So here's the next chapter (I know, a million years later, but at least I updated!). Eh, let's just say I had no idea where to take this story. I have an idea now, but, well I guess you'll just have to tune in :) Enjoy!
"I can't believe she gave us a double detention and is making us clean this now! We didn't even do it!"
"You can't blame her for not believing you," Corinne tells Sirius scathingly.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that this is exactly like something you would do!"
"So it's my fault now?"
"I'm glad you agree."
"You're a-"
"Stop already!" Steven snaps. "Let's get this done so we can go."
"Thanks mate," James tells him, "I don't think I could stand listening to their bickering for one more minute."
"I'll bet you're dying to see Lily, eh?"
"You'd be the same way if it were Corinne," James tells Steven, grinning.
Corinne freezes. She isn't exactly sure what was going to happen to them, but she is sure that she doesn't want to keep going out with him. She can't stand not talking to Jenna, but more importantly, she doesn't love him.
"Act natural, he's looking at you," Sirius whispers to her.
She thanks him with her eyes and continues scrubbing the wall. "I don't think this is working," she tells them.
"It is, you just have to scrub hard. The moving ones are gonna be hell to get though."
"At least we're using Millry's All Purpose Sponges. Those muggle ones Filch wanted to give us wouldn't have worked at all."
"He really hates students, doesn't he?"
"Yeah, especially us," James says, motioning to himself and Sirius. Steven and Corinne laugh.
"Can you believe it though? The four of us in detention again, that's what got us into this mess in the first place."
"Next time I say don't touch something, you should listen."
"How about next time I have something, you don't try to wrestle it out of my hands?"
"Here we go again," James mutters.
OoOoO
It's been a week since Corinne's adventure with time travel, and everything is back to normal- or as normal as it ever was. She and Jenna are back on speaking terms; as far as Jenna knows, they had never stopped talking. That means, of course, that Corinne cut it off with Steven. He was sad, of course, but he understood. It's difficult for him to see her and remember those two weeks they spent together, but he's getting over it faster than he thought he would. Corinne, on the other hand, is relieved that she had the perfect excuse to break up; she couldn't have told him the truth.
She and Jeremy hardly speak, but that's the new norm for them. She's hurt and upset because she feels he's forgotten about her, and he thinks she's being unreasonable and is angry because she refuses to get along with Alicia. That relationship seems broken for good. Her relationship with James and Sirius, however, is changing. Whereas before she was indifferent to James, she's starting to enjoy her short conversations with him, and where she hated Sirius, she now tolerates him. Of course they do argue when they're angry at each other, which happens more often than she cares to count. However, there are those rare times when she almost enjoys his company. She would never admit that though. Besides, she thinks, it doesn't happen often. It's mostly when they sit next to each other or exchange a few words in the corridors, neither of which happen frequently.
This new change between them confuses her. She was always determined to hate him, but after being forced to spend time with him, she realized that he isn't as bad as she thought he was.
It's these thoughts that plague her as she strolls around the castle grounds. It's after hours and she would be in deep trouble if she was caught, but this is when she feels most relaxed. She loves walking around at night to sort out her thoughts. The fresh air clears her mind.
It happens as she's walking back to the castle. Stupidly, she walks a little too close to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. She hears it before she sees it, but either way she's never entirely sure what it is. She turns to the forest where she hears the sound coming from and sees that it's some kind of animal and it's running faster than she ever could even if her legs didn't suddenly turn to mush. Her heart races and she's rooted to the spot. The creature is nearing the edge of the forest, coming straight at her.
Then, all of a sudden, it's gone. It almost looked as if another huge creature tackled it out of the way, but is that even possible? What lives in the forest?
Before any other thought strikes her, she feels someone pull her harshly by the arm.
"Let's go," she hears Sirius say roughly as he's dragging her.
Sirius? What the hell? What is he doing here? How did he know? The rest of her thoughts are replaced by the instinct of getting away from the danger. Sirius has a firm grip on her arm and he's dragging her along since he runs much faster.
