June 2nd - Great Hall
Exams were halfway over, yet that face had done nothing to deter Lily and Tony, both of which had taken it upon themselves to force the rest of their less-than-studious friends to sit down and do some work.
Sirius Black's loose panther incident was the only thing people could talk about, some students swearing they could still hear Filch's screams echoing around the corridors.
At the moment, they were eating lunch after a long and tiring history of magic exam, or at least, most of them were.
"How many lines did you write for question four?" asked a frantic Lily, sorting through her notes "Merlin, I could've written more, I'm sure of it,"
"About half a parchment length, but my letters are rather small," answered Tony, his eyes scanning over one of his books about the Goblin uprisings
The rest of the Gryffindors, the Slytherin and the Hufflepuff had learned to tune it out, knowing that by that point it was borderline dangerous to interrupt the duo.
"Alright, on three, we silence them," whispered Marlene to Nephera
"Someone's going to have to immobilize them afterward, they'll be out for blood," replied the Slytherin
"I can see why you're always the one to come up with the plans," Marlene then turned to Alice and Ellie "Once we silence them, you immobilize them, got it?"
The pixie-haired witch and the Hufflepuff looked at them as though they were crazy, which they probably were. Once they got over their initial hostility with one another, it was proven that Marlene and Nephera were a less than favorable combination, Nephera's slight madness and megalomania complimented Marlene's complete lack of self-preservation rather well.
"Lily, love," tried James "What did we talk about, concerning exams and going over them afterward?"
The redhead and the Ravenclaw glared at him, "That whatever happened, happened, and we can't change it," she grumbled
"Exactly!" exclaimed Sirius "Now, let's focus on what is really important, me,"
"Merlin," muttered Peter "Go on, Padfoot, what is it this time?"
The raven-haired boy looked around, as though to make sure that no one was listening, "My hair's been slightly flat the past couple of days, I reckon someone's cursed him,"
The only response that sentence received was two bread rolls in the face, courtesy of Ellie, and a cup of water thrown over his head by Remus.
"No, no, I want to hear his logic on this," intervened Nephera "Go on,"
"Well, this morning, I woke up, right?"
"Fascinating,"
"Shut up Moony. So I wake up this morning, and my hair was perfect, like it always is, right?"
"Was he always like this, or is this a recent development?" asked Tony, and Peter just shrugged
"But then, ten seconds later," continued the raven-haired boy, as though he hadn't heard them "It looked like this! I mean it's still great-"
"I am just going to go ahead and ignore that," interrupted Peter, shaking his head and recognizing that it was probably his fault for asking in the first place, "Three more exams to go, and Ellie, I'm going to need help with charms,"
The blonde perked up, and it wasn't hard for Nephera to notice the eagerness in her best friends' eyes, "Of course, Pete," she nodded, "Library after lunch?"
Nephera and Tony locked eyes, identical, snake-like smirks on their faces. She motioned with her head towards Peter and Ellie, and he nodded slightly to show that he agreed with the silent plan they had formed.
"I think we should practice DADA, the practical, while they're working on Charms," shrugged Tony "Duels in the Room of Requirement for the rest of us?"
The others all nodded, excited to have something to do other than stare at books for the entire afternoon.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" exclaimed Ellie "There's a music festival in my town, at the end of June. The rest of my family will be visiting relatives, so they'll be out of the house, you're all welcome to come stay for a week,"
Tony, being the only one that had visited Ellie's house before, jumped in, "It's great there, there's a beach and everything. Nephera and I have already said we're going,"
"Count us in too," said James, motioning towards Sirius, who all of a sudden couldn't wait until the end of June and spending more time with the Slytherin
"I'll be in France with Frank at the time," said Alice, pouting slightly while Peter made a joke about how 'Frank' and 'France' sound too much alike
"I'll be there," muttered Marlene "Anything to get away from that piece of shit I have to call a brother,"
"Oh, come on he's not that bad," commented Lily, before promising to ask her parents about it
In the end, everyone, with the exception of Alice, promised to either be there or ask their parents first. Nephera was ecstatic, she would never admit it out loud, but the rowdy group of Gryffindors had grown on her tremendously over the year, and she couldn't help but think about how much different her life was now than it was nine months ago.
