A/N: Thank youuu for the wonderful response!

Chapter Six: Is that a love-note?

"James is so brilliant, Effie – you wouldn't believe some of the plays he's designed. He thinks that I'm going to really change the team," Marlene said on Monday morning the next week as we practiced the Vanishing spell in Transfiguration. It wasn't going well. So far, nobody in our class had been able to vanish even the smallest of snails. I'd tried to trick myself into believing my snail was fading in color, but Marlene had pointed out that I was just casting a shadow and dispelled that theory.

"You should be careful going on and on about Potter like that, Benjy might get jealous," I teased making Marlene turn red and glance over at Benjy as she waved her wand. Then with a spectacular flourish, she managed to vanish the shell on the snail in front of her. I would have congratulated her if my wand hadn't suddenly made a loud noise and spurted black goo all over the Florence, who was sitting in front of me.

"Ew! I know you can't see Bottle-Specs but try to use your brain at least!" Wendelin said making the class laugh as Emmeline waved her wand and removed the gunk from Florence's hair.

"Sorry," I muttered, my face as red as a tomato. I wished that I'd had the guts to say that the goo was probably an improvement on Florence's childish pigtails, but I was far too mortified to speak.

McG didn't seem fazed, however. Thankfully she didn't add to my humiliation and draw attention to my mistake, but chose to praise Marlene instead. "Almost there, McKinnon. Keep practicing. It usually takes a few lessons to gain control of such an advanced spell."

"Not for everyone, Miss," said a gorgeous husky voice from the front of the room.

I looked up to see Sirius standing at the front of the room, leaning against the doorway and smirking at Professor McGonagall. There was a slight scuffle as several girls, including Wendelin and Florence (and okay, me too) attempted to fix their hair and sit up straighter. It was really too bad that I didn't know how to produce the black goo on command – it would have been an incredibly opportune moment.

"Ah yes, Mr. Black – I seem to recall you succeeding during the first lesson," Professor McGonagall said, quite pleasantly. I was a bit surprised at her candor, considering she was usually so strict, but Sirius didn't seem in the least scared of her as he walked in and met her beside her desk.

"So, whose detention slip am I signing today, Black?" McGonagall said, sitting down at her desk and holding her hand out.

"Actually Miss, Professor Slughorn sent me," Sirius said, handing her a note.

"Ah, yes! I must say I approve of Professor Slughorn's approach. For once you can use your brains for something useful!" She looked at Sirius over the top of her glasses.

Sirius smiled. "If I must, Professor."

"Very well, I will select the student and send them to you during Lunch. You can go now," McGonagall said, looking through a stack of papers. Although this conversation made little to no sense to anyone else, Sirius seemed to understand and nodded. He then winked at Wendelin who was waving at him and left the classroom with his hands in his pockets.

"I wonder what that was about?" I said to Marlene who was holding her wand up and concentrating very hard on something in front of us.

"What?" she mumbled.

"Sirius Black was just in here about some weird detention that involved McGonagall sending another student to him," I explained, even though she didn't seem to be listening at all.

"Hmm. I… wonder…why…" she muttered before there was a sudden shriek from the front and Wendelin was clutching her head that was now balder than a baby's bottom.

"Never mind!" I choked out as we both fell about laughing.

After Marlene had reversed the spell and McGonagall had pish-poshed Wendelin's claim that she had vanished her hair on purpose, the bell rang and everyone hurried to pack away their things and go to Lunch. Just as I was leaving the room however, Professor McGonagall stopped me.

"A word please Miss Savage. Go ahead McKinnon," McG said, indicating the seat in front of her desk.

"Euphemia…" she began. Most teachers usually called me by my nickname, Effie, but I'd always been too afraid to ask McGonagall to do so. "You have really been struggling in my class."

"I know, Professor. I promise I'll try harder," I said, pushing my glasses up the bridge of my nose.

"Well, I have a suggestion that may be helpful to you. Do you know the Sixth Year boy who was in the classroom earlier?"

I blushed but nodded. "Sirius Black?"

"Yes. Black is extremely talented at Transfiguration but also a self-confessed troublemaker. For his most recent detention, he and his friends have been assigned to help students younger than themselves for a few hours this week. I have been asked to choose a student that I think can benefit from his Transfiguration expertise and I have chosen you."

"Me, Professor?" I asked in a small, squeaky voice.

"The extra coaching from a peer could really do you some good and as childish as Sirius Black can be, he is very good at Transfiguration," McGonagall nodded.

"So, for his detention…I'm being punished?" I said, feeling quite faint. I absolutely couldn't face hours alone with Sirius Black.

McGonagall looked at me over the top of her wire-rimmed spectacles. "I wouldn't look at it as punishment. It is an excellent way for you to learn and I should hope that you would welcome this opportunity to prepare for your OWLs."

"Yes, Professor." She had a talent for making me feel guilty for being so stupid, that woman!

"Very well, please take this to Mr. Black during Lunch and introduce yourself," McGonagall said, passing me a scroll. I took it with shaking hands and stood up, dreading the moment where I'd have to give him this message in front of the whole school.

"Euphemia, don't look so worried. He won't bite," McGonagall said with a rather too understanding smile and suddenly, I quite hated her.

Every step felt heavy as I walked to the Great Hall. For once, I was really not excited to see Sirius Black.

He was eating an apple when I entered the Great Hall. He was taking large bites as he nodded at something James was saying to Peter and laughed at the look on Remus' face. He looked gorgeous as usual but I didn't want to look at him. I came to a stop in front of the four boys and they all fell suddenly quiet, as if wondering why on earth I'd come to speak to them. Part of me was wondering why myself!

"Erm…" I said wittily, holding the scroll out to Sirius.

