It was the first day back to lessons, and everyone had come back a day early to settle in their things and to get in time for tomorrow. Apparently, the train was really late because of the amount of snow, and it took about an hour to magically disappear it using the vanishing charm. But, nevertheless, James was telling an overly dramatic version of events that included a Sphinx and three dark wizards. I have no idea how it happened but I loved it.
I'd told no one about the many confessions Sirius mentioned over the Christmas break and it seemed he never brought them up either, so I was content with moving on. I did however tell my dormmates all about Christmas day, and about playing exploding snap with Fabian, Gideon and Leon because whenever Leon's name was mentioned, Aafiya's head snapped up. I grinned every time.
I was currently listening to Lily muttering to me in Defence Against the Dark Arts about her time at home, and how James keeps talking to her about Quidditch, which she really doesn't care about. She then mentioned about some Muggle songs and music like The Beatles and Rolling Stones which amused me to no end. The names of some bands were quite funny however, The Weird Sisters were always eccentric.
Our DADA teacher, Miss Rakepick, was telling us about different defence spells like expelliarmus and protego, when a certain Gryffindor duo came sauntering in, ten minutes late, and laughing at something one of them had said. Our teacher looked them both up and down and then rolled her eyes, "Mr Black, Mr Potter, five points from Gryffindor and now sit down before it's any more points taken."
I heard Lily grumble something, and then heard the two boys laughing to each other. I glanced at Remus and Peter who were whispering quietly, and it was almost like they weren't talking at all. Why couldn't the unruly children be like that? It would save the House so many points from being taken.
She continued with the lesson and at the end, with five minutes left, she told us to write down our homework on a piece of parchment: Explain the different methods of defence and how they work. Then, she told us to get out of our classroom for break because she didn't want us for a minute longer than she should have to. I agreed, we were a handful.
I strolled casually out of the room with Lily still mumbling, but this time more to herself then aimed at someone, as I didn't know how much more I could deal with, and instead, I hung back with Mary and Marlene to give her some room to complain.
"Hey girls, where's Alice?" I asked, looking around. Marlene shrugged and brought out a compact mirror, looking at her eyes and I smiled comfortingly, "Marls, you're perfect, you don't need that mirror every ten minutes." She smiled gratefully and put it away. Mary was the one to answer, "She went to Frank Longbottom for tutoring in Herbology, said Sprout recommended him 'cause he was good at it."
I nodded and said, "What about Aafiya? Did she go to tutoring too?" Marlene snorted, squinting suspiciously at me, "Not bloody likely, she's so smart it's unfair. She went to speak to McGonagall about extra .. no .. a restricted section note or something because she likes to understand." She said the last word with dramatics.
"Little Ravenclaw, all alone and has no friends. What a shame," that was the teasing voice of someone I knew rather well. Bellatrix Black. It has seemed that myself, Marlene and Mary had talked too much, as we had turned a wrong corner and saw Bellatrix, Wulfric Mulciber, Rodolphus Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy taunting a second year Ravenclaw.
I looked on and saw for some strange reason, Snape stood watching them as if observing and taking notes for future reference, it was disgusting, but that was Snape.
"Well lets just-" I'd gone to tell the girls to turn and get a teacher as many of the students were all older and knew more hexes than us put together, but both Mary and Marlene were full of fire and had already walked on.
I sighed, "Never mind then. I guess confrontation is the way we're dealing with this." Despite everything telling me to go to a higher power like a Head of House, we were doing it ourselves. Walking towards them, both the Slytherin group and the small Ravenclaw with probable growth problems, turned to look at us three.
"Oh look it's three little Gryffindors. Can I jinx them Rodolphus? They're 1st years and Gryffindors, fully deserved," Malfoy asked. Bellatrix laughed and agreed, however Rodolphus huffed and said, "Be quiet Lucius, you're only a year older, and let's finish off with little Eagle over here and then move on. One target at a time."
I scoffed, annoyed, Mary's eyes narrowed and she glared, muttering as many profanities as she knew, Marlene however was bolder, she said, "Excuse me, don't use anyone as a target, has no one ever told you it's not nice? Have your parents never taught you any manners Lestrange?"
