A/N: Thanks for the reviews even though there were very few of them. Now back to the story.
Chapter 8: A New Challenge
"Hey Brenna, we're having a kind of girls' night tonight in the dorm, did you want to join us?" Alice asked as her, Marlene and Lily came up to her that evening in the Common Room after dinner.
"We thought it'd be fun and we can get to know each other better, we don't want to pressure you or anything." Lily added clearly wanting Brenna to partake in whatever it is they did on 'girl's nights'.
"Actually we do mean to pressure you. So you're going to come okay?" Marlene added receiving a retributive look from Lily.
"Um, sure, but I've got no idea what a girls' night is." Alice's eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly in disbelief.
"You've never had a girls' night? Oh we are going to cram everything you do on a girls' night in. We're going to need make up and facials and nail polish, oh and total makeovers…this is going to be so much fun!" Alice squealed excitedly. "I've got to go get everything ready!" She turned and flitted happily up the stairs to the girls' dorm.
"Oh you're in for an interesting night." Marlene said shaking her head smiling and following Alice upstairs.
"Come on up when you're ready. Alice will probably be tearing the dorm apart looking for everything. I'd say you've got about 20 minutes to half an hour. You could always back out, though I reckon you'd need a detention and even then she'd just reschedule. Don't worry though it's actually fun." Lily smiled as Brenna nodded somewhat shocked at the girls' excitement.
"She can't be that bad and I guess it's the proper initiation to joining your dorm…or something like that. But don't worry, I'll be there." Lily nodded and then followed her friends to her dorm.
"You look a bit worried, is it what your brother said?" Sirius asked as he, James and Remus walked into the Common Room and stopped at the table Brenna was sitting at with textbooks strewn around her. Sirius flopped into a chair across the table from her, the other two boys stood next to the table.
"No, Alice is planning some girls' night thing with makeovers or something…"
"Girls' night…will there be pillow fights?" Sirius asked way to interested, Brenna looked at him disgusted and shaking her head.
"Don't ever say something like that to me again. That was just…you're so lucky the people I know didn't hear you say that…just-ugh." She shook her head at him again before acknowledging the other boys. "Hello James and you must be Remus Lupin."
"My reputation precedes me." Remus said mildly surprised. "The hazards of being a Marauder I suppose. You must be Brenna Templar then."
"Yes, the new girl who hates homework. How do you people put up with this?"
"Didn't you do homework at your old school?" Remus asked with a raised eyebrow and since the conversation had turned to Brenna's past the other boys were paying attention.
"Ehm…" Great way to answer! Begin with 'Ehm…' now they're all suspicious and curious! Brenna thought as she quickly thought up an answer. "No…" All three boys' eyes widened.
"You didn't have homework?" James voiced all of the boys' thoughts at that particular moment.
"Well, not like this. We didn't have essays or anything like that, but we had a lot of…practical homework." Brenna said carefully toeing the line of what she could and couldn't say.
"What do you mean practical homework?" Remus asked frowning slightly in thought.
"You know like practice…"
"You mean you got to hex and curse people for homework? That's all you had to do? Why on earth would you transfer?" Sirius shook his head at her as though she had just told him that she had tons of gold but she decided to throw it away.
"Not as easy as you seem to be thinking, honestly these essays might be tedious and a little bit pointless-"
"See Moony I'm not the only one that thinks essays are pointless!" Sirius said pointedly to Remus.
"-but they are a lot easier than some of the…assignments we got back home."
"What school did you go to, exactly?" Remus asked curiously.
"It was really small, hardly anyone knows of it." Brenna answered hoping they would accept her answer and not push her for a more specific answer. Thankfully, Alice came down the stairs of the girls' dorm.
"Brenna are-" Alice stopped as she took note of the Marauders around her. "-Ready to go?"
"Don't we get an invite, Prewitt?" Sirius said with a cocky grin.
"No Black you don't because you're not a girl I'm sure that might come as a shock to you." Alice replied snidely and receiving a glare from Sirius as Brenna began packing up her books.
"Prewitt could you do me a favour?" James asked suddenly.
"No Potter I'm not asking Lily to go out with you for the thousandth time and just leave her alone." James humphed but didn't push his luck with the annoyed Alice.
"You really thought that she would say yes to you asking her out through Alice?" Brenna asked with raised eyebrows.
"Don't questioning the idiocy of a teenage boy, particularly Potter, Brenna, it's just bad." Alice shook her head as she took a few of Brenna's things in her arms.
"I'm not an idiot" James grumbled to a grinning Brenna and Alice.
