A/N: In which Vivian leaves something behind, and Sirius puzzles over the significance of it.
remifoster1313: Regulus will have his time later in the story... :) I liked the idea of Vivian forming another friendship with someone else, and I've always loved Ravenclaw so here we are. Gavin Clarke's purpose is yet unknown to me, the supposedly omniscient authoress, but I have some ideas for him and I'm thinking I might give him a more central role in the story moving forward. Also it's very possible that either Vivian or Lily will advise one of them to stop being idiots. Someone needs to! As for Regulus, he'll be the main character in Vivicendium Season 2 (as I'm referring to it in my head, considering how long this story is going to be), and will have a huge role in Vivian's life whilst Sirius is in Azkaban. I won't give too much on that away since I'm still working it all out, but I am planning for something of a romance to develop. Also thank you for your kind words! I love responding to reviews (and receiving them! I always get so excited). The support I've been getting on this site has been incredible and I so appreciate it, so thank you :)
Flor Marina: Regulus probably would have said yes if she'd have asked him, but I liked the idea of dragging Gavin into the scene. In this part of the story, Vivian sees Regulus as just another housemate and overlooks him a bit. This dynamic will change in the future once he becomes more important to her. The character development for everyone is going to be intense.
gwenwesley: Yes, that will happen eventually. Mulciber et al will be playing a larger role moving forward. He'll be one reason, at least, as to why Vivian will begin to question her upbringing. And I'm looking forward to writing jealous!Sirius too. The Hogsmeade trip won't be for another few chapters though. I'm definitely taking my time with this story. I have a lot planned!
Aamarylis: I'm thinking Mulciber will somehow get involved in the Hogsmeade scenes. You'll see the beginning of that idea in this chapter, concerning Gavin's blood status. Also Sirius is going to be blind to his obsession/feelings for a really long time. It will be difficult for him to reconcile it all in the beginning!
Guest 1: The Siren story was mainly a plot device to introduce the love poems, as well as to depict what would happen if Vivian remained exactly as she is now for the duration of the story, with absolutely no character development or internal changes to her perspective. It would be a bit predictable of me to give away the entire plot like that I suppose ;) The actual course of events will be very different!
LoveFiction2019: Thank you!
Guest 2: I'm still not entirely sure what I'll be doing with Mulciber, but he'll definitely be playing a pretty large role in the future. Whether I decide to bring the arranged marriage into it or not, he'll be sticking around. I do like writing angst... ;)
hella-sirius: Your Gavin idea...I love it...I might actually use that in the future, though perhaps with a spin/a different character...we shall see. Thanks for the idea ;) Anyway - Oh the angst. You have no idea what I'm going to put Vivian through. If she was a real person, she would hate me so much for what I have planned. I'm talking endless spirals into the darkness. Intense grieving for the people she loves. Having her heart broken multiple times. Reaching a point where she doesn't care about her own life at all and making decisions that she will one day come to regret...yeah your residual anxiety fixes will probably last for several weeks lol. On that lighthearted note, onto your question regarding the love triangle: it won't have anything to do with her arranged marriage at all. Without giving too much away, okay Regulus is going to basically fall so hard for Vivian that she becomes the center of his universe and he's super jealous of Sirius. You're welcome I just gave it all away
mbob4980: Oh that time will come, don't worry. I won't be making things easy for Sirius and the other Marauders. Vivian will be pissed when she finds out. Unfortunately though, I have to warn you that there will be many future scenes where Sirius is going to rile her up. Vivian will fight back though, so it will help to balance it out a bit more. I can of course understand where you're coming from. I just have this vision of the story from beginning to end, and if you could see into my mind and visualize it all, it would make so much more sense. I wish I could post more often and build the story up faster! Hope you keep enjoying it and thanks for your review, I do appreciate hearing others' perspectives on the story so far :)
Thank you for the reviews, they mean so much to me as a writer/developer of this very complicated and drawn-out plot. I appreciate hearing what you all think of where the story is going, as well as your predictions regarding future developments :) Hope you all enjoy the latest addition to the story!
Chapter Twelve | Omnia munda mundis
[To the pure, all things are pure]
Sirius Black does not venture into the library unless he's meeting up with someone of the female variety in one of the rarely used sections. So far this year, he's visited the 14th century wizard-goblin wars and the Arthurian history shelves, but sitting down to read any of the selected books was not why he had been there. He'd been a little preoccupied with Priscilla Acton and Diana Churchill, on two separate occasions, to give much thought to the library books that had become the backdrop to said clandestine moments. These sorts of reasons are usually the only ones he has when it comes to venturing into Madam Pince's caustic domain. Usually.
Hogsmeade trips aren't out of the ordinary any more. For the upperclassmen, they occur at least once a month, and oftentimes more than that. What is out of the ordinary (though it seems to be becoming more of a theme than he'd like to admit) is the copious amount of homework being assigned every day in class. Maybe it's merely the fact that it's their NEWT year, because unlike previous years, the teachers have apparently all banded together to give them as many assignments as possible right before the Hogsmeade trip. Sirius thinks it's a conspiracy, personally. Worst of all is that Remus had told him point-blank that he wouldn't help him on any of said assignments. He said it's 'for your own good, so you'll pass your NEWTs with Os', but Sirius suspects that Remus just enjoys crushing his soul every once in a while.
