Okay, so I posted a version of this story up before, but I didn't like it much. I've done some tweaks and here's what happened. Bearing in mind, I have been doing this while also throwing up into a bucket, so there will probably be mistakes. Sorry.

Disclaimer: Only Meissa is mine.

Enjoy (hopefully)

Waking up blearily, just before dawn, I stumbled out of bed and made my way straight to the bathroom that I shared with the other girls in my dorm. Walking past the mirror which showed my green eyes, still slightly glazed from sleep, and my curly brown hair, right now: a nest of tangles and messy curls, I quickly undressed and hopped into the shower, hissing when the cold water bit into my skin. I shook my head a few times, the warming water splashing into my face. After I was finished, I grabbed my dressing gown from the hanger and walked back into the dorm, drying my hair into it's usual waves with a flick of my wand. I changed quickly into my basic knee-length school shirt, white shirt and jumper. I put on my red and gold tie, grabbed my bag and made my way downstairs into the common room, just as Lily Evans and the others were waking up.

I walked straight out of the empty common room and stumbled, tiredly to the great hall where a bacon sandwich was calling my name.

Sipping my orange juice, I fished my timetable out of my bag. I really needed to clean out that thing. I had bits of parchment everywhere! My mother would scandalised if she knew. Looking at the yellowed parchment I found that I was potions first lesson today. I sighed unhappily. It wasn't that I disliked potions per say, more like I found the lesson to be tediously boring and repetitive.

I was knocked out of my thinking by a hand on my shoulder, making me jump slightly. The laughing face of Remus Lupin stared down at me as I rolled my eyes.

"You jerk." I ground out, unable to stop the smile on my face. I vaguely noticed Potter and Pettigrew sitting opposite and made the effort to smile at them politely. The small boy and I never really managed to find common ground and despite being with each other all the time, we had never really talked. Whereas Potter and I had a tense relationship. I honestly thought that Potter was a decent person and I could get on with him well enough on his own. But that was the thing: he was never alone. He always had his sidekick: Sirius Black- the bane of my existence. Despite having a common friend in Remus, Black and I never managed to get on. We despised each other. We kept the fighting to a minimum when Remus was near as our feud made him feel conflicted and frustrated. When Remus was not in the picture however, things got ugly. Black and I had both been to the Infirmary many, many times due to certain, physical maladies; a missing limb there, baldness, pink skin...The list was endless.

After I had received a small smile from Pettigrew in return, I turned back to Remus, who had sat down in his usual spot next to me.

"I take it Tweedle Dumb hasn't risen from his pit yet?" I asked in a polite tone of voice. Remus gave me a warning look.

"No, Black hasn't gotten up yet." Potter replied, spitting his name. I frowned in confusion, but the bespectacled boy had turned his attention to his bacon and eggs, stabbing the meal viciously. Pettigrew looked morosely at his food, lazily spooning porridge into his mouth, half with tiredness and half with sadness.

I turned to Remus, but my questions died on my throat as I watched his face morph into fury as he glared at something behind me. Whipping my head around I saw that the victim of Remus' gaze was none other than Black himself. He was paler and more tired looking than usual and upon seeing Remus, the boy bit his lip guiltily and all but fled from the hall.

"Remus?" I asked quietly, my voice dripping with wary confusion. Remus sighed.

"Just, don't Meissa." he sighed, pinching his nose in an attempt to control his anger. I turned back to my breakfast silently, eating to try and ignore the raging silence.

Sooner than I would like, though it was about time I thought, the bell rang breaking the silence and signalling the start of lessons. I sighed as I again realised that I had potions.

The fact that the classroom was with the Slytherins in the dungeons did nothing to make me like the subject at all. Again sighing, I glanced at my watch. It was still early but it was boring here in the hall, listening to the muted, half asleep chatter of my classmates. I hopped off the bench and slowly made my was to the potions room walking with the Marauders (still minus one, I noted).

