Long story short, my argument with Sirius was the talk of that evening.
A few minutes later I heard my friends whispering behind the door. "Come in." I groaned as I fell onto my bed. The door creaked open to reveal my best of friends, Lily at the the front, Mary behind her and Marlene and Alice crammed right at the back of the doorframe. They seemed surprised that I had heard them behind the door to our lovely dorm. "Hey Amberle, what's wro-" "What we wanted to know is what the bloody hell happened back there." Lily, who had been interrupted by Marlene, glared at her and folded her hands together,clearly annoyed. I sighed and huffed in exasperation. "I thought I'd study a bit and finish my Herbology essay before you guys came back,-" "wait,we have an essay due in Herbology?" I heard Alice mumble over to Mary but I kept going,ignoring the sudden remembrance of Alice's long forgotten essay on the Healing Pearl. "-you guys came back and I found a love letter directed to Sirius in the pages of my Herbology book." I looked down, sitting cross legged on my bed, remembering the letter. "It was from Leslie Sandyville." My friends looked startled as the crowded around my bed, soon filling any space there was to fill on my bed.
"I'm really sorry, especially since you like him a lot-" at that my head shot up and I looked at a open mouth Alice. "Um....shouldn't have said that, whoops..." she muttered guiltily and turned away. I looked to all my friends who were staring at the ground, having apparently found a new highly interesting thing on it. "Do you all know? How?"
"We started realising you had feelings for Black when you were let out of the Hospital Wing. We also found out that Marlene had known all along." Lily grew more confident by each word. "Why didn't you tell us Amberle? We could've helped you. You should've confided in us." Lily said, hurt dilated on her face. Now it's my turn to be embarrassed with a guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"I never really thought you guys would understand as you're always so against them. They are daft idiots but they can be nice. I didn't want you all to think that I was another one of Sirius' admirers, cause I'm not." I looked at them and toned on the ground, embarrassed. "You should've told us." Lily said as they all whispered their agreements. " We wouldn't have judged you, it's cute that you've crushed on him for so long." Marlene giggled into her hand. "We wouldn't break off our friendship with you because we thought we were another 'Sirius Girl'." Alice said as Mary rubbed my back. I felt a lot better.
Why didn't I just tell them?
I took a deep breathe as the tension dissolved between us. "Thank you." I whisper as Mary started to giggle. Marlene moved on from her giggles to full on laughter. Lily, my dear Lily, too was laughing. Alice was nearly on the floor. I begin to laugh too, relieved that the huge weight has been lifted off my shoulder. "If you had told me a few months ago that you had your eyes on Sirius, I would have straight up laughed." Alice said as we regained ourselves. "At first I denied that I had feelings for him, he was admittedly a much bigger arse back then." I wiped a tear off my face, laughing.
Lily got off the bed. "You know, I'm not that tired any more. I have an idea. Why don't we play a little game." she said as she stood in front of everyone, smiling mischievously. My jaw nearly dropped as I whipped my head around to the other girls who had the same espresso ones painted on their faces. "It is only 9 pm.....All right, I'm in." Mary smiled mischievously as she got up and stood beside Lily. Alice casually moved next to them. "Doing something forbidden, at night, oh I'm in." "Count me in." Marlene came confidently from behind me and I was the only one left. "Hm....I don't know...." I teased my hopeful looking friends as I put a finger on my chin. My smile revealed all. "Oh you tease." Marlene laughed as she reached for my wrist, ready to pull me up. But I pulled away. Their faces became worried and unhappy. "First, I need to know what the bloody hell you did to the real Lily Evans." laughter erupted around me as I laughed, looking at a beaming Lily. Her face turned strict. "We might still make it in time for curfew, if we're quick." She thought out loud and I had gotten of the bed. "Ah, there's the Lily we know." We laughed as our little group moved out the door down to the busy common room. "Where are we going?" Alice craned her neck to look at us all from the side as we were strutting through the common room. "You'll see." Lily raised an eyebrow looking at us mischievously. "Definitely not Lily Evans next to us, 'can tell you that." I mumbled to Alice who was walking next to me. "Oh no, it's definitely not her." As we were about to link arms and finally ask the question on everybodys mind, Lily spun around as quick as light and called out: "Last one to the Lake!" and off she was. "Oh that girl..." I heard Marlene shake her head and run off in the diction of the lake. Seconds later I focused again.
Don't want to know what crazy thing Lily has in store for us down there, but I sure as hell don't want to be last.
I started running, Mary close behind. Moving paintings flashed by as heads turned. I ran past corridors taking risky steps. It was fun, even though it was already dark outside and we were way to old to be doing this.
Past paintings, classrooms and study areas. Past the library onto another flight of stairs, across a big landing on the second floor and finally, the front doors. Making my way outside I had a clear view of the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest.