Out of all the Marauders, Remus Lupin has a shocking ability to do exactly that, which is both inspiring in some ways and scary in others. This time, it's just plain annoying, because it means that Sirius actually has to step up and apply himself. (Merlin forbid.)
It isn't that Sirius doesn't do his homework. With Remus as a best friend, it would be impossible to slack off completely. It's just that he's naturally gifted with both intelligence and incredibly magnificent good looks – a powerful combination, to be sure, that he most definitely takes advantage of in pretty much any situation that requires a little extra charm (and many that don't). His ability to skim through his assignments and still manage to get top grades is something that impresses the rest of his friends. He doesn't worry about things as ordinary as schoolwork. Usually.
A two foot essay on the dangers of misapplied human transfiguration from McGonagall, a test coming up in Charms before the weekend, another essay for Herbology on the applications of Mimbulus mimbletonia, and an extensive list of further assignments for pretty much all his other classes, which are not quite as drastic but 'no less important' (according to Remus), and 'should still be taken seriously' (also, according to Remus).
So, instead of Marauding with his friends on this fine Wednesday afternoon, or partaking in any of his usual hobbies (broom closets and insulting Slytherins, in no particular order, holding top priority), Sirius Black finds himself being pulled into the library. Not by someone of the female variety, but by Remus bloody Lupin, who keeps sending Sirius stern glances over his shoulder as if he thinks his friend might run off at any moment.
Alas, being best mates with Remus does have its downsides sometimes, but at least he's not the only one who is suffering.
"Take a look at Pince's face!" James hisses gleefully as he trudges behind Sirius. Peter is also with them, and like his two friends, looks none too happy about venturing into the library, of all places. As a general rule, the Marauders only ever come in here when they're brewing up some sort of trouble, whether it comes in the form of research for a prank they've got in mind, canoodling near the Arthurian history section, ogling Lily Evans like a creepy stalker, cajoling Slytherins, or purposefully disrupting the silence just to have a bit of fun. Studying is never a reason. Remus is the only one who actually spends time in here for that purpose. Unnatural, if you ask Sirius.
In any case, it's hardly any wonder that Madam Pince's expression has fallen into one of suspicious distrust. The moment she sees all four of the Marauders stepping foot into her empire, she puts her quill down to watch them with hawkish eyes, as if she expects them to immediately ruin the peace and quiet of her domain.
Sirius snorts back a laugh at the sight of her and snickers under his breath, "With that expression, she's just asking to be pranked."
James snickers too, but whispers, "I don't want a detention ruining the Hogsmeade trip. Let's save it for next week, Pads."
"We aren't pranking anyone," Remus hisses to them as he looks for a free table. "We're here to study and do our homework like ordinary students."
"I'm already so bored," Peter bemoans quietly, and Remus sends him a look that would have probably shut him up, had Peter not been looking around at the many bookshelves with an expression on innate distrust, as if he's never seen so many books in all his life and doesn't quite know what to make of it.
Indeed, he isn't the only one who doesn't know what to make of it. The sight of the Marauders in the library is one that brings mixed reactions to pretty much everyone in the vicinity. Their reputation, as always, precedes them. The other students immediately send them wary glances, no doubt expecting a prank of enormous magnitude to disrupt their focus at any minute. It is more than just rare to see them all in here; it's downright dangerous.
Remus leads them all to an empty table in the middle of the room and takes a seat, immediately pulling out several textbooks and a roll of parchment from his bookbag. His friends throw themselves into the other remaining chairs. James kicks his feet up for all of three seconds before he catches sight of Madam Pince's murderous face upon seeing such an injustice, and proceeds to awkwardly clear his throat and shuffle himself back into a somewhat respectable position. It doesn't lessen Pince's suspicious expression, but it does at least make her turn the brunt of her attention back to her parchment – though she still makes a point to cast wary glances at them every few seconds.
"I don't like this," Sirius mutters, watching Remus flip through his Charms textbook to find the chapter relevant to his assignment.
Upon hearing this, Remus promptly sighs. "You haven't even pulled out any of your homework yet, Padfoot."
Sirius frowns and adamantly says. "I can't work in these conditions."
"It's a library. What are you going on about?"
"Pince keeps glaring at us and all I can smell is dusty, rotting parchment."
"If you start your homework, she'll stop glaring at you."
"Fat chance of that! This is Pince we're talking about. Cranky, old, and completely foul – I mean fantastic, with the most gorgeous blue eyes I've ever seen, who doesn't look a day over thirty." Sirius smiles charmingly at Madam Pince, who is suddenly standing over their table with her arms crossed. Her hawkish eyes have narrowed to such a degree that the 'gorgeous blue' is almost impossible to see.
"Voices down, boys. This is a library," she tells them with a threatening air, and the Marauders all follow Sirius's lead and arrange their faces into their most charming expressions. Peter's, unfortunately, falls flat, and only makes him look like he's got a bad case of poor social skills, which is actually somewhat true.