They only stop once they reach the castle courtyard, where Sirius rounds on her furiously. "What were you thinking?"
Corinne is taken aback by his anger and her fear is still rendering her incoherent. "I don't-"
He cuts her off, furious at her stupidity. What the hell was she doing out on the grounds so near the Forbidden Forest so late at night? What kind of an idiot is she? "I'll tell you what you were thinking! You weren't!"
"I'm sorry," she mumbles apologetically. She doesn't understand why he's so upset, why he's practically yelling at her.
"You're sorry? You could have been killed!"
"What was that thing?" she asks out of genuine curiosity but also to try to distract him somehow.
"What thing?" he asks impatiently, walking towards the bushes. He knows perfectly well what she's talking about but he isn't going to answer that question honestly.
"The thing that almost killed me," she says as if stating the obvious.
"How am I supposed to know? Let's get out of here before it decides to come back," he snaps, pulling out the map from behind a bush. He leaves the cloak for James and Peter.
Corinne follows him inside the castle, afraid to say anything to him. She's never seen him this angry before. She was stupid for wandering outside this late at night, but how was she supposed to know she would be attacked? She's done it before without incident. Besides, what was he doing out there? Maybe it was that stupid parchment of his. But why would he be looking for her with that? She wishes she could ask him.
"Are you hurt?" he asks gruffly, leading her towards the castle entrance. He's sure Remus didn't hurt her so he isn't exactly sure why he asked in the first place.
"No, it didn't get me. That thing saved me."
"Guess you were lucky," he grumbles, glad that he reacted so quickly. He and James smelled someone before they saw the shadow moving. Remus was further ahead of them. Sirius wasn't sure if James was going to make it in time to block Remus, but he did. Sirius transformed once he was on the edge of the forest and went to get the person out of there. He was astonished, and furious, to see that it was Johnson of all people.
He looks down at the map and leads them down empty corridors until they reach the Ravenclaw common room.
Corinne turns to him uncertainly. "Er, thanks, for helping me."
"Don't let it happen again," he says moodily before walking away, leaving her standing alone. When he thinks of everything that could have gone wrong today . . . well, it makes him think things over. They need to stop being so reckless. Of course they're going to continue their monthly excursions, but they need to be more careful about where they roam. Stupid Johnson, it's all her fault.
It's always her fault.
OoOoO
Sirius, James, and Peter skid into Defense just before class begins. The morning after a full moon is always hardest. None of them want to wake up after being out all night. James takes a seat next to Peter and Sirius takes the seat next to Corinne.
"Morning," he tells her as he pulls out his textbook.
Corinne pointedly ignores him and stares straight ahead waiting for class to begin.
Sirius doesn't know what she can possibly have against him this early in the day. As far as he knows, he hasn't done anything to her. "What is your problem? Why are you acting like this?"
"I don't like arrogant pricks," she answers shortly, still not looking at him. Granted, she's moody partly because she's tired and that's her fault for staying up so late, but she's also angry because Sirius was treating her like a child yesterday! It wasn't her fault she was almost attacked! Sure she shouldn't have been walking out so late, or so close to the forest but- okay, fine, maybe it was entirely her fault, but she didn't ask for it! She'd done it a million times before and nothing ever happened then! The point is that Sirius had no right to treat her like she was five.
"Are you serious? This is the thanks I get after saving you last night?"
"You're throwing that in my face now?"
"I'm trying to say that if I hadn't saved you, you wouldn't be here being rude to me."
"So what are you saying? That you should have let that thing get me?"
Sirius throws his hands up in the air. "I can't talk to you, you're impossible."
"Of course you'd give up; it's what you're best at."
"Don't act like you know me, Johnson, you only think you do."
"I could say the same about you."
"That isn't my fault, is it? You don't exactly open up to me."
"We aren't friends."
He doesn't know what possessed him to say the next words out of his mouth, but they're out before he can take them back. "Why don't we try then?"
"Try to be friends?"
"Is the idea so appalling?"
