The process of navigating themselves off of the train and into their self assigned carriage was a tedious one. James and Sirius didn’t help matters when they both insisted that they should be first in getting off the train. This meant that Kirsty and the others had to put up with their mock interpretation of argumentative shoving, before both Marauders acted with complete amiability to one another, and stepped off the train side by side. Much to Kirsty’s, and everybody else’s it seemed, annoyance.
Kirsty heaved her trunk through the jostling throng of students, and held Willow’s cat carrier protectively, and rather uncomfortably, against her chest. When she reached the carriage, feeling very battered and bruised from being shoved by many a younger student, she sank down gratefully onto the seat.
The boys sat down on one side of the carriage, and the girls sat on the other. Kirsty had always doubted whether or not these carriages had been designed to withstand the weight of eight fully grown teenagers, but this doubt was again disproved when the carriage began to slowly trundle along, jostling now and again, without as much as a grumble.
“So,” began James, a mischievous grin presenting itself on his face, “do we have any plans for this year, Marauders?”
“Well, I’ve bought some supplies…” replied Sirius, matching James’ mischievous look and casting an apprehensive sideways glance at both Lily and Hayley.
Kirsty and the other three girls rolled their eyes, Kirsty found it much easier not to intervene when they were discussing pranks, as they usually got irritatingly dismissive and cagey about the whole thing. She also knew that Lily and Hayley lived by this rule too, as they were both of the opinion that they couldn’t tell the boys off if they pretended to be oblivious to their plans.
“You know,” Kirsty told Emma, giving her an inconspicuous wink, “you’d think that James would have given up this Marauding lark, what with his new Head Boy ship and all.”
James turned sharply at her words, “Give up being a Marauder? Never!” he exclaimed, overdramatically.
“I thought as much,” replied Kirsty with a smirk.
Seeming keen to start the discussion, Peter asked, “What have we got ““
Kirsty cut him off by stating innocently, “Hey, do you guys know what the collective term is for bankers?”
“Will you shut up woman, we’re trying to plan things here!” exclaimed Sirius.
Kirsty pouted and turned to look out of the window. As hard as she tried to focus on the blurry dark shadows that were now flying past as the carriage picked up speed, she still found herself being subconsciously drawn to their conversation.
“Now, where were we “ ah, yes, supplies,” continued Sirius as if Kirsty had made no such interruption. “I’ve bought quite a few Dungbombs and Stink Pellets; I have the new promotional pack of Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start No-Heat Fireworks, and I’ve finally figured out how to perform that permanent sticking charm of my dear old mum’s.”
“Nice one!” the other three exclaimed in unison.
“Anyone else got anything?” questioned James, as if he were the chairman of the meeting.
“Well, I was reading this really interesting book in the holidays…” started Remus.
Before he could finish his sentence, however, Kirsty saw the other three Marauders loll their heads to one side, close their eyes and pretend to snore.
Remus smirked and replied sardonically, “Fine. I can take a hint. I guess if you’re not interested in hearing about this new hex I uncovered, I’ll just drop it…”
The other three snapped their eyes open instantly and apologised profusely.
Kirsty turned her head around to survey what the three girls were doing. Emma was decorating her newly painted nails with various fascinating patterns, and Hayley and Lily were immersed in conversation about some boring book or other. Kirsty sighed loudly. They all seemed to be ignoring her, but whether or not they were doing it on purpose she wasn’t sure. She hadn’t even been able to tell them the answer to her question. She sighed again and turned back around to look out of the window, Hogwarts was looming ever nearer, and her stomach began to squirm with a mixture of excitement and apprehension as to what their final year would entail.
“We’re sorry, Moony! Please tell us all about the hex you’ve found!” apologised Peter, trying out his impression of Sirius’ puppy dog eyes.
Remus laughed. “Okay, guys, if you really want to know, and next time you’ll know not to be so flippant with me when I talk about things I’ve read about in books-”
“So come on then, tell us!” cried James, impatiently.
“Yeah, tell us - oh, and by the way, Wormtail, nice one with the puppy dog eyes, I think I may have a contender,”
Peter glowed slightly at Sirius’ compliment.
“Well,” began Remus, “it’s a scalping hex, takes the hair clean off any unsuspecting victim. Just point your wand at the desired victim’s head and speak the words aufero saeta to provide instant hilarity.”
All four Marauders laughed.
Kirsty had to admit to herself that it did sound pretty funny; she just hoped that she wasn’t going to be the one on the receiving end of it. She looked over to Hayley and Lily to see if they had picked up on any of this, but they were still engrossed in conversation, so if they had heard, they were doing a very good job of hiding it.
As Kirsty moved her gaze back across to look at the boys, she paused to look at Emma’s nails. They were pretty amazing; each individual nail had its own pattern emblazoned uniquely on it by Emma’s artistic hand.
