Disclaimer: None of this is my property - it belongs to the
wonderful J.K. and I think we all know that. This is just for fun.
........
Well, just as he had thought, the story of what had happened at his mother's funeral had spread through the school like wildfire after his brother had returned. Everywhere Sirius went, he got all sorts of curious looks. Slytherins sniggered, making nasty comments under their breath as he went by. (But not so softly that he couldn't hear them.)
Everyone else whispered and stared. He had point blank refused to talk about the whole thing with his friends at all, and preferred just to try and pretend nothing had happened.
Besides all of this, his day was going quite badly all on its own. Quidditch practice had been cancelled for the second day in a row, due to some very heavy rain. This was unfortunate. Sirius normally enjoyed flying, the activity and mindlessness of it all, and this week he felt a pressing need to put some of his pent up anxiety to good use.
On top of that, he'd gotten two nights of detention for putting a particularly nasty curse on a very deserving Slytherin in transfiguration - nothing he could get expelled for, mind you, just an amusing way to kill time. He imagined that even McGonagall had looked slightly amused at the results.
So here he sat, bored out of his mind in the Library with James, Peter and Remus, and a pile of dusty old books, trying to concentrate on a potions essay he had absolutely no inclination to do at the moment. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, trying to block out the sound of Remus's voice as he prattled on about the many amazing and necessary uses of.something or other - he didn't really care what.
A sharp elbow to the ribs nearly knocked him off his chair. His eyes flew open and he stared incredulously at James, who was staring back and grinning like a madman.
"Padfoot, wake up. If I'm not allowed to sleep, there's no way I'm going to let you."
Sirius arched his eyebrow, and gave him a dry stare.
"So go to sleep, no one's stopping you - and besides, I wasn't sleeping, I was.resting my eyes." He finished lamely.
James laughed. "I think if one more person stops listening to Moony, his head will explode."
Remus opened his mouth to protest this, but before he could, James continued on.
"Besides, you should listen anyhow. This assignment is due in 2 days, and I'd bet my last galleon that you've done about as much of it as I have."
He didn't feel much like arguing about something as stupid as this and besides, he knew his friend was right - he really did need to get this done. So he forced himself to turn his attention to the task at hand, and except for a small break for him and James to throw some wand-made ice at a group of Slytherins the next table over, it was a long and arduous task indeed.
Sirius's mood lightened considerably at dinnertime, when apart from the unusually good food, two Ravenclaw girls he didn't know got into the most marvelous fight he'd seen in a a long time, complete with hair pulling and some marvelously creative name calling.
"I wish two girls would fight like that over me." Said Remus, who seemed fairly amused by the fight as well.
"You never know, maybe they were. I couldn't really understand what they were saying, but I'm sure I heard the phrase 'He's my sexy werewolf!' thrown around a bit" Sirius said, smirking.
Remus's only response to this was to throw a dinner roll at his head.
Even on the way to his detention, his newfound good mood continued. Not that he ever really minded detention anymore. It was a small price to pay for all the fun he'd had over the years, and by now he was used to the work. He was always a bit mystified at the very negative reaction most people had toward detention - as if it were the end of the world, or at the very least their school career. He couldn't ever really remember thinking of detention as anything but a minor inconvenience.
Tonight, he was washing the floor in the potions classroom, and he whistled as he worked, occasionally bursting into a rather bawdy song. His singing at one point even attracted the attention of Nearly Headless Nick, who added a couple verses of his own. (Something about Moaning Myrtle and the Bloody Baron in the girl's lavatory.you don't want to know.) So it was with a smile on his face that he finally put the cleaning supplies away and began to head back up to the Gryffindor common room.
Until he noticed the door.
The boys had discovered the room early in their second year, while being chased by Filch after being caught in the act of painting the charms classroom orange. It had been fantastic luck, and offered them a very comfortable spot to hide until Filch had given up and gone away. Days later, when they came back to look for the space again, none of them had been able to find it, and until their third year, they didn't know why. Peter, in an unusual display of brilliance had discovered that the room in question only appeared when you needed it, perfectly tailored to your needs.
