Chapter 11: Hats Off to Muggles

The courtyards draped in fresh snow have to be one of the prettiest places on earth.

Theia thought to herself as she sat propped on a window sill overlooking a glittering white little landscape surrounded by the stone walls of the castle. She held a book in one hand and was fiddling with the ends of a piece of hair with the other.

It was a Sunday morning the week after Valentine's day and winter still held a firm grasp over the Scottish highlands that Hogwarts was nestled in. She always regarded Valentine's day as more of a non-holiday and she ultimately felt relieved when she hadn't received any valentines or notes from a secret admirer. It was a romantic notion but stressful given the tone that British wizards had set in regards to dating and 'courting.' Her heart still raced when she thought back to the detention and getting hexed by Rookwood. She could feel her mood harden a bit at the thought of that slime-ball and she quickly changed gears and went back to reading her book before her mood was fully spoiled.

The window sill was in an alcove in one of the far corners of the library, on an internal border that looked over one of the castle's many courtyards. The space was essentially a lounge area for students to read or study, but it was hidden away far enough from Madame Pince that the noise levels weren't as strict and it was a bit more social. Theia liked the background noise and security of other people around her, so this was one of her favorite spots to hide out in when she didn't want to stay cooped up in Ravenclaw Tower. She had her schoolwork that would be due in the upcoming week with her, but admittedly she didn't have the patience to crack into yet. She was completely absorbed in a sci-fi novel about nomajs creating a machine that could shrink them to microscopic size so they could navigate a ship through another regular-sized person's bloodstream and fix a blood clot in their brain before some world-saving information was lost forever. Two of the characters were flirting and there was a potential saboteur on-board the ship, so Theia found herself grinning and furrowing her brow at various points while she read.

A few minutes into her reading, or maybe even longer since she was horrible at estimating the passage of time when she was focused, she felt someone tentatively take a step or two into her surrounding area, with a nervous edge to their aura. She glanced up and found a fourth-year Ravenclaw boy she had seen sitting at their table in the Great Hall once or twice. He was making eye contact but didn't say anything for a full 5 seconds after she looked up, so she put her book down and sat up to greet him.

"Um, hello."

"Hi, er- um… Hello. Sorry, uh, it's Theia right?" He stuttered at first but eventually found an almost-nonchalant tone of voice.

"Yeah…" She glanced to the side and saw a few scattered groups of students suddenly paying attention to her and the new guest who had approached her. A few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were staring openly, while a small group of Slytherin boys were pretending not to listen, but their eyes weren't moving so she could tell they weren't actually reading the books they were holding up.

"I'm Reggie," He almost stuck his hand out to shake hers, but ended up bringing up to smooth back his hair instead. She kept looking at him expectantly, unsure what to make of this rocky start to a conversation. He was a tall boy with dark brown hair and had a stringier build. His nervous smile was pleasant enough and she felt a small pang of pity when she met his eyes and he had a difficult time holding her gaze. She threw him a bone and smiled broadly at him, she could feel his nerves mellow ever so slightly.

"Nice to meet you Reggie, what's up?"

"I was wondering, have you heard about the dance coming up next month?"

She nodded and maintained a friendly face, though her smile faltered a bit as she realized where this might be going.

"Are you going with anyone?"

With the levels of nerves he was exuding she was genuinely surprised when the question came out without a single stammer or pause. He sounded like his confidence might be gaining momentum.

"I thought third years weren't allowed." She answered.

"Um not independently, but if they're asked by someone older," his hand rested gently on his chest to indicate himself, "then they're allowed."

"Oh… Well no, but I've made plans for that night already with my friends cause we thought we weren't allowed."

"Ah um… Well, would you like to go with me?"

Her heart skipped a beat and the guilt churning in her stomach made her feel borderline nauseous. She felt like a deer in headlights and answered him truthfully.

"I'm so sorry, but I promised my friends I would bring some American movies." She hastily stammered to add on, "I'd feel bad ditching them since it was my idea in the first place and I have all the stuff."

His face sank but he maintained his posture well enough. He cleared his throat and put a reassuring smile on his face before he responded.

"Oh, no, I understand. That sounds fun." His smile became more authentic as he spoke, though he maintained a slight flush to his cheeks from the embarrassment of being turned down in public. "Maybe you could host a viewing party in Ravenclaw tower one of these nights. I haven't seen many American muggle films."

"Do you think people would like that?" Theia tried to follow the trail down a less awkward conversational path.

"Most definitely. Especially Ravenclaws, we're naturally curious you know."

Theia almost blushed at his attempt to be coy but gave a genuine chuckle instead.

"Of course, why didn't I realize?"

"Well, I'll see you around then." He gestured goodbye and walked over to his group of friends seated at a table further away and began unpacking his study materials. The group was whispering at him frantically and he kept his gaze focused down on his hands while he pulled his books and parchment out of his bag. The guilt in Theia's stomach surged again and she glanced around to see if everyone had gone back to ignoring her yet.

The Slytherin boys were concealing small smirks behind their books as they sniggered quietly back and forth to one another. Her face flushed with anger and she tried not to stare at them.

What jerks!

They soon sat up from their spots, they had apparently finished pretending to read for the day, and they gave her heavy, unconcealed glances before they stalked out of the library. Theia's temper was controlled for the moment, she was mostly just embarrassed but reassured that she had been truthful and the encounter had gone rather well given she had rejected an invitation for a date.

She sat there for a little while longer, trying to get back into her book, but found herself distracted and flustered by the turn of events. She needed to talk to someone. She checked the time, 10:45 AM. Harper should be up and so should Lily. Determined to vent to whichever friend she found first, she packed up her things quickly and made to leave.

As she stood up to go her gaze fell on a vaguely familiar face. A boy, a first-year most likely based on his stature, who looked eerily familiar. Suddenly her mind was swimming in the memory of going to Diagon Alley before the fall term started and seeing him outside of the robe shop after her first introduction to Sirius. She reached for his name from the depths of her memory.

Regulus.

