Loser, Loner...Lover?

“Wormtail, stop fidgeting! The feast’ll start after the sorting,” said a frustrated James after watching his squat friend ring his hands together and glance at his empty plate for about the hundredth time since they sat down.

“I know Prongs, I just wished they’d hurry up already,” Peter said while glancing down at his empty plate again, causing James to sigh and turn to his other two friends.

“It’s like this every year Pete, you know that,” Remus said looking at the small boy. The only response Remus got was a glance back at the plate. The other three boys couldn’t help but chuckle at the fourth boy’s lack of response.

Their laughter died down quickly, as did all the chatter from the hall when the front doors opened and McGonagall lead the first years through the middle of the hall. In order to actually see the new students (as they were quite short), the four boys had to stand up slightly to be able to see them on the other side of the Ravenclaw table.

“Oi, I don’t remember being that short, do you mate?” Sirius asked the black haired boy next to him while peering at the small new students.

“Mmmm? Course you’re not a wanker mate,” James replied effortlessly.

“What are you tal-” Sirius asked only to follow James’ gaze to a certain redhead in the crowd. “Oh, never mind.” He wanted to whack his friend on the back of the head for being a bit of a git. Getting ready to smack him, Sirius glanced up at the teacher’s table to make sure none of them were looking. “Course Slughorn had to be looking this way at this moment,” Sirius thought and finally decided in giving James a whack when they got to their dorm. Remus chuckled at his friend from across the table, knowing exactly what he was going to do to drooling boy.

Sirius sighed at glanced at the candles floating above him, next looking at the banners above the tables before looking back down to the person directly across the hall. Katharine Storr was gazing down at her empty plate.

“Storr, she’s just so…erg! Just her bloody existence seems to bother me! But I’ve got some pranks in store for her, oh yes. This year will be quite interesting if I say so myself,” Sirius thought while staring at the top of her head. He must have been staring for quite a bit because suddenly her head raised and her deep green eyes made contact with his grey ones for the second time that day.

A sort of panic expression ran across her face while her lips parted slightly. Having been caught staring, Sirius quickly looked down at his own plate.

“Just you wait Storr,” Sirius thought while his plate filled with food and turned back to his friends, one of which looked like he couldn’t breathe because his mouth was so full.

***

Kat finally made it up the last of the stairs to Ravenclaw Tower. “Every year there feels like there’s more and more steps,” she thought leaning up against a wall to catch her breath. Her forehead had a little glisten of sweat coating it.

She wiped it away with her sleeve, “Well luckily I’m already going to take a shower” she mused. Standing back upright, Kat faced the door to Ravenclaw Tower, the bronze eagle looking down at her small frame.

“Are you ready for your riddle my dear?” the knocker asked politely (it always has such nice manners, well, at least in the beginning of the year).

“Yes, I’m ready,” was Kat’s only response.

“Very good, here it is:

I heard of a wonder, of words moth-eaten;
That is a strange thing, I thought, weird
That a man's song be swallowed by a worm,
His blinded sentences, his bedside stand-by
Rustled in the night--and the robber-guest
Not one wit the wiser for the words he had mumbled.
What am I?”

“Hmmm…Could you please repeat it?” she asked, while sitting down on the steps to get more comfortable.

“Certainly,” the eagle replied. It repeated the riddle again.

“Well,” Kat pondered, “’a man’s song be swallowed by a worm’ it seems as if the worm is really important. ‘Of words moth-eaten’ there appears to be something with ingesting all these words. But how are they connected?” Kat mused out loud, not at all afraid of someone overhearing her; it was actually quite common for the Ravenclaws to talk out loud to themselves in this particular spot, but only if they were solving the riddles.

“The answer you seek is more familiar than you know,” the eagle answered cryptically. It stared down at Kat with large eyes that were almost willing the answer upon her.

“‘His bedside stand-by rustled in the night.’ Bedside stand-by? Must be like a table or something. What’s on a bedside table? Hmm…well on mine I’ve got a lamp, some parchment, a quill, bottle of ink, a book- wait! A book! The pages rustle in the night! So that’s part of the riddle, but what’s that got to do with eating?” Kat asked looking up at the eagle.

