Chapter 15: The Howler.
It felt as if we had been walking for hours although it was only a mere few minutes. My kidnapper was still dragging me to an unknown location which I knew nothing about. But I kept fighting... I wasn't going to allow them to make me go anywhere with out a fight... After a while, they muttered some sort of password which I couldn't exactly hear over the loud thumping of my heart. I didn't want to admit it, but I was scared. Scared of where I was. Scared of the kidnapper. Scared of what was going to happen...I was now walking up what seems to feel like some stairs. We're they the ones from the Grand Staircase? No it couldn't be, I felt like I climbed those earlier. Where was I? And where was I going? For a couple of seconds we stop and something opens ahead of us but I still couldn't see anything. All I felt was my heart hammering in my chest as I was shoved into a room with my kidnapper's hand no longer over my eyes. It turned out that I was in a dormitory in Gryffindor Tower with four boys in their with me. Two of the three -James and Peter in other words- were holding down my brother on the four poster furthest away from the window and although Remus tried to fight against them, he failed. Sirius however was guarding the door with his arms crossed like he was security, however I didn't pay attention to him. As soon as I could, I ran to the my brother and his captives pushing them both off and pulling Remus over to the wall behind me. I immediately grasped my wand from the inside of my school robes pointing it at them and they all raised their hands to show no sign of danger."Woah, calm down we don't mean any harm. We just want to talk" chuckled James nervously. The others nod in agreement, backing away."You just wanted to talk! Then why didn't you just ask instead of holding Remus down as if he was a criminal and why kidnap me!" I shout turning to Sirius at the end who averted his gaze towards the floor. Behind me, my brother had his brows raised a small smile on his lips as he tried not to laugh which I paid no attention too. "Okay we're sorry but you've got to remember that you would probably of said no to speaking with us all because of that incident with the Snake" Sirius rolled his eyes now willing to look at me once more. "Her name is Naomi" I hissed back."Still doesn't make her any less than a snake"."You do realize that she is less of a snake than the others and she doesn't belong with them"."Doesn't mean anything"."Actually it does because if she was one of the others that was all about pureblood purity then she wouldn't of befriended me.""Well you never know, she could be using you"."Naomi wouldn't do that"."You haven't know her that long, you don't know her well enough to know what she would do.""Maybe not but you said it yourself. We haven't known her that long, so she could be nice but your too idiotic to see it"."Quit it the pair of you, arguing between yourselves isn't going to solve anything". Remus jumped in just as Sirius was going to respond about me calling him idiotic. James and Peter were just looking between us both as we argued, not wanting to get involved as they had found our quarreling quite amusing. "If he was to just give Naomi a chance we wouldn't be in this situation right now" I mutter under my breath lowering my wand and slipping it into my robe pocket. Only Remus heard me and he sent me a dirty look and he decided to then ask what the trio wanted to talk about."Well we actually wanted to talk about what the hell happened in Transfiguration" James said annoyed. "You know, how Sirius got tons of paint, flowers and glitter poured on him!""You all planned to do it to me sooo let's just say that I'm good at avoiding these things and I have... experience in it" I smirked downwards before looking back up. They ask what they meant by me having experience which I decided to answer truthfully. "Well, let's just say that I like to play pranks and I know how to avoid them. For example, I avoided your prank last lesson and I might of set off one or two fireworks on the first day at breakf-"."THAT WAS YOU!?" both Sirius and James shouts to which I reply with a small laugh and a nod. They both look at eachother and say "wicked" before turning back to me. "I guess that means that we should start planning a few pranks with you then.""Well one, we are supposed to be in History of Magic and two, why should I work with you?" I reply with my brows raised and my arms folded."Because you and both know that we all want to be friends but since what happened with the Slytherin girl we have drifted away?" stated Sirius although it sounded more of a question than a statement. "Okay fine but on one condition: you at least try and be friends with Naomi..." They all give sounds of disapproval but eventually nods. "But does that mean we are proper friends now?"
"I say we all are" Remus smirks from his bed "however I think it's best to start heading to History of Magic before we all get told off from Professor Binns.""He's a ghost Rem, what can he do that's bad" I snort, the other boys bursting into peels of laughter at my resort.