She had just finished letting them dry when Peter chuckled, “That hex sounds like Emma’s worst nightmare.”
She looked up sharply; evidently she had been paying attention to their conversation. “If any of you try casting that spell on me, I will permanently disfigure you all with my hair straighteners!”
All four boys smiled sweetly at her but didn’t promise anything.
Remus leaned forward as if to whisper something to the other three, and Kirsty found herself also inching closer to pick up on his words.
“I thought that hex could be put to superb use on a certain slimy haired Slytherin that you all know and loath-“Remus informed them with a wink.
The other three Marauders’ eyes lit up at this suggestion, and they looked at Remus with something close to admiration.
“-but you didn’t get that suggestion from me.” He finished with a smile, as he lounged back against his seat once again.
“We’ll corrupt you yet, Moony!” exclaimed James, excitedly.
“I think you corrupted me a long time ago, Prongsie my dear,” replied Remus, with an amused smile.
Lily lifted her head up at that moment and narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the group of boys.
Kirsty, now feeling extremely annoyed with being silenced and ignored by the party, decided to divulge to them the answer to her question. So, without notice, she blurted out, “It’s a wunch, as in a wunch of bankers!”
They all looked at her with looks of bewilderment on their faces, as if trying to figure out where this outburst had originated from. After a few seconds of waiting, however, she received the appreciative snort of laughter that she had been expecting.
Peter was the only one who still looked confused, and he asked them all, clearly irritated, “What’s so funny?”
But even when Remus explained the concept of the joke to him he exclaimed sulkily, “I don’t get it!”
*
Upon reaching the Entrance Hall, Sirius, who had snaked his arm around Kirsty’s waist to lead her in out of the downpour, removed it and proceeded to cast a drying spell on himself. Kirsty followed suit and noticed that the others had already done the same.
Once she was dry, she turned to her friends and smiled, it’s good to be home.
As they walked towards the Great Hall, footsteps echoing loudly on the stone floor, Kirsty started complaining profusely about the fact that her face paint had run.
“Well, it’s your own stupid fault for standing out in the rain,” scolded Peter.
“Too true,” agreed Hayley.
Kirsty glared at them both.
“You do look a mess though, I doubt they’d let you in looking like that,” stated Lily. “Probably best to clear yourself up.”
Kirsty withdrew her wand from her pocket, and pointed it at her face, grumbling as she did so, “Scourgify,”
“Shame,” muttered Sirius as he watched the remnants of the flag vanish from her face, “It was a work of art.”
Finally the doors to the Great Hall opened and Kirsty felt the usual prickle of anticipation as she caught a glimpse of the four long house tables, the floating candles and the mesmerising enchanted ceiling.
As one, the crowd disappeared from the Entrance Hall to beyond the doors of the Great Hall, Kirsty and Emma immediately tried to follow in their wake but James and Sirius held them back.
“What are you doing?” asked Emma, unimpressed, “We want to get in there and eat food!”
“You want to get in there and ogle at Sam!” replied Sirius in a furious whisper.
Emma had the grace to look slightly embarrassed.
“Why can’t we go in now?” asked Kirsty defiantly.
“Because, we’re going to make a grand entrance,” replied James, gleefully.
Kirsty and the other three girls groaned loudly.
“What?” asked Peter, with every air of innocence.
“What are planning on doing?” asked Hayley apprehensively.
“I don’t think James knows yet…” replied Remus with a grin.
“Why does that not surprise me?” teased Lily.
Kirsty could visibly see the hackles on James’ back rising; no one doubted his ingenuity.
“I do too know what I’m going to do,” replied James defiantly, making sure that his gaze lingered for a moment in Lily’s direction.
“Well then, please do inform us,” requested Sirius.
“No, I don’t want to now,” replied James sulkily.
“Aw, we’re sorry, Jamesie, did we insult your creativity,” mocked Emma.
“No, it’s not that,” replied James, with a swift glare in Emma’s direction, which Kirsty guessed was him admonishing her for calling him Jamesie. “It’s just that, it wasn’t that big an idea, and now that you’ve all made such a big deal out of it, I’m afraid that’s going to sound unbelievably pathetic.”
Kirsty saw Sirius stifle a laugh as he asked James, “Come on, tell us, we won’t care if it sounds stupid.” Sirius looked at the group as if to dare them to disagree. “I mean, it does seem a tad egotistical to give a huge prank the moment we return. So, what’s your idea?”
James, seeming slightly less ashamed of his idea now, stated, “We strut flamboyantly into the Great Hall,”
Kirsty couldn’t help it, she laughed loudly, along with the other three girls.
All four boys glared at them
“But, James, we always strut,” said Sirius.
“Do we?” asked Remus, confused.
“Sirius and James do,” muttered Kirsty cheekily.
“I don’t know what you four are laughing at,” stated James, sounding annoyed and devilish at the same time.