He had initially made eye contact with her when she stood up but had quickly looked back down at his book. A defense against the dark arts book that didn't appear to be a standard textbook, based on its title, "Dark Arts Defends: Historical Collection of Battles in the Dark Arts, An Apprentice's Perspective." It was an interesting book for such a young-looking boy to be reading on a weekend. She wasn't sure if it made her suspicious or made him more interesting.

Her mind reached out to prod his aura without hesitation and found the same one she had felt in the alley, only more palpable without his toxic mother polluting and overpowering him. As she made her exit she took the path that would lead her directly next to his chair, and as she passed she looked down to see her one of her sneakers was untied and she quickly bent down to tie them. She was only a foot or two away from the boy and she felt a surge of boldness in him just before his surprisingly soft voice spoke.

"That was smart. Rejecting the Ravenclaw in front of an audience."

She suppressed her surprise and responded quickly and just as faintly.

"How do you mean? I really am busy that night."

"Regardless. It's better to seem busy and less attainable."

"What does that have to do with the audience?"

Her hands smoothed over her socks as she fidgeted for a momentary excuse to stay bent and hear what else the little Slytherin Black brother had to say.

"With the older boys watching, it'll be in your best interest not to seem too eager."

Her eyes darted at him in shock of his perceptiveness. Meanwhile, he wasn't even looking at her, his nose was still buried in his book. Had anyone been glancing their way, they would hardly be able to tell they were having a discrete conversation.

What eleven year old makes observations like that? She thought to herself.

She stood up slowly, ready to leave finally and more embarrassed than she had been before after hearing confirmation she had in fact been eavesdropped on, with possible malintent no less.

"Thank you, Regulus."

He glanced up surprised when she muttered his name. She could feel his question in the air around him, he thought he was being anonymous. Perhaps that had even been what had emboldened him to speak in the first place: the lack of potential repercussions.

"You have the same eyes," Theia smirked when the kid flushed a light pink and stuffed his face back into his book. He didn't look affronted, just the tiniest bit scared. Admittedly, the all-too-familiar light shade of grey of his eyes had been the last thing she noticed about Regulus. With the ether to guide her memory, his similarity to his brother didn't need to aid her recognition. In immediate hindsight though, when you really looked at him, he looked like a miniature version of Sirius, though perhaps a little better rested and fed.

With her head held high and a neutral expression held onto her face, she navigated out of the library and made her way back to Ravenclaw Tower.

I swear to Merlin if Harper is still in bed I will set it on fire. She needs to hear this!

"Did you hear about the American girl getting asked to the dance?"

"No! I thought all her friends were in third year! Who's she going with?"

"No, no she turned down Reggie Atwater from Ravenclaw!"

This was the third conversation Sirius had overheard about Theia and that Ravenclaw guy. And that was only as he was walking into the Great Hall for lunch on Monday, the day after the supposed event had occurred. He hadn't gotten to hear the firsthand story from Theia yet, but he and the Marauders had all gotten a close approximation of what had gone down. Theia had been alone in the library reading, as Ravenclaws are for some reason inclined to do, when some older Ravenclaw bloke had walked up to her and asked her to the dance coming up next month. She turned him down, and the reason why varied based on who recounted the tale: she had another date that night, her friends wouldn't want her to go, someone even mentioned something about an American muggle boyfriend.

Sirius was nearly dying of curiosity to find out which was the real explanation. The American muggle bit worried him ever so slightly. Theia was a pureblood witch and that status protected her somewhat from the more vile tendencies of his fellow classmates, the Slytherin ones in particular. If she had some connection to an American muggle, another encounter like the one she had with Rookwood would be both inevitable and potentially much worse.

He sat down with James at his side at the Gryffindor table with a tense expression on his face. They didn't have any classes with her yet, as they only had History of Magic with the Slytherins and Herbology with Huffflepuffs that morning. But in both classes, students had been discussing the encounter. He'd heard quite enough about it at this point.

James was also uncomfortable with all the speculation surrounding their friend. He was distinctly uncomfortable with attention being brought to the fact that she's a girl, since it was so much easier to get along with girls when you just thought of them as regular friends or teammates. Her being pursued as an attractive girl made him all the more uneasy. He had secretly promised her little brother that he would watch out for her, and he already felt like he was failing while he listened to all the gossip spreading through the halls like fiendfyre.

Remus was admittedly in his best mood all month, the new moon had just passed a few days ago and he was still enjoying the freedom of being mostly human before the wolf began to stir again. The gossip surrounding Theia troubled him only very slightly, he didn't like people speculating so freely about anyone. It gave him a bit of anxiety to think about how much and how quickly people would talk about him if his secret ever got exposed. All it would take is one nosy, slightly more perceptive person to figure out he goes to the infirmary every month correlating with the lunar calendar. Fortunately, at the moment he was patient enough to wait to hear the real version of the story from Lily or Theia herself when they met up with her in Potions later that day. His focus shifted to his two dark-haired friends, one looking put-out and sour, and the other looking nervous and troubled. He slid them both half a sandwich each when neither reached for any food after sitting down across from him.

Peter was rather nonplussed about the story itself, just mostly curious to hear why Theia had turned down the older boy. He figured that girls fancied older boys no matter what, and they also fancied dances and dressing up. So since there wasn't anything glaringly wrong with Reggie Atwater, he was curious what fault she found in him to make her decline his invitation. His mind shifted back to lunch as soon as his bottom touched the bench though, and he began to pull his favorite items onto his plate with a jolly smile on his face. His chipper mood irritated Sirius just the tiniest bit but no sharp remarks came to Sirius' already fully-occupied mind.

The boys were saved from the quietest lunch they'd had together all year when the witch in question sat down and shoved herself between Remus and Peter. A plate appeared in front of her and she immediately started to grab some food to fill it. 12:30 lunch felt late when she had eaten her first meal at 7 in the morning.

"Greetings boys! How's the Monday treating you so far?"

"Hi Ee-fee" Peter mumbled around a mouthful of food.

"T's not terrible. It stopped misting just in time for us to walk out to Herbology this morning. So it was less unpleasant than usual." Remus replied.

"Oh, that's nice," She said as she took her first bite of sandwich.

