borealis • R. LUPIN

chapter 3

chapter 3 - prank war

—

Weeks had gone by since Poli's birthday party in the Gryffindor common room. Weeks had gone by since Poli Dulworth not only rejected the infamous prankster and player of their year but had finalized her statement with a half-cup of Firewhiskey dumped onto his precious, silky black hair. News had spread like wildfire, and in those weeks, pranks had insued between the two. One day, Poli would wake up with a mustache painted on her face with permanent black marker, one of the more milder pranks mind you, to which she would roll her eyes and erase it easily with a spell and she would stalk into the Great Hall and see the disappointment in Sirius' eyes when she smirked at him. That was the first one he did.

It evolved into pushing her into the Black Lake when she wasn't looking, (she was pretty angry with that one) her using a transfiguration charm to make it seem like his hair had been cut off in his sleep, (to which he stormed into the Great Hall furiously seeing her smirking face and a camera in her hand while the rest of the room laughed at the scene) messing with her potion during potions class, making it blow up in her face, (Slughorn was incredibly confused while the infuriated girl glared at the Black boy with his friends in the corner) and her slipping Polyjuice potion into his morning coffee so in seconds, he transformed into half a pig, and half himself (when his friends began cackling with laughter, he tried to say "what" but let out a pig snort instead. His eyes widened and he let out a squeal, looking toward where he last saw the culprit of the prank. He didn't have to look far, for she stood in front of him with her camera, yet again, and snapped a picture before he could even blink.)

It was nearing Christmas break and Poli was so excited to see her family again, she forgot to be paranoid. That night, as it was nearing her time to go to sleep, she spent her time in the common room by the fireplace, just finished reading her sisters letter saying she had big news when she got home and also asking how everything was. Poli figured that she'd just wait until she got home to tell her everything.

Poli smiled to herself, opened her book and thought about how nice it would be to have a cup of tea with her right now. Just as she was about to flip the page in her book, one that her mother gave her, her body suddenly felt cold and her vision dark from closing her eyes.

Someone was pouring a bucket of water in her head.

No, not someone. Sirius Black. She could hear his laughter as the bucket had been emptied of all of its contents onto her.

In the process of being soaked, she had dropped her book, and it was carried a little ways out of her vision in the torrent if water puddling onto the ground.

She sat still for a few moments trying to catch her breath and processing what had just happened. She slowly stood and turned seeing three out of four marauders deadly silent, one of them with brown hair and glasses trying to pinch the only laughing one into silence. Finally James managed to kick the Sirius' shin making him scowl in his direction but stopped upon seeing the, not venomous, not murderous, but calm expression of the girl in front of him. That alone scared him witless.

She didn't make a move on him at first, but her eyes widened and she whipped back around, and dropped to the floor, her hands and her eyes desperately searching from something. She must've looked like a mad woman, but her hands finally found the thing she had been searching for. Her hands delicately held the remains of a book that had since been damaged by the water. She stared at it and she had to admit the current of rage and other emotions that came to the surface of her façade were slightly dramatic.

But she didn't give a flying fuck.

"You. Fucking. Twat." Her voice was low and malicious. With the book in one had, she whipped out her wand light and pointed it at him so fast, he could barely get out his own wand in time to defend himself against the onslaught of hexes and jinxes she sent his way. It wasn't until Lily, with Marlene trailing behind her, grabbed Poli's hand that held her wand and lowered it forcefully did she stop. A string of profanities left her mouth as she was lead up the stairs to her dormitory leaving behind four wide eyed and scared shitless boys as well as the rest of the shocked Gryffindors who had been there to witness it.

—

As soon as they reached her room tears began stinging Poli's eyes and when Lily asked her what was wrong, she had sobbed out with watery gasps that her book was ruined. As Marlene held and comforted a crying Poli, who cried over and over that her book was ruined and that there was no way to fix it, Lily placed the book delicately on the ground and muttered a spell that Poli couldn't hear considering her ears were ringing and her sobs muffled everything around her. The book, in seconds, was placed into Poli's grasp and Poli's sobs came to an abrupt stop. She still gasped but she stared at the book in relief and in shock. Before Poli could apologize for her problematic and dramatic behavior, she was wrapped into the embraces of her two best friends and roommates. When they all pulled away, Poli dried her tears and apologized with a deep flush of embarrassment on her face.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. That's incredibly embarrassing. Wow, I'm so sorry, you didn't have to-"

"It's okay." Lily said calmly, like a mother to a guilty child who was apologizing.

"Yeah, anytime you want to have a nervous breakdown, we'll be here for you." Marlene added cheekily. Poli buried her face into her hands.

"Oh my god. I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

"Of course not!" Marlene exclaimed with a laugh. "We just saw Poli Dulworth cry."

"A once in a lifetime opportunity." Lily added in with a giggle.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later." Poli laughed with them this time.

"Thank you, guys."

"Of course." Marlene said with a kind and warm smile.

"Anytime, but if you don't mind me asking, why did you freak out so much." Lily asked after a moments hesitation. Poli sighed.

"It was good payback." Poli muttered. "But my... my mum gave that book to me before she died. It was our favorite. She used to-" Poli too a deep breath as she felt a large ball form in her throat. "-she used to read it to me when I was a kid. I never really had any of her stuff ruined before or even thought about her things getting ruined before and if caught me off guard." There was a best of silence. "Plus, I was in a good mood so that just really put a damper on things..." Poli had never actually opened up like this to her friends before which is sad because they've known each other for five years now.

It was a new era for Poli Dulworth though. Not only would she be more open to her best friends, but she would befriend an unlikely group of trouble makers and even begin to believe in a silly little thing called love.

—

this chapter low-key sucks but whatever