"No of course not, you just thought that a girl would go out with a guy that asked her out through her friend, you're not an idiot at all." Brenna said with a touch of sarcasm as she and Alice left the Common Room for their dorm.
"Do you think he got the sarcasm?" Alice asked as they climbed the stairs to their dorm.
"He can't be that dumb, can he?" The two girls dissolved into a fit of laughter as they imagined an incredibly stupid and arrogant James Potter.
"And what are we laughing about, exactly?" Marlene said as her and Lily came out of the room to meet them.
"Potter being an idiot" Alice replied still giggling a bit.
"That can be amusing. Well come inside and let's talk about Potter and his idiocy." Lily groaned but followed Marlene inside.
"Do we have to always start with Potter every single time?" Lily asked as the four girls took a seat on cushions that were positioned in the center of the room in a circle.
"I guess not, anyone else got something that we can start with?" Marlene asked looking around the circle.
"Black was flirting with Brenna downstairs" Alice said part excited and part accusatory.
"Flirting huh?" Marlene asked with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle.
"No, not flirting" Brenna said feeling uncomfortable as all three girls looked at her.
"Really?" Lily asked joining in with a raised eyebrow.
"He wasn't flirting with you at all? The school playboy, Sirius Black?" Alice asked pointedly. "Has he gone mental, you're gorgeous!" She added causing Brenna to look away blushing slightly as the other girls nodded in agreement.
"He would have to be completely blind not just mental not to flirt with you." Marlene added knowing that it made Brenna uncomfortable to be told how beautiful she was.
"We'll just go with he was flirting. So do you fancy him?" Alice asked excitement raw in her voice, but Lily and Marlene looked a bit more hesitant.
"What- no of course not." All three girls grew gigantic, shocked smiles.
"Really? You don't fancy him? Practically every girl in this bloody school fancies him, except us, of course." Marlene said.
"That would explain his arrogance."
"So you actually don't fancy him at all?" Lily asked with raised eyebrows as she took a bite of a liquorice wand.
"I have to admit that he is attractive but beyond that…he could be an acquaintance, I suppose. What about you guys? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like you don't really like him that much, or at all really, so what did he do?"
"He just flirts with everyone and he's condescending and chauvinistic-"
"-And he thinks he's Merlin's gift to Hogwarts, like it's a privilege to have him in your presence-"
"And he always belittles people; someone needs to cut him down a few notches." All three girls clearly had less than friendly attitude toward Hogwarts' King, Sirius Black.
"Fair enough…so what else do we talk about on a girls' night?"
"I think it's time for makeovers." Marlene suggested which caused Alice to squeal with excitement and jump up running over to the vanity. She returned with a basket full of cosmetics bags and supplies.
"Let's start with face masks." For the rest of the night the girls ate way too much candy, drank way too much Butterbeer and gave each other a new look, complete with transfigured hair dos.
The girls flitted around each other with brushes and curling irons and eye shadows and blush and basically every cosmetic product imaginable. Brenna assisted the other girls but didn't know much of what to do. She did wear makeup, but not much and didn't know all the different techniques or styles that they did, so she watched and helped as the girls took to teaching her about everything they were using and doing. Eventually they fell asleep still on the floor of their dorm and still in the makeup.
They woke up on Friday morning to the bright rays of sun glaring at their sleeping faces. Tiredly, they trudged around the room, dressing and redoing their hair and makeup. Eventually they deemed themselves presentable and walked down to the Common Room yawning, though Brenna seemed to be the most awake of all of them.
"I wonder if I made the Quidditch Team." Brenna said finally remembering that she was supposed to have checked the Message board in the Common Room for the list of people on this year's Gryffindor Quidditch team. Once in the Common Room she walked over to the bulletin board that hung on the wall opposite the Portrait hole.
Gryffindor Quidditch Team
Keeper: Mitchell Wood
Chasers: James Potter
Peter Fleming
David Connors
Beaters: Sirius Black
George O'Malley
Seeker: Brenna Templar
All Team members must attend mandatory practice Friday at 4pm sharp.
Team Captain, Mitchell Wood
"Congrats Brenna, you made the team! Only girl too, quite the accomplishment." Marlene said from over her shoulder.
"Thanks, now let's get down to breakfast, I'm starving!"
The only notable thing to happen at breakfast was James asking Lily out which ended with a 'Leave me alone Potter' and Lily storming out of the Hall, the other girls following her of course. Their first class of the day was Potions which, since they were in 5th year was mixed with all the houses, and the Marauders.
