The Immeasurable Marauder

The Letter

After a few weeks, I had fallen into a brilliant routine. People had stopped speaking about me in whispers and I started to feel a little more confident. My appetite had returned and I was picking up some weight, I was able to sleep for the first time in ages without waking up screaming and I was getting along beautifully with the girls. Every now and then though, Sirius would flirt outrageously with me but each time I would shoot him down promptly much to the delight of Emmeline and Marlene. I was starting to get the hang of each teacher's individual style and I was enjoying my lessons, especially Transfiguration and Arithmancy. I had also learned the names of everyone important, or at least important according to the girls. I found out that James Potter was absolutely besotted with Lily, even  more than I had initially realized, but, because Lily was best friends with Severus Snape, and James and Severus hated each other, this caused some great dramatic tension. James kept hexing Severus, who in turn would curse James, who would then be pranked by Sirius. It was a never-ending cycle. This annoyed Lily immensely.

"I told Sev just to leave them alone and eventually they would get bored, but he says it's about honour and he can't go on being disrespected. Seriously, boys are terrible!" She was so frustrated by them all. As a result James got the brunt of her temper but he was thicker skinned than a Hungarian Horntail and continued trying to get her attention with renewed zeal after each argument. His efforts weren't completely lost on Lily either. Sometimes I could see micro signs of amusement dancing around her eyes when he cracked a joke. 

I had also discovered that the boys, Sirius, James, Remus and Peter actually called themselves The Marauders, like in real life, which I thought hysterical. 

"They have a little boys club? Seriously? Like, its for real?"

"Yeah they do," said Mary, "One day, James opened my mail and read out a love letter someone sent me. I decided I couldn't let the bastard getaway from that unpunished so I broke into their dorm. Above one of the writing desks was a sign that said, "The Marauders: Finders of Magic, Mischief and Mayhem."

"What else did you find?" I asked curiously.

"God, nothing much. A few things from Zonko's, some old parchment and dirty socks everywhere." 

"What did you do to get back at James?" I asked Mary. She took absolutely no rubbish from anyone.

"I sprinkled some Zonko's Itching Powder on their all of their undergarments." She smiled naughtily. "Each Pair. It took them a few days and a lot of scratching to figure out what was going on" I laughed and laughed thinking about how horrible that would be.

"How did they take it?" I said after I eventually calmed down. 

"How do you think?" Mary said laughing, "Everyone thought they had STI's!" 

It was a Saturday when the sleek black owl with white speckles arrived. I would recognize that owl anywhere. She flew straight to me and held out her leg. I looked around, no one paid any attention, it was, after all, a common sight. I carefully tried to untie the note from her leg despite my shaking fingers. They had frozen solid and I couldn't get them to cooperate. Cassandra the owl was impatiently nipping my hands, drawing blood. 

"Look what this thing has done to you!" said the familiar gravel. "Move let me do it." He said firmly replacing his hands with mine, a scowl on his forehead. 

"No!" I started with a little too much force. "I can do it." I continued but more gently. 

"It's fine." He said with a final little tug and the letter was loose. Cassandra nipped him hard on the finger when he slid his eyes from the owl to me and it started bleeding. "What the hell is wrong with this thing? Bugger off bird- you think you're getting a reward for that, all you'll get from me is poison!" Sirius said harshly staring at his finger and then at my hand, his eyes widening.