"Sorry, Madam Pince," James says in his suave voice, which he usually reserves for Lily. He runs a hand through his hair, messing it up more than usual, and beams, "We're just so excited to get started on our homework today."
Sirius sends him a raised eyebrow. Remus bows his head over his textbook and pretends he's alone. Peter frowns disagreeably. As for Madam Pince, well…
She clears her throat with a righteous humph and sends them all one last suspicious look, but doesn't linger to tell James off for being smart with her. Instead she just sweeps off with a flick of her matronly black robes and returns to her desk, warily watching the Marauders out of the corner of her eye as they pull out their textbooks.
"Merlin, it's such a nice day today," James sighs mournfully, casting a glance at the tall windows that overlook the grounds. He pulls a roll of parchment out of his bag reluctantly, setting up his quill and inkpot with a grievous expression.
Remus rolls his eyes. "I thought you were so excited to start your work, Prongs" he dryly reminds him, and James sighs at him and shakes his head.
As Peter begins to flip through his Transfiguration textbook, Sirius riffles through his bag to find his quill. After several minutes spent searching (and ignoring the fact that he's got two quills handy), he casually leans back to declare in his best library voice (which isn't really a library voice at all), "I've forgotten my quill. Guess that means I need to go borrow one from someone."
The three other Marauders cast unbelieving looks his way, their faces all sharing the same dry, dubious expressions.
"Marlene isn't here, Pads," James tells him.
"We're here to do homework, not hang out with girls," Remus says.
"I've got a spare quill if you want, Padfoot," Peter offers.
Sirius raises his hands, composing his face into a look of forlorn distress, and sighs, "There's nothing for it, gentlemen. I can't properly apply myself until I fix this injustice, and since none of you have any extra writing implements for me to borrow, I'll have to go out and brave the world on my own for a short while."
Peter frowns. "But I just said that I – "
"You're a good friend, Wormtail, but I couldn't ask you to make a sacrifice like that." Sirius cuts in, and sighs again as if this whole situation is terribly inconvenient.
"It isn't a – "
"But never fear, for I see several possible candidates that might have what I'm looking for," Sirius adds, glancing around the library and sending a roguish smile at a group of sixth year Hufflepuff girls who are sitting a few tables away.
James snorts in amusement and leans forward to dramatically say, "Go forth, Padfoot, and do what needs to be done."
Remus sighs, "Don't encourage him, Prongs."
Peter, who has finally caught on after the Hufflepuff girls had begun to giggle at being the center of Sirius's attention, shrugs, "I don't understand your preoccupation with girls, Padfoot."
At this, Sirius informs him, "I'm not interested in just any girl, Wormtail. She's got to be nice to look at, intelligent enough to hold a conversation, with a laugh that doesn't make me want to pull my hair out, who likes Quidditch and – has the most evil little smirk I've ever seen…"
James, Remus, and Peter all raise their eyebrows in confusion and frown at him. Until, of course, they realize who Sirius is now staring at.
"Oh no – you are not going to cause trouble right now or we'll all be kicked out," Remus says, glancing over at Madam Pince to see if she's watching them still.
James merely snickers and drawls, "So you're saying that you like girls with evil smirks? That's quite a statement, Padfoot."
Sirius shakes his head in confusion and asks, "What? When did I say that?"
"Just now."
"I did not."
"You just said that you're interested in Slytherins."
"Prongs, that is not something to joke about."
"Padfoot, I beg to differ."
"Wait," Peter cuts in, "I thought you hated Slytherins, Padfoot."
"I do, Wormtail."
"But Prongs just said that you just said that you're interested in – "
"I know what Prongs just said. He's being a right arse."
"Oi, I'm only repeating what I heard!"
"Would you all shut up before Pince kicks us out? Merlin – "
"I still need a quill. D'you think Blair's got a spare?"
"Well since you're so interested in Slytherins now, it's only right that you go and ask," James smirks.
Sirius rolls his eyes. "I guess I'll always be interested in giving Slytherins hell, if that's what you mean, Prongs." He sends him a firm glance as he gets up from the table, silently daring him to say anything more on the subject. James lets him off the hook this time and just shrugs and leans back, smirking widely and watching as Sirius starts walking across the library. He's not the only one watching. Madam Pince's eyes follow his every move, narrowed and suspicious.
Vivian is working on an essay when Sirius helps himself to the chair across from her. He sits down casually, as if he's got every right to do so. Vivian doesn't so much as glance up at him as he does, which irritates him a little because he knows that she's aware of his presence. Everyone is aware of Sirius Black.
After a moment of total silence, broken only by the continued scratching of Vivian's quill, Sirius impatiently grumbles, "Afternoon, Godric."
Instead of responding, Vivian merely turns to her textbook, flips a page, and reads a few lines before she turns back to her essay to transcribe the information onto the parchment. Sirius makes a face at her which she sees out of the corner of her eye, but doesn't respond to.
"What're you working on?" Sirius demands. He hates being ignored. Vivian is very much aware of this.
Again, she says nothing.
"Got a spare quill?" he asks.
