Muggle Studies

~Chapter 2 – Problems in the Household~

"It upsets women to be – or not to be – stared at hungrily." ~Mignon McLaughlin

The Gryffindor 7th year students landed in front of a very large brick house. Its two immense, wooden front doors loomed out of the darkness. Erica calmly walked up the five steps and raised one of the beautifully carved lion knockers. She let it drop. Nothing happened except for the loud thud of the knocker dropping against the dark wood of the doors. Erica looked at the others and then raised the knocker again and let it drop. When it hit the large wooden door, the door popped open.

Brenna leaned past Erica and looked into the dark vastness of the old house.

"Hello!" she shouted into the immense nothingness. Nothing happened. The house remained old and dark and somewhat eerie, as only the faint whisper of Brenna's voice echoed back through the blackness.

"Is anybody home?" Arabella whispered into the gloom as she stepped up next to her two friends. Her voice faded into the house's enormous reaches.

"Well it's obvious no one is here," Sirius announced loudly, breaking the silence and stepping over the threshold into the old mansion. He felt around for a light switch and found one, flicking it upward and bringing light to the grand entrance. The light shone down on the regal dark-wooden staircase curving down from the dark into the cheery entrance of the house.

"This place is huge!" Arabella declared, stepping in and dropping her cloak on the wooden floor. All of the girls stepped in after Sirius looking up in awe at the intricate carvings of the ceiling.

"It's like having a mini, yet quite large, version of Hogwarts all to ourselves." Brenna remarked brushing her hand against the smooth wood of the stair-rail. Then slowly, all four girls grinned at each other and started to laugh as they bounded up the stairs smiling and yelling. A few minutes later the sound of a door being slammed and giggles came rolling down the stairs.

James leaned over to Sirius and whispered, "Do you ever wonder what they do in their rooms?"

"I don't know," Sirius replied, "But I hope to Merlin it involves pillow fights and thongs." His best mate caught his eye, and they began to laugh.

"Arabella Jasmine Marie Figg, I swear if you don't get up right now I'm going to-"

"You're gonna what, Lily?"

"Use your imagination! Honestly, you Americans are so lazy." Erica added, joining the conversation.

"That is not true," Arabella added, standing up, "I am on a different time zone."

"For seven years?" Lily asked incredulously.

"Precisely." Arabella stated, "Anyways Lily, do you know who my muggle is?"

"Unuh, Brenna has them all. Go shower, I'll ask her." Lily replied.

"Kay. By the way, what time is it?" Arabella asked her best friend.

"5:00"

"Merlin!" Arabella cursed. She walked in the bathroom and glanced around. "Pretty standard," she muttered, spotting the shower and walking towards it. Stopping, she tried to think it on. The showers at Hogwarts would turn on to the perfect temperature at the mere wish for a shower. Here, however, nothing happened, not even a drip. She walked back into the extremely large bedroom all of the girls shared.

"Erica, do you know how to turn on the shower?" She asked her friend, who was busy selecting her outfit for the day, one that would undoubtedly be barely appropriate for school.

Erica shrugged. "I was going to shower after you."

"Thanks. OI, LILY! HOW DO YOU TURN ON THE SHOWER?" Lily did not answer but they heard feet running up the stairs. Lily entered their bedroom then walked into the bathroom. Arabella and Erica followed her. Lily switched the knob in the shower and it turned on.

"Pretty simple," Lily said, smirking at her friends.

"Oh shut up Lily." Arabella retorted. "Muggles, with their knobs and manual labour, I ask you."

"You two, since this is an old house, the shower is probably connected to everybody else's shower, so don't let the prats turn on their shower. I don't think their awake y-"

"Hello Ladies." Sirius greeted them, walking into the bathroom, "You see in this house I can walk up to your room without the staircase turning into a slide. Convenient, I tell you. I just came to check out your place. Make sure you girls were safe. Pretty nice, eh?"

"Out Black!" Arabella yelled as she pushed Sirius out the door.

"Now, now ma Belle, we mustn't be rude." Sirius told her as she slammed the door in his face.

"I honestly hate him!" She stated after the door was closed.

"Why didn't you ever say so AJ?" Erica asked, blinking innocently.

Lily laughed and said, "Hurry up now, ma Belle we mustn't keep Rica waiting for the shower."

"Put a sock in it, Lily." Arabella said as she threw a random sport sock in her face.

Though not automatically perfect, the shower was very nice and refreshing. As Arabella was about to step out of the shower, the water spurted and then turned icy cold. She stepped out quickly, shivering, and wrapped a towel around her. She ran into the bedroom and out the door, face contorted into an angry scowl.

"Don't you want to dress?" Erica asked following her friend. Arabella just ran to the other side of the house and burst into the boy's bedroom. Sirius quickly wrapped a towel around his waist.

