The teachers started piling homework on their fifth year students, trying to prepare them for the OWLS. The common rooms had all transformed from social gathering places to study areas. Even Sirius and James could be seen in the library, which was very rare indeed (however, Madam Pince kept her watchful eye on them at all times- they were Marauders, after all). The boys were even paying attention in class. Well, most of the time.
“Prongs! Wake up!” Sirius whispered. “Milles is sending you death glares.”
“Hu- wha- what’s going on?” James asked, startled, as he lifted his head from where it had been resting on his hand.
“You fell asleep mate, and how know Milles said this stuff is going to be on the exams. We’re going to practice the new spells in about ten minutes, so you’d better stay awake!”
“Oh… right.” James murmured, pretending to yawn. He didn’t dare to tell Sirius the truth. If Sirius found out, he would mock James to no end. The truth was, in fact, that he had been staring at Evans. He didn’t know why, but lately his eyes always seemed to be drawn into her direction. He had noticed new things about her, like how she twirled her crimson hair around her fingers as she thought. How she bit at the end of her quill when she was working on her essays. And how her eyes automatically narrowed in his presence.
James gave an involuntary sigh at that thought. Why did she hate him so much? He wasn’t that bad of a guy. Sure, there are the pranks and the teasing, but he was really quite decent under all that. Could she ever let him close enough for her to see that? Wait… was he starting to fancy EVANS?! ‘No, that’s not it,’ he reassured himself. ‘It’s just… hormones. Yeah, that’s right. Hormones.’
He turned his attention back to taking notes. ‘That’s a logical answer. Lily would be- NO- it’s EVANS!’ He caught himself, and firmly repeated to himself, ‘It’s a logical answer.’
It would be great if he could believe it.
*
Bellatrix pounded a fist on the common room table. “We CAN’T let them just get away with this!” she shouted at the gathered Slytherins.
Rodolphus stood up, glaring at everyone seated in the dim room. “She’s right. We are SLYTHERINS! We don’t let cowardly Gryffindors get the better of us like this!”
“Um… don’t you think you’re taking this a little too hard?” Narcissa timidly suggested.
“A little too hard? A LITTLE TOO HARD? Look at yourself!” Malfoy shouted. He was so angry, his face was starting to turn red. Or maybe it was just because of the most recent prank the Marauders had pulled. Each and every Slytherin had either a red or gold face, and the opposite color hair. Their robes either shouted support for the Gryffindors in the upcoming Gryffindor versus Slytherin match, or had rather… obscene suggestions written on them.
Narcissa looked down bashfully, before whispering, “I guess you’re right. But what should we do?”
Snape chose this moment to speak up from the back of the room, where he was leaning against one of the cold stone walls. “Nothing.”
The others looked at him in shock.
“At least, not yet.” He continued. “The OWLs are coming up soon, and I for one want to have enough time and concentration to study. We wait, and we make it big. I suggest we don’t even plan it out, lest our plans be discovered. A spur of the moment prank or attack will leave them dumbfounded and humiliated.”
Following Snape’s speech, Rodolphus slowly nodded. “That just may work. I like the way you think, Severus. But I vote that what we do will not be directed at the Marauders, at least, not at first. They have humiliated us for years. One prank on them is not enough. We first need to target their friends and such. For example, I presume that you all have noticed the excessive attention a certain Marauder has been paying to a certain Mudblood?”
He was answered by a chorus of ‘Yes’s and nods.
Bellatrix, catching on, smirked. “Right then. So we all agree that our first target next year will be Evans? And that we will have no written plan, just a common goal? To humiliate and cause pain to the Marauders and Mudbloods?”
Everyone present nodded.
“Okay then.” Malfoy announced. “Meeting adjourned.”
The Slytherins slipped back to their dorms keeping to the shadows, as was the Slytherin way, while satisfying visions of enemies begging for mercy played through their mind.