A Second Chance
chapter 4: the classes
2nd September 1975
I read my first book when I was five years old. It was a children's book, not more than ten pages, with fonts larger than the title and images that took up the whole page. I remember feeling proud of myself for managing to read the book myself, the thought of asking for help never even crossed my mind.
Over the years, my passion and love for books never diminished. It merely grew as I grew as a person and developed beliefs and opinions stronger than most of the people around my age. I loved how I felt like I was within the story, traveling with the characters, seeing new places, meeting new people.
I inherited my love for reading from my mom. She worked in a bookstore, having already spent tireless years working for the ministry with my dad, before she decided it wasn't what she wanted to do anymore. My dad never really understood either of us on the topic. The only thing he ever read was the Daily Prophet and even that, he only glanced at it to make sure he hadn't missed out on any important news.
In contrast to him, I learned how to read quickly, but still capturing all the information in a few glances at a page. After a while, if I concentrated, I found myself able to devour a whole novel in half the time it took anyone else to do the same.
By the time Lily had woken up and made her way to the common room, I had finished reading the book I had been reading and had moved on to my leather-bound journal, jotting down any ideas and doodling on the pages, despite my non-existent drawing skills.
She tried to sneak up to me, failing miserably when I turned around at the last minute to see her standing over me, her hands mere centimeters from my shoulders. I had smirked at her frustration as I scrambled on my feet and followed her to the Great hall for a much-deserved breakfast.
The moment we had taken two empty seats in the Gryffindor table close to the teachers, I started piling any type of food I saw in front of me, ranging from chocolate croissants to crispy, caramelized bacon. She had raised her eyebrow at me for a second, before shrugging and doing the same.
I let out a hearty laugh at her antics, following suit as she munched on a piece of bacon, right after swallowing a mouthful of hot chocolate. We talked for a bit, laughing as if we were old friends. As if we hadn't first met less than twenty-four hours ago.
I felt the faint smile that tugged at my lips as we continued to talking, long after we had finished our food and compared our timetables to find out we had almost all of our classes together. We had just decided it was time for us to make it to the Potions classroom when our conversation was interrupted.
"Morning, love," the familiar voice said and I had to bite my tongue in order not to lash out on him at that exact moment.
"I told you not to call me that, Sirius," I said, turning around to look at him straight in the eye.
"You didn't actually," he retorted and I glared at him. "You told me not to call you blondie…as far as I can tell, love and blondie are to very different words…"
"Well, I'm telling you now. Don't. Call me. That," I said and he smirked at me, grey eyes boring into mine.
"Okay, relax…" he said, as he sat down on the seat to my left.
"Umm, what are you doing?" I asked as he started filling up the plate in front of him with a mountain of bacon and slices of toast.
"Eating," he said. He threw a piece of toast in his mouth, as the other three sat down on the table at three empty seats next to where we were sitting. I glanced at Lily and she nodded subtly in agreement.
"Okay, then. Goodbye," I said as we got up, swinging our bags over our shoulders and heading toward the door.
"Evans!" a voice shouted at us and I glanced at Lily as she sighed and rolled her eyes.
"What, Potter?!" she shot back, turning to glare at the bespectacled boy.
"Will you go out with me?" he asked and her eyes flashed in anger, nose flaring at the comment.
"I'd rather go out with the giant squid than with an arrogant toe-rag like you."
James, gaped at her, feigning hurt before masking his expression with a wide lopsided smirk and a wink. She rolled her eyes at him again, before turning the other way and rushing out of the Great hall, urging me to pick up my pace.
She led the way, walking down the stairs and then following the tricky hallways as they turned from one side to another. Eventually, she slowed down, coming to a stop in front of door in the end of a narrow hallway, a few steps closer to the center of the earth.
The temperature was low in the dungeons. Much lower than the rest of the castle. A shiver passed through my body once the thought crossed my mind and I stood next to Lily, my back against the wall, as we waited for the professor to open the door.
By then, any ounce of anger that had found itself in Lily's body had evaporated and she was back to her cheerful self, continuing on her description of the school, the classes, and our teachers. I listened intently, making sure I remembered the basic information, like my teachers' names.
It didn't take long for the door to open, but the professor was nowhere to be seen. Lily entered and I followed suit, scanning the room to distinguish any distinct features.
It was dimly lit by a few torches perched against the walls, emitting a mysterious aura. The layout was simple. The professor's desk was at the front of the classroom, in front of a blackboard that took up the whole wall behind it. There were six circular tables arranged in two rows of three and three. At the back of the classroom were the cupboard with all of the ingredients and another table with some cauldrons and books one could use if they forgot their own.
Lily took a seat on the table furthest to the right and I sat down on the empty seat to her left, our conversation returning back to its initial volume. There rest of our classmates started to slowly enter the classroom, in groups or by themselves.
Alice, Mary, and Marlene were quick to sit down in the three of the four empty seats around the table and were almost immediately joined by a dark brown-haired guy, who introduced himself to me as Frank Longbottom, before he sat down on the empty seat on Alice's right.
