Chapter Five: We All Have Our Stuff
We could hear Aalgaard screaming clear as day but the other Professors' voices were low and less audible as Sirius and I sat on the hard wooden bench outside Dumbledore's office. Sirius said nothing to me as I wrung my hands together and tapped my feet nervously. He was the picture of relaxation, reclined in his seat, humming a little tune. He seemed to sense that trying to make me feel less nervous would be useless, but he did leave his hand beside my knee in case I needed something to hold on to.
When we'd been there for ten minutes, Sirius chuckled.
"I doubt we'll be in any trouble at all. You know McGonagall gave me a tin of ginger biscuits the day she gave me my detention for talking back to Aalgaard?"
I smiled nervously. "Flitwick gave me chocolates."
Sirius laughed at this and nudged me with his shoulder, seeing I was still quite pale.
"Hold my hand if you need to," he said softly.
I did so when the door opened and we looked up to see Flitwick beckoning us inside Dumbledore's office.
"Chin up, Bridget," Sirius said encouragingly as we walked inside and stood in front of Dumbledore's desk.
The Headmaster was massaging his temples as Aalgaard continued to yell obscenities at him. When he saw us, he gave us a little nod and held his hand up to silence Aalgaard. The Defence Professor did so reluctantly, scowling at us.
"Have a seat, Mr Black, Miss Willougby," Dumbledore said, gesturing with a white hand to the seats in front of his desk. We sat obediently and I was appalled to see a satisfied smirk playing on Sirius' face.
"Professor Aalgaard has been telling me that you convinced your entire Sixth Year Defence class to skip his lesson today. Is this true?" Dumbledore said quite calmly.
"Yes Sir," I said as politely as I could.
"Yes Professor," Sirius agreed. "Although, they did so of their own free-will."
"So, you did not coerce anyone in to following your example?" Dumbledore asked Sirius carefully. To my surprise, Sirius chuckled.
"No coercion this time, Sir," he said with amusement.
Dumbledore smiled back indulgently and Aalgaard practically exploded. "Of course they did! They did the same thing on Tuesday! He forced the entire class to walk out."
"Forced? Did he threaten them? Hex them?" Dumbledore asked in an even voice.
Aalgaard spluttered but shook his head. "Well no, but they'll do anything the boy says!"
"Well we certainly cannot punish him for having leadership qualities, Artemis."
Sirius stifled laughter and I elbowed him, willing him to shut up. Dumbledore turned back to us.
"You were both punished last time you spoke back to Professor Aalgaard and showed him a great deal of disrespect. I must say I'm not pleased to hear more on the issue."
"Yes Sir," I said, quietly.
"With all do respect, Professor. We understood that we shouldn't call our Professor names, but I don't think we ought to tolerate the way he teaches either."
"Black, you are neither a trained nor qualified Wizard yet and therefore have little reason to question your Professors' teaching methods," Professor McGonagall put in.
"Miss, we aren't going to accept the opinion that Unforgivable curses are something we shouldn't take seriously. Nor will we indulge Aalgaard's view that anyone who falls prey to these curses are weak," Sirius said in a very mature voice. McGonagall looked quite impressed and even a touch proud as she glanced at Professor Flitwick. I could have sworn I saw the tiny Professor smile. I felt as though Sirius had practiced his defense, whereas I was sitting here as uselessly as a potted plant.
Dumbledore's piercing blue eyes fixated on me momentarily before he turned to Aalgaard, McGonagall and Flitwick. "Professors, if you would all excuse us for a moment. I wish to speak to Mr Black and Miss Willoughby alone."
McGonagall and Flitwick immediately bowed out, but Dumbledore's request seemed to make Aalgaard even more furious.
"Last time they only got lines – they better get a hell of a lot more than that this time Dumbledore – I won't accept anything less. I won't let them back in my classroom!"
"As they seemed quite happy to miss your lesson today, Artemis – I hardly think that would be an appropriate punishment. Please leave us – I assure you, I will deal with Mr Black and Miss Willoughby with regard to all of the circumstances." Dumbledore said, his voice light but his eyes stern. Aalgaard grunted irritably and left the room, slamming the door loudly.
