P R E T E N D
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The Wizards Chessboard sat between each player, acting like a peaceful boundary when it actually was the cause of tension in the first place. On one side sat a stiff postured blonde, surveying each move with narrowed eyes and utmost determination. On the other was the amused sweater wearing boy, warm eyes watching her with a small smirk.
Her gaze finally fluttered away from the game with a scowl. She scooted her chair back slightly and used her right hand to push the board away, "I'm tired, I don't want to play anymore."
"Could it possibly be because you're losing?" Remus asked with a regaling laugh.
She snapped her head up at the true accusation. An attempt to sound nonchalant was brought together, but it failed miserably. The words came out in sputters, "I have no clue what you're talking about because I, in fact, am not losing."
"Then you wouldn't mind if I . . ." He brushed his fingers over the ebony queen piece that would instantly win him the game.
Surprisingly, she didn't make a move to stop him. Instead she sunk further into the plush chair and simply returned his threat with a slight shrug, "Well, I guess if you don't want to cuddle before our friends return from Hogsmeade, I can't force you."
It was now he who stuttered over his words with wide eyes, surprised at the offer but definitely not declining it. Contact between the two had been limited to a rather neighborly conduct while their fellow friends were around. Their hands wrapped around each other during lessons only to be stuffed beneath the tables, hidden like an old book or a bizarre hat.
They were not ashamed, it was more of the fact that neither party had defined what they were yet. Did the concealed holding of hands and out of the blue pecks on the cheek from Freya qualify him to assume she wanted more than that?
Asking her wasn't the problem, he was not scared to bring up the subject. It was more of the fact that in his eyes, she deserved the whole damn world. And how could he ever hope to bring her just that when half of his life was spent cowering away from the less-important moon?
All the same, Remus was unable to take Freya up on the offer because at that precise moment — their playful redhead friend burst through the portrait door. Her green eyes immediately landed on the only two people in the room before the corners of her lips turned up into a petite smile.
"God, I can barely breathe with all the sexual tension in here," she teased, something she would normally say. This time, however, she had unknowingly been correct. Luckily for the pair, Lily had plopped herself down on the couch a little ways from them and was unable to see the flustered look that had crossed both Remus and Freya's face.
"Seems like you'd be used to it by now, Lil," Freya said casually, rising from the seat and sauntering over for a better affect, "With James and all."
"Never," Lily stated firmly, shaking her head multiple times for good measure, "Going to happen."
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Freya had become accustomed to taking no notice of the owls flying in and out of the Great Hall. She rarely got any letters, and when she did they were pointless ones from her parents about schoolwork or random gossip happening within their family. So that morning when a screech owl landed in between Sirius and herself, she did not look up from her rather delicious blueberry muffin.
"Well it's not for me," Sirius laughed at the idea of his parents sending him mail, although the joy did not reach his grey eyes.
Freya truly empathized with Sirius. Perhaps this is why she had grown a short lived crush on him for some time. Both of their families just did not understand either student. Although, Freya would admit Sirius had it worse. At least she did not have a sibling in attendance at Hogwarts, being showered by letters of approval by the very parents that ignored her. Sirius's relationship only grew more strained from his parents when his younger brother, Regulus, was sorted into Slytherin house. It was a final straw.
She trailed her focus from her food and to the bird that had begun to peck at Peter's hands that were surrounding his food like a mini, protective wall. Her hand flipped the envelope attached to its clawed foot to read the address, which was made out to her in her mother's curly handwriting.
The letter was easily unattached and she glanced around the table, looking for an excuse not to open the letter, but each of her friends had engaged themselves in other conversations. A sigh that caused a fallen blonde lock to flutter upwards escaped her lips as she peeled the flap backwards and slid the letter from its packaging.
Dear Freya,
We've been considering what you could do after school. Your father has a close friend, Robert Grahm, that owes him one or two favors. Anyways, he happens to have an opening for a young secretary. He said he would be ecstatic to have you work for him after your graduation. We said we would consider it.
The crumbling noise could not be heard from the buzzing conversations throughout the large room, but anyone watching her grip become tighter on the neatly folded letter could sense the sound. Her eyes skimmed the last sentence over twice more with annoyance before sliding down to the continuing paragraph.
Perhaps when you return this summer, you can balance your studies with an internship to prepare you for this job. Your father and I agree that your hard working nature could handle it. We have a dinner to go to this evening, so I am cutting this letter short. Your father tells me to tell you hello.
Love, Mum
"Pointless as ever," Freya scoffed under her breath.
Part of her wanted to toss the letter into the burning embers of the fire back inside common room while her parents watched, but the other half wanted nothing more than to laugh hysterically at her parents' mistaken assumptions.
"You look particularly cheerful this morning," James sarcastically observed, pushing Sirius off of his shoulder as the latter attempted to reach across them all to grab a plate of sausages.
"Very, what made you notice?"
By now Remus and Lily were watching her with concerned looks. She suddenly wished she hadn't opened the letter at the table, or that she was better at hiding her emotions from her caring friends.
"It's nothing really," she interrupted the question that had begun to spill from Marlene's lips, "Just mum expects me to return to the Muggle world after graduation. I don't think she understands that after all of this I couldn't possibly go back."
Peter nodded, "What is it that you want to be after school?"
"Dunno. I'd like to do something meaningful if I'm being honest. I'd like to make it more easy for people like us." When Freya spoke the last part of her sentence, she gestured to Lily. The redhead smiled in return. Being muggle born was not the easiest thing in the world.
"It's weird that after this year, we only have one more left," Lily sighed sadly.
Freya completely understood the melancholy tone of voice, for she felt it as well. She paused and tuned out her friends for a few moments, recalling her childhood. From the age of five, Freya would tip-toe though the dark hallway that led from her room to a bathroom in the eerie silence of the night. It was there that her father's bathrobe hung from beside the tub. Her lips tugged upwards as she remembered wrapping it around herself, the fabric dragging behind her as she crept down the staircase and to the latched door. The late hours of night onto the earliest of morning was spent in imagination — freely living the creative crayon drawings she doodled on white paper of mermaids and castles.
There she could play the heroic knight or the evil queen without the judgment or disapproving eyes of her strict parents. Most children dreamed of these adventures in the warmth of their beds at night, but she lived them. The robe turned from a wizard's cloak to a superhero's cape. The possibilities were endless.
Now Freya was actually living in her fantasies. Performing magic that would awe her childhood self. A real wand replaced the pile of sticks she had spent hours combing trees for as pretend ones. Real robes substituted her father's bathrobe that had long since been tossed in the trash. Hogwarts was a dream come true.
She only hoped she could help more girls and boys like herself and Lily realize they had every right to be part of the magic too. Magic was not a gift that neglected due to lineage. It was found inside.
"Don't worry, love," James smiled, attempting to poke Lily's cheek but missing as she maneuvered away quickly, "We will make the most of it."
And she knew they truly would.
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a/n: filler & shitty sorry
THANKS FOR 7K READS OMF
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qotd: fav hp movie?
aotd: half blood prince