“I cannot answer your questions, only you can answer mine, but my dear you are so close,” it answered.

“I know, I know, but have you ever answered anyone’s questions?” she asked looking back up at the knocker. The eagle just looked down upon her, not willing itself to be caught so easily.

“Damn, figures you’d be smart enough to catch that,” it just chuckled at her, “okay. So I’ve got a book, a worm, and eating. Does the worm eat the book? Hmmm...there must be a name for this a book, a worm, and eating. A book, a worm, and eating,” Kat repeated, knowing that the answer is right on the tip of her tongue, “a book, a worm, and eat-wait, I’ve got it!”

The eagle waited patiently for her to get over her excitement, so few people of such high intellect are rarely seen jumping up and down after solving such a silly little puzzle.

“It’s a bookworm isn’t it?” Kat laughed.

The eagle smiled down at her kindly, “Very good,” it replied while opening the door to the lavish common room.

Blue. That’s the only way to describe the eagle’s nest. Blue couches, blue carpet, blue tapestries; each in various places about the space of the room. The color bronze was intricately woven through the sea of blue in beautiful designs across the tapestries that lined the walls. Areas that were not covered in elegant drapes were lined with rows and rows of books that have always lived in the eagle’s nest since its discovery. And yet for all its monochromatic design and cluttered wall space, Kat felt oddly comforted by the familiar place.

Taking a deep breath, she looked around the room. “Home,” she sighed; while making her way to the six year’s dormitories.

***

Trying to fit three growing boys through a small hole in the wall isn’t easy, yet, whoever said life was easy?

“Wormtail! Wait a second so I can get in the room,” James exclaimed while trying to get his foot out from under the round boy’s bottom.

“But Prongs, I gotta’ use the loo now!”

“HEY! Watch what you’re grabbing on to!” Sirius said while smoothing down his hair, which became ruffled after some chubby fingers gave it a narrow miss while reaching for the door frame.

“Guys,” Remus sighed, “must you be so juvenile?” The only reposes that he got from the question were a few unintelligible grunts.

The muffled voice of The Fat Lady could be heard on the other side of the portrait; “Now really?! Is this appropriate behavior of coming of age wizards nowadays? I should think not! Why in my day-” Her rants were cut short by the sound of shouting coming down the hall.

“WATCH OUT!”

Remus glanced over his shoulder and quickly stepped aside as a red and gold blur passed him and smashed into the entangled boys in the tower’s entrance. The four toppled out of the hole and landed sprawled out on the common room floor in a mass of limbs and robes.

The sandy haired marauder quietly stepped through the portrait hole before it slammed shut, but not before hearing something about “rude miscreants” and looked down at the scene that lay at his feet.

“Sorry mates,” Zane Schuyler, a fifth year, said while trying to detach his legs from under Peter’s stout form. The body in question quickly shot out of the room and up to the boys dormitories.

Arching a brow, the newcomer gazed around the room. “Endless supply of pumpkin juice does have its problems,” James answered getting to his feet.

“Ahh, poor sod. Hey sorry again ‘bout that tackle. You guys alright?”

“Yeah we’re fine , but what, might I ask, were you doing? Hopefully not trying to start a new fad on human bowling, and if ya are, leave me out of it next time,” James pleaded while giving a good hard tug on his robes stuck under Zane’s feet. “Aww shite, new terms just started and I’ve already ripped my robes. Repero” he muttered. Peter came trotting down the stairs just then signaling that the emergency was under control.

“Naw nothing like that. I was joking around with a friend of mine from Ravenclaw and Peeves comes out of nowhere branching a billywig like a sword. Claimed he wanted to have a fight to the death with us, can’t see how that’s possible considering he’s a poltergeist, but the stinger on that thing was huge. Made the mistake of running, ‘course he chased me, while laughing his head off, and that’s when I ran into you lot. Literally,” explained Zane while flopping down into an armchair and closing his eyes.

“Tough luck man, but at least he can’t get ya in here,” Sirius supplied trying to make his friend feel better.

“That poor little creature,” sighed Peter. Four pairs of eyes focused on the round little boy sitting on the floor. “What? I meant the little billywig! Must be tough, having to stick with Peeves; ‘specially being used as a weapon.” He shuttered.