As soon as they walked in they saw that a chart was on the board listing the Potions partners. Lily was paired with James, Remus with a Ravenclaw that he knew from the library, Peter was with one of April Keaton's friends from the Trials, Amanda Jones; Marlene was paired with a Ravenclaw girl, Alice was with another Gryffindor, Frank Longbottom; and Brenna was paired with Sirius. They each took the seats that were designated by the chart and waited for their partners to join them. Eventually, the Marauders strolled into class, James grinning ear to ear when he saw that his partner would be Lily and Sirius smirking as he walked over to the desk next to Brenna's.
"Hello gorgeous" He said giving her one of his famous flirtatious smiles.
"Hello Black" Brenna was simply not in the mood to argue with him.
"Oh so I'm Black today, what did I do to deserve that?"
"You were born, that's what you did." Brenna snapped at him. Seeing the shocked and hurt look on his face she sighed. "Sorry, I get mean when I'm tired, and I'm not even that tired today so be thankful."
"Up late last night with your girl friends?" Too bad Sirius just didn't get the fact that he shouldn't push Brenna today.
"Oh yes Sirius, we were. We were just having one big long pillow fight in lingerie." The wide eyed look on Sirius' face told Brenna that he was actually picturing the scene in his head. "Stop picturing that, pervert! It didn't happen, prick."
"Right, right, sorry" Sirius shook his head to clear the mental images away.
"Good morning class" Professor Slughorn boomed walking into class. "Welcome to Fifth year potions. This year will be much more rigorous and in depth as you will have your OWLs this year. I see that you have all obeyed the seating plan on the board. Good. Now today we will be working on a rather complicated potion that is used for blood replenishment. You will have until the end of the class to attempt to make this potion with your partners, also known as the people you are currently sitting beside. The first pair to complete this potion properly will not have to write a 3 ½ foot essay on the history and creation of the Blood Replenishment Potion. The instructions are on page 134 of your textbooks. You may now begin."
Sirius was about to grab his textbook from his bag when Brenna grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up from his seat.
"We are winning this. Now come on." Still holding his arm, she began walking to the storeroom.
"Brenna we kind of need the textbook so we know what ingredients to get."
"No we don't, I need you to help me carry the ingredients back to our desks." Sirius followed Brenna to the storeroom; every other group was still looking at the textbook trying to figure out which ingredients they needed.
Once they were in the room Brenna looked around the shelves taking out bottles and vials and handing them to Sirius. When she had gotten everything they needed they quickly went back to their desks, the other groups were only beginning to go into the store room, but they didn't know all the ingredients or their appearance like Brenna did so it took them much longer.
"Light the fire under a cauldron please." Brenna told Sirius as she began finely slicing one of the strange ingredients that Sirius had never heard of or seen.
"What is that Brenna?" Sirius asked looking at the plant that she was cutting up.
"It's Hellebore, useful for calming and is also used in the Draught of Peace. Can you cut three nettles coarsely please, fairly large pieces?"
"How do you know all of this, you haven't even looked at the book?" Brenna began adding ingredients that didn't need preparation to the cauldron including her prepared hellebore.
"Let's just say that I've made this potion before. I've had it memorized since I first started at my old school; it was kind of a must. Alright let's add the dittany in and the nettles, then we stir three times clockwise and once counter."
"It says in the book to only stir 4 times clockwise" Sirius pointed out looking up from the directions in the book.
"I know I don't know why they don't just put what you actually have to do in those bloody textbooks. Trust me, it's 3 times clockwise and 1 time counter for now." Sirius did as he was told and Brenna added the required amount of leeches as the potion changed from a murky green to a soft pink.
Professor Slughorn who had been walking around the classroom watching the students work, stopped at Brenna and Sirius' work station and peered into their cauldron.
"Why I'll be! Soft pink…impossible…Already half way done in not even 15 minutes! Impossible" Slughorn proclaimed to the class and a very shocked Sirius.
Everyone's heads turned to the back corner of the room where the notorious Marauder and the 'new girl' sat. A greasy, black haired Slytherin boy glared enviously at Brenna and Sirius, who had recovered from his initial surprise and was now smirking proudly at the boy and Lily Evans.
"My dear girl, whatever is your name?"
"Brenna Templar, sir."
"And how did you progress so quickly?" Slughorn seemed genuinely interested, though Brenna sensed some ulterior motive behind his questions. Obviously he thought-or rather knew- that Sirius was not the one that knew how to make the potion.
"A…different technique, sir." She answered evasively.
"A potioneer, eh? Well you will have to join my Slug Club, I throw a dinner party every once in a while, you will have to come Miss Templar, I insist. Well continue with your potion, it seems that you will win." Without further ado, Slughorn continued on his tour of the brewing students and Sirius sniggered as soon as he left.
