Chapter 4: The Potions Project
Thanks to everyone for the lovely reviews! Love-CDC the answer to your question is Maybe:) and Pearl of Hope: Happy belated B-Day! I know so many girls with similar situations as yours, someone should write a how to manual for guys and make it required reading. Anyway, Here is Chapter 4, hope you all like it.
The Potions Project
Celia had potions first that morning and she was dreading seeing Sirius after her imaginary escapade with him the night before. She was just going to have to throw that into the back of her mind if she wanted to get through the day without forcing herself on him. Lily and Marlene were already up and she could hear them scurrying about getting ready for breakfast. She was somehow able to drag herself out of bed and head for the shower, all the time remembering the feel of Sirius' mouth on her body.
She had to make the shower cold.
She made it down to breakfast with only a few minutes to spare before her first class and plopped down next to her girls who were sitting with Fabian and Gideon. She looked a few seats down the table and saw the Marauders staring at them, Peter bored, James lovingly, Sirius and Remus as if they could commit murder.
"Morning Princess" Fabian said smiling, eating toast with orange marmalade, she hated orange marmalade.
The thought of it made her stomach turn. He tried to kiss her while it was still in his mouth, but she turned her head away.
"Fabian, once you eat something edible you can kiss me." she joked, so it didn't look so much like the straight out snub that it was.
He just shook his head. "You and your food issues."
Celia always had a problem with Fabian's choice of food; it was bad enough that she considered turning him down when he first asked her to Hogsmeade. She couldn't help it, he always was shoving the most horrid things into his mouth, marmalade and oatmeal, black pudding and liver; it truly disgusted her.
After breakfast Lily, Celia and Marlene walked down to the dungeons for potions.
"So what possessed Gideon and Fabian to sit with us today?" Celia asked Marlene directly, raising an eyebrow. Fabian rarely sat with her at breakfast, Celia was cranky in the morning, and even if he did Gideon never followed.
"I don't know they just sat down, I now remember why fancied Gideon so much." Marlene said with a dreamy far-away look.
This could get interesting, Lupin and Gideon fight to the death. She would put her money on Remus, he being the werewolf and all.
"Well Remus looked less than thrilled about it." Lily mentioned. So she had seen that too huh? "In fact Black also looked peeved, although his mood brightened when you turned down that kiss." She added as an afterthought.
Damn Lily and her observational skills. But somewhere deep down, Lily's comment had excited her; she wanted Sirius a little jealous.
They arrived at the potions classroom and Celia took her seat next to an empty chair, Sirius was always almost late. Lily and Marlene were partners, she wasn't sure how they managed that, except that Slughorn groveled over both of them; Lily for her talent and Marlene for her old Family.
Celia was a half-blood, her mum a pureblood, her dad a muggleborn, she wasn't rich and she wasn't extremely good at magic. She was an average girl, so Slughorn generally ignored her in favor of the students who might actually make him look good.
So Celia was partnered with Black, whom Slughorn genuinely liked and had been disappointed when he had been placed into Gryffindor, but Sirius and Potter couldn't get any work done together so he was stuck with her.
Sirius and James strolled into class seconds before the bell rung; they had impeccable timing. Sirius slid into the seat next to her and whispered hello.
She could smell the cologne he was wearing and wondered if he had added pheromones to it; it was impossible for a man to smell so enticing without their aid. She basked in his scent, but his proximity to her was bringing up memories from her dream and she was starting to get hot and uncomfortable with the thoughts. She kept glancing over at him and trying to calm herself, but the feel of his kiss was making her burn.
Slughorn began his lecture and the students became quiet and were scribbling down notes. Celia couldn't concentrate on the glutinous man at all, and began to fidget and squirm in her seat. She could hear her breath loudly and she had knocked over both her inkwell and a textbook since Sirius had sat down.
Sirius passed her a note Are you okay?
I'm fine, it's just hot down here. She wrote back fanning herself to assure him.
'Shit' she thought, he noticed her freak out. It wasn't a lie she was hot, but it had less to do with the room and more to do with the guy sitting next to her. Sirius looked at her with concern after he read her reply.
Don't pass out on me Kennedy. Ask to go to the bathroom or something. Sirius scrawled down and slid the note back to her.
It was not a bad idea, it would be best if she got out of there before she embarrassed herself any further. She shook her head at him and raised her hand.
"Professor, can I be excused please?" she asked and Slughorn waved her out and continued his lecture.
She raced towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Celia knew no one else would be there, and she needed to clear her head.
Even Myrtle was missing from the bathroom when she got there. Celia told herself to calm down and splashed some water on her face, making her mascara run badly.
"Girl you just made such an ass out of yourself" she told her reflection as she wiped away the black lines with a paper towel.
She sat in the cool quietness of the restroom collecting her thoughts for about 15 minutes. She knew she had to go back to class, they would be starting the practical part of the lesson and it wouldn't be fair to let Sirius do all the work. She just hoped she could pull herself together enough to work with him.
