The Ghost Marauder

Part 9

Surprise, bet you thought you'd seen the last of me. Vote right now if you've read PERCY JACKSON!

          "LEMME AT HIM!" Bertha took off down the hall, her fists already swinging. Well, she would've taken off down the hall if I haven't grabbed a fistful of the back of her cloak. I threw my weight into it as she slowly dragged me down the corridor.

          "Bertha, stop!" I panted, trying to haul her back as she continued to try to run in the other direction. "I told you, it's fine!"

          She finally stopped moving, making me unclench my fists in relief. "It's not fine!" she turned around and glared at me, hands on her hips. "They insulted you! How is that fine?!"

          "Bertha, I'm not going to let you get into another fight because of me! Did you already forget the howler your mom sent you?!" I demanded, reminding my friend of last week. We had been at breakfast, and an owl had dropped a howler on her table. Even though we had only been at school for three months, she had already been in fourteen physical fights. Apparently, her mother had caught wind of that, and she had let her feelings known to her daughter through a screaming letter. It was a little surprising.

          Bertha sighed in defeat and dropped her hands. "Yeah... But I still can't believe he called you that! Honestly, one day I'm gonna fix those boys straight!"

          Earlier that morning, James and Sirius had been tormenting me through Herbology, calling me names and such. 'Snake-lover' and 'friendless git' were their favorites. They had also thrown things at me and made my plant catch fire. Remus had just cast pitying glances across the room, although Peter secretly offered me some saltine crackers.

          I wiggled my eyebrows at her. "I reckon they're already scared of you. Hey, there's Sirius now. Watch!" I leaned out of the corridor and shouted across the courtyard, to where Sirius was flirting with a Ravenclaw. "OI, SIRIUS! YOU LOOK LIKE A BLOODY GIRL!"

          It wasn't a lie. From the back, with his prized long black hair, he really did look like a girl. That is, before he opened his mouth and you could sense the crushing weight of his overbearing ego.

          Sirius glared at me from across the area as the girl he was talking to giggled.

          "I SEE YOU'VE DONE YOUR HAIR UP NICELY TODAY; WHO'S THE LUCKY GUY?" I shouted, cupping my hands around my mouth.

          Sure enough, Sirius started storming in my direction. Older students took little notice, but the younger ones were anticipating some good drama, or maybe a fight.

          Then, Sirius got close enough to see Bertha next to me. He stopped in his tracks and scowled before stomping away. I nudged Bertha. "See? He knows better than to mess with you!"

          Bertha sighed reluctantly, folding her arms. "Speaking of messes, have you seen Mark at all? I'm worried about him."

          We sat down on a bench right outside the courtyard. "Now that you mention it, no, I haven't," I said thoughtfully. "Why? Is something wrong?"

          Bertha shrugged, fiddling with her yellow tie. "There's just been, you know, bad stuff going around about Slytherins. Just some rumors. Nothing much. But I want to make sure Mark is doing okay - I haven't seen him in class today."

          I pursed my lips. "Not in class?"

          Bertha nodded.

          "We should find Emma and ask," I said, trying to soothe Bertha's worries. "I'm sure he's fine."