Chapter 59
Third Year Classes.
Around Easter McGonagall passed out papers to all the second years. Time to pick classes for next year.
"Man, I don't want to take any of these classes." James complained glaring at the sheet of paper. He swiped Sirius' paper out of his hands.
"Hey, I was using that."
"Why in the world are you taking Divination?" James asked looking at Sirius as though he was nuts.
"I think it sounds interesting." Sirius shrugged.
"I think it sounds fake."
"Then don't take it."
"I'm not going to."
"I never asked you too."
Remus sighed as Sirius and James got in another fight over absolutely nothing.
"What have you signed up for Remus?"
"Ancient Runes, I think I'm going to take Arithmancy also."
"Arithmancy sounds hard." Peter complained.
"You probably shouldn't take it; it involves a lot of numbers and stuff. You should take Care of Magical Creatures class. It sounds like something you'd be good at. Less book learning, more hands on activities."
"That sounds better than Arithmancy." Peter thought for a moment before marking the class on his list. "What are you taking James?"
"I'm not sure. I think I'm going to go in Muggle studies with Sirius. Just because I have to mark something down. I think you'd be good in Creatures class too Remus."
"No I wouldn't." Remus said quickly. "Animals hate me. Really, really bad."
"Oh, then you probably wouldn't." James agreed. "Sirius would be good at Creatures. You should switch Divination with it."
"James, I want to take Divination."
"Why would you want to take Divination? The teacher is a nut job."
"The teacher is retiring this year."
"Whatever. The whole class is full of nut jobs."
"I think you're a nut job."
"Whatever."
"Why are you taking Muggle Studies, Sirius?" Remus asked.
"Why shouldn't I take it?"
"I never said you shouldn't take it, just hoping you're not taking it to spite your parents."
"Well I'm not." Sirius paused for a moment taking in the looks they were giving him. "Fine, but that isn't the only reason I'm taking it I swear."
Remus sighed. "Sirius."
"I know, I know. I promise they're not the only reason I'm taking it, they're not even the biggest reason." They were quiet for a while. James finally got tired of the silence.
"I'm thinking about taking Ancient Runes also." He said rereading the description of the class.
"Cool, I don't have to be alone all day." Remus said happily.
"What else should I take?" Peter asked, not able to make up his mind on his own.
"Hmm. Divination is another one with more hands on then book learning. It's either that or Muggle studies. You wouldn't be good at either Ancient Runes or Arithmancy."
"I figured you'd like Ancient Runes too, Sirius." Remus said, Sirius loved mystical stuff like that. Not that everything in the school wasn't mystical, but runes were extra special.
"Eh, I can already read runes."
"WHAT!" They all exclaimed. They knew Sirius was multilingual, but runes were really complicated, not many kids could learn it.
"Bella took it and taught me and Reg during the summer. Anything to make us smarter than everyone else, you know." He shrugged.
James moaned. "Is there anything you don't have training in?"
"Muggle studies and Divination." Sirius smiled and ripped his list out of James' hands.
"Erg. Why would you want training in Divination."
"Because I'm weird." Sirius said.
"Do I have to pick two?" Peter interrupted.
"I don't think so."
"Good, I'm just going with Creatures then."
"I really think you should set yourself a little higher, Peter."
"But I don't want to take anything else. They sound hard."
"If you're sure, Peter." Remus sighed. He wasn't going to push, especially when Peter probably would be better off with fewer classes. He did need more free time to keep the stress from overwhelming him.
"Wow that was faster then I thought, let's give them to McGonagall." James jumped up and headed for the door. The others followed to McGonagall's office.
"Are you sure you want to turn them in already? You haven't given yourselves much time to decide." She warned them. James just nodded, while Sirius shrugged, and Remus and Peter gave her a "Yes, Ma'am."
Before they could leave James noticed something on her desk. "Wow, that's pretty." he voiced his distraction. "Who gave it to you, Professor?"
They looked at what he was pointing at, it was a beautiful multicolored rose. James reached out to look at the note, McGonagall got there first.
"Potter, just because I got a gift does not instantly entitle you to know everything about my personal life." She pulled the rose out of his grasp, trying to ignore the look of huge relief on Sirius' face. She had no intentions of letting anyone find out the gift was from him if he didn't tell them himself. In fact she took the note off of the rose and stuck it in her desk drawer.
"Alright, shesh, it was just a question."
"A question that you do not need an answer from."
"Well whoever it was he really, really likes you." Remus said with a chuckle. "Those things are expensive."
"It isn't from a boyfriend, if that's what your thinking." She watched the red go from Sirius' cheeks to his whole face.
"I never said anything about a boyfriend." Remus smiled at her.
"It sounds to me like she's trying to deny it because it's true." They took her resulting laugh as a confirmation, it never occurred to them that the real reason she laughed was because at that very moment Sirius had slowly and quietly backed out of the room, about as red as a boy could possible get without turning into a tomato.
"You boys are poking your heads where they do not belong," She said quickly hiding her amusement. "And if you do not stop, I may decide that I'm being harassed, and trust me I am not afraid of keeping you in detention during quidditch practice."
"I think I'm going to leave now." James said quickly. Remus just laughed at how easy it was to threaten James. They started to leave the room, just before they made it out the door, Remus noticed something was missing.
"Wait, where's Sirius?"
It took everything McGonagall could do to hold in her laughter until after she'd closed the door and made sure they weren't still in hearing range.
It was students like them that made teaching the best job she'd ever had.
It was also students like them that made teaching the worst job she'd ever had.
She just couldn't win.