Lollipops ↬ Sirius Black

Lollipops - Chapter 9

A stack of three fluffy, blueberry pancakes coated with maple syrup, a couple of dark purple grapes on the side, and a cup of refreshing and cool orange juice was what Naomi's delightful Monday morning breakfast consisted of. Delightful as in food, that was.

Naomi's time spent eating at the Ravenclaw Table, however, was lonesome and boring in a pitiful sort of way, as always. This was because her only friends, as stated, were two Slytherins who had a reputation to uphold, and wouldn't be caught dead sitting with her. The consequences to pay simply wouldn't be worth it.

Naomi liked to think that she understood them, and why it was that they didn't want to be seen with her. After all, what good would focusing on the negative things in life do? Although, as she sat in a secluded part of the Ravenclaw Table, she couldn't help but longingly stare at all the other pairs and groups of friends as her head lazily rest in her hand.

Other friends heftily laughed or animatedly chatted with one another, and it was something Naomi greatly admired.

In fact, speaking of friendships, the Marauders sat at the Gryffindor table. For some unknown reason, their voices were hush and their heads were huddled in a secluded square, very different from the usual abominable laughter and obnoxious and loud chatter you would hear from them on a slow and Monday morning like that one.

It was rather odd, seeing as the Marauders were the key noisemakers in Hogwarts, and their rambunctious attitudes were as of expected. However, instead of being loud as they usually were, their curious behaviour demonstrated otherwise. They would quietly and quickly whisper for a brief moment, lift their heads up, turn to look in the direction of the other house tables, put their heads back down, and whisper again.

Their noticeably odd actions, though, were pin-pointed on one thing; pranks.

Of course, that was the most easy thing to say, and it seemed reasonable too. After all, that seemed to be the only thing that could get the Marauders so riled up. And what other reason would they be looking in the direction of the other three Hogwarts Houses for?

Although, there was no real proof to support that reasoning. Also, the boys were speaking with such secrecy that if you even tried to listen in, they'd wholly stop talking, because, the thing was, what they were speaking of was something top secret, and something that only they were supposed to know.

The thing was, they had a huge secret, so big that it was illegal, and if their secret got out, they would find themselves in mounts of trouble. Here was some insight to the conversation taking place between them:

"I don't think we should approach her just yet," Remus Lupin murmured anxiously, biting his nails in anticipation. "We should do it only when she acts fishy again. Give it about two or three weeks — or months."

James scoffed loudly, a little too loudly in fact. "Why wait when we can just ask her right now? She may be telling people as more time passes on, you never know. I say we kindly ask her to keep quiet about it, and if she doesn't cooperate, then comes the blackmail,"

"Are you messed!" Sirius exclaimed in a hushed whisper, all attention soon being put onto him. "James, we want her to be our friend! We want to get on her good side! If we threaten her, who knows which teacher she'll rattle us on. Besides, I think she's a pretty cool person; not the type to act rash over something silly. Blackmail seems to be unnecessary at this stage,"

The four mulled over his words for a little while longer until eventually Peter spoke up to break the silence, "I think Padfoot's right, but still, should we confront her now, or wait?"

Suddenly, James gasped, a gasp so attention-catching that other people around turned to look. Immediately, his fellow Marauders knew that either a crazy idea or a good one was about to be presented to them by James.

"Guys, do you remember when we pranked Filch by turning his skin blue?" He asked, and the boys sighed, not quite seeing the point.

"Yes, but I don't see how that's going to help," Remus tiredly said, rolling his eyes at James.

"Wait, I'm getting there," said James impatiently. "And do you remember when we ran into her at 2:00 a.m?"

"Yes." They answered simultaneously, simply allowing James his moment.

"And do you remember that part when you, Sirius, said that she owed us a favour for Peter helping her, and she willingly agreed to what you said?"

"Yes," they replied, this time slow and confused.

James smiled smugly. "Well, technically, since she agreed, she really does owe us, and we can ask her to repay us by demanding her to answer our question. So, really, all we have to do is ask her if she knows our secret, and she'll answer us honestly."

Remus, Sirius, and Peter took a moment to let James' words sink in and to carefully mull over them, until at last, Sirius carefully broke the silence.

"That," he paused, and his best friends eagerly awaited his reaction, "has got to be your best idea yet!"

"Yes!"

The boys gave each other mighty high fives, and at last, Peter, who carefully observed the scene, questioned Remus, "What do you think?"

His answer to this was well-waited for, and James and Sirius stopped their celebration just to hear it, as it seemed that Remus was the leader in this mission—mainly because it revolved around his complications.

Remus pursed his lips until they were a thin line. "Well, I see no fault behind it. But," He altogether stopped the celebration that the other three had already started. They looked at him inquiringly. "When should we ask her?"

Peter shrugged, Sirius gazed afar thoughtfully, while James blatantly said, "Today."

Remus was taken aback. "Today?"

"Today." He confirmed.

Still, Remus looked concerned. "Don't you think we should put more thought into it? And wait a bit?"

"Nah, I think James is right. We'll do it when classes are done for the day and no one' around."

"But we have to be subtle about it," Peter pointed out as the four of them looked up again to stare at Naomi, who was seemingly oblivious to their stares.

"Well, obviously," Sirius said, causing the mousy boy to blush.

Remus carefully nodded along with the devised plan though still brought up something of his concern, "But, guys, if she doesn't know, then we can't just reveal our secret to her. We cannot specify what we want to know, just in case."

Sirius whistled. "Well that just made things a whole lot harder,"

Without further ado, the Marauders pushed their heads back into their circle of secrets and began to devise a carefully thought plan. They weren't quite sure about every little detail, but there was one thing that they knew for sure, and it was that, later in the day, they were going to find out if Naomi Serdeys knew their secret.

—–———

This was boring.

Both to read and write.

...

I'm so sorry. I really tried to spice things up, but don't worry, things will be getting interesting very soon. I wanted to include the part where the Marauders confronted Naomi in this chapter but I didn't realize that their conversation would take up about 800 words. If I did, it would be way too long.

I just realized that this month is when I'm supposed to be getting my first Hogwarts letter! I know I won't get it, but hope is still in the air.

QOTD: What grade will you be going to this coming September (or August)?
AOTD: Grade 7

(Edit: Right now I'm in highschool this was just at the time!!)

Vote and comment!

Love,
Manny