Wallflower
Chapter Two: Family Matters
"Good Morning, Class," Professor McGonagall said as she entered the room at a brisk pace. She received grumbled responses but that didn't seem to deter her as she continued to the front of the room, before turning and facing the class.
As she began to talk to them about the importance of their NEWTS, Sirius kept his eye on Adelaide. She sat in the front of the class and was dutifully taking notes on whatever McGonagall said. She had tied her hair up in a pony tail to keep it out of her face, and she was hunched over her paper studiously. Sirius didn't need to look twice to notice that her uniform fitted her very well; she was actually quite fit and had a flat stomach with perfect assets, neither too big nor too small. He really had no idea why he hadn't noticed her before now.
Then, as if she felt him staring at her, she turned in her seat and caught his gaze. They held it for a solid two seconds before she blushed and returned to her work. While Professor McGonagall continued to explain what she expected for her class, he observed Adelaide carefully and curiously. She was interesting to him because she had managed to stay under the radar for almost seven years; that in it self seemed amazing in a school like Hogwarts.
"Now, I hope you are not too comfortable with your seating arrangement, because I will be rearranging you," McGonagall said briskly, moving behind her desk where she looked at the seating chart she had prepared before hand, "I created this based on your abilities so that there is no way you can take credit for another persons work. I trust that you work well together, because you will be setting there for the rest of the year. Now, if everyone would stand and move to the left of the class room…"
Students did as they were instructed with muffled complaint, and Sirius sighed in annoyance but otherwise complied. He stood beside James, his previous partner, who stood beside Remus.
"Hopefully we'll be paired with someone we like," James said casually, glancing at Lily surreptitiously.
"James Potter, Lily Evans, if you could sit here," McGonagall instructed pointing to the back right hand desk, "And Vanessa Wolfe and Remus Lupin, take a seat here…"
"Sirius Black, Adelaide Vicknair, if you could take a seat here," McGonagall said, motioning to a desk in the last row in the left hand corner. They both did so without complaint (he did sit next to Remus after all, though not at the same desk). When everyone took their seats, Sirius realized that McGonagall had organized it so that the poorer students were seated up front; among them was Peter, who was seated with Annalisa Bertucci, a Slytherin who was also less then average at Transfiguration, in the second row to the right.
"Looks like we meet again," Sirius said casually, and Adelaide smiled shyly.
"Y-Yeah, I guess so," she said. He then noticed she had put on a pair or dark rimmed glasses perched on her nose.
"You need glasses?" He asked without thinking. She smiled shyly and nodded.
"Only for reading things to terribly far away," she responded, "Otherwise I get on just fine."
When McGonagall finished she was back at the front of the class with her mouth in a straight line. She began to move things around on her desk before taking a seat. She looked at the class over her glasses, and by now they had only twenty minutes left to the class. She realized this, apparently, as she said, "Since that took more time then I had anticipated, I'm going to let you converse to your partner, and only your partner, so you can be at least civilized to each other. If things get to loud," at this she looked at the back where the marauders (or most of them) were setting, "I will assign you all homework."
When the students realized she was done talking, they turned to their partners (in some cases awkwardly, like Peter and Annalisa) and attempted to begin a conversation. Sirius grinned wolfishly and angled his seat so that he was facing Adelaide. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest and waited as she angled her chair towards him.
"So, how are we going to go about getting to know each other?" he asked casually, and Adelaide bit her lip softly, a nervous habit of hers, apparently.
"Well, we can take turns asking each other questions," she said softly, managing not to blush or stutter. Sirius shrugged.
"Who goes first?" he asked, and she smiled wryly.
"Is that your first question?" she teased, and Sirius let out a bark of laughter.
"Nah, but I guess the answer's me," he said and Adelaide just kept smiling, "so…what's your favorite color?"
"Red," she responded, "What about you? What's your favorite color?" Sirius grinned in a teasing manner,
"What? Can't come up with a better question?" he teased and she blushed, "It's also red." She grinned weakly.
"It's a small world," she remarked, "your turn."
"What's your favorite animal?"
This game continued for ten minutes, with him finding out her favorite animal was a dog (same as his), her middle name was Faye (while his was Orion, after his father), she was a direct descendant of Morgan le Fay (on her mothers side), she hated pink, her favorite food was a tie between Asian, Mexican, and Italian cuisine, and that she excelled at Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, and nonverbal and wandless magic.
"What about your family?" Adelaide asked softly, gnawing on her lip for a second, "I only really know what I've heard, but you can't really trust what people say…you don't have to answer if you don't want too," she added quickly, looking at her feet shyly. Sirius shook his head.