Kirsty apprehensively looked him in the eye, knowing his tone all too well, whereas the other three just looked at him with curiosity.
“You’re going in there with us,”
Hayley’s and Lily’s faces dropped. “We so aren’t!” exclaimed Hayley.
“Oh, yes, you are,” replied James mischievously.
Kirsty looked over to Emma and stated, “No skin off my nose, I’ll do it.” After all, she didn’t want James to think that he had struck an apprehensive chord within her too.
Emma nodded emphatically in agreement.
“There is no way that I am strutting down the aisle of the Great Hall with you lot!” argued Lily.
“You don’t have to strut,” explained James. “You just have to follow in our wake.”
“Ah, even better!” cried Kirsty.
James frowned at her.
“Well, what are we waiting for, let’s start the year with a bang!” instructed Peter enthusiastically as he made his way through to the Great Hall.
“It’s not very often that I say this, but Peter‘s right, let’s go,” announced Sirius, and with that the remaining Marauders disappeared through the huge oak doors, James casting a gleeful look at Lily as he passed.
“Now look what you’ve done, Lil,” stated Hayley, clearly annoyed at having to walk into the Great Hall behind four highly embarrassing, strutting Marauders.
“Why is this my fault?” asked Lily, perplexed.
“Because you doubted him and spurred him on,” answered Emma.
“Technically, you could go in there, insert your authorities as Head Girl, and stop him,” suggested Kirsty.
“Ah, but technically James is doing all this to impress me, ergo I should just let him get on with it.”
“But you hate it when James tries to impress you,” replied Emma, wrinkling her nose in puzzlement.
“Do I?” asked Lily innocently, smiling conspiringly at Hayley, who instantly cheered up and smiled back.
“Yes!” cried Kirsty and Emma in unison.
“Oh,” replied Lily, still smiling infuriatingly at both Kirsty and Emma.
“So, you’re not going to stop them?” asked Kirsty, thoroughly confused.
“Doesn’t look like it,” she answered, still smiling.
“Don’t tell me that you’ve finally succumbed to the Marauders’ influence,” said Emma, looking even more surprised.
“Hmm,” replied Lily with a smirk as she shared yet another glance with Hayley, obviously conveying some sort of secret that neither Kirsty nor Emma were in on.
“Come on, hurry up, we don’t want to miss this!” called Hayley, who seemed to have suddenly had a change of heart as she and Lily began to walk towards the Hall doors.
“Hey!” Kirsty shouted after them, feeling confused and slightly annoyed. “Was that a look that you two just shared?”
Lily turned around and smiled. “It just may well have been, Kirst.”
“But what did the look mean?” asked Kirsty with extreme intrigue and impatience.
“If you’d been at mine when I’d invited you in the summer, you’d know!” called back Hayley, as they finally disappeared into the Hall.
“Hey! That’s not fair; you know I was absent due to family commitments!” Kirsty shouted after them.
“I thought you went to a Quidditch match with Sirius and James?” whispered Emma with a smile.
Kirsty was slightly flustered and tried frantically to think of the perfect response. She settled for looking at Emma with mock fury and stating, “Sometimes I regret telling you things!”
“I know you do,” replied Emma merrily as she linked her own arm through Kirsty’s, “Come on, Kirby!”
Kirsty glanced sideways at her. “I’ll get you for that one later,”
Emma just laughed in response.
As the two of them emerged into the Great Hall, Kirsty noticed that the Marauders were standing just inside the door, waiting for them to arrive. How kind of them, she thought, with somewhat bitterness.
Once James had noted their arrival, he nodded to Remus who withdrew his wand from his pocket and shot a loud bang into the air, making the majority of the Hall, and Kirsty, jump.
The boys then proceeded to strut outrageously down the middle of the Hall; Kirsty couldn’t help but laugh at how obvious it was that they were doing this to poke fun at themselves.
When there was a good enough distance between the boys and herself, Kirsty dragged Emma towards Hayley and Lily and they all began to follow in their wake.
------------------
James laughed loudly along with the other three when they reached the end of the Gryffindor table; that had actually been a lot more fun than he thought it was going to be.
Remus and Peter clapped him hard on the back, still laughing, congratulating him on his feel-good idea, before heading off to their seats. Sirius, however, remained standing with James, awaiting the arrival of the girls.
James watched as Hayley departed the group with a fleeting wave and left for the Ravenclaw table.
As soon as she had left, Emma announced loud enough for James to hear, “Kirst, you are so strutting,”
From the look of extreme annoyance on Kirsty’s face, this seemed to be a discussion that had been going on for a while.
“I do not strut!” exclaimed Kirsty, wheeling around angrily to glare at Emma.
Emma and Lily just pushed past her, giggling.
