CHAPTER NINE! ༉‧₊˚✧
━━━━ ⋆𖤐₊˚.༄ ♡ ━━━━

AS DIYA'S EYES fluttered open, she slowly became aware of her surroundings. The dormitory was lit with radiant sunlight, although it was troublesome to determine the exact time, as it was the middle of November. The feeling of the sun beaming through the window and directly onto her face elicited a lazy smile from Diya. She soaked in the peacefulness, feeling felicitous.

After the Gryffindor win in the Gryffindor v. Slytherin match the day prior (as well as the afterparty), she had the best sleep of her entire life.

Zoya had proven to be a fantastic captain and teammate, showing Diya exactly how to use her talents as a beater to the maximum. James and Zoya had never been prouder of the girl, spending the entire afterparty with her and her friends in celebration. Diya had little recollection of the game, having blacked out from an adrenaline rush.

Diya absorbed the serenity for only a few seconds before the waves came crashing down — literally. Diya shot up in her bed, dripping wet, gasping loudly. As she opened her eyes, she made eye contact with a sheepish Lily, Marlene, and Alice, all of whom were pointing their wands at Diya.

"You have ten seconds to run," Diya smiled a sickly sweet smile as she wiped the water from her long eyelashes.

Lily let out a shriek as she bolted from the dormitory, Alice and Marlene not far behind her.

Diya took a second to try and compose herself, inhaling and exhaling in an attempt to calm down. She counted down from ten in her head, a method that usually worked in situations like these.

"Fuck it." She whispered under her breath, ripping the now soaking sheets off of herself and running after the trio, not before grabbing a silk robe to cover herself.

Lily was hiding behind the couch, seating Peter and Remus, while James stood beside her, trying to determine why she had run from her dormitory screaming.

Sirius stood in front of Marlene and Alice, who were wearing smiles, albeit shaking from a mixture of excitement and fear.

At the sight of Diya, Sirius stifled a laugh, muttering a "Shit." under his breath.

Remus and Peter also caught sight of the sopping wet girl, who wore a dangerous smile, the latter bursting into laughter.

"Where are you, Lily J. Evans?" Diya singsonged, scouring the Common Room for the redhead, who now hid behind James's legs.

When she finally caught sight of the girl (her giggles were quite loud), she immediately broke into a run toward the couch.

Sirius's eyes widened as he realized that the girl was ready to pounce on her best friend, and he drew an arm out, nearly clotheslining Diya. Once her warpath halted, the grey-eyed boy lifted Diya off of the ground, wincing as she kicked him in an attempt to get to Lily.

"Let me go, Black!"

"As much as I'm enjoying this little show, Talwar, I'd rather Evans stay alive," Sirius said in a tense voice. Restraining Diya was a difficult task. "At least until she and James get married and have a kid or two."

Lily groaned at that, moving away from James and instead toward the portrait hole. Diya, seeing her friend about to escape scot-free, stamped on Sirius's foot as hard as she could, forcing him to let go of her.

Diya once again began running after Lily, chasing her around the Common Room.

"Come on, Lils! I wanna hug you!" Diya shouted as the redhead squeaked.

Lily finally halted behind Marlene and Alice, whose eyes widened.

"Ah, you've made it easier for me!" Diya smiled. "Bring it in, you guys."

The three girls groaned as Diya gathered them into a hug, effectively getting them soaked.

Lily sighed, grimacing, as she muttered a Hot Air Charm, drying everyone involved.

"Merlin, Talwar," Sirius cried out, now on the floor. "I think you've broken my toe!"

"Yeah, right, Black," Diya rolled her eyes.

"I mean it!" The boy whined, clearly being overdramatic.

"Episkey," Lily pointed her wand at Sirius.

"That didn't do anything." Sirius groaned.

Diya smirked, "Then, I didn't break your toe."

As Remus helped him off the floor, Sirius glared at the beaming girl, who was now dry and off to a pleasant start to her day.

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The rest of November flew by rather quickly, especially now that the Quidditch match had passed and Gryffindor wasn't up for another game again until early March. The first few weeks of December were spent attending mundane classes and making Christmas plans with friends.

Christmas plans were always up in the air with the Fifth Year girls of Gryffindor.

This year was no different.

Lily was fully ready to go home for Christmas but had to stay back last minute since her sister was introducing her boyfriend to her parents over the break and had explicitly requested Lily be absent from the affair.

After crying for several hours in her bed over the situation, Lily wiped her tears and immediately formulated a plan for Christmas break.

"Alright, so we know that I can't go home for Christmas this break," Lily said to the rest of the girls. The four of them sat on the floor around a Wizard's Chessboard in the Common Room. "And very kindly, Diya has already told her family that she's staying behind this break 'for extra studying.'"

