Magna
Mood; Serious.


Until I met Magna, I had never known refusal.

“Sirius, are you coming?” Prongs called, his tones slightly irritated because Part A of Plan Snivellus was ready to be put into action, and I was still not outside.

“Coming,” I called, quickly slipping into my boots. They clunked along the floor of the Gryffindor common room as I stepped into it, joining my three best friends. “Snivellus spotted?” I asked conversationally, looking round at an excited-looking Prongs, a squeaky looking Wormtail, and a shaking-his-head Remus.

“Yup,” Prongs said cheerfully. He was holding the little, translucent-gold bottle and, within it, I could see a hint of the shade that is labelled “hot-pink” – A colour that had never managed to catch my fancy, but a colour that would look no less than awesome when Snivellus’s hair became the same as it.

“Excellent!” I cried, watching him tighten the lid on the bottle.

“Guys, I don’t think you should do this,” Remus spoke, his patience finally wearing thin. “You could get into serious trouble –”

“Sirius is my middle name,” I said. “Oh wait – it’s not, it’s my first.” Prongs burst into laughter, and I offered Remus a cheeky grin. “What’s yours, Moony, old boy?”

Remus rolled his eyes, clearly exasperated, but did not make a reply. Ten minutes later the three of us were walking out into the green grounds of the castle, Wormtail tagging along. I spotted her out of the corner of my eye – She had thick, black hair the shade of ebony, and cheeks a bronzed, Asian brown.

– Magna Teluka, the first girl to turn me down in my six and a half years at Hogwarts.

Snape was sitting by a tree – alone, no wonder, because he hardly had any friends. Greasy hair touched the leaves of the book he held open, in his lap; from a distance, his eyes looked like little blurs, they moved so fast down the pages.

Snape – In appearance, my exact opposite.

[I was, of course, the epitome of perfection, six feet of oh-so-smexiness on made-of-awesome legs.]

“Snivelly, man!” Prongs greeted cheerfully, springing forward to meet him. “Long time, no see.” Long time meaning less than twelve hours – we had last seen Snape last night, when James had hurled him three feet into the background with a hex. Unfortunately for him, Lily had seen, and the night had ended in, “Just one more chance, Evans – I swear I’m not going to show everyone that Snivelly wears pink underpants with squirrels on them, again. Really – EVANS, WAITTT!”

Snape looked up, and he jumped to his feet at once, his face clouding with dislike as he whipped out his wand. Wormtail cheered us on while Remus stood in the background, chewing his lip.

My mind was on Magna.

Was she watching?

THWACK! It happened so suddenly, I could never have expected it. Snape had shot a hex my way and I, lost in thought of her, had not been able to deflect it. I flew through the air, crashing into a tree trunk behind me, where I collapsed in a heap. I staggered to my feet, my lip bleeding, a bruise against my cheek.

“You foul –” I cried, whipping out my own wand, but James already had Snape up in the air. In midair, the aggravated Slytherin kicked, trying – but unable to – lower himself. I raised a hand to my cheek: it hurt, and – despite the fact that James had already avenged the bruise, despite the fact that it would not be fair because Snape was helpless, outnumbered – I knew I wanted my revenge, and now was the perfect chance for it.

I raised my wand, pointed it directly at Snape’s chest – and Magna passed by. Our eyes met briefly, so briefly, for an instant – for half an instant.

I let my wand fall. I walked away.



Midnight.

“What are you doing here?” My voice was cold, the way it had been with her since the day she had told me she was turning me down because I was too obnoxious for her – someone who was arrogant, someone who took advantage of other’s helplessness to prove what he felt was his “superiority.”

Magna looked up. The starlight seemed to bring out the grey of her eyes, seemed to give her gaze an added shine. “Taking a walk,” she replied, her tones normal.

“It’s after curfew, Teluka.”

“That was a brave thing to do,” she replied, absolutely ignoring my comment about breakage of school rules. “It was brave of you not to hex Severus when he wasn’t in a position to fight back.”

It felt strange, the compliment. Because I knew I did not deserve it, knew that I had wanted to take advantage of the position Snape had been in – would, in fact, have taken the advantage if I had not caught sight of her. I swallowed, not sure how to react, not sure what to say.

She was pretty.

“I appreciate that you did that,” she continued, her head cocked to one side as she inspected me. There was a white rose in her hair, and it was beautiful. “For my sake.”

I looked up, our eyes met for the second time that day – and I stepped forward and kissed her. My arms wrapped themselves around her waist, my hands found the softness of the dark hair trailing down her waist. I stepped forward and kissed her – and she let me.

Until I met Magna, I had never known true love.