Sirius' shoulders had visibly relaxed after the initial shock of her sudden appearance had faded. His face was relatively stoic but she could feel his tension across the table quite palpably, and it intermingled with James' with an alarming synergy.

Their auras interact almost, she mused to herself.

"How's the morning treating you?" Remus asked easily.

"Ugh! It's nuts! You'd think I lit the library on fire or went streaking across the quidditch pitch the way people are talking!"

Her eyes bulged and she only made eye contact with her food, but her tone was light and laughing. Remus was passingly impressed she was handling being the center of the Hogwarts gossip mill so well for being so new and, you know, a young-ish girl. If his wolf was more awake he might have been able to pick up on more subtle notes of anxiety or stress in her demeanor, but he was thankful for the ignorance if it meant his mood was more stable.

Sirius cracked his first smile all day as what she said sank in.

"Streaking across the quidditch pitch? Well, that's an idea to get them to change the topic, if you're volunteering."

She smirked around a bite of food and wrinkled her nose at him.

"No, but seriously Ethee, what happened?" James butted in.

"What have you heard?" She swallowed her food and asked.

"Reggie Atwater asked you to the dance," James supplied.

"In the library." Remus chimed in.

"An' you said no," Peter finished.

They all looked at her expectantly, waiting to hear the rest of it.

"Yup," was all she said.

Sirius and James sputtered, and Remus rolled his eyes when he realized she was doing this on purpose, for exactly that reaction.

"Well!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Why?" Peter questioned, and she turned to glance at him. "D'you not like him?"

"No, I have plans with Lily and Harper to watch American movies that night! I suggested it when we found out third years couldn't go, and I'm not about to ditch them after being the one to suggest the plan in the first place and am the one that's supposed to bring the entertainment! I told him that, he understood."

She shrugged like it should be no big deal. She was busy, she turned him down, whatever! Why people were so bent up they were practically laying eggs over it she genuinely couldn't understand.

Remus chuckled at her demeanor, which was both exceptionally frustrated and nonchalant at the same time. Sirius and James had been all worked up about the possibility of needing to run interference on her or protect her from a hoard of male suitors over something she clearly didn't take very seriously. And it was extremely entertaining for him.

"Oh that makes sen-sh," Peter mumbled again around another big bite of food. "We thought you didn' like 'im."

"I don't know him." She said more sheepishly than before. "I don't want to go to a dance by myself anyways."

"You wouldn't be by yourself. That's quite literally the point of a date." Sirius answered. He leaned forward over the table and looked her dead in the eyes as he tried to decipher her inner thoughts.

"Yeah but just with him as someone to talk to! I don't even know him! What if we ran out of things to talk about or it got weird?" She spoke like she'd given it a fair amount of thought, even if it was only after the initial encounter. "I wouldn't want to go without friends there as a backup." She maintained eye contact with Sirius then shifted her gaze around the group and felt Remus become more still next to her when she glanced his way.

"We'll go wit' you next year," Peter said, a small blushing smile on his face. She laughed and ruffled his hair. His innocence was adorable.

"Perfect!" She exclaimed and clapped her hands together. "So there is a dance every year?"

"Yeah, just about. The timing of when changes each year though," James replied. His stress had melted after the brief conversation that cleared up the story.

"Huh, that's interesting. At Ilvermony they're scheduled like clockwork, each fall, and spring. But you have to be fourth year and up, and then there's a special formal dance at the end of each year before summer just for the 6th and 7th years."

"So you've never been to a dance before?" Sirius prodded.

"Nope. But I've been to balls and galas with my parents and whatnot."

She was picking at a pile of grapes on her plate, leaning back in her seat and felt shielded from the gossips for the first time all day what with the boys effectively surrounding her. They definitely helped take the tension off now that another good group of people had the true story. Maybe they help could fight back the relentless torrent of rumors with her.

"I went to James' Christmas thing this year, with Leon and Aunt Addie. It was fun."

James tipped his glass at her and tried to wink, but his glasses slid down the bridge of his nose and almost fell into his cup when he went to take a sip, so the suave effect was entirely lost and the group erupted in laughter.

"How are you going to watch American muggle films with the girls? Don't you have to go to their big theaters to watch them?" Remus recovered first.

"Yeah usually, but my dad bought one of the theater projectors for our house so Leon and I could watch new movies when we were both still too young to control our accidental magic. Leon, in particular, had a habit of throwing off stars and little fireworks when he was excitable as a toddler. So we couldn't bring him to the movie theaters until after we screened it at home and he got his first reaction out of his system."

"That's wicked!" Peter exclaimed, "You have a personal theater in your house?"

"It was more of a spare room with a sheet tacked up to the wall but yeah we did." Theia chuckled at his enthusiasm.

"Wha' kind of movies d'you have?" Peter continued.

"All sorts. Obviously, the kid ones Leon and I watched, but my dad really liked this spy series called James Bond, so I think we have like all of those except maybe the most recent one from last year…"

She had the sudden realization that he hadn't been around to purchase the latest film when it had been released to theaters. She was swamped with a wave of grief and quickly tried to squash it with a resolve to purchase the film at her next opportunity. To honor him.

"Spy?" Sirius inquired.

James looked equally as perplexed though he recognized the slight drop in her mood at the mention of her dad and tried not to look too pityingly at her. He'd seen her suddenly break down in tears once over the winter holiday when one of his mother's friends had given her a pathetic look when they'd been introduced and had offered condolences to the "poor sweet child." She recovered rather quickly now but her voice was just the slightest bit thick when she spoke.

"Yeah like a government secret agent who gets sent out on top-secret missions to stop terrorists and evil villains from killing a bunch of people or using some crazy weapon."

"So like Unspeakables?"

"What?"

"They're essentially the Ministry of Magic version of a spy." Remus supplied when it was Theia's turn to look utterly confused.

"Oh, I don't think they're called that in America… or maybe they are and I haven't asked. I just call them spies out of habit now."

"Can we watch those movies?" Peter asked. He had a faint blush on his cheeks from both the excitement of seeing a film and the nerves at asking to join in on a private party that Theia had already turned someone down to attend.

