Slughorn Strikes Again
Claudia just sat through what felt like the longest muggle studies class ever. When the classroom was nearly empty, she turned to Sirius.
"I need the artefact." She whispered.
"No way." Sirius scoffed.
"It's mine!" Claudia protested.
"No. It's Slytherin's… And I'm not giving it to you to do something that stupid." Sirius shook his head. He really could be insufferable.
"I want to try something else." Claudia replied.
"I don't believe you." Sirius shrugged.
"Just give me the bloody artefact." She was beginning to sound quite desperate. Sirius shook his head again.
"I'm coming with you." He muttered. Claudia got up.
"Fine. If you must. Meet me by the forest in thirty minutes. Same place as last time." She said and began to walk off.
"Please?" Quipped Sirius.
"Oh, shut up." Claudia barked back at him. She really did not have time for his nonsense today.
"So, what's this thing you want to try?" Asked Sirius when they finally got to the forest clearing. He was not giving her the artefact without a fight. Claudia opened the book and shoved it into his hand. He looked at the page for some time.
"It's slightly better than your last idea… But it's still a curse." He said. He looked like he was thinking about whether to give it to her or not. Finally, he took the artefact out of his pocket and dangled it in front of Claudia's face.
"You don't have to do it." She said and snatched it from him. She tossed the artefact on the ground and drew her wand.
"Protero Cumulates!" She said, resolutely.
A jet of light shot out of Claudia's wand and hit the artefact, which shook a bit but looked intact.
"Are you sure you're angry enough?" Asked Sirius, mockingly. After all, anger was an integral part of making that spell work. Claudia found his mocking so unbelievably irritating. She was definitely angry enough now. Almost enough to find out what that curse would do to a human being.
But she kept going. After the third try, Claudia looked over her shoulder. Sirius stepped up next to her. He was holding the book in hand, studying the hand movement.
"Ready?" He asked grumpily.
They cast the spell together, hitting the artefact at exactly the same time. There was a loud pop.
Claudia run towards the artefact, dropped to her knees, and tried to pick it up. It had shattered into four pieces.
She turned back towards Sirius, who looked solemn. She knew it was lot for him to cast the curse. She briefly smiled at him.
"Do you think it could be repaired?" He asked. He was being very matter of fact. He was clearly not happy about what he just did. Claudia shrugged.
"Not sure we should risk it." She weighted one piece in her hand and threw it deep into the bushes. She then put the remaining pieces in her pocket. "We should get back to the castle." She added. It was getting dark. Claudia was keen to get out of there as quickly as possible. She did not particularly like darkness. Or magical creatures, which the Forbidden Forest was full of. And the awkwardness with Sirius was becoming unbearable.
They were just making their way over the bridge when Claudia suddenly stopped in her tracks. She took a second piece of the artefact from her pocket and threw in down into the lake. After few second, she could hear a distant splash.
"The Black Lake is suddenly good enough for you?" Sirius smirked and asked mockingly. Claudia scowled at him. She really did not need reminding of their argument.
"We aren't going to get rid of the other two today…" She said, icily. "I'll take one. You keep the other." She added. It was a good idea. Marcus would have to search the Forbidden Forest, dive in the Black Lake and get past both of them, before he had all the pieces. And then, he would still need to find a way of repairing it. It was impossible.
"Fine." Said Sirius and outstretched his arm. Claudia reached into her pocket and dropped one of the fragments into his hand. Their fingers touched for a fraction of the second. Here was that jolt again. Claudia bit her lip and began walking to the castle again. She never felt this confused in her life. And she did not like it.
Claudia was lying in bed that night. Finally, the artefact was gone. Her father and Marcus could never get their hands on it. They could never deliver it to You-Know-Who. S
he remembered the thing she did to get there. Finding Slytherin's apartments, solving that riddle, finding the spell that finally destroyed it. She should have felt proud and happy. But she did not.
There was no way she would ever get there without Sirius' help.
He got them to the restricted section and opened that secret passage. And today, if it was not for him, she would still be standing in the Forbidden Forest trying to destroy the artefact.
Their argument was eating her from the inside. They should have both been feeling proud and celebrating. Instead, they were barely speaking and sulking in their dormitories. And all because of some stupid spell.
