Fire Starter ~(Completed)

Chapter 7

"Miserable Darling", she replied. "As usual. Absolutely wretched." ~Cruella Deville

I woke up the next morning, genuinely happy for the first time in months. My best friends knew who I was, finally. I imagined this was what Remus felt like after he came out as gay. And werewolf.

Finally, life was liking positive. I properly introduced Sev to James, Remus and Peter, and they were surprisingly civil, I have expected James to cry at the very least. But no, Remus was being his normal friendly self, offering to sneak him into the Gryffindor common room, but we all knew this was a bad idea so we made sure this didn't happen. Peter even offered to share his sweets, which was a first. James would've always been the most difficult, and proved it, remaining very lukewarm towards him for a long time.

"Look, James, you agreed to this. You agreed to be nice."

"And I am being nice! I haven't done anything to him in ages!"

"That's a basic human requirement!" James huffed, but said he would aim to be cordial towards him, starting by a letter delivered to him at breakfast, something I knew Severus sorely desired, as he had never been sent a letter before.

So for once I wasn't thinking about fire, and all it's magical properties, I was thinking about how nice it would be to see a smile on the boy's face, maybe even a happy tear if it stretched to that. The four of us trouped into the great hall, great grins on our faces, eager for the owls to come. As usual, James waved to Evans, I waved at Severus, Lupin waved at his Ravenclaw boyfriend and Peter looked longingly at the great array of sweet smelling food. The other three tucked in, but I was too het up to eat. Unlike the others, I knew exactly what Severus had meant, and where he was comming from. I too had never recieved a letter that wasn't from my delightful family, and got more than a little envious when the other three recieved their weekly newsletters, thinking back to my own derelict family. No. I wasn't thinking about them today. Irratated, I shook my head, and poured my usual cup of hot coffee.

"PADS!" yelled James excitedly, deciding to knock over my mug all over the snowy linen.  "PADS, THE OWLS!" All eyes turned to James- why was the Quidditch captain so excited about the mail? If it was any one else, they would have had the sence to sit down and just shut up, but unfortunately he didn't deem this necessary. "Come on guys, let's all get excited for the mail!" he shouted, throwing his arms up in the air in celebration. He raised a few, half hearted "yays" from a group of first years, who looked more than a little scared. James himself looked pleased that he'd managed to annoy people this early in the morning.

"James Potter, you sit down before I deduct house points" called Pomferey threataningly from the staff table, while Dumbledore looked on at the commotion midly. James gave her a thumbs up in reply, and she rolled her eyes, at a loss of what to do with him anymore.

"YEAH, BUT THE OWLS!" shrieked Remus suddenly, dropping his book and making both eaters either side jump. "LOOK, MISS THE OWLS ARE HERE!"

"SHUT UP ABOUT THE OWLS BEFORE I REMOVE BOTH OF YOU FROM THE HALL" she shrieked, looking a little more impatient than before. Quite wisely, the pair sat down and continued to eat their respective breakfasts. Meanwhile, I kept my eyes to the skies, checking for the little red letter that I knew would be comming Sev's way soon. 

"Is that it?" I wondered aloud, as a sleek black owl suddenly swept down above our heads. It had something in it's talons, and I smiled expectantly. Yet the owl did one lap of the room before cleanly diving to the red clad table, the letter falling into Remus's Pixie Puffs. "Oh crap I am so sorry" I burbled, scooping it up and putting it on the table to try and dry it slightly. The owl perched on the edge of the coffee jug, and hooted softly, much more well behaved than any of the school owls.