Chapter Four

Frustration filled the empty classroom. Raine couldn't understand why her mind wanted to change a dead flower into a fresh one, but seemingly the universe was against her tonight. This had been the fourth tutoring she'd had in the two weeks, (Black had decided that Raine needed a lot of help) but so far she had seen no improvement in her transfiguration, just an increase of headaches from dealing with the show-off Black.

"You nearly had it."

Raine turned to see where Sirius was perched. He was leaning against a table at the back of the room with a huge smirk on his face. Raine stuck her tongue at him, thinking that a mature reply would be bypassed by his enormous ego. If it was possible, Sirius' widened his grin to show his teeth.

"What you must remember is the movement of the wand. It's a right slash and a flick," said Sirius. "See."

Muttering the incarnation and swishing his wand through the air, Sirius presented a blooming red rose to Raine with a flourishing bow. "My lady."

"Show off," muttered Raine, though a small smile crept on her face for a few seconds. Suddenly overcome by tiredness, Raine just managed to cover her mouth before a loud yawn escaped, and she proceeded to rub her eyes.

"I think we might end it here for the night," voiced Sirius. "Before you fall down sleeping."

"Noo," complained Raine. "Please, Sirius, let me try one more time?" Raine was desperate to master this simple spell and move on to the harder ones that were going to come up in the exams. Sirius wouldn't allow her to move forward until she had the basics down. It appeared that he was taking this tutoring seriously, though Raine had taken a long time to be convinced.

She's deadbeat. I never seen her so determined, but maybe I have been pushing her too hard. Sirius scratched his head to allow himself some time to figure what he was going to do. "Last try, and then we'll head to the kitchens for some food," said Black.

"Is that all you think about, food?" asked Raine in disgust.

"And women," quipped Sirius. Raine groaned and turned back to the dead flower she was meant to transform. "What? It's a natural male thing."

"Yes, it is, but you don't have to repopulate the whole planet before you're twenty-one, Black," retorted Raine. "Right, here we go." She concentrated hard on the flower and breathed in deeply, closing her eyes to picture it in her mind. Her arm automatically did the swishing of the wand and she said the words, but something felt wrong. She could put her finger on it.

"Watch out," shouted Sirius, and he tackled Raine to the ground as the dead flower exploded into the air where her face had been seconds ago. As they gingerly picked themselves up and dusted off the ashes, Raine tried her best not to look upset and stop the tears from falling.

Seeing Raine was close to her breaking point, Sirius opted to lighten the mood. "Well, you should think of a career in explosion, as you're very apt at creating scorch marks." He smiled his dazzling grin, which was known to weaken the girls' knees, for back up. Raine glared up at him with a more pissed expression than she'd had on prior to the comment.

"Shut up, Padfoot," said Black muttered to himself under his breathe, realising he had just made the situation worse.

"Yes, Black, please just shut up," echoed Raine as she pushed her plain brown hair out of her face.

"Hey, I am only trying to help," defended Sirius.

"Then help me by actual helping me do this stupid subject!" Raine's voice became a higher pitch as she continued to vent her dissatisfaction to Sirius. "Help me instead of bringing your idiotic comments to life!"

Raine threw her books across the room in an attempt to lose the feeling of being completely inadequate. Shocked, Sirius followed the journey of her books as anger started to build up within him. He'd much rather spend the two hours he used to tutore her to be laughing with his friends and flirting with the pretty girls. It's not my fault that you're crap at transfiguration, he thought to himself. Spinning around quickly to give Raine a piece of his mind, Sirius was stopped by the scene in front of him. Raine's head was bowed, her hands covering her face, but he could tell she was crying silently, her body shook ever so slightly, giving her away.

Not knowing what to do, Sirius moved closer and placed his hands on her shoulder giving them a gentle shake. "Look...I...I'll stop being a major prat in these lessons, but you have to understand I have a image to keep," said Sirius quite solemnly. "Anyway we've worked extremely hard so...kitchens?"

Raine wiped her face, feeling like a complete fool again, and rolled her eyes at Sirius' attempt to cheer her up. "Don't you go telling anyone that Sirius Black, male god of Hogwarts, made another girl cry, because I was crying for myself," she commanded him.

They exited the classroom and Sirius steered Raine towards the kitchens. Upon reaching a painting of a bowl of fruit, Raine looked scepticly at a grinning Black, who proceeded to tickle the pear. Swinging away from them, the portrait left a hole through which Sirius, being the gentleman, handed Raine in first.

"Don't you dare think about anything involving my skirt, Sirius," warned Raine as she turned to see an all too innocent expression on his face.

"Would I?" queried Sirius, who broke into his trademark smirk and laughed at Raine's death glare.

"Yes!"

Two hours later, after curfew and with full bellies, especially Sirius', they waved goodnight to one another at the bottom of their separate staircases. Padfoot was secretly pleased with himself, as he made Raine laugh twice when they eating their delicious chocolate eclairs. It's kinda strange, pondered Sirius, that she is such a different person when you catch her on your own. She barely even talks to me during the day or in the common room when others are around. Maybe Remus is right; she's just very shy, and not stuck up. His thoughts came to a gradual halt as the sight of his bed brought back how tired he was. All this tutoring and nothing to show for it! McGongall is going to ...Sirius didn't want to think what the Head of House would do. "Practise makes perfect," murmured Black as fell into sweet dreams.

Raine thought for once that today was going to be great. She had manage to do all her homework, practise that stupid spell for a fresh flower (which still wasn't going anywhere), and finally connive a plan for bringing Sirius and Sara together. But then, the realisation that Sirius had the most annoying, childish stamina ever known to man had hit her today also.

