Too Honest ~ James Potter

Chapter 37

*7th Year*

By the time three hours had passed, Mariya had determined she was rather pleased with her group; Lily Evans was thrilled to be doing the tasks and was attacking the riddles with a logic and sense Mariya could have anticipated of the red-haired Gryffindor girl, the fourth year Ravenclaw boy had been relatively enthusiastic at the beginning but his belief that all of the puzzles could be solved by knowledge had quickly been proven wrong and he had since fallen into a sulky silence. They also had a first year Hufflepuff girl who seemed to be having a great time despite not really understanding a lot of the answers, she had introduced herself as and seemed thrilled to be in a group with the head girl. Her skin was a bright caramel and her dark hair was pulled away from her face in box braids that left her brown eyes clear. The final person in their group was a Slytherin boy from second year, who seemed rather detached from the tasks, though Mariya had caught the soft smile that often crossed his face when Soraya grinned and dragged him towards the next place on their route. He was called , Mariya knew, and came from a strongly supremacist Pureblood family. She was glad therefore that Soraya, who had announced early on that she was a Muggle-born, had softened his outward shell and was helping to bring out the person inside. That was after all, what she had wanted when she had sorted out the details of the Treasure Hunt.

The five students had made their way around a fair chunk of the course by the time break came around and they decided to stop and rest for a while before continuing. Their most recent clue had taken them from the owlery to the edge of the Black Lake and Mariya was amused to see a pair of ice-skates hanging off a branch of the tree the Marauders always sat around at the edge of the water. Clearly this was part of James's section of the grounds and he had left a clue just for her to understand as nobody else in the school would really make the connection between them.

Flopping down beneath the tree, Soraya immediately began to weave daisy chains, making quick enough progress that by the time the rest of the group had got comfortable she was already dropping a daisy crown onto Mattai's head. The boy in question pulled a face at it when Soraya wasn't looking but did not bother to voice his displeasure, clearly knowing that he couldn't get out of the floral headpiece. Mariya quickly scaled the tree and helped pull Lily up behind her, the girl not seeming particularly confident with the physical task. Perching lightly on a branch, Mariya pulled the ice-skates towards her and stuck her hand inside to find a ragged piece of parchment. Despite the less than tidy paper, the scrawl that covered it was rather elegant and sloped gently to the right as it made its way across the page.

Dearest Mariya,

I hope that you found this without any trouble because otherwise it is going to be very confusing when I approach you about the topic this evening and you don't know what I am going on about.
I was disappointed that we never did get around to having our date and so I have planned something for this evening after the end of the treasure hunt. I hope that you will accept my offer and show up at the astronomy tower at midnight tonight, if you are unavailable you will have to tell me this in person at dinner. Wear something comfortable (If you show up in a dress, you will most likely regret it).

Love from your favourite person,
James Potter

As Mariya read the note, she couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face until she was practically beaming with joy. Lily clearly noticed this as well because she looked over Mariya's shoulder at the parchment but quickly frowned and drew back.

"Why on Earth are you grinning so widely at a blank piece of parchment?"

"It isn't blank," Mariya responded before realising that this wouldn't make much sense to Lily, "I bought this ink for James at Christmas, it will only let the writer and whoever the letter is addressed to read it."