* Harry Potter; Mauraders' Era; lunch (next muggle studies);

[un de plus pamplemousse]

Severus opened the door to the bedchamber he shared with three other boys. He looked around the room, noting that his things had indeed made it safely there. He waved to the other boy in the room who had greeted, but, not feeling like conversing with him, didn't say anything back to the boy. He ruffled through his pack to find his Defence Against the Dark Arts book and made his way back out to the common room.

Once there, he surveyed the room for an open seat, one that would be away from most of the other people in there. Finding one, he made his way over, sat down, and opened his book for a nice read. He really enjoyed learning about the dark arts--which, coming from his background, probably wasn't suprising to anyone. But it wasn't because he was interested in using them, he just felt that they were so damn interesting. He turned to a section about the Forbidden Curses, and before long he became quite absorbed in the text.  

[Mistril]

Venatici had added about two pages to his notes when he noticed that he should head back to the common room. As he was leaving, he remembered the paper he had grabbed and shoved in his pocket when he left the Great Hall. It was Rita's. As he was walking, he read it. And, because he wasn't really paying attention to where he was going, he nearly smacked into a statue.

He was quite impressed with the paper. It was very good. And it reassured him that Rita didn't have Nargles, because she obviously left the gossip crawling Great Hall to finish this.

After finally arriving at the entrance to Ravenclaw, he realized that he had forgotten the password. He stood there for several minutes trying to think of the password, the painting giving him hints. 'Oh, of course, how could I forget?' he thought. He, finally, said the password, and the strode through the common room to the boys' dormitory, and to his room. He saw that all his belongings had arrived in good care, and that he had a very hungry Ara waiting. He shifted through his suitcase, looking for the Kneazles' food, thinking for a moment that he might have forgotten it. 'Ah, here it is,' he thought, and quickly poured some food into a bowl for her.  

[Mistril]

Narcissa enjoyed the quiet walk through the Slytherin dungeons, it gave her time to actually think without the constant chattering of imbeciles there to distract her. And in this time, she came to realize that that damn Lucius still wasn't here. She knew that she heard he was on the train, so he couldn't not be here. She would have to get someone, Chattel, to find him for her.

When she arrived at the entrance to Slytherin, she quickly said the passwrod. She didn't want the firsties to catch up with her, they annoyed her with all their talking and drooling faces. She quickly went up to her room, making sure that the squib had hurt anything of hers. Noting that everything was in perfect condition, she went back down to the common room, looking for anyone who wasn't irritating. The only person she saw was Severus, but he seemed preoccupied with his book. She glanced around the room again, and noticed a creepy looking second year staring her way, as if he wanted to approach her or something. She quickly made a decision. She walked over to Severus, and sat down in the chair closest to him.
"Hello, Severus. I hope I'm not bothering you, it was just far to quiet in my room."  

[Amour De Sheri]

James stared at Sirius pityingly. He knew of the problems Sirius had with his family, that Sirius would never be able to live it down with his family that he was part of Gryffindor House, or that he didn't despise all Muggle-born wizards. "Sorry, Sirius," he mumbled, patting Sirius awkwardly on the back. "Try not to think about them... And I'm sure that we can pull the party off." Quickly, James grinned, trying to lighten the mood. "We are, after all, the Marauders." He stood up with Sirius, and began walking with him to the Tower. Almost immediately, he noticed that again, Sirius was quiet, excluding the rare greeting to other students. He let it go this time.

But amongst all the milling students, James lost Sirius. "Bugger," he muttered under his breath, glancing at Peter. "He's acting strange today, isn't he?" He trudged up to the Tower, not bothering with any shortcuts. He wanted to spend the time thinking.

A few minutes later, James arrived at the Gryffindor Tower. He scanned the room, searching for Sirius and Remus. By the fire, he found both of them, sitting with other chairs surrounding them, presumably for him and Peter. "What's up with you, Sirius?" he inquired as he sat down. The warmth from the fire felt nice. With a nod to Remus he continued, "You didn't wait for us. That's not like you..." He gestured to Peter and himself.  

[Freak Show Excess]

Sirius had just finished reading the paper he had found clutched in his hand (he assumed he must've got it between leaving the grand hall and entering the tower) when he heard James. His face, which was cheerful upon welcoming Remus over, had gone from serious while reading the paper, to incensed. His eyes were narrowed as he scanned the crowd already filling up the common room, trying to see how many people were reading the paper or seemed to have read it already. Acknowledging James' question, he shoved the paper at him, and sunk into his seat further. He didn't glance at Remus or Peter, but instead stared angrily into the fire. He had hoped that his first day back would be an enjoyable one, but now with the incident on the train and the fact that it had been spread around the entire school, he felt absolutely murderous. He stood up, finally, muttered, "I'm going to bed," and stormed out of the common room, heading upstairs to their room.  

