In Transfiguration this fine Thursday morning, we are learning how to transfigure a teapot into a tortoise. Easy enough as it is, McGonagall seems to think this particular topic deserves an entire lecture. I tug on Remus' robe until he faces me. "What time is it?"
Rolling up his shirt's sleeve and examining his wristwatch, he bites his lip. "You don't want to know. We've only been here for twenty minutes."
I'm about to groan in dismay when I hear loud whispers coming the table beside ours and glance towards the culprits; James and Sirius. They're hunched over a large bit of parchment and seem to be arguing about something rather passionately. "Black and Potter!" McGonagall snaps at them and their whisper-yells come to an end. I watch, more interested than I've been all during this lesson. "Why is it you're talking while I'm teaching?"
The class stares the two boys down and they smirk carelessly. "Actually, Minnie, I believe the better question is why are you teaching while we're talking?" James retorts.
McGonagall's jaw slackens and she sputters before settling on billowing, "Detention! The both of you!"
I laugh too loudly at her bewildered expression until Minnie's head snaps in my direction and her lips tighten into a thin line. "You too, Holland!" "I didn't do anything!" I throw my hands into the air but she doesn't falter and instead proceeds with her teaching. I nudge Remus. "Can you believe her?"
Remus chuckles in response and leans in closer to whisper, "You have to be more discreet about your laughter, Keeks. You basically asked for it, what with that cackle."
"Rubbish!" I slam a fist against our table which earns another glare from McGonagall. "I can't help how loudly I laugh. And I did not cackle! I laugh all sparkly and special."
"Sparkly and special?" He snorts, raising an amused eyebrow.
"Yes, that's how I'd describe it."
"Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night." He smirks down at his roll of parchment, spinning his quill around between his fingertips. I stomp on his foot underneath the table and smile with satisfaction as he grumbles out a cuss word under his breath.
"Language!" I say in a singsong tone of voice.
"You are so annoying." He says with a roll of his amber eyes but I notice the small upward tug of the corners of his mouth as he does.
"Annoying you is a hobby of mine, darling." I grin childishly at the boy.
The day goes on without a hitch until, while the boys and I are recovering from an exhausting day of school, a small creature decides to break into the boys dorms. James releases a girlish scream. "There's a spider!" He points up to the ceiling at the tiny black spec. "Keeks, kill it!"
"Is ickle James afwaid of the wittle spider?" I push my bottom lip out dramatically with a roll of my eyes. "Honestly, it's smaller than your brain."
"That was uncalled for." He frowns and me before glaring up at the minuscule bug. "YOU BREAK INTO OUR DORMITORY! YOU CRAWL ACROSS OUR CEILING!" He yelps as the spider's leg twitches. "YOU DARE TWITCH YOUR WEIRD ARSE LEG!!"
"You chose the wrong dorm ceiling, mate." Sirius all but growls, whipping out his wand and pointing it at the spider with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Incendio." He flourishes his wand just as the spider scuttles off to the side. "Shoot, missed!" The ceiling is now on fire but that doesn't stop Sirius and he continues to cast spell after spell. "Incendio – incendio – indendio! Stop moving!"
At this point, all hell breaks loose. Peter starts crying and running around the room in circles with his arms raised, James is screaming bloody murder, and Sirius isn't giving up even though his eyes are flashing with fear as the flames take up half the ceiling. I stand there, trying for the life of me to remember any spell to douse the flames.
Remus saunters back into the room calmly, only when his gaze falls upon the chaos his eyes grow wide and his mouth drops open in pure shock. He's quick on his feet and without even another second wasted, he swooshes his wand around putting out the flames. Once they're all cleared, smoke envelops the once clean air and we all, except Remus, cough dramatically.
Remus snaps his hands onto his hips and glares at everyone in the room. "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL HAPPENED IN HERE??" Suddenly this whole situation becomes too much for me and I burst into sidesplitting laughter. Remus' hard eyes land on me and he glares even harsher. "Nothing's funny! Our ceiling is burned to a crisp!" That only intensifies my hysterics and I have to hold my stomach to keep it from hurting. "Someone explain." He takes a seat on his bed and crosses his legs, looking from each of us indignantly. "Please, humour me."
James steps up. "There was a spider." His voice is small and shaky as though he's holding back the difficult urge to laugh too.
Remus remains stone-faced. "A spider – a spider! All of this for a bloody spider?!"
"Yes?" Sirius smiles innocently.
The room remains silent for a while as everyone calms down from the events of a few minutes ago. "So," I say. "does anyone know how to fix a ceiling?"
*
By the time we figure out how to at least cover up the damage we've done, the sun's gone down and I yawn sleepily. "It's late." I inform the boys quietly. "I'll see you crazy kids tomorrow." I ruffle Peter's hair and slip out of the room. Slumping down the stairs, I release another full-body yawn, stretching my arms out above my head.
I like the common room at this hour; when no one's around. It's completely silent apart from the occasional crackle of the ever-burning fireplace. I walk over to the window and unlatch it to let some midnight air in.
"Chiara?" A gentle voice calls from behind me, startling me from my steady breaths of the fresh wind. I spin around and find Violet sitting curled up on one of the squashy couches with a notebook in her lap and a quill in-hand. Under the low lighting of the place and the glowing embers of the orange flames dancing across her face, I think she looks even more beautiful than ever. "What are you doing up so late?"
I smile back at her and walk over, my bare feet cold against the wooden floors. "It's a long story." I drop down beside her on the couch, crossing my legs in a basket. "What is it you're writing? I thought you finished all your homework this afternoon."
She frowns, her entrancing blue eyes wide with worry. "I had. This is a novel I'm writing." She hugs the notebook closer to her chest so I can't see the words.
"What's it about?"
"Things...life and such." She smiles down at the floor shyly. "It's embarrassing."
"Just as well. One day I'm going to write a story and I won't let you read it either."
"You're really intriguing, you know. Your life, it's...it would be worth reading about. Just a thought." She's being so cryptic. "What would you think about someone writing a story about you?"
"Writing a book about me, Vi?" I laugh.
"No!" Her cheeks dust a light pink colour against her pale complexion.
"If you don't, I might. Who knows, I could be writing a story about this moment, right now." I wiggle my eyebrows suggestively.
"All I know is if you do, you had better portray me right." Violet tells me pointedly.
"No," I smirk. "I'll write you to be a snobbish and rude girl with a thousand tattoos just to spice it all up."