
When they sat back down, Hollis was blushing furiosly with her face in her hands.
"Uhm, thank you, but you didn't have to do that," she whispered as she leaned into Remus's chest.
"We did," Remus answered without hesitancy.
"Why?"
"Because you matter more."
The pale boy and short girl fell asleep together on the couch with the crackling of the fire and each other to warm them.
Hollis and Remus Stole the Couch - 1977
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