So I wrote whenever I found free time during this busy week and actually made it possible to get you the next chapter as soon as I could. I actually wrote a little more than I usually do per chapter this time too. There were a few reasons that motivated me this week. The first being an incredible review by Smileyface Devil that almost made me cry and pushed me to write even more, so thank you so much for that! And secondly, even though it may not seem like a lot to some people, I made it over 100 followers! I just wanted to say thank you to all of you because I honestly didn't think anyone would read these. But anyway thank you all and here is Chapter 25! I hope you all enjoy and review!
Chapter 25
"Settle down for Merlin's sake!" Slughorn sounded as he stood impatiently behind his desk, waiting for the class to pay attention. "I don't understand why all of you are so distracted today. It's a bloody Tuesday." Lily could hear him mumble under his breath as he turned to the board and began to write. Veritaserum. Lily and a few others who knew the difficulty of this potion let out a groan.
"Due to the incident last month where half of my prepared potions cabinet exploded from a lack of care on one of your parts." Slughorns glare shot to Peter who was already hiding his head behind his notebook. "I have decided that since we are ahead of schedule, we can try to fix that a bit for todays class." A smug, pleased smile pulled on Slughorn's face as he took in the displeased glances being sent in Peter's direction.
"Now of course there is no way to easily brew a successful batch of Veritaserum by ones self. So I shall be making this a partner assignment." Excited mumbling ran through the room and as Lily turned to see if Celia wanted to partner, Slughorn cleared his throat. "Partners that I shall be assigning." The groans filled the room faster than the prior excited chatter. No one was ever pleased with their partners when it came time for Slughorn to choose. Especially Lily since he always wanted to partner people with equal intelligence, so she was always placed with Severus.
The previous years were never bad, but now that Lily wanted nothing to do with him, things became a bit more difficult. "However, since the reasoning for all this re-brewing is due to the failure of paying attention in my class. I shall be changing my usual pairing method so that some of you might actually learn something before your OWL's this year." His glare skimmed over most of the class this time, seeing as most people had taken to potions as social hour. "So lets begin with… Potter." He glanced in James' direction, causing him to look away from Deirdre who was suction cupped to his arm. "With McKinnon." Marlene let out a puff of frustration as James shuffled slowly to the open chair beside her while Deirdre sent glares that could cause burning holes to appear in the back of Marlene's head.
"Sinclair, since you're so upset about being left alone, you can partner with Bella." Slughorn seemed to gain amusement as the girls stared at him dumbfounded. But after a few moments of grumbled frustration, Bellatrix moved over to sit beside her new partner. "Sirius you will be with…" His eyes scanned about the room until they zeroed in on Lily. "Miss Lily." He smiled at her and was pleased to see her smile in return. She couldn't be more pleased that he had assigned her someone aside from Severus. "Hiya Ging…" He began, but her glare in reply caused him to stop mid word and continue to slide quietly into the seat beside her that had just opened up as Slughorn assigned Celia with a quiet Hufflepuff Davey Gudgeon. Sirius and James always snickered when they heard his name. They would forever know him as the boy who tried to climb the Whomping Willow and almost had his eye stabbed out.
Luckily for Lily, Severus was assigned to Peter and was placed on the opposite side of the room beside a not too amused pairing of Max and Narcissa Black who wouldn't even look in one another's direction.
"How many more times do I have to stir this?" Sirius groaned only after his third stir of the thick liquid. "Until it thins out. You're the one who wanted to stir so I don't know why you're complaining." Lily laughed as she measured out the upcoming ingredients. "Well I thought it would be like the actual consistency of the final thing." He mumbled trying to force the spoon through the goop a fifth time. "Well you are stirring it so it will become like that." She smiled up at him and giggled slightly as she saw the frown on his face grow. It took Sirius about ten more stirs before the liquid loosened and Lily began to drop in a few beans.
