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[Chapter Twenty-Seven: Wristbands]

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   It was an entire week before Aspen started to feel better. For seven whole days she was bedridden, sneezing her brains out, and sleeping. She slept for seventy-five percent of the seven days. Restlessly, however, Lily promised she'd do her work which made her feel bad for multiple reasons. Lily would be doing her work while Aspen would be sleeping.

Aspen was now silently getting ready in her dorm room. It was only five in the morning, her best friend Wendy was still asleep in the comforts of her own bed. Aspen was excited to get back to school, if the students didn't miss her—then one of the Professors had too. Her ankle was completely healed, the day after she left the hospital wing it was like nothing was even wrong with it. Wasn't magic amazing? It could heal a broken bone, but not cure the flu . . .

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, she groaned when she brushed her hair. It was in knots due to it not being brushed in a day or two, but once she was finished it was as fresh as new. She was in her uniform, there wasn't even a wrinkle in it due to her continuously ironing it. For some reason, it was hot outside, well not hot . . . but slightly warmer than usual. It was mid-December, she should be freezing her nonexistent balls off, not sweating whenever she put on a small sweater.

Due to the unusual warmth throughout Hogwarts, she couldn't wear anything long-sleeved without sweating like a dog or getting odd looks from every sane person in the castle. So instead of wearing a sweater to cover her arms, she had to wear her wristbands. She hadn't worn them in a while, —hopefully no one would notice them too much. Especially not Sirius or the boys . . . didn't they once call the 'wristband-wearing girl' a psychopath?

On her right wrist she wore four different wristbands, three of them were from muggle bands while the fourth was from some automobile company. She barely knew where most of her wristbands came from, she was just desperate for them. Whenever she found one, she kept it without any questioning as to what it was for. On her left wrist, she wore six of her wristbands, that wrist was the most scar-riddled limb she had. She placed on a few Beatles wristbands as well as one Queen — two very popular bands that day in age.

Maybe some time later in life they'd be worth something.

Once she was ready, she stood up off of the ground in glee. She actually looked good today, her makeup covered her eye bags— which was great because those things were huge. And then her wristbands, which for some reason didn't flaw her appearance that much, like they normally did, covered all her scars. Great!

Plus, her scars didn't look so bad recently—she'd been clean since her sixth year!

Aspen continued to quietly walk over to her bed where her textbooks sat, and lifted them into her arms. The weight surprised her . . . why did it surprise her? She'd been carrying her books around like that for seven years, she really needed to get a book bag— like the muggles that lived around her neighborhood. Her old neighborhood. Before leaving her dorm, she gave one last look towards Wendy . . . should she wake her up? The night before she wasn't there, Aspen tried to stay up as long as she could but she couldn't make it. It was probably around four in the morning when she heard the girl entering the dorm—she was with Remus the whole time.

Ever since those two became friends, they were always together. They never seemed to get bored of each other—which would lead them to stay up all night with no end in sight. The things they did weren't even that fun, they kind of just sat there on the couch together reading, or doing homework. Maybe just being in the same room with each other made them happy. Aspen loved that, their relationship was 'goals' as Marlene would say.

The boys thought differently about Remus' newfound relationship with the girl. Of course, they felt happy for him—he actually found a girl and kept talking to her! Normally, he'd try to keep away—not wanting anyone knowing about his 'furry little secret.' But now that he spends every moment of his time with her, they are slightly angry—you could even call them jealous.

They wanted their Moony back.

Sirius and James were the most annoyed, Moony was the one who kept them together, he was their glue and the one who made up most of their pranks. Ever since that brown-haired midget girl had taken their Moony they had been grumpy like children finding coal on Christmas.

Aspen was walking out of the door, she could do Wendy's work for her . . . they did share all of their classes together. Upon entering the Gryffindor common room, she found it to be silent—though, there were a few students sitting on the couches. Most of them were asleep, or slowly falling asleep as they attempted to do their homework that was most likely due that day. She felt bad for them —they actually had work to do.

After watching a girl almost slam her head against the table as she fell asleep, Aspen decided to leave towards the great hall. The boys were most likely there already, at least James and Sirius would be. They had a knack for waking early, then, of course, they'd sleep for the rest of the day whenever they had the chance. They mostly slept in their classes.

