INEZ WAS A beater for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. So, essentially Claudia and Betty became the team's biggest supporters, coming along on as many practices as possible.
This Thursday evening was no exception. Claudia and Betty, as well as Pandora, followed their friend to the pitch and sat down on the stands, watching as the players soared through the sky on their brooms; Inez and the other beater named Marcus Davies practicing hitting bludgers.
Normally Claudia would watch the practice intently, but on this day she was only able to think about one thing:
What the hell happened the night before?
Claudia had immediately explained the whole thing to Betty, Inez and Pandora, who all brushed it off like it was nothing. They assumed that there was some sort of logical explanation behind it all, but they didn't pay too much thought to it. Pandora said that it was probably some random creature that Claudia had never heard off, and Betty and Inez said that it was probably someone else who shot spells at Evan from far away.
Claudia knew that it was magic. That wasn't hard to understand. But what had caused it was a complete mystery.
Her first thought was that she herself had produced some sort of accidental magic like she used to when she was a child, but hitting somebody and also dragging herself away by her own magic seemed very unlikely.
She also thought of the possibility that it could've been Peeves, the poltergeist that roamed the halls. But, the thing was that you could always see him so none of that made sense either. And even if you couldn't see him, he sure as hell would make more noise than just a few stifled laughters.
Claudia came to the conclusion that it must have been another person. Maybe they could have used a spell that made them invisible. She also wondered if maybe someone was in the possession of an invisibility cloak, like in "The Tale of The Three Brothers", though that did seem rather unlikely. Still, the small glimpse of somebody's foot brought her back to that idea.
"Are you thinking about what happened last night again?" Betty asked her friend who was in a complete trance.
"It just doesn't make any sense," Claudia stated with her eyebrows knitted closely together.
"I know you hate not knowing the answer to things, trust me I do too, but I don't think you're going to know the answer just like that. Maybe if it was someone, they will come forward eventually?"
"I agree," Pandora said in a dreamy voice, not looking up from her book.
"You're right." Claudia sighed.
"Like always," Betty grinned, to which Claudia rolled her eyes dramatically with a smile.
"What's going on down there?" Betty suddenly asked as she stood up from the bench, already walking down to the pitch where a sudden commotion had started. Claudia and Pandora immediately followed after, only to see that it was, unsurprisingly, the Slytherin quidditch team picking a fight with the Ravenclaw team.
And of course, her stepbrothers and their friends were the main attractions. Well, mostly Nolan. Nicolas had always been more of a follower, being a year younger and all.
Nolan and Nicolas were both beaters on the team, Evan a keeper and Regulus Black a seeker. They all stood together facing the Ravenclaw team, looking far too proud of themselves.
Claudia was angry without even hearing the conversation as Nolan spoke to Inez and the Ravenclaw team captain Stephen Boot.
"I've already told you Clarke, the pitch is ours for another ten minutes!" Inez yelled at him, to which he shook his head.
"But how could ten minutes possibly help your terrible team?" He smiled meanly. "And besides, why did Slughorn inform us that the pitch was free if it wasn't?"
"Maybe he was wrong?" Mary Johnson, a second year chaser, spoke up.
"Shut your mouth you filthy little mudblood!" Nolan snapped, which caused the whole team to look at him in disgust, and an angry Claudia to storm right up to him.
"Stop calling people that you complete arse!" She hissed, "And especially not to a twelve year old! Are you completely daft?"
"What's wrong little Claude? Angry because daddy wouldn't let you play quidditch?" He teased.
That was true. Charles didn't let Claudia play quidditch. It was apparently "unladylike", and the last thing she should do if she was going to find a suitable pureblooded husband to marry, because that was the only purpose of her life.
Claudia was to marry a pureblooded boy - which was Charles' biggest concern in life considering most of them didn't want a halfblood.
But, they did want a Maple, and most of the boys trailed after the girl since she always behaved just the way she was supposed to - at least that's what most people saw.
Claudia wanted to play Quidditch badly. She had played it when she lived with her mother, as well as with her aunt, and it was always a talent of hers. She used to play it with her American cousins and aunts and uncles - people she wasn't allowed to see anymore - and she used to play the position of Seeker.
"No! I'm angry because you keep walking around pretending that you are better than everyone else just because of your blood status!" She spat, to which Nolan narrowed his eyes.
Claudia didn't believe in that blood-supremacist crap, she was simply disgusted by it. At home she had to pretend like she was fine with it, which caused her insides to turn every time. She told her stepbrothers off at Hogwarts for saying disgusting things about muggleborns and halfbloods, but she never repeated it or did it in a way that made them furious.
Her father had of course gathered that she wasn't all for blood supremacy, which was another one of his reasons to hate her. Her brothers did tell him that she told them to stop saying mean things, but when he asked her about it she said it was because she wanted to protect her brothers' reputations.
That lie did not go past him.
"Your father will hear from me," Nolan said sternly, and Claudia felt a pit form in her stomach, but she shrugged it off and looked away, only to see the sad look on Mary Johnson's face, tears building up in her eyes.