“There there Pete, we won’t let him use you like that again. Heaven knows that concussion last time gave us all a fright. Nobody realized he was going to use you like a javelin,” Remus said while giving him a pat on the shoulder.

“Anyway, enough with the trip down memory lane; I’m gonna turn in. It’s been a pretty busy day and I’ve got to get some rest for lessons tomorrow,” Sirius said while heading to the boys’ staircase.

“More like you’ve got to get your beauty sleep, eh Padfoot?” teased James, but actually thinking of doing the same thing.

“Eh, po-tat-to, po-tot-to. All means the same thing, I’m bushed. Cheers Schuyler!” Sirius called while leading the rag-tag parade of boys up the stairs to their home away from home.

***

Kat stepped out of the shower into the swirling mist just as she heard voices in the other room. “Oh joy, my roommates are here. The cherry on top of a perfect day,” Kat said, heavy on the sarcasm while slipping into her pajamas and grabbing her brush from the counter.

As soon as Kat opened the lavatory door a hushed silence fell over the conversation between the two girls. The girl on the right, a brunette, broke the silence first, seeing that it was no one important and continued to rant to her blond companion.

“Hmmm…I wonder who she stumbled onto making out with what’s-his-face this time behind God knows which tapestry in what corridor. I also wonder if I care…” Kat mused throwing her brush on her side table.

“Nope.”

“What did you say to me Storr?” the brunette said, turning away from the blond, a sneer pulling up the corner of her mouth in a most unattractive way.

“Nothing, nothing at all,” Kat covered up hastily. The girl gave her one last look before turning back to her friend. “Did I just comment to myself out loud? Storr you need to get better control than this especially when She-“ just then the door to the dormitory opened and in walked two girls.

“Speak of the Devil, and the Devil shall appear,” Kat stifled a sigh and grabbed one of her textbooks.

“Amee! Christine! There you guys are, jeez, we’ve been looking for you all over the place. Did you see how hot some of the guys became finally? I mean, it’s about time!” said the taller of the two new girls.

“Oh my god Roxanne, you are so totally right! Finally some new fish in the dating pond; I can’t wait to get close to that seventh year in Hufflepuff, you know the one with the deep blue eyes?” said Amee.

“Been there, done that,” replied Roxanne, “my advice to you is that if you do go after him don’t be too long, he gets clingy after a bit. But I don’t blame him really, I mean, if I were him I would always want to be around me too.”

“Ugh Roxanne D’amato, now this wonderful day is complete,” Kat thought as she gave an inward groan. Living with a girl like Roxanne wouldn’t be so bad, that is, it wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t the female version of Sirius Black. Although those two had no blood relations, they looked like they had come from the same mold. Tall, tan skin, raven black hair, and faces that even the gods would envy.

As if she had heard her name, Roxanne then turned away from her group only to see their resident bookworm sitting on her bed by herself. “Why if it isn’t my old friend Storr...so good of you to grace us with your noticeable presence,” quipped Roxanne. “I see you’re still only interested in moldy old books, why not take a chance with something more real? Something with a pulse maybe?” The rest of her little clique laughed at the idea of Kat actually dating someone.

“No thank you,” replied Kat, “I find it’s more profitable spending my time reading books and getting ahead, rather than sleeping with boys and giving head.” “Oh my god! Oh my god! What am I doing?! With a remark like that I’m going to be lucky if she doesn’t kill me! This Maruaders thing must still have me too worked up!”

“What did you say to me?” Roxanne hissed in a deadly whisper. The rest of her group watched with baited breathe the scene that was unfolding before them.

“Nothing!” squeaked Storr, “nothing at all!” Best to cover her own bum and stay alive so early in the semester, then to die by the hands of the girl in front of her.

“THAT is what I thought you said,” and with that Roxanne turned back to her friends and began to chat away adamantly about upcoming social events and possible matches this term.

“That was way too close for comfort” Kat thought as she shut her book and tried to make herself as small as possible as she slipped out the door and headed to the common room; she would have been successful if not for the one last death glare Roxanne gave her, stating plainly that THIS incident would not be forgotten.