Claudia did not have the strength to be mad at him anymore. The longer she lay in bed, the more desperate she got to be on good terms with him again. Even if they were to be just friends… She could hide her feelings for him, she was good at that. If only there was something she could do, something to give him, that would show him how thankful she was for all his help. And then it struck her.
The Felix Felicis was almost ready. It was the perfect present. She could, of course, drink it herself and see what happened. But that felt almost as wrong as slipping him a love potion. And if he ever found out, he would never speak to her again. And rightly so.
Few days later, Claudia snuck into Slytherin's apartments to check on the potion. It looked exactly as it was supposed to. Hopefully, she was not about to poison him.
The content of the cauldron was just about enough for a tiny vial. Closed closed it, wrapped it carefully in a small box and scribbled a short note. "Thank you for everything. Don't use it for anything too illegal..." She run to the Owlery. If she hurried, she might even make the morning post.
She was already feeling bit better when she entered the Great Hall. Sirius was sitting at the Gryffindor table, surrounded by his friends. They were singing Happy Birthday. What a coincidence. Then, she noticed that the girl from the train was sitting at the other end of the Gryffindor table, sulking. Claudia chuckled. Either the potion was more powerful than she realised, or these were some coincidences.
Claudia sat down and waited for the post to arrive. She watched, as Sirius unwrapped the present. James, who was sitting right next to him, grabbed the vial from him. He looked astonished. Sirius snatched it back from him and hid it in his robes.
He looked at Claudia across the Great Hall and smiled. It had been weeks since he did that. Ever since their argument began. She smiled back at him, then lowered her eyes. She must have been so red. Alice was watching her intently.
"You don't look like you want to murder him anymore. Quite the opposite." She said, chuckling. Claudia hoped she was not that obvious to everyone.
"I just want us to be friends again." Claudia whispered. Alice did not believe that for a second.
"Just friends? Really?" She asked, her eyebrows raised. Claudia sighed and leaned back against her chair.
"It's better than this." She replied. "By the way. It's gone. We managed it last night." Claudia remembered. She filled Alice in on all the detail. She was beginning to feel prouder about what she managed to achieve.
Claudia was never more relieved to get on the Quidditch pitch that she did later in November for the game against Gryffindor. The cold air on her face, the break-neck speed, the release of aggression every time she threw the quaffle. It was all providing much-needed respite. Her only regret was that she was not a beater. That would have been even better stress-relief.
There were only couple of changes to the team this year. The seeker Macmillan graduated and his place on the team had been taken by Regulus of all people. Atherol Rowle replaced Crabbe as the third chaser, alongside Claudia and Parkinson. Marcus did not even try out for the team. Probably could not deal with the humiliation again.
Sirius' best friend James had managed to get on the Gryffindor team. This was his first game. He was very keen to prove himself and Claudia thought he was flying like a complete lunatic. He almost took her out an hour into the game, conceding a penalty that Claudia messed up royally.
"Happens to the best of us. Now get back into formation." Barked Parkinson at her, when she was venting about her miss.
Not ten minutes later, James was getting too close again. Claudia wanted to kick him away but missed. Their brooms got entangled and they tumbled to the ground. Claudia landed hard and hurt her ankle. She touched it and winced it pain. It felt badly sprained, if not broken.
She looked over to James, wanting to yell at him. But he was already getting back on his broom when an angry Madame Hooch landed right next to him.
"You do this again, Potter, and I will suspend you! Indefinitely! You'll have the shortest Quidditch career in the history of Hogwarts!" She shouted at him before running towards Claudia.
She took one look at Claudia's leg, called Madame Pomfrey over and whistled for a time out. Claudia was sitting on the ground, getting her leg bandaged up. The Slytherin team was standing not too far away, in the middle of an argument.
Regulus was telling Anthony and the other beater off for not giving him enough protection and focusing too much on the chasers. Rowle, who was clearly trying to appear tough, was agreeing with him. Claudia had never seen Anthony angry before. He was clearly unhappy about being told what to do by Regulus. He turned towards Claudia.
"What about you, Avery? Do you think the chasers are getting too much protection?" He barked, sarcastically.
"I'm staying out of this." She said and rubbed her painful leg.
"And quite rightly so. I'm the bloody captain. I decide what we do here. We are keeping to the strategy. It's working." Parkinson said angrily. He had had enough. Regulus looked like he was about to protest, but Parkinson had cut him off. "Just shut it and get that snitch." He barked. He looked like he was regretting giving Regulus the position already.