"That door has really held up over the years," Dumbledore said nonchalantly, leaning back in his plush chair and bringing his hands together. He looked over them at us with an unreadable expression.
"Well, Mr Black – it's certainly a record for you. We're already in October and this is the first I'm seeing of you."
Sirius laughed easily. "Well, I thought I ought to take it easy since I'm a NEWT student now."
Dumbledore smiled and looked at me. "And Miss Willoughby, this is a first for you. I haven't had the pleasure of reprimanding you in my office before."
I looked hesitantly at Sirius and chuckled nervously. "No, Professor."
Dumbledore sighed. "While I understand your response to Professor Aalgaard, you must also understand my position. I cannot allow half of the Sixth Years to miss lessons and not receive the education they deserve."
I nodded, hoping that this meant we were just getting a slap on the wrist.
"Professor, Aalgaard has no respect for us, so why should we have any for him?" Sirius said. "Bridget's father was killed using an Unforgivable Curse. I...I've had my own experiences with another curse – you can't blame us for having a severe reaction to his opinion on them."
I looked at Sirius in surprise, but he was determinedly staring at the desk. I turned back to Dumbledore who looked slightly shaken.
"Of course. Of course, you have every right to ignore and disagree with Professor Aalgaard's opinions. But they are simply that – opinions. However, I must ask... did he not teach you the effects and history of the curses?"
Sirius and I shuffled uncomfortably in our seats. "Yes Sir, but-"
Dumbledore held up a hand to silence us. "Professor Aalgaard's presence at this school has shaken things up a bit and while you may not understand – I implore you to realize that I perhaps know a touch more about his reasons for being here than you do. I encourage you to listen carefully to what he says but do not blindly follow his opinions. That is the difference between learning the material and understanding the material. Would you, for example – believe Professor McGonagall if she were to tell you that learning to be an Animagus was simple – merely because she is one?"
Sirius' mouth twitched in to a slight smirk but then he shook his head. "No Sir." I nodded in agreement.
"And you respect Professor McGonagall, yes?"
We nodded again.
"Do you see?"
Sighing Sirius and I murmured our agreement.
"Very well. The punishment will be minimal, as it seems quite pointless to put fifteen students in detention at the same time. A point will be taken from each student who did not attend Professor Aalgaard's lesson today. And, starting next week, you will return to Defence classes. You will ask your classmates to do the same and you will go directly to your Heads of Houses before trying to initiate another protest. Do I make myself clear?"
Sirius and I stared at the floor. While I understood what Dumbledore was saying, I was still frustrated. Even though it could hardly be called a punishment – 6 points from Ravenclaw and 9 from Gryffindor - It felt as though we were just being scolded like small children. Nothing was going to change and our protest had meant nothing.
"And I will be planning and reviewing Professor Aalgaard's lessons from this point onwards," Dumbledore added making us both look up in surprise.
"All of his lessons?" Sirius asked, his mouth hanging open slightly.
"Yes, I will continue to do so, until I feel as though it is fit to stop. If so many of my students do not feel as though they are learning from a Professor adequately, then that Professor is subject to a review," Dumbledore said simply. "Now, off to Dinner with you – all this rebellion must have you starving!"
Sirius and I grinned as we stood up.
"Thanks Professor," we said as Dumbledore picked up his quill and began writing something down.
"And Mr Black, Miss Willoughby – I do not wish to see you in my office again until Christmas at the very least!" he said, looking over his half-moon spectacles at us.
We smiled at him and nodded.
"Yes Sir," I said brightly – feeling quite affectionate to the Headmaster.
"I'll try my best Sir – but I won't make any promises," Sirius joked.
Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, well do say hello to Mr Potter for me."
"Of course Sir," Sirius said, grabbing my hand and strolling out of the room so that we could tell the others that Aalgaard was essentially on probation!
