-//-
(Line Without A Hook//Ricky Montgomery)
10th of October, Thursday, 1974
Thursday had been a long day and James had put in his best efforts to try and catch Lily's attention again. He even tried to impress her with his Muggle Studies information and interest, but she walked away before he could even tell her.
Entering the Common Room, James spotted his friends on the couch by the fire. He halted slightly at the sight. He was so used to getting Andrea's attention all to himself, so at the sight of her explaining schoolwork to Peter, very closely one might add, James immediately pouted.
Stomping over to them, he shoved Peter onto the rug on the floor and flopped into the space beside Andrea, placing his head in her lap. Shocked, Andrea looked from Peter to James. However, as she saw the devastation on James' face, she decided not to scold him for pushing Peter just yet.
"What's got you down, clown?" she giggled quietly. "I don't like clowns," Peter grumbled to himself. "No one does," Remus said, not lifting his gaze from his book.
James grabbed onto Andrea's wrist and placed her hand on his hair, wordlessly telling her what to do.
Andrea chuckled and did as she was told, running her fingers through his hair and trying to help calm him down. "I just wish Lily looked at me the same way Sirius looks at himself," James grumbled, pouting furiously.
"HEY!" Sirius protested. Remus didn't look up from his book yet again when he chimed in, "He's not wrong." Sirius shot Remus a scowl.
"Traitor." Remus looked up then with a smug smirk directed to Sirius. "Yeah? What're you gonna do about it? Give me thirteen pieces of silverware?" he mocked.
"How do I get her to like me? Could she even like me?" James went on. James would never show anyone else this, but to his closest friends, he wasn't afraid of being vulnerable sometimes. But they all understood that Lily's constant and harsh rejections were getting to him.
He put himself out there every single day, sometimes more than once a day, and he got nothing in return other than insults or rejection. Sure, he would never show Lily this, but it was definitely getting to him.
"Per chi ha fede, nessuna spiegazione è necessaria. Per uno senza fede, nessuna spiegazione è possibile." James looked up at Andrea in confusion.
"I understood some words there, but what the heck does that mean?" he asked in frustration. Andrea giggled. She went to answer but was interrupted.
"'To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible'," Sirius recited. James sat up and all the other Marauders gaped at him.
"Since when do you speak Italian?!" Andrea questioned. Sirius shrugged nonchalantly. "Since this summer," he said, smiling smugly. "È brillante!" Andrea cheered, jumping up to high-five him.
"Next question, why did you learn Italian?" Remus asked, studying Sirius. They all knew Sirius never enjoyed school holidays because he had to stay home for most of them. Especially after he snuck off to James' last Christmas without telling his parents.
Now they would barely let him out of the house when he was home. The two days they all visited Andrea near the end of the holidays was the first and last time they got to see him before the train to school.
"Got bored. Figured I'd learn another language and Italian was at the top of my to-do list," he said casually, winking at Andrea.
Remus shook his head as he looked at him in awe. "You're amazing, you know that?" he blurted out. Sirius grinned like a Cheshire Cat, glowing from his compliment. "Hold on, you just sat down and decided to learn another language?" James asked.
Sirius nodded. "Yeah. I already knew three," he explained, "but I needed to add Italian to show some respect for our foreign friend," he said with a nod towards Andrea. James slumped back into his previous position and Andrea continued to comb his hair.
"Maybe I should learn Italian properly to impress Lily." Andrea smiled sadly. "My dad would love to teach you. And since Fleamont has taken it upon himself to try and teach me Potions, we could switch houses and we'll be brilliant nerds by the end," she said happily. James looked doubtful.
"Lily's perfect. How would someone like her ever go for someone like me?" Andrea looked to Sirius for help. She knew James had been doubting himself lately but now he was the lowest she had seen him. "No one's perfect," Andrea tried gently.
"She is," he argued.
"Uhm, hello?" Sirius joked, gesturing at his own face. "Not now, Black," Andrea huffed. The pedestal James had set Lily up on was unrealistic and it was going to crush him when he realized it was a made-up version of his crush.
