✓ | EPISKEY → remus lupin [ discontinued ]

Chapter Six

"I'm so full I couldn't eat anything else if I tried," Tiffany groaned as she leaned against Alanna after the Welcoming Feast. Alanna chuckled as she supported her friend's weight.

"That's what you get for having four helpings of pudding," she grunted. She continued to hold Tiffany as they walked out of the Great Hall where the feast had been held.

"I love pudding, pudding loves me," Tiffany argued as she dragged her feet along the cobbled floor. "Pudding and I are one together."

Alanna laughed. "I get that, Tiff. But if you and pudding could just help me out a bit here, that'd be great."

"Oh, Alanna, our wonderful, amazing Alanna."

Alanna glanced up and scowled as she saw that James had his arm wrapped around her shoulder. Sirius came up on her other side and did the exact same thing.

"Hello boys," Alanna greeted. "I can't talk right now. As you can see, I'm a little preoccupied."

"Yeah!" Tiffany called out. "I was here first!"

"I was here first!" Sirius mocked, making James laugh. "C'mon, Allie, we need to talk to you."

"Again, I'm busy," Alanna said through gritted teeth.

"We can wait. We have all night," James drawled.

"Actually, you don't."

The male Gryffindor prefect appeared behind the struggling first-years. James and Sirius retracted their arms from Alanna's shoulder and slouched away.

"You two ought to be following your prefects, should you not?"

"Indeed we should, Mr Gryffindor," Tiffany said brightly with a smile. She suddenly jumped up to her feet, startling Alanna. Alanna let out a small squeal as she toppled over and face-planted on the floor.

"Ouch."

"Don't you worry about a thing, Mr Gryffindor," Tiffany assured the prefect as she helped Alanna to her feet. "We know where we're going."

The prefect raised an eyebrow but let them off the hook, thinking that they were smart because they were Ravenclaws. He left the two girls in the corridor alone.

"So where to, oh wise one?" Alanna asked Tiffany as she rubbed her sore arm. Tiffany shrugged.

"Let's go this way."

She began trekking down a random corridor, leaving Alanna no option but to follow.

"Tiff, are you sure you know where you're going?" Alanna asked quietly so as not to draw attention to them.

Tiffany nodded with a small smile. "Of course! I know exactly where I'm going. It's all in here." She tapped her temple lightly.

Suddenly, the two girls heard shouting and laughing to the right. Alanna glanced at Tiffany with a warning look on her face. Tiffany shrugged and took off running after the sounds.

"I thought you said you and pudding were one!" Alanna called after her friend.

Tiffany laughed over her shoulder. "That doesn't mean we're unfit!"

Suddenly, Tiffany crashed right into something warm and solid. Falling right on her bottom, Tiffany groaned in pain.

"My poor butt!" she groaned in pain. Alanna quickly rushed over to help her friend. After helping Tiffany to her feet, Alanna glanced up and saw that it was the female prefect for Ravenclaw.

"Good to know you two found another way," she complimented them with a smile. "Join the other first-years, please."

Alanna and Tiffany scurried to the back of the group of Ravenclaw first-years. Tiffany giggled quietly to Alanna.

"Oh, that was the best! We should do that again some time!"

Alanna frowned and crossed her arms, turning away from her friend. "This isn't funny, Tiff. We could've been caught and given a detention!"

Tiffany shrugged. "So?"

"Tiff, it's our first day!" Alanna hissed as she turned back to Tiffany. "That shouldn't be happening on our first day!"

"Will you relax, Allie?" Tiffany said with a smirk. "I told you I knew where I was going, didn't I?"

Alanna shrugged. She couldn't deny that Tiffany was right.

"Okay, you win this time." Tiffany smirked triumphantly. "But that was a one-time thing. No more we are one with pudding, alright?"

Tiffany bit her lip sheepishly. "No can do, Al."

Alanna frowned. "Why not?"

"What, you just expect me to divorce my husband because we almost got into trouble? Nuh-uh. No way."

Alanna laughed. "Okay, you don't have to divorce him. See it as ... taking a break."

Tiffany frowned. "People do that?"

Alanna nodded. "All the time. Muggles do, anyway."

"Wait, you're a Muggle-born?" Tiffany asked. Alanna nodded proudly.

"Yup. And proud of it."

Tiffany frowned. "I'm a pure-blood," she said quietly.

Alanna shrugged. "So? What's the problem?"

"Haven't you heard of the ... the prejudices?" Tiffany whispered. Alanna frowned before her eyes widened in realisation. She remembered the conversation between herself and Remus on the train ride to Hogwarts.

"But ... but we can still be friends, right?" Alanna asked. "Because you're in Ravenclaw. Not Slytherin."

Tiffany nodded with a small smile. "Of course. But my parents might come in between us one day."

Alanna shrugged. "At least I'll know when it comes."

Tiffany nodded. "Sure. Don't say I didn't warn you."

As the two girls passed through the door with the eagle knocker, they realised that they'd missed some vital information. It couldn't have been as simple as just opening a door. Maybe it was just Ravenclaws?

"Has you sister told you anything about the door, Tiff?" Alanna asked nervously as they listened to the prefects explain about the dormitories.

Tiffany knocked her brain rapidly with one finger. "I know this! C'mon, Tiff, think!"

"You two weren't listening, were you?"

Alanna spun around at the sound of the voice and was met with a boy at least a year older than her. She noted the boy's mismatching eyes, one blue and one brown. He had chocolate brown hair like Joanna.

Alanna nodded as Tiffany continued rapidly tapping her temple. "Not really," she admitted sheepishly. "Care to help a girl out? Well, two girls."

"You can count. Bravo," the boy said disinterestedly. "It's a riddle. You have to solve the riddle that the eagle knocker says otherwise you can't get in."

Alanna frowned. This boy seemed nice when he first spoke to her, but now he was just plain annoying. How could he be so rude to a girl he'd hardly ever met before?

"Thanks," Alanna said dryly. "I'll remember."

"That's why I told you," the boy muttered.

Alanna turned back to Tiffany, who was still trying to pull the answer from her brain with her fingers.

Alanna laughed quietly. "Tiff, it's a riddle!"

"It's a riddle!" Tiffany said loudly. "Ha! I knew I knew it!"

Glancing up at the head of the group, Tiffany and Alanna quickly realised that they had interrupted something. Not paying the first-years any mind, Tiffany waved her hands.

"Continue."

The male prefect, Jonathan Greene, leaned over and whispered in Lola Quinn's ear.

"Those two are going to be troublemakers. I can see it now," he whispered.

Lola chuckled as she watched the two girls at the back giggling together.

"Ditto."