Chapter Nine
I Killed Sirius Black
Lily yanked hard at my hair, and I let out a shrill yelp.
"I'm so sorry!" Lily whispered, jolting at my reaction, and we both laughed, having almost forgotten that it was well into the night and all of the other girls in the dormitory were asleep by then. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I answered, straightening my back. "I don't think I'm bald quite yet, so it's all right."
She made a noise, something like snorting and clicking her tongue, an odd noise that belonged to Lily alone. She continued to tug gently at my hair as she plaited it down my back. "Well, finish your story, then," she urged.
"Oh, right." I briefly wondered if Lily had yanked the brain cells from my head. I'd been in the middle of recalling how we'd become friends when she'd pulled on my hair like a horse whip and I'd gotten completely off track.
I let the memories flow freely out of my mouth as they trailed through my mind. I actually hadn't remembered a lot of them until I'd sat down to think about them.
The first day of school had been so long ago now. It was so odd to think about. It was almost like, the Sorting Hat will sort you into one of the four Houses—blink—congratulations to the graduating seventh year!
Yes, it seemed to have gone on just like that, and it was frightening.
The feeling of being a first year floated back to me, and I felt the nervous butterflies in my stomach again, the chills escalating up my arms, the cry in the back of my throat. I'd stood on the train that day, immobilized. I'd never felt so abandoned in all of my life. My parents had gotten rid of me, I was convinced.
It didn't help that I couldn't find an empty compartment, either, and when I made an attempt to enter one, the boy inside told me to get out because I was a first year. In a mad rush, I'd told him I was going to report him to Professor Dumbledore and then ran out to find a new compartment.
I didn't even think about it the second time; I ran into the first one I spotted, opened and slammed the door, and jumped down on the seat, wordlessly claiming the spot as mine and only mine.
I remember raising my eyes to the others in the compartment, carefully, afraid that they would try to get rid of me, too, or find some reason to poke fun at me. There were a couple of older students, obviously sorted and well acquainted with each other, who hadn't seemed to notice my presence. But there were two others that very obviously did—they looked at me, eyes a little wide. It was a girl, with red, flaming hair, and she was observing me with her eyebrows kneaded in concern. The boy next to her was very drab looking, with long, inky, unkempt hair, and staring at me as if I was going to claim all of the candy in the world and never share a single piece of it. Well, that was what I had assumed, anyways, because my eleven year old self hadn't developed much past fun and candy at that point.
I'd pursed my lips, refusing to explain myself, and they carried on. The boy—Severus—turned to the girl—Lily—and was talking to her about the Houses and something about ridiculously arrogant boys that were probably going to end up in Hufflepuff.
I knew the names of the Houses, but neither my mother nor my father had taken the time to explain the difference between them, and so I was immediately interested in the two's conversation.
I couldn't remember exactly what was said, but I could recall myself piping up and asking about Slytherin and Hufflepuff and which was better. Severus had puffed his chest out a little, told me how Slytherin was definitely the best of them all, and given me a quick, very-biased and untrue run-down of the four Houses. He hadn't minded me butting into his conversation, it seemed, as I was just as clueless as the girl beside him. He seemed to enjoy speaking of the Houses, as if the knowledge gave him some kind of superiority.
The girl smiled at me, but didn't say much. After Severus had finished his House ramble, I sunk back in my seat and let them talk aimlessly, and watched out the window instead. We arrived at Hogwarts some time after and were sorted.
I watched as Lily Evans was called up and received Gryffindor, and my mind wandered to the boy on the train beside her, who had seemed so convinced that they would be in the same House. I began to grow a little nervous because I had no idea as to what to expect. The roll call skipped on and soon it reached H and I was dragging myself towards the front.
The hat had been on my head maybe only thirty seconds before it decided there would be no other place for me than Gryffindor. I got up from the stool and wondered vaguely if that Severus boy would be in Gryffindor, too. After all, he'd been wrong about Lily, hadn't he?
I went and sat next to the bright-haired girl, who was already speaking very animatedly with a boy I hadn't met. She saw me, let out a sigh of relief, and turned away from the boy. I met his eyes uncertainly, and he shrugged, and we shared a look of confusion at Lily's behavior. I sat with her throughout dinner, and she chatted with me idly about the school and various things back in home, about how she was muggleborn, how this was all so shocking to her and the like. I was struggling to keep up with the flow of words, and I felt almost as if I had been struck mute. My mind was all over the castle, it seemed, and I could barely form a coherent thought.