Claudia locked eyes with Inez, silently telling her that Nolan was not worth it - since she had a tendency of taking things a bit too far. After that she grabbed Mary's hand softly and led her away from the Slytherins.
"Don't go, Sunshine!" Evan yelled after her. Claudia was too annoyed to even pay attention to him in that moment.
She walked towards the castle with the girl, only to stop by the entrance as she heard a small stifled sob from beside her.
"Sit down," she told the girl softly as Mary sat down on one of the steps by the entrance. "I want you to listen to me very carefully now, can you do that?" Mary nodded, indicating for Claudia to continue.
"In no way, shape, or form does your blood status affect your worth. You are far better than those who say things like that," she started as she sat down in front of the girl, still holding one of her hands.
"Can I tell you a secret?" She asked, and Mary nodded yet again.
"I think they're a bit jealous of everyone who gets to share both worlds. I mean, how great isn't it that you can be with your family in the muggle world and listen to muggle music and experience the whole thing? And then at the same time, you can live in the magical world! That's something they're never going to experience."
"I guess your right," the girl said in a sad voice. "But I don't like it when they call me things like that," she said as she began crying again. Claudia wiped her tears with her hands.
"I know, I don't like it either. But you just have to remember that you are perfect just the way you are, it doesn't matter what type of blood you have. And," she said lowering her voice. "I believe that that stupid brother of mine is rather mentally deficient," she said with a smile, as the crying girl laughed, which widened her smile.
"He's your brother?" She then said, although she was still laughing.
"Stepbrother, so do not get ahead of yourself!" She exclaimed, which caused Mary to laugh even more over her panicked answer. "I share no blood with that idiot, thank god." She said as she noticed Mary's attention shifting.
"I think I just saw a deer," the girl whispered.
"A deer?" Claudia asked in confusion as she looked around.
"Yes. I think something was sitting on it too, like a smaller animal." Mary said confused.
"Weird," Claudia stated as she continued to look around for the deer, that was actually a stag.
Then, a black dog appeared out of nowhere, starling both of the girls. He carried a book in his mouth, which Claudia immediately recognised to be Dracula by it's red cover.
At first the dog ran away from them, but it turned around as it caught a glimpse of Mary, whose face was red and puffy from crying, tears still wetting her cheeks.
The dog, or more like Sirius Black, walked up to the girls and looked at Claudia as he nodded his head. She looked at him in pure confusion until she grabbed the book out of his mouth. Sirius, in his dog form, then turned to the crying girl and leaned his head towards her shoulder; only to nudge her affectionately, causing the girl to laugh, Claudia doing the same.
"I like you!" Mary laughed as the dog placed it's head on her shoulder. "I shall call you Snuffles."
The dog nodded his head approvingly as he licked her on the cheek, causing her to laugh even more.
Then, the dog stopped abruptly by a movement nearby.
Remus appeared out of the entrance, desperately looking for something, or more like someone. Scratch that, more like several people.
The Marauders had all been annoyed with him for reading his book so religiously, so they decided to steal it from him - whilst in their Animagus forms. They weren't aware that he had already finished it, but Remus was nervous that they would open it and see Claudia's handwriting. Not that they could identify it, but it would still cause a lot of questions he wasn't keen to answer.
Remus chased them all over the castle, leading him there to find Sirius, in his dog-form, as well as Claudia, and Mary.
Sirius panicked as soon as he laid eyes on Remus. He then tried to get the book out of Claudia's grip, but she was determined to make sure that the book wouldn't face any harm. Claudia did annotate books, but she would never allow a dog to break the beautiful binding.
"Sorry, Snuffles," she said as she stood up and held the book over her head in order for the dog to be unable to get it, only for Remus to grab it from her hands from behind her. He was panicking about the fact that Claudia would be able to see her own handwriting if she had it any longer.
Claudia was rather tall, but Remus was plenty taller, so when she turned around she looked up to find him there with an awkward smile on his face.
"It's my book, sorry," he said as he locked eyes with the dog, who in a moment of fear ran off after the stag and the rat.
"That's alright, how did a dog steal it?" She asked in confusion.
"No idea," he laughed as he looked down to see Mary sat there looking rather glum. "Are you alright?" He asked her as he sat down in front of her, Claudia doing the same next to him.
"I'm fine," the girl said with an awkward smile. "Claudia helped me out."
"Yeah, my brother was being an absolute git," Claudia explained. "But we're all good now, aren't we Mary?" Mary nodded and smiled at the girl that she would, from now on, call her friend.
"That's good," Remus said as he picked something out of his pocket. "Still, have some chocolate. You'll feel better." He said to the girl who accepted it with a smile and a "thank you".
Claudia glanced at the boy with an admirable smile over his action, and felt very eager to be around him more, even though that was practically impossible for her to achieve.
Remus felt her gaze on him, so in a moment of bravery he looked back, feeling exactly the way that she felt.
But, the small "moment" was interrupted by a loud voice that belonged to a girl with black hair:
"Claudia, Pandora just fucking punched your brother right in the face!"
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