Silence.
"I would love to kick your chair out from under you and watch you fall to the ground again," Sirius says.
Vivian hums idly.
"Set fire to your essay – "
She keeps writing.
" – or maybe just charm it so that all the work you've done vanishes and you've got to start over…"
Vivian scoffs and finally mutters, "I know you like listening to yourself talk, blood traitor, but I've got work to do. Go hit on one of your bimbos if you need a quill."
Sirius glares at her and shoves his foot out to kick at her chair beneath the table. It startles her enough to make him smirk in gleeful retribution, but unfortunately the chair doesn't topple over like it had during the detention she had given him at the start of school. Even though it had technically been null and void, since she'd given it to him before term had even started, watching her fall on her ass had made up for the torture of her company.
"Oh wait, are you not a bimbo? My mistake," he replies with a mocking cringe.
Vivian glowers at him. "What do you want, Black? I'm busy."
Sirius pauses for all of two seconds before blurting out, "Gavin Clarke, huh?" Then he pauses again, because he hadn't expected those words to come out of his mouth. When did coming over here to aggravate her equate to asking about her Hogsmeade date as if they're on speaking terms?
Vivian, apparently, hadn't expected this either. She stops writing to look up at him with a raised eyebrow, gives him a narrowed, surly glance, and sneers, "What the fuck do you care what I do in my spare time?"
Sirius sneers right back, "I don't. I just think it's hilarious that you asked Gavin Tosspot Clarke out to Hogsmeade. On a date."
"I don't care if you think it's funny or not," she growls at him, leaning forward and arranging her expression into her darkest glare.
It doesn't seem to faze him. Then again, Sirius Black grew up around dark glares, so he's got a pretty impressive immunity by now.
"Were the other pureblood Slytherins all tied up? No one left to victimize in your own house?" Sirius snarks, then adds, "That is what you're doing, right? You do know that Clarke is a muggleborn, don't you?"
Vivian pauses upon hearing this, opens her mouth, then closes it again. Her silence is answer enough, and Sirius barks out a laugh that's just a little bit too loud. He doesn't seem to care, and merely snickers, "You didn't know, did you? If you had, you'd never have asked him. You blood purists are all so narrow-minded."
Well, he's right about one thing. Vivian hadn't known that Gavin Clarke is a muggleborn, but in hindsight, it does explain a lot. Namely the fact that Gavin had been so reluctant to agree to her spontaneous proposition the other day. She had merely put it down to house rivalries, assuming that it was her own reputation that had given him pause. It makes much more sense that it's got to do with the blood division. Muggleborns don't just associate themselves with pureblood Slytherins these days, not with the current climate dictating events outside of Hogwarts. It's hardly a secret that many of her Slytherin peers have gotten behind Voldemort's beliefs. It also explains the strange looks she's been receiving from some of said peers.
Sirius looks annoyingly triumphant. He leans back and crosses his arms, peering at her with a wide smirk as he waits for her response. The response he receives, though, isn't what he expects.
Vivian snorts, returns to her essay, and says in a bored, drawling tone, "You know, Black, not everyone in Slytherin hates muggleborns."
He definitely does not expect that.
"Oh come off it," Sirius frowns. "I don't believe that load of shit for one second."
Vivian shrugs. "If you think the fact that Clarke is below me in every way is going to stop me from hanging out with him on Saturday, you're wrong."
"So you admit that you think he's scum because of his blood."
"Are you stupid, or just missing the point on purpose?" she wonders idly, enjoying how her casual insult makes him bristle. "Having pure blood obviously makes me better than him."
Sirius scoffs, "Then why are you going on a date with him?"
"Because I want to, blood traitor. Now shove off."
He glares at her. Vivian glares right back.
"Don't you hate muggleborns like the rest of your shitty house?" he demands, leaning forward and staring her down.
She's not sure why he's so adamant about finding out about her perspective, but he's going to be disappointed with what she says next. Raising a pointed brow, Vivian sneers, "Muggleborns are beneath me. Hatred doesn't factor into it."
It isn't that she hates muggleborns. It isn't that she shares the same beliefs as many others in her house. It isn't even that she thinks that people like her should maintain the purity of her blood lest it get dirtied by lesser witches and wizards. It isn't any of these things, but she'll let Black believe that it is all three.
Oh, and he does. His lips pull back into a disgusted glower, and he scoffs in the back of his throat, as if he can't find the words to properly describe the revulsion he feels. Like a finely tuned twist of destiny settling into its pre-paved tracks, Sirius Black believes it all.
And yet…
It isn't that Vivian Blair hates muggleborns. Her perspective of the world, which so disgusts him, is a byproduct of a greater dimension. It is the world that she has grown into. It is the only world she knows. Shaking oneself free from the chains of childhood indoctrination is not such an easy task. A young mind is pliable and easily filled, and Vivian has never known any other way of living besides the one that has been ingrained into her since birth.
