A/N: Sirius botches a prank in Charms class. I love writing about the Marauders and the Blacks, and coincidentally, Sirius is both. Alice Selwyn is Alice Longbottom, but I have no idea what her real maiden name is, so I made her a Selwyn. This one was fun to write and I hope you enjoy it.
Submission for:
Hogwarts Fair 2014 Challenge/Competition: Refreshments
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments): Charms Assignment 2. Prompts used: sparks, guilt, "What's so fascinating about toads?", Word count: 1288.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Charms class was quiet as Professor Flitwick wrote on the chalkboard. He was precarious perched on a stack of books as he reached to fill the board with useful information to the class topic, to fill the minds of young scholars with words of power, to fill their notebooks with review material for the upcoming exams.
Not to fill their dreams with images of half-naked Veelas. Remus shoved a snoring Sirius awake, who jumped back startled and fell to the floor. His face and arms were smudged with ink from his notes and his hair was even messier than usual. The whole class laughed, prompting Professor Flitwick to turn away from the blackboard to scold the young Black. "Mr. Black, please return to your seat." With a sheepish smile, Sirius obeyed his professor.
When Professor Flitwick had turned back to the board, Sirius shoved Remus' head down into his desk. "Whad'ya do that for?" Remus laughed and then shrugged before returning to his notes.
Sirius stretched lazily and leaned back in his chair. He would get the notes from Remus later. The exciting part was the practice afterwards. It was only he and Remus in this Charms class. James and Peter had Transfiguration right now and he was sure he was stil having a better time with Flitwick than they were with McGonagall.
Professor Flitwick dropped his chalk into the bed of the chalkboard before turning towards his students. He squeaked out, "Finish writing the notes on the board while I'll distribute the toads and explain our lesson for today."
Sirius remarked loudly, throwing his head back with a groan, "What's so fascinating about toads?" Every time they practiced a spell, Flitwick always used toads! Couldn't they use something more interesting? Like a niffler or a colourful tropical bird?
The short professor passed between his and Remus' desks, his eyes barely level with their tops, before placing a toad on each of them. Sirius sat up straight and stared down his toad who looked back at him unblinkingly. Remus muttered sarcastically to his right, "You might kill the toad with your good looks, Sirius."
"I'm glad you noticed, Moony," Sirius said flashing him a dazzling smile to which Remus just rolled his eyes.
Remus rolled his parchment and placed it in his bookbag just as Flitwick tapped his wand on the podium at the front of the room. "Alright, today we'll be teaching these frogs how to sing. Now we all know frogs don't have the vocal chords for speech, but that's the power of magic at work. The incantation is incanto, and the movement is like waving a conductors baton to 4/4 time. When you're ready, cast it while thinking of the song in your mind."
Professor Flitwick demonstrated while pointing at his toad. The wand sparked and the toad's throat swelled before it began to sing a perfect rendition of "God Rest Ye, Merry Hippogriffs" in a deep voice. He slashed his wand across the toad's throat and the song stopped, and the toad went back to just sitting there unimpressed. Professor Flitwick smiled at the class and said, "Now it's your turn. Don't be afraid to ask me or someone beside you for help."
Sirius smiled evilly while pointing his wand at his toad. "You unfeeling amphibian, how about some Weird Sisters," Sirius said and cast the spell. The toad's eyes widened as his throat swelled then he began to sing the screaming introduction of "Do the Hippogriff". Everyone looked over a grinning Sirius who was rocking his head to the music.
Remus quietly pointed his wand at his own toad and said the incantation. His toad began to sing "The Tree By the River", one of his favourite nursery rhymes when he was a kid.
It was a cacophony of sounds, and Sirius found it hard to focus on any particular one but it was interesting to find out everyone's song choice. Professor Flitwick passed between their desks and said, "Excellent work, boys, though an unusual choice of music," he ended with an annoyed look directed towards Sirius. "10 points to Gryffindor," he awarded and then continued on to inspect other students' work.
Sirius was randomly switching the song of his toad like playing with the dial of the wireless. Remus had begun reading over notes with his toad still singing the sickeningly sweet lullaby. This lesson was too easy and Sirius was already bored. Then he had an evil idea.
He pointed towards Remus' toad while he was immersed in his notes. But at that same moment, the toad decided to hop a bit forward. In a quick reflexive movement, Sirius changed the direction of the spell but that also changed his wand movement. The spell shot behind Remus and hit Alice Selwyn's toad, blasting it into toad juice and a shower of sparks.
Alice screamed in fright, the toad guts staining her school uniform and getting in her hair. Professor Flitwick ran over to investigate the disruption. Alice was so shocked, she could barely stammer out an explanation to Professor Flitwick about her toad unexpectedly exploding. But the short professor just shook his, reprimanding her for killing an innocent toad and giving her a failing grade before walking off.
Alice sat there with tears in her eyes and Sirius was overcome with guilt. Alice was a sweet girl and he knew how important her grades were to her. He didn't mean for something like that to happen. It was supposed to just be an innocent prank to get Remus' toad to belt out inappropriate lyrics, not explode a toad.
He rose from his desk and stood on the chair. He held his hands out wide and said, "I have an announcement to make," which caught the attention of his classmates and the professor. Remus raised an eyebrow at his friend. He knew nothing of Sirius' intentions or his relation to Alice's toad, but Sirius had to do this. He continued his speech, "Professor Flitwick, I exploded Alice's toad. So if you're going to fail someone, fail me."
He got down from his chair, picked up his toad who had finished the last song and was waiting for further instructions, and walked over to Alice's desk, ignoring the stares of his other classmates. She had a look of utter disbelief on her face. He smiled sheepishly and placed the toad on her desk. "It was a botched prank. Sorry, Alice," he apologized.
Professor Flitwick came over to the pair and said, "Very noble, Mr Black. Ms Selwyn, I am sorry. You have not failed and you can continue working. Mr. Black, please see me tonight for detention."
Sirius nodded and Flitwick left them. Alice turned to him and said, "Why did you do that?"
"You mean the prank? It wasn't on purpose. I-" Sirius began explaining but she stopped him.
"No, not that. Why did you own up to it? You could have just pretended like nothing happened and saved yourself a fail and detention." Alice said.
"Because it was the right thing to do. You didn't do anything and you were getting punished for it. It wasn't fair," Sirius said as if it was the most obvious thing.
Alice blushed and said, "Well, thank you for that, Sirius." Then she looked furtively around and gave him a kiss on the cheek and whispered, "Don't tell Frank."
Sirius grinned and then pulled his pinched fingers across his lips before walking back to his desk.
Remus shoved him before rolling his eyes, "I'll never understand it. You covered a girl in toad guts and you still win her over."
Then Sirius grinned and said with a wink, "That's because I'm just Siriusly Charming."