Mischief Managed | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 76

Some days muddy and some days snowy, January and February passed by. Jenna was busier than ever with her Quidditch practices that their captain, Mei, made them do for their next match with Hufflepuffs.

     Gryffindors lost that game due to a Bludger almost knocking Jenna off her broom right before she could catch the Snitch. But as Mei said, if they could win the Ravenclaw game with a good score, they could still win the Quidditch Cup that year.

     Lily had already started studying for the finale exams even though they were still months way. Marlene, on the other hand, pushed the matter off completely, because she had found a new hobby. Some days, she would disappear for an hour or two after dinner or in between classes, returning to the Gryffindor common room with the newest gossip and information of school.

That night was no different. Lily, Jenna, and Alice were sitting around a table in the corner of the common room, writing their Defense Against the Dark Arts essay on Banshees that Marlene ran through the portrait hole and quickly walked toward them, dropping herself on the empty chair beside Alice.

"Guess what Helene Barry just told me," Marlene said in an excited whisper, not waiting to even catch her breath.

     "Who?" Lily questioned.

     "The second year Hufflepuff girl, of course. Duh." Marlene rolled her eyes at her friends' lack of knowledge. "She's Angelica's friend. You know... Sirius's girlfriend." She said the last words while sending a guilty look at Jenna, though the blue-haired girl showed no sign of anger.

     "We don't care what you heard from Helene Barry," Jenna said flatly, pretending to be reading her book which was propped open in front of her on the round table.

     "Trust me. You out of all people would wanna know this," Marlene went on. "From what she said, Sirius and Angelica had a big fight today."

     "Like I said," said Jenna without lifting her head, "we don't ca—"

     "Ooh, what was the fight about?" Alice asked curiously.

     "Finally! Someone who appreciates the fresh gossip!" Marlene nodded at Alice encouragingly.

     Seeing the little frown on Jenna's face even though her eyes were fixed on her book, Lily quickly said, "Mar, maybe you should gossip less and start on with your essay. You can't leave all your homework for the last day. They will all pile up and —"

     "Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Marlene shook her hands impatiently. "Anyway, from what I heard, just this morning Sirius called Angelica clingy right to her face, and she stormed out of the Great Hall, crying. Helene said he still hasn't gone to apologize to her."

     Jenna scoffed to herself. "Why am I not surprised."

     "They've only been together for two months and he's already tired of her?" Lily said with disgust. "He's just terrible. And also, what would two thirteen-year-olds do on their so-called-dates? We don't even go to Hogsmeade until next year."

    "Oh, but the castle itself is full of romantic places," said Alice dreamily.

    "They had their first date at the edge of the Black Lake, back in January," Marlene informed them importantly. "They just walked there and talked for an hour. Helene said that Angelica told her that Sirius looked kinda bored. She said he didn't even have the manners to at least act interested in their date."

     At this point, Marlene threw another glance at Jenna's direction to see her reaction to this piece of information, but she became disappointed when Jenna's expression made no change at all.

     "Let's not talk about Black anymore," said Lily, picking her feather quill back up and dipping it into her black ink, once again scribbling down on her parchment.

     Jenna tried to keep on reading the chapter about Banshees, which explained how they are female spirits whose appearance or wailing warns a family that one of them would soon die.

     Although her mind kept wondering away, thinking back at Marlene's words. She had been trying to forget Sirius for weeks now, but it had turned out to be more difficult that she had thought.

***

"Why have you been in such a bad mood lately?" James asked Sirius as the four boys walked up the History of Magic classroom. "Don't you get enough smooches from your girlfriend?" he said mockingly, and then made a kissy face at Sirius.

"Piss off," said Sirius grumpily, shoving James off as he pushed him away. "Angelica isn't my girlfriend."

"How is she not your girlfriend, exactly?" Remus asked, hugging his heavy books to his chest. "You two have been hanging out for nearly two months now."

"I don't want to have a girlfriend!" Sirius complained, rolling his eyes in frustration.

"I don't think having a girlfriend would be too bad," said Peter, shrugging shyly.

"Well, it was a mean thing you said to her today," Remus told him him earnestly. "You can't just call someone clingy to their face."

"Which means it's okay if you want to call her clingy behind her back." James winked.

"No, it's not!" Remus scolded. "You can't do either. If you don't like her, just break it off. Otherwise you'll hurt her feelings."

"Ooooh! Look who's suddenly become the expert in relationships!" James said in a lofty voice and laughed, nudging Sirius on the arm with his elbow, but he didn't even smile. "Ugh, fine. I'm done trying to cheer you up."

When the four boys entered the History of Magic classroom, they took the seats in the far corner, waiting for Professor Binns to arrive, who came floating through the blackboard in a few minutes.

"He hasn't even started yet and I'm already feeling sleepy," James whispered, leaning back on his seat.

Professor Binns floated behind the teacher's desk and took out his notes to begin the lesson, speaking in a flat tone that even managed to make Lily a bit drowsy.

"Not that we are past the International Warlock Convention of 1289, we will be covering a brief history of Hogwarts," he said. "There are, of course, other Wizarding schools all around the world, but only a limited number of them are remarkable and known all over the world. We've got Ilvermorny in North America, Koldovstoretz in Russia, Mahoutokoro in Japan. We've also got Beauxbatons, Castelobruxo, Durmstrang, Mahoutokoro, Uagadou, and so on, and so on."

     James dawned, placing his head down on the desk before him as he slowly dozed off, keeping his eyes open with high difficulty.

     "Hogwarts is known best for being one of the best schools to have been made in history," Professor Binns wentbbiy on. "The Hogwarts founder — Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff, and Rowena Ravenclaw — also know as the 'Hogwarts Four' were the most celebrated Wizards and Witches of their time. They established Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during the medieval era, in the 10th century. To this day, everyone still marvels about the structures of the castle, and there are still many hidden secret passageways and chambers which have no been discovered yet..."

     Professor Binns went on, but James's head shot up at those last words, his grin widening.

    He then turned on his seat to look over at Sirius who was sleeping with his head on the desk, and then at Remus whose chin was rested on his palm as he stared out of the window, and finally at Peter, who was quickly trying to write his Potions assignment on his lap which they had to give to Professor Slughorn in an hour.

     "Psst! Psst!" James quietly called out to the boys, catching Remus and Peter's attention. Although he had to shake Sirius awake.

    "What?" Sirius mumbling, yawning.

    James grinned. "We're sneaking out of the common room tonight. I have an idea."