Chapter Six
The constant giggling coming from the nearby second-year Hufflepuffs were starting to get on Anya's nerves. She was putting in some extra hours at the Hogwarts Library writing the essay for Monday's Transfiguration class. When the three girls broke out in their nauseatingly shrill laughs, Anya lost her temper.
"Could you please keep it down?" she hissed over her shoulder. To her complete and utter surprise, she was facing none other than Sirius Black. His black hair was perfectly tousled, and by the look of his scruffy and slightly soiled shirt, he had just returned from Quidditch practice. The years at Hogwarts had sat comfortable on him, even as he sat there with eyebrows raised mockingly. Anya thought disgustingly that he would look elegant in some old parchment.
She wished he was ugly. She wished looks didn't matter.
"Sorry, Anna," he replied easily. "I didn't realise we were too loud." With a casual nod to the girls, he got up and walked over to her table. "Need some help?"
"No," Anya replied angrily, snatching the parchment that he had taken for closer inspection. "I'm fine, thank you." When he didn't budge from her side, she gave up and looked up at him. "What do you want, Black?"
"I ran into Adele after practice and she told me you were here," he replied, and shrugged. "I thought I'd give you a hand with some of the work." That wasn't true. Sirius had left practice almost an hour early because he was tired of swinging at heavy metal balls. He had overheard Adele telling her friend (the small one with an elfin sort of face) that she was going to join Anna in the library and somehow, found himself heading in that same direction.
"You want to help?" Anya huffed, waving her wand about and sending the books to a small table near the counter. "You can start by leaving me bloody alone." Without another look, Anya marched out the door.
"Good Godric, quick someone fetch a Healer! I think I'm hallucinating." Grinning, Sirius turned to see Remus Lupin standing by the shelves with a deadpan expression on his pale face.
"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked, then stopped and frowned. "Oh wait, I nearly forgot. You live here."
"Ha ha," Remus said dryly. "Very funny. I should be asking you that question. The last time you were here..." He snapped his book shut and wore a look of intense concentration. "I'm sorry, this must be your first time."
"Now who's the funny one?" Peering over Remus's shoulder, Sirius read the title of the book in his friend's hands – Picayune Potions and chuckled. It wasn't a secret that Potions and Remus Lupin did not mix well together. He wasn't horrible at it – no, that would be Peter – but he wasn't exactly getting top marks either. They walked to an empty table and Sirius pulled up a chair across from Remus.
"Met up with Rosalind yet?"
Remus shook his head and grimaced. "We were supposed to do the essay together this afternoon but it appears something dreadfully important has come up since she was supposed to turn up an hour ago."
"At least your partner's not bad looking," Sirius quipped, thinking of Anna. She wasn't as overweight as she'd been a few years ago but was still far from the waiflike figures of her friends. Of course, her face was not entirely too bad to look at but Sirius saw no redeeming qualities in her since she was always scowling or snarling at him.
"Well, you can tell her yourself. She's right behind you." Remus stifled a chuckle at Sirius's alarmed expression. He had to hand it to her – Rosalind Holt did not become uncomfortable easily.
"Sorry, Remus," she said as she slid into the seat next to Sirius gracefully. "Professor Slughorn held me up after Potions. Apparently mine was a bit too...tart or something." She shrugged and cracked open the dusty textbook she had brought along with her. "So, shall we get started?"
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At the end of Transfiguration class the following week, Anya Volkova strode towards the front desk purposefully, a long scroll of parchment rolled at her side. She had spent almost the entire weekend writing the essay and ended up having to write Sirius Black's name along with her own at the top of the parchment. Adele had only shrugged when she complained. "He did offer to help, didn't he?" she had reminded Anya.
"Ahh, Mr Black, Miss Volkova. Your essay?" The professor smiled thinly at them, a hand stretched out to retrieve the piece of parchment. She unrolled it and read briefly a few passages. "And you were involved in the process of writing this, Mr Black?"
"Yes, professor," replied Sirius, turning on his most charming grin. It never worked with McGonagall before, but it was always worth a try.
"Hmm..." The old witch rolled the parchment back and handed it to Anya with a disinterested look. "When you're ready to send in your joined essays, I'll be in my office. In the meantime, five points each from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw."
Anya left the classroom in a hurry, clutching her book bag as she evaded the crowds expertly. "Hey! Anna! Wait up!" She rolled her eyes and walked faster but it was lunch time and herds of students were making their way to the Great Hall and she was stuck behind a particularly burly seventh year who insisted on snogging his toad-faced girlfriend in the middle of the entrance. "Didn't you hear me?" panted Sirius from behind her.
"I thought you were talking to Anna." She sighed and whirled around, just in time to see Sirius looking at her in confusion. Why can't he find other girls to annoy, she thought in frustration. Every meeting with the boy left her either seething in anger or…well, seething in anger. Deciding it was quicker to get rid of him by talking, she asked, "What do you want, Black?"
"You heard her – we've got to write the bloody essay together." Seeing the exasperated look on her face, he continued, "Look, it's the last thing I want to do either but she's not going to stop until she's got us being chummy with each other." Catching himself in time, he added hastily, "Not that that's going to happen, of course. But Gryffindor's already bleeding points and Ravenclaw isn't doing too well either." Sirius pointed one of his long, lean fingers towards the tally of the House Points. Typically, Slytherin was leading the race with Ravenclaw in second place and Gryffindor very close behind. As if on cue, the colourful pebbles flew out of the Ravenclaw canister and they were pushed down to third place.
Anya bit her lip, weighed the options in her head. As much as she hated the thought of working with him, he was right. "Fine," she spat out, giving in. "Tak, eight o'clock tonight, at the library. Don't be late." Unable to control her impatience, she shoved the blonde in front of her to the side without as much as an 'excuse me' and strode in to the Great Hall.
}-i-{
She wasn't a patient person. Hold-ups and excuses were scarcely tolerated, and never tolerated well. Waiting – and she was most definitely waiting now – had her temper increasing dangerously degree by degree towards an inferno. When she saw the dark figures walking up the stairs in a sloth-like manner, she blew her lid.
Sirius trudged his way back to the common room. His feet were aching and all he wanted to do at that point was to lie down in his bed and nod off. Detentions were usually meant to be done on Saturdays but Professor Slughorn was always a bit unusual. The disaster in today's Potion class had earned him one wiping every bottle and tube in the classroom.
"There you are!" The outcry startled him as he turned the next corner up to the portrait of the Fat Lady. Looking up, Sirius saw a dishevelled brunette making her way to them and squinted his eyes to get a clearer view of who it was. "Where on earth have you been? We were supposed to write the essay together, you miserable dolt!"
Sirius groaned and ran a hair through his head. It had completely slipped his mind. "I forgot."
"Forgot? That's it? You forgot?" Anya clenched her fists and her teeth to keep from screaming. "Is that the most creative answer you've got?" Shaking her head, Anya flipped her hair away as she rummaged through her messenger bag. Finding the roll of parchment, she thrust it at Sirius. "Here's what I've got so far. Write your part and for Merlin's sake, get Remus to look it over will you?"
Anya didn't wait for an answer before she marched past Sirius down the dark staircase.
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