Silent Secrets

Chapter XX

McGonagall had no trouble finding me a bag, and smiled kindly to me as she handed me my new schoolbag and my schedule.

"Shall we go, then?" Lily asked, once we had finished breakfast.

"I suppose," I replied, and we pushed back the bench and exited the Great Hall.

Simply finding our classes would have been adventure enough for me. Hogwarts castle was the most bewildering place I had ever been in, though that wasn't saying much. However, I doubted I would ever set foot in a more confusing place.

To begin with, the staircases moved. I don't mean up and down, like a free ride where your legs had no work to do. No, I mean you thought you were ascending one set of stone steps to reach one destination, when suddenly the staircase would break away from their original location and swing one direction or another, so you found yourself facing a completely different corridor. It wasn't like the stairs were on a timer, either, so you could simply wait for it to swing back. No, it swung where and when it pleased, and while the older students seemed to have figured out some secret to always go where they needed to, I was hopelessly confused. In all honesty, had I been going along alone, I don't know if I would ever have found any of my classes at all.

Fortunately for me, Lily stayed with me, and the two of us quickly became friends, united by common enemies: James Potter and Sirius Black. It only took two days for my hatred of them to solidify, and barely a week for a burning enmity to explode between us.

It all began shortly after the bucket of water, in our first class of the day: History of Magic with Professor Binns, the only dead professor at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, Binns had way of droning on in a tone pitched just so, leading everyone in the room into a heavy stupor. No one was truly paying attention; I was only passively listening. I figured I could pick up the textbook later and find it far less dull than the professor's lecture.

James and Sirius didn't share the same sentiments as me. I quickly realized that they were the type of people who could not stand boredom and inactivity for longer than forty-five minutes. As the lesson dragged on, I heard a quiet whisper behind me, catching unfamiliar phrases such as "wet-light", alongside what was possibly the word "fireworks". Suddenly apprehensive, I twisted around in my seat, only to find Sirius and James leaning toward each other, eyes bright and identical smirks spreading across their faces. My eyes widened and I turned quickly toward the front of the room, swearing to myself I wouldn't look back again, for fear of what those two might be up to. This sounded bigger than a bucket of icy water dumped on am unsuspecting victim.

A wad of crumpled paper bounced onto my desk, and I blinked in surprise. Glancing around surreptitiously to ensure no one was watching, I quickly unfolded the paper. One word was scrawled across it in a hasty hand:
"Duck".

Sucking in a sharp breath, I bobbed my head close to the desk, under the pretense of taking a note down. Suddenly, something swished over my head, leaving a breath of heat in it's wake. Jerking my head up, I felt my eyes widen as sparks exploded in my vision, showers of gold and red zinging across the classroom.

First there was nothing but Professor Binns' continued droning and the snaps and whistles from above. Then, utter chaos ensued. Some screamed, some leapt up and cheered, others remained as they were, staring open-mouthed at everyone else.

Sirius launched a few crumpled-up wads of parchment into the crowd; some were ignited by a trailing spark, others smacked into their human targets. The class was in uproar; a paper fight broke out, and the fireworks transitioned into grander displays.

"Those-those-boys!" Lily screamed, standing, her fists planted on her hips, her expression the epitome of fury.

Professor Binns had at last stopped his lecture; he was staring about the classroom with an expression of isolated, resigned frustration, as if this were an event that happened every twenty years or so and he had come to expect it. "Please, students, settle down," he said, without much enthusiasm. The class was beyond the unenthused reprimand: a bolder student had sought a higher vantage point to rain ink and paper down from, and had vaulted onto a desk.

"Someone has to get this under control!" Lily seethed, as an ink-spattered paper bounced off her red hair and rolled down the side of her face, leaving a trail of wet ink.

I silently nodded, ducking as a wad of paper swished past me. Looking up, I caught sight of the mean-eyed, pearlescent figure of Peeves, smiling nastily and firing chalk into the room.

"Ickle firsties causing mischief and mayhem, eh? You'll be caughtsied, you will!" he chuckled.

Sure enough, not too long after, the door banged open, and the imposing figure of Professor McGonagall entered. "Professor Binns, what on earth is happening? There's been such a racket, I--" she froze, taking in the scene before her.

"Ooh, they're going to get in so much trouble!" Lily hissed, her voice somewhere between approval and delight.

McGonagall's lips were pursed into a tight, thin line, and she lifted her wand silently, absorbing the fireworks into it, before pointing it toward the flying bits of paper and splatters of ink. With a flick of her wrist, the mess disappeared, leaving several students launching fistfuls of air into the sky, or recoiling from empty space.

"Peeves! Out!"

The poltergeist blew a sharp raspberry and swept from the room, off to find a new source of amusement.

Who started all this?" McGonagall asked icily, staring around at the now dead silent classroom. No one dared respond, but glanced at each other as if to say 'Was it you?'

"It was them, Professor,"a shaky voice declared boldly. The class turned toward a small red head, and I watched in shock as Lily Evans pointed a tremulous finger toward James and Sirius, both of whom were wearing identical dark scowls on their faces.

"You two, with me! The rest of you..." Professor McGonagall sighed. "Go to your next class."

Gathering up our things, we shuffled out the door, whispering furtively. Some were of the opinion that Lily was right, and James and Sirius were nothing but trouble, while others thought them brilliant, and resented Lily's tattling.

"It was the right thing to do," Lily said uncertainly as we left.

"Yeah," I agreed. "They deserved whatever they got."

"Yeah," Lily said softly, though she knit her brows and didn't say another word as we proceeded to Charms.

AN:

So basically I'm upset today because Silent Secrets had 6,124 reads before I uploaded that last chapter, and then the reads glitched to 5,012, and wattpad fixed it, and I got like 700 reads in the mean time (wow guys that's incredible to me like tsm if I weren't ranting calmly I'd be fangirling insanely over that like WOW)...but then it glitched again and I'm back to 5K.

UGH.

In other news school has started and I'm taking a heavy class load *joy* so updates may be few and far between.

...Sorry about that.

Also, this chapter may be shorter than normal because I wrote most of it from my phone, and I don't write as much then. Sorry guys. I hope it was worth the wait anyway.