Over the next couple of weeks, things seemed to return to normal. Sirius had made a point of telling anyone who would listen that Dumbledore had taken over planning Defence lessons and was also repeating Dumbledore's advice to listen but not blindly agree with Aalgaard's opinions. Although it was a small one – we considered it a victory. The best thing was the new textbooks – Dumbledore had ordered a new book which seemed to present the Dark Arts in an unbiased way and although Aalgaard sounded disgruntled when he taught lessons now, his severe opinions were toned down and we found that we were finally learning in a way that suited almost everyone. Sirius was more prone to getting detentions from Aalgaard and I was being ignored entirely, but it was a much more preferable situation. The only thing that was a little disappointing to me was that I didn't seem to have much to do with Sirius anymore. We sort of returned to being polite acquaintances, speaking to our friends more than each other. There was nothing wrong with it of course, but after getting used to spending a few days with him around constantly, I felt a bit sad that our friendship was based on convenience rather than anything else. I was also noticing Sirius talking to Emmeline Vance a lot more often and to my extreme annoyance with myself, I wasn't happy about it.
One morning, after encountering Emmeline with her back against a wall laughing and flirting with Sirius as he leaned over her with his brilliant half-smile, I stomped my way to the Great Hall with Nicola smiling knowingly beside me. When we sat and I had gulped down the majority of the juice in my goblet, Nicola grinned at me.
"Do you have a thing for Sirius?" she asked, teasingly.
"No," I said defiantly, tearing my eyes away from the entrance where Sirius and Emmeline were still talking.
"So, you're not jealous of a certain Head girl at all?"
I frowned and glared at Nicola's bright smile. "Oh shut up."
"It's okay, you know – you two got quite close and now he's totally ignoring you," she said loyally. I chuckled.
"He's not ignoring me...he's just got a new mission on his mind, so to speak."
"It's funny...we were all talking about how he seemed to fancy you," Nicola said before lowering her voice. "Ollie was desperately annoyed about it."
I looked up in interest. "Why would he be annoyed?"
"Well because Ollie definitely fancies you. He has for ages – you knew that."
I took a thoughtful bite of my food. I knew she was right, of course. Before The Incident at the end of last year, Ollie and I had been spending a lot of time together...sort of like Sirius and Emmeline were now.
"That was before though..." I said quietly and Nicola nodded and rubbed my back comfortingly. After a moment, I shook my head.
"Anyway...I don't think I fancy him...Sirius, I mean. I just thought he was nice. And interesting – much more than I thought he'd be. I suppose I'm disappointed that we haven't been talking much anymore."
Nicola started to say something before elbowing me hard.
"Ouch! What the hell, Nic?!" I said, looking up to see her staring meaningfully at me and gesturing her head to behind me. I turned to see Emmeline Vance sitting beside me with a smile.
"Morning Bridget," she said kindly and I nodded back.
"Um..." she said, tucking some hair behind her ear. "Listen, you know Sirius Black, don't you?"
I shuffled in my seat a little and nodded. "Yeah, a bit."
"But you two organized that Aalgaard Protest together. He says you're mates," she said insistently.
"He did?" I said, my insides swelling a little at this. "Oh, um I suppose we are."
"Well, do you know much about him? I mean, he's gorgeous of course, but I've never seen him with a girlfriend before. He's just asked me to go to the first Hogsmeade trip with him and he was so smooth and I always hear stories about him and his friends, so I said, I'd have to think about it." She was biting her lip and her cheeks were flushed.
She was crazy.
"Oh, well I don't know much about that," I said, looking at Nicola out of the corner of my eye.
"Well, is he a player or something? You're both Sixth Years – surely you know that much," she said, looking a bit desperate. It was quite interesting to watch because this was all unexplored territory. No girl at Hogwarts had ever gone out with Sirius Black before.
"I don't think so...but he must like you if he asked you to Hogsmeade. I've never seen him there on a date before," I said, a little reluctantly.
"Do you think you could talk to him a bit...see where his head is? Please? I'd seriously owe you," she said, looking at me earnestly with her round, pale blue eyes. And unfortunately, I couldn't say no. Emmeline was too nice and you couldn't ignore that.
"Okay. I sit next to him in Transfiguration, I'll give it a try," I said, knowing that McGonagall rarely permitted talking and so I wouldn't be able to try too hard.
"Thanks Bridget, I owe you!" Emmeline said, hugging me. I patted her back awkwardly and forced a smile as she went off to sit with her Seventh Year friends.
"What are you doing hugging the Head Girl?" Benjy said as the boys joined us.
"She wants me to find out if Sirius' intentions toward her are true," I said dully and Ollie laughed.
