XXIV. THE AFTERMATH

Sirene Black was exhausted, she felt like her clothes were sticking to her skin, she felt a burning sensation in her body and she barely remembers anything from what happened last night, but she knew that she'd succeeded otherwise she wouldn't be back in her human form right now, getting up from the ground of shrieking shack, she shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair to get rid of anything that must be stuck there.

She found Remus there, in a corner curled into a ball with a blanket draped on him which must be one of the boy's doings, she looked around to see Peter in the corner leaning on the wall as he slept with his mouth open, loud snores coming out of it.

James and Sirius were practically laying on top of each other, though it didn't look very comfortable. She noticed that Sirius's drool was leaking on James's shirt as he laid on his stomach.

She stood over them with her hands on her hips, releasing a sigh before kicking Sirius slightly so he rolls off James with a grunt.

"Go away" He groaned burying his head in his arms before starting to sleep again.

"Siri, wake up" Sirene whispered leaning down in front of him, "We have to get Remus to the hospital wing to get his wounds healed"

"Ok" He said sadly before peeking his head slowly out of his arms, "I'm up"

"Wake up James and Peter, I'll wake Remus" Sirene said to Sirius who nodded, clearly still not functioning properly because of waking up.

She walked up to Remus before she realized he's probably naked and then turned around to tell Sirius to do it instead.

"James?" Sirene said, shaking him slightly, and when she got no reaction she just pinched his nose until he woke up gasping for breath.

"Bloody hell, Si!" He exclaimed angrily looking at Sirene who gave him a bored expression, "Could've woken me up nicely"

"You sleep like you're in a coma" Sirene said with a huff, "Someone literally wouldn't know if you're dead"

"All I hear is excuses" James rolled his eyes before getting up and wiping the dust off his clothes, "You're just jamesphobic"

"Ooh, you caught me" Sirene said with a pretend surprise tone in her voice.

"Now, go and wake Peter up, we have to sneak back before they notice we're gone" Sirene said making her way out of the shrieking shack alone, she didn't want to be seen with the boys making her way out of the forest because a) that would be suspicious and b) she wouldn't be able to make an excuse for all of them if they were to get caught.

Sirene still couldn't believe it, she was an unregistered animangus, and she chose the right process, but one thing she didn't get was why out of all animals she was a cat. She thought she would be a fox or something.

She quietly muttered the password to enter the common room and make her way back to the girl dormitory.

She walked around in tip-toes making slow movements making sure she doesn't wake up anyone.

What she failed to notice was that Lily was up all this time, pretending to be asleep.

🥀

Sirene drowsily made her way downstairs to the Great Hall, rubbing her eyes trying to get rid of the exhaustion, she saw her friends at the middle of the table making jokes and eating breakfast, she sat down silently and took a huge bite of the toast and beans.

"Morning" Marlene said with her mouth stuffed, "You're coming over to my house for Christmas, right?"

"I don't know, Mar" Sirene said swallowing the food with a sorry expression, "The last time I went there my parents got really mad"

"They don't have to know" Sirius said from his seat with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "It'll be like we never left"

"Right, because our parents totally don't send letters to make sure we're dying of boredom" Sirene rolled her eyes, "We're going to be stuck here."

"Did any of you even study for your O.W.Ls?" Lily asked with a confused expression on her face, "I'm not letting you all cheat off me this time"

"Relax, Lils, it's all going to be fine" Sirene said taking a sip of her smoothie, "Besides you always say you won't let us cheat off you and then you do"

"We're all gonna do fine, Lily" Alice said with a smile, "Especially you, I know how hard you've been working"

"Psst" James said leaning a bit to whisper ask Sirene, "Did you study at all?"

"No" She whispered back hoping Lily doesn't see hear it.

"Me neither"

"I don't think it's fair" Marlene whined, "We actually have to work hard for our grades whereas you guys just walk in and still manage to get good grades"

"What can I say?" Sirene flipped her hair with a posh expression, "It's au naturale, mon chéri"

"Die" Marlene spoke angrily, stuffing her face with bread.

One thing about Marlene, she was a stress eater, well she was a eater in general but when she's stressed, like right now, she turns into a human black hole, swallowing every edible thing in sight. The next few days are then spent with her complaining about the weight she's gaining and the stomach bug.

"I don't know how you're so calm" Lily said to Alice who just shrugged in return, "Don't you have even one ounce of stress?"

"I do" Alice said to Lily with a smile as always, "I just divert my attention from my stress by thinking of something else"

"You mean someone else?" Sirene wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and a mischievous smile took it's place on her face.

"Oh, look" Alice said changing the topic, "There's Remus!"

The four out of the seven teenagers turned their head to the gate quickly to notice Remus walking towards them with his head hung and his steps shaky.

