Lady Stardust

17. Feburary Angst

February 15th

Ariene was polishing trophies in detention. The wand prank had not been a success, to say the least. It was fun to watch the Slytherins get frustrated in Charms when their spells were not working, but the fun quickly subsided when Olivanders was involved, and at the end the Marauders were more at shame. It sucked, because they were really excited for this particular prank, but they had an unfair number of house points taken and a three weeks detention.

"I hate this. I hate it!" Sirius complained as he dusted the tops of the portraits.

"Stop whining, boy!" The man in the portrait snapped. Sirius swore at him and continued to dust it.

"It was an okay idea," Remus started. "It just shouldn't have gone this far," He muttered.

"It wouldn't have happened if Sirius-" Peter started.

"Oi." Sirius snapped his head to him.

"It's true! If it wasn't for you we wouldn't have so many points lost, and we wouldn't have three weeks of detention, Sirius."

"Will you all just shut up?" Ariene snapped.
"Hey, I didn't say anything," James muttered. Ariene glared at him. When they were done with the detention they went back to their dorms, and Ariene sat on her bed and used wandless magic to quickly slam her curtains shut.

"What's up her ass?" Sirius muttered. Ariene stuck a middle finger outside the curtain. She wasn't completely sure what it was that was making her so irritable, but she couldn't take it. The attitude had put her in a fight with Marlene, and she was falling behind on her schoolwork, and her magic always came out with way too much strength. She needed to calm down, and she needed to stop being so tense.

***

Ariene sighed and eased into the bath. Remus had let her use the prefect's bathroom, bless him, and Ariene decided that anything was worth a try. She sunk in, and then picked up the joint she had left on the side of the bath and lit up. Ariene felt really stupid, smoking weed in a bath, but if something could help, it was this. She exhaled the smoke and snapped her head around as the door opened. Shit. Ariene watched as Lily walked into the bathroom, and Ariene relaxed a little. At least it was Lily.

"Oh, hello," Lily said, eying Ariene curiously.

"Hello,"

"You know that this is the prefect's bathroom, right?" Lily asked. Ariene sighed, tensing up again

"Yeah, I know. I can leave, if you'd like,"

"No, no. I could use some company, actually," Lily said. Ariene internally rolled her eyes. The one moment she had to herself. "Do you mind?" Lily asked.

"No, I don't mind. Is something wrong?" Ariene asked. Lily undressed and got in the bath.

"Well, kind of. You know my friend Severus?" Lily asked. Ariene tried to hide her smile.

"We've met," Ariene said.

"Well, he's, er, changing." Ariene took another drag.

"How so?"

"He's always been uncomfortable with the people I hang out with, and I've heard that he makes some, um, comments," Lily said.

"Slurs," Ariene provided. Lily frowned but nodded. "Why are you friends with him?"

"We were childhood friends. He was always nice to me, but I don't know if I can keep being friends with him when he makes these comments." Lily said. Ariene frowned.

"If he is uncomfortable around muggle-borns, I think that is definitely a red flag."

"Well he's not, really. I'm a muggle-born, you know?" Ariene did not know.