Hey my wonderful readers! The response I am getting from you guys is AMAZING. I love you all. I would like to dedicate this chapter to Spicky, Dancinggirl109, Hannah, NeverGotHerLetter, Gen, Lillylover22, potterprincess07 and obiwancrazy.
gorgeous chapter image by .asperity @ TDA <3
A ball of paper came flying my way, bouncing off of my forehead before landing in the middle of my pot of ink. I frowned, looking up to search for it's sender. Unfortunately, Professor Blair chose this moment to pick on me to answer a question.
"Pardon, sir?" I said. "I couldn't hear you, since my ears are filled to the brim with nargles. You'll have to speak up a bit." Thank God for the blessing that is Xeno Lovegood. He is possibly the only person I know who sympathises for my weirdness, instead of laughing at it like most normal people. But that might be because he is rather weird himself, so he understands how it feels when you have little sanity left to think with.
"Whatever are nargles, Miss Samuel?" he demanded.
"I'm sorry, what?" I said, cupping my hand behind my ear. "Don't ever wear bangles with jewels? That makes no sense. I've never worn bangles, and don't ever plan on doing so. And what have they got to do with jewels?"
Professor Blair looked mildly confused, but also annoyed. "That is not what I said, Miss Samuel. Please refrain from acting in that way during my class."
"In what way?" I said. "As myself? Don't you think that that's a bit harsh, telling me not to be myself?"
Professor Blair sighed. "The question, Miss Samuel, was what is a Fidelus Charm?"
"Uhh..."
Suddenly a loud bang sounded from the front of the classroom, and we all looked up to see Potter and Jerkface lying on the floor in a heap, and Lily Evans, a girl from Gryffindor whom Potter was crushing on, standing over them, her wand held out, her face almost as red as her bright ginger hair.
"Miss Evans? What on earth are you doing?" he demanded, moving swiftly away from my desk and examining the scene up at the front.
I was saved.
I cast a glance around me, making sure no one was watching, before fishing the ball of paper out of my ink pot and charming the mess off before opening it and reading it.
Raspberry
Do you want to have a picnic with me at lunch? Bring your cassette player.
Sirius
I smiled, watching him as he slowly dragged himself up off of the floor, running a hand through his scraggly hair and slumping back down onto his chair. Before he settled down properly, he turned around, looked straight at me, and winked.
Oh, jeez. That's embarrassing.
Everyone saw that and now they probably think that something's going on between us. Now I will have his fan girls glaring at me all day, all the boys making snide remarks about us, and rumours will spread around so quickly that you'll wonder why we all have nothing better to talk about.
I grinned to myself. The thing was, I didn't care.
~*~
As soon as I had escaped from Divination, I summoned my cassette player and headphones before skipping out to the Entrance Hall where Jerkface stood waiting, a pretty wicker basket on his arm and a picnic rug on the other.
"Hey, Raspberry," he said, grinning.
I blew in his face, blowing up the hair hanging around his eyes and giggling.
"Er... thanks," he said, blowing back at me, causing my fringe to raise in the air. Today my hair was waist-length, a light brown, with a bit of fringe at the front. I thought it was quite pretty especially because I'd decided to coordinate with my butter beer cork necklace, which peeked out from underneath the grey cardigan I was wearing.
As we exited the hall, going out into the blustery September air, I dag my cassette player and some tapes out of my pocket. "Now, which song was your favourite?" I asked, shuffling through the tapes.
"Yellow submarine, I think. Remind me what a submarine is again?" he replied, his eyebrows furrowing up as he tried to remember.
"It's basically a boat that can go underwater," I said.
He paused. "If a boat went underwater, wouldn't it be sinking? Wouldn't everyone drown?"
I shook my head at his naiveness. "No one drowns, Sirius."
We came to a halt beside the lake, Sirius dropping down the picnic rug and basket.
"Look," I said, showing him one of the tapes. "This is a submarine," I told him, pointing at it.
"Ah, okay," he said, taking the headphones I was offering him and placing them on his head. "Do you want a sandwich?" he asked, his voice louder than usual, so that he could hear it above the music filling his ears.
I shrugged. "What you got?"
He smirked. "You take a guess."
I gasped. "NO WAY! You didn't! You made BANANA sandwiches?!"
He nodded, bemused. "YAY!" I squealed, delving into the basket, and straightening up moments later with a tin foil parcel in my hands. "Have you ever tried banana sandwiches? They're amazing, you should really - " My sentence was cut short by him as he suddenly pushed me to the ground, consequently landing in an awkward heap on top of me. A beam of red light shot over our heads.
I rolled out from under Sirius, whilst simultaneously fishing my wand out of my back pocket, then stood up, glaring at our attackers. Nearing us were three Slytherins, all with humongous smirks plastered across their faces.
"Long time no see, brother!" one of them yelled.
Oh dear God.
Sirius stood, bristling, beside me. "Regulus," he said cooly, his usually loud voice quiet under the howling of the wind which had suddenly showed up. I could hear the Beatles playing from my abandoned headphones lying on the picnic rug.
"What are you doing out here with that Mudblood?"
Oh dear God. Again.
Sirius' arm came swinging out of nowhere and hit his brother in the face. There was a moment of silence as he fell back onto the damp grass, then it was pandemonium. Curses were flying everywhere, along with various swear words coming from Sirius' direction. A jet of blue light flew past my ear, and I ducked, taking refuge behind him. It appeared Regulus had recovered from his punch in the face and was now having a heavy duel with his brother. The other two Slytherins with him were helping by sending various hexes at Sirius, too. Miraculously, nothing had happened to him yet, but I knew that if I didn't act soon, something would. I racked my brains, keeping my eyes on the scene before me.
The Giant Squid?
No, the giant squid can't help you Raspberry, don't be silly.
Thestrals?
Hello? Can you see any thestrals around here?
Professor Dumbledore?
In his office.
Me?
Well done, Raspberry. Now how are you going to help him?
I could... I could... tie up their feet and yell 'fire'?
Think, Raspberry, THINK!
I AM THINKING!!!
OH!
I think I remember reading somewhere about how to stop a dog fight! If there are other people with you, you can stop a dog fight by grabbing the dogs' hind legs and tail and pulling them back, then moving away quickly.
Well, there's only me, but I can manage.
I ran up behind Regulus, ignoring the voice in my head yelling at me to stop and avoiding the hexes sent at me from his two friends, then bending down, grabbing his ankles and yanking backwards. A couple of seconds later he was sprawled out face down on the floor, his wand lying a few centimetres away from his reach.
"HA! I KNEW IT WOULD WORK!" I yelled, mainly to the voice in my head.
Shut up.
Well, who's in a mood now then?
... Piss off.
Why, thank you! You know, I -
"RASPBERRY! MOVE!" I looked up to the source of the voice to see it was Sirius. He was staring at me with a panicked look on his face. Suddenly something hit me, hard, in the side, and I was flying. Literally. A second later I hit ground, my breath being knocked out of me. But... that was odd. I must have fell into a muddy patch. The ground felt almost... almost liquid beneath me. And was the ground normally this cold? Was the ground normally this murky blue -
Oh dear God. I'm in the lake.
That's why I can't breathe! Oh, well. I'll live. At least I know how to swim.
I reorganised myself, ignoring the jabbing pain in my side, and began swimming towards the surface, but, suddenly, without warning, something grabbed my leg. I screamed, sending bubbles of air towards the surface. Cold water rushed into my mouth, down my throat, up my nostrils... It was burning me! Blackness began to blur my vision. The last thing I saw was a ghostly figure swimming towards me.
It all went black.
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