"I don't mind," he said easily, "Well, I have a little brother, as you must know, Regulus Black. He used to look up to me until I left for Hogwarts, when my parents decided to have good old Bella and her husband over for dinner almost every night. Needless to say, he turned into the perfect son rather quickly," he smirked slightly, though it didn't reach his eyes and looked more like a grimace, "I managed to put up with them for a while until I was sixteen; I ran away to James' house and stayed the rest of the summer with him. My dear ol' mum told everyone I had been kicked out.
"During sixth year my Uncle Alphard passed away and left me a large sum of gold and all of is belongings, including his house. I moved in there (despite the Potters protests, mainly coming from Mrs. Potter) and managed to get on without a job. And now, here I am!" he flung his arms out slightly with a cheesy smile, and Adelaide frowned.
"I'm sorry you have an awful family," she said politely, "I couldn't imagine life without having some support from my father."
"What about your mum?" Sirius asked, before wincing, "Sorry, I don't always think before I speak." Adelaide just shook her head.
"It's fine, I don't mind," she said softly. She opened her mouth to speak when the bell rang and everyone began to gather their things. Sirius blinked and did the same, but when he finished he turned back to Adelaide, and they made they way towards the door.
"Hey, if you want we can keep talking when we get back to the common room, or something," he said, trying not to sound to eager, "If you want of course." Adelaide bit her lip again.
"Well, I was planning on going to the library," she said honestly, "But how about lunch?"
"Whatever's fine with you," he shrugged, "But do you want the others hearing or not? Cuz we can set somewhere else if you want…"
"Um, I don't really mind," she murmured, "But I would prefer that I don't tell them; I don't really know them that well." He nodded in understanding, and the two quickly made their way to Herbology, leaving no time for talking if they wanted to have time to find good seats. They ended up separating as they each sat with their own friend, in Adelaide's case near the other Gryffindors who took this class.
"What took you so long?" James asked as Sirius took his seat beside him, Remus on his left and Peter on James' right.
"I decided to hang back and talk to Adelaide some more," he said casually with a shrug. James and Remus shared looks, but Sirius noticed, "What? What'd I miss?"
"Sirius has a cru-ush," James teased with a grin, earning a punch in the shoulder.
"Do not," Sirius said with a playful grin, "she's just interesting."
"As it stands right now," Remus teased, and earned a punch like James.
"Shut your gobs," Sirius said, and the bell rang, "I'm setting with her at lunch today, though." This caused the boys to stare at him as if he had grown a second head.
"But you always sit with us," James said with confusion. Sirius shrugged.
"We didn't get to finish our conversation in Transfiguration, so we're finishing at lunch," he said nonchalantly. James sighed.
"It'll be so weird not setting with you," he said, "But I guess you can ditch us, for a girl." Sirius and Remus laughed at his expense when Professor Sprout, a rather young woman who started teaching at Hogwarts just this year, marched her way into the room with a friendly air about her.
"Welcome to Herbology!"
-
"I have to say that Professor Sprout is a much better teacher then Professor Humdinger was," Sirius remarked to Adelaide as they made their way to the Great Hall side by side for Lunch, "He was a nightmare."
"True," She agreed with a nod of her head, "He was rather foul; Professor Sprout is also closer to our age so she's not as old fashioned as Humdinger was." They entered the Great Hall and were greeted with the noise that accompanied lunch, and they took a seat at the end of the Gryffindor table, closest to the doors. Adelaide sat her things on the bench beside her before placing a few different foods on her plate and Sirius did the same.
"So, what happened to your mum?" Sirius asked softly, only partially noticing when the other Marauders entered the room and took a seat a few spaces down so that they were close, but not close enough to ease drop in on their conversation. Adelaide pushed her food around on her try as she thought for a moment.
"Well, my mother gave birth to me when she was twenty five. She was a wonderful person, I loved her so much," she began, "When I was eight she gave birth to my little sister, Madeline Morgana Vicknair. The birth was really rough on my mom, and she almost didn't make it. When Maddie was two my mother contracted pneumonia, a common muggle disease. She died a few weeks before we were supposed to go on vacation to Romania," she smiled, a slightly bitter gesture, "Needless to say that trip got canceled. I ended up raising my sister when I was able to, but otherwise my dad had to hire a nanny.
"When Maddie was five she was diagnosed with leukemia. By then, my fathers' health was already deteriorating; he had trouble breathing at times and his sense of time was completely off. I could visit him, and the next day he would say that he hadn't seen me in a week," she grimaced, and he waited as she took a drink of her pumpkin juice, "Then he started to forget things. It was barely a month and he didn't remember who Maddie was. He constantly refers to her as 'that little girl', and she's oblivious to it. Whenever I came home for Christmas or Easter during the school year I'd pick up Maddie from St. Mungos and she'd be allowed to stay with us for a while, usually the whole break."
