𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 - 𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 6

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October passed fast, as did September and December. (Y/N) and her cat Salem went back to her grandma's for Christmas, where they spent the holidays. The girl received a set of expensive quills and a parchment of better quality, while the cat received a new sweater to protect her from the awful weather. The girl gave her grandma a pair of socks she knit herself, which were kind of deformed, but Ms. Alaris loved them.

After the holiday break, (Y/N) returned to school and trained for Quidditch. She hadn't talked to any of the Marauders recently, and she had no desire whatsoever to do so, but she heard James had made it into the Gryffindor team as a chaser, and she desperately wished to see him get knocked off his broom by a bludgeon. During Charms, it seemed that the two boys sitting behind her had calmed down or felt guilty after the dueling club accident and no longer annoyed her.

They also had a game against Hufflepuff around February, which they won thanks to the chasers' competitiveness, and another against Ravenclaw in April, which she sadly lost. Due to the upcoming match against Gryffindor, Cassia had made them practice even more. The game would be tomorrow, and the (Y/H/C)-haired girl couldn't sleep because of the nerves. She remembered that Sam had told her how to sneak into the kitchens and decided to quietly get out of bed.

As she put on some fuzzy, odd-colored socks that her grandma had given her for Christmas, she didn't exactly like how much color they had in them and thought she looked ridiculous, but she went with it either way. Sam told her that it was by the Hufflepuff common room, and she had to tickle a pear to get into the kitchens.

She got there easily, not encountering Filch nor Ms. Norris on her way there. Just when (Y/N) was about to tickle the pear, she heard some distant voices and panicked, hiding behind a barrel full of hay that just happened to be there. "Oh, and her eyes! They are like two emeralds, her freckles are just like constellations, and her red hair is like roaring fire..."

(Y/N) would recognize that annoying voice anywhere, it was James Potter's. She assumed his 3 equally annoying friends would be just behind him. Like they always were. Once they came into view, (Y/N) confirmed her assumptions. He must have a little crush, she thought. Had she not been hiding, she would have snickered.

"Beautiful like a blooming flower...", he let out a dreamy sigh. "That's it! My Lily flower..."

Sirius laughed loudly, but Peter shushed him, trembling at the possibility of getting caught by Professor McGonagall. Remus laughed too, but was much quieter. "So now we just tickle the pear?"

Peter nodded, "Do it fast. I heard some older students say that Mr. Filch is ruthless with his punishments..."

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, Pete, those are just rumors invented to scare clueless first years".

Remus ignored Peter's cries behind him and tickled the pear, and they entered the kitchens. (Y/N) was tempted to tell Filch, but didn't want to be a snitch, so she decided to scare them. First, she would try to replicate a "meow", like Ms. Norris had just caught them and was on her way to tell Filch. Then, she would replicate his strangely heavy footsteps and finally imitate Professor McGonagall's voice, threatening to take house points away.

She cleared her throat quietly and came out of her hideout with a mischievous grin on her face. She felt rather ridiculous when she meowed, but Peter's flinch and the metallic sound of pots falling were satisfactory. Not only that, she saw Remus peeking out, but after seeing no one, he declared a false alarm and returned to check out the food the house elves were offering.

(Y/N) waited a few moments and then imitated Filch footsteps, cringing when her mind pictured someone else seeing her like that: outside the kitchens, with messy hair sticking out in all directions, and basically kicking and jumping on the floor. At the sound of heavy footsteps, even James seemed to lose his confidence and peeked his head out the door. Once again, he saw no one and turned his back to his friends, shrugging.