Heart of Courage and Fire | Marauders Era [Poems Rewrite]

Chapter Eight - Hagrid Is Cool.

Chapter Eight

It seemed as though the two boys had taken her running away as an invitation to taunt and tease her more. She felt like she couldn't get away from it and she hated it, wondering why she seemed to be the target for their pranks and bullying.

It was just over a month and a half into the school year. The classes were difficult and so was trying to avoid two stupid boys, but she tried her best with both. She liked Astronomy and Charms because she seemed to pick them up fairly well, but she hated Potions with a burning passion.

She felt like she was run off her feet with all the homework she had for all of her classes and staying on top of it proved difficult. Sometimes she felt as though she couldn't keep up with all things magic, it was embarrassing, and she wondered if she wasn't well suited for any house.

She was currently on her way to her second class of the day which happened to be Potions. She didn't mind Professor Slughorn, in fact, he was a lovely Professor and helped her and Benji when they needed help, but overall Potions was not her strong suit.

She had an essay to turn in on the importance of Asphodel in certain potions and she thought by the end of her night in the library she was sure to rip out her own hair. It didn't help that she could hear hushed giggles and whispers from the table just one over from hers and to see Benji in the middle of his group of friends made her heart shatter into a million pieces.

She felt like he had truly left her behind, they hadn't spoken, and she didn't know why. She wanted to march right up at him and scream in his face that he was a terrible brother and she hated him, but she felt like she didn't even know him anymore to even do that.

Regardless, she had more important things to worry about. She was going to be late for potions and she couldn't let that happen, she had never been late to any class before and she didn't want to find out what the punishment would be if she was.

The idea of one of her Professors shouting at her sent a chill down her spine.

"Oi, Hopkins!" that was able to send a chill down her spine, too. The sound of those stupid boys clamouring down the hallway the same way she was going. They all had potions together, and sometimes it was harder to avoid them due to that.

She would pack up her things as quickly as possible at the end of class just to make sure she missed them, running to her next class so they didn't see her in the hallway but this time she wasn't so lucky. She wondered if they ever sought her out, rushed to catch up with her just so they could tease her.

She found out not too long ago that she really wasn't the only victim of their constant teasing and taunting. She heard a boy in Ravenclaw talk about that 'stupid James Potter' and she wasn't sure why, but a part of her was relieved. It felt almost sick to think such a thing, that she was happy someone else went through what she did.

"Oi!" Sirius Black's voice grew louder, rushing to her side with a smug grin on his face, "going somewhere, Hopkins?"

She kept her head down and her notebook that she had once scribbled in clutched tightly in her left hand. She hated them with a burning passion. She had dealt with bullies before, but not like this. At least they didn't hit her, but sometimes their pranks felt much crueller.

"Leave me alone," she whispered. Her voice small and mouse-like and the boys erupted into loud 'oooh's'. It was the first time she had said anything, and they had to be listening to her to hear it as it was so quiet, "please."

"Well," said James, grinning, "she did say please!"

They didn't leave her alone though, instead, they walked with her, "how do you get your hair that curly, then?"