STRIKHEDONIA | MARAUDERS

SEVEN;

1977, HOGWARTS, TRANSFIGURATION

☆ ☆ ☆

"They have about thirty seconds to get here before McGonagall has their heads," Thea gazed at the clock and stated to Remus, the two of them being the only ones out of the six to have arrived on time. All of them had coincidentally chosen to continue with Transfiguration for NEWTs, all of them possessing a natural talent for the subject. Usually, they feared the professor's wrath when it came to being late. Today seemed to be an exception. They were used to the consistently recurring scolding for pranks they pulled or messing around in corridors, but not being late to her lessons. Professor McGonagall had made it pretty clear that was the one thing she hated the most on day one.

"Three galleons on they'll make it just in time," Remus betted, smirking as the two watched the clock and the door for the appearance and late arrival of their friends.

"Five on them running straight into McGonagall," Thea raised the stakes with a confident tone, folding her arms and she hopped onto the desk, effectively making her even shorter compared to Remus that she already was. Moments after the words left her mouth, there was some yells and commotion outside the classroom. Students ran to see what was happening, and in all their glory were Sirius, Rowen, James and Peter frantically apologising to Professor McGonagall, who they had supposedly ran into.

"Wow. I was kidding, but you lot are more incompetent than I thought," Thea snorted, heading back into the classroom laughing, heading to sit back down next to Remus.

"There will be a seating arrangement this term, considering some students are unable to choose suitable partners or concentrate for longer than a few seconds," the professor glared harshly at James and Sirius as she spoke, and they both returned her glare with sheepish smiles as the rest of the class turned to stare at them. "And the houses will be mixed."

The smile fell off the boys' faces. They loathed Slytherins, considering the only ones they had bother to know were Sirius's family of pureblood supremists. Thea, Rowen and Remus has neutral opinions on the house, if they ignored a specific group that were dark art fanatics. Peter didn't mind them, as he tended to ignore anyone who was problematic.

"Let's begin, shall we?"

Professor Mcgonagall called out pairs of names, one Gryffindor and one Slytherin.

"Miss Lovette and Miss Paley."

Rowen sat down at her respective seat and waited to see who "Miss Paley" was. A short, Slytherin girl stepped forward with pale, freckled skin, dark, short, frizzy hair and sat next to Rowen. She had an awkward smile on her face as she nervously fidgeted with her fingers, seeming to be nervous and introverted. Rowen gave the girl a comforting, warm, friendly smile, before pulling out all of her things she needed for the lesson.

"Miss Barken and Miss Vestalis."

A taller girl with honey skin and straight, long, black hair made eye contact with Thea in confusion, before the two girls sat down next to each other without speaking so much as a word. She had broad shoulders, wide, dark eyes and thick, full eyebrows. It wasn't so much awkward between the two girls, but rather a comfortable silence.

James was sat with Severus Snape (a greasy git and someone he despised for calling Rowen and their friend, Lily, a mudblood) and Sirius was seated next to Bellatrix Lestrange, his infamous, insane cousin. Neither of them were happy with who they were sitting with, but Thea and Rowen didn't mind entirely.

As McGonagall settled down and organised her things, Rowen turned to the girl beside her to get to know her. "Hey! I'm Rowen."

The girl turned to face her, and gave her small smile. "I know. You underestimate how popular you are," the girl chuckled at her own feeble attempt at a joke, "but I'm Georgina."