The four of them had made happy use of it since then, and it had served them quite well. It had been Remus that found out even more about the nature of the room. Up until his discovery, it had just been assumed that in order to find the room, you needed to have a specific purpose in mind for it's use - you had to really need it, and know that you needed it. But, Remus had told them, he had walked by one evening after a particularly hard day, and noticed the door.
When, purely out of curiosity, the werewolf had entered, he found a trove of good books, a warm fire and a pot of tea sitting and waiting for him. Only then did he realize how tense and nervous he had been that day. Apparently, the room of requirement would show up whether you knew you needed it or not.
Sirius stared at the door for a moment. What on earth did he need, other than sleep? He could get that in his dormitory. Shrugging, he opened the door, and peered in.
The room had altered itself to look exactly like the sitting room at Grimmauld Place. For a brief second Sirius just stood and stared in utter shock, and then abruptly slammed the door. He couldn't remember ever being so confused. How on earth could he need a replica of a place he hated, a place he swore he would never go back to?
He walked as quickly as he could back to the common room, without breaking into a full out run. He needed sleep, he decided. He was just tired, that was it..or perhaps it was just someones idea of a joke.
"Cornish Pixie" he said breathlessly to the Fat Lady, who lazily opened the door for him. He stepped inside the common room and came face to face with a infuriatingly cheerful looking James.
"Hey, mate! How was detention? I was just off to the kitchen to grab something to eat. C'mon!"
He grabbed at Sirius's sleeve, and tried to drag him back out into the corridor. Sirius gave a hard pull, and wrenched himself free from his best friends grasp.
"No," he said, a bit too sharply.
James looked positively miffed - for as far back as he could remember, Sirius had never passed up an opportunity to break a few rules, or have a bit of fun.
"You ok, Padfoot?"
Sirius mumbled something unintelligible over his shoulder, and hurried up to bed, leaving his puzzled friend at the bottom of the stairs, staring after him.
To be continued.
........
Well, just as he had thought, the story of what had happened at his mother's funeral had spread through the school like wildfire after his brother had returned. Everywhere Sirius went, he got all sorts of curious looks. Slytherins sniggered, making nasty comments under their breath as he went by. (But not so softly that he couldn't hear them.)
Everyone else whispered and stared. He had point blank refused to talk about the whole thing with his friends at all, and preferred just to try and pretend nothing had happened.
Besides all of this, his day was going quite badly all on its own. Quidditch practice had been cancelled for the second day in a row, due to some very heavy rain. This was unfortunate. Sirius normally enjoyed flying, the activity and mindlessness of it all, and this week he felt a pressing need to put some of his pent up anxiety to good use.
On top of that, he'd gotten two nights of detention for putting a particularly nasty curse on a very deserving Slytherin in transfiguration - nothing he could get expelled for, mind you, just an amusing way to kill time. He imagined that even McGonagall had looked slightly amused at the results.
So here he sat, bored out of his mind in the Library with James, Peter and Remus, and a pile of dusty old books, trying to concentrate on a potions essay he had absolutely no inclination to do at the moment. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, trying to block out the sound of Remus's voice as he prattled on about the many amazing and necessary uses of.something or other - he didn't really care what.
A sharp elbow to the ribs nearly knocked him off his chair. His eyes flew open and he stared incredulously at James, who was staring back and grinning like a madman.
"Padfoot, wake up. If I'm not allowed to sleep, there's no way I'm going to let you."
Sirius arched his eyebrow, and gave him a dry stare.
"So go to sleep, no one's stopping you - and besides, I wasn't sleeping, I was.resting my eyes." He finished lamely.
James laughed. "I think if one more person stops listening to Moony, his head will explode."
Remus opened his mouth to protest this, but before he could, James continued on.
"Besides, you should listen anyhow. This assignment is due in 2 days, and I'd bet my last galleon that you've done about as much of it as I have."