"I reckon it's a cover. I've never seen Black with a girl before – he's clearly a poof."
Benjy and Matt laughed but Nicola and I groaned and Arron shrugged.
"I don't know...I've seen him snogging girls at parties before."
"How many Gryffindor parties have you been to?" Nicola asked in surprise.
"A fair few before we got together. You know in Fourth and a bit in Fifth year. Sirius and I used to sit together in Arithmancy."
"I forgot you two were mates," I said and Arron shrugged.
"Not really mates – he pretty much sticks to his gang. But he's all right."
"Get off his knob, mate," Ollie teased and the boys burst into laughter.
To my dismay, Professor McGonagall was ill for the first time ever and Professor Binns was overseeing us instead as we practiced the spell from last week. And of course, Binns was snoring within five minutes and the class was chaos. I hoped inwardly that Sirius would go join his mates on the other side of the classroom but instead; he leaned back in his chair and grinned at me.
"All right Bridget? Haven't spoken to you in a while," he said.
I nodded. "Yeah, I suppose we went back to our real lives."
He looked at me with a weird expression but shrugged it off. "Yeah, but we're still mates aren't we? I never see you outside of lessons, though. Where do you spend your frees?"
"Sometimes in my Common Room, but the Library mostly," I said, looking down at my table.
He scoffed. "Oh no wonder! I've been looking for you actually. James has gone Quidditch-insane lately and spends all free time working on new plays, so I need someone to spend my Frees with!"
"Well come to the Library then," I said with a smile. He looked appalled and frowned.
"Don't ask me to do that Bridget."
I laughed and punched his shoulder lightly. "Fine, I can study somewhere else."
"Okay, the Lake then and we will not be studying," he said, shaking his head and making a face on me. "I'm going to go talk to the lads now, want to come?"
"No, it's okay, Nicola's there," I said pointing to her as she made her way over to me, keeping an eye on the sleeping ghost Professor.
He nodded and smiled. "Okay, see you after then."
"Wait," I said, feeling like I ought to mention Emmeline at least.
He looked at me expectantly. "Yeah?"
"Emmeline Vance asked me about you," I blurted out.
He looked at me, expressionless for a moment before a slow smile slid on to his face. "Tell me about it later, yeah?" he said with a wink before he went over to his friends and Nicola walked over to ask me for details.
After Binns had woken up and dismissed us, Sirius left the Transfiguration classroom saying he'd wait for me outside. After waiting for Nicola to stop talking to Lily Evans, I walked out of the room slowly, elbowing my friend in the ribs as she smirked and waggled her eyebrows at me.
"All right Hobbs?" Sirius said pleasantly, nodding to her.
"Yeah – off to Runes though, so I'll see you two later," Nicola said to us, giving me a wink and waving goodbye.
"Did your mates leave already?" I asked, looking around in surprise.
"Yeah, Remus and Pete have Muggle Studies and James is probably off snogging his broomstick, so, I'm all yours" Sirius chuckled as we made our way outside to the large tree beside the Lake. I stared at the ground determinedly, trying my best not to blush at our close proximity. When we arrived at the Beech tree, he dropped down and leaned against the trunk, patting the ground beside him. I joined him, crossing my legs and pulling out bits of the grass, feeling a bit awkward.
"So Emmeline asked you to investigate?" Sirius said, as he leaned against the tree and closed his eyes, looking quite pleased with himself.
"Yeah, she's worried you might be a player and wanted me to ask you because she thinks we're friends," I said as nonchalantly as I could.
He opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow. "We are friends."
"Oh," I said a bit awkwardly, pulling some more grass out. He put a hand over mine to stop me.
"Oi, what's the grass ever done to you?" he said with a cheeky smile and I laughed. We watched the Lake in silence for a while before I thought I ought to do some studying. I reached for my Charms textbook as Sirius spoke again.
"Do people really think I'm a player?" he asked, his face looking confused.
"Um...I don't think people really know what you are," I said uncomfortably.
He scowled. "You can't be a sixteen year old bloke who's never had a girlfriend without people thinking you're a weirdo, I swear."
"I don't think you're a weirdo," I said.