She walked quietly into the classroom ignoring the concerned look from her friends. Sirius was chopping mandrake root, when she got to the desk.
"Sorry about that. What are we doing today?" she asked in reference to the potion.
"It's fine Celia. You feeling better then?" he asked genuinely concerned and she nodded a quick yes, as good as she was going to be.
"Good, we're making a dreaming draught. I got all the ingredients, you can crush the Valerian." He said giving her the seed, brushing her hand as he did so.
She wasn't sure if he did this consciously or not, but it was enough to make her want to run back to the bathroom. Somehow she pulled herself together and was able to stay in class. They finished their potion and Slughorn was quite happy with it, only Lily and Marlene's was done faster.
The Professor pulled Sirius and Celia aside after they had finished cleaning up their station and handed them the ingredients they needed for their experimental potion. They had decided to create a potion to cure Lycanthropy. It was a far stretch to think that 2 students could create this potion when no one else had succeeded, but it was supposed to be tentative, all Slughorn wanted was a hypothesis and a paper to show the reasons you used certain ingredients etc. Still, they both secretly hoped they could make it work.
"We should start tonight, it's the new moon." Celia said looking at her lunar chart. They had both decided that the potion had to be in step with the lunar cycles if it was going to work.
"Sure, meet me in the common room at 9 after Quidditch practice, we can do the potion in the room of requirement, I think it'll be easiest there." He told her as he packed up his books and left the room with the James and Peter in tow.
They would have to leave the potion burning for a month and she didn't want to spend all that time in the potions classroom. But the thought of being alone with Sirius in that room worried her. What if all of a sudden the room sprouted a bed and a bottle of contraceptive potion? She would have to throw herself off the Astronomy Tower in embarrassment.
After class Remus was talking to Marlene, so Lily and Celia walked to Ancient ruins by themselves.
"What was up with you today?" Lily asked her slightly concerned.
"I don't know really" Celia lied, she wasn't about to tell Lily she was having licentious dreams about Sirius.
"I just had this hot flash and it made me sick, hormones I guess." It certainly was hormones, that was the truth at least.
Celia arrived on the 7th floor at 9:00. She wasn't sure if Sirius was there yet, but they had come up with a password so they could both get into the same room. She thought the words Sirius is awesome (clearly he had made it up) and of a comfortable and inviting potions lab and an old wooden door appeared in the wall.
As she entered she saw that the room, luckily had not become a brothel, but a very comfy potions lab. It had the table and the cauldron as well as shelves to house their ingredients. Unlike the actual potions lab there was a plush sofa and chairs instead of the hard wooden stools they were forced to sit on during class. She sat down on the sofa and began going over her potions notes. At 9:15 she was sitting in the room of requirement and Sirius was still not there. She would be seriously pissed off if he stood her up.
It wasn't until 9:20 that Sirius burst into the room looking disheveled and dirty, still in his Quidditch robes. "Sorry I'm late" he apologized and threw himself down on the cushion next to her.
"James is a dictator when it comes to Quidditch, he wouldn't me leave until I ran 20 laps." She smiled and accepted his apology, James was well known as a ruthless Quidditch captain, but that's why Gryffindor always won. "It's fine. There's a bathroom if you want to shower." She hinted at him.
He was often compared to Adonis but he still smelled like a man after Quidditch.
Sirius smirked at her "do you really want me naked again that badly?" He asked with a cocked eyebrow.
Yes she thought to herself, not that he had to know that. "You found me out. This whole project was just my ploy to get you naked" she said this with sarcasm although it wasn't that far from the truth.
"I knew it, but you didn't need a ploy love, all you had to do was ask." Sirius said matter- of- factly as he began to unbutton his robes. She threw a pillow at his head, but he skillfully dodged it.
"No, actually I don't want you nude, but you smell like a big sweaty hippogriff." Sirius looked at her with mock offense and lifted his arm up to check his odor.
"Ew, Sirius. You did not just sniff you own pitt!" she yelled at him laughing.
He just shrugged "I suppose your right. I'll be quick." He told her and headed off to the bathroom.
She sat back on the sofa and tried to read the theory of Lycanthropy but was distracted by racing thoughts of a naked Sirius. Her naughty thoughts were briefly interrupted by the appearance of a house elf, but she quickly left not wanting to be seen by Celia.
Her thoughts wandered back to the man in the bathroom. He was nude, completely dripping wet and just behind that old door. The thought made her skin flush and her toes curl. She wondered what he would do if she went in with him. Would he freak out and make her leave or welcome it? He was a guy so she had a feeling he would embrace the experience with open arms and a hard on, but she lacked the gumption to go through with it.
Celia heard the water turn off after a few minutes and then Sirius stuck his head out the door and shouted. "Celia did you take my clothes?"
What the hell was he talking about? She walked over to him with a highly confused look on her face. "No" she told him "are they not in there?"
