ADDICTED | j.p x oc

35

It had reached the time of the year when everyone began preparing for exams and the carefree atmosphere that usually lay around the castle had quickly been replaced by stress. Students of all year groups spent their lunch times and free periods in the library, studying, trying to cram in information they hasn't learnt earlier in the term.

With everything that had been going on regarding the Order, the list and Belvina's death, Eleanor had been hardly paying attention in lessons— something she was now coming to deeply regret. Stress was not a kind emotion to El, it caused the bags under her eyes to increase and her appetite to shrink; something that was not helped by her frequent consumption of alcohol.

Since James and Eleanors drunken kiss, James had become even more determined to finish the list, spending the time when he wasn't studying, down at the quidditch pitch or reading 'War and Peace'. This meant the heads common room was a far less interesting place than it had been a few weeks prior.

There was a break in everyones studying for James' birthday, which fell on a Saturday around 2 weeks after Remus'. Sirius had been responsible for planning the pranks for his friends birthday, and had already swapped all of Hufflepuffs brooms for muggle ones to prevent them from training all day.

El and Marlene waited at the Gryffindor table for the marauders on the morning of the twenty seventh, bracing themselves for another grand birthday entrance.

As expected, James arrived to many people leaping up to hug him and wish the boy a happy birthday.

After the small crowd around him had disappeared, El and Marlene went to greet James whose cocky smirk was larger than it normally was.

"Happy birthday, Bambi," El shocked James by reaching her arms around his neck to hug him.

"Cheers, Letter," he whispered in her ear, squeezing his arms around her waist.

The six of them all returned to their seats around the Gryffindor table, El taking her place between Remus and James, with Sirius, Marlene and Peter sitting opposite.

Whilst everyone was conversing, El leant towards James so only he could hear what she was saying. "So since i wasn't part of Belvinas will, i have no money to buy you a present-"

"I wasn't expecting anything, it's fine," he dismissed, seeming startled she even brought up the subject.

"I did something else instead, i think you'll like it. It should be arriving soon."

As if on cue, Snape walked into the great hall,  looking far angrier than anyone had even seen him. The reason for this was evident as one of his friends pulled down his hood to reveal the bright pink hair that the Slytherin boy was now sporting.

"You didn't!" James beamed down at her, clearly impressed by El's prank.

"I did!" she sent him a smug smile, laughing as Snape put his hood back up to try cover his hair.

"You're probably the worst head girl ever to have existed," he chuckled.

El shrugged nonchalantly, knowing his sentence held some truth.

The pink haired boy had now gained the attention of most people in the hall, a lot of them laughing, even including some Slytherins. He glared at the marauders, clearly thinking they were behind it, but they all merely laughed in shock that someone else had pranked their nemesis.

***

Much to Sirius' disappointment, there wasn't a party for James' birthday as the full moon unfortunately fell on that evening and James had also insisted the quidditch team practiced the next day. Because of this however, El decided to just move all the fun to around midday and cracked open a firewhiskey bottle just after everyone had finished lunch.