It all started at breakfast, where Raine sat at the far end of the Gryffindor table, munching quite merrily on a piece of toast, occasionally sipping orange juice while reading the Muggle Studies book called Important Contributions Muggles Have Made to the Wizarding World.

Sara was fiddling with a strand of her hair, completely zoned out until a shadow fell across their position.

"Morning Sara!" Sirius grinned cheerfully. "How are you on this bright sunny day?"

"Black, it's now autumn, and the ceiling would informed you that it's raining," growled Raine, for no other reason than that he had that stupid smile on his face.

Sara sat watching the two warily with a slightly jealous look on her face. Raine had taken the attention of the gorgeous Black off of her again.

He turned around and produced his trademark 'I know you love me' smile. "This it is Raine. Just checking your observation...which you will be needing today."

"Why?" questioned Raine, a tad nervous when Sirius started to look half deranged and his eyes shone brightly with madness.

"You'll see." With that he walked off back down the table to Remus and James, to finish off his breakfast.

"What do you think that was about?" queried Raine to a frosty looking Sara.

"Oh I don't know. You two have this secret code all to yourselves. How would I know!" said Sara with a hint of bitterness showing.

Raine screwed up her face, trying to understand why Sara couldn't figure that in no way did Raine ever consider herself to be Sirius's girlfriend. One of his girlfriends. It's not likely that she would even last more than a week. The sell by dates of Black's relationships never reached longer than the two-week period.

"He seemed to take notice of you," mentioned Raine. "Maybe you're the reason he came over, and to cover it up he started talking crypticly about our lessons." Raine prayed that this would passify Sara in some way; she liked her friend too much to squabble over a popular and, on some level, endearing guy.

"Yes, I notice that too," considered Sara. "If I'm lucky, he might ask me out at the next Hogsmeade weekend."

When heading to classes, Sara's excitement gave her whole appearance a different shine. People began to do a double take. Her cheeks became flushed, brightening up her pale features, and the candle light in the halls brought out a soft glow to her hair and eyes, making her look very angelic. With her head up high and a confident walk, Sara focused on making her main aim to attract the fascination of a certain playboy.

Raine observed this for a few seconds until she realised that her quill had suddenly turned itself into a red rose. As she closely inspected it, the familiarity hit her. It was the exact design that Sirius would produce. How am I supposed to write with this? Remembering this morning meeting, it all became clear. It seemed that today Sirius had decided to annoy Raine until she had learned her spells. The ego of that git! Oh, I wish he were here so I could stick this flower somewhere!

"What am I going to do with it in Charms?" Raine muttered to herself.

"Practice?"

Raine swung around in the hall full of other students. Though she hadn't seen him, she was sure the voice had belonged to Sirius. The she thought that she spotted him running away to a catch up with the Marauders, and as if to confirm his totally annoying attitude, he gave a quick wave in her direction before disappearing around a corner.

This is going to be a long day!

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Raine was hunched over the tables in the Gryffindor common room trying to finish off her Potions essay, since she had recently found new material which would bring a higher grade. I might be the worst witch ever at Transfiguration, but I'm still good at the other subjects! Raine knew that even saying that in her head made her stuck up, but she needed a boost.

She had managed to get away with not using her quill in Charms, and then in Divination she conquered her problem by daring Tom Gorgert, an annoying wiz-kid from Ravenclaw, to change it back. As she entered Potions though, not only did her quill turn into a rose, but so did several other objects in her bag. If she had been in a humorous mood she would have notice the beauty of them, but it just increased her sense of wanting to throw Sirius into the Great Lake after beating him silly with all these roses. Borrowing what she needed from Sara saved her from any embarrassment, especially in front of Slytherins, however by Transfiguration, which was her last class of the day, Raine had finally worked out how to do the incantation.

Pleased, but annoyed at Sirius, Raine elected not to dine in the Great Hall, as she was known as The Rose Girl to almost the entire school. And the thought that Sara would tell Sirius his little prank had actually helped Raine to learn the spell cemented her decision to avoid the Great Hall at all costs. Sara's infatuation with Sirius had not worn off yet, and was becoming quite annoying to Raine. Sara had always been Raine's best friend, but now got overly-jealous whenever Raine talked to a guy, especially Sirius. She missed the old Sara Cloudburst. Raine hunched her head even further over the parchment until accidentally she banged it off the wooden surface.

Groaning, Raine rubbed her head to dull the pain. It was the beginning a terrible headache, Raine could sense these things. A low chuckle broke the silence of the room.

"Go away, Sirius," moaned Raine. "Can't you see I'm in pain?"

"But Raine, it's most amusing watching you do silly things, and the hall is so boring at the moment, without you for entertainment," Black said with a grin as he walked over and sat down next to her.

"Glad someone gets a kick out of me making a fool of myself," muttered Raine, still rubbing her forehead. She winced at she touched a forming bruise. "Please, continue to laugh."

"Let me take look at it." Sirius took Raine's hand from her face and started to prod her head softly. Raine closed her eyes, waiting for something horrible to happen. It wasn't that bad, though she was going have one colourful bruise. She didn't seem to object to his administration, which Black was quite glad for. Under his fingers, Black notice that her skin was smooth and her hair felt like it was made of silk. Finishing the inspection, Sirius withdrew his hand, since he really couldn't think of an excuse to keep it there.

"So did you learn how to change the rose back to the normal object?" asked Black in a hesitant voice.