"Is Benjy talking to you yet?" Marlene asked Aries as the two walked down to the great hall for lunch.
"Nope. He's spent all his time in Ravenclaw and is only talking to Dorcas, so I don't care." Aries said, turning the corner.
"You don't care?"
"Nope."
"That's a shit lie."
"Okay, I do care, but he's the one not talking to me, I've been trying."
Marlene gave her a look. "You've been trying?"
"I don't like it when you talk like that."
"Talk like what?"
"When you repeat everything."
"I don't repeat everything." Marlene said, then paused to think. "Okay, no I can hear it, but you need to talk to Ben."
Aries shook her head. "No, I'm not talking to him until he talks to me."
Marlene rolled her eyes. "You two are so stubborn."
"You can't talk, when Sirius stole your shampoo you didn't talk to him for two weeks."
"It was infused with middlemist red, do you know how rare that flower is?"
"I don't even know what flower it is." Aries said, taking a seat on the Hufflepuff table opposite Dorcas.
"What are you two arguing about?"
"My middlemist red shampoo." Marlene frowned, putting her head on Dorcas' shoulder.
Aries looked towards the Ravenclaw table to see Benjy but his spot next to Gilderoy was empty.
"Where's Benjy?" she asked.
Dorcas looked up at Aries wincing slightly. "He didn't want me to tell you."
"What happened?"
Dorcas didn't answer but Aries could already guess what.
"Lockheart did it again, didn't he? With who?"
She let out a small sigh. "Dirk Cresswell- Aries don't do anything!"
"I'm not going to." Aries said, walking hastily out of the great hall, she ran down to the Hufflepuff common room and up to the boys dorm. She pushed open the door and saw the yellow curtains drawn across Benjy's bed.
"Ben?"
"Go away, Aries."
"I'm not leaving you." She said, standing next to his bed, she put her head through the gap of the curtains. He was sitting on his bed with his knees up to his chest, he had tear stains on his cheeks.
"You're just going to tell me that you told me so."
Aries shook her head. "I'm not going to say that."
Benjy looked up at her. "He promised."
"I know. And I'm going to kill him, I just want to make sure you're okay first."
"Thought you said you weren't going to care if he does it again."
Aries rolled her eyes. "You're my best friend, I care about you a lot. And sometimes you make silly mistakes, but you learn from them, and you're never going back to Lockheart are you?"
"Never." Benjy shook his head.
"Good. Now smile, move on and I will be back." she patted his shoulder and walked away.
"What are you going to do?"
"I haven't got a clue." Aries said, leaving the common room.
She walked up the corridors making her way towards the Ravenclaw common room trying to come up with a plan but she couldn't think of anything. As she turned a corner she bumped into Peter.
"Pete!"
"Aries!" he said, matching her energy.
"I need your help, you ever been inside Ravenclaw tower?"
Peter shook his head. "Nah, why?"
"I need to get in there and- I'm not too sure what I'm going to do, but I'm going to kill Lockheart or at least get revenge."
"Let's do it."
Aries paused looking at him. "Not even going to ask why?"
"No, Lockheart is a prick, but you do have a plan right?"
"Yeah..." she said, nodding slowly giving him an unconvincing smile.
He reached into his pocket. "This is for emergencies, I've been waiting to use it on Sirius when he pisses me off but he hasn't recently." he took out a glass vial.
"What is it?" Aries asked.
"It's a hair loss potion, except it will last around two months."
Aries grinned widely. "You just keep that on you all the time?"
"Never know when I'll need it." he shrugged.
"Let's go before they get back to their dorms." she said, they made their way up to Ravenclaw tower.
"How do we get in?" Peter asked as they stopped at the door, there was no doorknob that they could open. An eagle shaped knocker stirred as they looked at it.
"What begins but has no end and ends all that begin?"
The two looked at each other.
"Do you know?" Aries asked.
"Not a clue, what begins but has no end..." he muttered trying to think of the answer.
"A story?" Aries answered, but the door didn't open.
"Time?" Peter said, but the bronze eagle stiffened up leaving them outside.
"We only get one chance each, dammit. We'll have to think of something else." Aries said, turning to leave.
"Wait, there's a gap under the door." Peter said, examining it.
"Yeah, neither of us are going to fit through there." she said, looking back at him, he gave her an innocent smile. "Tell me you haven't got a shrinking potion stashed in your robes?"
"Not a shrinking potion. You just can't tell anyone." he said, he handed her the vial and looked around to see if anyone was walking down the corridor. "Keep an eye out."
Aries nodded, glancing behind her, then turning back but he had gone. "Pete?"
There was a loud squeak coming from the ground, she looked down at a grey rat. "Peter?" she blinked.
The rat nodded and held its arms out for the vial, she knelt down giving it to him and he slid under the door.
"What the hell?" she muttered, still confused at what was going on. She waited outside the common room for a few minutes peeking down at the ground to see if he came back out. Then she heard voices from behind her.
