H O G S M E A D E
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"Freya Bradberry! Where the bloody hell is my green top?"
At the sound of her name, the pajama clad girl sunk further into the warm sheets of her bed. She had woken up early yet again, but this time it was to complete the bit of homework she had been assigned that weekend. This way, she could have the whole day in Hogsmeade to roam around with no worry of assignments.
A single waxen envelope was placed on her bedside table, along with the letter it held underneath. Her mother's cursive filled the page, and it was quite clear to Freya that the woman was indeed trying. Though letters could not make up for lost time, maybe some sort of relationship would be held within the family of three if the small attempts continued.
The meagerly ajar door slammed against the wall as it was opened completely by Lily, who sauntered into their dormitory with an arched eyebrow and crossed arms. Her verdant eyes immediately fell on her flaxen haired friend. In response, Freya maneuvered her own gaze to the Charms homework that was clenched in between her nimble fingertips.
"Where is my green top?" Lily repeated.
Marlene groaned and the covers of her bed were tugged up so harshly that they untucked from the mattress. She skimmed the room with a drowsy and half awake expression, "Where is my peace and quiet?"
"Probably wherever Lily's shirt is," Freya sarcastically muttered under her breath as she messily scrawled an answer onto her homework.
"And where is that?" Lily spoke. Her words were directed in more of a demanding than questioning tone.
"The bin."
A silence seeped throughout the room as all three girls stared at Freya in awe. Mary's dark brown eyes peaked from the top of her covers in interest as she watched the ongoing events.
Truthfully, it hadn't been her fault that she was forced to throw away the shirt, but she knew there was no point in explaining to Lily until she had finished her rant, which was predictably soon to come.
"You what?" The redhead practically bellowed.
"On second thought," Marlene noted as she crawled out from under the fluffy bedding that had previously covered her body and walked towards the exit, "The Common Room is a great place to sleep. Marvelous actually now that I think about it. You coming, Mary?"
As soon as the offer left her mouth, Mary too slung her dark legs out of her bed without much hesitation. The girls had been sharing a room for seven years, meaning they knew how Lily became when she was angry, and they preferred to stay out of it unless they were the ones in the firing zone. Mary grabbed two pillows on her way before she left the dormitory without another word.
"It really wasn't my fault Lily," Freya weakly attempted to defend herself while she shoved her homework into her satchel and scrambled out of bed. Lily was nearing with such a clouded look that the girl felt safer on her toes, perhaps within sprinting distance of the door.
The redhead advanced slowly, "How could it possibly not be your fault?"
"Because it's mine," Sirius stated from where he had stood without notice at the door that the other two girls left ajar upon their departure. His arms were crossed against his chest and his head was rested uncomfortably against the doorframe. Unlike the two female friends, he had changed out of his pajamas and into his typical leather jacket, black jeans and white t-shirt.
The green eyes of the shirt searching girl shot from both the friends with the same piercing glint, "Your fault?"
He shrugged, "I told Freya to wear it when we when we set off those dungbombs in Filch's office —"
"You two were the ones that did that?" Lily inquired with utmost exasperation, her hands thrown above her head.
"It's rude to interrupt. Anyway, Moony insisted that we get the cheap kind to 'save money,' but those are known to singe holes in things. Like your shirt. Honestly Lily, we did you a favor. You should be thanking us. That thing was awful. You looked like a goddamn lima bean when you went to that Drug Club party —"
"Slug Club," her correction came out in the form of a hiss and the blonde that stood across the room resisted the urge to laugh, "And I could have mended it."
"Right. Pug club. Anyway, wear the purple one, it's much more flattering. And have fun on your date with James. Don't make him too mushy before Quidditch practice tomorrow morning."
With this statement, Sirius left the room and shut the door behind him. Freya sent him daggers on the way out, silently hoping that her friend would not continue to yell at her, but Lily did no such thing. In fact, all she did was hum a bit before she lifted the purple shirt from her trunk and held it up against her chest in front of a large mirror on the other side of their room. With a bit of a nod, her pajama shirt was cast aside and the violet shirt covered her temporarily bare skin.
Lily turned suddenly toward her best friend, "Did I really look like a lima bean?"
"A cute one," Freya grinned before dodging the pillow that was slung at her head.
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Packs of people crowded the cobbled, picturesque streets of Hogsmeade. Candles dotted the trees, despite it being day time, in order for celebrate the upcoming holiday. Halloween.
Each sleeve of Remus's sweater was rolled up in a bunch just above his elbows. Likewise, Sirius had long since abandoned the leather jacket he typically wore in autumn and tossed it over his right shoulder instead. The weather was rather warm for late October, but no complaints were uttered from the six students.
James had established a somewhat firm set of boundary rules that morning at breakfast before they parted ways. The friends were not permitted to go inside the Three Broomsticks, or within a certain radius of it. His reasoning was understandable. The pub was to be where the bespectacled boy would finally have his long awaited date with his dream girl, and he was determined to let no amount of dungbombs, pranks or anything else come near it.