[un de plus pamplemousse]

"Hello, Severus. I hope I'm not bothering you, it was just far too quiet in my room."

Severus' head snapped up, caught off guard by the intrusion, as he had been quite absorbed in his book. He recovered quickly, and nodded to Narcissa, who had already sat down across from him. "No, not at all. I was just looking over the Defence book." He set the book down on a table nearby and folded his hands in his lap. He searched a bit for conversation. "How was your holiday, then?" he asked, cursing himself slightly for bringing up such a mundane topic. Trying to remedy it a bit, he added, brow quirked, "Did you do anything... eventful?" He knew that, Narcissa being a Black, that was a rather loaded question, but he had never been one to bite his tongue.  

[ieatwood]

Bellatrix stood before the portrait, tucking her hair behind her ear as she spoke the password. Stepping into the common room, she noticed Severus in the corner with her sister, Narcissa. This seemed a little odd to her, but she knew Narcissa had her reasons. That girl didn't do -anything- unless she got something out of it. She walked past the pair, noticing that Severus seemed a little nervous, just as well, a wrong step and Narcissa could make his life much worse than it was already.

She made her way up to her room, checking on her things. Her white kitten, Thanathos, yowled like a siamese inside his cage, impatient to be let free. Bella rolled her dark eyes as she unlatched the cage, tsk'ng softly at the kitten, "Now Thos, really, calm yourself."

The kitten rubbed his back along her hand as he padded out of the cage, jumping to the floor and quickly beginning to explore the dorm room. Bella sat on her bed, she was the only one in the dorm room, though it seemed as if the others had already been into the room and gone back down to the common room. She debated returning to the common room and sitting by the fire, and stood up to do so, but as she did, noticed a piece of paper on the floor. Picking it up, she flipped it over, her knuckles turning white as she read, becomming infuriorated as she read Rita's enflammatory so-called article.  

[Mistril]

"How was your holiday, then?"

'Not very good at conversation starters, is he?' Narcissa thought to herself. She made herself more comfortable in the chair as he continued.

"Did you do anything... eventful?"

'Nice save' She thought to herself, again. And then she thought about the events. There wasn't much to tell, shockingly, and she placed the lack of events entirely on Sirius.

"My holiday was quite dull, actually. It mainly consisted of Mother and Father running off to family meetings and whatnot, trying to think of what to do about Sirius. I, personally, think that we should just forget that he is related to us. He is a complete disgrace to the pureblood race. Bella, on the other hand, still worries about him, though I can't figure out why. However, I'm sure you've probably read all about that. If not, I have my copy of... Would you call it a newspaper of some kind? It doesn't look like one to me." Narcissa reached into her pocket, and pulled out a wand instead of a paper. Then, with a flick of her wrist, a paper came soaring out of one girls' hand and into hers. There was a distant "Hey! I was reading that!" But she didn't care. This was her paper now, the girl could get her own from someone else. She then handed the paper to Severus. "I haven't read all of it yet. Not worth my time seeing as I already know all of it." Narcissa waited a few seconds before asking, "And how was your holiday? More interesting than mine, hopefully?"  

[comfylove]

After what he had hoped to be a cheerful night sitting in the best seats in the Common Room with his mates, just the opposite had turned out true. Remus new that the topic of Sirius' family must've been a sour spot, and he couldn't help but think James stupid to be bringing it up so quickly after the train ride from King's Cross. Apparently, Sirius did not like the topic change in conversation either, and before Remus knew it, he was stomping up the stairs to their dormitory.

Remus knew he would follow him, there was no doubt about that. Sirius usually followed James, and Remus then in turned followed Sirius with Peter tagging along, holding up the rear. He wasn't sure if he wanted either of them to come up yet since he wasn't even positive if he should follow Sirius himself in the first place, but there were a few things that he needed to square away with him.

"Right, I'm just going to go up and check on him," Remus hesitated, lifting himself up from the chair, looking at his two friends. "Maybe give us a few and then come up? Or we might come back down." Remus nodded shortly, turning in the direction of the stairs, taking them two at a time as he stood before the fifth year boys' dormitory. He hesitated again before grabbing the door handle, hands shaking as he turned it, and quickly made his way inside before closing the door shut behind him.  

[Freak Show Excess]

As soon as Sirius entered his room, he tore off his robes, crumpling them into a ball and throwing them furiously into his trunk. He started pacing the room, trying to undress and change into his pyjamas, but all he managed to do was furiously pull his shirt over his head and throw it into the trunk with his robes. Sighing angrily, he flung himself onto his bed, tearing the curtains shut around him. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so angry with someone who wasn't in his family. He wondered if the person who had written that article, or any of the people reading it now, knew what it was like to be cast out by your own family, simply for the company you chose to keep. Bitter tears stung his eyes, but he held them back, grateful that he was alone where no one could see him in such a disreputable state.