"Course you don't. I already told you that I just wasn't interested in anyone. But then I met Emmeline and thought she seemed all right, so naturally, I asked her out – what's wrong with that?"
"I suppose it's because she's never seen you with anyone before. No one has."
"Is she worried about how much experience I've got or something?" Sirius said with a frown.
"Well, I don't know much. I can tell her that you've snogged Marlene before, if you want," I said helpfully.
He scoffed. "No, don't tell her. If it's that important to her, maybe I'm not interested in her either."
He folded his arms and glared out over the Lake as I awkwardly pulled my Charms book out.
"Bloody hell, I thought she was so cool," he muttered, shaking his head a little.
"She is...She's very nice. And pretty," I couldn't help saying. "Don't let this bother you. I mean, she obviously really likes you, otherwise she wouldn't have made me have this incredibly awkward conversation."
Sirius laughed. "Yeah...you really reckon she likes me then?"
"Course she does, Sirius," I said, cocking my head to one side, giving him an exasperated look.
Sirius grinned. "Cheers, mate."
"So what should I tell her?" I said, briskly, opening my textbook for something to do.
He shrugged. "Tell her I like her too."
I nodded, thinking that I'd probably have to elaborate a bit. Emmeline probably wouldn't think this was enough information and frankly I didn't want to endure another conversation with Sirius about his love life. I flipped to the most recent Charms chapter and began reading before he pulled the book away from me.
"So go on, tell me what's new with you?" he said, tossing my book aside and lying down in the grass facing me, his head propped up on one hand.
I couldn't help but smile. I was instantly reminded of our detention together and how easy it was to talk to him.
"Nothing to be quite honest. The most excitement I've had since our protest was being cornered by Lover Girl."
He laughed, rolled on to his back and covered his face. "Merlin, don't call her that, please."
I smiled. "I also had a letter from my brother – he's thinking of selling our house." I hadn't divulged this information to anyone, not even Nicola. I was afraid if I brought up my home life, everyone would start walking on eggshells around me again and I didn't want that. I wasn't quite sure why I felt comfortable telling Sirius about it, though. Maybe it was because he never seemed to walk on eggshells for anyone.
He quirked an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Well, it's big, a lot of maintenance for a busy guy in his twenties and it's in a Wizarding community, so he feels a bit out of place. I don't know, he probably won't sell anyway," I said with a shrug.
He sat up and ran a hand through his windswept hair. It seemed to fall in to place instantly and with the sun glinting, he looked otherworldly. I pulled out some more grass to avoid staring.
"Why would he feel out of place? Isn't he a Wizard too?" He said, squinting at me, perhaps trying to remember if he'd seen Chris around Hogwarts.
"No, he's a Squib," I said a little hesitantly. Although Sirius didn't really seem like the type, there were plenty of students at the school who would be horrified to learn this about my family – considering my father had been a very high profile, pureblood Auror. There were also plenty of nasty things I'd heard about the Black family and their obsession with blood purity. Although given the fact that Sirius had caused a huge commotion by being placed in Gryffindor, I doubted he was much like his family at all.
"I wouldn't have guess that. I thought he must have just been a lot older than us," Sirius said, looking interested.
"No, he's a Squib. Hates it...but he's acclimated to the Muggle world quite well, I suppose. He's a big time banker in London."
"Must be tough on him, being the only Squib in a pureblood family. How did your parents take it?" he said, curiously.
I stiffened, suddenly uncomfortable with the direction our conversation had gone. I felt as though Sirius (and everyone else) knew an awful lot about my family background with me getting barely anything in return. Sirius suddenly seemed to remember that my father was dead and considering I'd never mentioned my mother, he looked very apologetic.
"Sorry," he said, quietly.
I shrugged too, not looking at him and instead watching the Giant Squid's tentacles grab lazily at some ducks floating at the edge of the Lake. I could tell he was holding back from asking me any more about my family, although from the corner of my eye, I could see his face was curious.
"So why has James gone all Quidditch-mad all of a sudden?" I asked, wanting to change the subject quickly.
Sirius laughed, lightening the mood. "Well, I reckon he's trying to keep his mind off Evans. You know how they had that horrible screaming match during OWLs?"
I cringed and pulled a clump of grass out. "Well, yeah I heard bits and pieces about it."
