Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing well. I just wanted to ask a quick question - do you guys think I'm rushing too much into the story? Or do you think I'm going to slow? Anyway, please tell me via private message or by leaving a review. Also, who do you think Winnie should end up with? It won't be my final decision but I'm just genuinely curious.

Chapter 8

Hours later we were all sitting in the common room, near the fireplace. For some reason, we would always find it empty no matter what time it was during the day. Had we claimed it without even knowing? Probably.

Sirius leaned against the wall, "But isn't wolfsbane one of the hardest and most complex potions known to man?" He asked calmly.

They were still talking about the potion I had made. I watched as all of their gazes turned to me .I looked away nervously trying to hide the growing red glow on my face. I hadn't expected them to react this way, it was sort of embarrassing actually.

"I guess- Look! the point is, I made the potion to help remus with his little problem. The end!" I said, not meeting any of their gazes.

Sirius laughed his usual bark-like laughter, "Aw, Winnie's embarrassed." He teased and wrapped his arms around me, putting his chin on my head. I rolled my eyes and tried to remove his hands but since he was six foot a million and was three times as strong as me, that didn't happen.

"Get off me before I-" I said, annoyedly.

Stupid Sirius cut me off and laughed, "Before you what? Bite my head off?"

"Before I turn you into a blind toad." I smirked.

His body froze and he removed his hands off of me, I watched as recognition washed over him. His shocked face was soon replaced by his usual smirk and loud laugh.

"So you did know what the fight was about! that was why you were asking me about it wasn't it? You just wanted to hear me say it, didn't you Dot? Aw, that's cute." He then proceeded to ruffle my curly hair, which made it even more tangled than it usually was.

"Hey don't do that!" I growled and tried to un-mess my curly hair, which didn't exactly work.

"Are you in love with me, Winnie? Are you?" He teased me, his grey eyes sparkling with amusement.

I crossed my arms and faced him. "Why do you always ask me that? Are you in love with me, Sirius? Huh?!"

He looked like he was going to come up with a witty retort before James gave us a confused look and said:

"ًWhat are you two talking about?" James asked.

Sirius walked over to James and lazily draped his arm around his shoulder, "Well Prongs, the other day Remus and I had a fight about this one," he winked at me and continued. "And then she asks me about what happened and innocently pretended to ask about the fight as if she didn't know, then! she brings up a sentence I said that was about her. Isn't that downright wicked?"

"That still doesn't make sense." James said confused.

"I was in that fight and it doesn't make sense." Remus laughed.

"Who cares about that fight - can't we move on with our lives?" Peter said, surprisingly.

We all turned to him shocked, it had seemed as if he had taken some bravery along with his morning tea because he was well- courageous for once. For some reason, we complied. The subject slowly drifted away from the potion (thankfully) and the fight and onto more 'important' topics like why the new Nimbus broom was going to be the best broom in the world or how in Merlin's beard we were going to pass this year.

"I don't suppose you've heard about the incident that happened this week." I said, lowly.

James nodded, "Yeah, Lily cut her hair. It's only a few inches, but I dunno - she looks kind of different but in a good way." He ran his hand through his hair and leaned back onto the chair.

I rolled my eyes, "No you muppet." I laughed and then lowered my voice, all hint of amusement gone. "The thing that happened in Knockturn Alley."

Recognition flashed through his hazel eyes, "The one where six muggle-borns 'disappeared' into thin air." He laughed bitterly.

"Exactly, The ministry is trying to cover it up - pretend nothing's happening. Like we don't know that Voldermort is planning something with his army of goons." I said, angrily.

They all took intakes of breath when I said his name. Peter looked like he was going to faint in his seat.

Sirius was the first to speak. "I reckon a bunch of Slytherins are ready to become death eaters," We all gave him blank stares "That's their name. Death eaters."

Voldermort and his army were just getting popular so I wasn't surprsied about the fact that no one besides Sirius didn't exactly know what death eaters were. I assumed he knew because, well. He was a Black.

"It's awful, you know. Knowing that you're no longer safe. Plus I'm a muggle born so that doesn't exactly help." I laughed, despite myself.