"Maybe it's how you ask her. Try a new technique," Sirius suggested, trying to be helpful again.
"If she was interested, a new technique shouldn't matter. She should just show him back that she likes him too. James gives her all the time in the day and what does she give back? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. How is that perfect?" Andrea gaped at Peter.
"Since when are you so deep and pessimistic?" Peter looked up in alarm as if he hadn't meant to say anything. "Uhm... Sorry, James. I think I'm reflecting my own afflictions onto you," he said sheepishly.
Remus finally closed his book and gave his friends his full attention. "OK, now I'm interested. What's going on in your little world, Pete?" Nervous from everyone's full attention Peter quickly pulled out some Sugar Quills from his robes and nervously chewed them.
"It's - it's these girls! I try to show Corinna I'm not interested, and she just keeps on going. As if she thinks she can convince me to like her back," he groaned.
It was true. All the Marauders had gained a lot more attention these last few months than the year before, and that was saying something. James was getting stares and desperate people trying to get close to him on an hourly basis, but since his attention was fully on his friends or Lily, he never noticed.
Sirius loved the attention of course. But when he saw Remus get uncomfortable by girls trying to chat the polite boy up, Sirius got very overprotective and quickly forgot about basking in it and instead went to help his friend.
"Hormones," Remus concluded. "They're a real stronza," Andrea added.
-//-
29th of October, Tuesday, 1974
"I think I have a girl problem," Peter said abruptly as he sat down for lunch. James swallowed his soup wrong, and Andrea choked on her pumpkin juice. "PETER GETS A GIRL BEFORE ME?! What's wrong with me?" James cried loudly.
"I have a list," Andrea grumbled, earning a scowl. "Who's the lucky girl?" Remus chuckled. Peter quickly piled up his plate and started digging in. "Weasley. Corinna Weasley. She walked next to me out of Divination today and asked me to hold her books as she fixed her tie. I'm a gentleman-"
Andrea snorted at that. Peter shot her a glare, so she zipped her lips. "- So, I did. When she took them back, she said thanks and said I was great. Then she kissed my cheek, giggled, and walked away. And not in the cute giggle way that Andrea does but that annoying, high-pitched giggle girls do when they think they're being cute but actually it's like nails on a chalkboard."
James turned to Remus with furrowed brows. "What's he on about?" Remus nodded along. "He described it perfectly. Continue."
"My giggle is cute?" Andrea asked, pulling a face. Remus nodded. "Like songbirds in the morning. And then you scrunch your nose up like a little bunny rabbit." "Aw, that's so sweet."
"Love birds, back to me. I don't want her to kiss my cheek. I don't want to do anything with her. It's getting really annoying. She's started sitting next to me when we watch you guys during Quidditch practice from the stands, as well," Peter added hurriedly, looking at the three players.
"She hasn't said anything lately when I've been there, but maybe she just has a crush," she offered with a shrug, not wanting to out Corinna completely. This was their issue; she didn't want to end up in the middle of it.
"Yeah well, I want this crush, you know... crushed. Dead. Deceased. I want my friends, my food and my extracurriculars," he whispered, making it obvious to the group what he meant.
Maps, Animagus, prank planning.
"Do you find all girls that insufferable or just her?" Sirius asked curiously. "Not just girls. The other guys around here annoy me too. Don't get me wrong, you guys annoy the shit out of me, but lovingly," he rushed out.
"Thank you?" Andrea chuckled. "But everyone else sucks. And I don't want girls coming into my space and thinking that I'm interested." He looked at his plate. "I'm too upset to eat," he whined.
They all looked at him in shock. He rolled his eyes. "It's an expression. Of course, I'm gonna eat, but only like one or two servings."
Peter lifted his fork but suddenly, a realization hit him, and he turned to James. "What do you do to Lily?"
