"Violet, did you hear? Professor Lupin taught the third years about boggarts by actually making them face one?" Emma says to me as we are sitting in the common room.
"Heard about it? Draco would not shut up about how many teachers have been putting him in danger recently. He's still moping around with his arm in that bloody sling because it gets the attention of Pansy." I say. I look up from my ancient ruins textbook and over at Draco. Who as usual is being coddled by Pansy while Crabbe and Goyle just stand around watching. "It's disgusting. If I ever swoon over George like that I want you to blow my head off okay?" I say looking back at Emma.
"By the looks of things, George is the one that does all the swooning." Emma jokes, she playfully kicks my textbook out of my hands with her socked foot.
I reach down to the ground from my spot on the couch I'm sharing with Emma and grab my textbook. I look at her and stick out my tongue, "That's not true at all. George and I are two separate people, living our separate lives."
"Okay but when you and George are together, you look like Draco and Pansy. Which is... gross because Draco is in third year and allowed to act like that. You're in fifth year now."
I look back over at Draco who is now having Pansy write notes for him. "Draco doesn't even fancy Pansy. He just likes attention. Attention that Potter isn't giving him."
"Oh? Draco and Potter?" Emma says wiggling her eyebrows.
"I didn't mean it like that. Draco's just been going after Potter's attention since he's started at Hogwarts and he's never gotten it. I feel that they could be good friends if Draco wasn't such..."
"Such an asshole?"
I look at Emma and raise my eyebrows, "Not what I was going to say but yeah I guess. He is an asshole if you don't know him."
Walter comes into the common room from his dorm and plops onto the couch in between Emma and I.
"If I have to hear Cassius and Miles talk about which girls they want to see shirtless one more damn time I'm going to end it all." Walter groans leaning back into the couch.
Emma perks up, "Miles? He's single again?"
Walter groans and takes the pillow from behind him and shove it to his face. "no, absolutely not." He says into the pillow.
"You know what we should do? Go watch the Gryffindor quidditch team practice. Violet gets to see her boy toy and I can look at Oliver for a few hours." Emma suggest. Given it's a Saturday none of us really have any big plans.
"But that means I would have to get dressed. And I really don't want to do that." Walter says, finally taking the pillow away from his face. Only then do I notice that he's walking around in a t shirt and his boxers.
"I mean technically you don't have to get dressed. You could just get teased for the rest of your educational career here. Come on lets go. What else do we have to do?" Emma says taking the pillow from Wally and hitting his shoulder with it.
"Oh I dunno, do all of our homework so we can stay on top of our classes like we are supposed to do? Or rewrite our notes so they are easier to study from in a few months when we really need to?" I say casually.
Emma tosses the pillow at me hitting me in the face. "Go find shoes so we can go see your stupid boyfriend ride around on a stupid broom." She says to me.
Walter goes off to get dressed and I shuffle into my dorm to find a pair of sneakers I can wear without taking off the big green socks Molly sent me for my birthday last year. I take my bookbag down from one of the posters of my bed and shove my ancient ruins textbook in it so I can study a bit while I watch the practice. Since last year Oliver has been easier on me watching the practices. According to George and Fred I have gained his trust and therefore he is now fine with me and my friends watching and supporting his team. It also helped when George told him that I don't know the difference between a bludger and a quaffle which isn't true but whatever gets me on Oliver's good side.
When we are all ready we head out of the common room and head towards the door in the dungeons that leads outside. Before we go outside though we all stop and just stare at the door. "There's a dementor on the other side of this door." I say.
"There's dementors outside every door leading out to the castle. What are you gonna do? Just never leave unless its for a class?" Emma says. She pushes me towards the door. "Open it. Face your fears."
"You just want me to open it because you don't want to be the first one to go outside." I say to her. "Besides, I look like my mother, they could mistake me for her. I think you should be the first one to go."
Walter pushes past the both of us, "You people are so annoying, why do I even hang out with you." He swings open the door and steps outside, we both follow him.
"Because you love us." I say. I make the mistake of looking up above the door and am face to well... hole with the dementor. I quickly look away, grab Emma and Walters arms and drag them further away from the dementor.
"And to think. All this because my stupid cousin got himself locked away in Azkaban. I don't even know fully what he did. Uncle Lucius won't tell me anything." I say when we are far enough away from the castle.
"Wait. You don't know what he did?" Walter says, slowing his walking pace.
"Nope. Though I never really ask Uncle Lucius much questions. I just do whatever he says pretty much and only speak if I'm spoken to. Easier to live with him that way." I say shrugging my shoulders.
"He was the Potters secret keeper. Then he told someone where they were which lead to the Dark Lord finding and killing them. He also killed thirteen people with the blasting curse. I thought you would have known that." Emma says looking around Walter so she can see me.
