✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
Remus didn't know if he had done something wrong. He didn't think he had done anything wrong. It might have just been him overthinking, the usual case scenario, but how could he not when Sirius, James and Genevieve had spent nearly the whole carriage ride huddled together
while sharing low whispers and the occasional spurt of laughter.
Peter didn't seem to mind too much, he was more angry about the fact that he had already eaten his supply of sweets from the trolley lady. Instead of munching down on a cauldron cake or a chocolate frog, he was sat picking at his nails and letting out the the occasional bored sigh.
Finally getting annoying with the inaudible nattering between the three, Remus leaned forward and asked, "What are you all talking about?"
The whispering came to a stop suddenly and all three of them whipped their heads around to look at Remus with the most innocent yet guilty smiles plastered on their faces.
"Just talking about Quidditch," James answered for them all with a shrug as Genevieve and Sirius nodded and hummed in agreement.
Remus raised his eyebrow and nodded, unconvinced. "Right."
"We reckon that James will be team captain this year with Emmie gone and everything," Genevieve informed Remus, carrying on with the lie.
In reality, they had been conversing on the most efficient method of sneaking out the Great Hall without anyone noticing — including Remus.
"Well he is the best chaser that Hogwarts has ever seen," Peter chimed in thoughtfully.
"Don't go boosting his ego, Pete," Genevieve warned Peter, watching the way James's mouth slowly quirked up into a smug smirk out the corner of her eye. "You know what he's like."
James laughed. "Too late, Gingy. It's already been said."
He laughed again as she sent a crude gesture his way.
"Hang on. If James is the best chaser." Sirius turned to look at Peter, a hunter finding it's prey and locking its target. "Then who is the best beater?"
A small whistle came from James as he leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms and awaiting the definite chaos to unfold.
Peters attention steered from his fingernails to Sirius instantly, then to Genevieve, and then back to Sirius. Face flushed with a bright shade of pink, Peters voice cracked as he said a small and uneasy, "What?"
"Don't be afraid Pete." Genevieve smiled in a way that appeared as sweet but her eyes gave away the innocent facade. They were manipulating, threatening even, and far more intimidating than her usual soft ones. "Who is the best beater?"
A throaty, strained laugh released from Peter as he tried his hardest to not answer. "I can't answer that one, too many good players."
"But you must have a favourite." Genevieve said, tilting her head curiously.
While Remus watched Peter become more undone by the second, he noticed how easily the conversation had been steered away from his original question.
What on earth were they whispering about?
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
"Please tell me you cursed Petunia at least once." Was the first thing Genevieve said to Lily as she plopped herself down in the seat next to her at the Gryffindor table.
A hand rose to Lily's mouth as she let out a harmonious laugh, causing a slight chuckle to emerge from Genevieve as well.
That was something Gen had noticed about Lily during their first year – her laugh was more contagious then any deadly disease she could think of.
"I wish I could say I did," Lily confessed regretfully with a long sigh following her sentence.
Genevieve didn't try to conceal her child-like 'awh' of disappointment. "I'm surprised you didn't make her bark like a dog for an hour or something."
"I nearly did! Petunia has got a new boyfriend, Vernon." Her face contorted into a disgusted scowl-like expression. "I was closer to hexing him than I was her."
"What's he like?" Genevieve asked cautiously.
Lily's expression only deepened into an even further distasteful scowl. "He's so obsessed with himself, Gen. He's worse than Potter!"
Genevieve raised her eyebrows. "Worse than James?" She repeated challengingly.
Lily nodded. "Worse than James."
"Then you definitely should have hexed him."
"Then the Ministry would have been after me."
Genevieve scoffed and waved Lily's comment off dismissively. "The Ministry have bigger issues to deal with than you hexing Perfect Petunia and her boyfriend."
"Ah." Lily took an awkward sip of her pumpkin juice, peering at Gen over the top of her goblet. "So you've seen the papers?"
"Only the muggle ones," Genevieve confirmed, her eyebrows drawing together.
Lily leant closer to her. "In the Daily Prophet it kept going on about a dark wizard on the rise," she said quietly, but not quietly enough.
As Marlene joined them, she managed to pick up the end of Lily's sentence. The smirk that naturally rested on her face disappeared as she let out a groan.
"Not a fan of the recent headlines?" Genevieve asked amusedly.
Marlene sat herself down across from them. "It's all everyone keeps banging on about. I bored of it."
"That makes two of us," Lily agreed.
