Chapter 5

Walking into the Defence classroom, my eyes immediately meet Sirius', who fixed me with a hard stare and turned away to chat to a bunch of girls, as if nothing had happened. Slowly my initial surprise at his hostility began to melt into annoyance. I haven't done anything!

Plonking next to Lily, I decided to pay no attention to him. A punishment he has always loathed.

"Open your books to chapter 14 children, today we will be reviewing how the five senses can be affected by various curses, and hopefully later in the week we can begin practicing the tongue-tying curse, a curse which is quite self-explanatory, which will basically render the victim incapable of speech." I smirked internally. How ironic, I thought cynically while sparing a glance at Sirius. His eyes were glued to the blackboard, a sour look on his face.

Defence slipped by quietly, and Potions passed even slower. Determined to avoid any confrontation with the Slytherins, I kept my mouth shut. James and Sirius didn't seem to share my sentiments.

On my way to lunch I was suddenly pulled behind a tapestry. Sputtering for a moment, I looked up to my captor, trying to make out their face in the dark.

"Rodger?"

"Hi. How are you Bella? Forgive me, I really should apologise first for pulling you behind here, I'm terribly sorry, it's just that I was wondering if you would tutor me for potions? I mean we just had our first class and I already feel a mile behind and –"

"Rodger"

"Yes?" He looked up sheepishly.

"First let's get out of this tapestry."

"Oh right, of course, I –"

We stumbled out into the hallway.

"Now, I'd be perfectly happy to tutor you."

"Really?! That's so kind!" He was positively jumping. "How about we start right now!"

"Now? Uh alright then, let's find a classroom."

"Where have you been?" Sirius demanded with his hands on his hips.

I looked up from the couch.

"Sirius" I sighed. "Let's take a walk." I got up and left the common room without looking behind me to see if he followed.

It turns out he did.

We walked at a leisured pace. Neither of us talking for a while, until I finally broke the silence.

"You haven't been very nice to me." I stated simply.

Perhaps something in my sad tone of voice made him turn and look at my face. After checking that I was nowhere close to tears, he faced forward again and sighed.

"I know. I'm sorry. I don't know what's gotten into me lately. Maybe it's because of the letter I received from my mother this morning that's made me so crabby."

I stopped at that. I pulled him towards a windowsill where we sat down.

"What did she say?" I asked quietly.

I had learned with Sirius, if you ask him a question such as 'Do you want to talk about it?' He always refused, thinking no one really wanted to listen to him. It was a very psychotherapist query after all. It was important to give him time to cool down when he was upset. Experienced with his moods, I could already tell that the letter hadn't bothered him too much and he was indeed ready to talk about it. Here endeth my lengthy justification of my very forward question.

"Just that she's glad that I've left home, last summer was the best they've had apparently." He looked up at me then with a very sardonic expression. That was one thing I didn't like about Sirius. Always acting like nothing affected him.

But looking into his eyes this time, I saw resigned hurt there which I failed to see before. It was buried deep. The same look that was so open when he received that very first letter in first year about how disappointed his family were that he had been sorted into Gryffindor. I quietly reflected how withdrawn that innocent child had become over the years. He had hardened himself, but he could never get over it completely. The rejection stung him, that much was clear to me over the layers of brash attitude and sarcasm.

I leaned over and hugged his arm, resting my head on his shoulder. After a moment he rested his head atop mine.

"I'm sorry about that letter" I said genuinely. "But incidentally last summer was the best I've ever had."

I felt the crease of his smile on my head, the corners of my own mouth moving upward. I knew in that moment we were both recalling the afternoons of quidditch in the orchard, warm meals shared together, and evenings of endless laughter which carried on into the night.

"And I'm sorry again for being a jerk, I brought you something" he reached behind him and pulled out a package, wrapped in napkins.

Curiously, I unwrapped it carefully. The smell of slightly warm pumpkin pasties reached my nose before the sight reached my eyes.

"I thought I smelled pastry! I thought I was going crazy with hunger after I missed lunch. I really should have left tutoring Rodg until after I'd eaten!"

"He made you miss lunch?!" Sirius got to his feet. But he slowly sat down as I was too absorbed in the delicious pastry to placate him.

He watched me devour the sweet dessert with a smile on his face, shaking his head when I offered a half bitten one and waved it under his nose.

"Wait, they served pumpkin pasties at lunch today?" I asked.

"Uh no, I got them afterwards."

I raised my eyebrows and gave him a look that clearly asked how?

He just winked at me.

He dragged me to my feet and we walked back to the common room with constant pleas of 'tell me!' and 'no way!' echoing back and forth down the hallways.

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