CHAPTER NINE !
↳ snakes and lions

                  ON SUNDAY, JOSI AWOKE from the sound of her magical alarm clock, which loudly rung into her ears. The brunette let out a loud groan before slowly opening her eyes. Peeking through the window, she saw that it was still a little dark outside.

The brunette narrowed her yes at the window and saw how the rain drops pelted against the window. Josephine let out a quiet groan, imagining how horrible practice would be for them in the rain.

"For merlin's sake! Turn out the freaking alarm clock!", Alice shouted from her bed, before she grabbed a pillow and threw it at Josi.

The pillow hit Josi's side, making the brunette let out a shocked gasp. Josephine sat up immediately, narrowing her eyes at Alice, who was not visible under her cover.

Jo slowly grabbed the pillow from her duvet and threw it onto the other bed. It landed on Marlen's head and you could hear a little grunt. But the blond girl just turned around in her bed and continued sleeping.

The Potter girl rolled with her eyes and threw her blanked away before she slowly tiptoed over to Marlene's bed.

Shaking the blond softly she tried to wake her up. "Marl's!", she quietly whispered, but the girl didn't react.

"Marlene!", she now said a little louder, but Marlene just grunted again. Josi huffed annoyed and quickly spun on her heel, starting to collect her Quidditch uniform.

After the brunette entered the bathroom she quickly brushed her hair and put it up into a lower bun. She then quickly jumped into her uniform and returned into the bedroom. Marlene was still sleeping.

Josi narrowed her eyes at her friend. She had enough, so the brunette grabbed Marlene's blanked and yanked it away from the sleeping girl.

Marlene's eyes opened abruptly and she sat up in her bed, her hair standing up.

"Gimme that!", the blond shouted angry at Josephine while she tried to grabb it, but Josephine just shook her head and threw the blanked into the bathroom.

"We're going to be late for the Quidditch training. James will make our lives a living hell for the next two hours", Josi explained to Marlene in an annoyed tone as she gathered the girls Quidditch stuff and threw it at the Mckinnon girl.

Marlene grunted again, stood up and walked into the bathroom. "I honestly hate you two", Josephine heard Lily's sleepy voice from the other corner of the room.

"Oh, that's a lie! You know, you love us", Josi quickly answered her before she gave her friend a smile. Lily just snorted amused and turned around to go back to sleep.

Josi sat down on her bed while she, once again looked out of the window. Josephine's attention was quickly drawn to Marlene, who suddenly opened the bathroom door.

She had her Quidditch uniform on and was currently preoccupied with putting her hair in to a messy ponytail.

"Let's roll", Josi said as she approched the girl and grabbed her broom, which was leaning against the doorframe. Marlene nodded and grabbed her broom as well, before the two made their way downstairs into the common room.

The two girls ran through the castle, not giving a flying fuck about the couple of paintings that insulted them a long the way, for waking them so early in the morning.

They dashed around the corner and Josi jogged straight through Sir Nicolas, or the so called nearly headless nick.

A very weird and cold feeling went through her whole body and the brunette froze for a moment.

"Oh, good Morning Ms. Potter, awake so early in the morning?", the ghost greeted her with a friendly smile. "Good Morning sir Nicolas, yeah we are on our way to the Quidditch practice", Josi told him smiling as well.

Marlene looked at the Gryffindor ghost. "I'm really sorry, but we have to go we are already running late", the blond explained to him apologizing.

The ghost nodded before he said, "Well, have a good day." And with that he flew through the wall into the next classroom.

The girls hastily continued their way through the castle until they reached the Quidditch pitch. It was still raining outside, but the raindrops were shrinking by the minute, which lead them to think that it would be soon clearing up.

The two already imagined the trouble they were in, but when they stepped on to the field, they didn't saw their team on their brooms as expected. No, they saw a large crowd of students with red and green Quidditch roaps, who loudly argued with each other.