"Make that three," Genevieve muttered lowly just as Dumbledore stood up and gathered everyones attention to start his speech.
Students either shrinked or beamed under his gaze, the slight twinkle in his eyes peering so intensely at everyone. While he was only looking over them all, it felt like he was studying them all individually, spending a second to analyse who they were and who they would be.
"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts," Dumbledore started. "And for those who are new, welcome to your first. Firstly, I would like to introduce your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Erickson, who I hope you will all welcome with open arms and make his experience here extremely pleasant."
From the table perched at the front of the hall, an older man with unkept grey hair stood and waved politely, a smile on his lips as he received a generous round of applause. Genevieve was able to figure out that he was Professor Erickson.
"He'll be gone by the end of the year," Marlene whispered in under her breath, her pessimism poking through as she didn't spare him so much as a second glance.
"Next, I would like to remind you all that the Forbidden Forest is strictly off bounds for all students. And finally, I'm sure you're all as hungry as I am, so with that I have one word - eat."
On his last word, rows upon rows of mouth-watering food lined the five tables in the hall. Gasps emerged from all of the students as they rapidly grabbed and grappled at food and piled it hungrily on top of their plate. If Genevieve's hearing was right, the loudest gasp among them all was Peter's.
Genevieve started counting backwards from sixty in her head, sharing a nod of understanding with James when she caught his eye from down the table. When Dumbledores speech had finished, they both started automatically.
"This is paradise," Marlene sighed in awe as she crammed different types of food into the gaps of her plate, and once all the gaps had been taken up she resorted to creating a mountain instead.
"Pass me the potatoes?" Lily asked Marlene, smiling gratefully when she did so.
"I met someone over the summer."
Both Lily and Genevieve stopped eating immediately and looked up at Marlene with wide, staring eyes. Marlene wasn't fazed however, in fact she took no notice of their gawking. Instead she popped a carrot into her mouth casually. "She's nice."
Snapping out of her shock-washed trance, Lily clapped her hands delightfully as a wide smile endorsed her face. "Please do tell!"
Genevieve leaned forward intently, "I'm interested myself as to who this is as well."
"Her names Carrie Sullivan," Marlene announced, a small smile twitching at her lips. "Met her in Diagon Alley."
Lily clapped her hands enthusiastically once again at the same time a wide grin spread across Genevieve's face.
"Is she a witch?" Genevieve asked as her hand curled inside the pocket of her robe, taking a hold of the same object that sat in James, Sirius's, and Peters robe pocket as well.
"Nope, she's a muggle. That's her sister over there." Marlene cocked her head to the Ravenclaw table, her eyes focusing on a pitch-black haired girl conversing away with a blonde haired one. "Jude Sullivan."
Lily hummed. "Is she a first year?"
"Yep. They were shopping for school equipment when she accidentally sent a stack of books toppling towards me in Flourish and Blotts."
"Cute," Lily smiled. "Very cute."
Marlene rolled her eyes. "Don't go soft on me."
With her hands raised in surrender, Lily flashed Marlene a quick wink.
Genevieve noticed James quickly look over at her, her eyes reading the words 'three, two, one' being mouthed at her.
As soon as it got to one, Genevieve's hand that had been nestled around the object in her pocket fished itself out from it, the Dungbomb that had been planted in there since the train ride finally appearing.
Lily's eyes went wide. "Don't you dare-"
But Genevieve didn't listen.
At the same time, Genevieve, Sirius, Peter and James all threw their Dungbombs into separate parts in the room, leaving a repulsive smell in its trail and and even worse one where it had exploded. While Genevieve's had landed right in front of the teachers table, Sirius managed to throw his right onto the Slytherin tables plate of jelly, causing it to explode all over the people sat near them.
Even the devil would have scowled at the choice words Evan Rosier had called Sirius. Not that Sirius cared, he was too busy laughing at the disgusted look on Mulciber's face as he swiped a blob of jelly from his cheek.
His laughter was followed by Genevieve's, and then Peter's, and then James's as they ran from the hall with Filch on their trail, his knees kicking upwards as he quickened his pace.
As the four of them fled from the hall with cackles leaving their mouths, Remus watched with confused eyes and his mouth slightly agape. He was the master behind the pranks. He always knew about the pranks. So why was now any different?
"What was that about?" Lily asked Remus from down the table, her hand holding her cloak up to her nose as a gas mask.
Remus took an swig of his pumpkin juice before looking at over at Lily. "Wish I knew myself."
It was hard for Lily to miss the bitter edge to his voice.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*