Chapter 2. The project
The next morning we went down to the great hall and had a nice breakfast as always. I could not thank those house elves enough for their amazing cooking skills. On the tables you could find anything you would ever want to eat, and I had never been disappointed. When we were finished we went to get our schedules. We had chosen the same subjects, so we would not need to be without each other at any time. Our first lesson this year was Transfiguration with professor McGonagall. I actually liked that subject, though I was not too good at it.
We went back to the dorms and got dressed properly and collected all books and material we would need and headed to the ground floor again. The door to the classroom was open so we stepped in and said good day to the professor and sat down behind the front seats. Always the front seats. When everyone else in our class had arrived, professor McGonagall started the lesson. She cleared her throat before she started talking.
"Students, we're going to start this year with a bigger project." After those words the worried mumblings started and from the back of the room loud sighs could be heard. McGonagall looked at us, waiting for us to be silent again before she continued.
"I think that most of you will appreciate this project actually. You are going to work in pairs, which I will choose, and you will mostly decide by yourself what your project will be about, as long as it's about the subject, of course."
Those words made people act more positive, and everyone started to listen carefully for the instructions.
"It can be a theoretical or practical work, it will stretch over a longer time and you will choose which way you want to work with it together with your partner, but-", professor McGonagall was interrupted by the students who where extremely excited about the project now.
"AS I SAID!", she shouted with her shrill voice and everyone got silent again. "You will not choose your partner. I will do that for you, because this project is also about being able to cooperate with someone you don't know too well. But after this time, you certainly will."
The worried mumblings started again, but stopped as McGonagall cleared her throat one more time.
"I will put the pairs on a list on the door, so you all can take a short look at it when you're leaving the classroom." A long paper suddenly flew away over our heads and landed on the door.
"You're free to leave now.", the professor said, and everyone stormed to the door to see who they were going to work with. Ally and I took it slowly, we would probably find out who our partner would be, because it sounded like we would not work with each other this time. We had just put all our things in our bags when a familiar, tall and dark silhouette came towards us.
"Looks like it's going to be you and me, Izabel!", Sirius said with a big grin in his stunning face.
"Really?", I asked, and walked quickly to the door to double-check it. And there our names where, next to each other. I turned around and looked up at him.
"Okay, guess it'll be fun", I said and gave him a small smile.
"Yeah, hope so too. See ya!", he said, giving me a wink before he hurried out through the door to his friends. I turned to Ally, who had followed me to where I stood. She tried to look busy searching for her name, though Diane, a classmate, stood next to her trying to get contact with her. Ally's face was blank, and I knew exactly what was up in her mind, and I felt really guilty for it even though I had not done anything wrong.
Thankfully, Ally got back to normal quite fast afterwards, and we did not talk about the Transfiguration project until we were done with all of our lessons of the day. But as soon as we had eaten our dinner and were on our way to the Gryffindor tower she was losing it more and more.
"Honestly, I like Diane and all, I mean, she's nice, but why was I paired up with her and you with him? You've talked with him more than I have, so technically you know him better than I do", she babbled on. I was beginning to get tired of it, but I did not want to fight with Ally, at least not in the beginning of the year.
"I don't think professor McGonagall knows too much about the relationships between her students I'm afraid. Not at least those who aren't so obvious", I answered her, but it did not seem to be an enough answer for her. She continued to complain all the way until we stopped in front of the fat lady. That was when I got enough of it.
"Well, I can talk with McGonagall tomorrow and change partner with you. Problem solved.", I said with a sour tone in my voice, which Ally mistook for me wanting to be with Sirius.
"Hey! You said you didn't like him, you were lying to me?" I turned to face her, not longer trying to keep calm.
"Ally, just cut it off, okay? You're ridiculous right now. Mimbulus Mimbletonia." I went into the common room, leaving Ally behind. I did not care if she followed; I wanted to be by myself for a while. When we began to fight a little, I always had to take my time and calm down so that it would not get any worse. I hated to have her being mad at me; it was one of the worst things in life. But being alone today seemed to be easier said than done. As soon as people noticed my presence, the main character of our fight, Mr Black himself came up to me. He walked around me and came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders, steering me in the right direction; the couches by the fireplace where the rest of his friends were.
"I've been waiting for you, Izabel!", he said and started to walk with me towards his goal.
"Actually Sirius...", I began and he stopped and looked at me curious. We were standing very close to each other and his right arm was still around my shoulders.
"Er...", I tried again, looking into his grey eyes, but was caught of trip by seeing Ally coming into the common room. I broke my eye contact with Sirius and looked at her, and I saw everything I did not want to see in her face. It was anger, sorrow and betrayal at the same time, just for a short second before she turned her head down and rushed through the room and up the stairs to our dorm.
"What's up with her?", Sirius asked and I turned to him again.
"We've been fighting a bit", I explained and sighed.
"Oh, that's not good. Let me cheer you up a bit!", he said and I looked up at him. He was smiling a friendly smile, but there was a familiar smirk in the shadow of it that made me hesitate the offer.
"That's nice of you, but I think I'll have to talk to her right now, so maybe later", I answered giving him an excusing look.
"Okay, cool. I'll be here if you need me", he said and gave me a wink before he went to lie down, taking up an entire couch for himself.
I rushed up the stairs and into our dorm. Ally was lying with her face down on the pillow. I heard her almost quiet sobbing as I walked to her bed and sat down on the side next to her.
"Ally, I'm sorry. I got a bit frustrated and angry. Please don't be mad at me", I said and lay a hand on her back. She rose up on her elbow and watched me with eyes full of tears.
"Yeah, so what, when you're angry you'll just catch a guy and snuggle him so you'll get on better thoughts?", she asked angrily and I got totally chocked.
"What? You know I've only kissed one guy, and that was in 3rd grade!"
"So, if you weren't making out with him, what did your face do just about an inch away from his?"
"It's impossible it was just one inch, he's too tall!"
Ally opened and closed her mouth, apparently not knowing what to answer. I felt a laugh was building up on the inside, but I tried to swallow it by looking up in the ceiling. I failed and started laugh in silence.
"What's funny?", Ally asked, still a sour tone in her voice.
"This! Why are we fighting?", I said and looked at her with a grin. She slowly lost her bad mode more and more and eventually started to grin back at me.
"I guess I'm just very jealous, but I will stop that now, I promise!", she said and I reached forward and gave her a hug and then I leaned back again.
"I hope so, because I'm NOT in love with Sirius Black. Not at all. Never.", I said, holding up my hand next to my face.
"I know, sorry for being so childish", she said and we smiled to each other. Emotions could make things so unnecessary complicated sometimes.