As the two girls approached him, James could hear Sirius also giggling away at the side of him. When Emma came within two feet of him, James stated, “I honestly don’t know how you two,” he inclined his head across the hall at Kirsty, “haven’t killed each other yet,”
“Aw, I love her really, but she’s just so much fun to wind up,”
“Now I know that I’ve heard Kirsty utter those exact same words before,” replied Lily with a laugh as she pointed her finger accusingly at Emma as if to emphasise her point.
Lily and Emma went to sit down but hesitated as they reached the table, clearly they were wondering who was going to sit next to who.
In order to provide some clarity to the situation James said helpfully, “Remus has saved you a seat over there, Lil,”
Lily looked at him and smiled as she made her way over to Remus, and James was sure that that was the first genuine smile she had given him in the seven years he had known her.
“You four really are the biggest pillocks Hogwarts has ever seen, aren’t you?” called Kirsty, her voice full of amusement as she finally arrived behind them.
Out of the corner of his eye, James noticed Sirius stand up straight. He made a mental note to inquire further and, if possible, make a small dig at him for it later.
“Naturally,” replied Remus’ voice jokingly in reply from over at the other side of the Gryffindor table.
“Nice to know what you think of us, Kirst,” replied James, with a grin.
“Oh, I love you all dearly, but you are complete and utter prats. I still can’t believe you did that!” stated Kirsty as she sat down at the table next to Emma, who was now rummaging around her attire, clearly looking for something.
“Yeah,” agreed Emma, pausing from her task, “you four are so egotistical it’s unbelievable.”
“Oh, come on, we’re not that bad!” replied Sirius in a defensive tone as he turned around and blew a kiss to one of his many admirers, this time a Hufflepuff seventh year.
Both Kirsty and Emma looked at him incredulously, and James snorted loudly.
Sirius turned swiftly back around to see the two girls staring at him, “What?” he asked, acting confused.
“That just proved my point,” replied Emma.
“Yeah,” added Kirsty teasingly, casting a sideways glance at Sirius, “can’t you give it a rest for one year, Captain Ego?”
Sirius laughed. “Oh, you know you wouldn’t love us as much if we didn’t act as we do,”
“He’s got a point!” chirped in James.
Kirsty scoffed.
“Aw, come on,” replied Sirius charmingly, flicking his head back to get his fringe out of his eyes as he leaned in closer to Kirsty and gave her his most winning smile, “you know you love me,”
As she was sitting next to him, and in perfect reaching distance, Kirsty replied to this by slapping him sharply upside the head.
James looked across the table to see Lily, Remus and Peter laughing at all four of them.
“I can’t find my mirror!” Emma suddenly yelled in distress, “I must have left it in my trunk!”
“Oh no!” exclaimed Remus sarcastically.
Emma glared at him and began to frantically look around for a supplement for her most prized possession.
James heard the doors to the hall burst open behind him, and he quickly swivelled around to see McGonagall walk in, followed by a long line of scared looking first years. In her hand she carried a wooden stool and placed upon it was an ancient wizard's hat, heavily patched and darned with a wide rip near the frayed brim. James smiled encouragingly at a few of the first years as they walked past.
The first years lined up in front of the staff table facing the rest of the students, and McGonagall placed the stool carefully in front of them, then stood back.
-----------
Hayley smiled sympathetically at the first years’ surprised reactions when the hat burst into life and started singing. It didn’t seem five minutes ago that she was standing up there, shaking with nerves and excitement as to what house she would be put into. She would still say that getting up in front of the whole school, and placing the Sorting Hat on her head, was one of the scariest experiences that she had ever had to endure at Hogwarts.
She looked over at the Gryffindor table and instantly located her friends; it wasn’t hard as they were being the most active on the entire table. Kirsty, James and Sirius were swaying flamboyantly to the tune of the Sorting Hat’s song; Remus, Lily and Peter were also bopping their heads in time with the tune, and Emma seemed to be trying to look at her reflection in one of the plates. Hayley glanced up and down the table at the other members of Gryffindor. No doubt following the Marauders’ lead most had also started swaying to the tune. After a few attempts, Hayley spotted Sam, seated a few seats away from Emma, and Hayley laughed out loud, earning more than a few strange looks from her fellow Ravenclaws when she saw that Sam too was trying to check his reflection, but in one of the spoons.
As the song progressed, Sirius started clapping loudly in time, and it quickly caught on. Just the group did it at first; Emma even stopped looking at her reflection to join in, but eventually the whole Gryffindor table were in on it. As the hat neared the end of its song, Hayley also joined in, which prompted all the other Ravenclaws to do the same, and ultimately all the tables, save Slytherin, had joined in with the clapping.
Regrettably the song finally came to an end, and a round of deafening applause broke out. She saw Sirius grinning happily at the fact that he had got the majority of the hall clapping along with him.
The Sorting quickly got underway, with the first student to be sorted being a blonde headed girl called Vanessa Andrews, who was immediately sorted into Gryffindor.
