A Break from Monotony, or, How That Idiot Sirius Black Managed to Charm Me

Disclaimer: The fabulous Ms. Rowling is the owner of all characters from the Harry Potter series. Credit is given where credit is due.

Chapter 3

Breakfast at Hogwarts

Morgana awoke to the sound of Lily's Muggle alarm clock. The other girls woke up too, complained about the noise, but eventually drifted back to sleep. Lily and Morgana, however, proceeded to get ready and go down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"I'm sorry about my alarm clock," Lily said to Morgana as they climbed through the portrait hole. "I didn't want to be late on my first day."

"It's okay," Morgana said honestly. "I'm an early riser, anyway."

"Good," Lily said, and smiled. "I'm Lily, by the way. Lily Evans."

"Morgana Woodsworth," Morgana replied, shaking Lily's outstretched hand.

"Are you friends with Sirius Black and James Potter? I saw you walking with them last night," Lily asked.

"'Friends' isn't the word," Morgana answered. "Sirius thinks that because we were both Hatstalls we have to be best friends. And I've only said two words to James, so I hardly think we're friends,"

"They're toerags. Both of them," Lily said abruptly. "I met them on the train. They're foul."

"What happened?" Morgana asked, her interest peaked.

"They tormented my friend. They had no right to torture him. He didn't do anything to them," Lily answered. She looked incredibly angry.

"I'm sorry?"

"I just hope they were having a laugh. What I mean is, I hope they aren't like that all of the time," Lily shook her head. "I can't imagine having to spend the next seven years with those prats."

It was a long, but pleasant walk down to the Great Hall. Lily proved to be wonderful company. When they arrived in the Great Hall, they saw it was nearly empty. Only one other person was sitting at the Gryffindor table, and he was completely immersed in a book.

Although Morgana would have picked a spot farther away from the boy, Lily sat across from him. Morgana sat next to her, not wishing to sit alone during her first breakfast at Hogwarts.

"Good morning, Remus," She said cheerfully. "Please do make sure you don't wear your porridge to class this morning."

He put the book down and smiled at Lily. "I've put an Impervious charm on my pants."

Morgana knew she was missing something, but did not have a chance to ask. The stern looking witch who had conducted the sorting was approaching the Gryffindor table rapidly with a stack of parchment in her arms.

"Good morning, Miss Evans, Miss Woodsworth, Mr. Lupin," She said, rushed. "I have your schedules for the term. Please do not lose them."

She handed them each a schedule and hurried off.

"Ah, damn," Remus muttered. "Potions first thing in the morning. And with Slytherin, no less."

"Not all Slytherins are scum, Remus," Lily said, gingerly placing a sausage on her plate.

"Not in my experience, Lily," He responded politely, and disappeared behind his book once more.

Morgana busied herself by choosing a muffin very specifically. Maxwell had told her a very long time ago that he had once eaten a raisin muffin only to find the raisins were cockroaches. This was probably a lie, but Morgana felt the need to steer clear of anything that might have cockroaches in it.

She selected a banana nut muffin. There is nothing suspicious about a banana nut muffin.

Morgana had just begun to pour herself some pumpkin juice when she noticed a large group of people enter the Great Hall. Not surprisingly, it was Sirius and James, surrounded by a group of girls and one boy.

"Terrific," Morgana mumbled, and hastily tried to make like Remus and disappear behind a book.

Too late.

The group arrived at the table, and Sirius, James, and the third boy sat down next to Lily, Morgana, and Remus. The rest of the group dispersed at the other end of the table.

"Remy, my dear chap," Sirius said. "We wondered where you had gone off to!"

"In the morning, I eat breakfast," He said sarcastically.

Sirius disregarded Remus' sarcasm, and turned to Morgana and Lily. "Who is your friend, Morgana?"

Morgana looked at Lily, who looked like she would have rather been anywhere else. "This is Lily Evans, and, if you don't mind me saying, she doesn't like the pair of you too much."

Remus was forced to stifle a laugh.

"Who is your friend, Sirius?" Morgana asked Sirius, who was looking somewhat dumbfounded.

"I'm Peter Pettigrew, but you can just call me Peter," The chubby boy answered. He had a squeaky voice.

"It's very nice to meet you, Peter," Lily said. "How did you come to run in with fools such as these?"

Peter looked rather timid. He did not answer, so James did. "Our other dorm mate, Justin, is a complete twat. We found Petey here trying to transfigure Justin's pillows into piles of dung. We thought he would make a wonderful cohort."

"And you, Remus? You know these...boys?" Lily asked, smiling and raising an eyebrow at Remus' book.

Remus poked his head out from the book, looking rather bored. "I was sitting alone in my compartment, reading a book, when these two found me and insisted I explore the train with them."

"The book he was reading was Modern Day Pranks for the Practical Prankster," Sirius said, managing to find his voice again. "He's a keeper."

Professor McGonagall (as Lily pointed out to Morgana – "Oh, that's who that man meant when he said Professor McGonagall!" "That man is Hagrid, Morgana," "Everything makes sense now!") returned to the table to hand out more schedules to the new comers.

"Ugh! Potions with Slytherin! This is the worst day ever!" James pronounced. Lily rolled her eyes, and decided she was finished with breakfast.

"See you in the dungeons, Morgana," Lily said, and swiftly left the Gryffindor table.

"No, don't leave me!" Morgana called after her, but to no avail. Lily was out of both sight and earshot.

"We aren't that bad, are we?" Sirius asked Morgana, piling his plate full of food. "You don't even know us."

Morgana looked at the four boys before her. They were the motliest crew Morgana had ever seen. There was bookish and sarcastic Remus, short and timid Peter, handsome and charming (and stupid) Sirius, and kind but still sort of irritating because of his choice of companions James.

"I suppose you could be worse. You could be a lot of Slytherins," Morgana said. "That doesn't mean I like you, though."

"That's too bad, Morgana," Sirius said, stealing the leftovers of her banana nut muffin from her plate. "I like you, and therefore, I'm going to stick around."

Morgana stole back the crumbling remains of her muffin. "I have two older brothers. I can be just as stubborn and hardheaded as you."

"I come from a whole family of Slytherins. I think I've got you beat," Sirius grabbed the muffin back, and popped it in his mouth. "It's going to be hard to get rid of me."

"Sirius, if you want to win her friendship," Remus started, "Perhaps you shouldn't steal her muffins."

"Or maybe you should try being less aggressive," Peter added.

"Or maybe you should let me eat my breakfast in peace so I don't jinx you," Morgana suggested. With this being said, she slammed her book bag down on the table, collected her things, and huffed off toward the dungeons.

"Thanks for the help, guys! You stupid prats!" Sirius said loudly.

"You were doing just fine on your own," James said.

Sirius glared at James.

"Oh! You were trying to be friends with her? My mistake. I thought you were trying to alienate her!" James said with mock sincerity. "Sorry, mate."