"Of course!" She burst out, "I was going to have Lily come to Ravenclaw Tower but we could do it in Gryffindor instead!" It might make it easier to avoid running into Reggie and his other dance-going friends that night.

Sirius looked almost too pleased to hear the girls would be headed to Gryffindor Tower on the night of the dance, and Remus cocked an eyebrow at him when he continued to stare a subtle smirk in Theia's direction after the conversation had taken another turn. The expression fell from his face once he realized it was there. As lunch finished and it was almost time for the next class, Theia stood up and adjusted her uniform while the boys plied themselves out of the benches.

"Do you want us to walk you to the next class?" James offered, the look of slight anxiousness had slipped back onto his face now that they were going to be back in the gossiping crowds.

"We can provide a rumor buffer for you!" Peter supplied, still ecstatic from the meal and newly formed plans.

Theia glanced around beneath her lashes at the slowly dispersing crowds, Remus was still at her side and looked around to see only one or two stray people looking her way.

"I have Transfiguration before Potions with you guys this afternoon, don't you all have Astronomy right now?"

"Yes and…?" Sirius drawled.

"And it's completely out of your way!" She perked up, the sarcastic banter he teased her with lifted her mood, it gave her something to distract herself with. "I'll be just fine walking by myself. It'll probably be for the better anyway, next thing to spread around will be that I am being courted by the entire lot of you!"

James cracked a laugh as he slung his supply bag over his shoulder and the group started to head towards the door.

"Mmm… very true. And there wouldn't be any simple way of dismantling that rumor." Sirius replied with another coy look her way. He was trying to make her blush just for the laughs it would provoke, and she was absolutely not taking the bait.

"Oh, quite the contrary! I'd only have to abandon you all in public and never be seen in your presence again!" She bit back.

Harper somehow caught up to her once they made it through the doors of the Great Hall, she had a knack for finding her roommate whenever they intermittently separated between a class.

"What's that?" Harper had her hair in a coiled bun on top of her head and was munching on a handful of peanut brittle. "You finally coming to your senses about this lot of miscreants?"

Theia chuckled when James and Sirius simultaneously looked affronted, James stuck his tongue out and Sirius gave his best sneer.

"We had her first," James replied, light and joking.

"Details." Harper waved her hand dismissively. The group essentially handed Theia off to her roommate, she stepped out from the middle of them to Harper's side. They all felt much more at ease with her not walking to class alone, and their collective relief was palpable to the witch in question.

"See you in potions?" Peter asked as if it wasn't a given. Banter made him uncomfortable, he had a hard time keeping up with the true mood of the conversation sometimes and didn't want his friends fighting amongst themselves, especially if he couldn't tell that it was happening.

"Course Pete." Theia winked at the plump boy and waved at the rest of them before turning with Harper to head over to Transfiguration with a crowd of yellow-clad Hufflepuffs.

"How long did you say he had to use this for before the side-effects start to kick in?" James whispered quietly from beneath the cloak beside Remus as they shuffled away from the scene of their crime. Sirius was behind them, standing watch from outside the doorway for the professor or any snooping classmates. Peter was still mopping up the spilled ink he had used as a distraction to allow Remus and James the time to slip the tooth whitening cream into Rookwood's satchel.

James and Remus backed up carefully until they could nudge Sirius, who then signaled Peter and they made their escape towards their own class that they were dangerously close to being late for. Remus answered quietly while James stuffed the now slivery cloth into his bag and the group broke into a run.

"If he uses it more than twice they should start to kick in slowly… If he uses it nightly for just shy of a week they should hit him like a bloody train."

Thankfully the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom wasn't more than 3 hallways away from the 6th years' Transfiguration classroom. They had planned this little attack rather well, thanks to Peter's sleuthing and James acquiring the 6th years' classroom schedule from one of his quidditch teammates.

"Brilliant," Sirius said darkly as he followed the pair into the Defense classroom. They were in the correct classroom before Professor Pugswall had begun and took their seats just in time. James winked at Peter who smirked broadly back at the group, satisfied with the reconnaissance work that allowed them to pull this off without getting squelched for it.

"I hope the timing matches up with the dance on Saturday," whispered Peter.

"It should, if he starts using it tonight, and uses it consecutively leading up to the dance, the symptoms should just start to hit him just before or even during the festivities."

Remus looked positively diabolical for a moment before his attention turned to note-taking.

The next morning, the boys tried to catch a glimpse of Rookwood during breakfast to see if there was any indication he had tried out the paste.

"Look! He's just there, in the middle towards the left!" James pointed his finger at Rookwood and held his other palm up to block the motion from the rest of his table. Peter cocked his head over his shoulder and Sirius narrowed his eyes at their subject.

"I can't tell if his teeth look any brighter from here," complained Peter.

"I'll bet anyone 5 galleons he used it. He's a pompous prick. I bet he was genuinely convinced an owl dropped it in there accidentally during mail time and he kept it so he could look better for the dance," Sirius muttered quietly, his eyes stayed glued to Rookwood.

"It actually doesn't work all that well as a teeth whitener… which is why they had to stop selling it. People would get the horrible side effects before their teeth were all that much whiter," Remus whispered.

Just then, their subject tapped his closest friend on the shoulder and started baring his teeth at them while holding up a backward spoon to look at his own reflection. The two Slytherins seemed to be discussing his teeth and the Marauders shared a triumphant look as they turned back to their meal.

"Nice!"

"Told you!"

"This is going to be bloody brilliant!"

" I wish we could be there when it all kicks in," Peter concluded as they all started to tuck into their breakfasts.

Remus chuckled and shuddered, the side effects he picked this particular concoction for were ghastly. Regardless of how much Rookwood deserved them, he was glad they wouldn't be witnessing what was likely to be utter carnage in the Slytherin loo.

"I only hope it'll keep him distracted enough to keep well away from Ethee or anyone else for the rest of the semester," James supplied.

"Well even if he wasn't distracted, he would be decommissioned. You said impotence was a major side effect right Moony?" Sirius was ecstatic with how their vigilante justice was shaping up.

