Pragma // s.b.

15

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When the weekend finally rolled around, all the students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry welcomed it with open arms. As October melted away, Halloween was nearing. The castle was filled with giant pumpkins and dark candles enchanted to cast glowing green light over everything, along with many other haunting decorations. The ghosts enjoyed popping out of platters of food at dinner and scaring students to death and not to mention, the amount of black cats running around the castle seemed to have tripled over the past week.

We poured out of the Charms classroom, giggling at the clumps of bubbles sticking to our hair. The lesson of the day was, you guessed it, the bubble charm. It was very fun and a nice break from the intense work being thrown at us from every other class. DADA had gotten increasingly worse for me, and no matter how hard I tried, I was perpetually terrible at everything I tried in the class. However, the Gryffindors had stopped laughing at me when I failed in front of everyone, and I had a nagging feeling Sirius and Remus had something to do with that.

Liv reached up and popped a stray bubble that was clinging to my long braid. I linked my arm with hers and grinned. "Fancy a game of exploding snap later?", I asked as we made our way out into the cool fall air. Leaves blew across the stone path and our boots crunched over piles of twigs. "Of course!", she grinned, "Why would I say no to a chance to beat your ass?". "In your dreams", I replied. A flit of gold whirred past, very close to our faces. "What was...", Olivia started, but was basically run over by James as he leapt to catch the snitch.

"Sorry, ladies", he called, stuffing it into his pocket, "Oh, it's you Bri!". His hair was sticking up in random places, and his dark eyes shone. "Hey, James", I said. "You've got a bubble in your hair", he said quizzically, reaching up and popping the large circular bubble hanging off of Liv's ponytail. She blushed and hit me in the arm, "Thanks for telling me".

"Sorry", I said innocently, winking. "This is Olivia, by the way", I turned my attention back to James. "Nice to meet you, Olivia", he said warmly. They struck up a polite conversation and I smiled to myself. It was nice to see them talk. When I wasn't with the Hufflepuffs, I spent most of my time with Remus, and to my surprise Sirius. Lately, he had been joining us every time we went to the library. Remus' theory was that he had a crush on the librarian. I said there was no way that was true because she was about 50 years old and though Sirius liked older women, he wouldn't go that far.

"So do you guys want to come?", James said, and I looked up. "What?", I blushed, embarrassed that I hadn't been paying attention to what they had been saying. "To the bonfire! It's gonna be on the far edge of the forbidden forest tomorrow night", he said. Running his hands through his hair, making it even more messy than before. "Is that safe?", I bit my lip. It seemed fun, really fun, but a million ways things could go wrong flashed through my head.

"Of course it'll be safe!", James' voice was smooth and persuasive, "Plus Padfoot will be there", he smirked. "Padfoot?", I raised an eyebrow. "Sirius", James shook his head, "Forgot you didn't know his nickname". Padfoot? What did that even mean? I turned to Liv and shrugged. "Let's go, it sounds like a good time!", she grabbed my hand. "You can even bring all the Puffs you want", James said, smiling toothily. I considered, then after a moment, "Yeah, okay, we'll be there". "Yes!", James cheered, "I'll see you ladies then", and he was gone.

Liv turned to me and we began to walk in the direction of the common room. "How did you end up friends with James Potter?", she snorted as we descended into the basement. "No idea", I said, "I told you this year would be one to remember".