* * *
In a small group with Sirius leading the way, we enter the History of Magic classroom on the first floor. Somehow, no professors, prefects, ghosts and Filch the caretaker nor his cat caught us wandering the halls when we were supposed to be in lesson, not that I minded. I may be friends with the boys now, but that doesn't mean that I wanted detentions...So anyway, we walked into History of Magic in our group, which turned everyone's attention to us (well except the ghost of Professor Binns of course). On my right, James ruffled up his hair and sat in a nearby seat blocking the rest of us from filing in to the other four. Remus began to quietly urge him to move but he just smirked in his chair. I look over to Sirius to try and signal for him to move his bestfriend but when I looked he was trying to woo a ravenclaw girl -which seemed to be working. Letting out a long sigh through my nose, I step towards James and cast a quick spell with my wand poking out of the corner of my robes. His chair began tap dancing on the spot and began to dance into the middle of the classroom. The whole class roars in laughter as Remus, Peter, myself and Sirius file into the now unblocked seats at the back. Muttering another quick spell, the chair began dancing back into the now empty space before stopping completely. All that could be heard now was the odd laughter now dying down, the boring voice of Professor Binns (who still hadn't noticed anything) and scribbling of quills on parchment. One of those people was actually James who passed a note to me seconds later. What the hell did you do?! -JPI have no idea what you are on about. -MLYes you do. I know it was you who cast the spell on my chair so I would move, don't play me stupid... -JPWell you are stupid. Anyway if I didn't cast that spell, my legs would ache along with Peter's, my brother's and your best friend's. -MLHEY I'M NOT STUPID!! But can you teach me that spell. -JPHmm... I'll think about it -MLFor a while after that, the class just spoke among themselves or fell asleep (I may have been one of those sleeping) until the bell rung. All five of us dashed out of the classroom first and began to sprint down the corridor laughing. As we turned a corner, I jumped landing on Sirius' back while still laughing. Thankfully, he adjusted to my weight on his back quickly so I didn't fall off and the five of us were in the Great Hall in seconds.However along the way, I did catch snippets of other students conversations. Some asked "since when was Meadow friends with them?" and "I thought they were no longer friends because of the argument about the Slytherin girl". But none of us cared, we just continued running -or the boys did anyway. Once we had arrived in the doorway of the hall, they boys began walking to their usual spot at the Gryffindor table where I slipped off of Sirius' back and sat down on one of the benches. He sat down inbetween Peter and myself and we all began to eat the food provided. As more and more students filed into the hall, the more and more strange looks we got as our laughter filled the hall, not that any of us payed attention to them anyway. Halfway through our break, a large black owl flew through an open ceiling hatch and began to soar over the four tables, a small letter tied to it's foot. When it spots us, it goes in for a big dive and flies across the Gryffindor table, gripping onto Sirius' shoulder when it arrives. It's great yellow eyes landed on me and a small hoot comes from it's beak before he flew off from Sirius' shoulder and onto mine. I chuckle lightly and untie the red letter addressed to the person on my left. I give him a pointed look and toss the howler too Sirius who just smirks. "Took it's time. I was starting to think that my sweet mother forgot about me" he said, sarcasm dripping with every word that left his lips. Us other four share a look before getting interrupted with the words of a woman shouting from beside us. Sirius however, just rolled his eyes and took a swig from his pumpkin juice, not even bothered about his howler."SIRIUS ORION BLACK" came the shrill shriek of the woman "WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT? IF I HAVE TO COME UP TO THAT BLOODY SCHOOL AND PULL YOU OUT, I WILL!" The voice paused for a moment before continuing. "DON'T THINK THAT I DON'T KNOW THAT YOU DON'T CARE BUT I SUGGEST YOU START TO ACT LIKE A PROPER BLACK. THAT MEANS NO MORE BEING FRIENDS WITH BLOOD TRAITORS AND MUDBLOODS OR I WILL BRING YOU HOME AND SHOW YOU HOW A PROPER BLACK ACTS! ONE MORE TOE OUT OF LINE, AND YOU WILL LEAVE THAT BLOODY PLACE DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" Another long pause ensured. "I DO HOPE YOU WILL HEED MY WORDS SIRIUS ORION BLACK. I KNOW EVERYTHING THAT GOES ON AT THAT DAMN SCHOOL AND I KNOW THAT YOU WERE SORTED INTO THE HOUSE FULL OF BLOOD TRAITORS AND MUDBLOODS, BUT DON'T MAKE IT ANY WORSE FOR YOURSELF!" The howler tore itself up and fell upon Sirius' food, making the horrid voice of who I guessed was his Mum's disappear. The whole hall was silent and were looking in our direction but the silence was broken with soft laughter. "Is that it?" Sirius chuckled to my left, ignoring the rest of our looks of disbelief."You just got a fucking howler and you say 'is that it'?" I asked in disbelief. Remus began to scold me for swearing but no one was paying attention but the hall now began to whisper among themselves. "I've heard worse" the Black shrugged. "But do you think my detention for attempting to prank you earlier count as another toe out of line?" We all shake our heads as he chuckled. The students slowly turned away from us and now were talking with their friends again but that still left me with a question.Why was Sirius actually laughing about receiving a howler?