Wouldn't want to go in there.
I made out a shape of a person already standing on the pier of the Lake. Lily had beaten me.
How did she get there so fast?
Out of the corner of my eye I managed to figure out yet another cloak flying through the air. Mary. I was either second or third, but at least not last. I came to a halt in front of Lily and Mary, who had arrived a few seconds earlier, panting. Alice arrived about thirty seconds later and she too was happy that she wasn't last. A few seconds later an exhausted looking Marlene McKinnon arrived. "Merlins beard, however in the world did you get here this blimin fast?" she said, still panting from running around Hogwarts. "Well, for one we weren't chatting up a nice looking lad." Alice said as we all turned to her, enthralled to hear about Marlenes little detour. "I saw her flirting with a charming guy who just so happens to be Thomas."she told us with a grin on her face. The responses were fantastic; "No!... Really?","Did they snog then?" ,"It'll be the new It-Couple." ,"He's gorgeous though, isn't he?"-"Definitely." We gossiped away, occasionally poking fun at Marlene for losing the race to go chat up some guy. "I don't even know if he likes me yet." Marlene interfered and Alice laughed. "The way he looks at you, that's the way I look at my bed every night: true love." Lily giggled as she too got into the gossip. "You're so gorgeous, he probably didn't even know your name and had already fallen in love with you." "Oh please." Marlene said as she blushed a little. "Well it's true." I exclaimed with my hand out as everybody nodded in agreement. "When we get back I better hear some stuff about this guy or I might as well not go back." Mary muttered at Marlene and we had a laugh.
"Alright, so what are we doing out here, it's freezing." Marlene changed the topic as she rubbed her hands together. "Right." Lily caught herself again after the conversation of Marlenes crush. She rubbed her hands together and began telling us the thing she wanted to do with us. "We're going... swimming in the lake!" She exclaimed and was met by disbelieving groans. "The hell not!" Mary protested and was met by agreeing faces. "Marlene, as you were the last one to get here, you have to go first." Lily ignored our protests which quickly changed into a whole new perspective. "Brilliant" I said. "Oh I definitely want to see that." Mary told Lily. "Good idea Lily." Alice applauded Lily who was beaming like the glorious sun on a fine summers day. "But we don't have to go in, do we?" I asked and Lily gave me a mischievous smile. "We'll see, I did say she was going first, maybe someone will join her...."
She wouldn't throw us in, we're on the same team here....
"Wait, hold on, I thought you guys were on my side." Marlene put an arm between us and we smirked. "Things can change, y'know." I said as we all agreed on the same thing; Marlene has to swim in the Black Lake. "Honestly, this would make my day." Lily said as we all nodded. "Oh no, I'm definitely not doing that." Marlene said discreetly as she cautiously backed up and away from us. "Grab her!" Lily, who I was sure had been replaced by another person who was clearly bonkers, cried out as we grabbed Marlene and dragged our captive to the dock. We were all laughing as we threw Marlene into the cold, dark water. She screeched and we didn't see her for a good ten seconds, before coming up and scaring the living daylights out of us. She was now the one laughing, we sure did deserve it, seeing as we practically threw our friend into creature infested waters.
"You bastards!" She sweared at us and dipped back in. "Tsk tsk tsk missy, here at Hogwarts we do not swear." I pointed a finger at my pretty friends as I jokingly lectured her, imitating the voice of our House Teacher, McGonagall. "One should not swear in public as it is n-" I felt a hand at the on my back and lost my balance thanks to the pressure on my back. Screaming, I too felt myself falling into the Lake, straight into the murky water. All air that was still in my lungs escaped it and I made my way up, not being able to see a thing; it was dark and the water was neither clean nor clear.
What a lovely combination.
When I broke through the water, I could hear loud laughter. I opened my eyes to find Alice, Lily and Mary still on the dock, crying tears of laughter, and Marlene keeping afloat next to me, no better than the others. "That was a fine job you did there, Lily!" I heard Mary laugh as I looked to a joyful Lily. "Oh I'll get you for that!" I splashed water onto the dock as they backed away. "Well I didn't say Marlene was the only one getting soaked to the skin." She laughed as she looked down on us. "That's true." Mary said as she pushed in a screaming Lily, much to our surprise. We all clapped and Mary bowed as soon as Lily had fallen in. She soon found her way up and looked at Mary, trying to look angry with her while suppressing a laugh. "You're next up missy." we splashed a giggling Mary from our spots in the water. "That's also true." Alice said and was about to push Mary in as Mary had done to Lily, but oh no, McDonald had other plans. She grabbed Alice by the wrist as she was falling into the water. Alice screamed as the two of them dunked into the depth. Marys face was absolutely priceless and I was suppressing a laugh. They came back up, one angrier than the other. It soon turned into a fight which raged both below and above the rippling surface of the cool water.
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