A/N: Helloooo! Wow, I was really happy, 3 reviews for the first chapter! thanks Gertie, emily and Priyu0624, I really appreciate it :D due to that motivation, I managed to get another chapter written, and here is chapter two!
I forgot to mention in the author note in chapter one, firstly, i know Regulus was actually in the year below Sirius at school, but I'm bending the rules a little to make the story work. Also, I know Alice's second name is only a rumour, but I decided to go with it because it sounds good :)
Disclaimer: I own only my OCs and the plot :)
Chapter Two
"Aurora!" a voice called.
Jane and I had just entered the Potions classroom, ready for our first ever lesson, and Sirius Black was calling my name. I spotted him over at a table with some of his friends.
"Aurora, come sit here!" he called again.
I looked at Janie and she shrugged her shoulders, so we headed over and sat down.
"Hey guys." I smiled at Sirius and James. The other two in what seemed to be their little gang, Peter and Remus, were already seated on another table with Marlene McKinnon and Frank Longbottom.
This class was shared with Slytherin I gathered, as I recognized Snape and Regulus and some other Slytherins from the Sorting sitting on another table.
"Hey!" a breathless Lily said, appearing beside me and sitting down with us.
"Hey Lily." James said, smiling, immediately lifting his head from were it had been resting in his arms looking extremely bored.
"Oh, hi James…" Lily smiled uncertainly.
A few more Slytherins came into the classroom, and sat down at another table, ushered in by whom I assumed was the Potions Professor, Professor Slughorn.
"Pair up, class!" the professor instructed. "Oh, we have odd numbers…" he trailed off, scratching his balding head. "A Gryffindor will have to join a Slytherin then… Er, Mr Black? Go join… ah, McGonagall's niece, yes, go join Miss Munro."
Sirius looked happy for a moment, then realized he was talking about the other Mr Black. I gave him a small smile as I left, as I did Janie and Lily, and went to join Regulus at a spare table.
"Hey Aurora." Regulus smiled, "Thank Merlin it's you, I couldn't imagine being paired up with that ape, James Potter, who my brother calls a friend, or one of the other Gryffindor freaks." He pretended to shudder and smiled again. "No offence of course."
"None taken, I've seen James Potter attempting to eat…" I grimaced, remembering James at the Feast on the first day, talking with his mouth shoveled full of food. We both laughed quietly.
"Today, you be attempting to brew the Babbling Beverage. Please turn to page 4 of your Potions book. The potion causes the drinker to start talking absolute nonsense, and the best brewed potion will be tested on a classmate of the brewers choice!"
The class burst out in excited whispers and nervous giggles.
"If you hadn't realized already, ingredients are in the big cupboard at the back of the classroom. You may begin!"
I looked at Regulus, and he grinned.
"You get the ingredients, I'll get the cauldron going." He said, lifting a heavy looking cauldron onto the table. I nodded, and set off to the ingredients cupboard.
In the cupboard, Sirius was already piling up ingredients in his arms.
"Lucky you with my brother." He snickered. I just stared at him, frowning for a moment, then turned away to continue picking jars.
"Wait, look, I have a plan." He said, walking round so I was facing him again.
"What?"
"We win, we test on you, you win, you test on us… A bit of friendly competition?" He grinned, his grey eyes glinting.
"Er… I dunno…" I hesitated. I could imagine him poisoning Regulus and I, whether by accident or on purpose, I wasn't sure if I could place that much trust in their potions abilities.
"Oh go on." His expression changed to puppy dog eyes.
"Fine." I nodded, and shook his outstretched hand. If this all goes wrong, I deny everything, I thought.
Forty-five minutes later, our potion was almost finished. I had managed to singe of part of my eyebrow, and spilt the juice of some magical root we were chopping up all down poor Regulus' robes, but we were finally done.
"And, stop!" Professor Slughorn called.
I stopped stirring. Sirius and James grinned at me from their table. Slughorn started walking around, examining potions.
His expressions ranged from that of disgust, shock, and pleasant surprise.
"Well done, very good!" he said, peering into Snape's cauldron, and I saw Lily smile at him.
He continuing round the room.
"Ah, Mr Potter and Mr Black… uh, interesting attempt…" he nodded, keeping his distance from the steadily steaming cauldron.
I grinned hopefully as he continued round to our table.
"Er, your eyebrow, Miss Munro…" He mentioned, waving his wand over my face.
"Thanks Professor."
He leant over the cauldron, gave it a little stir, sniffed it…
"Good attempt." He smiled, continuing on.
"Damn." I muttered, and Regulus looked at me questioningly.
"I did a little deal with your brother," I started to explain, and Regulus raised his eyebrows. "If we won, we get to test our potion on him, if they did, he got to test on us." I smiled, hoping Regulus wouldn't be mad.
Actually, he laughed.
"Damn indeed. Though my brother talks rubbish anyway, as does his ape friend."
"Oh, Miss Evans, well done!" the professor said loudly.
"And Janie!" Lily said, pointing to her partner, but he ignored her.
"Well who will I choose? Mr Snape and Miss Evans both made almost perfect potions…"
"And Miss Warrick!" Lily said again.
"Okay, the winner is, Mr Snape! Who would you like to try out your potion, dear boy?"