Pull yourself together, Sirius! You aren't a Black anymore. I can't believe you'd care what that wretched lot you used to call family thought about you. The truth was, however, he didn't care so much what his family would think about him as much as he cared about his friends. Surely they wouldn't believe what they had read in the article! The thought of him, Sirius Black, digging around in rubbish bins for food...! No, he was sure no one would believe such utter nonsense.

He lay on his bed for a while longer, still fuming inwardly about what he had read, when he heard someone enter the room. Pulling the blankets up around him, he feigned sleep, hoping whoever it was would leave him alone. However, a nagging voice in his head told him that he would really like to talk to someone about all of this, especially if it was Remus, for he seemed to be the only one who could be patient enough with Sirius to really talk sense into him and calm him down in situations like this. After peeking through the curtains to find that it was Remus, he opened them a crack, signalling to Remus that he would allow conversation, then laid back down, staring at the dark canopy of the bed.  

[un de plus pamplemousse]

"However, I'm sure you've probably read all about that. If not, I have my copy of... Would you call it a newspaper of some kind? It doesn't look like one to me. I haven't read all of it yet. Not worth my time seeing as I already know all of it."

Severus politely took the paper, giving it a quick glance. "Yes, I did hear about these... rather colourful events over the summer. I think that Skeeter girl embellished quite a bit, however." He skimmed it once more. "The thought of any member of the Black family digging through trash is mildly hilarious. Anyone who believes that drivel is a mindless cretin." He crumpled up the paper and spelled it into the fire.

"And how was your holiday? More interesting than mine, hopefully?"

He gave a mirthless chuckle. "Unfortunately, no. I spent the summer holed up in my house, doing idiotic errands and undertakings for my father." His face darkened a bit upon thinking of his father, but he quickly recovered. "Other than that, it was quite uneventful." He glanced around the common-room, noticing Bellatrix heading towards the girls' dormatories. "What about your sister? How can she be so... accomodating of Sirius and his betrayal of your family?" He didn't know the exact reason Sirius had been disowned by the Blacks, but he knew it probably had to do with the fact that he had been sorted into Gryffindor and the friends he kept and other such nonsense, but he played along, knowing that Narcissa would probably not react positively to him telling her the reason Sirius had been disowned had been an idiotic one.  

[Ky Jelly]

Rita waited for the hallways to clear before heading toward the Ravenclaw common room. The article seemed to be going over well. It had been over and hour and no howelers or hexes has been sent her way. Yes, her writing ablilties must have improved since her working at the Daily Prophet this summer. She started to round that last corner toward the common room when she noticed one of her articles lazily floating to her right. Rita turned to grabbed it and almost immediately ran into someone. She looked down and saw she had managed to knock over Hestia. "Oh gosh, Hestia, I'm sorry. Had to collect a stray article and I didn't see you there." Rita offered Hestia her hand.  

[comfylove]

Part of Remus wanted to turn around and head back downstairs, but he knew that Sirius, while he might not want it now, would be thankful that he sat down and talked things out. And even if Remus wouldn't talk himself, that wouldn't matter -- he'd be a good listener for Sirius like he had been for him in the past.

Seeing the curtain crack only slightly, Remus quietly walked over to his four-poster, which was adjacent to Sirius'. He sat down gently on the made bed, looking at the parting between the curtains, but he could not make out Sirius' face. He waited in silence, then sighed, then brought his hands to his face out of nervousness.

"D'you want to talk?"  

[Le Papillon Pleurant]

Hestia managed to finish off her food a few minutes before people started filing out. She usually liked to sit back and let the way clear so she wouldn't get caught up in the crowd. Slowly, she stood and brushed herself off as she walked toward the large double doors. She felt someone run into her and knock her into the wall. "Hell on wheat bread! How many times has that happened tonight?" she said aloud to herself.

"Oh gosh, Hestia, I'm sorry. Had to collect a stray article and I didn't see you there."

She turned a bit and smiled quietly at Rita as she took her hand. "No problem. I figure I ought to be used to it by now in this overcrowded school," she said with a little shrug of her shoulders.  

[Tendara]

Fabian Prewett glanced happily around the halls. A scrawny lad of five feet tall, and a member of the Ravenclaw house, he simply looked intelligent. Dinner had ended a short while ago, and he was left wandering the halls looking for his fellow classmates. "It's good to be back", he thought. "The summer was too uneventful." Shaking his head, he slowly headed back to the Ravenclaw common room. "A third year. A third year. I can't believe I'm a third year. Sure, I had four years left, but it seemed like yesterday that I received my acceptance letter to Hogwarts. Everything was changing. I just have to accept that."