He didn't feel much like arguing about something as stupid as this and besides, he knew his friend was right - he really did need to get this done. So he forced himself to turn his attention to the task at hand, and except for a small break for him and James to throw some wand-made ice at a group of Slytherins the next table over, it was a long and arduous task indeed.
Sirius's mood lightened considerably at dinnertime, when apart from the unusually good food, two Ravenclaw girls he didn't know got into the most marvelous fight he'd seen in a a long time, complete with hair pulling and some marvelously creative name calling.
"I wish two girls would fight like that over me." Said Remus, who seemed fairly amused by the fight as well.
"You never know, maybe they were. I couldn't really understand what they were saying, but I'm sure I heard the phrase 'He's my sexy werewolf!' thrown around a bit" Sirius said, smirking.
Remus's only response to this was to throw a dinner roll at his head.
Even on the way to his detention, his newfound good mood continued. Not that he ever really minded detention anymore. It was a small price to pay for all the fun he'd had over the years, and by now he was used to the work. He was always a bit mystified at the very negative reaction most people had toward detention - as if it were the end of the world, or at the very least their school career. He couldn't ever really remember thinking of detention as anything but a minor inconvenience.
Tonight, he was washing the floor in the potions classroom, and he whistled as he worked, occasionally bursting into a rather bawdy song. His singing at one point even attracted the attention of Nearly Headless Nick, who added a couple verses of his own. (Something about Moaning Myrtle and the Bloody Baron in the girl's lavatory.you don't want to know.) So it was with a smile on his face that he finally put the cleaning supplies away and began to head back up to the Gryffindor common room.
Until he noticed the door.
The boys had discovered the room early in their second year, while being chased by Filch after being caught in the act of painting the charms classroom orange. It had been fantastic luck, and offered them a very comfortable spot to hide until Filch had given up and gone away. Days later, when they came back to look for the space again, none of them had been able to find it, and until their third year, they didn't know why. Peter, in an unusual display of brilliance had discovered that the room in question only appeared when you needed it, perfectly tailored to your needs.
The four of them had made happy use of it since then, and it had served them quite well. It had been Remus that found out even more about the nature of the room. Up until his discovery, it had just been assumed that in order to find the room, you needed to have a specific purpose in mind for it's use - you had to really need it, and know that you needed it. But, Remus had told them, he had walked by one evening after a particularly hard day, and noticed the door.
When, purely out of curiosity, the werewolf had entered, he found a trove of good books, a warm fire and a pot of tea sitting and waiting for him. Only then did he realize how tense and nervous he had been that day. Apparently, the room of requirement would show up whether you knew you needed it or not.
Sirius stared at the door for a moment. What on earth did he need, other than sleep? He could get that in his dormitory. Shrugging, he opened the door, and peered in.
The room had altered itself to look exactly like the sitting room at Grimmauld Place. For a brief second Sirius just stood and stared in utter shock, and then abruptly slammed the door. He couldn't remember ever being so confused. How on earth could he need a replica of a place he hated, a place he swore he would never go back to?
He walked as quickly as he could back to the common room, without breaking into a full out run. He needed sleep, he decided. He was just tired, that was it..or perhaps it was just someones idea of a joke.
"Cornish Pixie" he said breathlessly to the Fat Lady, who lazily opened the door for him. He stepped inside the common room and came face to face with a infuriatingly cheerful looking James.
"Hey, mate! How was detention? I was just off to the kitchen to grab something to eat. C'mon!"
He grabbed at Sirius's sleeve, and tried to drag him back out into the corridor. Sirius gave a hard pull, and wrenched himself free from his best friends grasp.
"No," he said, a bit too sharply.
James looked positively miffed - for as far back as he could remember, Sirius had never passed up an opportunity to break a few rules, or have a bit of fun.
"You ok, Padfoot?"
Sirius mumbled something unintelligible over his shoulder, and hurried up to bed, leaving his puzzled friend at the bottom of the stairs, staring after him.
To be continued.