Chapter Five- Arguments, phoenixes and lacewing flies
A/N: Okay, sixth chapter; should be good, maybe it won't… either way, read and (hopefully) enjoy…
Disclaimer: My lollipop is still AWOL, but I am in possession of a black (awesome colour might I add!) pencil, so add that to my list of things. But Harry Potter is NOT among them…yet.
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17th September
The fire crackled. Students lounged in the scarlet chairs encircling it; the tower's walls were washed an enticing rose. Gold Gryffindor banners were suspended off of them, the lion symbol emblazoned on each, so that countless life size impersonations of the king of the jungle glared down at the pupils of Hogwarts, baring their teeth in unison when a stray teenager unexpectedly yawned loudly.
Lupin glanced up from his position beside the fire- putting the finishing touches to his phoenix- his gaze meeting Sirius's, who was draped over the arms of a ruby coloured armchair, his legs dangling over the edge. They rolled their eyes in synch, their attention flicking to James, who was helplessly babbling to a Lily who was so obviously somewhere else entirely.
"Should we go and rescue him?" Sirius mouthed across the room at Remus, who raised one eyebrow.
"Him? Why him?" He mouthed back. "Lily's the one is getting tortured."
Sirius sniggered, stretched and rose lithely from his relaxed position. He sauntered over to where the young werewolf was sitting; leaned on the back of Remus' chair and examined the artwork critically.
"Pathetic." He concluded, trying and failing to restrain his snickers at Lupin's expression; he seemed to be undecided whether to yell at his best friend, stomp around and throw some stuff through a window- preferably something breakable- or curl up and cry. He sighed dejectedly at the drawing and in one fluid movement, grasped the picture and ripped it into pieces; his eyes followed the tattered remains of his talent flutter onto the table and lie, still and lifeless, on the polished wood.
"Mate!" Sirius yelped horrified, Lupin stared at him emotionlessly. "What did you do!? I was only joking!"
"But it was true; I'm crap at drawing. I'm not bothering anymore." Lupin's shoulders slumped and he sighed forlornly. Sirius gaped at him with incredulity.
James loped over; Lily sighed with relief and stalked away, unnoticed, to her friends.
"What's goin' on, guys?" He inquired curiously. He glanced at Sirius. "Mate, you look like you've witnessed a murder; what's up?"
"He…he…" Sirius choked out, disbelief still colouring his voice. "He ripped… up his… picture."
"Well, that was stupid. Whatdidya do that for, Moony?" James asked stupidly.
"It was crap." Remus barely managed to utter before Sirius interrupted, bellowing; "Idiot! It was fine!"
"Maybe fine's not good enough." Lupin retorted quietly. James and Sirius stared at their friend, exasperated.
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The seven boys in the Gryffindor Dormitory were asleep. They were all in deep unconsciousness, their combined snores making it impossible for any of them to hear even the loudest of sounds, let alone a solitary figure padding across the thick carpet and descending the protesting stairs to the Common Room.
The meagre firelight threw lengthy shadows across the carpet, transforming the innocent furniture into rearing beasts, illuminating the creeper's features to reveal him as Sirius Black.
He stalked, in full sneaky mode, to the table nearest the perishing fire, the last pitiful streaks of crimson light casting the torn paper's shadows over the opposite armchair.
The shredded phoenix gazed up at him forlornly, its slender wings ripped into tatters; Sirius felt guilt, cold and hard, wash over him- this was his fault.
But he could fix it.
"Repairo" he whispered, pointing his wand- a smooth one made of black mahogany- at the remains. In unison, they twitched, crawling towards each other, sealing the holes and rejoining themselves. Within seconds, Sirius was looking at a seamlessly repaired drawing, the phoenix trilling melodically from the folds of parchment.
"Moony will thank me." Sirius muttered to the bird absently, staring at the embers of the long abandoned fire. "One day. Maybe."
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"James! Sirius!" Lupin's bellow shook Sirius awake what seemed like minutes after he had crawled back into bed, after staring at the drawing for hours. "WHERE THE HELL, IS MY DRAWING!" James shrank back into his pillow on the bed next to him under Remus's brutal glare, trying to disappear as the ferocity increased. Lupin obviously didn't have any recollection of the previous evening.
"I…uh," He stammered, his mind blank as he stared into Moony's feral, glowering eyes.
"Spit. It. Out. Prongs." Lupin hissed out, his teeth clenched together in his fury.