Diya laughed as Lily formed air quotes with her hands. "I figured it would be more fun than more dinners with the Patils anyway."

Lily placed her hand on Diya's thigh as a motion of thanks. "Sev told me that he would've stayed behind, but he has family business to take care of, so he's going back to Spinner's End for the break."

Diya caught Marlene rolling her eyes at the mention of the Slytherin boy but abruptly stopped when she saw the look on Diya's face.

"So, I wanted to ask you two — " Lily took her hand off of Diya's thigh to motion to Alice and Marlene. " — If you would stay behind for the break as well, just so that we can spend time together."

Alice and Marlene shared a look before grinning widely.

"Of course, Lil!" Alice exclaimed, shuffling on her knees to bring the redhead into a hug. Marlene and Diya smiled at the sight and moved closer to each other. "I'll have to tell Frank, of course. He and I had a few dates planned over the break, but I'm sure he'd gladly stay behind too!"

Marlene nodded, "I hang out with my family entirely too much, anyway. I should probably spend as much time with you guys as I can."

Diya threw an arm over the girl's shoulder as the four girls enjoyed the warmth of the fireplace in the cold tower. They loved spending time in the spot right in front of the fireplace, primarily because the smell of cinnamon that radiated through the Common Room was most pungent in that spot.

The girls almost didn't notice when the boys walked in from god-knows-where, laughing amongst themselves. Remus had been the first one to quiet down, telling the rest of them to follow suit at the sight of Diya, who was beginning to drift off into sleep on Marlene's shoulder.

"Alright, Evans?" James boomed, either not hearing Remus or choosing to ignore him entirely.

Diya startled awake at the voice, looking around wildly, her eyes landing on a beaming James.

"Whatever, Potter," Lily diverged from her conversation with Alice and Marlene for a moment before getting right back into it. "So, I think that we could sneak into Hogsmeade over break — "

"Hold on," Sirius hopped over the couch dramatically, ignoring the fact that he could've walked around it. "What's this I'm hearing about sneaking into Hogsmeade?"

"None of your business, Black!" Lily smiled at the boy, trying to return to her conversation but getting cut off once again.

"You're staying behind for break?" James inquired, going rigid in his stance besides Peter. "What a coincidence! So are we!"

"No, I thought that we were going to have brunch at your — Ow!" Peter stopped in the middle of his sentence as James rammed his elbow into the small boy's ribcage. "Ohhh. Yes, we are staying behind this year."

Remus smiled at the boy and his clueless actions before taking a seat next to Sirius on the couch. "What happened to your introduction to your sister's boyfriend?"

Lily rolled her eyes, "Ugh, don't remind me, Rem. She requested that I don't attend the Evans' family Christmas celebration this year."

Diya nodded, yawning, "Yeah, so I volunteered to stay behind so that I could keep her company over the break, and now all four of us are staying behind."

"How odd," James rubbed his chin dramatically. "Almost the same exact thing happened to us!"

Sirius nodded, catching James's drift rather quickly, "Ah, yes. The House of Black prefers that I stay away from the Gala this year."

Diya scrunched her eyebrows together, about to counter that statement, but instead decided to keep her mouth shut.

From what she had heard from her Regulus, everything that Sirius had just said was a lie. In fact, his parents were almost forcing him to attend this year. According to Regulus, the absence of the firstborn son of any pureblood family — let alone the Blacks — was extremely disrespectful to the host of that year's Gala.

The Gala was a strictly pureblood endeavor, where families got together and flaunted their wealth. Usually, this included the Talwars, but since this year's Gala was to be hosted by the Averys, they were not invited (neither were the Shafiqs or the Shacklebolts, despite being part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight).

Diya doubted that the Averys would take Sirius's vacancy to heart, considering Sirius was half-disowned from the moment that the Sorting Hat declared him a Gryffindor anyway.

"Exactly! So we're all going to be spending the holiday here." James looked around to his mates, looking for a nod of confirmation in response.

"I guess we are," Lily said dejectedly, fully aware that this Christmas Holiday would be an interesting one.

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a/n

CHRISTMAS CHAPTERS ARE COMING SOON I PROMISE

y'all this chapter is so short bc it's literally 3:30am and i have school in 4 hours and i just wrote this whole chapter (even though it's only 1.7k words SORRY LMFAO)

yes i'm aware that it's really short and barely anything happened but i promise some fun chapter are coming REALLY soon.

i haven't posted a new chapter in mad long bc i was so focused on rewriting chapter 1 (which is up btw so read the revised version if you haven't 🙄‼️) but here's this little filler chapter while i write the next fun chapters

btw: my pms are always open if any of you have something you want to talk about !! i also have an instagram in my bio if you want to dm me (i will probably respond quicker that way)