"What do you mean?" he asked. "Well obviously what you're doing repulses women so maybe that's what I should do with Corinna." Andrea had to slap a hand over her mouth to stop the laughter from bursting out. James narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Low blow, Pettigrew. Low blow."
"Hey, Peter." Andrea and Remus turned in their seats and the other three looked up to see Corinna and the other girls passing their group.
"Yeah, hey," he muttered, studying his goblet with a newfound curiosity. Andrea shot Corinna an apologetic look before turning back to the boys, scolding Peter for his manners.
-//-
(Chiquitita//ABBA)
31th of October, Wednesday, 1974
During their lunch break on Wednesday, Dorcas and Kingsley had joined Andrea and the other Marauders for lunch, wanting to hear the Halloween Prank plans. However, Dorcas refused to go to the bathroom alone, so she had dragged Andrea along with her.
"I'm just saying, you two would make an extremely attractive couple," she sighed dreamily, opening the door to the girls' lavatories. "And I'm just saying leave it al-"
Andrea stopped herself as she heard a quiet sniffle. "Hello?" she called out to the otherwise quiet bathroom. She turned to Dorcas. Maybe she had imagined it. Then they both heard it. a quiet, muffled sob.
Quietly, they walked to the closed door they thought the sound was coming from. "You OK in there?" Dorcas asked gently through the door. "Just a minute," a familiar voice called out.
"Lucretia?" Andrea asked. "Hey, Lulu. Are you OK in there?" "I'm fine, just allergies," she said. Not convinced, Dorcas turned to Andrea for directions. Andrea knocked on the door gently.
"Sweetie, why don't you come out? Then we can talk and help you," she offered. "I'm fine, really. You guys go ahead, and I'll meet up with you. Just, go. I'm completely fine." The sobbing hiccup at the end of her sentence wasn't very convincing. Andrea knocked again.
Seeing no other option, she placed her face right with the crack between the door and the stall wall. "Chiquitita, tell me what's wrong!" she sang to her friend.
If there was one thing she knew about Lucretia, it was that she was a sucker for the Swedish band, ABBA.
When no response came, she turned to Dorcas. ME?! she mouthed. Andrea gestured for her to go on. "I have never seen such sorrow!" she sang loudly and sourly. Andrea rolled her eyes and turned back to the door. "In your eyes, there is no hope for tomorrow!" they sang together.
Andrea heard a quiet giggle come from the other side of the door. "It's working," she hissed to Dorcas. "Quick, get down!"
Andrea did as she was told with much confusion and then Dorcas stepped on top of her back as if she were a step ladder. "How I hate to see you like – this," she sang through struggling grunts, peering over the door at Lucretia.
"DEE! I'm in the loo!" she cried out, but Andrea could almost hear the smile in her voice again.
"There is no way, you can deny it!" Andrea sang the next line. "I can see that you're oh so sad - ARGH!" The door swung open, and Dorcas fell to the floor, Andrea rolling away as Lucretia came out.
They sat her on the sink and started cleaning her tears and snot. "He kissed someone," she hulked, her eyes watering again. "Wait, back - the fuck - up. WHAT?!"
"I - I was heading to lunch, and I saw Amos standing in the Entrance Hall with a girl from his year. I started walking towards them and he pulled her to him, and they started making out," she cried.
"She's this tall Slytherin," she went on. "Sounds ugly," Dorcas spat. "Horrible personality too," Lucretia chuckled. "Proper boring," Dorcas went on.
Andrea was fuming. "Hell. No." She turned on her heels and stormed out of the bathroom, slamming the door into the outside wall.
"Wait, A. Think about this," Dorcas hurried after her. She ignored her. Andrea stormed down the hallway and headed for the Great Hall. It was still lunchtime so most of the students and staff were still in there.
Andrea spotted the tall seventh-year standing with a few mates by the Hufflepuff table, throwing a miniature Quaffle back and forth. "Andrea, you need to be ready to face the consequences for this, you know," Dorcas muttered. "I'll go to Azkaban if I have to," she growled. She stormed towards him.
