A Break from Monotony, or, How That Idiot Sirius Black Managed to Charm Me

Disclaimer: The fabulous Ms. Rowling is the owner of all characters from the Harry Potter series. Credit is given where credit is due.

Goodness, I've been gone for awhile! I am so terribly sorry about that. I'm on winter break now, so I have a lot of time on my hands and therefore very few excuses. I hope to update soon!

Chapter 10

Home for the Holidays?

Before Morgana knew it, it was a week until Christmas. She still did not know whether she would be staying at Hogwarts or not during the holidays. For the past fortnight, she had been weighing the pros and cons on spare pieces of parchment.

Go home:

- Get to see dad

- Have to spend time with mum

- Have to see Malcolm

- Have to see Maxwell

- Home cooked meal

- Don't have to see Sirius

Stay here:

- Don't get to see dad

- Don't have to see mum

- Don't have to see Malcolm

- Don't have to see Maxwell

- Sirius is staying at Hogwarts for the holidays

- No home cooked meal

- Sirius

- SIRIUS BLACK IS STAYING

- I WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH SIRIUS BLACK

Morgana had to confide in Lily, who seemed to have the best judgment when it came to these sticky matters.

"I suppose it comes down to who you dislike most – your mum or Sirius," Lily said the morning after term ended, packing her trunk for the train ride home later that afternoon. She was going home for the holidays, seeing as she actually liked her family was a feeling a bit homesick.

"That's like picking which pile of dung I'd like to step in first!" Morgana retorted loudly. "It's still bad!"

Lily laughed and closed her trunk, which was reluctant to shut completely. "Here, come sit on the lid with me."

Morgana walked to Lily and obliged, forcing all of her weight into her bum. With their combined weight, the trunk snapped shut, and Lily hastened to lock it before it could spring open again.

"I know you don't like either of them very much," Lily said, "But you can't just go nowhere."

Morgana sighed and stared at her trunk, which was half full. The rest of her possessions were still scattered about the dorm, and in some cases, strewn about the common room. "I guess I'll just stay, then."

"You must really dislike your mum," Lily commented, smiling.

"You have no idea," Morgana sighed again.

"Well, cheer up! At least Potter won't be here. I mean, Sirius might be a little more tame on his own," Lily said optimistically, sitting beside Morgana on her bed. "And Remus and Sev are staying, so that's good!"

Morgana looked blankly at Lily. "I'm not friends with Severus, remember?"

"Right," Lily said, blushing. "Well, maybe you should be friends! He's really nice! I know you'd like him."

"Severus Snape? Nice?" Morgana asked. "I mean, I know he's your best mate and everything, Lily, but he's not very nice."

"He is when you get to know him! You just have to give him a chance, that's all," Lily said, jumping from the bed. "He's a lot nicer than Sirius, anyway."

"I'll give him that," Morgana said, smiling. "Come on, let's get lunch."

The Great Hall was packed with students, sounding very much like King's Cross on a Monday morning. It seemed people were shouting at each other from across the room, each telling of their holiday plans. Lily and Morgana squeezed in at the Gryffindor table next to Judy and Peter, who were both too eager to go home to eat lunch.

Judy was in a rather good mood, and moved her things aside so Morgana could more comfortably sit on the bench next to her. "Have you finally made up your mind?" She asked loudly.

Morgana nodded. "I'm staying." She said loudly in Judy's ear. The noise in the Great Hall seemed to be raising exponentially with each passing minute.

Judy raised an eyebrow at Morgana. "You're staying? Even though Black is staying as well?"

Morgana shrugged, and attempted to pull a jug of pumpkin juice toward her. She found, however, that a pale hand was holding the handle. She met the gaze of the owner of the hand. It was none other than Sirius Black, who had a haughty expression playing on his face.

"So," He started, smirking charmingly, "I hear you're staying for the holidays."

"Nicely spotted," Morgana said, and tugged once more on the pumpkin juice, but Sirius maintained his grip on the handle. "May I please have the pumpkin juice, Sirius?" She asked through gritted teeth, trying to conceal her rising anger.

He let go of the jug, allowing Morgana to fill her goblet. "You know," He said, after she had taken a deep drink, "Remy is staying as well. Maybe we can have a game of Gobstones after this lot has gone off."

Remus, who was sitting beside Sirius, rolled his eyes at Morgana. She smiled, despite herself. Sirius seemed to have taken this as a friendly gesture toward his invitation, dropped his charm almost at once, and adopted a genuine smile. "Excellent! I've been dying to try out these new Gobstones my uncle sent me-"

"Actually, Sirius, I don't like Gobstones," Morgana said.