"Oh, that's right. You didn't sit the OWLs with the rest of us," Sirius said uncomfortably, before barging on with his story in a hurry.
"Well, anyway, ever since then, he's been determined to show her that he's all grown up. So, for some reason, he seems to think that winning the Quidditch Cup will win her favor. I did try to tell him that it might make him seem even more arrogant, but he's not easily swayed."
I laughed, happy that he had not chosen to harp on about The Incident.
"Poor lad. He doesn't seem that bad, surely she'll give him a chance eventually," I said.
"Try telling her that – I don't think she hates him, but lately she seems to be treating him as a bit of a joke – like a piece of gum on the bottom of her shoe or something. The bitch," he said, rolling his eyes and looking irritated.
"You don't seem to like her much."
He shook his head. "I just don't like that he's obsessed with her. I mean, I get along with her okay sometimes and she can be very funny, but she's a bit stubborn and uptight when it comes to him – she could give him a break once in a while."
"There's a lot of drama in Gryffindor House, isn't there?" I said, with a laugh.
He rolled his eyes. "You have no idea. It's practically incestuous the relationships that happen in our year. James has gone out with half of the Sixth year girls already in his quest to get over Evans."
I raised my eyebrows. This was certainly news to me. Perhaps I hadn't been paying much attention, but I'd always thought that most of the Gryffindor girls were a bit obsessed with Sirius.
"Really? Who?" I asked with interest.
His eyes widened in surprise. "Don't you know? There were rumors flying around for almost all of last year."
"I must have missed them," I said, feeling a bit puzzled. It was a bit odd – I heard Sirius and his friends come up in conversation pretty much every time I went to the loos.
"Well, it started out with Jen Crawley, but that ended pretty quick once he realized she was actually after someone else," he said, rubbing his neck a bit sheepishly.
"You, I suppose?"
He cringed. "I didn't have a clue to be honest. The rest of the lads are a bit more perceptive, I think."
I laughed at this, seeing the truth in that. Sirius Black had always seemed pretty oblivious to the attention he got from girls, although Nicola and I had always operated on the assumption that he was simply pretending he was clueless in an attempt to maintain his "coolness".
"And then he dated Mary for almost four months before she caught him hexing Rupert Davies just for snogging Evans." He laughed at the memory and then tapped his chin, thoughtfully. "Oh and he got off with Dorcas at a party once, but cut that one short once he'd sobered up enough to remember that she's Evans' best friend."
I laughed much harder at this and held my sides as I leaned against the tree, trying to catch my breath. "That is hilarious! Is that everyone then?"
Sirius smirked. "Yeah, well Alice is all sewn up with Frank Longbottom and Marlene never really displayed any interest in him, so that just leaves Evans and we all know that'll never happen."
I shook my head. "You Gryffindors and your hormones, honestly- how do you get anything else done?!"
Sirius shrugged. "I have no clue. No wonder we haven't won the House Cup in years."
"You guys seem a lot less hormonally-charged in Ravenclaw. Is it just O'Reilly and Hobbs together then?" he said, after we'd both stopped laughing.
I thought about it. "Maybe there's more drama in the other years but Benjy is too obsessed with Quidditch to settle down and Matt's a bit vertically challenged to get much attention from the ladies."
Sirius barked a laugh at this. "You mean he's a midget."
I shoved him in the side as he continued to laugh. "Oi, poor lad – he's awfully insecure about it," I said, trying to stick up for my friend.
"And what about Chamberlain? He seems to give me death glares every time I talk to you," Sirius said, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
I sighed. "Oh...well Ollie and I...Well, we're nothing really."
"That sounds like a lie if I've ever heard one," Sirius said, narrowing his eyes playfully.
"I did think that we were going somewhere...before," I fell quiet again and Sirius watched me carefully. He put a hand on mine, again to stop me from pulling out more of the lawn.
"Before your dad was killed, you mean?" he said softly and I couldn't help but look at him then. His cool, grey eyes seemed warmer than normal and the way he was speaking sounded careful.
"Yeah," I said, sighing loudly. "It's all different now."
"Of course it is," he replied, simply.