"It's um, gone." James whispered, his eyes screwing up, bracing himself for the suspected onslaught.
"Gone?" Moony's tone was deadly quiet, his eyes flaring with every word. "What do you mean, gone?"
James and Sirius flinched in unison; this wasn't going to be pretty.
The other boy's in the dormitory had awoken- probably everyone in the school had, due to Remus's volume- and were watching intently, interest and expectation on every face. Sebastian Joy, a tall boy with mousy brown hair that fell to his chin in frizzy waves and who blinked constantly, leaned behind Rupert Lace and murmured in Julian Graves- a cold snoot, in Sirius's opinion- ear and mock whispered; "Three galleons Lupin takes out Potter."
Sirius stiffened, his body tensing to turn, his fingers clenched into a fist. He went tenser still as Julian replied; "Four it's Black."
Sirius snarled softly, incomprehensible to the two grinning boys behind him. Moony was still shooting dagger glances at his two friends; suspicion and unconcealed rage evident on his face. With a grunt, Sirius hauled the two out of the door and dragged them down the stairs; they protested, cursing him to hell and back as he shoved them roughly and wordlessly out of the portrait hole and down the corridor, blatantly ignoring their furious cries. The paintings eyed Sirius and his captives warily as he passed, but he gave no inclination that he was aware of their attention.
"Bloody hell, Padfoot!" James yelled as Sirius silently heaved the writhing forms with ease, despite the fact that they were both almost fully grown, and were equally furious. "What the fuck are you playing at?" Sirius didn't answer, only increased his speed.
Before any of them could say anything else, Sirius whisked them around and pinned them to the stone wall, pressing them into it until they were completely immobile.
"Jesus, Sirius, have you lost all your sanity?" Lupin roared; his eyes flashing as he struggled against the restraint Sirius had wordlessly cast. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you?"
"There's nothing wrong with me, Moony." Sirius answered quietly, his voice slow and deliberate. "It's the two of you who are of questionable mental stability."
Two knife-sharp glowers were aimed pointedly at him, burning holes into Sirius. He glared back studiously.
"Well, if you hadn't allowed me to rip my drawing up"- Lupin began hotly, but broke off as Sirius reached into his pocket and fanned himself conspicuously with a piece of petal-printed paper. His friend sighed and handed Lupin the paper.
"What"- Remus started to reply uncertainly, but a sweet, rhythmic warble interrupted him, issuing from the folded paper. The expensive paper twisted of its own accord from Lupin's fingers; and floated, suspended by nothing, in the air; and with a harmonious trill, the sketched phoenix erupted from the dancing paper, twirling elegantly around Lupin's head.
"Sirius, how…how…" Remus gasped as the bird he had so laboriously drawn soared around his shoulder once more, golden sparkles drifting behind it, and drifted back into the paper, where it remained, motionless and beautiful. "How did you do that?"
Sirius grinned and tapped the side of his nose; "Magic." He said simply.
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The remainder of the week streaked by in an incomprehensible blur for Sirius; he spent every conscious moment escaping the clutches of countless love-sick teenagers bent on worming their way into his heart, going to detentions and circumventing the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.
He evaded her whenever possible, seen as he had developed a rather annoying habit of going completely breathless in front of her; he forgot what he was supposed to be saying, what he was doing. Hell, he couldn't even remember what his name was.
Sirius knew what she was, that she was a cold-blooded killer, but every time his eyes met hers, he felt a rush of exhilaration, but not fear.
Even though she was perfectly capable of murdering him, he could not be afraid of her.
Even when her eyes were black and cold; and she turned their hypnotic influence on him, he was not afraid. With exception to when he first encountered her after becoming certain that she was an Anchi, he had felt no terror when she looked at him, only a strange, exploding sensation in his stomach.
This new, foreign feeling disturbed Sirius, and in a desperate attempt to rid himself of the emotion, he turned to the pining female teenagers for distraction.
None could satisfy him though, however many of the Seventh Year girls he 'entertained' the sensation did not disappear, or even recede in the slightest. Every lock of Celia's eyes with his unsheathed the monstrous emotions and left Sirius feeling confused and disorientated afterwards.
Which left Sirius with no options; he could not define the feelings he experienced when he saw Celia, could not escape them, so he had no choice.
He would have to talk to Moony, who knew everything about everything. He would know how to help Sirius.