"Hey, there you guys are. Where'd you -"
"Not now James," Andrea snapped, storming past her friends. "Oh, I'm gonna regret not trying harder to stop you," Dorcas sighed, following after her.
With Andrea's determined stride she was catching a lot of people's attention. Curious, the students followed her with their eyes. "DIGGORY!" she called as she had almost reached him. He turned around and Andrea ran what her dad and brothers had taught her through her head. Pivot backwards, and move your body through the punch.
Thumb folded in last, go forwards and upwards if they're taller than you. Make it hurt like hell.
She pulled her tied fist back and as he fully turned around, her knuckles connected straight with the bridge of his nose.
Cazza, she thought, shaking her hand out at her side subtly. That hurt more than she thought it would. Not wanting to show any pain, she glared up at the much taller, much older student, blood dripping from the hand clutched over his nose.
"What the hell?!" he asked, shocked from being punched. "MISS RUSSO! I will not tolerate such behaviour!" Professor Sprout screamed as she and McGonagall rushed down from the teacher's table to stop the 'altercation'.
The Hall fell silent as everyone watched the scene unfold. Before the teachers reached them, she grabbed Amos' tie and pulled him down to eye level. "I know where you sleep, Diggory, so watch yourself," she threatened, her voice lethal. "You hurt my friends, I'll make you wish you were never born."
"Release him, now!" McGonagall shouted, striding over to the two. She released him immediately and let McGonagall start to escort her from the Hall. "Maybe tell your friend to stop being such a prude. Then guys won't get bored so quickly!" Amos called after her, his friends laughing along with him.
Andrea stopped in her tracks and turned around to lunge at him again. And by the look on McGonagall's face, she would have let her.
But Dorcas got there first.
She swung around and with her movement, used all her force to slap him hard across the face. "Meadowes!" Flitwick shrieked and sprinted down the steps as quickly as his short legs would carry him. Then, for good measure Andrea reached her side and brought her knee up to his privates, making him double over in pain. As he bent over, she leaned into his ear.
"And some advice for you. Maybe stop being such a man-slut, then people will stop having the immediate urge to want to rearrange your face," Andrea spat at him. "All three of you, outside. NOW!" McGonagall shrieked, getting everyone to shut up. All three students and all three Heads of House hurried out of the Great Hall, Dumbledore following them in their wake.
At the Gryffindor table, all of Andrea's friends stared after her in shock, awe, admiration and pride. James sat, opened-mouthed and gaped after her. "That was hot," Sirius said proudly, grinning like a fool.
"Yeah," James, Remus and Kingsley breathed out. Noticing what themselves, and the others did, they quickly turned to each other in shock and then went back to their lunch awkwardly. "I'd do her," Peter shrugged, taking a large bite out of a chocolate frog.
Sirius nodded along, almost every eye in the Hall glued to the back of Dumbledore's head. "All right everyone. Back to your lunch now!" Slughorn chuckled nervously. "Should we go? I feel like we should go. I want to see what happens," James whispered to the others. Without a word, they agreed with him, and all got out of their seats, rushing out of the Great Hall.
"Never in all my years-" they could hear McGonagall just about to start her rant. "Twenty points from each of you for such behaviour, I think." The four Marauders and Kingsley stayed hidden behind the statues separating them from the other group. James gently let the door of the Great Hall fall shut and they all turned sharp ears to listen in.
The other Professor's agreed with McGonagall, but Amos Diggory went to complain. "Why am I losing points? They're the ones who attacked me! Unprovoked, I might add," he complained, outraged.
The group fell so silent the only thing you could hear was the quiet chatter from the Great Hall. "You may not have hit them back, but you used foul language in there as well, Mister Diggory. Now, Professor Sprout, would you like to escort your student to the Hospital Wing?" They heard two disappearing sets of footsteps.
"Filius, I trust you can find a sufficient detention punishment for your own student, yes?"
"Yes Minerva, come Miss Meadowes." Kingsley snuck around to the other door when he heard them leave, following after them instead.