For a moment, Sirius stared blankly at her from across the table. "You don't like Gobstones? What kind of witch are you?"

Morgana shrugged, and began to butter a hot bun.

"What about Exploding Snap? You have to like Exploding Snap!"

"Isn't that a two person game? We wouldn't want to leave Remus out, would we?" Morgana asked, coolly.

"Remus doesn't mind to much, does he?" Sirius asked. There was a hint of desperation in his voice now.

"No, no, I don't mind at all," Remus said, smirking at Morgana. "I have some reading to catch up on anyway."

If Morgana could have reached Remus' foot, she would have stamped on it.

"I'm not a big fan of Exploding Snap, either," Morgana said, glaring at Remus, who quickly took a swill of pumpkin juice to hide his wide smile.

"What about Wizard's Chess? I have an old set I nicked from Filch's office-"

"Sirius!" Morgana said loudly, finally putting down her bun and knife. "I don't want to play any games with you today."

There was a stunned silence among the people around Morgana. No one rejected Sirius Black. Not even Morgana Woodsworth.

Morgana, seemingly oblivious to the rippling effect she had just caused, returned to her lunch. A pink flush was creeping up her neck and threatening to spill onto her cheeks; she kept her head down.

Sirius did not speak for the rest of lunch, and nor did Remus. Every so often, Remus was shoot a glance at Morgana, as if trying to communicate some silent message to her, but Morgana dutifully kept her head bowed to her plate.

Admittedly, she felt bad for yelling at him, but it was his own fault. He doesn't take hints very well, does he? He set himself up; it's not all my fault.

Lunch was marked as finished when McGonagall stood to announce that they would soon be loading the carriages to the ride to Hogsmeade station.

"But what about our things?" A first year Hufflepuff asked loudly.

"The house elves have already begun loading the carriages," McGonagall answered, magically making herself heard over the buzz in the Great Hall. "If you are leaving for the holidays, please form a line at the entrance of the Great Hall. Mr. Filch is going to check you all off-"

McGonagall hurried off, trying to make order out of chaos. As Morgana stood, she noticed Geraldine and Susie rush to Sirius' and James' sides to wish them farewell. Morgana went to say good bye to Lily, Judy, and Peter, who were clumped at the end of the Gryffindor table.

As they exchanged good byes, McGonagall hurried by, her hat slightly askew. Abruptly, she stopped in front of them. "Miss Woodsworth, have you made up your mind yet?"

"Yes, Professor," Morgana started politely, though she did have to shout over the din. "I'm going to be staying for the holidays."

"Very well," McGonagall said, and hurried off once more.

It was chaos as Morgana had never seen it before. She was inwardly glad that she would not have to deal with the disorder and disarray. She said one last good bye to her friends, and decided to go back to the common room to collect her things from the common room before Sirius got back in time to interrogate her further about her afternoon plans.

She was on the fourth floor when she heard running footsteps behind her. Quickly, she dodged sideways toward a large tapestry, hoping to hide from her pursuer (who she assumed was Sirius).

"I can see your feet, Morgana,"

It was Remus. Morgana sighed, relieved, and stepped out from behind the tapestry.

"And even if I couldn't see your feet, I saw you dash behind old Wilma there," He said to her, smiling. "Who'd you think I was?"

"Who do you think I thought you were?" Morgana asked. The two resumed walking back to the common room.

"Why can't you just give him a chance, Morgana?" Remus asked, ignoring her question.

"I don't like him," She said.

"And that's that?"

"No, I don't. Do I need any other reason? I could think of a few more for you, if you like," She answered sarcastically.

Remus chuckled appreciatively.

They did not speak until they got to the portrait of the Fat Lady. The apples of her cheeks were red, and, hiccupping, she asked, "Password?"

"Baubles," Remus said.

At the sight of Remus, the Fat Lady gave a pitying smiled and swung open. Once inside the common room, Morgana began to pick up her things.

"Hey, Remus?" She asked suddenly, trying to determine if a battered quill was hers or not.

"Hmm?" Remus had picked up a book and was sitting in one of the squashy arm chairs by the fire.

"Does the Fat Lady always make sad eyes at you or is that just my imagination?"

Without looking from his book, Remus replied, "She thinks I'm going to die soon. I heard her talking to her friend Violet about it one evening on my way back from the library."

"Lovely," Morgana said, and threw the quill back on the table where she had found it. She decided that even if it was hers, she no longer wanted it because of its battered state.

Shortly after, Sirius walked into the common room. Morgana made a point of gathering her things as quickly as possible and rushing up the stairs to the girls' dormitories.