"It's just," I bit my lip and looked at him with his brow furrowed as he looked back. "I feel as though that was another life. That year, Ollie and I tiptoeing around each other after going to Hogsmeade together; that day – when you were pulling the bean out of Nicola's nose. It was all different then and I'm different now."
He nodded. "Yeah, you are."
I raised an eyebrow at him. "How would you know about it?"
He shook his head. "I just mean...don't take this the wrong way, but you are just a totally different person than I thought."
"But you didn't know me at all before this year," I protested. "How can you tell the difference?"
He shrugged looking at the floor. "It's just something about your eyes. I'm good at reading people and I just know that you're different. You're not the same, slightly giggly girl that asked me to pull a bean out of her friend's nose when she was capable of doing it herself."
"And I suppose that's bad," I said with a huge sigh.
"No, Bridget...it's not bad. Do you think it's bad?" he asked, cocking his head to the side to study the expression on my face.
"Nicola thinks it is," I said, quietly. "And the boys."
"Why do you think that?"
"I suppose I talked more before. I was funnier and more interesting," I said, staring off in to the distance to try to force the glisten in my eyes to go away.
"I think you're interesting and funny, so maybe you've just got a bit more substance now," he said lightly.
I laughed a little bitterly. "Too bad you can't get a bit of substance without something horrible happening to you."
He nodded, seriously. "Yeah." He bit his lip then and asked hesitantly, "And your mum?"
"Dead too. When she gave birth to me. My dad was all I really knew."
"I'm sorry," he said, looking distraught. I didn't say anything because I was a bit overcome with emotion to trust myself to speak.
We sat, once again staring at the Lake, not looking at each other. I wasn't sure what was going on in his head but suddenly I was overcome with the need to know more about him and why he seemed to understand me so well.
"Sirius, remember when I asked you why you had a go at Aalgaard? Why you had the same inkling as I did to stand up to him?" Remember you said it was a bit personal..." I said, looking at him with a bit of a fierce look.
He wasn't looking at me but he nodded.
"Why?" I pressed.
He sighed and closed his eyes. He seemed to be in two minds – one, it was probably still a bit 'too personal' but on the other hand I'd practically spilled my life story to him. It was a long time before he answered. "Well, I'm fairly well acquainted with one of those Unforgivable Curses. I'm sure you remember I mentioned it to Dumbledore." His voice was soft and dull, completely lacking it's usual lightness and animation.
"Yes," I said, remembering my curiosity at that moment.
"Let's just say that the Black children can be target practice when their drunk father wants to refine his Cruciatus Curse," he said, his mouth in a hard line.
I felt my breath hitch in my throat and I was suddenly very sorry that I'd pried. No wonder he hadn't wanted to tell me the last time I'd asked.
"Of course, I'm the target that's used more often now, considering Regulus became the golden child," he said, his voice, forcibly nonchalant.
"I'm sorry, Sirius. I'm so sorry," I said, feeling horrible.
"But it's all right now. I left this summer. I live with the Potters now."
I still felt guilty for forcing him to tell me something so horrible. "I'm still sorry."
He smiled at me, in a hard, forced way and shrugged.
"We all have our stuff, Bridget."
I nodded and we sat in a kind of peaceful silence for the next fifteen minutes.
Finally, he jumped to his feet and pulled me up with him.
"Shall we go to Potions then?" he said, with a much more natural smile on his face now and I nodded, smiling back. I picked up my bag and slung it over my shoulder, ready to follow him towards the Dungeons when he stopped and grabbed hold of my shoulders.
"You're a good friend, Bridget. I'm sort of glad we both lost our tempers with Aalgaard and ended up in detention together."
I laughed at him but agreed. "Yeah, it's nice having someone to talk to who doesn't already know about all your...stuff."
With his signature side-smile, he pulled me to him and gave me a tight hug. Then he ruffled my hair, and said, "Come on, let's go – I think I see Jen and she's been a bit friendly ever since I kissed Marlene."
I rolled my eyes but followed him, feeling suddenly very, very happy. In fact, I couldn't even wait to tell Emmeline Vance that Sirius liked her, just because it would make him happy and I no longer seemed to feel that irrational jealousy that I'd felt this morning. I just wanted him to stay my friend, because he was really beginning to mean a lot to me.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Reviews are super appreciated.