"Indeed," Remus grinned around a bite of his eggs.

"Good thing you're such a bookworm Moony, I never would have known what that word was if I'd seen it." Peter shook his head matter-of-factly. Remus blushed slightly and coughed to clear his throat.

"I had to look it up the first time I saw it, Pete, just like you would have."

"Do you reckon we tell Ethee about it yet?" Sirius asked.

"Yet?" James balked openly, "Should we tell her about it at all? She didn't ask us to do anything on her behalf…"

"She had to know we weren't going to just sit idly by."

"I reckon Sirius is right," Remus agreed.

"Well, what if she gets mad at us?" James asked with a slightly worried tone in his voice.

"Why would she get mad?" Pete asked, dumbfounded by the idea.

James sputtered momentarily and Remus answered on his behalf.

"There's a chance she could see it as us provoking someone who attacked her. Which could make her nervous about returning retaliation from him or his friends. Especially if he connects it back to us, and subsequently her," Remus answered coolly.

"I don' think she's that barmy," Peter responded honestly.

Sirius nodded in agreement, James still looked skeptical but responded finally.

"Well, maybe we tell her when we know it's worked then."

"At least then she should have the comedic relief," Remus added.

The group fell silent for a minute or two while they ate their food, until Peter suddenly started wheezing with laughter and half-choked on a bite of his breakfast. They all looked at him in astonishment and Remus patted his back to help him clear his airway so he could finally share what cracked him up half to death.

"Imagine if he messes in his pants at the ball!" Peter wheezed out.

The whole group sputtered and choked as they laughed hysterically at the mental image of Rookwood clutching his bottom as he sprinted out of the dance in his ruined dress robes.

Across the Great Hall, Theia and Harper shared confused glances as they saw the Marauders buckle over themselves in hysterics.

The rest of the week seemed to fly by. Theia got the package with the films and equipment on Friday, shrunk down for international packaging and shipping of course and just in time for her to figure out how to set it up before their viewing party the next day. Admittedly, Harper had been the one to figure out the correct assembly of the projector the next day, after Theia had tried first and found herself holding a crucial spare part she mistakenly hadn't used. Theia was moderately impressed Harper had been able to figure it out, since she hadn't ever seen the assembled object before or even used one. Harper called it one of her party tricks and being "mechanically literate" was one of the few skills she felt she had outside of writing and poetry.

"Well that's good then," Theia laughed, "navigation and mechanics are probably in my top two biggest weaknesses!"

"Oh, I didn't say I'd be able to navigate you anywhere…" Harper mumbled, and slyly added, "We'll be lost together but at least all our equipment will work."

They melted into a short fit of giggles. Once Harper had finished the assembly, Theia had shrunk the equipment down again to fit into her school bag so she could take it easily up to Gryffindor Tower later that evening under the guise of bringing study materials.

"What time are we going?" Harper asked.

"After dinner, Lily's gonna come up here and help us carry stuff."

"Oh is that why you haven't shrunk the film canisters yet?"

Theia grit her teeth on a guilty look. Lily was a brilliant witch, but there were distinct disadvantages to being muggleborn. Not really in an academic sense, but she didn't know all the little convenience spells that wizards use to make their day-to-day lives simpler. Theia had saved shrinking down the canisters so she could show Lily the application of the spell. She was sure it just hadn't occurred to her how to use many of the spells she had already learned outside of the classroom yet. Lily would catch on quickly, she was sure, but she hadn't wanted to reject her offer to help when she'd done so at the Ravenclaw table at dinner last night in case it made Lily feel dumb for not thinking that, with magic, all of the equipment could be re-shrunk once assembled and brought up to the tower in nothing more than a small purse.

"It'll be better if all the girls arrive together anyways, since Lily only really gets along with Remus. And sort of Peter."

"Fair enough."

Harper dropped the subject and retreated to her bed to grab her notebook. She jotted down a one-page entry before quickly shutting the book and placing it back on her nightstand. She rarely shared her writings with her roommates, especially Theia. Very rarely Harper would sit with Alina late at night on one of their beds and the two would discuss it lowly together while the others either slept or finished their nighttime routines.

Just then, Theia felt her bracelet vibrate gently on her wrist, indicating Lily had just sent her a message.

"Speak of the devil," she muttered as she flipped open the latch that kept it in place and saw the delicate writing.

Are you in RT right now?

Theia blinked momentarily before realizing "RT" meant "Ravenclaw tower," and what Lily could be getting at since they were still over an hour away from the time they were planning on meeting up. She sent back a quick reply by tapping her bracelet with her wand, speaking "Yes," into the tip of her wand then tapping the bracelet again to see it appear on the inner band, indicating it was sent. She got a reply back after barely a heartbeat.

Mary and I are coming up. Had a run-in. Need help.

Panic struck sharply in her chest when she read the last two words. Harper was an astute observer of her friend and noticed the change in her mood immediately.

"What'd she say?"

"Her and Mary are coming over now, they got attacked or something… She said they need help."

Her heart fluttered quickly in her chest and her mind flew at a mile a minute while she tried to contemplate what the best course of action would be.

A run-in? With who? Or what? Do we go to intercept them? Do we stay here and gather supplies in case they're hurt? Do we call a professor or Madame Pomfrey?

She couldn't sit idly while these thoughts flew around her head and she watched more than controlled her body as she hustled over to her trunk and pulled out the first aid kit she'd kept since her first year at Ilvermony. She then scurried into the bathroom where she kept the heating pad she used for cramps and cast a chilling spell over it to turn it into a cold compress. Harper watched her with growing anxiety, frozen to her spot on her bed and wrung her hands nervously.

"What are you getting?"

"Supplies! I don't know what to expect!" Theia was digging through her wardrobe for the wool blanket she had tucked in the back for the colder nights in the castle. She set it out on her bed with the other supplies and cast Augmenti into the empty cup on her bedside table and conjured a small cloth next to it, just in case.

"Let's go meet them!" Harper's anxiety broke through her and she sprung up to grab Theia who had finally stilled her movements around the room when she ran out of ideas for other items to gather.