It was understandable that the invisibility cloak was kept in James's pocket for safe keeping that day. He knew his best friend too well, and he also anticipated that the cloak would be the first thing Sirius thought of in order to sneak into the pub.
So the group blocked the street, though not on purpose, as they stood in a cluster on their tiptoes in order to peak through the window and get a good glance at the couple. They ignored the frustrated huffs let out by annoyed shoppers who were forced to diverge their route off the path and into the grass as they passed the set of friends.
From what they could see, Lily's head was craned down at the table and James seemed to be hysterically laughing at whatever it was she had said.
"He's replaced me," Sirius dramatically whined as he pulled Remus away from the entwined grip of Freya's hand and buried his face in the warm boy's chest, "I can't even look in there, Moony."
The playfulness and curiosity stopped altogether as the next group of arrivals made no move to push around the friends. Instead, the three new arrivals - Severus, Avery, and Mulciber - stopped with amusement.
"Well Avery," the sneering voice of Mulciber could be heard only a few steps from Marlene, "I don't think I've ever seen this many Mudbloods and blood traitors in one place before, have you?"
"Would be even more if the other two were here," Avery commented back.
The blonde turned to stare at the three tall boys with disapproval. She immediately noticed two of their stupid smirks, and the pitifully hidden wands that were tucked just below the concealment of their dark sleeves. A look of disgust crinkled her nose as she glared, and Severus visibly moved back from her.
"Hey Mary," Mulciber winked at the nervous, dark skinned girl.
An angered expression crossed all of their faces at the comment directed towards Mary. Even Peter, who typically watched situations like these with fascination, seemed particularly put off by the way Mulciber taunted Mary.
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Fuck off, mate."
Truly, Freya was just about ready, if not eager, to repeat her actions from sixth year and make one of the boy's teeth grow twice as large again. The consequences of detention she had previously received would double, but it would definitely be worth it.
Something bad had happened between the two. It was clear to every Gryffindor that had been present in the Common Room when Mary stumbled in through the portrait door a few years back. Her dark skin was abnormally placid, her hair ruffled instead of its usual perfect style, and the size of her eyes seemed to have doubled. Marlene and Remus had immediately hopped from their seats to help the girl sit on the couch while Sirius told a group of peaking third years to scram.
Though Mary never uttered a word of what happened, Lily seemed to have known a small portion of the story. The redhead had mentioned the dark magic used on her friend by Mulciber in her long argument with Severus, but nothing else was ever said on the matter. It was quite obvious that Mary did not wish to speak of the terrible prank, but she had not forgotten. Every time Mulciber neared, Mary strayed away.
"Let's go, Mary," Marlene whispered as she grabbed her friend's arm and tugged the girl towards the short route to Honeydukes without a single glance back.
The separate groups of friends watched the two girls snake through the crowds of students who had decided to come out on the warm day to enjoy Hogsmeade. As soon as they disappeared around a shop that stuck out a bit further than the other buildings in the village, the tension resumed. It took all of Freya's willpower to not grab the wand that was nested inside the back pocket of her jeans. Remus seemed to notice this, and he almost immediately backed away from where Sirius had tugged him in order to swat her hand away each time it creeped to the pocket.
"So, now we're down to three blood traitors and a mudblood," Avery commented with faux smile, and Severus let out a timid, slightly uncomfortable, laugh.
Sirius waved his hand above him and laughed, "Look, Snivellus, we know you're upset about what you saw in the window, but there's no need to be an asshat about it."
The nervous look on Severus's face turned into one of confusion, "What? What window?"
"Oh he doesn't know then. Hm, should we tell him?" Sirius questioned Peter.
"Sirius, stop," Freya hissed from the corner of her mouth, but if the boy could hear this, he completely ignored her words.
A shocked and flustered smile crossed Peter's face proudly as he noticed he had been included, "Yeah, I think we should."
The blonde groaned and cast a look of concern to Remus, but all the boy did in return was lift his sweater clad shoulders into a halfhearted shrug.
"Tell me what?" Severus hissed, looking over with concern at Remus.
"Through the window there," Sirius pointed across the street at the Three Broomsticks where Lily and James still sat at their table.
The girl's red hair fell across her face as she continued to laugh at whatever James was chuckling at as well. His messy hair was ruffled subconsciously, as if he was concerned it looked bad in front of her. Glasses slid down his nose as he crossed his eyes in an attempt to look at the mustache of butter beer that Lily snorted at.
It was clear as the sunny sky of that very day that the pair belonged together, and it seemed even Severus could see it for once.
When he noticed Freya staring at his reaction, Severus instantly masked his face with a cold, unreadable expression before he turned to stalk back down the streets of the village and back toward the castle. It seemed he had always been good at acting. At that time, he did not know how useful, and frequently, used this skill would become in the future.
Mulciber scowled and walked instantaneously after Severus with Avery close on his heels. The latter male called, "Don't worry about some stupid Mudblood, Sev!"
"At least my parents aren't related," Freya mumbled to Peter.
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AUTHORS NOTE:
this is unedited but I thought since I made y'all wait so long (sorry) I'd just publish it anyway
qotd: favorite out of the silver trio?
aotd: ginny, though my favorite changes all the time