Her boots clicked as she walked down the halls, no one noticed—too bothered by the possibility of sleep. They only had three weeks until classes were over for that year, every minute that passed was another minute of torture. Not for Aspen, though, she was growing nervous as the end of her Hogwarts years grew closer and closer. What was she going to do outside of Hogwarts other than the Order? If she was going to spend most of her time doing missions, then how was she going to pay for a house? Will she need to do two jobs at once? Or maybe even three— perhaps Dumbledore will provide them all a house to stay in if they wanted too? Either way, she was too shy to ask about any of it, she had to figure this out like the big girl she was. Regardless of her brain pleading for her to retreat.

Bloody hell, she should've stayed on track with becoming an Auror.

As she grew closer to the great hall, she could hear the chattering of students coming from it even . . . every inch closer it sounded as if people were talking through microphones. There must have been more people there than she had thought. There were more people there than she had thought. Almost every table was full besides the Gryffindor one, where there were only about fifteen people including three of the four Marauders, Marlene Mckinnon, and Lily Evans.

She started walking towards them, her nerves making her stomach swirl. She hated walking up to people uninvited, would they even want her there? Her nerves quickly faded when Sirius saw her and waved her over with a large smile. The other boys then saw her and waved her over as well.

They're your friends, Aspen. The girl had to remind herself. They're not acting like they like you—the Marauders aren't that nice. Besides, Marlene openly states when she dislikes a person and Aspen has been hanging around her for weeks with no slightest indication Marlene disliked her presence.

"Well look at you lookin' all healthy and stuff," Sirius observed. James snorted at his greeting while Lily shook her head. Remus didn't have a reaction—he wasn't listening, he was too busy trying not to doze off into his sticky syrup on top of his cooling pancakes.

"Looking and feeling," Aspen shyly clarified, sitting beside the boy. "I got up extra early today—I'm so excited to go to classes again. I think I was starting to forget how to witch."

"It's only been a week," Lily said, not understanding the joke. "You can't possibly forget how to be a witch when you've been learning magic for the past six and a half years."

"Lily, sweetie, I think she was joking," James said, placing a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder—the ginger-haired girl blushed. It was either because she didn't understand the joke, or her boyfriend placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Oh," She chirped, lowering her head and beginning to eat quicker. Sirius snorted, and she gave him a slight kick on the shin which caused a yelp—Aspen giggled because it sounded exactly like a dog. Now that she knew of his animagus, she started to see his similarities to the animal.

They continued to eat silently, well, for a few moments. Sirius wolfed down his food and began talking to James who happily spoke back. The only silent ones were Remus and Aspen as Lily and Marlene were also speaking to the two boys. Aspen began to grow bored as all she heard was James constantly bragging about how he was the Quidditch captain of the Gryffindor team. Aspen almost forgot about Quidditch, she's never enjoyed playing it but watching it was fun. Remus tapped Aspen on the shoulder and she tilted her head curiously.

"Do you know where Wendy is?" He asked, Aspen grinned.

"She's still asleep, she didn't get back until around . . . an hour ago. So I let her sleep rather than waking her for lessons, I'll do her work for her. Why? Do you need her?"

"Oh erm—no reason," The boy said, placing his head in his arms to rest a little before classes started.

"I can believe you said that Padfoot!" James yelled, about everyone in the great hall, looking over to the boy who was now standing. Aspen looked over to see James with a distraught expression on his face— Lily looked annoyed as she watched James, and Sirius wore a smirk on his lips. Marlene was snickering from where she sat. What did he do this time?

"I'm only speaking the truth, Prongs!" Sirius yelled just as loud, standing in front of James as if they were going to fight. Yet, Sirius still wore an amused smirk—more people began to watch and crowd around the two which made Aspen antsy. So many people were around her.

"Well, the truth is wrong!" James yelled back, Lily covered her face and Aspen bore a bemused grin. Remus only watched his two friends, they do this all the freaking time.

"You're just upset that it's the truth, Prongsie, that doesn't mean it's wrong," Sirius said in a sing-song voice. Remus then stood up, becoming annoyed, and asked the question everyone wanted to ask.

"What the bloody hell are you two baboons about? "

"Padfoot thinks I look like John Lennon!" James stated, a few people giggled—mostly the muggleborns. The purebloods were left confused as to who the muggle singer was. "I don't look anything like that guy!"

"You kind of do," Remus noted, scanning over his friend. "You've both got the messy rat-nest hair."

