maple syrup | remus lupin [1]

144. chickens & bands

"IT'S HALLOWEEN! WAKE UP!" was the first thing Claudia heard on the Saturday morning of Halloween 1977.

"Be quiet, Inez," Claudia groaned. "It's too early for this."

"Yeah? Well, it's also to early for James' owl to terrorise us with a letter telling us to come down to breakfast, but here we are."

Claudia sighed, finally opening her eyes and immediately being met by the sight of a grinning Inez who was leaning over her face.

"What time is it?"

"Eight."

Claudia groaned again, "On a Saturday?!"

"It's Halloween," Inez shrugged, pulling the comforter off of Claudia. "Come on!"

Despite her wishes to stay in the warm and comfortable bed, Claudia followed along and headed down to the Great Hall alongside Inez. However, as they arrived, they failed entirely to spot the Marauders by the Gryffindor table. It seemed as if they weren't there. So, instead, the two girls sat down by Lily and Marlene who were up bright and early due to Gryffindor having quidditch practice that day.

"Hey," said Inez, kissing Marlene quickly on the temple before sitting down next to her, Claudia sitting down next to Lily on the other side.

"Wherever are the boys?" Claudia asked curiously as she surrendered to herself and stacked up a plate of pancakes.

It was, after all, Halloween, and a treat wouldn't hurt.

"No idea," said Lily.

"Huh. They asked us to come here and meet them," said Inez. "Well, they mainly asked Claudia, but still."

"They're probably on their way," Lily smiled. "So, where's the rest of you?"

Claudia chuckled, "Betty and Pandora you mean?"

"Yeah," Lily nodded.

"Betty's off helping this third year with Care of Magical Creatures revision and Pandora pulled an all nighter to find these weird creatures by the lake so we probably won't be seeing her anytime soon."

"Oh, that seems...fun," Marlene said.

"Tell me about it," Inez chuckled as Claudia found her pancakes suddenly less tasty.

The girls around her all fell into immediately worried stages as Claudia began coughing like a maniac, and nearly choking on whatever it was that she had accidentally tried to swallow.

"What's going on?!" Inez questioned as Claudia motioned for something they couldn't understand in her flushed and unsettled state.

Claudia eventually managed to get ahold of herself, and then she showed them the thing that had made her choke in the first place.