metanoia

Chapter Fifty-one

"Hey, nice catch Shorts."

Alex looked up from her cup, seeing that Amos Diggory stood behind her in the Common Room that was filled wall to wall with bodies to celebrate Gryffindor's victory over Slytherin. Surprised to see the new father in the midst of the party, "What are you doing here?"

"It's a party. Am I not invited to those?" he playfully hummed, waving at Eddie and Charlie as they passed them to join Dorcas and Marlene by the fireplace.

"You don't like crowds, Digs. So again, I ask why are you here? I thought you were spending the day with Cedric?"

He nodded, sipping his drink as the giggling Lily and Lisette descended the staircase, "I was spending the day with him, my mother has him now. I'm here for you. I figured you'd want to get out of here, seeing as you hate parties and all. We could go down to the kitchens, bake with Jordy?"

"Actually-"

Lily and Lisette each wrapped an arm around their friend's shoulders, cutting her off before she could give Amos an answer about going with him. Letti beamed up at the Hufflepuff, shaking her head no, "No, Digs, you can not have her tonight. She's all ours. It's girls night and we're having a sleepover. So, now be gone."

"Bye bye," Lily giggled, turning the blonde and pushed her up the stairs to their dormitory as Letti wrangled the other girls they've enlisted for such an affair.

Alex tripped up the stairs, laughing as Lily explained to her the elaborate plan that she, Marlene, Alice, Charlie and Letti threw together the night before when she was in the Hospital Wing, "See, you're always with those animals that we call friends. Don't get me wrong, I love them all, but they're animals. So, we figured you could use a night of us girls considering how everything went down at Sirius' birthday party on Thursday. We'll let Alice do our hair, since we all know she loves changing hairstyles. I bribed the Twins to get us ice cream from the Kitchens. We can just hang out, no Marauders talk."

"Sign me up. Thanks Lily."

When the pair's roommates entered the room, they each had an armful of something that was crucial for their night. Marlene bounding in with an armful of candy and junk food, including the ice cream the Prewett Twins stole from the Kitchens. Alice had an armful of Muggle board games and Muggle hair dyes, ready for her favorite portion of the night. Charlie had her pillows and blankets. And Letti, her armful wasn't a substance but a person. Letti brought Narcissa Black to the dormitory, happily announcing, "This woman is now and forever will be my favorite person. She slapped the shit out of Lucius Malfoy again because he tried to ruin James and Sirius' party." 

"Did you really break up with him? Because of what he did to me?" Alex asked, laughing at Letti's declaration as they all dumped the contents they'd been carrying onto one of the five beds in the room.

Narcissa nodded, taking a pint of the ice cream and a spoon from Alice's bed, "Yes, I did. He quite literally beat you within an inch of your life. There's no coming back from that, no redemption. He knows you're my friend, what you mean to me and he still did it. Being You-Know-Who's bitch."

"Okay. No more boy talk. Now who wants their hair done?" Alice sang, waving the box of black hair dye in her hands.

The girls indulged in all the snacks they'd acquired, laughing and enjoying each other's company as Alice began Narcissa's hair, occasionally being fed a Drooble by Letti who was watching Charlie give Marlene her latest astrological tattoo of her youngest little brother's zodiac sign.

"Dorcas is going to hate this," she laughed, admiring the fourth and hopefully final zodiac sign in her sibling tattoo piece. The fourth sign, Leo, sat among the flowers of her half sleeve with the Taurus, Libra and Sagittarius symbols.

Alex looked up from her ice cream, complimenting Charlie on her linework of Marlene's latest tattoo, "Why? Does she not like your tattoos?"

"She likes me. She doesn't like tattoos per say but she does like that all of mine have meaning and that they're not stupid and without meaning. Her and her over-sentimental and stubborn side of being a Cancer."

Narcissa examined her brand new hairstyle, loving her hair that was now black on the top half to contrast her vibrant blonde natural hair color, "Well if she truly loves you, she'll get over it. And thank you Alice, I love my new hair."

"Of course."

Letti shoveled a mouthful of chocolate ice cream into her mouth, seeing how much she'd eaten from the pint she offers it to Alice in place of the Droobles she had been feeding her when she was dyeing Narcissa's hair, "Someone get this away from me before I eat it all and gain weight. Alice?"

"No, I don't like ice cream," she quickly declines, filling her mouth with Droobles.

All the other girls looked at the girl in confusion, chorusing the same exclamation. Seeing as Alice Fortescue was the daughter of Florean Fortescue, the owner of multiple ice cream parlors throughout the Wizarding World. Alice laughed, rolling her eyes as she explained her dislike for ice cream to them, "Imagine being surrounded by ice cream, every single day of your childhood all the time. At some point, you lose any and all interest in it."

"Like me and the Marauders," Letti mused, making the girls in turn laugh at the joke.

"He's not your son," said Sirius quietly.

"He's as good as," said Molly fiercely, her red hair flaming with her passion. "Who else has he got?"

"He's got me."

Molly's lips curled at the chorus of affirmations coming from the two standing in front of her, "Yes, the thing is, it's been rather difficult for you two to look after him while you've been locked up in Azkaban and you've been gallivanting around the country with Remus."

Rather than getting loud at the below the belt mention of his imprisonment, Sirius pressed his lips in a firm line and leaned against the wall with his name burned from the family tree. Remus left his place beside Alex, reaching for his best friend's arm as the blonde's face turned red with anger.

"Fuck you, Molly. Fuck you. That's my fucking godson, my nephew. I tried to take him in, for your information, but Dumbledore told me I wasn't to mess with fate. You don't know a thing about this!"

"Alex!"

The blonde woke up, being shaken by the shoulder. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes, her vision blurry from the sleep induced premonition as she looked around the room to see Lily, Letti, Charlie, Narcissa, Marlene and Alice all surrounding her with looks of concern etched onto their expressions. Forcing a small fit of laughter, Alex tried to lighten the mood, "I knew you all wanted to have this sleepover but the key word in a sleepover is sleep."

"You were having another nightmare," Letti simply stated, confused as to why Alex would be cursing at Molly Weasley in her nightmares.

"Another day in the life of the damned," Alex laughed, referencing the abilities that no one knew she had and no one would know she had.