All of a sudden, the same floating feeling returned, and someone ordered her to stand up on the table. She strengthened her occlumency, and locked eyes with the Headmaster, who was sitting at the center of the teachers' table. Shaking her head to show him that she wouldn't be doing that, she tuned back into the conversation.
However, the slightly annoyed and concerned face of the wizard didn't escape her. There was no reason for Dumbledore to be either of those things unless of course, he wasn't happy with how easily she could resist the curse.
That didn't make any sense, however, because it was his idea in the first place. if anything, he should be happy about it.
"Neph?" muttered Tony from his spot next to her
"I'll tell you later," she replied, and then turned back into what the others were saying "Sirius, I swear to Salazar, one more thing about your hair and I'll personally shave it all off myself,"
"You wouldn't dare," he gasped
"Oh, but I would," she smirked
"I wouldn't test her mate, she really would do it if you annoy her enough," added James
Later that evening, everyone, except for Ellie and Peter, was in the Room of Requirement. At that moment, Lily was practicing stunning spells on James, since she had never been able to get the hang of them. Unfortunately, this entailed that James had to be thrown across the room multiple times.
"Alright, I think you've got it," he grunted, standing up and rubbing his back
"Not yet, we'll be asked to stun a dummy, you know. It has to be perfect," replied the redhead "Go again, stand in front of me,"
The curly-haired boy turned his gaze towards the rest of them, who had given up on casting spells and were now simply enjoying the sight of James falling down multiple times, "Can one you go?"
A chorus of 'no', 'no way', and 'this is too much fun to watch', met his ears and he shook his head.
"I can always get a first-year or something," suggested Nephera "They're all pretty scared of me, they'll do anything I say,"
"Nephera no," grunted Ellie
"Nephera yes," replied James "I'm going to need to go to Madame Pomfrey after this, just saying,"
The Slytherin made a move to stand up, presumably to go grab some innocent first-year, but Sirius stopped her by wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her back down.
"Let's not turn children into test subjects," he sighed, taking the book Nephera was reading out of her hand and flicking through it
James noticed the action and motioned to Remus, who smirked in response. It was no secret to everyone, except Sirius himself, how much being friends with the Slytherin had changed him. Last year, the sight of a book was enough to send him running the other way, but now, the boy was not only reading but was reading some of Nephera's old grimoires she had taken from the manor, most of which were written in Latin.
"Oh please, with the way she's throwing the Stupefys," grunted Marlene "It barely tickles, no offense Lils,"
The redhead merely stunned her in response, Marlene flying off of the armchair and on the floor, "Fine, fine, you've made your point,"
The Slytherin looked away from the two Gryffindors fighting, and to the one next to her, who was absentmindedly drawing circles on her legs, which were draped over his lap, "Interested?" she asks, motioning towards the book
The boy merely nods, "What is it? It looks like a fairytale, from what I can translate at least,"
"I suppose it's considered as fiction," she explained, "But it talks about the origins of the Fae, their society, everything,"
"You believe in fairies? Nephera 'Slytherin Princess' and 'All things Dark Magic' Winchester, believes in fairies?"
The brunette scowled, taking the old book and hitting him over the head with it, "Not fairies, you dick, Fae. Magic beings which, according to the book, live in a realm different than ours, and have access to powers, plants, animals, all uncknown to wizards,"
"It's a fairytale, Nephera," he insists, trying to fight a laugh
"And muggles believe magic to be the stuff of fiction, and yet here we are," she mused "Besides, it could be interesting, wouldn't you think? Being with them, learning about them..."
"How are you not a Ravenclaw?" he huffed, rolling his eyes at the same time Remus lets out a yelp of pain as Tony shot him with a stinging jinx
"Because I'm only interested in knowledge when it can benefit me in some way," she raised an eyebrow "Someone should stop them from actually hurting each other," she cocked her head towards Marlene and Lily, who had now started a full-fledges duel after Marlene had recovered from the stunning spell
"Let them, I want to see where this is going," he replied cheekily
Nephera continued to read silently, Sirius draping an arm around her wait and pulling her closer to him, telling himself that it was only so he could read the book better, and ignoring the way his fingers seemed to burn whenever they touched the cold skin of her calf.