She doesn't hate muggleborns, but muggleborns are beneath her. They do not have the same purity in their magic. They cannot achieve the same success that a pureblood can. Whether they are worthy to be taught at this school is another question entirely. The fact of the matter is that they are not comparable to someone like her. This is the backbone of her perception; the foundation of her youth. This belief has paved her way from the first moment she drew breath up until now, pressed into her from all sides by her parents and her social circles. She has never bothered challenging it, or asking why these beliefs exist, or whether muggleborns are truly substandard wizards or not. She's never had any reason to question the preexisting limitations of her world.
This, precisely, is what makes Vivian Blair so inherently different from Sirius Black.
"I wish you could see yourself from my eyes," Sirius murmurs scathingly to her. "Then maybe you'd realize that you're the inferior one."
Her arrogance is truly repulsive. What's more repulsive is the way Vivian blinks at him in an entirely blasé manner, clearly not believing that his words hold any merit whatsoever. Yes, even more repulsive is the way she sneers, "That's funny, coming from you."
He raises an eyebrow in question, and as Vivian rolls up her essay and tosses it into her bag, she unapologetically sneers, "You're beneath me too, blood traitor."
Then, maintaining her cold, sneering air, Vivian stands up and makes her way to the door of the library, more than ready to end this conversation and, with any luck, forget that it had ever occurred in the first place. As if she needs to listen to Sirius fucking Black harp about her beliefs. She half expects him to send a hex her way before she disappears on him, in payback for calling him a blood traitor multiple times, but he doesn't. He doesn't, because his attention has been drawn to something else.
In her haste to leave, she had forgotten something. It is a book – no, a dictionary – filled to the brim with hexes. Only, when Sirius flips it open to the center of it, where a folded piece of paper is marking her spot, he discovers that there is more to this dictionary than meets the eye.
Oh, upon first glance, everything looks normal. He skims over a list of hexes, resting his chin on his palm and flipping through the pages idly.
Langlock, Levicorpus, Melofors…
There are quite a few hexes that Sirius doesn't know, actually. Some are more dangerous than others, but he doubts that Vivian Blair would discriminate between a good hex. If he recalls, her go-to one is Furnunculus, which is no walk in the park because it involves boils and the target's face. Just the thought of it makes Sirius cringe. He's seen many a wayward student on the receiving end of that hex over the last seven years. Vivian Blair is definitely not as innocent as she likes to pretend to be.
Deciding to look through the book more later, Sirius moves his eyes to the folded bit of paper that is tucked between the parchment and unfolds it. Why his curiosity gets the better of him, he does not know. Perhaps it is, as always, an effort to discover something about Vivian Blair to use against her. Maybe his eagerness to see what lies within the folded parchment is due to the very same general consensus that he has always held himself to whenever it comes to her: to find new aspects of her character to loathe; new fragments of her personality to recoil from. It is almost a game to him, this repulsion. It is the trademark of every single reluctant glance and sneering insult. Another foundation set in place between him and her. But when he opens the parchment that had been tucked inside the dictionary, all he sees are scribbles.
Evidentir Evidenter – clearer, easier to focus
Transmutare argenti – the illusion of, if not the real thing. How does one transmute permanently?
Luxmultere, needs work, try different root
Mendacium videre – success, if targeted properly, otherwise backfires
Scribbles upon scribbles of Latin fill the page, from top to bottom. None of them are recognizable spells that Sirius has seen before, but he assumes that they are, indeed, spells. Is this what she does in her spare time? Mess around with experimental charms? A more pressing question is: where are all the experimental curses? This is Vivian Blair, after all; pureblood Slytherin with a nasty sneer and the evilest glare he's ever seen. Perhaps he's missed something…
He looks again, flipping the page over to find more experimental spells scribbled out in neat, tight cursive. In some places, her writing is more pressed together than in others, as if she had been trying to get her thoughts down before they slipped away from her. It's almost obsessive. It reminds him of the singular madness of a genius mind. Well, 'genius' might be stretching it a bit, but he is slightly (very slightly, in a very minuscule way) impressed.
There are no curses to be found, at least none that jumps out at him, but at the very bottom of the parchment there is one spell that makes him tilt his head in curiosity. It has several forms, as if the experiments hadn't gone quite as planned and needed revising. Said revisions are written out one after all, with check marks or scratches running through them and little notes written up the margins with arrows pointing at their words; madness at its finest.
Viverati
Vivicendi
Viveramus
Cendi, dium, dius, dia
Turning his eyes to the hastily scrawled words directly following the final word, Sirius reads:
'The order is all wrong. Rearrange. End result is weak, at best. Needs a lot of concentration, too.'
Fate is a strange thing. Sirius Black has absolutely no idea that it is guiding his hand even now, as he tucks the book and parchment into his bag and casts a glance towards the library doors where Vivian Blair had just stormed her way through. Ah, but Fate isn't always silent. It does not always work quietly. Sometimes, it burns with a fire that is not so easily ignored. Sometimes, it is an inferno of purpose.
Others, it is nothing but a pebble on a shore, shifting slightly beneath subtle, peaceful waves.
"Had fun trying to terrorize Blair?" James wonders as Sirius saunters back to their library table and throws himself into his chair with an expression of supreme satisfaction. Sirius just grins crookedly. His eyes are sparkling with a heavy heaping of devil-may-care mischief, a sight that isn't necessarily out of the ordinary, especially in lieu of his conversation (if one can call it that) with Vivian Blair.
