Somewhere Only We Know - Part 2 - Sirius Black x OC

Chapter 5: Sweet Nothing

Gemma dotted the final 'i' on her Charms essay, then looked over at the bent heads of her three friends. September had rolled quickly into October as workloads increased and everyone started to feel the strain. But she was remaining positive.

The girls had all been making a focused effort to talk regularly about how they were feeling under the pressure, in the hopes that they could avoid the various breakdowns they had each had the year before. Seventh year was even tougher than sixth.

Mary leaned further forward over her essay until her head touched the parchment. She sighed. "I'm tired."

Lily looked up from her work. "Are you still feeling unwell?"

Mary shook her head but didn't sit up. "Not really. I'm just tired all the time. Probably because of all this." She threw her hands out, clearly indicating the amount of work they had on.

After that night in September – Peter's birthday – when Mary had been ill, she'd been feeling off ever since. Gemma and the others were constantly telling her to visit Madam Pomfrey, but Mary didn't want to 'waste her time'.

"There is a lot to do." Lily agreed. "I heard Kelly Roe got sick after working all night on a Potions essay."

"I heard that." Alice dropped her quill on the table. "Done." She looked up at them all. "Sounded awful. Apparently she was throwing up for two days straight. And her dorm mates just left her to it. Not very good friends if you ask me."

"That is awful." Lily frowned. She turned to Mary. "We would never have left you in that state."

Mary smiled. "Thanks. I wouldn't leave you either."

Gemma hadn't heard about Kelly being ill, but she had heard about a young Hufflepuff fifth year – Julie Summers – who had been taken to Madam Pomfrey with a high fever. Although she doubted the two cases were related. She only knew about Julie because her mum had written to her about it. Julie was local to Gemma's village and, as a muggle born witch, had looked to Gemma and Cynthia for guidance when she had started Hogwarts five years ago. They rarely spoke, but apparently their mothers did.

Gemma leaned back in her chair and mulled over whether to write more or leave it be. Typically she would read and re-read her work, but she didn't think she had the time. She still needed to complete a Transfiguration essay, a Defence essay, and practice her non-verbal spells. Their teachers were starting to expect them to complete all classes non-verbally.

"What's next?" Lily asked as she placed her essay to one side and grabbed another piece of parchment. Gemma sighed. Lily was a machine sometimes.

Alice grabbed her essay and stood. "I'm taking a break. I can't face doing anymore tonight." Alice walked over to the sofa and threw herself down on it.

"I think I'm going to start on Transfiguration." Mary said. "Peter said he'd read through it for me tomorrow, so I want to give him enough time."

"Sounds good." Lily got her head down, but Gemma was still watching Alice.

She looked sad. Gemma knew Alice was missing Frank and that he hadn't written to her once since she'd started back at Hogwarts. She'd sent him multiple messages, but all had remained unanswered. It was crushing her.

"I'm going to sit with Alice." Gemma stood and headed over to join her best friend. Alice looked up as Gemma joined her, but didn't say anything. "You ok, Alice?"

Alice simply shrugged. "Fine. Just fed up." Gemma nodded, then Alice suddenly continued. "Why hasn't he written? I know he's busy but surely he isn't so busy that he can't send me a quick note to tell me he's ok. To check that I'm ok. He promised me he would write to me every week and he hasn't. I'm so angry."