Why don't I have more medicines?

The girls moved briskly across the dark blue carpeting in the main common room and were ignored by the few students scattered around in various chairs and at desks. Once they reached the door, Harper's bravery faltered and she paused before opening it, so Theia found herself reaching out to push it open. They both peaked outside cautiously. When they found no one there, Harper held the door open while Theia stepped out into the hallway to see if she could hear her friends approaching or any sort of altercation they might need to run off to. Harper was bouncing in place nervously and the sphynx on the other side of the door started to grumble about being left open. After about half a minute Theia was feeling a mounting urge to start to run down the hall to see where Lily and Mary were. She suddenly heard brisk footsteps coming up the steps around the corner that lead to their entrance.

"Is that them?"

Harper's grasp of how far away Theia could interact with the ether was exaggerated, and she sometimes expected Theia to be able to tell the future or reach far out to see what other people were doing or feeling. In reality, Theia's skill was limited to a relatively close proximity, both in time and space. The corridor the approaching people were coming from was a hundred or so feet away, and well beyond Theia's untrained reach with the ether. A small part of her was kicking herself for not practicing more so she could eventually gauge things that far away but it was too late at this moment. So she employed a more muggle-tactic to find out who it was.

"Lily?" Theia called out, she stayed planted in a defensive stance with her wand drawn but down at her side.

"Theia!"

Lily and Mary rounded the corner just then. They both looked relatively intact, the only thing off was that Lily was wearing only her undershirt and had her jumper held up to Mary's chest as they hurried down the hall towards the girls in the doorway. Mary looked more embarrassed than hurt and greeted them both as they finally made their approach.

"We're so sorry to barge in! Lily said she could send you a note and Ravenclaw tower was so much closer than Gryffindor!"

Theia had bounded a few steps down the hallway to meet them and looked both the girls over in the ether, searching for traces of curses or injuries. She hadn't realized she had that instinct until after she'd done it and found a strange singed texture clinging to the front of Mary's aura. Her aura was unharmed and unaltered as far as Theia could assess in the few seconds it took them to get into the common room but she could feel the remnants of a fresh spell.

"What happened Lils?" Harper whispered as the group made their way back towards their dorm.

Lily glanced from her periphery at Mary who was still holding up Lily's sweater to her and keeping her head down as they walked through the hallway as quickly as they could short of running. She then gave a more exasperated expression and launched into a hushed retelling of the story until the door was fully shut and latched behind them.

"Well, Mary and I were just down in the Great Hall and on our way back we passed one of the courtyards that Sev and a couple of his friends were hanging out in. They were playing with some sort of sparkler spell, basically launching tiny little sparks at one another. I dunno where boys come up with these types of games… And as we tried to cut across the courtyard, I waved at Sev like always and these two boys with him start leering at Mary and heckling us! One of them sent this huge spark our way and it hit the hem of Mary's jumper and it caught a bit…"

Mary finally lowered the sweater she was holding up and showed the girls what had happened to her top. They could see a sizable corner of her knit sweater had caught on fire, and a hole from the right bottom edge went up her torso and exposed the bottom of her bra. Harper flushed a slight pink color when she realized Mary's undergarments were exposed and coughed to look away. Mary was one of the lucky early bloomers in her year, so while not all of the other girls needed to start wearing bras yet, Mary had been since the year before. She was currently wearing a white, satin-like, underwired one that was very minimally exposed through the burned opening.

"I couldn't walk all the way back to Gryffindor tower with my boob out!" Mary almost had a laughing tone but Theia could feel her embarrassment bordering on humiliation under the surface. It was hard being flat-chested and it was hard being well-endowed. There were no winners when it came to female puberty.

"I told her she can wear mine back to the tower… but then they started to kind of follow us and we panicked a bit as we tried to lose them. I think Sev finally got them off our trail…"

Lily's constant defense of her childhood friend was admirable, so Theia shoved her skepticism about Severus' heroism out from her mind. She'd seen how willing he was to intercede on his friends' actions firsthand…

But maybe with Lily, it's different. He is half-mad in love with her.

She glanced over Lily again, she was in a small loose-fitting camisole top that she'd been lucky enough to have underneath her own sweater. She looked cold and still had goosebumps over her whole arms and across her chest. It was only March after all, and the castle was extremely drafty and still chilly from the lingering winter. Theia cast a quick warming charm over her and she shivered as the warmth spread over her lightly.

"Oh good thinking Thay, thanks!"

"Can you fix it, do you think?" Mary was fiddling with the two burnt edges of her ruined sweater.

"What's that made out of that it caught so quickly?" Harper asked. She examined a seared thread that Mary held up for her to inspect.

"I dunno, my mum got it for me for Christmas last year. I really liked this one."

Lily and Theia both crouched in front of Mary to get a better look at the hole in her garment to better assess if either of them had the transfiguration skills to fix the damage.

"I don't know if this is going to be salvageable, Mar," Lily replied disappointingly. "What do you think?" She glanced at Theia who was trying to subtly feel out the edges of the damage in the ether. She might be able to mend it but she was afraid that in order to reverse the magic that caused the damage, her eyes would glow white and she couldn't afford to have them do that in front of Mary.

"I'm not sure. Why don't you leave it here and I'll see what I can do. I can write my great aunt too and see if she has any charms or tricks to mend magically burnt items. She's really good at mending things."

Mary looked disappointed but shrugged the jumper off and handed it to Theia who placed it delicately on her trunk for her to tackle at another time. Now with two underdressed Gryffindors in their dorm, Theia and Harper had sudden, simultaneous thoughts.

"I have a spare jumper if you want to borrow it, Mary…" Harper mumbled, she scuttled over to her trunk and her hands clumsily filed through her jumbled clothes until she found the article she had in mind. A light blue wool-blend sweater that was one of her favorites.

"Lily do you need anything? Your sweater didn't get burned at all?"

Theia and Lily looked at her garment as she turned it over in her hands to inspect its integrity. It appeared completely unharmed, the spark had missed her entirely.

"Nope, mine looks good!" Lily threw the sweater back on over her head, cast another warming charm over it and hugged herself with her arms.