Marlene and Josi made their way through the crowd, as they reached the middle they saw Sirius and James argue with the Slytherin Quidditch Captain, Flint and his mates Avery and Rosier.

Those three were disgusting if you asked Josi. She just had to looked at the three Slytherins and a cold shower run over her back.

"I don't give a shite if Slughorn gave you a premission, the pitch is our's for the next two hours !", James spat loudly at the three boys that narrowed their eyes at the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Watch your language Potter! I'm not one of your little pathetic mudblood friends", Flint hissed at her twin.

Flint was in seventh year, just like Avery and the two boys currently over towered James and Sirius, even thought the two Gryffindors were indeed very tall.

"I dare you to say that again!", Sirius hissed at him in anger and wanted to lung at the Slytherin infront of him, but he was held back by no other than Fabian and Gideon Prewett.

Josi immediately stepped forward and grabbed Sirius by the arm, making the boys head snap towards her. He immediately stopped trying to wiggle out of the Prewett's grip.

"Calm down", she quietly stated. "Look, I really don't get why you have to train now. Just train in the afternoon", James told the other's, Josi let her gaze wander over the Slytherins.

Next to Avery was Malfoy, that slimy git, Josi thought as she scrunched her nose up in disgust. And right besides Rosier stood Nott, his arms crossed over his chest. Behind them clearly unimpressed by the whole situation were Rabastan Lestrange and Regulus Black.

Josi's eyes lingered on the two younger Slytherin boys, Rabastan was Rodolphus little brother. Rabastan was actually not as bad as his older brother, who was in seventh year and promised to no other than, Bellatrix Black. Poor boy, Josi thought to herself, before a loud scream interrupted her thoughts.

It was James, who had attackt Malfoy and punched him across the face as Sirius wiggled himself out of the twins hold. He immediately grabbed ahold of Avery and put him into a head lock as he punched him into the stomach.

After a moment the whole Gryffindor and Slytherin team were in a big fight. Marlene and Josi stood next to Regulus and Rabastan, who both watched the fight with a bored look on their faces.

Josi's and Regulus's eyes locked for a short moment before the Potter girl sighted deeply, she lifted her Wand. She wanted to cast a spell but right in that moment Madame Hooch, the very young and newly started Quidditch Professor, set foot onto the pitch.

"I can't believe what I'm seeing, that behavior is absolutely inappropriate! 50 points from each house and detention for all of you!", the Professor exclaimed shocked at the behavior of the boys. They all immediately stopped their doing and let go of each other before they stood up from the ground.

Frank had a black eye and bloody knuckle's, the Prewett's had both one or two bruises, nothing big. But James and Sirius looked horrible, James had a bloody nose and dark bruises all over his face.

Josi's gaze then wandered over to Sirius, who stood right infront of Madame Hooch, he had a bloody lip and also a black eye. Blood dropped from his nose and his hair was standing in every direction.

The Professor looked at the boys, "Potter, Mckinnon, would you please escort your team to the hospital wing, the same goes for you two Mr. Black, Mr. Lestrange", and with that she hastily returned to the Castle.

With hateful glares the Slytherins made their way back to the castle first.

Josi immediately grabbed James face, "Ouw, bloody hell!", he screamd at his sister before he slapt her hand away.

"That was totally unnecessary", Josi told him with an annoyed look, James glared at her. "He insulted my friends and my team, that was more than necessary", he argued as he threw his hands into the air.

Marlene stood next to Frank and looked at his eye while Josi approched Sirius, who stood besides them.

She grabbed his face harshly as well and Sirius gasped in pain, his eyes narrowed while he clenched his jaw. "And You! All the pain your in right now, you deserve it, you can't just go and punch people", she exclaimed disbelieving. Sirius looked at her in disbelief, "They were the ones who started it!"

Josi remained silent before she rolled her eyes and turned to face the other's, "Let's go boy's." And with that the whole Gryffindor team made their way up to the hospital wing.