"BLACK!" She screamed advancing towards him. She pushed him down forcefully, and stood towering over him. "YOU HEARD LILY! YOU KNEW THAT IF YOU TURNED ON YOUR SHOWER IT WOULD CHANGE THE WATER TEMPERATURE IN MINE!" By now the other boys were starting to sit up and rub their eyes; Arabella was very loud, especially when feeling especially annoyed, as she usually did around Sirius Black. Water from Arabella's hair dripped into Sirius's face. "THAT WATER WAS FUCKING FREEZING."

Sirius stared at her trying to hide a smirk, "That insults me ma Belle; I would never –" As Sirius tried to explain his supposed innocence, Arabella's towel slipped off, landing in a damp pile. The room went completely silent and, needless-to-say, the other three boys awakened very quickly. Erica stood in the doorway, in total shock. The words in Sirius's open mouth died. Arabella bent down and took her towel off Sirius's (rather toned) stomach.

"I hate you." She muttered, and then she left the room, quickly followed by Erica, who was torn between astonishment and amusement. The room stayed silent for a second. Then Remus started to laugh and it caused a chain reaction. The other two boys started laughing, as Sirius sat there in dumb shock. "You know, if that's the kind of thing that happens when AJ hates you, I really need to get on her bad side." Peter said, grinning.

"It was certainly a lovely way to awaken." Remus agreed.

"What's wrong Padfoot?" James asked, just catching his friend's silence. "You look like you just looked old Voldy in the eye."

"Worse," Sirius said hoarsely, "She was going to kill me." Peter squeaked, horrified, but James and Remus simply laughed.

"Honestly mate, don't be so self-important. I don't think she hates you enough to jeopardize her entire future. All you did was give her a bit of a cold shower. Where's the harm in that?" Remus said, trying to comfort his friend. Sirius muttered something nobody quite heard, as he got up and returned to the bathroom where his shower was running. The other boys got up, dressed, and prepared to go down for breakfast.

Lily and Brenna were already in the kitchen when the boys arrived. Around five minutes later Arabella came through the hall into the kitchen. Her dark hair was dry and she was wearing a white lacy and very short dress.

"Don't you want to put some pants on?" Sirius asked Arabella sarcastically, after looking at her outfit, "but then again, I've already seen everything." He finished, grinning at her over a bowl of fruit loops. She narrowed her pretty blue eyes at him, but gave no other sign of acknowledging him as brushed past. "What happened now?" Lily asked, looking at her best friend.

"Ask Erica." Arabella mumbled as Erica came into the room wearing a very tiny miniskirt and similarly nonexistent top. Curious, Lily and Brenna compliantly walked over to Erica and quietly asked her. Erica glanced at Arabella and proceeded to tell them all about Arabella's mishap.

After Erica told them it was easy to see that Lily and Brenna were trying there absolute best not to laugh. It was not a very good attempt. "It's not funny." Arabella snapped at her friends.

"It may not have been very funny, but it was certainly a fantastic way to get up. Who volunteers for tomorrow?" James asked with a huge grin and a wink at Arabella. She glared viciously at him. The other boys started laughing but abruptly stopped when each of the girls slapped them very hard across the back of their heads.

Remus grinned at Arabella, who had smacked him. "Raunchy." He grinned at her and raised his eyebrows.

She looked at him in disgust. "What, are you twelve today?" She replied sarcastically. Then Brenna laughed, saw Remus glaring at her and quickly started clearing her throat. She glanced at her muggle watch. "Okay, so were running a bit late. The cars are in the garage." She glanced around at the curious faces. "I looked last night." She glanced around at the still blank faces. "Oh shut up." She muttered.

"But we didn't say anything." Arabella told her friend innocently. Brenna glared at her.

"Okay so who knows how to drive?" Lily asked, "I already do."

Sirius jumped up and down. "I do! I do!"

James laughed and pushed down on his friend's shoulders. "Down, Padfoot!" James commanded. Remus and Peter were laughing hysterically at their friend while Arabella coolly observed Sirius with disgust.

The group headed out to their cars. Sirius hopped into the driver's seat of a red convertible. "I I thought the Blacks were a really old family." Peter told his friend.

"Noble and most ancient" Sirius replied dourly.

"Dare we ask how you learned to drive?" Remus asked.

"Well my great uncle – the one responsible for my inheritance – insisted that I learn to drive incase wizarding transportation failed me. It happened to him once you know, before the days of apparition."

"And if you don't have a car?" Peter queried.

Remus sighed, suspecting he knew the answer, and James laughed. Sirius grinned slyly at Peter and started the ignition.

Thanks to all my readers!

Special Thanks to:

BamsSk8Chic-sorry I couldn't update soon enough. Computer troubles, you know the drill! Thanks for the nice review.

Unauthorized Cuddler- I'm trying to keep with your advice but since I'm mostly just retyping what I've already wrote It won't really be better till after the all-time low in Chapter 8. Please review again!

the counter- I don't think I really understood that. Just think of this as a daytime soap if you think it's that bad. My storyline isn't really that original, but I like what I'm writing so, if I may so politely say so, go soak your head. Thank you for your review.