The Slytherin looked at us one more time and muttered, "Stupefy." Marlene flew backwards and very nearly hit the wall but fell just short and as she groaned in pain, she rubbed her head and made to stand up again. Lestrange muttered, "Bloody Gryffindors, think they're all that don't they." Mary whipped out her wand and I felt like putting my head in my hands, great friendship Mary, but we don't know any jinxes yet.
I put out my hand to carefully lower her wand.
Mulciber said, "Thanks Pattinson, I see Gryffindor hasn't twisted you into a blood traitor idiotic." I took away my hand and said to Mary, "Curse him to the sun and back Mary." She grinned and I could see cogs turning to remember at least one spell when we heard the female embodiment of crazy say, "YOU TRAITORING-"
Whatever she was going to say was blocked by the group of four boys, rounding the corner grinning and chatting loudly, stopping suddenly when they saw the scene and their grins slowly slipping off their faces. Remus took in Marlene on the floor, Mary with her wand pointing at the Slytherins, Lestrange's wand out, the rest of the evil bullying group confused, myself frozen, and a little Ravenclaw with tears streaming down her face.
James was frozen too but he glanced at Snape and smirked slightly, probably planning a kind of revenge. Sirius was reaching into his pocket to grab his wand when he saw his cousin, and Peter was the only one with sense, helping up Marlene.
"What's going on Thea?" Sirius asked. I shook myself off and tried to reply but felt my mouth stuck together and looked around, panicked, and noticed in my peripheral vision Mulciber smirking evilly. I didn't like being tongue tied, my parents had done that enough for me.
I turned around and without a second thought, swung my fist in his face, Mulciber was confused but then aimed to retaliate, and I could hear every Gryffindor there yelling at me to stop. Well, everyone but Sirius and James who were shouting, "Go girl!" "That's my best friend!" I felt my mouth rip open, the spell reversed, and I stood up, dusted my robes and and looked down at Mulciber.
"Why you filthy little-" he started but obviously attracted by the noise, McGonagall came striding around the corner and took in the whole scene, just like Remus had done before. Everyone in that corridor clamoured to explain their version of events, when McGonagall silenced everyone with a look and turned to the Ravenclaw I'd forgotten was actually here.
She asked her what had happened, and with one look at my bloody lip and Mulciber's black eye, the small girl, older than me, said, "The Gryffindor girls turned the corner to see the Slytherins bullying me. Then they tried to defend me, until one of these threw a spell at that blonde girl, then the Gryffindor boys turned the corner and.. and the Slytherin threw the first punch."
I tried to hide my smile and mentally thanked the stranger, whilst McGonagall gave the Slytherins punishments and detentions - which they did not take lightly - and she reprimanded their harsh looks towards us. She let us girls off with a few house points, and after constant reassurance the boys had just found us and not done anything, she let them off.
As the group of Gryffindors walked away, Sirius rambled, "I wonder who that Ravenclaw was. But Merlin, I should be scared of you Thea that was one good punch. Never mind, Mary, what was you thinking, we're in first year, what were you gonna do to them, Wingardium Leviosa them to the ceiling? James, did you see that, Minnie didn't take off any points from us, we're free men for once."
As break was over, the incident had taken too much time, we all made our way to Charms where Mary said, "As a matter of fact Sirius, A) That girl was Alexandra Wang. B) I might have known more than you do Black and C) For the first and last time in your life are you gonna get away with that." Sirius gaped like a fish in water and I checked back to see Remus and Peter asking Marlene if she was okay.
James stuck up for his best friend saying sarcastically, "We have Charms next Mary, try and learn something." I smiled lightly at their banter as Sirius turned to me.
"You okay Thea? Your lip is still bleeding, good going though getting that horrid Slytherin, who is he to judge and bully? He's no better than anyone, Pureblood Slytherin or not. Come here Thea and stop looking at me like that," Sirius said. He pulled me towards him and wiped my lip with his robe's sleeve, James raising his eyebrow and making a funny face.
He whispered, "Something happen between you two at Christmas?" I shook my head furiously and Sirius rolled his eyes and patted him on the shoulder, "We're eleven and twelve mate. Besides, I would've told you if anything happened idiot. Thea, it'll probably just be a cut, it'll heal soon."
I smiled gratefully at him and thanked him. I would not hear the end of this and everyone was definitely back at Hogwarts again. This of course would not happen on a normal day, or at a boring Pureblood party, right? Right.