epiphanies - sirius black

chapter 3

Maggie woke up to find all of her dorm mates gone.

Panicked, she quickly got changed into her uniform, scruffily tying up her navy tie, and braiding her hair into two messy plaits.

She shoved all of her books and her wand into her bag and rushed out of the common room, down the stairs, and sprinted towards the great hall.

When she finally got there, she sighed in relief to find a majority of the school still eating breakfast, despite her lateness.

She panted as she walked over to the Ravenclaw table, completely out of breath from running all the way from her dorm.

She yawned as she placed a spoonful of porridge into the bowl in front of her, before adding a teaspoon of honey on top.

Instead of her usual cup of tea, Maggie opted for a coffee, figuring she would need the energy.

Once breakfast was over, Maggie began rummaging through her bag to find the timetable she had been given at dinner the night before, to find out what her first class was.

Normally she would have been much more organised, but after staying up late reading last night she had completely overslept, and therefore not had the chance to do so.

She discovered she had potions with Slughorn first, and began on her commute to the dungeons.

Maggie cursed herself for staying up all night to finish the book, but it was just so good, she couldn't put it down.

She had the book in her bag so that she could give it back to Sirius, just incase she saw him, knowing that he would probably pop up at some point or other.

When she reached the door to the dungeons she joined the other students, waiting outside the classroom to be let in.

She wished she had brought another book with her, so that she could read, as she had nobody to talk to, and therefore was standing there, bored, looking like an absolute lemon.

She decided to pull out her advanced potions book and skim through the pages, figuring it would be good to get a head start on the syllabus.

Suddenly the doors opened and Slughorn began ushering the students into the classroom, greeting them as they entered.

Maggie made her way to one of the empty seats at the front of the classroom. She liked it at the front, there were no distractions.

She sat down in the chair, and pulled out her books, her quill and her ink pot.

After sitting down she turned to examine the room, observing that the Ravenclaws were In fact sharing their potions class with the Gryffindors.

Suddenly, somebody sat down in the seat next to Maggie, blocking her view of the classroom.

It was a girl. She had long, flaring red hair, and as Maggie observed her, she noticed the girl was wearing a Gryffindor tie, and a prefects badge.

The girl extended her hand confidently to Maggie.

"Hi, I'm Lily Evans, guess we'll be potions partners!" The girl smiled.

Maggie apprehensively accepted the girls hand shake before introducing herself.

"I'm Maggie Green"

"Nice to meet you Maggie. Isn't it so strange, we've been in school together for five whole years, five, and I'm only meeting you now, in our sixth year, crazy! How have I never met you before?!"

Maggie chuckled nervously.

"I keep to myself I guess."

"Huh, well, I'm glad we've met now." Lily stated, before turning to face the front of the classroom.

Maggie slowly turned towards the front as well. No wonder the girl was a Gryffindor. It was as if all of the confidence that Maggie had been born without had been placed into Lily Evans instead. Maggie had never seen someone with such an effortless flare, and such an incredible ability to talk to people. It was almost amusing.

The lesson dragged on. Maggie wrote down almost everything the Professor said, even if most of it was just briefing about next years N.E.W.T's.

Before he let the class go, Slughorn assigned the class with a set of homework, causing everyone to be sent into a whirl of groans and complaints, but Maggie just sat there politely. She had been taught that it was rude to complain.

As she was walking out of the class, Maggie noticed Lily joined her at her side.

"Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to do the potions homework with me tonight?"

Maggie turned to her surprised by the offer.

"Uhhhrr-"

"You don't have to if you don't want to" Lily interrupted with a casual shrug.

"No- that would be nice" Maggie replied.

Lily's face burst out into a beaming grin.

"Okay, perfect, if you come to the Gryffindor common room at five, I'll let you in"

"Oh-okay, umm, I'll see you then" Maggie smiled.

"Bye Maggie" Lily said, before turning down the corridor to head to her next class.