'Hell or glory, I don't want anything in between'

Detention

After Charms that day, Riley ended up sitting with Lily in the common room, doing her Transfiguration homework. It felt strange to be sitting in such a relaxed environment doing homework. In the library, she was able to concentrate on her studying and her studying alone. In here, it was even though people knew what you were doing, they would still talk to you!

"Are you ok?" Lily asked her as she watched Riley sitting stiffly in her seat.

"I'm fine," Riley replied, looking around the room. It was so noisy. "Does the noise never put you off?"

"No, I don't really notice it anymore to be honest," she replied looking back down at her essay.

"Oh."

Lily looked back at Riley and saw how uncomfortable she looked.

"Riley, if you want we can go to the library…"

"No, it's ok. It's stupid really," Riley laughed a little, "I kind of just don't understand how you can talk and do your work at the same time. I need to be focused on one thing at all times, you see."

Lily nodded.

"Ah, I understand you now. I use to be like that, too…"

She trailed off and Riley knew exactly why. Mary had entered the common room and stopped and stared at the two girls sitting together and then stormed off to the girls dormitories.

Lily sighed and dropped her quill onto the parchment.

"Do you want to go a walk?" Riley suggested.

"Yes," Lily nodded, "Let's go." she said standing up.

X

"So…let me get this straight…the only reason Mary has fell out with you is because you won't give James a chance? Really? That's pathetic."

Riley and Lily had walked through almost the whole of Hogwarts while Lily told Riley why Mary had acted the way she did.

"I know! I don't know why she's so damn upset about it…"

Riley only nodded in response. They entered the Gryffindor common room to see it was empty. Riley ran up to the girls dorm and looked at the clock on her bedside table. It was five minutes to eight.

"What time is it?" Lily asked her.

"Five to eight." she mumbled, falling back onto her bed. "I don't have time to go to dinner. I have detention at eight."

"Ah," Lily said, sitting on her own bed. "In that case, I'll bring some food up after I've had my dinner."

"Thanks, Lily," Riley said sitting up. "I better just wait in the common room for Black to show up."

Sighing, the two girls made their way back down the dormitory stairs and said goodbye.

Riley sat down on the armchair in front of the fire and waited for Sirius. She didn't want to wait on him, but she was here anyway so there wasn't much of a point just going to Filch when Sirius was going to show up.

When she heard the Fat Lady talking outside, she stood up and made her way to the portrait. Just as it opened up, Sirius walked straight by her, but done a double take and stopped himself.

"You really came?" he laughed.

"I was here already actually," Riley replied, "I just thought it would be silly to leave when you would be arriving soon, that's all."

Sirius only nodded.

"Shall we?" he said, opening up the portrait for her.

Riley walked out and headed down the stairs towards Filch's office.

"Stop walking so fast!" she heard Sirius call behind her.

"Well why don't you stop walking so slow? I thought Quidditch players were meant to be fit and healthy," she replied, continuing to walk at the same passé.

She suddenly felt his presence beside her.

"I'll have you know I am very fit and healthy!" he told her, outraged. "I just don't want to get to detention early." He shrugged.

Riley never responded and knocked on Filch's door. It opened slowly, revealing the caretaker.

"More students for detention?" he asked in a sarcastic tone, "Tsk, tsk." He stepped out from the door and closed it over.

"What are we doing tonight then, Argy?" Sirius asked him. Rile turned to him with wide, shocked eyes. He had never noticed they were blue…

Filch's eyes lingered on Sirius with nothing but hatred, but he seemed to of waved of the question.

"Professor Slughorn has left cauldrons to be cleaned out." he told the both of them, now taking them down the stairs to the dungeons. "You are not to leave until every cauldron is sparkling, understand? And no wands are to be used!" He said, stopping outside Slughorns class.

Riley nodded and Sirius merely shrugged. Filch pushed open the door of the classroom revealing the four desks to be covered in cauldrons. Riley gulped and Filch smirked and held his hand out.

"Wands please. You can get them from Professor Slughorn on your way out."

Riley placed her wand in his scrawny hands, as did Sirius. He gave them a dirty smile before leaving the class.

Sirius looked into a few of the cauldrons on the desk beside him.

"Do you think some of these are safe?" he asked Riley.

She shrugged, "I don't really know." She said, looking into a few of them. She saw a large metal ladle sitting beside one of them and put it into a kind of dirty pink cauldron. She immediately dropped it when it started sizzling, setting the ladle on fire.

"Watch it when you come a cross a dirty pink colour," she told Sirius who nodded. "Where do you suppose we put the potions? There's not exactly a sink we could put it down…"

"How about we put them in the buckets that are in the supply closet and each take turns taking them up to the first floor corridor to chuck them out the window?"