Every time a student was sorted into their house, the Marauders would point their wands at their throats and make it so that they emitted an almighty roar.
The sorting seemed to finish just as quickly as it had started with the last student, Harold Zennan, being sorted into Ravenclaw; Hayley cheered herself hoarse, along with the rest of her house.
Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll in a professional manner, and carried the Sorting Hat away again.
Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster, had gotten to his feet, and the hushed mutterings ceased at once; even the Marauders stopped talking in hushed whispers and turned with respect towards their Headmaster. He was beaming at his students, his arms opened wide in the form of a greeting. "Welcome!" he said, “welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! It is not my wish to bore you with unnecessary speeches and introductions, at least not so early in our feast, but I will give you a statement to puzzle over: only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet!"
Hayley laughed lightly at this and she heard a derisive snort of laughter emanate from the Gryffindor table, which she guessed was Kirsty; she had the weirdest sense of humour, and would usually laugh at something that the others found to be either absolutely ridiculous or extremely unworthy of their laughter.
She watched them all laughing at Kirsty’s reaction and felt a weird pang in her chest as she wished that she could be over there with them. Being a Ravenclaw was all well and good, but sometimes she hated being the outsider in the Gryffindor group. They all had a certain family-like bond which she couldn’t seem to penetrate, no matter how hard she tried. She supposed that this was because they had all spent seven years more or less living out of each other’s pockets.
She moved her gaze onto Remus and watched as he laughed loudly at something James had just said.
When his laughter finally ceased, he looked up, across the Hall, and caught Hayley’s eye.
A flurry of excitement flitted through her stomach as he smiled at her. She smiled back, doing her best to dismiss her stomach’s acrobatics. After keeping his gaze for a few moments, she regrettably turned away from him and started shovelling lasagne and salad onto her plate.
-------------
Sirius laughed lightly as he watched Kirsty’s disastrous attempts to steal a boiled potato off of Emma’s plate.
“Come on, Em, just one-”
“No! Get your own!”
“But I only want one small potato-”
“Then get one off the big dish in the middle-”
“But it’s so far away, yours is within reaching distance-”
“I don’t care, stop being lazy and get one off the big dish-”
Kirsty swivelled around in Sirius’ direction, and he hastily moved his plate out of her reach.
“Mean.”
“Just get one off the big plate, Kirst,” laughed Lily.
“Fine,” replied Kirsty, sighing loudly.
She delved into her pocket and pulled out her wand.
Sirius barked with laughter.
“You’d better not be thinking of using your wand to Accio a potato onto your plate, because that would be the epitome of laziness,” stated Lily, clearly trying not to laugh.
“No, of course I wasn’t,” replied Kirsty guiltily, as she pocketed her wand again.
Resignedly, she leant across the table to obtain her illustrious potato.
“God knows what you’ll be like when you have to live on your own. You’ll have to cook your own food then,” laughed Lily.
“Ah, I already have a plan,” replied Kirsty cheerfully.
“Oh, yes?” asked Lily with slight apprehension.
“I have three words for you Lil: mother, owl and post,”
Sirius laughed loudly along with the rest of them.
“You’re not seriously going to rely on your Mum’s cooking, are you?” asked James.
“Nah, Mum would never go for it, I suppose I’ll just have to learn to cook by magic,”
Remus scoffed.
Kirsty whipped around and glared at him. “What?”
“You, cook by magic?”
“Yes, what’s wrong with that?”
“You, the person who has somehow managed to spectacularly melt the bottoms of fifteen cauldrons in the last six years!”
Kirsty’s cheeks flamed red, and she refused to reply.
Sirius and the other six laughed again.
“Looks like you’ll have to come up with a new plan, Kirst,” chuckled Peter.
A simple, haughty, “Humph,” was Kirsty’s noncommittal reply.
Finishing the last of his apple crumble with vigour, Sirius decided to lighten the mood.
“Hey, Em.”
Emma turned sharply and surveyed him with scepticism. “Yes?”
“I dare you and Kirsty to drink half of that chocolate sauce bottle each,”
Sirius couldn’t help but grin as he saw Emma’s dilemma at not wanting to do it and her incapability of refusing a dare.
“You’re on!” exclaimed Emma, a competitive gleam present in her eye.
“Hey, hang on a minute!” shouted Kirsty, breaking her silence, “I never agreed to this.”
“Yeah, but we all know that you were going to.”
The others nodded in agreement to Emma’s reply.
“Damn, have I really become that predictable?”
“Either that or we just know you too well,” commented Remus.
“Couldn’t that be classed as the same thing?” asked Kirsty, furrowing her brow.
“Stop stalling, Kirst,” shouted Sirius. “Now, who’s going to be the one to take the first swig?”
“I will!” exclaimed Emma over excitedly.
“And so the year begins,” Sirius heard Lily mutter from across the table. He looked up to see her shaking her head and smiling in disbelief at them all.