It sucked balls that today was the day their final O.W.Ls were, right after the day Remus had a full moon night.

Sirene quickly got up rushing up to Remus to prevent him to running into someone, practically guiding him to their table.

"Remus, are you ok?" Alice asked turning to Remus with a concerned expression, "Do you need something?"

Remus just gave her a nod, "I'm fine Alice, just tired that's all, didn't get much sleep last night"

Lily glanced between the five of them before clearing her throat and saying, "I get it, Ive been stressing about my O.W.Ls too, didn't get much sleep last night either"

Remus gave another nod to Lily before putting his head down on the table trying to get a few minutes of sleep, but Sirene knew if he was going to give the exams he would need energy, so unfortunately she had to wake him up.

"Remmy, hey" She whispered softly, "I got you chocolate, eat something, you need energy"

"If I eat something right now" Remus turned to look at her with a troubled expression, "I will throw up"

"I got you this, Moony" Sirius said turning to Remus with an excited expression as he took out three of his favorite chocolate bars.

"Well, I guess I could eat a bit"

🥀

"How did your O.W.Ls go?" Lily asked Sirene who was busy plucking the petals off a flower, the two girls were sitting down by the lake, the students crowding the place after the exams for a breath of fresh air after being in a room full of sweaty teenagers nervous about the test.

"It was good" Sirene shrugged, for some reason she couldn't shake the feeling of some emptiness out of her, it was like she was missing something she never had.

"I wonder how Alice and Marlene's exams went" Lily said folding her socks and putting them away with her shoes, dipping her legs in the water.

Sirene laid back on the grass with her hands below her head staring at the sky, "I reckon Alice did really well, but Marlene, she has a tendency to doubt herself"

"I'm sure she did good" Lily said, moving her legs around in the water with a dazed expression on her face.

"Do you feel some sort of emptiness too?" Sirene asked Lily who stiffened at first before nodding with a small smile.

"I do" She said, "It's like time is slipping past our hands and we can't do anything to stop it"

"Yeah" Sirene said after thinking for a bit, "That's exactly what's going on"

"Can you believe in two years we'll have to get jobs and be adults?" Lily chuckled to herself, "It seems so surreal"

"I suppose it does" Sirene spoke with her brows furrowed, not liking the serious tone of conversation, she was just about to change the topic when she heard laughter coming from the other side.

The girls turned around to see a huge crowd forming, both of them made their way towards the crowd, knowing that the center of attention were probably the boys.

"What are you going to do, Snivellus?" James chuckled at the greasy haired boy who's face turned red after being upside down. Sirius and Peter were chuckling at his side too.

"Potter!" Lily spoke angrily, her eyes sparkling with fierceness and disgust at the sight in front of her, "Let. Him. Down."

"Go out with me, Evans!" James said simply turning to face her with a smirk, "Go out with me, and I'll leave him alone"

"Aw, boo-hoo" Sirius said mockingly as he stared at Snape who had a sad expression on his face at it all, it wasn't just humiliation, it was anger, it was sadness, that was what was in his eyes, not just tears, they were emotions he couldn't describe verbally because he wasn't allowed to, "Poor Snivellus wants to cry"

Amidst it all Remus stood by his friends with his head hung low, he seemed defeated. Sirene on the other hand was anything but that, her nose flared with anger as she moved forward with her wand raised.

"Let him down, Potter" Sirene said her voice dripping with a venom as she stared at the boy in front of him with an angry expression.

"Fine" James said simply, putting his wand back into his pocket, "There, I let him go"

Severus fell down with a thud, getting up to rub his head where it had hit the tree branch as he fell down, staring at everyone of them with extreme hatred on his face. He took out his wand and motioned it towards Sirius who was busy arguing with Sirene and yelled out, "Sect-"

Sirene interrupted him by quickly yelling out a protective charm, she stared at Severus in disbelief.

Lily went over to Severus after yelling at James to check up on him, "Sev, are you ok-"

"I don't need help from filthy mudbloods like you!"

And that ladies and gents was when Lily Evans lost it, she had enough of stupid boys in her life, she didn't need any more drama then there already was, so she did what seemed logical at that time and it was to bitch slap Severus so hard he stumbled into the tree. She walked away fuming from the scene taking huge strides after giving one last death glare to James.

"Congratulations" Sirene said anger and sarcasm lacing her voice, "You've managed to ruin whatever progress you made, James, I hope you're happy"

Great job James, amazing. Now I bet Lily will definitely go out with u and it definitely won't take years to get her back. Definitely. Um anyways did u see the fucking view count on this thing???? 1k???? Wtf????? Ngl even tho it's not a lot for like proper writers who write stuff im intimidated by it. Imagine if someone reads it and then corrects me in a mean way, wow, I'd probably cry.