Peter wonders, "Did you find a quill, then?"
Sirius throws an arm around Peter's shoulders and says in a sage voice, "I've found something far better than a quill, Wormtail. Take a look at this!"
He shoves Vivian's list of spells in his face and watches Peter take the scrap of parchment. Peter doesn't seem to know what, exactly, he's holding, and glances up at Sirius with a confused expression. James is quick to snatch the paper and peruse its contents, plucking it right out of Peter's hands.
"Luxmultere…Mendacium videre…" He glances over at Sirius and raises an eyebrow. "Are you saying that Blair came up with these?"
Sirius shrugs. "Seems like it. Didn't think she had the intellectual capacity, to be honest. What do you think, Moony?"
Remus takes the parchment curiously. As he glances over the list of Latin, a memory blazes through him. He wonders if this is the parchment that Vivian had been writing on when he'd seen her some weeks ago on patrol, leaning against the edge of the windowsill with the moon as her light source. She'd been diligently scrawling in a book that looks remarkably similar to the one that Sirius is still holding.
Before Remus can say anything, James eagerly says, "You know, some of these spells could prove useful. Aeternum risus, for example."
Eternal laughter. Not the sort of hex that Sirius would have expected from a Slytherin like Vivian Blair. It's child's play, in a way. Something far too innocent to do much damage. He would have thought that she'd be more interested in darker things; spells that might draw blood, or bring pain. There are a few of these sorts of lighthearted hexes (if a hex could be considered lighthearted) strewn about the page.
Remus shakes his head and inputs, "She hasn't made any indication of the wand movements, though. I doubt we'd be able to use them."
It's true enough. An incantation is useless without knowing how to move your wand and give it power. Without that, it's just a word. Still…
"Oh come on. We're the Marauders. We can figure it out," Sirius snorts, and then adds, "Besides, this is Godric we're talking about. She's can't have made it that complicated."
Remus looks incredibly unsure. "Either way, if Blair finds out that you've nicked this from her…"
"She practically left it for me to take," Sirius shrugs in response, sounding completely careless about the whole thing, and nudges his 'borrowed' book towards the center of the table as well. "This, too. I told you she carried around a dictionary of curses."
His three friends look over at the dictionary with wary expressions, but said expressions are brought on for different reasons.
"What if it's cursed?" Peter hesitantly wonders, looking unwilling to reach out to study it.
"We'd have known if it was by now, since Sirius has already touched it," James points out, then says, "But there could be some really foul hexes in there. Blair might use one on us if she finds out we have it…"
Remus just murmurs, "She'll definitely come looking for it, if she hasn't already realized that it's gone."
The boys pause and glance back to the doors of the library, as if they expect to see Vivian storming back into it in search of her lost possessions. When nothing happens, though, Sirius just shrugs and drawls, "I'm just keeping it safe for her until I can valiantly return it, is all."
"…Valiantly?" Peter repeats, sounding more than a little skeptical.
Sirius smirks widely, "Once a gentleman, always a gentleman."
Remus snorts, "First of all, since when have you ever been a gentleman? Second of all, if you lot don't keep your voices down, Pince looks like she might murder us."
Again, the boys pause to look over their shoulders, this time at the Head Librarian, who is glowering at them from her desk through narrowed eyes. The sight she makes is truly horrific, but it hardly deters the boys from sending her cheerful, albeit slightly overdone, smiles. James even waves happily, though it only seems to make Madam Pince's eyes even more narrowed.
"I'm heading back to the tower to look this over," Sirius declares, snatching the parchment out of James's hand and tucking it back into the cover of the book. His words definitely inspire the others to follow suit. Even Remus seems to be on the fence as to whether he really wants to stick around. He casts a curious glance at the book that Sirius tucks into his bag, looks back at his half-written essay, and then sighs as he stands up to join his friends. He can always finish the assignment later.
Pince (and the entire room at large) looks relieved to see the Marauders clamoring out of the library. They all give her cheerful goodbyes, slightly louder than necessary and mainly to annoy her one last time, before ducking back into the hallway and starting down the corridor. They take the passageway behind the tapestry depicting a herd of centaurs, hurrying because the thought of running into Blair on her way back to the library is not one they want to see come to fruition. It is only when they reach the Gryffindor common room that they all relax. They stumble into it with a hastiness that makes the other occupants of the room look over at them with wary eyes. There is usually only one reason why all four Marauders would look so eager to return to a safe haven such as the Gryffindor commons, and that reason is one that everyone in their house is quite familiar with.
"Where have you four been?" Lily asks suspiciously as she eyes their harried forms. Her Head Girl badge gleams in the quiet light of the late afternoon sun, in resplendent hues of gold and red. She shoots James a hard look and eyes his own Head Boy badge as if she doesn't think he deserves to wear it.