Unlike the girl, who had payed close attention to what her tutors, who had been hired by her parents before she started Hogwarts, had taught her, the boy rarely paid attention to those lessons. Right now, he slightly regretted that, for he couldn't help but feel embarrassed every time she had to translate a sentence for him, to the point where she had given up and was simply translating the entire passage out loud, reading in a soft voice.
Neither of them were actually practicing the spells that they had to study for the practical part of the DADA exam, but they didn't care much either, they didn't need practice anyways.
"Padfoot, stop cuddling with Nephie and duel with me, I need the practice," came James's voice, piercing through the bubble of calm that they had created
Sirius shot him an annoyed look, but took Nephera's legs off of his lap nevertheless, deciding to make his friend pay for his comment by levitating him into a wall.
The brunette felt slightly cold now that she didn't have Sirius's hands on her, but shook it off and stood up as well, walking towards Tony. The thought of Dumbeldore's annoyed face after she had resisted the curse hadn't left her mind, and since Tony had noticed her perplexed face during lunch, she knew he'd ask about it at some point anyways.
"Tony," she called, and motioned for him to come closer, Remus leaving to aid Sirius in hexing James
"Is this about Lunch?" he asked, and the girl nodded, taking a seat on one of the armchairs that appeared in the corner of the room
"Dumbledore has been casting the curse on me at random times lately, and I've gotten better at it now so I can resist it instantly," she explained
"That's good, right?"
"It is, of course it is. The problem's that he doesn't look too happy about it,"
The Ravenclaw frowned, his eyes scanning over his best friend's face. He had never liked Dumbledore, nor the way he presented himself as a "savior" to every student passing through Hogwarts. The old wizard was mysterious, speaking in riddles in order to appear wizer than he was.
"Why wouldn't he be happy about it? I mean, it's obviously a good thing if you-know-who can't control you, right?"
"That's what I'm saying, he should be ecstatic," she sighed Especially considering how much I know about the order she thought to herself
"I've told you once, I'll say it again Neph," he mused "Beware of old, white men in power,"
The girl laughed, shaking her head at the simplicity of the boy's words, but the question still remained, and the atmosphere around them turned somber again.
"Could it be," Tony stopped, gathering his thoughts, "Could he be scared of you? I mean, resisting the imperius curse, it's not easy. Grown ass Aurors struggle with that,"
Nephera thought of the possibility, and it certainly seemed probable. She knew that she reminded him too much of Riddle when he was a teenager, and Dumbledore had later on admitted it himself, so it wouldn't be too crazy of an assumption. However, she was certain that the Headaster knew there was no way of her flipping over to the Dark Side, or else he wouldn't have introduced her to the order. Besides, one of her best friends' was muggleborn, so unless she had been planning to deceive everyone since she was eleven years old, the Headmaster had no reason to suspect her as a spy or anything of the sort.
She couldn't, however, tell the Ravenclaw all of that, due to the fact that Tony was still in the dark about the existence of the Order, "But why? I mean, Voldemort is after me, so unless he thinks I've gone all 'dark side' on him..."
"I think he realized that you're much smarter and stronger than people realize," explained the boy, "And there's also the fact that you don't trust him, it makes you uncontrollable,"
Nephera looked at him, thinking about what he said. It made sense, if she really looked at the general picture of things. Dumbeldore was a man that would do anything to win the war, even if that meant sacrificing all those around him, and that attitude relied on the fact that everyone trusted and followed him blindly.
Nephera had time and time again shown him that she wouldn't be tricked, nor would she follow anyone's orders without questioning them first. That could certainly put a dent in his reputation, the fact that a mere teenager was questioning the 'Great and Wise Albus Dumbledore'...
She shook her head, coming to the conclusion that if she were to win that war, she would have to expand her own connections, her own alliances, right under the nose of the Headmaster.
And she had the perfect idea of where to start, and who to ask first, the question was when to make the proposal.
A/N
2.6k words
the plot thickens *evil laugh* I'm very excited for where this story is going
also, I've realized that I suck at writing fluffy scenes, and I'm trying really hard to naturally ease into the romance between the two, but yeah it's hard
don't forget to comment and vote!
xx