Shakespeare ❆ Sirius Black [1]

Chapter Seventy Nine

Hogwarts was abuzz with excitement and joy, both in teachers and staff as well as the students. To everyone's happiness that particular year, Hallowe'en fell on a Saturday. Meaning Professors didn't have to maintain order in classes full of hyperactive students, and the students themselves were happy for one simple reason. Whenever Halloween fell on a day when there were no classes, everyone made a point of dressing up in costumes before the big feast after which parties were thrown in the house common rooms. It was always a big celebration of the holiday.

One thing Nadia and Lily agreed on when entering the common room that afternoon was that costumes were much more detailed and magical than the ones you'd see in the Muggle community when they celebrated Halloween. Then again, in Hogwarts there was no point in going as witches or wizards, one of the most common Muggle choices, since that is what they all were already. Sometimes people did dress as notable historical figures from the wizarding world but that was a point of its own.

"Has either one of them mentioned what they're going as?" Marlene asked as the group of three girls leaned against the wall beside the staircase leading to the boys' dormitories. They had agreed to wait for the four Marauders before they all went together to meet Millie before heading down to the feast.

"Should we be worried?" Lily questioned with a hesitant expression. Whenever the four of them kept something secret it never ended well.

"Oh come on, we're talking about costumes. What's the worst that can happen?" Nadia brushed off their worries, suspecting that James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were just building the suspense around their costumes and nothing more.

"That..." Lily mumbled as her eyes caught sight of the foursome coming down into the common room. The sight made her face palm and shake her head almost as if she were disappointed. Marlene and Nadia quickly turned around, curious as to what they had dressed as and quickly burst out laughing.

"Ms McKinnon, Ms Volkov, what is the meaning of this?" Sirius asked in a high pitched voice, imitating the strict tone often used by Professor McGonagall, and it made the two girls laugh even more. He crossed his arms as he fixed her with a stern expression, his arms clad in green sleeves crossing over his chest.

"Oh Merlin, no! I can't be crying, I'll ruin my makeup." Nadia grumbled, trying to suppress her giggles, but Marlene didn't even bother as she bent over, clutching her aching stomach as she laughed. Their reactions managed to gain the attention of many students amassed in the Common Room, and of course by now they too were all laughing loudly.

"What do you think Lily? Don't we look handsome?" James asked as he twirled around in his robes and played with the long white beard that was a part of his costume. The laughter increased even more at that.

"You look like you're just asking for detention for the rest of your time in Hogwarts." Lily pointed out with a scolding expression, but the small quirk of her lips as she watched James wrap his beard around his neck like a scarf showed that a part of her did find his costume amusing.