"The window? It could hit someone!"

"Well how about I do it so you don't feel bad? C'mon, it'll be quicker."

"Fine," she grumbled and went to the supply closet and re-entered with to large wooden buckets. "Let's just get this over with."

She dumped a bucket next to the desk he was at then went to the one beside her and started to pour all of the potions into the bucket.

They had worked in complete silence, only talking to each other when the buckets got full, which had been four times. As Riley finished scrubbing her last cauldron on the first desk, she turned to the desk behind her and started pouring out the potions.

She gave out a yelp when she saw the potion she was pouring out getting dangerously close. Sirius looked up at her for a moment and then went back to scrubbing the cauldrons.

Riley set the cauldron down and cursed under her breath when she realized she didn't have a spare bauble. She burst out laughing at the idea that came into her head.

"What's up?" Sirius asked her.

"It's…I…This is going to sound stupid, but I was about to ask if you had a spare bauble on you so I could put my hair up."

She glanced away as she saw Sirius eyeing her hair witch reached just the middle of her back.

"Well you're right, I don't have one. But if you go under the desk you're at, in the drawer with the tools, you should find one. I noticed that Linda keeps some of her things in there."

Riley done what he had told her, and sure enough, there was a packet of baubles.

"Thanks," she said, tying her hair into a bun. Sirius shrugged in reply and looked into his bucket.

"I think it's time to empty them again, does yours need done?"

"No, I just started."

Sirius nodded in reply and left the class. Riley sat down and wondered why he was being so civil. Only a few day's, no, hours ago, he was annoying the living daylights out of her.

When she heard him return, she jumped up and went to empty another cauldron. But she looked down at her wrist and saw that she was wearing her charm bracelet. She decided it'd be best to take it off, just incase. She fiddled with the catch but she heard Sirius gasp and fall into her, causing her to let go of the catch which cause the bracelet to go flying off her wrist and into one of the potions.

"¿Qué has hecho?" she screeched and looked at him and then back at the potion. Her face had turned red with anger and was strongly resisting the urge to hit Sirius repeatedly. Instead, she went to plunge her hand into the cauldron.

Sirius grabbed onto her arm to stop her. She looked at him furiously and a light behind them exploded.

"LET GO OF ME!" she yelled at him, making him jump.

"Don't put your hand in there! Just leave it!"

"NO!"

Just then, Slughorn came running in.

"What is going on in here?" he asked, looking at the light that had smashed.

"My charm bracelet, sir…It fell into on of the potions. Please, get it out." Riley asked in a small voice, sounding close to tears.

Slughorn summoned her bracelet at once and it came flying towards him. He walked over to Riley and handed it to her and looked into the cauldron.

"Your bracelet shall be fine, Riley. The potion is just a very old Armotentia."

Riley nodded and turned around to wipe away a tear, making sure Sirius did not see.

"Thank you," she whispered, turning back to Slughorn.

"It's quite alright. I think that should be you two for tonight. It's almost eleven o'clock! Here are your wands…" he said taking them out from his robe pockets and handing them to each. "Now, off to bed the both of you."

Sirius nodded and followed Riley who had already left.

She was speeding up the stairs, desperate to get back to the common room.

"Riley….Wait!"

She kept on walking.

"C'mon, wait!"

She kept on walking.

"OI! MARTINEZ!"

This time, she stopped and turned around and came face to face with Sirius.

"What?" she yelled.

"I'm sorry about your bracelet, alright?" he told her, looking agitated.

"No! It's not alright!" Riley said. The lights in the hallway started to flicker on and off. "It will never be alright! It's your fault that I almost lost it! It's your fault I never got it quicker!"

"Well I'm very sorry for not wanted something to happen to you when you went looking for a bracelet! It's a bracelet! It's not the end of the world!"

The lights around them went straight off.

"It is not! You just don't understand…How could someone like you understand?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked her angrily.

"Just stay away from me, ok?" Riley said, lighting her wand and walking off down the corridor.

Sirius watched her leave. Merlin, why did girls always have to over react?

After standing in the darkness for five minutes, Sirius lit his own wand and set off for the common room. The he just realized that after all of these years, Riley Martinez, had just showed her true self. She was no longer an innocent little bookworm.

I know I said the next chapter might not be in two weeks, but I really could not help it! As soon as I posted the last one, I had to write the next one! I think I can safely say that the story is actually beginning now, do you know what I mean? Anyway, only one translation today!

"¿Qué has hecho?"

"What have you done?"

Please review!

Abbey xox