When we were dismissed to our common rooms, Lily darted off to find Severus, and I stood, rubbing my lips together, trying to focus on anything other than my sweaty palms. I was hardly ever nervous... but being left alone then, I had completely lost sense of what to do.
Luckily, I wasn't left alone for long. The dark-haired boy that was bothering Lily earlier darted up next to me, accompanied by a boy with similarly colored hair, though his was a bit shorter and messier. They introduced themselves as Sirius Black and James Potter, and asked me if I was friends with the she-devil and her minion.
I explained that I barely knew her, but had hardly thought of her as a "she-devil."
They just laughed together, replaying a conversation they'd apparently had with her earlier, saying something about how she'd wanted to be in Slytherin. I wasn't really catching on, and let them entertain themselves with their conversation before they remembered I was there.
"What's your name again?" Sirius had asked me, peering forward and gazing at me with wide, grey eyes. I distinctly remembered this moment, like it was engraved into my mind and I wouldn't ever be able to let it go.
I had been slightly put off, wondering why he hadn't remembered from the Sorting, and mumbled, "Grace," without caring if he'd heard.
"What was that?" James asked, bobbing on the other side of me like a float in the water.
I grew irritated, heat rising to my face, and my lips fumbled out, "Wuwah," because I didn't care to repeat my name and I very honestly wanted to get away from those two.
"Did you say Wuwah?" Sirius said, disbelief getting the best of him.
"Yes," I stammered. "What? Is there something wrong with my name?"
"What kind of name is—"
Sirius slapped James's arm. "That's an awesome name! I wish I was named Wuwah."
I snorted. "Well, it's a girl's name, really." No, it wasn't really.
"Wuwah," James repeated, blinking his eyes.
"Nice to meet you, Wuwah," Sirius said, giving me a little bow, and turned to share an amused look with James.
We'd been called to go to our dormitories then, and the two departed in a kind of over-dignified manner, strutting along and laughing about some joke I wasn't a part of. I remember crossing my arms and shaking my head, deciding right then and there that I didn't like those two.
Lily finished up the braid, tying it tightly, and smoothed it out over my shoulder. "Oh, James and Sirius," she sighed wistfully. "They haven't changed much, have they?"
"Not much," I agreed, raising my hand to feel the braid. I glanced at the two of us in the mirror, trying to imagine what we could have looked like back in first year. Lily met my eyes in the mirror, seemingly on the same train of thought. I took a moment to observe her—she had certainly got much taller over the years, and quite a bit thinner. Her hair was a shockingly bright red, with a little swooping wave, falling somewhere at her back. Her skin was a great contrast to her hair, very light and luminous, almost. And her green eyes. My goodness, Lily practically screamed for attention with her powerful, eminent features.
I felt somewhere inferior to her beauty, glancing at myself instead. I was just a bit shorter, but not by much. My hair was so much darker, a chestnut brown, and fell to the side of my face and down past my chest in Lily's perfectly crafted braid. My skin was quite a bit tanner than hers, and my eyes were caramel and light compared to the sparkling emeralds in Lily's eyes.
Lily's hand tugged at the end of my braid, and she smiled. "How come you have to be so pretty, Gracie?"
I rolled my eyes, turning away from the mirror. "I was literally just wondering the same about you."
She started on about insecurity or something similar, but was interrupted by the sound of something hitting the door. We both turned to look at it, and then shared a wary glance.
"What was that, you reckon?"
Lily shrugged. "I'll go check. Maybe it was Mary's cat… that beast's always running about."
She went and opened the door slowly, peering out of it.
"What is it?" I called to her in the loudest whisper I could manage.
"It's a… book." She bent down and picked it up, holding it out so that I could see it. A Charms book. "Why would someone…" She peered out the door again, looking down the hallway. "Oi, Sirius! Merlin, what are you doing?"
"Ohhh!" I gasped. "I forgot, oh gosh." I jolted up from my spot, darting over to the door. "I promised Sirius I would study Charms with him." I took the book from Lily. I shot a glance down the hallway and spotted Sirius, awkwardly poised on the railing to the dormitories at an angle where he could reach our door.
He groaned in annoyance, muttering something inaudibly, and peeled himself off the railing to step down onto the stairs.
Bad idea.
