The Marauders: Year One (female)

51. The Wayward Heir

Petra scribbled down the rest of her letter as Jamie whinged and whined impatiently.

'Bug off!' exclaimed Petra in annoyance.

Normally, she would have never said that to Jamie or any of her friends. But Jamie had been wearing on her patience as of late.

And Sirius. She'd never really let Petra feel like she was part of the group, and now she was doing it to Frankie. Always a Black, thought Petra bitterly. Her parents didn't like the Blacks either. They'd warned Petra about Dark wizards and witches in Slytherin. They'd been shocked to learn that there was a Black in Gryffindor. Petra supposed they'd never guessed that there would be children of Dark Wizards in the house of the lion.

No matter how hard Sirius tried, she'd always be one of them; always have that cruel streak run through her.

Petra ignored Jamie's rude and indignant reply, and went back to her letter. She bet that the arrogant Jamie was shocked to be receiving such cheek from quiet Petra. Petra, who they all took for granted. Sometimes she felt like Remus was the only one who actually appreciated her for who she was.

She wrote her greeting warmly.

Dear Remus,

I miss you a lot. I hope you're feeling better and I'm sorry about your accident. The others are being gits as usual. Sirius practically told Frankie that you weren't her friend, and that you didn't want her to write to you. Actually, she did.

Petra scribbled down the words angrily, stretching the truth just a little. They all deserved a good telling off from Remus, the only one who could keep them under control. To some extent at least. Maybe that would teach them.

I'm sure one of us told you about the fiasco in the dorm room. An owl did a poo on Sirius's sheets, and set everything on fire. Sirius freaked out, and so did the poor owl. I don't blame it. Imagine Sirius set you on fire. 

Petra chose her words carefully, reminding Remus that what had happened to her was Sirius's fault. It would be Sirius's problem if Remus chose never to speak to her again. Petra wouldn't. She imagined what would have happened if it had been her. They probably wouldn't even care. And now they were making all this fuss about not getting letters. They probably just wanted to know what was going on. Nosy gits.

I'm not exactly sure how it happened myself. All I know is, there was a lot of blood, pain, and screaming involved.

We're famous now, and for all the wrong reasons.

Anyway, I'm glad you're writing to us now. There was a whole lot of drama surrounding that.

I miss having another sane person in the dormitory. Please, please, please come back soon.

Petra.

Once she had written her letter, she threw it at Jamie. It fell to the floor.

She didn't get up to fetch it.

Jamie stared at her. 'Well? Aren't you going to pick it up?'

Petra didn't answer. Jamie needed to be ignored sometimes.

Jamie swelled angrily, furious at being ignored. 'Let me tell you this, mate, if you think for one second that I am getting up to pick up your bloody letter, then you are wrong!'

'Calm down, Jamie,' said Frankie tiredly from the other bed. 'It's not such a big deal.'

Jamie glowered at her. 'She's had a bad attitude all day, and I'm sick of it! The least she could bloody do for her injured friend is put her letter down properly and not toss it around like a bleeding Quaffle.'