One of us - Marauders Era

6

Since there weren't any classes today, Josie and Mary were in the library looking through shelves of books to find a good one to read. Mary was a kind Hufflepuff girl that she had recently befriended during a charms class.

"Here, I think you'll like this one," Mary says, handing her a red book. Josie sits down and examines it, the book was about a group of boys stranded on an island. Mary was right, she did like the sound of it. After thanking her, she heads back to the common room while still reading the book. As expected, she walked right into a student, this student just happened to be a third-year Slytherin with his friends. Just great.

"Sorry," Josie apologises and tries to walk around him only for his friends to block her path, grinning slyly like a beast that's caught sight of their next victim.

"What do we have here Avery?" One of them says,

"A little Gryffindor first year," a snarky Slytherin girl replies. Josie was not in the mood to put up with them. She applauds sarcastically,

"Surprised you're not in Ravenclaw with your smart observations,"

All their expressions instantly darken, and the girl steps forward threateningly,

"How dare you."

Before Josie could say anything, one of the others pointed out the teacher coming down the corridor.

"This is not over mudblood," she whispers angrily.

"Everything okay Miss Harper?" Professor Ramirez asks, Josie looks down to see the ends of her hair have turned orange. 

"I'm fine Professor," she replies, putting on a fake smile.

Later in the common room, Josie and the three boys sit on the couches around the fireplace. She leans against the armrest with her legs over Remus's while they both read. He seemed immersed in his book, however, she couldn't focus, her own thoughts distracting her.

"What's a mudblood?" she blurts out, breaking the peaceful silence.

Their heads snap towards her, wide-eyed with mixed emotions. Josie's hair turned the same colour as earlier as she looked at them in confusion.

"Josie, where did you hear that word?" Remus asks slowly,

"Uh- some older Slytherins earlier," she replies nervously. All three boys looked furious, she had never seen any of them like this before. Sirius clenches his jaw, his fists balled.

"Which Slytherins?" Sirius asks stiffly, Josie racks her brain trying to remember the names.

"Avery and I think one of them called another Bella,"

"Bellatrix," Sirius growls,

"Your cousin?" Josie asks,

"Yeah," he mumbles, "Come on guys. Josie, stay here." 

"Siri! Please don't, it's not worth it," she pleads, holding onto Sirius's hand. His expression softens as he looks at her but quickly becomes angry again as he tugs his arm free.

"Let's go, someone needs to teach those Slytherin scums a lesson," James snaps. They storm out of the common room and outside to find them by the lake. She runs after them, her hair dull yellow colour.

"We're not letting them get away with calling you that disgusting word," Remus says,

"Why? What does it mean?" She asks, if it even causes Remmy to want to fight then it must be horrible.

"We'll explain later," he whispers as they approach the sneering group.

"Hello Bella," Sirius says with a fake smile,

"Ah, my dear blood-traitor cousin bought his friends. This should be entertaining," she cackles. Josie could guess what blood traitor meant, her hair turns red as she glared at them.

"Someone's angry," another girl sings with a smirk, walking up to Josie and reaching forward to touch her hair.

Suddenly the Slytherin girl screams holding her hand in pain. Everyone stares at her in shock.

"You burned me, you filthy mudblood!" she screams,

Sirius fires a spell at his cousin, followed shortly by Josie and the other two boys. It was chaos. James gets flung back and Bellatrix gets disarmed then frozen. The boys had forced her behind them for most of the duel but since they were first years, their limited knowledge on spells meant they were no match for the third years.

Soon it was just Josie facing two Slytherins. She fires a spell but it's blocked and the girl disarms her, her wand landing near the water.

"Guess you're stuck now, and you can't even save your friends," the boy aims his wand between James and Sirius. Josie felt terrified but angry at the same time. Before she knew it, she was on top of the Slytherin boy and tackling him to the ground. The girl next to him shouts and aims her wand only to be thrown back into the lake by an invisible force. People around her looked at her with shock and fear causing Josie to feel a chilling sense of deja vu.

"What in Merlin is happening here?" McGonagall shouts, hurrying over. A furious soaked girl emerges from the lake.

"All of you drop your wands this instant!" Flitwick orders, arriving at the scene.

James is escorted to the infirmary for some minor injuries from when he got flung back by the spell. Josie, Sirius and Remus are taken to McGonagall's office,

"Miss Harper, tell me what happened," McGonagall says calmly. Josie told her what happened, making it abundantly clear that it wasn't the three boys' fault.

"We're very sorry, Professor," she says honestly, she never wanted this to happen. McGonagall nods in understanding.

"You three and James will receive detention with me for the way you handled the situation. And don't worry, I will make sure the Slytherin students are punished fittingly. Dismissed."

"Are we gonna talk about what Josie did back there?" Remus exclaims. They were with James in the hospital wing, he had an injured ankle and shoulder but they were assured that the injuries should heal pretty quickly.

"What did she do?" James asks confused,

"It was just her with no wand against two Slytherins, she tackled a guy nearly twice her height to the ground. But what confused me is how she managed to fling the girl into the lake without her wand," Remus explains,

"And when Bellatrix touched her hair it burned her," Sirius adds. The boys look at her expectingly.

"I don't know how I did it but it has happened before," she replies nervously, worried they would be scared of her, "I'll talk to McGonagall about it after detention."

"Come here," James grins, moving up on the bed so she could sit next to him. He engulfs her in a warm hug.

"Thank you guys so much for everything," she says, trying not to get emotional.

"We're always here for you," Sirius replies, jumping onto the bed,

"My ankle," James squeaks out in pain.