-------------
Lily had had half a mind to reprimand Sirius for making the two girls drink half of the chocolate sauce bottle each, but several minutes had now past, and Lily had even surprised herself when she decided to let this one slide. After all, just how much damage could two hyperactive girls do before Dumbledore packed them off to their dorms?
As Lily relished the last few mouthfuls of her treacle tart, she surveyed the activities of her friends. James, Remus and Peter were all drowsily discussing something, and she deduced by their unenthused sounding voices and the absence of a certain Mr Black in their conversation, that they weren’t planning a prank, for once; Emma was slumped on the table staring off into space. Even though Lily noticed that her gaze would occasionally linger on her unsuspecting crush, Emma was being surprisingly quiet despite her recent sugar overdose, which in itself was slightly unnerving; and Kirsty and Sirius, Lily guessed by their strange movements, were continually nudging each other under the table with their knees.
Whether by coincidence or on purpose, as soon as Lily fixed her gaze upon them both, Kirsty decided to ram sideways into Sirius, as if to spice up their antics a little, managing to catch him off guard. A proud grin sprang onto Kirsty’s face, as it always did when she thought that she’d beaten Sirius at something.
Sirius, not being one to be shown up by a girl, nevertheless by Kirsty, rammed back into her in retaliation.
The only problem with this was that Sirius was a lot stronger than Kirsty, despite what she might think, and he managed to knock her off balance, so that she was now sprawled sideways along the bench.
Lily couldn’t help but giggle helplessly, along with Sirius, at the shocked look on Kirsty’s face.
Their sudden outburst had caught the attention of the other four, as well as a large majority of the Gryffindor table, who upon seeing Kirsty, decided it was best not to inquire further, and returned to their previous obligations.
Whilst she was in the process of calming herself down, Lily glanced at the Hufflepuff table between the gap that was now present due to the lack of Kirsty’s tall form, and couldn’t believe the hostile looks that the majority of the female population of the table were giving Kirsty. Clearly they thought of her as being a threat, which, in Lily’s opinion, didn’t seem all too far from the truth. After all, the pair did often act like the married couple of the group.
As Lily looked to Kirsty and Sirius to convey her findings, Kirsty, looking very annoyed that Sirius had got the better of her, kicked him playfully in the thigh as she sat back up again.
Lily opened her mouth, but this time she was stopped by Sirius, who decided that it was he who should win this bout, so he again nudged Kirsty in the side, but this time with his elbow.
Kirsty managed to successfully keep her balance, apart from the fact that Sirius’ nudge had made her jerk her arm, which knocked her spoon, with a loud resounding clatter, under the table.
“Now look what you did,” stated Kirsty irritated.
Sirius just grinned devilishly in response.
Finally Lily got her chance to speak. “Careful, Kirst, I think you’re riling the fan girls,” she stated, inclining her head in the direction of the Hufflepuff table.
Both Kirsty and Sirius swivelled their heads around to look at the fan girls in question.
“When do I not rile the fan girls?” queried Kirsty, sounding intrigued.
“True,” replied Lily, with a nod of her head.
“It’s one of my favourite sports,” Kirsty stated as she once again lay down on the bench, this time in order to attempt to reach the spoon with her outstretched hand, “like Emma baiting.”
Evidently the spoon was too far out of her reach as Kirsty sat back up slightly, heaving an exasperated sigh.
“Personally,” contradicted Sirius with a big mischievous grin, “I prefer masturba-“
However, Lily was too fast for him, and she cast Silencio before he was able to finish his sentence.
Kirsty started laughing. “Hey, what do you know, that spell is quite amusing when it’s being cast on someone else other than me.” And with that she slunk comically under the table to retrieve her spoon.
As soon as Kirsty disappeared completely under the table, the dishes in front of Lily were magically cleared, and she turned expectantly, along with the rest of the hall, to face the staff table as Professor Dumbledore stood and faced them all once again.
“I have a few announcements to make: Mr Filch has told me to remind you that all Zonko products are now banned, and anybody seen in possession of such items will be punished accordingly.
“Anyone wishing to try out for their house Quidditch team should present their names to their Heads of Houses as usual; in addition to this we are also in need of new Quidditch commentators, who should do likewise. For those interested, Quidditch tryouts will be held on the tenth of this month.
“We are pleased to welcome a new teacher to our ranks this year, Professor MacIntosh, who will be taking over the post of Defence against the Dark Arts teacher.”
A tall, fairly muscular, man with short, dark brown hair flecked with grey; and dazzling midnight blue eyes, stood up.
There came an audible gasp from the female population of the hall, and Lily could see why. He was very good looking for a teacher.
Lily caught Hayley’s eye across the room, and Hayley immediately mouthed, “Wow,”
“I know,” Lily mouthed back.