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"The Secreius Curse," Celia- Sirius could not think of her as Miss Angeletti- began, her golden eyes smouldering. "Enables the curser to bind the victim to secrecy. If a being knows a particular piece of information that the curser wishes to keep unknown, they can bind the victim with magically, so that it causes actual pain to attempt to tell the said information."
In the barest seconds that she paused, several things became apparent to Sirius.
Celia was aware that he knew.
She would go to any lengths to ensure his silence.
Malfoy had just flicked a rolled up piece of paper at him.
Lucius smirked, turned around and began to whisper to his cronies; Serpit and Gust; Celia halted talking and regarded him silently, her arms folded across her chest. By now the class's cheerful adolescent chatter had dwindled, every eye was fixated upon the three, simmering expectation hanging in the air -it was almost tangible- at what was to come.
Lucius didn't stop, even though it was clear to Sirius he was aware of the atmosphere he had created. He continued to drawl on to his uncomfortable body guards.
He did not get further.
In two strides, Celia had become level with Malfoys' chair; she grasped his collar, hauling him to his feet in one fluid movement. She said nothing as he began to shout as she shoved him roughly towards the door and threw him through it. Before she passed through the door, she turned and addressed the confounded class.
"Page twenty three, answer the questions on how to differentiate Vastails from Common Loons; and the ways in which to do so in exercise forty two please." Her ochre eyes were solid and cold as she sauntered through the doorway to where the petrified boy stood, trembling in terrified expectation.
"I love this teacher." James muttered, grinning, into Sirius's ear, as deadly shouts, coupled with whimpers could be heard from behind the thin walls, the former sounding suspiciously like Celia, and the latter Malfoy.
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The fire crackled. Students lounged in the scarlet chairs encircling it; the tower's walls washed an enticing rose. The seats closest to the heat were occupied by two boys and a girl- a third black haired, green-eyed boy was leaning casually on the back of the girl's chair; causing her to flick her red hair behind her shoulder and tut in irritation.
Sirius rose halfway out of the warmth painted chair and draped himself into a more comfortable position.
"You not finished yet, Moony?" He yawned widely and cracked and eyes open blearily. "You shame me." Was his reply as his companion shook his head, his brow furrowed in concentration. At his remark, Lupin raised his head, frowning in annoyance.
"Why do you ask Padfoot? Why do you care whether I've finished? And why," he raised an eyebrow as he eyed the pile of parchment and quills strewn in front of his friend speculatively. "Haven't you started?"
"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies, Remmie." Sirius moved his arm, which was slung over his face, so he could peek out from under it and grin impishly, only adding to his look of up-to-no-good. "I'm copying your when you're done." Moony would have laughed and congratulated his friend on the humorous remark, except Sirius was perfectly serious. Instead, he clucked in indignation. "You're most certainly not, Sirius."
Sirius yelped and sprang into the air, thus toppling off the chair and onto the hearth. He shot Lupin a look that was both incredulous and disgruntled, mixed with puppy dog eyes, which resulted in him looking utterly sardonic.
"I'm serious, do your own work." Remus persisted, unaffected by the thoroughly disturbing stared Sirius was sending his way. Sirius snorted at his words.
"No you're not, I'm Sirius."
Lupin was about to retort when James cleared his throat, causing the two of them to glance around at the common room. In the time they had been heatedly arguing, the room had emptied, leaving the three Marauders the occupants of it.
"It's time." James had adopted a formal, tight voice as he said the words, and then grinned as he saw Sirius's confounded expression.
"We're going to get the lacewings flies, remember?" Lupin explained.
Realisation swept over Sirius's features. "Ah, the Polyjuice potion ingredients."
"Yes, the flies need to be caught when the moon reaches two thirds of the way across the sky."
"Talk about being difficult." Sirius grumbled as he rose.
"Oh well, at least we get to go into the Forest." James grinned, Lupin sighed and Sirius whooped.
"Come, then," Remus said, authority seeping into his manner. "We have to go. James, get the cloak."
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Right, sorry for the wait guys. I don't really like this chapter, because nothing happens in it, but was, like all of my boring chapters, unavoidable, unless you wanted it to be three times this size. Which I suppose wouldn't be too bad…
Hope you like it, and there's no damn errors, if so, review and tell me. Or just review. I don't care if it's about this story or you just want to tell someone about the new pet you have, I'm ready and waiting, so press the button.
GP