"So Evans. Any reason why she still won't talk to me?" He began to question as they sat quietly for the ten-minute boiling period the potion needed. "Because you're a moron? I thought it was quite apparent why she stopped talking to you in the first place." She smirked knowing all to well that he was referring to Hestia. "I'm serious, Lily." He glared over at her. "Aw! I'm so proud of you for learning your name dear!" The glare seemed to grow even more as James let out a rather loud laugh upon hearing Lily's remark. "Gold star for you." She smiled, waving her wand lightly so that a gold star appeared on his forehead, which he quickly swiped off. "This isn't funny Evans!"
The smile had finally faded down from her face as she took in how upset he was by the situation. Never had she seen Sirius Black so concerned about something that didn't include the Marauders. "You need to take into account her feelings. What she needs." He seemed confused by what she was saying which Lily could only respond to with a rather large eye roll. "She's a turtle. She has to come out of her shell before you can even consider introducing her to new people, exposing her to new things. Otherwise she'll just run away again." Lily sighed as he took in everything she was telling him. "So I have to give her confidence like James did with you?" Sirius lowered his voice as he leaned in a little closer to Lily. It took her a moment to realize it, but he was right. Before James this past summer, Lily didn't even have a backbone to stand up to people like Emmeline Vance, and suddenly she shut her down like it was nothing and had changed her personality entirely. With him in mind, Lily quickly glanced up to see James chuckling happily as he watched Marlene's reaction as she had gotten some of the goop of the potion on her and was panicking.
A smile drifted over her face as she watched his amusement and her smile grew more as his crooked smile developed seeing her staring over at him. It lasted only a few moments but Lily couldn't help but feel her stomach flip as James stuck out his tongue and crossed his eyes, which she responded to by making an equally unattractive face and looking away back to Sirius. "Yes Sirius. Exactly like James did for me." She smiled and returned to drop a leaf into the brew. Throughout all of this Sirius watched in amusement, not because his best friend was smiling and having fun more than he had ever seen with another girl, but because he couldn't help but notice Deirdre Sinclair's glare burning in their direction. He knew her jealousy would get the better of her in the end and it wouldn't be long before James finally saw her for what she was.
X
The day had drifted by rather slowly for Lily after potions. Transfiguration was beginning to become quite the frustrating subject, as she couldn't seem to grasp the newest material McGonagall was teaching them and Binns seemed to be putting her to sleep in History of Magic for the first time that she could ever think of. Her mind was just not there for her today. Maybe it had something to do with her dad's letter seeing as replying to him seemed to be the only thing that she wanted to do since she had read it. "Hello Lily." A voice chimed behind her as she turned, a smiling Hestia waved lightly in her direction as she walked along the Gryffindor table. "Hi Hestia." She smiled and waved back but her hand slowly lowered as Hestia's eyes met with Sirius across the table from her and she immediately rushed off further down the table without saying another word. "Bloody women." He scoffed under his breath as he grabbed a roll from the plate on the table and ripped a bite out of it.
"You eat like an animal." Dorcas giggled lightly which Sirius glared up at her for and then stared down at his plate. Lily couldn't help but notice his silence for the remainder of the meal and was surprised when he left before dessert without a word. "Is he alright?" Dorcas quickly spoke when he was out of earshot. James seemed slightly frustrated with Dorcas behavior toward Sirius recently. Her crush never showed before but since the whole summer situation with Emmeline, she seemed to be trying even harder to gain Sirius' attention and it came off as needy to him. "Probably to have a smoke." James finally spoke up as he poked at the pudding that appeared before him. "Sirius doesn't smoke." Dorcas spoke as if she was absolutely positive of her answer. "Yeah ok. And next you're going to tell me that Max isn't gay?" Remus rolled his eyes as Dorcas pouted thinking her perfect boy had a habit she didn't like. "He's as straight as they come." Mary chuckled beside Remus causing him to smile a bit and catch a glance of her smile out of the corner of his eye.