"Rats nest?" Exasperated James all while self-consciously grabbing at his hair as Sirius obnoxiously snickered at Remus' response. Aspen was giggling, Lily even bore a small bemused smile. The people around them were amused, but most sat down with disappointment at the fact there wasn't going to be any rare Marauder fist-fights.

"You two also have similar looking glasses," Lily added, running her fingers along the bridge of his recently bought boxed-rimmed glasses. James proceeded to self-consciously grab onto his glasses like how he was holding his hair.

"To be honest James, that's not a bad thing." Aspen spoke up, though her voice was still shyly low. "John Lennon is a very famous singer in the muggle world, from what I've encountered—he's the Dumbledore of the muggles."

"How kind of you to say that, Ms. Lee." A new voice chuckled, Aspen, along with the others, quickly turned to see the one and only Professor Dumbledore standing behind them with students crowding around confused. "John Lennon is one magnificent man."

"You know who John Lennon is, sir?" Lily asked the long-bearded man.

Dumbledore turned to her with a large toothy grin and nodded, "Indeed I do, Ms. Evans, I also like that band he sings in. What are they called again? The Beetroots, The Burgers, The—"

"The Beatles." Sirius quickly corrected, unable to listen to the man who was obviously making up words. "He sings in a band called The Beatles with three other bandmates, doesn't James look like John Lennon, though, Professor?"

"He does quite a lot," Dumbledore observed. James, growing embarrassed, covered his face with his hands as he sat back down on the chair. Sirius wore a victorious smirk. Dumbledore actually agreed with him, that means Padfoot was right!

"As much as I enjoy watching you make Mr. Potter blush, Albus, we came here to announce something—remember?" A new strict voice stated. Aspen looked behind Dumbledore to see Professor McGonagall standing there. A bunch of people must've not noticed her because once they did, they all backed away from the intimidating Professor.

"Ah yes, that!" Dumbledore remembered, pointing his index finger in the air. He continued to pat both Aspen and Sirius on the shoulders and followed Professor McGonagall to the front of the great hall. Everyone began to sit down, Professor Dumbledore never came to the great hall during breakfast unless something bad had happened. Or if the Marauders pulled a very big prank, normally that was around Halloween—which had passed already.

The boys beside her seemed intrigued as to what the headmaster was going to say, maybe it was something about the Order? Than again, the Order was a secret so it'd be stupid to speak about it in a room filled with Slytherins. Aspen shook her head at the stupid thought and took a bite of her toast which had about six pounds of butter on it/-just how she liked it.

"Good morning, everyone," Professor Dumbledore greeted.

In monotone, everyone replied, "Good morning Professor Dumbledore."

The headmaster nodded in acknowledgement, McGonagall handed him a few index cards. "Ah, yes, my script, thank you Minerva," Dumbledore said aloud, a few people laughed as McGonagall rolled her cat-like eyes. Dumbledore cleared his throat and began reading aloud; "This event that will be mentioned shortly is only for fifth years and up, any year below will not be participating." Everyone groaned, including fifth year and above.

What examination were they going to be needing to do now?

"Why is everyone groaning?" He asked. When no one replied, turned to Professor McGonagall and repeated his question. She only rolled her eyes and stepped in front of the Headmaster, pushing him over.

"Don't look so dim, everyone, this isn't bad news." She stated, fifth years and above sat up straighter as the fourth years and below groaned.

"Haha, losers." Aspen heard Sirius whisper.

"This year on the twenty-third of December we will be holding a ball." She stated, mutters circulated around the great hall. Sirius nudged Aspen on the shoulder, and she looked at him curiously—ouch? "Unfortunately, to be able to go to the ball, you'll have to stay at Hogwarts during holiday break. We will be giving out pamphlets shortly for everyone to read and get more information on."

Aspen was . . . happy! Now she had a reason to stay at Hogwarts! She wouldn't have to go to her aunt's house! Don't get her wrong, she loved her aunt dearly—but her aunt was a little too outgoing for her. Whenever she visited, they always had to be doing something and normally that something was cleaning. She frowned, in order to go to the dance she would need a date. Bloody hell . . . otherwise, she wouldn't be able to go.

Every dot seemed to be connecting, except for the new little issue that had come up on hand. She needs a date for the ball.

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AUTHORS NOTE:

a n x i e t y

posted: April 29, 2018
word count: 2,765