"Oh, for Merlin's sake, you're such an idiot," I sighed, rushing down the stairs to help him up. Well, they were stairs now, but they had morphed into a lovely slippery slide at Sirius's touch. He was lying at the foot of the stairs in a heap and let out another loud, pitiable groan.
"I forgot," he mumbled, rubbing his temples.
"I'll be back later, Lily," I called to her.
"Is Sirius okay?"
"Yes. He's just a moron." I patted his shoulder, and he swatted at it.
"All right," she said, giving us a wave. "Goodnight then, you two."
"Night," Sirius called back as she disappeared. He made a disgruntled noise and rolled onto his back lazily. "Look what happens when you forget about me."
"It's not my fault," I said, helping him to his feet.
He dusted himself off, releasing a huff of breath. "I told Remus and Peter they could come study with us if they wanted. Just so you know."
"All right," I said as we walked over to the fireplace. "Why does everyone decide that late night studying is the way to go? It is completely not. I like my sleep, I will have you know."
"Yes, and you like skipping out on your commitments." I punched his shoulder, and he scrunched his face up in a very non-composed manner. "What were you doing, anyways?"
"Talking to Lily," I said airily, taking his Charms book and flipping it open.
"About what?"
I shot him a look. "Well, that's awfully nosy."
He held his hands up. "Just wondering. Touchy subject?"
"No."
"Talking about boys?" He leaned forward to catch my eye, grinning cheekily.
I raised my eyebrows, straightening my expression. "Actually, we were."
"Howell?"
"No."
"James?"
"Mhm."
"Me too, then?"
"Yeah, sure."
"About what?"
I rolled my eyes, the corners of my mouth giving in to my amusement. "We were just talking about how we all met. Don't get too excited now. We weren't talking about your dazzling eyes or your lovely hair." I made a swipe for his hair, but he dodged it, oblivious to my remark.
He seemed to be pondering. "How did we meet?"
"Well, there was the Wuwah thing."
He growled. "You were so mean. I literally called you Wuwah for a week before I heard Professor Sprout call you Grace."
I giggled at the memory. "You were pretty mad."
"Isn't that how 'Gracie' came about?"
"Mhm. You were determined to annoy me, and you could tell I hated it, so you started calling me by it and told everyone else to call me it, too."
"And then it stuck. I'm a genius, eh?"
"Of course. The genius that got me my first detention in Potions of all classes."
"No, that's not right. It was Transfiguration," he corrected, chin in his hand. Sirius had always had this hilarious pondering face, where his eyebrows knit together and his lips pouted, making him look like an irritated puppy. I would never dare mention it to him because he would have a fit, and besides, I liked the face. It was him, and quite honestly, it made me laugh to see him look so ridiculous. "And me and James walked up to you and Lily, and you started cursing us at the top of your lungs—"
"No," I said, cutting across him. "That's not right. You came up and started laughing in our faces, and then you walked away. And I looked over to Lily, and her eyebrows were turning green, and so I—"
"Shouted 'filthy mudbloods' at the top of your lungs, yes, I remember that," he snorted.
"In my defense," I said, face flushing at the memory, "I really had no idea what it meant. I'd heard someone say it, and it sounded offensive."
"Oh, yes, that's completely acceptable. Just repeat whatever you hear, as loud as you can, so that the entire world can hear!"
I crossed my arms over my chest. "Well, I found out what it meant later."
He laughed. "Yeah, when you got a week's worth of detention for it."
"So did you and James, after I told McGonagall what you did to Lily," I pointed out.
"You used to be very stingy."
"You used to be very obnoxious."
He crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue.
"No, you're right," I said, correcting myself. "You still are very obnoxious."
His face broke into a ridiculous smile and he fell back onto the floor, kicking his legs up. "It's been a while since then, hasn't it?"
I hummed an agreement, attempting to direct my attention back to Charms.
"I think I'm going to write a book," he announced nonchalantly.
I scoffed. "Oh right. About what?"
"How I survived the terror of Gracie Hachette for seven years!" he proclaimed.
"Sirius!" I screeched, aiming a punch at his knees, but he rolled over onto his stomach and dodged it, laughing wildly. He hopped up and looped an arm around my shoulders, giving my cheek a pinch.
"Sirius Black, do not touch me, you are a git—" I swatted at him, trying to wiggle out of his grasp, but he squeezed me into a bone crushing hug, ignoring my protests. I rubbed my cheek, hissing at him until he decided I would probably die of suffocation soon anyways, and let me go.
