Chapter 16

The next day was horrible. And the following days were worse.

I missed Sirius. He was always right there, but we had become so distant.

My friends had noticed the weird atmosphere immediately and one tearful night was spent confessing the whole story to Mary, Marlene, and Lily (who already knew), who I also shared a dorm with.

I initially thought they would be upset at me for not telling them earlier, but they were incredibly supportive, comforting me with kind words where needed, and they spent the rest of the night successfully cheering me up with chocolates and general shennanigans.

Meal times were awkward affairs. Sirius and I sat as far as possible from each other after a few awkward incidents of accidental brushes of the hands when we went to grab the same food items. The group quickly got used to this however, but the girls and I began to slowly sit further and further away from the boys until we were almost at different ends of the table.

During potions I couldn't look up without staring at the back of his head, in transfiguration I still startled every time I heard his voice from the back of the classroom. But care of magical creatures was definitely the worst. The only person who seemed happy in our group was Abi. She seemed to relish the tension between Sirius and I, and since Lily and James weren't on great terms with each other, the classes usually passed by in silence except when Abigail decided to insert her very unwanted opinions here and there. One of my favourite subjects quickly became a dreaded part of the day.

"Bella I think it's you're turn to feed it" Abi said.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "It is most definitely your turn, you haven't done it for the past two weeks."

"They are too gross, I don't even want to look at them. So someone else is going to have to feed it." She stared down at the completely lovable, cute, fluffy, adorable creature.

"Don't worry Niffy," I said after Abi had trooped off to kill time with her friends, "She's just jealous because she's not as gorgeous as you." I stroked it's soft fur.

"Oh my God Bells, you are so lame" James threw a handful of grass at me. "And we are not naming him Niffy, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. His name is Furious Flame." Lily snorted, before covering it up with a cough and continued scribbling down notes.

"He. Is. Not. Furious. Flame. He's not a dragon! And you said Niffy was lame"

"Because Niffy is lame."

I noticed Sirius talking quietly to Lily. I felt bad because they were pretty close and I didn't want them to drift further apart along with me. Lily insisted that nothing of the sort had happened but I knew she tried not to talk to him in front of me or even mention him around me.

James and I continued to bicker in this fashion for most of the class and no one noticed Niffy quietly slipping away.

"Now do you know why you are here?" Headmaster Dumbledore peered down at us through his half-moon spectacles.

James, Lily, Sirius, Abi and I stood shoulder to shoulder in the Headmaster's office, looking back at the professor blankly.

Professor Kettleblack cleared his throat and gave each of us a hard stare. When we were further silent, he began speaking with an irritated, clipped tone.

"Headmaster, I entrusted these students with the rare species, alright not too rare, enrillius nerfliartus, commonly known as the niffler. And whilst the rest of the class have succeeded at great length to observe their diet, activities, and made excellent progress of raising them in general, these five have not even been able to keep it from running away." He exhaled a long breath and stared at the headmaster expectantly.

Professor Dumbledore, who looked strangely like he was suppressing a chuckle, turned to us and said, "as you can see you have disgruntled the kind professor severely. We put quite a bit of expense into Care of Magical Creature resources at this school" he paused to peer at each of us in turn, we all looked apologetic, well, me and Lily did. "I see it fit that you help him retrieve the poor creature. Tomorrow" he continued. Our faces fell. Tomorrow was saturday. "However," we raised our heads to see the twinkle in his eyes at our crestfallen expressions, "it will be carried out after noon, so you may attend Hogsmeade if you wish for a time." He smiled at us, and while Professor Kettleblack looked like he felt a bit cheated, he didn't dare question Dumbledore's final note.

What do you think will happen next with the Rodger, Bella and Sirius situation, there's a storm brewing! Let me know your thoughts and feel free to give out some suggestions you think could be helpful!

Stay sweet ;)

- Sugar