Prompt: (object) poinsettia flower
The Switch
Sirius poked the big red flower in front of him. "Plants are boring. Especially Muggle ones. They don't do anything. And they're so easy to take care of I could do it in my sleep."
"Says you. Why are we learning about Muggle stuff in Herbology anyway?" James asked. "Seems like I should be getting double marks if I'm doing two lessons at once."
"Then you'd be doing doubly horrible, Mr. Potter," Professor Sprout commented as she walked by the two boys. "Look at your poinsettia, it's nearly dead! We're growing these to decorate the common rooms! They're supposed to go up to the castle in three days! It'll look disgraceful if we have wilted flowers!" She eyed Sirius's plant. "This one, on the other hand, is absolutely gorgeous! Nicely done, Mr. Black!"
"Don't know why it's such a big deal anyway," James grumbled once she'd gone off to inspect someone else's plant. "They're just stupid flowers, they don't do anything."
"...what I'm doing wrong, it looks awful." Sirius heard Marlene speaking to Lily a little farther down the work table. He could just see her from the corner of his eye. "I've grown these before, it's usually a cinch." She frowned. "These are my mum's favorites too, I was going to send it off to her once we got to take them up to the castle."
"Are you even listening to me, Pads?" James elbowed Sirius.
"Hmm, what? Sorry, just lost in thought I guess." Sirius flipped through the pages of his Herbology book, trying to figure out why he'd even been eavesdropping on Marlene McKinnon in the first place, and why what she'd said was bothering him.
"Right." James didn't sound entirely convinced, but he didn't mention it for the rest of the lesson.
Later that night, Sirius waited until his companions were finally asleep before he crept downstairs to the common room and out through the portrait hole. He transformed quickly before Filch came along. His journey out of the castle entrance and down to the greenhouses went smoothly and he transformed again once he was safely inside.
Taking his wand out of his pocket, he muttered, "Lumos," and began scanning the shelves containing the poinsettias they had been working on for the past few weeks. He finally found his, distinguishable by a small tag stuck in the dirt with his name, S. Black, written on it. He took the pot down and carried it with him as he continued to look.
After another minute or so of searching, he found the tag bearing the name M. McKinnon and sighed with relief. It was taking him much longer to do this than he'd anticipated. He switched the pots and the name tags, placed the other pot in the empty space on the shelf, and transformed quickly, running back up to the castle.
"Um, mate, I think you killed it." James looked at Sirius's very wilted poinsettia three days later in Herbology. "It looked so good the other day, what'd you do, feed it poison?"
Sirius shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe I gave it too much water?"
"Well, Miss McKinnon, yours has made a very spectacular comeback! Ten points to Gryffindor for having the best looking flower in the class! Well done!" Sirius turned to see a beaming Professor Sprout proudly admiring Marlene's poinsettia. Marlene looked completely surprised.
"I don't understand it, it was practically dead the other day," Marlene was saying to Lily. "Nobody had one that looked this nice, except maybe..." She looked over at Sirius, her eyes wide.
Looking away quickly, Sirius poked at the dirt around his pitiful looking flower. How did she figure it out? he wondered. She didn't. For all she knows, the tags just got switched up by accident, that's all.
Sirius, convinced that he'd pulled it off without anyone else figuring it out, didn't give it another thought until they were heading back up to the castle, their lessons over for the day. A tap on his shoulder stopped him. He turned to find Marlene standing behind him.
"Something I can do for you, McKinnon?" He tried to act normally, talking to her the way he'd talk to Lily, casually and dismissively. So I did one nice thing for her. It doesn't mean anything. I can be a nice guy sometimes. Besides, she didn't figure it out. She's probably just going to lecture me about some prank I pulled, as usual.
"I just..." She seemed unusually shy and speechless. "Why?"
"Why what?" Sirius rolled his eyes. "Could you maybe start making some sense?"
"Why did you switch our pots?" she finally asked. "I know that was your flower that had my name tag in it. I want to know why you did it. What could possibly be in it for you?" Her eyes narrowed. "You're not trying to charm me into snogging you, are you?"
"Merlin, no," Sirius said disgustedly. "Not that I would have a problem if you did want to snog..."
"Sirius..."
"That's not why I did it." He found himself unable to look her in the eye, so instead looked down at his shoes. "I heard you say you wanted to send it off to your mum and you sounded disappointed that you wouldn't be able to, so I switched them."
His confession was met with silence. He was just about to look up again when he felt her fingers under his chin, pushing it up so their eyes met. "There is a nice guy in there somewhere," she said, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "I would never have believed it if I hadn't experienced it for myself." She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you. I'll never forget this." With that, she ran to catch up to Lily.
Sirius put a hand to the spot she'd kissed. "Neither will I."