The Potions classroom was it's usually stuffy self, I noted, placing my books onto the table. Dark, dingy and also utterly dank. Though it was to be expected due to the fact that the classroom was in the heart of the dungeons. Why anybody would find comfort or a home in the dark underground was unfathomable to me. I preferred being high in the Gryffindor tower, sitting by myself in the corner, with a good book resting on my lap. Remus, Potter and Pettigrew moved to their usual table at the back.

Slughorn had already put the learning objectives and the potion we would be making for today's practical on the blackboard so, flipping to the right chapter in the book, I looked at the potion we would be making today. I was a fairly simple potion, so long as you remembered which way to stir every ten minutes.

Lighting the kindle beneath my cauldron I set about measuring the correct amount of ingredients needed, jumping when a bag landed with a thump on my usually empty table. Glancing at the old grainy worktop I first saw pale hands, unmistakeably male, with long, almost delicate fingers. I followed the curve of a jumper hidden sleeve to broad shoulders, a long graceful neck to a mop of soft black hair and steely grey eyes. Sirius Black. But why was he sitting here?

Looking around the now full classroom my eyes fell onto Remus, Potter and Pettigrew. Potter looked angry. In fact I would say he was furious judging by the barbarically savage way in which he was destroying the roots he needed in his potions just like he had at breakfast. It was alarming really: pieces of roots were flying everywhere and Potter was glaring straight at Black, as if he wished it were him he was stabbing. There was even a piece of root stuck in his ridiculously messy hair. I supressed a smirk at that because, if he saw me laughing at him, then I was pretty sure I would end up like the poor roots.

Pettigrew on the other hand, looked lost. Like he had lost one of his idols, and judging from the out-of-character serious (no pun intended) look on Black's face, I would say that he had.

Fiddling with my long brown hair nervously, I finally found the courage to speak. Looking straight at my bubbling cauldron I murmured, "You must have majorly messed things up with them if you're sitting with me of all people."

Black looked up, glaring at me defensively.

"And what's it to you, Morgenstern." he bit out. I sighed.

"I wasn't trying to pry, I was just making an observation." I replied, calmly, dropping some herbs into my potion. Looking, somewhat less hostile Black swallowed.

"Oh." he said simply, stirring his potion twice clockwise. I licked my lips, still nervous about speaking to him. After all, he and Potter had been the reason my five years at Hogwarts had been so trying, to say the least.

"So what did you do?" I asked, at last, smirking. He rolled his eyes, once again glaring at me like I was mud on his shoe, or some kind of bug that needed to be squashed.

"Are you serious?" he asked, his voice husky with anger. I shook my head.

"No, that's you mate." he rolled his eyes at the pathetic pun. "I know it's none of my business." I added reaching over the table to grab a vial as the potion would be ready soon. Sirius did the same.

"It's just, I guessed you might have royally screwed up with something and you feel guilty about it." I shrugged, turning the heat of the fire down slightly. Sirius frowned into his own flames.

"And how did you draw that conclusion?" he asked at last. I thought for a moment, trying to find the right words.

"Well, I guessed that if whatever happened between you, Remus and the others was just a simple argument then you would be sitting next to somebody that you talk with, such as McKinnon and the like. But you chose to sit with me. Like you want to punish yourself. So I presumed that you did something that you don't forgive yourself for and that it had an impact on the relationship you have with your friends. Also the fact that you practically fled from the Hall when Remus glared at you this morning" I said, glancing at him to gauge his reaction. He laughed once, humourlessly.

"I guess you're right." he muttered, bitterly, bottling up his potion. He grabbed his bag and left, stopping at Slughorn's desk to drop of his finished potion. Raising my eyebrows at the strange lesson I just had I too gathered my things. I gave the jovial professor my potion just as the bell rang, signalling the start of the second lesson.

So here you go, I hope you enjoyed this story. It would mean a lot to me if you reviewed. :)

NiamhNums

xx