"How lucky is that!" Theia chuckled. She started to file away the other supplies she had gathered, now that they'd both been found to be uninjured and not in need of any first aid, cold packs or cleaning up.

"How'd you avoid getting burned?" Harper asked Mary once she had her borrowed sweater pulled on.

"It caught so quickly, I just panicked and held the sweater out away from me… that probably explains why the flame crawled up so high. And then Lily put me out!" She chuckled genuinely this time as she shared a look with Lily.

"I poured water on her! I'm lucky it worked, I completely forgot the fire extinguishing spell we learned first year!"

They all laughed and Mary nodded in agreement.

"I know, it's like I completely froze and forgot I was a witch with a wand for a second!"

Reminded that she was still a bit damp, Mary then cast a drying charm at the remaining wet spots on her jeans. Lily suddenly caught sight of the film canisters and diverted the conversation away from their little scuffle with the Slytherin gang.

"Are those the movies?" She exclaimed and walked over to the short stack of films Theia had left a the foot of her bed.

"Oh, yup! Those are the ones that were able to be sent over anyways."

Lily plopped down onto the floor, cross-legged in front of the pile and started picking up each large round tin to examine the title and then turn it over in her hands to look it over.

"I've never actually held one of these before, they're only used in the movie theaters I thought..."

"Well yes, but a little known secret is that you can buy copies from the production company directly if you know who to ask. Or at least that's what my dad said when I asked him why everyone didn't have these at home." Theia chuckled fondly at the naïve memory.

"You brought movies!? To Hogwarts?" Mary jumped over to Lily's side to check the titles with her. "James Bond?! My parents never let me see that even though I begged them last year when it was still playing!"

"You should watch them with us tonight, Mar!"

"Yeah, we're having a showing in the tower tonight!"

"Oh, that sounds fun! Why not here?" Mary looked inquisitively up at Lily and Theia's face. Lily rolled her eyes as she thought of the other invited guests to their movie showing.

"Ugh, king toe-rag and his band of nitwits, save Remus, weaseled their way into it too." Lily pinched her nose and made a barfing gesture with her tongue and mouth. Theia just laughed, Lily's aura was only very slightly annoyed as she thought of the Marauders at that moment, she was just acting it up for the group.

"We'll seat you as far away from him as possible, like I promised Lil," Theia chuckled.

"OH, MY MERLIN!" Mary interrupted, she clutched one of the film canisters to her chest in pure glee, "YOU HAVE SOUND OF MUSIC! I LOVE THIS MOVIE!" Mary suddenly burst into song in a forced soprano voice and over-the-top vibrato as she rolled back onto the floor with one arm dramatically thrown out above her head, "THE HILLS ARE ALI-I-I-I-IVE, WITH THE SOUND OF MU-U-U-SI-I-I-IC!"

Theia's knees buckled as laughter overwhelmed her and she dropped to the floor clutching her stomach. Harper practically wheezed coughing laughs after she flinched away from the sudden outburst.

"The dad is oddly dreamy in that movie isn't he?" Lily asked between laughs as she wiped away a few stray tears.

"He so is!" Theia clapped loudly and bounced up on her knees only to fall back in another fit of laughs as the girls all succumbed to a second round of hysterics. They'd all seen the movie and took turns singing poor renditions of various verses of their favorite songs. Once their energy died down again, Harper piped up.

"You promised me the chocolate factory movie, we have to watch that one!"

" I know, I know! We have so many to get through tonight!"

"We should probably start pretty early then," Lily chimed in, "what time did you tell the boys you'd be over?"

"I said after dinner but before curfew, around eight or eight-thirty." She looked down at her stack again and realized they were all around the two to two and a half hour mark for length. They'd be up until the crack of dawn if they started any later than that.

"That seems reasonable…" Harper murmured, she was a well-trained night-owl so she wasn't worried about staying up late for an epic movie marathon.

"Well, why don't we go over early and set everything up so we can start at 8?" Lily asked.

"Brilliant!"

Theia glanced at the clock on her bedside table, it was already 6:30 PM. The Great Hall would close for the dance at 7.

"We still have a bit. Why don't we shrink these down and bring them with us? I know you guys just came from the Great Hall, but we haven't had dinner yet," Theia gestured to herself and Harper who nodded along with her, "then we can just go straight from there up to the tower as a group!"

"Clothing intact this time though," Harper quipped. The two Gryffindors scoffed and agreed.

"Deal!"

"Let's do it!"

Lily sprung up quickly. After having mentioned shrinking down the films, Lily helped Theia with them until they were small enough to pack into Theia's bookbag with the downsized projector. With everyone now put together and all the equipment for the night packed and ready to go, the girls traipsed down to the Great Hall. They sat at Ravenclaw table together and Mary and Lily shared little stories they'd acquired over the week. The talk that Theia had turned down a date to the dance had mostly dissipated thankfully, but the few people still in the Great Hall before it closed to be converted to the dance floor shot her curious looks occasionally. She was dressed entirely casually in a group of her friends that she said she'd be with, and mercifully there were no boys in sight, so there was little to start the rumor mill churning again. Once they'd scarfed down a quick bite, they all but ran up to Gryffindor. Lily and Mary said the password simultaneously when they reached the top of the last changing staircase that led to the Fat Lady.

"Amicus facies."

"Thank you! Enjoy your evening young ladies!" The Fat Lady hummed delightedly as her portrait swung open.

"So where are we setting up?" Mary asked as a calm and pleasant mood washed over her as she entered her safe, homey space.

"Well, Remus said he was going to set up one of their sheets as the screen for the projector…"

Theia took in the happy sight of Gryffindor Tower yet again. It was warm and cozy, not that Ravenclaw tower was cold in comparison, but she just was the sort of person that preferred these warmer colors and plush furniture.

"We could try having him fix it up in that far corner over there! Then we could drag some of the furniture around to face it for seating."