"It seems like you have a handle on this, Minerva. I'm gonna go and see if Slughorn hasn't eaten the rest of my chocolate cake yet." As Dumbledore retreated into the Great Hall the boys pressed behind the stone statues to stay hidden. Just as Dumbledore passed them, he stopped for a second and sent them all a wink, before continuing on his way.
"As for you, Miss Russo. Come with me." Andrea huffed and hung her head, following McGonagall to her office. The two didn't say a single word on the whole way there and Andrea was growing more and more nervous about what punishment she had planned for her.
As they entered, McGonagall took her seat and looked over her square spectacles at Andrea. "So, what happened in there?" "Dorcas and I went to the bathroom and found Lucretia crying in there because Amos had cheated on her and she had seen it and then I got mad, so I punched him. Then he acted like a dick-wad, and then I kneed him in the balls." Andrea finally took a breath as she finished her rant.
McGonagall didn't even flinch at her foul language. She nodded once and reached for a tin box on her desk, holding a tartan pattern.
Great, Andrea thought. This is either an expulsion sheet or a torture device.
McGonagall lifted the lid off the tin and offered it to Andrea. "Have a biscuit, dear." Andrea stared into the tin, utterly confused. There were only biscuits. Slowly, she reached out and picked a jammie dodger, nibbling it slowly.
"I heard what Mister Diggory said. Granted it was out of context, but it sounds like you were just defending your friend. I can admire that." Andrea felt a weight go off her shoulders.
She wasn't going to be too hard on her.
"However, I most definitely do not agree with your methods."
Never mind.
"So, I think cleaning the trophy case this Friday would be a good way for you to learn that violence is never the answer." "You don't really believe that do you, Professor? Violence is sometimes the answer. Sometimes, it's the only answer."
McGonagall's lip twitched as she stopped herself from smiling. She, herself, had a very similar discussion with her own headmaster back when she was a student.
"There is always another way. Another solution you haven't figured out yet. That's why it's so easy to pick to fight. Because it's a snap decision, not needing any thinking or consideration. The smarter choice is often the best and safest choice." "That's not very Gryffindor of you," Andrea smirked. McGonagall let a small smile slip. "But it is very wise of me. Lion cubs are reckless. Full-grown lions are wiser and more cautious." "Because they're smarter? Because they've made more mistakes and learned more than the cubs have."
"Exactly."
"Shouldn't the cubs make mistakes then? So, they can learn? How are we going to grow if we don't dare make mistakes because of the threat of detention?"
"Paper thin ice, Russo."
-//-
2nd of November, Saturday, 1974
"I feel bad leaving you," Sirius whined, leaning against the doorframe of his dorm. "Good," Andrea grumbled, "It's your fault I'm not going."
"Not true! Peter's the one who dropped the vase and alerted Minnie of where we were. And you were the last one under the cloak. That's on you for being too slow."
Andrea jumped up from Peter's bed and stormed towards Sirius, Remus quickly jumping in between them. "You pushed me away. You said, 'too bad, slow poke'," she yelled at him. Sirius grinned. "And I was right. There's not space for everyone under the cloak anymore and you were the last one."
Andrea glared at him. "Next time, I'm snitching on you and you're gonna be the one ending up in detention."
"Nuh-uh," James sing-songed, lifting his eyes from his book, "because -" "- Snitches end up in ditches," all the boys said together in a monotone voice. "That is so aggressive," Andrea chuckled, finally smiling after she had been sulking all day, "In the states, it's 'snitches get stitches'."
"What the hell are stitches?!"
After Andrea's fight in the Great Hall, McGonagall had given her detention for Friday. And when she got caught while they were placing a prank for a few certain Slytherins Friday morning, McGonagall decided that her second punishment would be no Hogsmeade the first trip this year.
So as her friends left to go shopping, drink Butterbeer and have a lovely time, Andrea sulked off to the library to try and decipher Sirius' notes on werewolves.
