'There you go,' said Mattheo with a grin on his face. 'We got as much as we could carry.' A shower of brilliantly coloured sweets fell into Kirra's lap as she sat on Mattheo's bed with Mattheo, Theodore and Jasper sitting around her.
"Oh and of course, all of these" Theodore added with a grin and placed a large bag full of stuff from Zonko's down in front of her, her smile only widened as she hugged the two of them and sent a smile to Jasper, "thank you guys so much, this means a lot to me"
It was dusk, and Theodore, Mattheo and Jasper had just turned up back at the castle where they found the girl shaking from the cold as she waited for them at the entrance, making sure that they got back alright,
The three Slytherins were all pink-faced from the cold wind and looking as though they'd had the time of their lives. 'Thanks, again you guys, I wish I could have gone with you' said Kirra, picking up a packet of tiny black Pepper Imps.
"so where did you guys go?" she asked them with a grin.
By the sound of it – everywhere. Dervish and Banges, the wizarding equipment shop, Zonko's Joke Shop, into the Three Broomsticks for foaming mugs of hot Butterbeer and many places that they kept on mentioning.
'Next year after they have caught Black, hopefully, you can come to Hogsmede with us and the two of us can go get Butterbeers together," Mattheo said, a small hopeful smile on his face as the girl suddenly shuffled closer to him and laid down her back and head leaning against the boy's chest as he leaned against the headboard.
'Honeydukes have got a new kind of fudge, they were giving out free samples, there's a bit, look –' Theodore said and picked it up and tossed it to the girl as he avoided looking at the way she was leaning against Mattheo, a small sigh falling from his lips as he picked up an acid pop and began to eat it
'What did you do all day while you were here, were you able to catch up with a stupid excuse of a twin brother of yours?' said Mattheo, a distasteful sound in his voice, it was clear that the boy resented her brother, just like all the other Slytherins in the room.
"Yeah I did, we caught up and talked about things that have been happening, I'm supposed to be going to see them in their commonroom tonight because he wants to talk to me about something, but apparently Ron and Hermione have to be there, then we went to Professor Lupins office and he made Harry a cup of tea, and we just talked for a while.... And then Snape came in ...'
She told them all about the goblet. Mattheo let out a scoff. 'I mean obviously, Snape dislikes Lupin, but I doubt he would be stupid enough to poison another teacher?' Mattheo defended his head of house
Kirra let out a small sigh, looking up into her boyfriend's eyes, "There is a lot that you don't know about, Mattheo, Snape doesn't just dislike Lupin, he hates him and there... there are things that happened years ago, they went to school together, and they didn't exactly get along."
Jasper looked confused but Mattheo and Theodore seemed intrigued, "Please can you tell us... anything, did you know the two of them in one of your other lives? Is that why Lupin recognised you on the train and why the two of you seem so close?"
"other lives?" Jasper cut in, clearly confused, so Kirra let out a small sigh before deciding to tell him 'Basically I was cursed in my first life to be born over and over again once I die because of some stupid prophecy thingy... blah blah blah... I have died twice and I'm in my third life, also I have been pretending not to remember my other lives, but the truth is I remember everything now.'
Mattheo, Theodore and Jasper all had their jaws dropped
"Wait you remember everything?" Mattheo asked her in shock and she nodded her head
"Also, it would be great if you didn't tell anyone that because I kinda don't want anyone to know just yet," she sighed and the boys all agreed to not tell anyone, to their surprise, even Jasper agreed.
"So did you know them in your past life?" Mattheo asked again
Kirra sighed softly before nodding her head, "In my last life, my name was Emily Barnes and Lupin was one of my best friends, he and I and three others sort of had this tight-knit group of friends, we were inseparable, and... we weren't exactly the most well-behaved students in the school, we played pranks and often, Snivellous... Snape, was the target of our pranks" she explained and the boys all nodded their heads, clearly interested
"Other stuff happened, and to cut things short, he hates Lupin and I.. and the others" She sighed softly, remembering what it was like when she went to school with her four best friends, Sirius, James, Remus and Peter and of course the others, it was so simple and perfect before the war
"its so weird... to think that you and Professor Lupin were the same age at one point," Theodore said, "you're an old lady," he said with a grin, she playfully punched him in the shoulder
"You know how I said I remember everything from my past lives, I remember all the spells I learned too, so I suggest you watch what you say Mr Nott" Kirra told him with a playful smirk on her face causing him to chuckle as he rolled his eyes at her
"whatever loser" he commented.