"How long before she can be back on the broom?" Parkinson asked, turning to Madame Pomfrey.
"I should really take her to the hospital wing." Pomfrey replied snappily. She clearly did not appreciate being spoken to like this by a student.
"No chance. I need her." Replied Parkinson. Madame Pomfrey scowled and finished bandaging Claudia's ankle.
"I want to see you the moment this game is over." She hissed. Claudia's ankle was still tender, but good enough to fly. At least for a little bit. Mercifully, Regulus caught the snitch within fifteen minutes. Actually, the catch was amazing. Even Parkinson had to admit that. And Slytherin had a solid victory.
The Slytherin team was leaving the pitch, arms around each other. Claudia leaned towards Julius.
"Regulus is going to be insufferable now, isn't he?" She whispered. Julius laughed. Claudia continued. "What's happened to him anyway? He used to be this shy kid…"
"I think he's finally given up trying to be friends with his brother. And now he's planning to outdo him by becoming an even bigger idiot." Julius shrugged. Claudia could not help but laugh. Julius did not know how right he was. Sirius was an idiot. She was in love with him, but he was an idiot. She only managed few more steps, before her ankle gave in. She tumbled, but Julius managed to catch her before she hit the ground.
"I better get to Madame Pomfrey." Claudia said through gritted teeth.
She hopped up to the castle, half-leaning on Julius, who insisted on going with her. The matron was not at all happy with Claudia and kept her in the hospital wing overnight. When Claudia woke up, she saw a box of chocolates on her bedside table. There was a short note.
"Sorry about James. He's a moron when it comes to Quidditch. Hope it's not too painful."
It was Sirius' handwriting. These better not be a joke product, she thought to herself as she took a bite. They were delicious and, as far as she could tell, did not cause her any immediate side effects. It was most unusual.
Time flew by and it was almost time to go back for Christmas. Claudia and Sirius continued to chat a little when they saw each other in class, but not much more than that. Her fear from last year was proven right – with the artefact gone, they did not really have much opportunity to catch-up.
Especially with all the studying for OWLs that Claudia was doing. And while Sirius did not seem to be doing much studying, him and his friends looked even more up to something than usual. Claudia just hoped that their latest scheming did not result in some unpleasant prank. She still wanted to vomit every time she thought of a dungbomb.
One evening, few days before the Christmas break, Claudia was heading back to the dungeons, when she heard a noise from around the corner. She was really tired and wanted desperately to go to bed. But she was a prefect now and Lily could be lurking anywhere, ready to jump at the next opportunity to tell her off. Claudia turned the corner and saw James. He was standing in the middle of the corridor, clearly keeping watch. He grinned at her.
"Evening, Avery… Still looking for the quaffle from that missed penalty? I think it went little further North." He quipped. Claudia rolled her eyes. He was not even sorry. He truly was a moron.
"What are you doing here? Where are the others?" She asked, sharply. But James only laughed.
"Are you going all prefect on me?" He asked. Claudia was too tired for this.
"You bet your ass I am." She said. She was convinced the others were there too. And she knew it was a blind corridor. They had nowhere to go. She folded her arms. "I can wait." She added, very loudly.
She heard chuckles from around the corner. Sirius emerged after a few seconds, followed by the other two.
"I think that will be one evening detention for all of you." Claudia said coolly. But James protested.
"I wasn't doing anything, just standing here… I don't even know who these people are." He said, gesturing towards his friends.
"Fine. The three of you then." Claudia said, but Remus pointed to his own badge and shrugged. She could not give detention to a fellow prefect.
Before she could say anything else, James continued. "And what proof do you have that these two were up to something?" Claudia looked at Pettigrew.
"Well, I can't prove that he's up to anything…" She said, before turning towards Sirius. "But he is holding a lock pick set and his hands look like they are covered in oil." She added, barely able to contain her giggles. The tough prefect act was crumbling.
"Fine. You do whatever you want to him. I'm sure he won't mind anyway..." James smirked. "Might even enjoy it." He added. Sirius did not think it was funny. He gave James a little slap on the back of his head.
"Git. I'm never telling you anything again." He whispered. Claudia chuckled. He could not mean... Or could he?