Hayley looked puzzled for a moment as she surveyed the table, “Where’s Kirst?” she mouthed again.
“Under the table,” replied Lily as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Hayley looked even more confused but didn’t say anything else.
Returning her gaze to her own table, Lily noticed that both Sirius and James seemed suddenly highly alert; to Lily it seemed as if they were preparing themselves to defend their status as the Hogwarts hunks.
When the Professor stood up his emerald green robes swished majestically down to his sides, and when he spoke it was in a deep, captivating Scottish accent, "Hello, everyone," he said, nodding his head courteously and flashing them a dazzling smile.
Just after he spoke an incredibly loud bang emanated from the Gryffindor table, which was instantaneously followed by Kirsty’s unimpressed voice uttering a hushed “Ouch!”
Many people on the table giggled quietly, and Lily couldn’t help smiling. “What happened?” she whispered.
“Banged my head.”
Emma had to cough to cover up her snort of laughter.
“What; when you heard him speak?” Lily asked, continuing to whisper.
“Uhuh and can I just say…” Kirsty finished her sentence by sighing dreamily.
Lily did her best to laugh quietly, and her situation wasn’t helped by the scowl that had presented itself on Sirius’ face.
“Oh, just wait until you set eyes on him,” replied Lily.
“Which is why “ yes, got it “ I’m coming up to have a gander,”
Lily jumped backwards in surprise as Kirsty’s head appeared suddenly beside her knees.
Trying as hard as possible to be as silent as the grave, Kirsty clambered back up onto her seat, and once she was stable, she glanced up at the staff table.
“Wow,” she whispered to Lily.
“I know,” replied Lily in agreement.
“I can’t believe we didn’t see him earlier,”
“I know, the one year we don’t check on who our new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher is going to be,” agreed Lily, equally irritated.
Sirius coughed pointedly at them and inclined his head towards the staff table.
Lily took the hint, and she guessed Kirsty did too, as they both fell silent and looked at Dumbledore again.
Dumbledore was stood waiting patiently for the excited conversation to die down. When he obviously felt that the students had had long enough to discuss their new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, he cleared his throat and waited for absolute silence before continuing, “Once again I would like to remind you all that the Forbidden Forest is strictly out of bounds to all students, no matter how capable you believe yourselves to be in the practicality of magic.” Lily could have sworn that Dumbledore’s gaze had just lingered for the tiniest of moments on the Marauders.
“Unfortunately I finish on a grave note, for it is my wish to install upon all of you the severity of the goings on amongst the wizarding world. As I am sure all of you are aware, Lord Voldemort and his followers continue to gain strength, so I cannot stress how important it is to stay safe and abide by any security restrictions the staff see fit to place upon you in these terrible times.
“But now, your beds await you, as comfortable and inviting as ever, and I’m sure your main priority will be to be well rested in preparation for your start of lessons tomorrow. Therefore, there is nothing left but to say goodnight.”
With the usual deafening noise, the hundreds of students began to file out of the hall towards their dormitories. Lily rushed ahead along with Hayley, Remus and James in order to fulfil her Prefect and Head Girl duties.
---------------
Sirius waited along with Kirsty, Emma and Peter until the throng of students had died down a little before he led the way towards the giant oak doors.
Becoming distracted by the giggling of a group of his fan girls behind him, Sirius didn’t see the little boy who had walked in front of him.
It wasn’t a painful collision; it was just powerful enough to knock the boy off balance ever so slightly.
The boy spun around to face him with a look of complete disgust on his face, which startled Sirius as he was sure that this boy had just been sorted.
“Out of my way, blood traitor!” snarled the boy, with as much venom as he could muster.
Sirius furrowed his brow and saw that his friends too looked taken back.
“God, they get younger by the day,” stated Kirsty in disbelief as the boy hurried along after the Slytherin Prefect.
“You okay, mate?” asked Peter with concern.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry I’m used to it,” muttered Sirius, when in truth the whole situation had unnerved him slightly. Hearing a child utter such words with such venom was definitely soul destroying stuff.
“Well, I for one am very glad that you’re a blood traitor,” announced Kirsty as she linked her arm supportively through his. “Because otherwise, we wouldn’t have the Sirius Black that we all know and love today.”
Sirius smiled at her. He could count on Kirst to know what to say in a situation like this.
They walked out into the Entrance Hall, and Emma queried, “I wonder if I could walk up the banister of the staircase?”
“What?” asked Peter.
Sirius got the horrible feeling that the sugar had started to kick in.
“I mean, I bet it’s no different from trying to run up a slide…” Emma continued to ponder.
“What’s a slide?” asked Kirsty.
Emma walked over to her with a look of pity on her face and patted Kirsty consolingly on the top of her head.
“Patronizing sod,” growled Kirsty.
As they continued their journey up to the Gryffindor Common Room, Emma gradually became more hyper, giggling at things that only she found funny. The problem was that eventually Emma’s giddiness rubbed off on Kirsty, which couldn’t be a good thing.