-//-
"You look like a sad lost puppy," Andrea heard a deep voice chuckle from above her. She lifted her head off the library table and pouted up at Kingsley. "My friends abandoned me for pretty birds and Butterbeer," she moaned to him, mumbling around her cherry lollipop. Kingsley laughed.
"Yeah, I heard you were stuck in detention on the first Hogsmeade trip of the year," he said. "Yeah," she grumbled, flicking through her book on The Beast of Gévaudan. Well, she was reading Sirius' translated notes because she didn't speak or read French. Some was similar to Italian, and some was just crazy scribbles.
Andrea sat up and furrowed her brows at Kingsley. "Wait, why are you here and not in Hogsmeade?" Kingsley shrugged casually and pulled the chair beside Andrea out. "Well, I've been to Hogsmeade billions of times. So, I figured I'd stick around and keep you company."
Andrea stared at him. They had hung out together countless times with Dorcas or any of their other mutual friends, but she had never spent time alone with him. Just the two of them.
"Ok. But my detention was yesterday, so you don't have to stick around. McGonagall told me I was banned from Hogsmeade today, as part of my second punishment." "What exactly did you do? I saw a fair amount missing from the Gryffindor hourglass yesterday. I know some of it was from the Diggory punch, but I'd say that was highly justified." Andrea smirked.
"Yeah. That felt good. But this might have something to do with marbles."
"Marbles?" "I might've filled the corridor with marbles and a Slytherin named Mulciber might've slipped and fallen on his face. And another one named Avery just luckily toppled on top of him." Kingsley laughed loudly, making Madam Pince shush them harshly.
"OK. That sounds like an amazing story."
On her afternoon went, a lot less bleak with Kingsley there, keeping her company with whispered jokes, making sure not to disturb the angry Librarian. With one glance at her book, Kingsley saw she was trying to read the translated French text. And Kingsley being the true Ravenclaw he was, apparently knew French because he lost a bet and had to learn a second language.
Which was lucky, because a lot of Sirius' translations had turned out to be guesses and very, very wrong.
French was apparently not one of the languages he knew.
The hours flew by as they sat together.
So many hours in fact, that the other Marauders had returned from Hogsmeade. Despite Sirius' sorry excuse for an apology that morning, they all felt bad that she alone had gotten the blame for their prank. It had been Remus' idea, after all. And going to Hogsmeade just didn't feel the same without her.
They always went together. But when Andrea was nowhere to be found in either of their dorms, the Great Hall or the Gryffindor Common Room, the boys ran out of places to look for her.
As a hail-Mary, Frank Longbottom and their Beater, Benjy Fenwick, were walking out of the seventh-floor corridor together just as the boys circled around once more cluelessly.
Frank stopped up along with Benjy and smiled at the boys. "If you're looking for your missing band member, she's in the library." The boys headed towards the library happily, carrying with them the sweets and joke products they had bought her at Honeydukes and Zonko's Joke Shop.
But as the four entered the library, they stopped abruptly in the doorway and stared at the scene in front of them.
There, in their own private corner of the library, sat Andrea and Kingsley, quite closely, whispering and laughing together. "What. The. Hell?" Sirius demanded harshly, keeping his voice low.
James huffed angrily beside him. "Unbelievable. We leave her alone for five minutes and the vultures start circling. Come on."
Peter put a hand up to James' chest. "Aand - what do you think you're doing?" he asked him slowly. James gestured wildly in the direction of Andrea and Kingsley. "Stopping... that." Peter grabbed James and Sirius' jackets tightly and pulled them out into the hallway again, Remus reluctantly following them.
"Leave it alone. When she wants our help, she'll ask for it." James mumbled to himself as they trudged back up to their dorm room grumpily.
"I didn't say she wanted it. I just said she needed it.
-//-
Translate:
Per chi ha fede, nessuna spiegazione è necessaria. Per uno senza fede, nessuna spiegazione è possible - To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible
È brillante - this is brilliant
– ACE
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