He raised his eyebrows and looked at his friends in confusion. I saw a slight smirk fall on his mouth as he took the scroll from me and someone down the table let out a whistle. I closed my eyes hoping that this would go quickly and I could disappear. When I opened my eyes, Sirius looked much less amused.

"Okay Euphemia. Professor McGonagall wants me to help you with Transfiguration for my detention. We're supposed to go to the Library at six tomorrow. I'll meet you there, okay?" He said briskly, nodding at me before crumpling up the note and taking another bite from his apple. This response was humiliating for several reasons. For one, he'd called me Euphemia, and for another, he seemed more compelled by his apple than by me.

"When's Tofty making you teach the less fortunate, Prongs?" he asked James, as if I wasn't still standing there and taking another inadvertent shot at my self-confidence. While Potter answered, I tried to escape hoping no one would notice that I looked like a tomato. Unfortunately, I had no such luck.

"Oi Black – what's Bottle-Specs given you? A love note?" I heard the voice of Bertram Aubrey shout and I squeezed my eyes shut in dismay. As several people laughed and made embarrassing kissy noises, I opened one eye to see Sirius smirking and looking unconcerned.

"Just a detention notice, Aubrey. You don't need to be jealous."

Everyone in the general vicinity laughed at this, so despite my embarrassment, I managed to find my seat next to Marlene and duck out of everyone's line of sight.

"Aubrey is such a prick," Jasper said, glaring over at the Ravenclaw table.

"If I didn't already have a detention for duffing him up, I'd do him in," Marlene said, angrily. "What was that, by the way?"

"Sirius Black has been assigned to help me with Transfiguration as a detention," I said, dully and taking a large bite of a tough piece of bread. Perhaps if I got lucky, I would choke and die.

Marlene looked at me in surprise while Benjy and Jasper groaned sympathetically.

"That smarmy prick is going to teach you?" Jasper said.

"Sounds more like a detention for you," Benjy added.

"Apparently he's good at Transfiguration," I mumbled, putting my goblet of ice-cold pumpkin juice against my cheek hoping to get rid of the redness.

"You're not happy?" Marlene asked under her breath when the boys had started to talk about something else.

"No! I freeze every time he's around, Marlene. I can't speak to him!" I said, feeling panicked.

"He's just a person like anyone else. I mean, I know he's a good-looking bloke, but don't be nervous – it'll be fine!" she assured me, but as much as I wanted to believe her, I just couldn't.

"We've got Herbology last thing. Brilliant – I'll smell like dragon dung when I go to see him. Just how I always pictured it," I said miserably as Marlene and I made our way to the greenhouses. It had been a long day and a half as I tortured myself about having to spend my evening with Sirius Black. But then, as slow as the wait had seemed, now that the dreaded meeting was only an hour and a half away, time was slipping by me alarmingly quickly.

"You'll have more than enough time for a wash, stop panicking!" Marlene said, shaking her head. "Look, I've spoken to him at Quidditch practices. He's really not that scary – a bit full of himself but okay. Once he gets talking he actually won't shut up, so just relax. I promise he's not as cool as he seems."

Clearly Marlene was blind and deaf and dumb and had never told me.

I gave her a look and she shrugged.

"Well, he isn't! Just pretend you're talking to Jasper or Benjy – there's no difference."

"Except that I'm not in love with Jasper or Benjy!"

Marlene laughed and I shoved her in annoyance.

"Ow! Oh, okay fine, you're in love with him. But he'll never be in love with you back if you don't act like yourself!"

I rolled my eyes. "He'll never be in love with me, full stop! I'd just prefer if he didn't think I was the epitome of loserdom."

"Aw babes, but you are the epitome of loserdom," Wendelin said as she passed us, her arm linked with Florence. The pair of them burst into loud cackles of laughter but I bit my tongue and Marlene just made a face. Sometimes it just wasn't worth fighting back – especially not when she used my own self-deprecating humor against me. Emmeline sighed tiredly from behind us, not hurrying to catch up with the other two girls. Not for the first time, I wondered why she was friends with them when she seemed so irritated by them most of the time. It must have been exhausting for her.

"What's wrong Effie? You look all panicky," Emmeline said, falling in to step with us.

"She's got a detention with Sirius Black tonight and she's nervous about it," Marlene explained and even though I grimaced at her for telling Emmeline, she just rolled her eyes. It was true that Emmeline was more like Lily Evans than Wendelin, but that didn't mean I wasn't afraid of her making fun of me.

Emmeline chuckled. "Oh, yeah you've got one of the Marauder's tutoring sessions, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I have Black for Transfiguration," I said, trying to keep the fear out of my voice.

"That reminds me – I'm supposed to tell you not to be late. But to be honest, I wouldn't worry about it – Dorcas says he's usually late to everything." She smiled at me but when I only nodded, she cocked her head to the side and looked at me carefully.

"You're not really nervous, are you?"

I just stared at her and she smiled reassuringly.

"Look, I know he seems intimidating but he's quite a friendly bloke actually. Sometimes he makes jokes that you won't understand or he'll give you a couple of his weird looks, but he can be very sweet when he's actually paying attention."

"Yes but that's all very well when you know him, Emmeline. Do you really think he'll be 'sweet' to Bottle-Specs?" I said, giving her a skeptical look. To my amazement, she turned a little red.

"Don't call yourself that. And we're not all like Bertram Aubrey or Wendelin – some of us don't care what you look like," and with that, she swept away inside Greenhouse One leaving Marlene to voice what I was thinking.

"If she doesn't care what people look like, how come she's friends with Wendelin?"

A/N: Hope you enjoyed, please drop a note to let me know! Thanks.