They had to wait outside in the corridor, until the Slytherins were all patched up by Madam Pomfrey. A few of the boys had sat down onto the stone floor while the others leaned against the wall, their eyes focused on the door.

A couple of long minutes passed by before the doors of the hospital wing swung open, revealing Professor Slughorn, the head of the Slytherin house, followed by his Quidditch team.

Only now, Josephine saw the damage the Gryffindors' had done. Every single one of the Slytherin boys had a black eye or heavy bruises on their faces'.

They all shot each other dark looks while passing and only when the Slytherins weren't in sighed anymore the Gryffindor made their way inside.

Madam Pomfrey gasped loudly, the shock clearly visible on her face. "Oh, boys."

They all sat down on one of the beds and Josi sat down besides Marlene on the chairs that stood besides them. Watching how Madame Pomfrey took care of their teammates, the two girls remained silent.

Except for a few yelp's from James the boys stayed silent through the whole treatment. When the last one of them was patched up, the group made their way out into the corridor.

"You lot run along. I'm going to speak with Minnie about the Pitch", James then stated, as Captain of the team, it was his job to make sure that they could train for the upcoming match against Ravenclaw.

"Should one of us come along?", Marlene questioned him with raised eyebrows. James just waved her off, already reaching the corner that lead to the stairs, "No, I can manage."

And with that the boy disappeared behind the stone wall.

                SHORTLY BEFORE DINNER, Josephine sat at the Gryffindor table, reading the daily prophet. Her hands were tightening around the paper, when she spotted an article on the right side of the paper, saying, "Death eater attack near London. 15 Ministry members dead."

The brunette felt this cold feeling washing over her. In Hogwarts, everyone felt save, far away from the real world. But Josephine knew that in a bit more than two years, she would leave Hogwarts and would have to live in this world. Always being afraid of being killed for her believes, that was not the life she had pictured for herself.

She had an anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach as she sat down the newspaper. Her gaze slowly wandered over he'd shoulder towards the Slytherin table.

Not everyone of them were bad people, but Josephine new that a few off them were Death eaters in the making. There were examples like, Bellatrix and Narcissia Black, Malfoy, Lestrange, Rosier and Avery.

A cold shower ran down her spin before her eyes stopped on Regulus, who didn't sit far away from them. To her he seemed lost, like he didn't belong.

In that moment Josi felt a presence besides her, the brunette snapped out of her daze and her eyes landed on Marlene.

The blond had flopped down besides her and was hungrily grabbing some food. "Why were you staring at the Slytherin table?", her friend questioned her when Lily sat down on their opposite with Alice.

"Oh, nothing. It's just-", the brunette held up the newspaper and Lily immediately started reading aloud for the other's.

The three girls were silent afterwards. Lily was suddenly a little pale. "Horrible."

Josephine nodded quietly in agreement. Alice was now holding the daily prophet, her eyes scanning over the rest of the pages.

Marlene's gaze wandered up and down the table, before she forwned, "Were are the boys?"

Josephine immediately shrugged at her, stuffing a piece of bread in her mouth. Her and Lily exchange a knowing look, they had probably prepared everything for Remus transition. Full moon was drawing closer and the boys had to make sure that the shack was ready. They had probably stayed up all night.

"You know them. Always causing trouble somewhere", Lily stated simply before she helped herself to some pumpkin juice.

Josi's gaze wandered back to the Slytherin table, searching for Regulus, but the boy was gone.

Marlene followed her gaze, while chewing on her bread. "Are you searching for someone?"

Josephine shook her head, seeming to have something on her mind. The brunette then turned to face her friends, "Do you think- well, you think-" She shook her head to herself before she answered the question, which as roaming her head herself.

The Blacks' were one of the most noble houses' in the wizarding world, also known for their pure blood mania. Of course they would associate with the likes of Death eaters and such.

The brunette huffed quietly before she got up from her seat. The other's gave her worried looks, but Josephine was to deep in her own thoughts, to even realize it.