"What are you doing here, Black?" Gilderoy said, walking with his friends.
"I was just... walking to my common room." she said, holding herself back so she didn't punch his smug face.
"Your common room is downstairs." one of the other Ravenclaws said.
"Wow, you're really smart, I would have never been able to find it if you hadn't told me." Aries said, looking down at the door to see if Peter was back, but there was no sign of him.
"Is that a joke?" Gilderoy said.
"Joke? What joke?"
"Whatever." he rolled his eyes walking towards the door. The eagle stirred once more and asked the same riddle.
"What begins but has no end and ends all that begin?"
Gilderoy looked at the group behind him like he was waiting for them to answer.
"It's death." one of them said.
"Oh, that makes sense." Aries whispered.
Gilderoy turned his head. "Were you trying to get in?"
"What? No." she said, diverting her eyes. "Told you I was walking back to my common room."
"No, you were trying to get in."
"What would I want to do in the Ravenclaw common room? Answer riddles?" she retorted.
He glared at her, eyeing her scars. "I'll find out why, Scarface- OW!" he yelped out in pain waving his hand around, her eyes widened as she saw the rat sinking his teeth into Gilderoy's skin.
"Oh no." Aries said, trying to take Peter off Gilderoy's hand. "Stop moving!"
Gilderoy shook his hand violently, making Peter fly off and hit the wall hard.
"Shit!" she said, picking him up and running down towards a deserted corridor.
"Are you okay?" she asked as Peter turned back.
He winced as he moved his arm. "Think it's broken. Worth it though."
"Really?"
"Yup, and I put the potion in his shampoo so it's a win win."
"Your arm is broken,"
He went to shrug but couldn't without being in pain.
"Let's get you to the hospital wing." Aries said, helping him stand up.
☽☆☾
"Thank you for bringing him here, Miss Black." Madam Pomfrey said, giving Peter a potion to drink. "I'll have that bone mended in a heartbeat, there's a bug going around the school and most of the students have been coming in for that, almost running out of my special pepperup potion. Nice change of scenery." She walked to the glass cabinet picking up another potion and pouring the yellow liquid into a cup. "Drink this Mr Pettigrew."
He grimaced as he drank the potion.
"Nice?" Aries asked.
"Best potion I've ever had," he said sarcastically.
"Right, you should be all done now, drink more tomorrow and your arm will be better." Madam Pomfrey said. "Oh Mr Lockheart what have you done now?"
"I didn't do anything! A rat bit me!"
Peter and Aries looked at each other grinning widely.
"Ooh, that looks like it hurts." Peter said, as they walked past him showing the mediwitch his red hand.
Gilderoy ignored him and complained more about his hand.
The two left the hospital wing, Aries said that she'd walk him back to Gryffindor tower.
"I know the way," he said.
"Yeah, but you might break your other arm."
"I didn't break it... Gilderoy did."
"Fine, Gilderoy might break your other arm."
"I dunno, I think that rat might have fended him off for a bit." Peter said, smugly.
"My hero." Aries smiled. "So I'm guessing that you're an illegal animagus."
He nodded. "Yeah we did it because-" he stopped himself quickly.
She looked at him for an explanation.
"To help a friend."
"Remus?" she asked, "All of you did it?"
"You know about Remus?"
"Yeah, he told me the other day."
"He told you? Must really like you because we had to figure it out and then he told us we were silly for even thinking it and then James got out all of his calculations on when the full moons were and when he left to see his Mum who got 'sick' monthly. And then we said we'd help him during the transitions."
"That's really brave of all of you."
"He was terrified the first night, he told us that if anything happens we promised that we'd leave him but he was fine, it's kind of like the Hulk, he doesn't remember anything during his transition and then the next day he's Bruce Banner."
Aries furrowed her eyebrows. "The Hulk?"
Peter gaped. "You don't know the incredible Hulk?"
She shook her head in response.
"Ironman? Spiderman? Black Widow? Thor?"
"Oh the god of thunder?"
"How do you know that?"
"I learnt about Norse mythology when I was a child."
"I'm talking about comics, the Marvel ones... you don't have a clue do you."
"Nope, sorry."
"There's so much you need to learn."
"Dorcas told me about Batman, right?"
"That's the wrong comic." Peter laughed. "Ooh, watch it."
He pulled her arm towards him as a bunch of third years ran down the corridor almost knocking her down.
"Quite a saviour you are today."
"I do try." he said, looking down at her. She stared up at him, his eyes locked with hers. She wanted to tell him how she felt and how she wondered if he had the same feelings she had towards him.
"So, um I-" She went to say but she was cut off by him patting her shoulder.
"We're here, I'll see you later, yeah, you're a good friend."
FRIEND?!
_____________________
Chapter 9!!!
Please comment and vote 🌟
♈️