"Slug Club" Sirius said as he continued chortling and stirring the potion.
"Would you like to write a 3 and half foot essay?" Brenna asked with a challenging tone.
"You know you would have to write it too, right?" Sirius countered with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, but I wouldn't have to research in the library. I'd just have to write on prior knowledge." Sirius' eyebrows knitted together in his confusion over the mystery that was Brenna Templar, something that Brenna noticed and chose to ignore. "Alright now we add the essences and switch to stirring counter clockwise seven times and clockwise once. Why don't you measure out the ingredients and I'll take over stirring."
"Brenna how do you know so much?"
"Like I said, my old school didn't give out theoretical homework, we got practical stuff. Things we need to know and it was pretty much drilled into us."
"Are you ever going to say where you went to school?"
"I've told you not many people know about it."
"Yeah, but what's it called? Just give me a name, I'm sure Moony would know something about it, and if not we could find out."
"No, Lupin wouldn't know and no you couldn't find out…well I suppose you could technically but it would be incredibly difficult, you'd need…connections, connections that aren't easily made."
"There you go again being all cryptic! Brenna, just tell me, I won't say anything, I swear!" Sirius said adding the last of the ingredients as Brenna began folding the potion over itself.
"Oh just drop it, Black, and hand me that vile, the potion's done." Sirius obliged and Brenna poured the Blood Replenishment potion and put the stopper on the top quickly labelling it with their names. "Here take it to Slughorn and I'll clean up."
Brenna waved her wand in a complicated motion and the leftover potion and scraps of ingredients vanished as Sirius returned from Slughorn's desk.
"I'm not going to drop it by the way. I'm a Marauder, and the Marauders don't give up, we have a way of finding out things."
"That's great, but I'm still not telling you anything, and good luck with finding things out on your own. What are you going to do, ask McGonagall?"
"Maybe with a touch of Veritaserum…"
"You're full of it, you know that, Black?" Sirius shrugged giving her one of his best, most attractive half smiles that made girls go weak in the knees, but Brenna was completely unfazed. "Well I'm glad we've cleared that up. You know I think Lily and the others are right, Lupin is the most tolerable of the Marauders."
"You're words hurt me deeply, Brenna." Sirius proclaimed melodramatically, a hand clenched to his chest.
"That's kind of the point, Black. Is Potter actually asking Lily out right now?" Brenna asked as she glanced around the class and saw that James was smiling hopefully at Lily who looked completely irritated.
"Yeah…and here comes the rejection…every time. You'd think he'd move on, but no it's got to be Evans."
"They're perfect for each other." Brenna said simply as Lily all but screamed in James' face.
"You're mental, she hates him."
"That kind of hate is closer to love than one might think, Black…or at least that's what tends to happen."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, I know tons of people that started out hating each other. On a completely different note, we don't have to write an essay." Sirius nodded as Slughorn told the class to stopper their samples and hand them in before dismissing the class. "Later, Black" Brenna stood, picked up her bag and joined the other girls as they filed out of the class.
"Padfoot, how'd your potion go?" James asked as Remus and Peter joined him at the desk Sirius was standing at.
"We finished early it was done perfectly I think, Brenna did it." Sirius said shrugging.
"So you don't think you'll have to do the essay then?" Remus asked thinking that his mate wouldn't have done the essay anyway.
"No, at least she said we wouldn't. You guys looking forward to double Defence this afternoon?" The four Marauders made their way out of the classroom and toward their next classes.
Sirius and James headed to History of Magic, Peter had a free period and Remus had Arithmancy. They each went their separate ways at the staircases, Sirius not paying any attention to the girls that fluttered their lashes or smiled brightly. Instead he focused on the black haired girl that wove her way through the mass of people toward the History of Magic classroom.
"I hear next weekend is a Hogsmeade trip, you going to ask anyone?" James asked making small talk.
"I'm not sure; did you ask Evans again in Potions?" James nodded his head shrugging a shoulder. "Ah well she'll come around, Prongs." Sirius and James walked into their class, and Sirius, noticing that Brenna was sitting in the same spot by the window, felt jealousy flare within him again.
"Prongs, you up for a little investigation?"
"What d' you have in mind, Pads?"
"I reckon we should figure out what's going on with Brenna, you in?"
"I'm offended you have to ask, of course I'm in. Are we going to ask Remus? You know she'll kill us if we tell him anything about her."
"Technically we can't tell him anything about the duel that we saw, but he can help us with research and recon."
"True, I guess it's about time for the Marauders to have a new challenge."
A/N: This is definitely not one of my favourite chapters it was mostly just filler.
Review if you want Sirius and James out more ;D