James immediately opens his mouth to respond to her, but is cut off by Remus when he smoothly says, "We've just come from the library, Lily. Now if you'll excuse us…"
He grabs James's arm to pull him towards the dormitory stairs before James can either 1) make an idiot of himself in front of his lady-love, or 2) accidentally spill their latest secret in the process of being a lovestruck idiot. If Lily Evans found out that they've taken something of Vivian's, regardless that they didn't technically steal it, she would turn them in without hesitation. Remus is quite sure that this whole thing is a terrible idea, but he's always a bit curious to find out more.
James turns to shoot Lily one last grin, his hair mussed and falling into his eyes, before he gets pulled up the stairs and disappears from sight. The boys are quick to pile into their dormitory, throwing their bags carelessly to the side and crowding together on the floor. Sirius drags the book and parchment back out of his bag and splays it down on the rug with a nod.
"So why are we holding onto this instead of giving it back, Padfoot?" Peter asks, leaning forward to read over the scrawled spellwork that litters the page. Remus does too, looking vaguely impressed at the countless charms and incantations.
Sirius leans back against the side of James's bed, near which they are all gathered, and explains, "Because, Wormtail, there are a ton of spells we could use for pranks."
James hums in agreement as he leans over to peruse the list. He's about to point out a few possibilities, being all too willing to brainstorm potential ideas with his mates. Before he can, though, Peter says, "This is a strange book."
They all turn to look over at him. Having had apparently gotten over his fear that the book might be cursed, and having grown bored with the confusing scrawl of Latin, Peter has opened the book on the floor in front of him, laying on his stomach as he flips through its pages. His musing comment had been more of a curious, backhanded statement at best, but when it captures his friends' attention in a way that Peter is rarely able to manage, he straightens out and eagerly explains, "The writing is weird. See?"
He tilts the book towards them, pointing out the oddly uniformed letters and how perfectly they fit together. Sirius makes a confused noise in the back of his throat, for he hadn't caught that when he'd flipped through the book in the library. It is rather strange, though – until Remus frowns, "It reminds me of the books my mum reads."
The boys turn to stare at Remus with baffled expressions.
"But isn't your mum a muggle?" James blurts out.
Remus shrugs, "Yeah."
Sirius snorts, "There must be some other explanation here. We're talking about a book that's clearly about magic and belongs to Vivian Blair."
Hater of muggles, those with lesser blood, and of anything that doesn't belong in her high-scale world of elitist purity. And yet, even as he thinks the thought, Sirius's mind flashes back to Vivian's words in the library only a short time ago.
"…Not everyone in Slytherin hates muggleborns."
But this is Vivian they're talking about – Slytherin purist who had said herself that she thinks she's better than everyone around her just because she has cleaner blood than them. She had outright admitted this. But then, she had also said that hatred doesn't factor into it. What does that even mean, anyway? How can she think so highly of herself and not hate muggleborns at the same time? How do these beliefs not go hand in hand with one another? After all, his own parents share this view of blood purity, and they also loathe the muggle world for all that it is.
"Something is strange," Sirius mutters, shaking his head as he stares down at the book. Peter flips through it idly, thumbing over the L section of the dictionary, and then flipping to the S section. He looks a little wary about the multiple Dark hexes littering the pages before him, so after a moment of this, he shuts the book and pushes it away from him.
The title glares out at them from the bound leather, its embossed calligraphy curling over the words, 'A Dictionary of Hexes, Vol. I'.
And just like that, a lightbulb goes off in Sirius's head.
"Volume one?" he muses, and opens the book again to flip to the last page.
Zamia corporialis
Zelotypsie
Zephyrus
"…If this is the first volume, then why does it have the entire alphabet?" Sirius wonders. His mind flashes back to the day they had held Quidditch tryouts, and how Vivian had been reading in the stands when the Gryffindor team had ambled onto the pitch. She'd been reading Volume III. He swears she had.
James, Peter, and Remus frown at this.
"Maybe it's a revised edition," Remus supplies, but he doesn't sound very convinced, especially as he stares down at the very familiar print on the pages. In all his time at Hogwarts, he's never seen a wizard-made book that looks like this.
James tilts his head to the side, looking a bit miffed, and then reaches for his wand. He pauses for only a moment before he waves it over the open book and firmly says, "Revelio," and they all lean back a bit as if they're expecting some insane and very Dark curse to shoot out from the pages.
However, quite the opposite happens.
The text immediately rearranges, letters spinning out of their words to join with others, forming new words that hadn't existed before. Suddenly, the entire book is not a dictionary at all.
Baffled, Sirius grabs the book and flips it back to the front. The title, too, has changed. Now, instead, it reads, 'Mansfield Park', and the author is some woman that Sirius has never heard of.
"Who's Jane Austen? Have you heard of her, Moony?" he asks, looking up at Remus.
Remus purses his mouth and hums, "She sounds familiar…I've heard that name somewhere…"
For the life of him, though, he can't seem to recall where he's heard it, or who authoress is, and the four boys just lean back, looking a bit ruffled at the lack of information.
"…She must be a dark witch," Sirius mutters, and opens the book to see what sort of evil place Mansfield Park is, to have inspired an entire novel to be written about it. His mind races with images of dark witches and wizards doing unnatural and malevolent experiments in the shadows of its corridors.