"No, I just . . . I don't know. I guess we can try." Corinne isn't sure what she just got herself into, but she's willing to see how far this will go.
OoOoO
"Hey," Corinne greets her friends in the common room.
"What's up?" Jeremy asks her. They don't talk alone, but he figures talking to her in a group isn't too bad.
"Nothing really, it's just . . . Sirius Black wants us- him and me- to be friends."
"You and Sirius?" Jenna asks incredulously.
"Yeah."
"Sirius and you?" she repeats.
"Yes."
"Is that even possible?"
"I don't know, that's what I was wondering too."
"I think it's a worth a try," Ben says slowly. "I mean, you two are always at each other's throats, an attempt at friendship isn't a bad idea."
"I can't see that happening," Jenna says. She finds it hard to believe that they can go from mortal enemies to friends with just one suggestion.
"They work quite well together when they have to," Steven unwillingly admits.
Everyone turns to him. "What?"
"When have they worked together?"
"Hardly," Corinne says, ignoring everyone's questions. "We fought half of the time and the other half we hardly talked." She realizes that it isn't completely true, but no one has to know that. They actually did talk quite a bit and, though she'd never admit it, she rather enjoyed their conversations. That's the only reason she's seriously considering his suggestion.
"I still don't know when you two worked together."
"It was that day that we had detention," Steven lies smoothly. "Sirius and Corinne had to work together."
"McGonagall must have had too much firewhisky to have put those two together."
"That's what we said too, but it turned out okay."
"The point is," Ben cuts across the arguing, "it's a good idea."
"Yeah, until they Avada each other."
They all chuckle at Jeremy's comment.
"That won't happen."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I don't know, try it I guess. I mean, he isn't that bad when we aren't fighting and arguing."
"This should be interesting."
"No, what's interesting is that I saw Benjy talking to a girl in the corridor today," Jenna teases, unable to keep interest in the Sirius-Corinne issue.
"Oh yeah, I saw him too!" Jeremy jumps in. "Who was she Benny?"
"You mean he isn't afraid of girls anymore?"
"I'm not afraid of girls! And she's Henrietta from Hufflepuff."
"Helpless Henrietta?"
"She is not helpless; it's not her fault people offer to do things for her."
"Mate, she started a fire in their common room and didn't know how to put it out."
"That's just a rumor-"
"The Hufflepuffs all confirmed it."
"No-"
"She shattered the glass in the trophy room and couldn't perform a simple repairing charm."
"She was about to when-"
"How about the time she-"
"Hey, leave the poor girl alone. If Ben fancies her, good for him," Jenna cuts across us.
"Whatever."
"She's pretty cute," Steven says, trying to make up for his comment earlier, "I guess."
"Yeah, she has a nice-"
"Come on, cut it out," Jenna complains. "You go from one extreme to the other. Leave them both alone. He doesn't go around talking like that about Alicia."
"Jeez Jen, when did you turn into my mum?"
She stands up abruptly. "I'm calling it a night. Bye."
"I'm going to head up too," Corinne says. "Goodnight."
"So, you and Sirius huh?" Jenna asks her friend once they're out of earshot.
"Yeah, but not like that. Not like that at all. He's . . . I don't know."
"You fancy him," she grins. "You fancy Sirius Black!"
"Shh! Not so loud, people are going to hear you and think it's true!"
"Think it's true? Corinne, you like him!"
"No I don't. I can't stand him half of the time! He's not even a friend, well, until now I guess."
"Okay fine, let's say you don't, what's with this sudden change?"
"I don't know, we were arguing in class-"
"-as usual-"
"-and I was like 'we're not friends' and he was like 'well why don't we try' and I was like 'er, well I guess'. And that's how it happened."
"Wow. Well, good luck with that Cori, but just so you know, he's actually really fun to be around. He's a good friend."
"You know I hate that name, and yeah, he isn't too bad when we're not arguing."
"Don't forget to make me your maid of honor at the wedding," she grins.
Corinne throws a pillow at her.