"Of course I'm straight Mary! Our Wedding is right after we finish with school." Max tried to keep a calm voice but broke out laughing halfway through. Even though everyone was smiling at the jokes, Lily couldn't help but glance down the table at Hestia to see she was staring after Sirius. That was until she caught sight of Lily staring at her and quickly pushed herself up from the table and glided out of the Great Hall. "I think I'm going to shower before rounds. Something about today has me feeling grimy. I'll meet you in the Common Room before rounds Remus?" She questioned to see him turn away from Mary for a moment and give her a small nod and a smile. "Hey McKinnon maybe you should go take one too. Or did you get the goop off of you from potions today?" James chimed in and immediately ducked as Marlene threw the cupcake she was eating in his direction and luckily it hit the floor before reaching the Hufflepuff's at the table behind him. Lily took that as her cue to retreat and followed Hestia's path out of the Great Hall. However, as she turned for the main stairwell, she came upon Hestia leaning against the rail waiting for her.
"I figured you would follow." She smiled as she sat down on the bottom step and watched as Lily made her way over and took the space beside her. "He didn't mean to upset you before. You know that. Don't you?" Lily sighed after a moment of silence between them. "It's not even that." She scoffed which seemed to surprise Lily. "Then why are you avoiding him?" She had thought it was the most obvious answer before, but apparently that wasn't the case. "Why does he suddenly want to talk to me? Why would he want to be friends with me?" She shook her head and looked to Lily for an answer, but was only met with a smile. "What?" She questioned, confusion easy to read in her voice. "That's something you'll have to ask him."
X
The first time he had tried one, his father had left his own pack in the entry way of Grimmauld Place with his briefcase. Sirius stumbled upon them as he returned home for Christmas break his third year. His parents had forgotten him at Kings Cross and he would have stayed there if it hadn't been for James' dad who apparated him home. With the anger built up inside him, it seemed like a smart choice at the time. But soon they became his rebelling tool for every negative thing his parents shot his way. Within a month, he picked up the habit and it became his new tolerance tool for stupidity.
As he inhaled what was easily past his hundredth drag, he realized how the burn had become almost like an itch in his throat now a day and didn't even faze him anymore. He opened his mouth slightly, placing his tongue lightly raised to puff out small circles of smoke, a trick he had taught himself while being locked up in his room during one of his many groundings.
The need for a cigarette was brought on at dinner as Hestia rushed by him and ignored him once again, after greeting Lily beside him. No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't understand what he needed to do so that she would speak to him again. He'd try to talk to her in the corridors, but she would dodge through groups to lose him. In the common room, she would see him enter the portrait hole and was halfway up the girls staircase before he even said her name.
He was so used to her avoiding him, that he choked out a puff of smoke as her voice sounded behind him. "You may be able to do fancy things with the smoke, but eventually those things will kill you." Sirius spun around and immediately met her eyes. The reflection of the moon on them brought out the blue like he had never seen before and he couldn't help but stare in awe. "Well look who's talking to me again." The smug smirk returning to his face as she stared on furiously. "I had my reasons." She let out in a low mumble.
"I'm just trying to branch you out! I mean your roommates seem nice and Ginger is alright and all, but don't you think after five years its time to branch out and meet new people?" He had turned himself fully on the window edge to face her. "Why do you care?" She let out after a moment. Hestia for the life of her still could not understand Sirius' intentions. "Like I said before. I want to be your friend. I want to get to know you." He sighed and broke eye contact for the first time, which surprised her.
"But there's nothing grand about me." She laughed which brought some ease to Sirius. "I'm muggle born and was impossibly shy even before I got here." She scoffed, sliding onto the windowsill beside him. "You knew you were different. I grew up in a world where if people found out about me, I'd be made fun of or thrown in a loony bin!" A shudder rushed through her spine as she thought of what Petunia told the world when Lily went to school.
