While walking through the halls a few days later, joking with James and jostling each other playfully, Sirius stopped in his tracks briefly when he spotted the girl they had met on the train. They had the same Potions class, but rarely talked outside of any group projects Slughorn dictated to them. He remembered hearing her name being called for Sorting and her being placed in Ravenclaw. The blue accents made her skin stand out, but not in an unpleasant sickly way. Her dark brown hair usually sat partially up, sometimes with a blue bandana, which she wore for Potions.
James looked at him oddly before following his gaze. "Still hooked on her?" he sighed in exasperation.
"I'm curious about her. I can't shake the feeling that she and I would have a fair bit in common, know what I mean?" Sirius said. He and James had Study Hall next, so they were free to theorize. The bell rang and they headed to the Study Hall classroom while she darted off to her Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. James and Sirius took out their notes and writing equipment. Unable to focus on his studies (not uncommon, honestly), he stood and looked around for a Ravenclaw student in the hopes that maybe Adrienna had spilled the beans to one of her Housemates. Spying a prefect he picked up his stuff and scooched over beside them. They looked at each other and nodded in acknowledgement. "Hey." Absently writing in the easy answers he knew, Sirius slowly counted to four hundred, which was absolute agony considering his burning curiosity about the girl from the train.
After a while the prefect sighed, looking at the front of the class. Rolling his eyes, he turned and faced Sirius. "What do you want to know?" he growled.
"Huh?" Sirius asked innocently. He mentally cheered, he might actually have the answers he needed to the questions he had.
"I've seen the way you look at that Hortace girl. What do you want to know so you can leave me in peace?" snapped the prefect.
"I just want to know her story. What's her home life like? Does she have any siblings? What are her parents like?" Sirius asked, firing off the questions that had been bugging him the most.
The prefect sighed, dropping his gaze to the floor. He studied it for a brief spell then looked up and Sirius. He cast a silent spell and gestured for James to listen in as well. "Here's what she told us last night: She lives with her father because her mother died when she was around seven. Her father is a Muggle, and loved her mother dearly, but remarried to a rather...unique Muggle. Very religious, believes that anything magic-related is devil worship or something, so took her to priests who performed exorcisms, baptisms, spiritual cleansing rituals, and so on. This lead to her being very depressed and almost catatonic, or completely shut down. She was barely functioning, and the priest she saw regularly sent her to a psychiatrist and a psychologist to figure out what was wrong with her. They diagnosed her with depression and prescribed her a bunch of stuff that didn't really work before one of their friends recommended she try something Muggles use as a recreational habit. It worked remarkably well, bringing her back from the brink of not only despair but death. That's all I know, so don't bother me again! And leave her alone for magic sake!" Sirius reeled before he and James retreated to their original spot.
"Merlin's beard," James said. "What else do you sense? What do you think the weather will be tomorrow?"
Sirius gawked at him. "That's what you took from that? Really? Not the whole, 'girl has horrific backstory that could have ended in tragedy over something she couldn't stop all because of an insane Muggle?'" hissed he.
"Just asking, jeez," James said in a hurt tone, turning back to his studies. The bell rang five minutes later and Sirius split off from him to go to Potions, the only class they didn't have together. Usually he stood beside Adrienna but when he took his usual place she packed her stuff and moved, giving him a hurt look.
Word apparently, traveled fast. "Happy now?" snapped she after class ended. "You know my full story, and made my own house betray me to do it!"
"Listen, I'm really sorry, but-" Sirius started.
"No! Nothing good ever follows 'but,'" she said, a pained look in her eyes. "It's the easiest way to make an apology insincere, meaningless, a falsehood."
Sirius opened his mouth before shutting it and falling silent, dropping his gaze to the ground on their left. She stormed off and he looked around for James.
"Woo! What's her problem, right?" he joked. Seeing no change in his friend's demeanor, James herded Sirius into a quiet area. "I was just trying to lighten the mood. You don't need her. If she has any sort of life left in her, she'll take care of herself, you just worry about having as much fun as possible while also passing classes."
"Yeah," Sirius said dully. "I guess you're right." Guilt nagged at him. Why couldn't he have just stuck his nose out of other people's business? He just had to ask about a girl with a troubled past who clearly didn't want to discuss it, whether because she wasn't ready for it, or because she had repressed it.