'We'd better go down, you know, the feast will be starting in five minutes ...' Mattheo suddenly cut in, they hid the lollies and stuff in bags under Mattheos bed and then they hurried through the exit of the Slytherin common room and into the crowd, still discussing her past lives as if she were reading them storybooks.
'Wait so you went to school with my father?" Theodore said in shock, and then his eyes widened in realisation, "but that means you went to school with my mother..." he said and Kirra gave the boy a soft smile before nodding her head
"We were friends actually, she was lovely," Kirra told Theodore who smiled at what Kirra had said
"Was my dad... you know... always like what he is now... evil?" Theodore asked, Mattheo and Jasper didn't show it as Kirra did, but they did feel bad for the boy
"No," she told Theodore which seemed to surprise him, "Your father was one of my best friends in school, he was a lot like you actually, but Tom changed him," the girl said with a soft sigh, "it's scary what can happen to a person who has been damaged beyond their breaking point, someone so full of life and love beaten into just a body with no light"
As they reached the Entrance Hall and crossed into the Great Hall. It had been decorated with hundreds and hundreds of candle-filled pumpkins, a cloud of fluttering live bats and many flaming orange streamers, which were swimming lazily across the stormy ceiling like brilliant watersnakes.
The food was delicious; even Mattheo, Theodore and Jasper, who were full of Honeydukes sweets, managed second helpings of everything. Kirra kept glancing at the staff table. Professor Lupin looked cheerful and as well as he ever did; he was talking animatedly to tiny little Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher.
Kirra moved her eyes along the table, to the place where Snape sat. Was she imagining it, or were Snape's eyes flickering towards Lupin more often than was natural? She was worried for her friend, all hell would break loose if Snape told people the truth about Lupin.
The feast finished with an entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts. They popped out of the walls and tables to do a spot of formation gliding; NearlyHeadless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, had a great success with a re-enactment of his own botched beheading.
It had been such a good evening that Kirra's good mood couldn't even be spoiled by Malfoy, who shouted through the crowd as they all left the Hall, 'Just you wait and see what will happen to you when my father finds out about what you did"
Kirra said goodnight to her Slytherin friends and then ran over to Harry, Ron and Hermione and they greeted her, then all of them followed the rest of the Gryffindors along the usual path to Gryffindor Tower, but when they reached the corridor which ended with the portrait of the Fat Lady, they found it jammed with students.
'Why isn't anyone going in?' said Ron curiously. Kirra tried to peer over the heads in front of her but she was too short, but she was able to make out that the portrait seemed to be closed. 'Let me through, please,' came Percy's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd.
'What's the hold-up here? You can't all have forgotten the password – excuse me, I'm Head Boy –' And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a chill seemed to spread down the corridor. They heard Percy say, in a suddenly sharp voice, 'Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick.'
People's heads turned; those at the back were standing on tiptoe. 'What's going on?' said Ginny, who had just arrived. The next moment, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping towards the portrait; the Gryffindors squeezed together to let him through, and Kirra, Harry, Ron and Hermione moved closer to see what the trouble was.'
'Oh, my –' Hermione exclaimed and grabbed Harry's arm. The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor (Kirra frowned at the claw marks, she knew that it had to have been Sirius); great chunks of it had been torn away completely.
Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes sombre, to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin and Snape hurrying towards him. 'We need to find her,' said Dumbledore. 'Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady.'
'You'll be lucky!' said a cackling voice. It was Peeves the poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry. 'What do you mean, Peeves?' said Dumbledore calmly, and Peeves's grin faded a little. He didn't dare taunt Dumbledore.
Instead, he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his cackle. 'Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful,' he said happily. 'Poor thing,' he added, unconvincingly.
'Did she say who did it?' said Dumbledore quietly. 'Oh, yes, Professor head,' said Peeves, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms. 'He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see.'
Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. 'Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black.'
Kirra felt her heart drop to the bottom of her chest, what if he had gotten caught?