Instead of an evil account of dark experiments, though, he is met with something far different:
"You have qualities which I had not before supposed to exist in such a degree in any human creature. You have some touches of the angel in you beyond what — not merely beyond what one sees, because one never sees anything like it — but beyond what one fancies might be."
Sirius raises an eyebrow and flips to another page, searching for the evil incantations that must exist somewhere within this book.
"Good-humored, unaffected girls, will not do for a man who has been used to sensible women. They are two distinct orders of being."
He frowns.
"What the hell is this?" he demands, and James reaches out to grab the book.
As he looks through it, James shrugs, "It's some sort of novel, I guess. Does Blair even know how to read?"
Remus rolls his eyes. "Would she be here if she couldn't read? Let me see it."
James passes the book along, looking a bit less interested in it than he had before. Peter does, too. Rather than give the book another thought, the two of them reach for the parchment and look over the spells again, muttering at each other when they see a charm that looks mischievous enough to be worked into a prank.
Sirius, though…
He flips through the book even after his friends give up trying to figure out what it is. With a strangely obsessive fortitude, he delves into it almost eagerly, until he finds that he cannot put it down, for there is something in the verses of it that seems important, and he is struck with the impression that he needs to understand the true nature of it.
Why? He does not know. Perhaps it is little more than a study into Vivian Blair – a way for him to know who she is so as to write better poems for his prank. A desire to find new faults within her to scorn. Perhaps it is only a whim, a miscalculation of human nature. A blunder.
"Depend upon it, you see but half. You see the evil, but you do not see the consolation. There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere."
Yes – perhaps it is nothing more than a lapse of fortune rattling on destiny's door.
"I have the best prank idea," says one James Potter later that evening, when dinner is over and they are all back in the Gryffindor common room.
The Marauders have once again taken over the couch directly in front of the fireplace, which has become their usual spot over the years, so much so that their housemates know better than to make use of it when they are in the vicinity. The fire is crackling merrily in the grate, and despite the fact that all four of the Marauders have their homework out, only Remus and Peter are trying to accomplish any of it. Remus is trying to help Peter with his unfinished D.A.D.A. assignment. Peter is busily leafing through his textbook in search of useful information. Sirius is currently making eyes at Marlene from over the edge of Vivian's 'borrowed' book, which he's been weirdly fascinated with since their discovery earlier that day. When they all hear James, though, they lift their heads to stare at him.
Whenever James Potter gets that look on his face, all bets are off. They know it well by now. The familiar gleam of mischief slices through his brown eyes, to such an extent that it makes his entire countenance shine with unruly light. That, and the fact that he's leaning back with his arms thrown over the back of the couch with a smug grin on his face, is enough to catch all of their attention. The paper that he's holding in his hands certainly presses the matter home.
"Prank?" Peter repeats, looking a little dazed, probably from all the work he's been rushing to finish after procrastinating for so long.
Remus tilts his head curiously and looks over at the paper that James is holding. As for Sirius…
"Well, let's hear it then," he drawls, and snaps the book shut as he turns to James. When trying to get Sirius to pay attention, prank idea always do the trick.
James just smirks wider, slaps the parchment down on the table in front of them, and points to one spell in particular with a proud look blazing through his eyes.
"Remember how we charmed Filch's detention slip back in third year?" he asks.
Peter scrunches his face up as he recalls the incident, and slowly wonders, "You mean the one that made him start dancing the Irish jig the moment we handed it in?"
Sirius laughs aloud at the memory. Remus cracks an amused smile, too. Filch had been dancing through the halls all day until Professor Flitwick had managed to figure out the countercharm and turn him back to normal. They'd gotten two weeks' worth of detentions for it but it was hilarious enough that none of them really minded, especially since it gave them plenty of fodder against Filch for the rest of the year. Whenever they saw him in the hallways, they'd whistle an Irish tune and he'd get so furious that his face would turn a bright and vibrant red.
Anyway –
"That was a good one," Sirius sighs, looking a bit nostalgic.
James just scoffs, "Please. We can do better than that."
The way he says it, as if he already knows exactly how to one-up their old prank, makes them all pause thoughtfully and look over at the experimental spell that James is pointing to.
"You really ought to return Blair's book, after all," James adds, his smirk turning into a full out shit-eating grin as he turns to Sirius.
Remus cracks a little smile and leans back. Oh, he isn't entirely condoning his friends', but they do amuse him from time to time.
Peter gleefully says, "Great idea, Prongs!"
Sirius – well.
With a slow smirk overtaking his face, he murmurs, "I guess it's her fault for coming up with the charm, right?"
And just like that, the Marauders all crowd together to study the spell, and jot down some of the ones that they might be able to use in the future, and for now they forget about the fact that Vivian Blair is reading a book that is rather irregular and very strange.
After all, when you stumble across an anomaly, you don't always know what to do with it. When something doesn't fit into the world that you have always known, it is only natural to disregard it and pretend that it doesn't exist. The only problem is that some things don't like being disregarded. Some things are smaller images of a greater picture.
They don't see that picture yet, though. Not as they one day will.
