Chapter 7
The teacher (Professor Slughorn) started talking about the potion we were going to make when James slipped me a note.
Where were you and Sirius before Divination?
I smiled and wrote back quickly
That's none of your business.
He looked annoyed. I smiled more broadly. Everyone started to move as the instructions for the potion appeared on the board. "Listen to me Kate." James said out loud over the noise of cauldrons scraping. "I don't know how many times I have to tell you, but Sirius is bad news." James warned me. I just started working on my potion silently.
Halfway through the lesson I heard the sound of a high-pitched giggle. I looked around the room for the source and saw a cascade of blonde hair shaking. I turned back to my cauldron as Slughorn approached our table. "Mr. Potter. What do we have here?" Another giggle as Slughorn looked over James' potion. "Good, good." He turned to me and looked into my cauldron. I snuck a quick peek at James' potion and saw it was a lot lighter than mine. Shit. James was always being told how good he was in lessons. "Good." Was all Slughorn had to say about my potion. I looked at Remus' potion. It was almost the same colour as mine. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe James was all bark and no bite. "Very nice." He said after studying the contents of Remus' potion. Another giggle. This girl would not shut up would she? How was I supposed to take another 20 minutes of this? I turned to Remus. "Who was that guy Sirius and James were…" I didn't know how to finish the sentence without sounding like I was accusing my brother, but thankfully Remus finished it for me. "Being assholes to? That's Severus Snape. He's really into the Dark Arts, and he mixes with some of the worst people in the whole school. James and Sirius have hated him since the train ride here in first year." I turned to where the boy was sitting, fervently adding ingredients to his potion. Beside him, stirring her potion just as energetically was Lily. "Oh, and that's the other problem with Snape." Remus continued. "He's best friends with Lily Evans." I watched them for a few minutes before my thoughts were interrupted by yet another giggle. This was going to be a long lesson. And we had another hour after break. WHY?
When the bell finally rang for break, my arm was seized by James. He frogmarched me to the Great Hall and sat me on a bench. Sirius entered a few minutes later with Mandy on his arm, and was closely followed by Andromeda and Ted. "Hey Kate!" Andromeda yelled. "I've been told to pass on a message from that one." She said gesturing towards Sirius. "He says: Will you spend lunch with me out by the Black Lake? Give me your answer in Herbology." I looked towards Sirius and saw he was being fed by Mandy. Remus followed my gaze and gagged. Andromeda heard the noise and looked towards Sirius and Mandy. "Ugh. Si has another little bimbo girlfriend." I turned to look at her.
"So this happens a lot?" I asked
"All the time!" Andromeda threw up her arms to express herself. I saw James across the table beaming at her. I looked back to Sirius and Mandy. They looked like a disgustingly cute couple. I groaned inside my head. Why did I have to endure another hour of this? The bell for lessons rang and Andromeda pulled me up and pulled me along so I lost sight of the horror couple. "So" James said in my ear. "You've seen the famous womanizer Padfoot in action." He looked extremely pleased with himself and I told him so. "Well. I've got a feeling that Padfoot may just be about to run into a spot of bad luck." I threw a dirty look in his direction as I took my seat. My cauldron didn't smell or look too bad, so I took that as a good sign. Maybe I wasn't as bad at Potions as I thought I was. I looked at the clock. 45 minutes until Herbology.
When Potions was finished, Remus and James steered me towards the greenhouses. A stout woman greeted the class with a lecture on our upcoming O.W.L.s. This was the first time I had listened to one that day, so I tried to pay attention. However, all I could focus on was Sirius and Mandy who were talking with their heads very close. Very close. Remus once again followed my gaze and found Sirius and Mandy. "So what are you going to tell him?"
"About what?"
"The meeting at lunch."
"Oh. I don't know."
A/N I'm sorry that this is a bit late. I'm going on holiday on Saturday so I'm hoping to get another chapter up before that. Thanks for reading! And a special shoutout to my friend Lydia! HEY LYDIA!
