Chapter 2: Failings
By: Almicene Melwen
Updated: July 30, 2004
"Have a hot date with a certain Mr. Black tonight?" Lily teased.
"I can't believe you did that!" Persephone sputtered. She crossed her arms slightly annoyed with the red-headed witch sitting next to her. The last thing she needed was some stupid little bugger that she just happened to have just the tiniest toleration for bothering her constantly.
"As if you didn't enjoy the attention Seph," Lily said casually. Persephone didn't have to look at the redhead to know she was very satisfied with herself.
Persephone hmphed. "That's not the point!" she retorted hotly. "I'm still mad at you for making Sirius think that I of all people pinched his bum!"
Lily raised an eyebrow, surprised that that particular aspect of the prank bothered her. "Does last year ring a bell?" The redhead referred to last year's Halloween masquerade where Persephone actually grabbed Sirius's bum dressed as a nun. Supposedly Sirius was traumatized for weeks since the only person besides the nun was a large burly caveman, who must have been the culprit.
"That doesn't count! It was truth or dare."
"Right . . . that explains why you utter his name in your sleep."
Persephone's eyes widened. "I do?" She looked over in Sirius's direction, as if blaming him for the incident. Feeling eyes on his back, Sirius turned around and smirked upon seeing Persephone staring. He winked and mouthed: "Astronomy Tower at 9."
He got a very curt and rude response from the blonde witch. She turned back to Lily, blaming her. "Argh! This is all your fault Lily Evans!" she hissed to her partner.
Lily just smiled.
"Alright class! Turn to page sixteen of the text . . ." a young Professor McGonagall announced, walking into the class perfectly on time. "Just as a review, since you have been on summer vacation, we're going to transfigure these twigs into flowers. Every desk has a different type of twig and should turn into a different kind or color of flower."
A sea of groans reached the teacher's ears. She hid her amusement as some things never changed. Minerva warned them, "Any complaining and we won't have a review and will go straight into transfiguring porcupines."
"Oh yeah, I definitely missed this class," Sirius remarked sarcastically to James.
The teacher caught his words to James and turned her eyes on him. "What was that Mr. Black?" Minerva McGonagall asked sharply.
"I just said that I missed you SO much over the summer Minnie," Sirius replied, flashing her a charming smile, the one he used when he was trying to get out of trouble.
The teacher stiffened, not completely used to responses from students. But she had been learning over the years with Sirius and James, the two biggest trouble makers in the entire history of her teaching career at Hogwarts. "Five points Mr. Black for addressing a professor so informally."
As the professor rambled on how to transfigure the twigs, James chanced a look at the auburn-haired witch that had disregarded him so rudely in the morning. She was absently twirling a strand of hair that managed to escape its plastic confines, trying to understand the lesson. The corners of his mouth twitched into a small smile at the intensity of her concentration.
"Pair up please!" ordered Professor McGonagall. "Miss Evans and Miss Olwen move to this table please." She pointed to the desk immediately in front of Sirius and James.
"The Lady have mercy," Persephone whimpered, looking as if she was walking towards death. She paled, not wanting to be so close to a certain wizard. Technically she owed him for telling her where the Head Girl's room was, but she hoped to Merlin that he had forgotten. But taking one look at his twinkling eyes she knew, forgetting that debt was the last thing on his mind. She stared just a little too long at Sirius, since Lily pulled her out of her trance.
"Come on Seph," Lily said, grabbing Persephone's hand and rolling her eyes. "You'll thank me ten years from now when little Sirius Jr.'s are running all over the place."
That was enough to turn Persephone's attention from the dark-eyed wizard looking straight at her. She scrunched her nose up at the thought of kids. "Gross! One's too many already Lily!"
The redhead shook her head knowingly, and plopped her things down on the table. Both girls pulled out their wands, studying the twigs. "How'd it go again?" the dark blonde witch asked.
"I think . . ." Lily muttered a spell, waving her wand softly in a complicated pattern, and a small light shot out. The elm tree twig twisted and turned, shimmering with a magical light. It seemed to work until it transfigured into a dead rose with a single thorn. ". . . that I don't know." She frowned, elm trees had special properties. Her flower should have been a sparkling rose. What had she done wrong? Avoiding the unique thorn she twirled the flower around, as if it held the answer to her problem.
The girls heard snickering behind them and Seph turned around, frowning at the culprits. Sirius was trying, unsuccessfully to hide his laughter. The corners of James's mouth were turned up in what Persephone could have sworn was a smile. "I noticed you need a little help Miss Evans."
"Funny how I've made a point not to notice you," the redhead said without turning around to even spare James a glance.
"Ouch!" remarked Sirius. "Burned Prongs." He turned to Lily. "You've got a lot of hostility towards our Head Boy here. Was there something he did to you? I don't remember seeing you in our classes before."
"Maybe because I wasn't looking for you," Lily casually said while still turning the pages of her text, looking for the solution to her dead rose.
Seph snickered. "Guess those barbs aren't just directed at the Head Boy huh Sirius?"
"Sorry Prongs, guess Lily doesn't have a special place in her heart for you."
"What heart?" James muttered under his breath, unused to such treatment from a Gryffindor girl. At Hogwarts, his presence exuded such confidence, power, that no student except a few Slytherins thought to backtalk him. His Quidditch talents helped to put him above the rest in his peers' minds. Although with their admiration, came their respect, something James now expected. Who was this girl who ignored all unwritten rules that he had worked hard to establish?
Lily frowned slightly but quickly hid it as she met his cold hazel gaze. She heard the comment that James hadn't quite intended for her to pick up. "The one you obviously will never have," she answered in a forced tone of sweetness, hiding the hurt. James's behavior towards her mirrored her older sister's at home, always thinking she was better than everyone else because she had something more, or was different in some way.
James saw her eyes were a darker shade of green than earlier, and held a deeper sadness than she had let on. The handsome black-haired wizard heard the pain laced through her words and winced slightly from guilt. He didn't apologize though. It was beneath him right? But for the rest of the class all he could think of was of her beautifully sad green eyes.
Lily didn't talk to James for the rest of the lesson, ignoring him as best as she was able. As the hour ended, the redheaded witch still had not managed to fix her wilted black rose. Frustrated, she left in a hurry to her next class with Persephone, leaving it behind.
James picked up the rose, unbeknownst to Sirius, tucking it into his robes.
Exhausted, the seventeen year-old witch headed to her private room. It had been a long, tiring day of classes with loads of homework to be done to keep her mind off the world outside of Hogwarts. And her short diatribe with James hadn't helped her mood either. Who did he think he was, to make comments of her character when he hardly knew her? She didn't expect to be given special treatment because of recent events, but was a little kindness too much to ask for?
Reciting the password, the portrait swung open, revealing a door. She was so distracted that she didn't see the object in the handle of her door as she grabbed it.
"Ouch!" she cursed as a thorn pricked her finger. Retracting her injured thumb, she gingerly pulled out a long sparkling black rose. "What in the world?" It was her formerly wilted flower that had been properly transfigured. Attached was a simple note:
For the rose behind the thorns that I failed to see earlier. Sorry.