Sirius opened the bathroom door and motioned for her to have a look. His hair was streaming water down his chest and he was clad only in a towel tied at his waist. It was almost as good as her dream the previous night. She stepped into the steamy bathroom and found no clothes.
"There was a house elf here a minute ago, maybe she took your clothes to be washed." Celia suggested.
Sirius groaned "Well what the bloody hell am I supposed to do now? I can't walk back to the common room like this." He said motioning to his towel.
She agreed "I'm sure my boyfriend would love to hear that you that you escorted me back to the common room in only a towel."
Sirius laughed " he's probably in a cold sweat now and doesn't know why"
This was the room of requirement so why was there no clothing when they were required?
"Maybe we can transfigure something into a robe for you." She said looking around. Celia was pretty good at transfiguration, especially when it came to clothes. She had often changed the sizes of Marlene and Lily's clothes so she could wear them or they could wear hers.
She took off her shoe and sock, it would be much easier to make a robe out of a piece of cloth. She said the spell and her pink sock was now a pink robe for Sirius. "How manly" he said with distaste as he took it into the bathroom to change. When he came out of the bathroom she laughed at his outfit and miserable face.
"I think you made them pink on purpose." He accused looking down at himself in disgust.
"I did not, Now let's get started on this potion." She said trying to keep them somewhat on track so they wouldn't be there all night.
They sat down and poured over books and notes, anything they could find on lycanthropy. They added their first ingredients, water collected during the full moon, mandrake root and Wolfsbane, turning it 6 times in a counterclockwise motion.
"This is so complicated" Celia complained to Sirius as she stirred.
"Yeah, but what if it works? We'll be famous." He replied taking the spoon from her, and reviewing their notes.
"That's true, and we'll be helping those poor people who turn into werewolves too." She said slyly trying to throw in the fact that she was cool with werewolves. Sirius didn't look uncomfortable with their topic so she decided to push it further. "I just feel so bad for them, you know. It's not their fault." And now to add Marlene into the picture.
"Did you know Marlene was actually thinking of starting some sort of foundation to promote Werewolf welfare and rights?" she asked Sirius, so what if Marlene was not doing any such thing. She would if she thought it would help her secure Lupin. Sirius looked up at her suspiciously "I didn't, Remus would probably be interested in it if she does, he's really into that too."
Of course he is Celia thought to herself.
After an hour of theory, paper writing and potion making they decided to end for the night. Sirius yawned and stretched out his arms and hit Celia in the boobs.
"Ow, Sirius!" Celia yelled and clutched her throbbing chest with one arm and punched him in his shoulder with the other. Sirius barked out a laugh and rubbed his injured arm.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you." She threw him a disbelieving look.
"Yeah right, you were probably trying to cop a feel" she accused playfully. To her surprise he didn't even try to deny it, he just smirked at her.
"I bet you let Prewett feel you up and I don't think it's fair that you hold out on the rest of us." Sirius told her.
He was such a flirt, it was no wonder he had a near constant stream of women crawling into bed with him.
"Fabian is my boyfriend, he put in the time so he now has free reign over the goods." She said motioning over her body.
Sirius laughed at her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Their eyes met for a brief moment before he bent down to whisper "I assure you I can put in the time, love."
She was positive he delighted in torturing her; why else would he be so enticing? She pretended that his comments did not faze her as best as she could and just shook her head at him. He bit his lip and groaned disappointedly when his charm failed.
"What the bloody hell do you see in him?" Sirius demanded as he moved away from her.
Celia furrowed her brow, and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know Sirius, he's funny and attractive and he makes me feel safe." She tried to explain to him why she was attracted to Fabian, why she was with him, but it was hard to find the words. It was so easy around Fabian, she was comfortable and although it wasn't the fieriest relationship it was nice in its own way.
"Safe from what?" he asked her incredulously.
"Nothing and everything, it's not just one thing; it's just a general feeling of safety when he's around." Celia replied. Sirius set his jaw hard and looked annoyed at her answer.
"Maybe he's too safe. You think I can't tell you're not satisfied in the way you should be?"
Celia sincerely hoped he did not mean he could tell she was sexually unfulfilled, but that's what he made it seem like. How in the hell could someone know something like that without being told. Maybe Lily or Marlene had let something slip, but she doubted it. Most likely Sirius was just trying to get a rise or confession out of her. Still she was getting uncomfortable with the conversation and decided to stop it before he went any further.
"I'm happy with Fabian." She said resolutely and gave him a look to suggest that he should leave it alone.
"If you say so love" Sirius replied putting up his hands in defeat then gathered his books and led the way back to the dorms.
I don't really know if house elves can collect clothing, but I suspect so since someone has to do the laundry. Also in my Hogwarts, the room of requirment can't make clothing. I have no idea if this is true, but let's pretend okay:)
Hope you liked it, and Please review.