Snape's dark eyes looked around the room. Sirius started whistling casually, James ducked behind his cauldron… the only person who made eye contact with him was Lily. I didn't know how she did it, I found his eyes too scary, behind his mop of greasy hair.
His eyes settled on Sirius.
"Ah, Mr Black? Good choice. Here we go, Black." The professor nodded, pouring a small amount of the potion into a little glass.
Sirius looked really worried for a moment, then his usual, cool demeanor settled over his face, and he smiled casually. "Sure."
Regulus smirked beside me, Lily and Janie had stepped away as if he would explode or something, and Snape stood looking suitably evil, as Sirius lifted the glass to his lips.
"Bottoms up." He grinned, and winked at me.
There was a few moments after he swallowed, that everyone was silent.
"How does that taste?" James asked, nudging Sirius with a grin on his face.
On the other side of the room, Snape and a few of his fellow Slytherins were smirking.
"Professor, I need a Hippogriff." Sirius said, then frowned. "I mean, can you smell hairy lizards?"
The class burst out laughing.
"You alright there?" Remus asked.
"My mummy grows peaches on your roof." Sirius replied, then clamped a hand over his mouth. I couldn't help join in the laughter; this was priceless.
A little hand bell on the teacher's desk began to ring in mid-air.
"Ah, class is over! I won't give you homework on your first lesson, but you will next lesson, so be warned!" Slughorn called over the noise of scraping chairs and students chattering as they surged out of the classroom.
I slung my bag over my shoulder, and followed Regulus out the door. All the way down the corridor, all we could hear was the babbling of Sirius, and his friends laughing at him.
"My brother…" Regulus shook his head, a look of amusement on his face.
I leant back against the tree, stared up through the branches at the blue sky, and sighed. This was what summer was about. Regulus and I, sitting under our usual Oak, just hanging out.
We didn't get a lot of time together, Reg and I. He was one of my best friends, but he was also a Slytherin, and that threw up all sorts of problems.
Firstly, the obvious, we were in different houses. That meant no hanging out in the Common Room, no sitting together at lunch. Also, since all his friends are Slytherins, and all mine are Gryffindors, (and we all know what the relationship's like between Slytherin and Gryffindor) it was even harder to get the opportunity to be together.
So in the few lessons we have with the Slytherins, we tended to work with our own respective friendship groups; it was just easier that way. In the Great Hall, we did the same, I sat with people like Lily and Janie and Alice, often with Sirius and his gang too, and Regulus sat with his group of friends.
So days like this, a warm Saturday, we often came down to this spot near the Black Lake, and just, well, chilled. I had brought my Transfiguration homework down to work on, and Regulus helped me finish it, now we had nothing to do but chat.
"So did you try out then?" I asked him.
"Oh yeah, I did, but I didn't get on the team." Regulus replied from where he was stretched out in the sun.
"What? Aw, how come?"
"Not good enough I guess. I mean, I'm only in first year and all that." Regulus shrugged.
"Oh… well I guess there's always next year." I smiled.
"Oh yes there is, and I will be on that team!" Reg laughed.
"Yes, and I'll be cheering you on!" I grinned.
"I think your fellow Gryffindors might have something to say about that." Regulus smirked, rolling over onto his side to face me.
"Yeah, I guess so… Oh well, I'll do it anyway!"
He chuckled.
"You know Reg, you're looking rather red."
"What?" He threw his hands to his face, checking for sunburn and I giggled.
"Only kidding. You're still paler than ever."
"Well at least I'm not as pale as you." He stuck his tongue out.
"Yes, well I'm in the shade, you are trying to get a tan by lying in the sun." I reasoned.
"…Oh shush." He scowled, and turned back over onto his back, closing his eyes against the harsh sunlight.
A plan formulated in my mind, and I had to stop myself laughing out loud at the idea. Pulling my wand from my robes as quiet as I could, I aimed it at Regulus…
"Augamenti!" I said, and a jet of water flew from my wand, right into Reg's face.
"Waahh?" He yelled, covering his face and rolling over in shock, jumping up and staring at me accusingly.
I laughed at his usually perfect hair, soaking wet and sticking to his face, the collar of his robes and his sleeves damp.
"What was that for?" I kept laughing, at his expression, his voice…
"Hey! Stop laughing, it's not funny!"
I laughed even harder. A smile began to creep its way onto his face. I put my head in my hands, laughing so hard.
"…Hey Aurora…" Regulus said. I looked up.
"Aaahh! Hey, no fair!" I squealed, as he sent a jet of water back at me.
"No fair? You started it!" he said, a huge grin plastered across his face.
"Yeah? Well I'm gonna end it." I said in my best evil voice, and picked up my wand from where I'd discarded it on the grass.
"Augamenti!" We both yelled at the same time.
Simultaneous jets of water spurted from our wands at the same time, drenching each other.
"Oh no. Oh no, you did not just ruin my Transfiguration homework." I caught sight of the parchment lying by the tree, soaked, the ink run all over it.
"Um, oops…" Regulus said, and I could tell he was trying not to smile.
"That just doesn't cover it, Mr Black…" I shook my head, my wand raised threateningly. He began to back away, both hands held up in defeat.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He said, backing further away. I followed, pointing my wand at him, and fighting the grin that was threatening to make its way onto my face.
"You're going down, Black."
A/N: How was that? Good? I hope so, and I hope I get more awesome reviews, 'cause I love 'em ;)
-DaizeeG xXx