"But if she was in bad condition," Sirius interrupted, "Wouldn't it have been smarter for her to stay in St. Mungos?" Adelaide smiled softly and looked down at her plate.
"I see where you're coming from; I actually think that a lot. Then I remember that she's just a little girl. She needs to spend time with her family, even if one of them doesn't even remember who she is," Adelaide took a bite of her sandwich and Sirius waited patiently as she chased it down with a drink, "Anyway, For Christmas I always end up buying Maddie things and claim they came from Dad so she doesn't think anything is wrong. He just smiles and goes along with whatever I do.
"But what really kills me is whenever my dad goes into a fit," she continued, "at least that's what I call it. He goes through pains that make him fees as if he's being ripped apart from the inside out. If I'm available I go in and sit with him until his nurse, who we hired to live with him when I'm not there, can get him something to stop the pain. He sometimes begins to think that I'm my mom, Elizabeth, and he talks to me as if I'm her. But whenever he remembers that I'm Adelaide, not Elizabeth, he talks about how he wants to go home to Elizabeth and Claude, his brother. He died when dad was very little.
"It's painful to know that all he wants to do is pass on, and I'm selfish enough to try and keep him around a bit longer," her eyes glistened with unshed tears and Sirius waited patiently as she gathered herself again, which didn't take too long, "And whenever I think of just telling everyone to let him go, I think of little Maddie, who loves him so much, and I take it back. So now I try and be there for him as much as I can; I write him every other day, even though I know he probably won't remember it the next day. The nurse says that it helps him, but I doubt it."
"I'm sorry," Sirius said after a pause as she took another drink, "I've never been close to my own family, but I'm close to James' parents and I know it'd be hard on us when they die." Adelaide smiled at him.
"Thank you," she said, "It might not seem like it, but it helps when you have someone to talk too." Sirius shrugged, keeping back a blush, and they began to eat again, this time moving on to a lighter topic.
Sirius was amazed that Adelaide had such a fun personality; while she came off as shy and timid (and possibly very bland), when she started talking she was very vibrant and even sarcastic. She could transition between subjects seamlessly (in case the conversation began heading down a bad path) and knew just what to say half of the time. She was also brutally honest half of the time, and never beat around the bush. He brought this up towards the end of their lunch (really only 30 minutes in, meaning they had an hour and 20 minutes left until classes start);
"You're very blunt, aren't you?" he asked casually before finishing off his roll. She just shrugged and threaded her fingers under her chin.
"I don't like it when people beat around the bush," she said as she watched him finish eating, "I treat you how I want to be treated. When you beat around the bush you get no where and waste time; time is a thing that is very precious and shouldn't be wasted."
"Unless you got a time turner," Sirius joked, "Then you got a whole lot of time on your hands." Adelaide laughed and lowered her hands, crossing them in front of her chest.
"True, true," she agreed, "Which leads to a question: though you go back in time, do you age normal? Because if so then if you went back in time three hours, then that would be three hours off of your life." Sirius stopped mid chew and furrowed his eyebrows.
"That…is really confusing," he said after he swallowed, "I think I'm going to not think about it to spare myself the inevitable headache." She smiled.
"That's a good idea. Now, I'm going to head to the Library to get to work," she said as she shouldered her bag and stood up, "I'll see you in Charms, alright?"
"Bye," he said with a wave, and she nodded before leaving the Hall. Sirius downed his pumpkin juice before standing and moving down to where the others sat, taking his usual spot beside James and across from Remus.
"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in," Remus said with a grin, and Sirius snorted.
"As if I'd let a cat drag me anywhere," he responded, earning a round of laughs.
"What did Adelaide have to say?" Peter asked, sounding slightly eager. Sirius shrugged.
"It's not my place to tell," he said, "But we did talk about her family."
"What else?" Peter pushed, and Sirius glared.
"What'd I just say, wormtail?" he asked, "If she wants you to know she'd tell you."
"Lay off, Pads," James said with a mouthful of bread, and he swallowed quickly, "Pete's just curious, that's all. I mean you did ditch us for a girl," he joked and nudged Sirius in the side. Sirius just rolled his eyes, before joining in the conversation.
"So, what'd I miss?"
-
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all things concerning belong to J.K. Rowling. I own Adelaide Vicknair, Vanessa Wolfe, Caryn Gree, Elise Barnes, Madeline Vicknair, Annalisa Bertucci, Professor Sicily and Jean Vicknair.
A/N: So this is Chapter two. I have a website for the story posted in my profile, underneat 'How To Get In Contact' and I worked hard on it, so give me your feedback. Its:
theflowerseries[dot]piczo[dot]com.
Please go check it out. And I need to reach ten reveiws to update. Please, I think we can do it!!
Yours truly,
B.E.N.