"Four evenings detention for you then." She said to Sirius.
"Four?! You said one before!" Sirius gasped. He was grinning at her too now.
"Don't blame that one on me. Blame these so-called friends of yours." Replied Claudia but could not resist smiling back at him. "Now, get out of here before I double it." She added.
They all begin to hesitantly walk out of the corridor. Sirius walked right up to her, squeezed her shoulder.
"The power is getting to your head, my friend." He whispered in her ear. His hand lingered on her shoulder. He grinned at her again and disappeared after his friends. He had clearly forgiven her.
Claudia was so very relieved that they were back to normal. Well, the new normal, anyway. She could still feel Sirius' touch on her shoulder. She placed her own hand there and closed her eyes. How will she ever be ok with them being just friends?
The next day, Claudia was walking past the potions storeroom when she saw Sirius through the gap in the door. He was sitting in front of an open cabinet, with a balance and a lot of parchment. He must have been told to do the inventory. She reached for the door handle. Sirius turned when he heard the door creak.
"Came to mock me?" He asked, the twinkle in his eye was back. Claudia grinned.
"Do you want some help?" She asked.
"Please. Otherwise, I'll be here forever… I'll do the weighing. Can you do the writing?" Sirius replied, hopefully. Claudia sat down next to him and picked up a quill.
"Dried Baneberry – nine and a half ounces… Are you going to ask me what we were doing in that corridor?" Sirius asked her.
"Do I want to know?" Claudia replied, her eyebrows raised.
"No, actually. You don't… " He paused, before continuing. "I never got the chance to properly thank you for the birthday present. Best thing I ever got. I promise I'll use it wisely…" He said, before adding. "Dittany – eleven point two ounces."
"Don't make promises you can't keep." Claudia smirked. Sirius laughed. It felt good seeing him happy again.
"Still nothing from Marcus?" Asked Sirius. Claudia shook her head.
"Still searching the Astronomy Tower. And leaving me alone… I think he is worried if he were to put pressure on me, he would reveal just how much he cares about this. And he doesn't want to that. Especially not to me." She replied quietly. She tried to sound confident, but really, she was not looking forward to spending Christmas under the same roof as her brother and father.
"Knotgrass – ten ounces exactly." Said Sirius. He stopped weighing the ingredients and turned towards Claudia.
"Promise me that you'll be careful over Christmas?" Sirius asked, as if he was reading her mind. Claudia chuckled.
"Careful? Really? One set of rules for me, and another for you." She said.
"Nice try. But I can tell you're worried." Sirius replied. Claudia took a deep breath. He was not wrong.
"If something was to happen to me, I am counting on you to tell the right people." She whispered. Sirius reached over and squeezed her hand in his.
"It won't come to that. It's gone and they have no proof you know anything." Sirius said and looked away. There was a long pause. He was still holding her hand.
"I'm sorry about the Death Eater's daughter thing... And the psychopath thing… I didn't mean it. I just didn't want you to get hurt. That's all…" He added quietly.
"We both said things we didn't mean." Claudia whispered. "I couldn't have found and destroyed it without you." She added and winced. The next bit was not easy. "I was wrong… And you were right. About the cursed fire." She finished, fully expecting Sirius to mock her.
But he did not. He slowly turned his head to look at her and smiled.
All Claudia could think about was how beautiful his eyes were and how she never noticed it before.
Then her eyes travelled to his lips. She wanted nothing more than to kiss him right there.
They were so close.
All of a sudden, the door to the dungeon flew open. It was Slughorn.
"Miss Avery, what are you doing here? Weren't you the one who gave him this detention?" He squealed.
"Just checking that he's doing it properly, Sir." Said Claudia and jumped up from the floor. Sirius let go of her hand.
She could strangle Slughorn right now. Why does he keep doing this to her? First, Anthony. And now this? Even she was not stupid enough to miss that this was the moment! And neither was Slughorn.
He knew that he interrupted something. He marched them both out of the dungeon and did not even give them a chance to say a proper goodbye.
"Are we good?" Was all that Claudia managed to mutter. Sirius nodded and smiled.
"We're good." He whispered.
Claudia could not wipe the smile of her face for the rest of the evening. This 'being friends' thing is never going to work for her. But on today's evidence, it might not work for Sirius either.