Lily gestured towards a corner of the room tucked away from both staircases that lead to the girls' and boys' dormitories. There was adequate wall space to fit a screen and there were already a few armchairs close by for them to use. Theia furrowed her brow when she thought of the movies she'd brought…

"We could do that… but if we're going to watch James Bond it might get a bit risky if there are prefects that might see it. I think I remember there was a bit of nudity in this one…"

Mary's eyes bulged at the same time that a deep flush of color ran up Lily's neck. Harper's roots turned the slightest bit pink but otherwise, she didn't react to the scandalous news.

"Really?" Mary whispered.

"Oh, it's like barely anything!" Theia scoffed, "There's girls flitting around in bikinis and a couple of shots of Bond in bed but honestly, it's fine." Theia brushed off their sudden worry, but she had seen her first viewing of the movie secretly hid in the corner of the movie room at home when her dad had first watched it. When he'd finally caught her after she'd audibly gasped at one of Bond's scrapes with near-death, he chuckled and told her to take a seat, but not to tell her mother he let her watch it. Keeping that secret had been easier than she thought it would have been at the time, since it wasn't long after that they got in the crash that killed them both…

"As long as there aren't any first years around, I doubt Tom or Beatrice are really going to care that much," Lily muttered.

"Plus I'm fairly certain they're headed to the dance…" Mary glanced at Lily who nodded in agreement.

"We can always start that one last, so there won't be anyone else down here when we watch it," Harper offered as a logical solution.

"Watch what last?"

Theia shot up about a foot from where she'd been standing when Remus spoke so suddenly from just behind her. His quick reflexes came in handy when he dodged out of the way of getting smacked in the nose by the top of her head. Peter stifled a chuckle at her jumpiness.

"Oh!" She caught her breath once she wheeled around and saw the two harmless boys there. "Remus! Do you have to be so sneaky?!"

He gave her a bit of a shit-eating grin and shrugged, Peter's façade broke and he began chuckling along with Harper and Mary. Remus was only really able to sneak up on Theia when it was around the new moon, since her perception of his wolf in the ether was sharper when it was closer to his transformation. He wasn't fully aware of this phenomenon, he just thought it was bloody hilarious that someone who had the ability to literally see across an ocean was so bad at being aware of her immediate surroundings sometimes.

"Yes, it's quite necessary. Sorry bout that."

Theia rolled her eyes and Lily finally joined into the laughter when Theia cracked a smile and stuck her tongue out at them for teasing her.

"Where are you two coming from?"

"A snack run!" Peter opened his rucksack to show a stash of various foods he and Remus had clearly just acquired for their night in with the group.

"What movie did you guys want to watch last?" Remus clarified his question again.

"Oh, James Bond. There's some questionably appropriate scenes and we don't want the prefects or any first years to see…" Theia answered.

"Bullocks! That's what I'm most excited for!" Peter's mood was almost inexplicably cheery, and he was practically bouncing in place as he answered. Theia couldn't help but laugh at his enthusiasm.

"To be honest, me too," she laughed.

"Well we can always do it second, so all the first years will be in bed, and the prefects will still be at the dance."

Theia's brows perked up as she considered this compromise.

"Not a bad thought," Mary agreed. She was dead curious about this movie and didn't want to risk falling asleep halfway through it if they started it too late.

"You lot are awfully early, didn't you say 8 o'clock, Ethee?" Peter asked, satisfied they'd reached a reasonable agreement.

"Mm, yes I did…"

She was slightly distracted while she rifled through her rucksack to find the two age-appropriate films they could start with. She held up the two shrunk canisters in each hand, weighing them out in her mind. Peter perked up when she pulled them out of her bag and leaned closer to see what the titles were. Remus, having better than average eyesight could see them from his current position. He recognized them both and held his breath to see which she was going to pick. After a moment, Theia made up her mind, deciding Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was the safer bet for their first film if first-years and prefects were going to be around, since the underlying theme of Nazis in the Sound of Music would be hard to adequately describe to any naïve wizarding children without making them completely terrified of muggles.

She slipped the Sound of Music back into her bag and tapped the Willy Wonka canister with her wand.

"Engorgio."

She focused the spell until she could feel in the ether that the canister was it's original size again. When she looked up, Remus had an appreciative look on his face of her handiwork and Peter's expression was still untampered excitement.

"We were just discussing where to set up the screen," Lily interjected and gestured over to the blank wall the girls had been surveying before they were interrupted. Remus followed her sightline and nodded.

"Great minds seem to think alike, I had the same idea." He smiled warmly at a grinning Lily. "I say we head upstairs and gather the rest of the supplies, eh Pete? And we can see if the other two are ready to get this kicked off."

"Brilliant," Peter nodded vigorously and started to make his way to the stairs, still clutching the treats they'd retrieved.

"It'll take a bit to set up the projector and get the whole thing ready," Theia called out to their retreating forms.

"No worries! Get the seating set up and we'll be down in a few!" Remus called back from the stairs.

The girls shuffled the empty couches and chairs around the room to fit into their small, designated corner. Theia took out her shrunken projector and Lily helped her construct a sturdy stand out of books and a spare side table so it was at the right height behind them and no one's head would obscure their view. Harper watched carefully while Theia replicated her assembly of the film reel with the projector and they eventually got it working as a team by the time the boys were heading down the staircase to join them. By the time they all were seated and ready to go, the dance-goers had filed out of the common room and most of the first years had headed up to their rooms as well. Only a few stragglers were left with them in the common room when the big group sat down and Theia started playing the first movie. Their reaction to Willy Wonka was extremely entertaining to Theia, Lily, and Mary, who were all already familiar with the movie and with muggle-films in general. James and Sirius were completely enthralled with the theatrics and the tricks and special effects. At the point in the movie where they enter the enchanted chocolate river and the lights change and the boat goes down the tunnel, James piped up.

"You're really telling me there isn't any magic in this bit?"

"I'm really telling you that," Theia whispered back. Harper's hands clutched tensely as the stress of the scene built.

James stayed quiet until the point where Violet Beauregard starts to expand and turn into a blueberry. He glanced over at her again with a questioning look. She shook her head to indicate, No magic here either. He whispered quietly as he and Sirius share an impressed look.

"Wow. Hats off to muggles. This is brilliant."