"But you're not different here!" Sirius chuckled as he stubbed out his cigarette on the stone of the sill beside him. "You were brought here where you belong! Where everyone else is just like you! So why hide now where you're accepted?" Something inside him told him not to do it, but ignoring the feeling, he slid his hand on top of hers. "You're a Gryffindor, Jones! Clearly the Sorting Hate sees how strong you are. Otherwise you'd probably be in Ravenclaw with all the other know it all's."
He was pleased to see that a smile had broken through her pursed lips and that she hadn't moved her hand out from under his. "I always did wonder why I was in this house." Hestia lightly giggled as she glanced up to meet his gaze. "You're braver than you think." Sirius tightened his grip around her hand and wasn't surprised when she pulled hers away. What did surprise him, was that she pulled away to flip her hand and slid it back into his, grasping onto his lightly. His eyes shot down and looked over their hands and then up to see her smiling. "You're not as bad as a lot of girls make you out to be." She laughed seeing his face change to offended.
"I have Never!" He gasped, every word dripping with sarcasm. "Sure you haven't you Dirty Trollop." Her hand quickly shot up to cover her mouth to stifle her laughter. "Hestia Jones!" His hand rose up to his heart as if it actually pained him. "What would your mother say?" A chuckle escaping his mouth as he gave her hand another squeeze. "She'd probably agree. You don't have the cleanest of records you know." Hestia peered over to see he had tilted his head down and begun to nod. "I know I don't. But there were reasons for the way I was. And now that I'm free of them and living with the Potters, I can change that."
For the first time in the past month, Hestia was seeing the strong, pompous, Sirius Black, in a weak state. "I'm sure you'll be able to set everything right for yourself in the end." She wasn't surprised at all as his quirky smirk appeared. "I need you to help me then." Confusion spread through her as she tried to pull her hand away. However, Sirius feeling the movement, held on tighter. "Help you with what?" She was clueless as to what he was trying to do. "If you ever see me and I look like I'm about to do something stupid, stop me." Sirius had turned to face her, sliding his other hand on top of her hand already in his grasp. "So you want me to act like a babysitter? I'd rather not, Black." She laughed nervously as she managed to slip her hand out from his grip.
"Not a babysitter. Almost like a relationship advisor. You tell me if who I'm considering to go after would be a proper choice for me." Hestia began to roll her eyes and turn away. "Or call me a Dirty Trollop whenever I'm being an idiot about women." That seemed to peak her interest he noticed as a smirk pulled on the corner of her mouth. "Whenever I think you deserve it?" Sirius gave a sharp nod. " And you'll listen to my opinion?" He paused for a moment, pretending to think about it to see her reaction, which resulted in a rather frustrated scoff.
"Yes I will. I wouldn't be asking you if I didn't trust your opinion." A small amount of pink pooled in her cheeks, giving Sirius a small bit of satisfaction that he was getting through to her. "Why wouldn't you ask James?" She questioned after they sat silently for a few moments. "Do you see who he's dating? Have you not seen how oblivious he is to the fact that the girl of his dreams actually cares about him?" Sirius spat out as he thought about his best friends ridiculous love life. "He does seem quite oblivious, doesn't he?" She laughed in agreement.
"Fine. I'll help you, Black. But you pull anymore unwanted tricks again and I'm done." Hestia held out her hand to Sirius who immediately developed a wide grin. "You have yourself a deal then, Jones!" He grasped her hand firmly, giving it a small shake. As he dropped her hand, he hopped down from the window and turned to face her. "Shall we return to the Common room before curfew begins, my lady?" His pompous grin shining brightly as he held out his hand to her. "Why Sirius Black! You're changing already!" She equally mocked as she placed her hand into his and slid off the windowsill.
"Aren't you so proud?" He asked giddily, hooking his am and draping her hand onto it. "Most definitely!" She laughed as they began making their way through the corridors. "You Dirty Trollop." She mumbled under her breath and glanced over to see she was receiving an amused smile in return.