And so it was that the four of them arrived at the Portrait Hole with both Emma and Kirsty skipping along merrily in front of Sirius and Peter.
It seemed that the quartet had spent far too long waiting for the throng of students to dwindle in the Great Hall as when they arrived at the Portrait Hole, they were the only ones there.
Deciding to try his luck, and hoping that the Fat Lady would grant them entry on recognition alone, Sirius approached the Portrait.
“Password?” she asked in monotone.
“Erm…” he hesitated.
“No password, no entry,”
“Damn,” exclaimed Peter.
“I can’t believe they went in without telling us the password,” stated Sirius in annoyance.
“Yeah, they decided to leave the noisy louts outside I see,” observed Peter.
“Noisy? Us?” asked Kirsty way too overdramatically.
“We’re not noisy!” exclaimed Emma, slurring her words ever so slightly.
“No. We’re not noisy,” contradicted Sirius, pointing at Peter and himself. “You two, however, are,”
“We are not noisy!” shouted Emma, proving both of the boys’ point.
“…maybe we’re a tad noisy,” relented Kirsty.
Ignoring Kirsty’s comment, Emma announced, “Anyway, something is only locked if it can’t be opened,”
Sirius raised his eyebrow as Kirsty went into a round of high pitched giggles.
Emma scowled at Kirsty, who was now doubled over gasping for air.
“You know what I mean!” she exclaimed defensively.
Kirsty sobered up way too quickly and replied with an innocent look plastered across her face, “Do I?”
“Yes,” Emma nodded emphatically, “What I meant was that something’s only locked if one cannot find any other means of opening it. Allow me to demonstrate.”
To Sirius’ complete surprise, Emma ran at full pelt towards the Portrait Hole.
In a matter of seconds her shoulder had collided with the frame with a painful thud.
“Ouch! That hurt!” cried Emma.
The Fat Lady glared at her. She was clearly not amused.
Emma, noticing this, apologised, putting on a posh voice. “Terribly sorry, Madam. I can assure you that it will never happen again.” She bowed flamboyantly and rejoined the group, rubbing her now bruised shoulder.
“I think I made a mistake in daring them to drink half of that chocolate sauce bottle each,” Sirius confided to Peter.
“You think?” replied Peter, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“I’m really regretting it now,” muttered Sirius.
“Well that makes two of us,” concurred Peter.
Just then the Portrait Hole swung open, and framed in the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room was James.
“James!” screeched Kirsty as she ran forward and threw her arms around his neck.
Looking quite scared at this greeting, James asked, “I really shouldn’t have opened this, should I?”
Sirius shook his head.
“Do you know how loud you’re being?” James asked Kirsty, prising her away from him with his hands.
“Do you know the Muffin Man?”
Judging from the fact that both James and Peter were looking as confused as Sirius felt, Kirsty had made reference to something from the Muggle world that she had learnt about from Emma.
“He lives down Drury Lane,” piped in Emma helpfully.
Kirsty then proceeded to walk over and link arms with Emma, the pair of them then danced around singing, frightfully out of tune.
“Oh, do you know the Muffin Man, The Muffin Man, the Muffin Man, Oh, do you know the Muffin Man, Who lives down Drury Lane?”
Thankfully after only one complete verse, the two stopped and grinned idiotically at each other.
All four of them then headed towards James and their Common Room. When Kirsty laid eyes on Lesley, the Gryffindor Beater, she ran over to her and enveloped her into a tight hug.
Finally, Sirius followed Peter and Emma through the Portrait Hole, but as soon as he had even stepped on the familiar springy carpet, he received a look of disapproval from Lily, which he guessed was for the state that Kirsty and Emma were currently in.
Looking around the room for Kirsty, he spotted her immersed in a Tango like dance with Lesley. Naturally Kirsty had taken it upon herself to lead, and she had her wand encased between her teeth, which he guessed was supposed to be acting as a rose.
James joined him and looked on incredulously at the two girls dancing.
“So it begins.” Sirius thought contentedly, extremely glad that they were now all back where they belonged.
The 'Wunch of bankers' line isn't mine, regrettably, it is from the tv show, Hustle.
Thanks for reading, please take the time to review.
Things Aren't Always Black and White by padfootsgirl1981
Chapter Notes: Hi! I'm back, finally! I'm so sorry for the long wait, I have recently sat my GCSEs (which, for those of you who don't know, are very VERY important exams here in England which give you the qualifications which you need to get a good job), so I was furiously studying for them. I also had to find a new beta reader, and I am happy to say that star_falling13 came to my rescue. Thanks for all of your help! Right, ok, so here's chapter three, it's quite long, not sure if you'll appreciate that or not, but I suppose in a way it makes up for my long absence from the fanfiction world. I hope you enjoy!