I feel weird knowing that information, "Not surprising to be honest. That does sound like a very Black family thing to do."
Emma and Walter drop the subject. Not like there's much to say after that though. What happened happened and there's nothing anyone can do to change it. When we get to the quidditch pitch and climb up one of the big towers I can see George's face instantly light up. Thankfully it has been a rather nice September, no rain so far, and the pretty fall colours are just starting to pepper the forbidden forest.
"Oliver Wood's never going to notice me is he." Emma sighs sitting down beside Walter.
"I might be able to talk to him if you'd like me to. But he is leaving Hogwarts this so it won't really be a long romance." I say to Emma.
Emma sighs long and hard. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't be fussing over boys. This year is important for learning and things."
Walter and I exchange a look. Emma and I have been best friends for five years now, and not once has she ever put schooling before the attention of boys. Never. "That's real big of you Em. I'm proud." Walter says clapping her shoulder with his hand.
"Now I can just focus on finding Walter a girlfriend. I'm sure that will be a lot easier anyways. Cause Wally's a giant." Emma says looking at Walter.
Walter looks at me, he's clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation. Then he takes a deep breath and says. "Actually, I don't really need help on the girlfriend front."
Emma stops and stares at him, even I tilt my head a little and look at him confused. "What do you mean? Do you have a secret girlfriend sneaking abouts the school?"
Walter clears his throat a bit. "Not a girlfriend no. Sort of like a boyfriend...?" he says.
Emma blinks a few times, like she's trying to restart her brain. "Alright, a boyfriend. Who is it?" She says smiling at him.
Walter looks like someone just gave him a million galleons. "Not technically my boyfriend yet, but we have been spending a little more time together recently. Took a page out of Violet's book and started seeing him after curfew."
Emma and I both shriek. I knew that Walter was gay, he told me last year, then I told him I' bisexual. Very adorable moment honestly. But this, sneaking around with a boy. This is news to me. "Alright now you have to tell us who it is!" I say to him.
Walter is fully blushing now but his smile falters a little. "I want to. I really want to but he's not out yet and I don't want to do that to him. That's kind of why we've been sneaking about. So that no one sees us together. That and I don't want to be completely destroyed by the boys in my dorm. Merlin knows they'd bully me. More so than they do now."
Emma nods, "I completely understand. You know. I never thought of that. Dating the same gender as me. I mean, boys are such a waste, no offense Wally, but girls... they seem so much more in tune with their emotions."
"Have you ever looked at a girl and felt the same way you do when you look at boys?" I ask her.
Emma pauses for a moment to think, "No I guess not. Which is a shame really because liking boys is the worst thing, again, no offense Wally dear."
"None taken Em." Wally says smiling. "Look Vi, your boy is doing tricks." Walter juts his chin forward at the practicing quidditch players.
Sure enough George is soaring around the pitch doing spins and completely showing off. I holler and clap and Emma and Walter join in cheering and whistling. When George notices that he's getting the attention he obviously wanted he stops and focuses his attention back on his quidditch captain.
"He's really that desperate for your attention huh?" Emma says to me.
"Cut him some slack, we haven't seen each other like at all since the first day of school." I reply, my eyes trailing George as he and Fred start hitting a bludger back and forth.
"What do you mean haven't seen each other at all? He's in nearly all your classes." Walter says his eyes flicking from the quidditch players to us.
"Like, it hasn't been just us in a while. I love you all don't get me wrong but its always me, George, and Fred. Or me, George, and you Em. Or its all of us getting together and practicing magic with the rest of our year. And I love those moments I really do. But school is really the only time we actually get to be together, cause when summer hits we stop talking except for a few written messages late at night."
The studying with the rest of our year thing has become the norm. Every Tuesday and Friday night, nearly all the fifth years meet up in classroom 6B, drink some booze that someone stole from their parents or their older sibling mailed to them and we practice charms and do our homework and listen to music. Asking questions when we need to, so all of us actually pass our OWLs.
"Hang out with him tomorrow. I promise we won't bother you." Walter says.
I take a deep breath, "I can't though. We have that Herbology composition due Tuesday and I still haven't finished my first draft."
"How's about you and George just do it together? Find a quiet corridor or a secluded corner of the library. Two birds one stone." Emma says. "I'll even help you do your make up so you look stunning. But you might want to wash and brush your hair. I mean seriously I think there are pixies living in that thing." She takes a lock of my very messy, and very long hair in her fingers and holds it up.
"Oi" I snatch my hair back from Emma and she laughs, "Do you know how long it takes me to wash and dry this shit?"
"If you start now, you'll be ready to go to the library tomorrow."