I grabbed my wand from my cloak pocket and pointed it at him threateningly.
His mouth dropped with feigned horror.
"Say 'just kidding' and beg for forgiveness, or I will really prove the terror that Gracie Hachette can be," I said, cackling like a haggardly witch.
He held his face as if he was trying to ward the amusement from his expression. "Really? What's Gracie Hachette going to do to me?"
I clenched my jaw menacingly. "Turn your eyebrows green!"
His hands immediately jumped to his eyebrows and a sharp gasped escaped his mouth. "Noooo! Not my eyebrows! Not my precious babies!"
"Beg for forgiveness and they will be spared," I said coolly, jabbing his fingers with my wand.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Sirius sobbed. "Please forgive me, Gracie! How could I ever think that you were a terror?"
"That was out of character. You smiled." I lowered the wand to his chin. "Now you die."
"Do I get any last words?"
"Very well," I sighed. "Go on."
"I love you!"
I glowered at him.
"Isn't that effective? The best defense. How could you kill someone that's just said 'I love you'? Reckon you could even go against You-Know-Who with that—"
"DIEEEEE!" I screeched. "Bam bam bam!" I shoved him back onto the floor, and he let out a defeated scream, falling on his back melodramatically. Sirius had never watched muggle dramas, of course, but he was pretty good at this.
I stood and stepped on his chest with my foot, forcelessly of course, and threw my hands in the air triumphantly. "I am victorious! I have defeated the very great Sirius Bla—"
I met eyes with Remus across the room and froze, arms still suspended in the air, mouth agape. He stared and I stared. Peter walked up from behind him, flipping through a book, brows furrowed in frustration. "Remus, what chapter are summoning charms in?"
Remus didn't answer, and Peter turned his head up, looking annoyed, and then slowly followed the direction of Remus's stare. His beady eyes squinted in confusion. "What's Gracie doing? Is that Sirius on the…"
I lowered my arms, clapping my hands together. "I'm sorry you had to see this," I apologized, addressing the two of them nobly, and stepped off of Sirius. "I have just finished killing Mister Black. I do hope you weren't looking for him."
Remus released a resigned breath. "Well, sorry to disrupt. I was under the impression that you two were studying Charms."
"We were," I affirmed, "until I killed him." Sirius stirred as if to roll over, and I shot him a kick in the thigh.
Peter looked increasingly alarmed, but Remus had become nonchalant as if the situation was indeed normal. "That's inconvenient. I guess we'll just have to study with you instead then."
I nodded, seating myself, and gestured for the two to sit. Remus plopped down immediately, emerging himself in his textbook. "So, Peter and I were looking at summoning charms, and we didn't quite understand the third property—"
Remus went on as Peter walked over to the sofa, taking a step over Sirius's still body squeamishly with his right foot. He brought the left one over, just barely grazing the back of Sirius's shirt.
"AHHH-YEEEEEEE!"
Sirius had leaped up and grabbed Peter's ankle, belting out like a Banshee. Peter's eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open, limp, as he let out an ear-piercingly mouse-like squeal, stumbling towards on to the floor.
Remus and I had jumped at Sirius's outcry, but were now struggling for breath in eruptions of hysterical, uncontrollable laughter.
Peter clawed his way back up, but Sirius attacked him, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him, still expelling a deathly shriek.
"AAHH-AHHHH-YEEEEEE-EEEEEHHH-AHHHH!"
Peter was half hyperventilating, half screaming his arse off, and Sirius seemed to decide that the increasing pitch of Peter's squeal meant that he had done a fairly thorough job of frightening the boy out of his wits.
The screams died down and were replaced by a trail of laughter from Remus and I. Hot tears burned my eyes and I fell sideways in my chair, burying my face in the cushion to subside the laughter that ached my ribs.
"Bloody hell," Peter yelled, waddling back from Sirius on his hands, "I am never, ever studying with you or Gracie, ever—!"
A/N: This chapter was too much fun to write. Sorry if I scared any of you with the title.. "I Killed Sirius Black"... hehehe. Sirius and Gracie are too insane, honestly. Also, I apologize if this seems rushed or haphazardly written.. well, it was, so I don't blame you if you noticed. Sorry about that, I just wanted to get it out finallyyyy because those few of you that have been reading have waited long enough, yeah? Chocolate frogs for reviewing! I stole them from Peter... heh heh.