Just then, the door opened again, and a middle-aged man stepped inside. His greying hair was hidden under his pointed hat and his dark green robes looked like they were worn to hide all the excess weight in his body. He was smiling widely as he entered the classroom, turning to look at us as if we were an exciting experiment.
"Welcome everyone, to your O.W.L year. This year is going to be nothing than all of the previous years, consisting of challenging work and exhausting exams at the end of the year."
His smile didn't falter for a second as he started explaining the curriculum for the year. I was familiar with most of the potions, but there were others I had never heard of before, as well. Multiple times, he would pause his speech and turn to look at us, searching our faces with his mouse-like eyes, as they hid behind his small rectangular frames.
"Now, today you will be making the Draught of Peace, one of the potions that will most likely be in your O. . The instructions are on page fifteen of your book. You may work in pairs if you want."
"Do you want to work together?" I heard Lily ask beside me and I turned to my right to see that she was in fact talking to me. I nodded slightly, sending her a warm smile at the comment.
"Great! Do you want to go get the ingredients while I set everything up?" she suggested.
"Sure," I smiled and got off my chair to head toward the ingredient cupboard at the back of the room.
With the book in hand, I chose the ingredients we would be needing for the potion, as well as a few more in case they would be needed. From the corner of my eye, I saw a guy glaring daggers at the back of my head. His greasy, shoulder-length, black hair covered most of his face, but I caught a glimpse of his long, hooked nose, before he turned his gaze back to his potion.
Brushing him out of my mind, I returned to the table, setting down the ingredients before joining Lily from where she was standing over the cauldron, as it slowly sizzled away over the fire, she had lit.
She sent me a welcoming smile, showing that she had seen me, before she scooted over to make space for me. We started working together, chatting about the class and our mutual love for reading, before she went into a long rant about the four boys that I had already started to get familiar with in just two days. Apparently, they constantly pulled pranks on everyone that always ended up destroying something, hence the name they had adopted, Marauders.
It didn't take much time for us to finish up the potion, calling over professor Slughorn, in order for him to inspect our potion.
"This is impressive!" He exclaimed, after merely clanking at the color and consistency of our potion that fit closely the description of the book. "I've never had any students complete this potion so quickly and perfectly at the same time! Twenty points to Gryffindor each! I expected nothing less from you Lily, but I am highly impressed with you Ms. White!"
"Thank you, sir," she said and I nodded with a small smile on my lips.
We sat back down a few minutes later, after we had cleaned up the table and went back to our previous discussion, eventually finding ourselves engrossed in an animated debate concerning whether Pink Floyd was a better band than Queen. We didn't manage to come to conclusion, however, when the period ended and we parted ways, as I tried to find my way toward Muggle Studies, as she headed to Ancient Runes.
I wasn't far from the dungeons, when I heard the loud padding of heavy footsteps behind me. I continued on, ignoring the obvious sound, until the footsteps reached up to me, matching my determined pace along the hallway.
"So, we meet again…"
I rolled my eyes again. "We literally have almost all of our classes together, Sirius."
His lips formed into a fake pout at the sound of these words, before he pulled them into his usual lopsided smirk. "Touché."
"And why exactly are you following me?" I asked, turning to look at him, my eyebrows furrowed close together.
"I'm not following you. I'm just going to my next class…"
"Which is?"
"Muggle Studies."
"Great," I sighed, sarcasm dripping off my tongue.
"Was that sarcasm I heard?" he asked, his tone immediately turning more serious and it didn't take much time for me to realize what he meant with that.
"It's the opposite of what you think…" I started explaining and his expression visibly relaxed. "What I meant was that I also have Muggle Studies and I'm already dreading another class with you."
"That hurt. That actually hurt," he said, hand over his chest.
"You'll live," I retorted dryly, a sly smile finding its way onto my lips.
He rolled his eyes at that. "So, how come you chose Muggle Studies?"
"Right back at you," I shot right back and he shrugged.
"I wanted to annoy my parents. You?"
"I like Muggles in general, especially their music…" I said and his grey eyes lit up at the comment.
"Please tell me you like Queen?" he pleaded and I shrugged.
"They're pretty good, but I definitely prefer ABBA."
"Hmm, not bad…"
"I didn't need you to tell me that," I shot back, urging him to roll his eyes.
"You're weird," he said, eyeing me as if I was a complicated puzzle he couldn't connect as hard as he tried.
"I'll take that as a compliment…"
We didn't talk for a bit, as we walked toward the classroom, well more like Sirius led the way, while I matched his comfortable pace.
"Can I ask you something?" I asked, breaking the comfortable silence.
"You already did." He went through his hair with his fingers, bringing it to his right, as I rolled my eyes.
"You said before that you chose the class to annoy your parents…why?"
"Well, because they are prejudiced closed-minded assholes that hate me just because I'm in Gryffindor and constantly talk ill of muggles and muggle-borns…you want more?"
"God, no! I'm sorry…"
"It's fine, I'm used to it by now," he said and I nodded, already deep into my busy train of thought.
Ever since my dad passed away, my mom and I had been closer than ever. Just the thought of the two of us not getting along formed a dangerous churning at the pit of my stomach. I could never imagine what he goes through whenever he's with them…