Here's the fourth chapter! Enjoy!
Only one more day to get through, and I was free. I had Potions last period today and tomorrow. Potions was never my favorite class, though I excelled anyway. Mary struggled, but managed to pass with my help, along with Lily and Alice.
Unfortunately, the potions master was starting a new tutoring program. There were only three of us who had perfect grades in potions. Remus Lupin, Lily and I.
"Remus, you will help Peter. Lily, you will help Narcissa. Hestia, you will help Sirius," he said, looking proudly at us tutors. I felt bad for Lily, she had to tutor Narcissa Black, a snotty Slytherin, also Sirius's cousin. At least Remus got to tutor a fellow Marauder. And of course, I get Sirius Black. With my luck, I should've expected it anyway. I can't help someone who won't listen.
After the lesson, we all had a chance to start our homework. Some of us, namely the Marauders, didn't even glance at it. This was going to be fun later on. Sirius walked up to me and sat on my desk.
"What?" I asked, sounding bored effortlessly.
"When and where?" he asked. At least I knew what he was talking about.
"Library at six. Don't be late," I added sternly. He laughed and walked away.
"Don't worry, at least you don't get a bloody Slytherin," Lily said bitterly. Narcissa was a big prat.
"I guess Black's a little better," I admitted.
When class was finished, I had already done all my homework for the day. So did my friends. We decided to visit Marlene in the hospital wing.
She looked awful. Her tanned skin had paled, and her eyes and cheeks looked sunken in. She could barely talk or sit up in bed. I felt so bad for her. After an hour of talking to her, the nurse finally insisted that Marlene go to sleep, so we were forced to leave. It was 5:55. I decided to head down to the library. Knowing Sirius, he would probably be late.
I saved us two seats in the corner of the library, where he wouldn't be distracted by anything or anyone. Then, my other four least favorite people walked up to me. I knew I was a bully target. I mean, I looked so vulnerable. Snape, Avery, Mulciber and Malfoy sneered at me as I tried to cover my face with my Potions book.
"What do you want?" I asked sharply when they wouldn't leave.
"Oh, nothing," Mulciber said with mock sweetness. He was an ugly lump of a boy and as dumb as a box of rocks. He sat down in Sirius's saved seat, took my book and threw it on the ground. I knew this wasn't going to end well.
SIRIUS'S POV
I had just walked into the library, on time, when I saw four Slytherin losers gathered around little Hestia in the corner. She actually looked scared. I heard myself growl as Mulciber sat next to her. I walked over, grabbed Malfoy's collar and pushed him out of the way.
"Aw, Black has come to the rescue!" Snape sneered. I shoved him against the wall. I turned around.
Mulciber wrapped his arm around Hestia's waist and placed his hand dangerously close to her 'chest area'. What she did surprised me. She pulled herself away from him so quickly that he almost fell over. Then she slapped his mouth so hard I swear it was like a gun was shot. I started laughing, I was unable to control myself. I never thought I'd see the day where Hestia Jones would actually do that to someone. I high-fived her and we walked out of the library together.
"Do you think he's okay?" I asked in a girly voice.
To my intense surprise, she looked at me and smirked. "I hope not. Bloody perv." I really underestimated her. I thought she was a defenseless little jellyfish, but I discovered she had a bit of aggressiveness and an attitude to match.
I chuckled again. Then I realized that we were just wandering aimlessly around Hogwarts. "Where are we gonna study now?" I asked, looking back down the hall. She didn't answer. I turned and she was no longer there. "Hestia?"
Suddenly, a hand grabbed my robes and pulled me through an opening in the wall that I hadn't noticed before. I fell forward, and found myself face to face with Hestia. Her face was only two inches away from mine. Of course, if it were another girl, it would've been a kiss and tell, but I hesitated with Hestia. She was so fragile, if that happened she would shatter like glass. Though what I saw back in the library proved she was a lot tougher than she looked. I noticed she was blushing furiously. Our eyes met and she grinned sheepishly, then backed away.
I finally had a chance to see where we were. "What is this?" I asked.
"The Room of Requirement," she replied, casting a sidelong glance at me. "I would've thought you knew about it."
"No." I couldn't believe that we had missed this. We were the Marauders for crying out loud! We were supposed to know every secret room or passageway, yet this one had hidden from our sight. I flipped my hair out of my eyes and saw that she was smiling at me. Now I was the one who was blushing. It wasn't like me to, it was just Hestia Jones. Just Hestia Jones. I had never really looked at her in detail before. She was a lot prettier than I gave her credit for.
I looked around a little more. Then I saw a spell dummy. I ran over to it, and saw that she followed me. "A spell dummy?" she asked, most likely wondering why I was so excited to see a dummy. I nodded my head, grinning.
"Stupefy!" I said, pointing my wand at the dummy. It wheeled backwards. Hestia joined in.
"Expelliarmus!" I, admittedly, liked the way the word rolled off her tongue. The fake wand the dummy was holding flew into the air.
"Incendio!" A blast of fire burned the front of the dummy.
"Reducto!" The dummy was blast with a bright light and then turned into ash.
"Aw," I whined. She rolled her eyes at me and grinned.
"We have to start studying, it's already 6:30," she said, walking over to a chair. There was only one. She seemed to notice that, but she took the chair for herself. "Sit," she said, pointing at the ground in front of her. I pulled a puppy-dog face on her, but she didn't budge. She was the first girl I met who could refuse the face. I was amazed.
But I didn't want to study Potions. I knew how to capture her attention. "So what should we do to get back at Mulciber?"
"What?" she asked, clearly shocked that I had brought it up again. "I don't know. That's why you're the Marauder, Sirius." She grinned and winked at me. But her face grew serious again. "We should really be focusing on Potions."
"Well, what if our revenge involved Potions?" I asked cleverly.
A devious smile spread across her pretty face. "I'm listening."
"Okay, you know how Mulciber is so possessive over his girlfriend, Marcie?" I asked.
"Yeah." She was looking straight into my eyes now.
"Well, I personally doubt that he'd ever break up with her, so how about we make a Polyjuice Potion to turn into Malfoy and Snape. You'll be Malfoy and I'll be Snape. You'll get Mulciber to go to the Slytherin common room, and I'll be Snape making out with Marcie, and Mulciber will totally kill him. So it's emotional pain for Mulciber and physical pain for Snape!" I said excitedly.
"But if you're Snape, wouldn't you be the one getting hurt?" she asked, worry settling across her delicate features.
"Ah, little Hestia, we'll time it so that I'll lead the fight out into the Great Hall, and the real Snape will get beaten up," I finished, in a mock sophisticated manner.
"Well thought out, Black," she complimented.
"Why thank you, Jones, that means a lot coming from you," I said sincerely. And I knew that we were fast friends.
How did you like it? Sirius finally notices how pretty Hestia is, and they become best buds already, linked by pranking! How adorable! Please review!