Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Ringo sat in transfiguration next to Sirius, leaning on the boys shoulder whilst he joked with James, who sat in front of them. "Why do words have to be so confusing?" She mumbled to him, after spending a full five minutes trying to read from her transfiguration textbook.
"Did you not have a good night sleep, Rin?" Sirius whispered, Ringo shaking her head slowly, "maybe you should start sleeping with me more often." The boy added with a wink.
"Something to share with the class, Mr Black?" Mcgonagall asked, one of her thin eyes brows raised.
"Ringo said she prefers to sleep with me than in her own dorm, Minnie, which I told her was inappropriate."
"No I didn't!" The aforementioned girl protested, feeling her face heat up at the accusations as Sirius smirked at her.
Mcgonagall shushed them both before continuing with her lesson, Sirius leaned into Ringo, "why didn't you have a good sleep?"
"Because I didn't sleep."
Sirius raised an eyebrow at the girl, his mind immediately going to the worst, was it nightmares or panic attacks? Was she thinking about her dad? "Why didn't you sleep? To busy thinking about cuddling with me?"
Ringo scoffed but she had a small smile on her face, "it's the boggart today in defense, I'm not ready to see him again. What do you think your boggart is?"
"I have absolutely no idea what I'll see, Rin, because I've seen some shit that's scarred me, but don't worry, sweetheart, I'll be there right with you."
Sirius stuck to what he said, when the fifth year Gryffindor's and Slytherin's were stood on one side of the hall, with a wardrobe stood on the other, he didn't leave her side. Ringo clutched her animagus book tight to her chest (until Flores told her to put it away).
"Okay!" The man announced, "the spell for a boggart is 'riddikulus', I need you to get in a line in alphabetical order of your last names," (Ringo groaned loudly) "first I need, Mr Abarto, from Slytherin." The boy walked towards the wardrobe and the professor opened it slowly.
Out of the wardrobe came a seven foot tall clown, which seemed to shake the Slytherin slightly before he gained back his strength, he readied his wand and looked as though he was about to shout the spell before he turned to the teacher, asking feebly for him to remind him of the spell.
"You should of been listening, Mr Abarto." The teacher tutted, Ringo and the rest of the class looked at him in disbelief, he told them the spell once. "Seeing as this boys too incompetent we now have the next person on the list... Miss Acton." Abarto seemed to be shrinking under the cold gaze of the clown, so, as it was her turn anyway, Ringo stood in front of the boy, giving him time to leave whilst the boggart changed.
Ringo held her breath as she looked at the man in front of her, "r-riddik-" her father let out a loud laugh, making her flinch. It wasn't a happy laugh, it was a mocking laugh. One that she heard all too often. Ringo took a deep breath and raised her wand at the man once again, she took three calm and steady breaths before trying again "riddikul-"
"You stupid girl." He chastised.
Ringo flinched once again "shut up." She mumbled, not loosing her stance.
"You think that you're safe from me now that you're in your pathetic little school." He let out another echoing laugh when Ringo started shaking. She looked down and put her head in her hands, it was suddenly getting harder and harder to breathe, and the next thing she knew she was being pushed back into James' arms.
James stood with an overprotective arm around Ringo, who looked up to see Vara glaring at the changing boggart.
Except her glare faltered slightly when it turned into carbon copies of her best friends. Fake Ringo stepped out first, "so you thought that time on the train in first year when you didn't have a clue what was going on or anything about the wizarding world and we told you a few things was an invite to stay following us around?" The fake marauders did a monotone laugh simultaneously, which was really creepy. "You just assumed we'd want to be friends with someone like you."
Vara steadied her wand, looking at the boggart, she didn't how how to make it funny, she felt it polluting her mind that she wasn't good enough, that all her friends had a witch mother or a wizard father or both, that they most likely thought they were better than her. She held her breath as she felt her legs get weaker. "I can't." She whispered lowering her wand and letting Remus lead her back to her friends.
"Okay. After that disruption, we're carrying on with the list, Sirius Black, you're next."
Sirius made sure the girls were ok before walking to the centre of the room, watching the boggart change form, she blinked as she looked at the boggart.
It was Ringo, sat curled into a ball, her body twitching slightly with smashed beer bottle remnants sitting in her dirty blonde hair and a few scattered around her.
"That's how you looked on that night." Vara whispered to her, biting her lip, "I could tell it affected him, seeing you there like that, I just didn't know how bad."
Sirius felt tears pricking his eyes as he raised his wand "riddikulus!" He shouted, he didn't know how it would be made funny but he just couldn't see her so vulnerable. He just wanted to see her laughing.
The image changed, Ringo was now stood up, her laughs filling the hall.
"Finally!" Professor Flores yelled, "finally someone did it!"
The boy didn't feel as if he'd accomplished something, he blinked back tears that were threatening to fall as he turned back to his group of friends, standing next to Ringo and putting his arm around her.