Remus's head snapped towards mine, "Don't say that, Winnie." He said quietly.

"What? you want me to deny the truth, Remus? The fact that Voldermort and his death eaters are growing means that I'm at risk and I'll bet you all five galleons I won't make it till thirty." I said with a grin. I don't know why I was smiling, it was more like I was trying to see what he could say to prove me wrong. Like I was testing him.

They all went silent and I knew I was right. The fact that I would most likely be the first one to die gave me a sense of freedom, in a way. Like, I had this power to do whatever I wanted because I was going to die. This feeling made me want to cut off all my hair, jump out of a plane and just do something crazy. For once, I felt like I wanted to live.

"I want to do something about it." Sirius said, making us all turn our attention to him. "I want to be an auror."

A lightbulb flickered on in James head because he excitedly grinned and said: "That is an excellent idea, Padfoot. We should be aurors."

"Hmm, I don't know I think I'd quite like to be a writer or a teacher, maybe. Though I'm sure that'll never happen." Remus said with a small smile. "What about you guys?" He directed the last part to Peter and I.

Peter shrugged, "I don't know..maybe a shop owner or something."

I fiddled with my hands. "I want to be a healer." I said, impetuously. My eyes glanced at all of them who were giving me shocked and impressed looks, once more and as usual I was embarrassed.

"Healer Winnie, yeah I quite like that." Sirius smirked.

I raised my eyebrows, "Well it's a good thing I'm not doing it for you, isn't it?" I said, making everyone laugh at our banter.

There it was, our conversations drifted away like the sea. That's how it usually was for us, sometimes it bothered me that we couldn't be serious but other times I think, it's better that way. It's better to forget about the world for a bit and just enjoy what is now.

I pulled my hair into a loose ponytail as I walked to the greenhouses for Herbology, I was quietly murmuring a song that I had heard a couple of days ago when I heard a loud, screechy voice shouting at somebody. Feeling that it was my moral duty to go help, I followed that noise and wasn't surprised when I found a girl yelling at Sirius Black.

The girl was Cassandra Venus, a tiny girl with shiny sleek black hair and very, very pale skin. "You're the worst Sirius Orion Black!" she said and threw a book at him. He ducked just in time so that he wouldn't get hit. I was quite surprised and amused about at how a girl who was probably five foot two or shorter was full-on yelling at Sirius Black.

"Crystal calm down-" Sirius said trying to calm her down but was cut off by another screech.

"My name is Cassandra you vile, two-timing prick!"

I sniggered making them both turn to look at me. Relief flashed in Sirius's grey eyes as he saw me approaching them, he scratched the back of his neck and darted his eyes between Cassandra and I as if saying 'get me out of here'. I shot him a quick smile as if to say 'I got this' even thought I had no idea what I was doing. But you know what they say, when in doubt..improvise.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's going on here?" I said, looking between them.

"Finally someone with a brain is here!" Cassandra huffed angrily and then pointed at Sirius, "This lunatic and I go out on a date and he tells me a bunch of lies about how beautiful and smart I am and then you know what he does? He goes out with my sister! A week later!"

"You did what?!" I say, clamping a hand over my mouth to stifle my laughter, luckily for me it looked like I was staring in disbelief.

Sirius bites his lip, "I didn't know you were related!"

Cassandra glares at him, "We're twins you prick!" She then throws another book at him which hits him on his shoulder and then just pauses and turns away. "You know what hurts the most Sirius Black? Every time a girl dates you she thinks that maybe she'll be the one that's different. The one that'll tame the beast but like every other girl you realize that just doesn't happen and you just get hurt instead!" She said and then left.

I felt really bad for her and all the other girls who were constantly trying to get his attention and what really annoyed me the most was how blasé Sirius was acting about all of this. Just because he was so used to this happening didn't mean that it was okay.

"You're a right git, you know that?" I said abruptly as I watched him pick up his books.

"What did I do now?" He groaned.

"You can't treat girls like that, they're not tissues that you can use once and then throw away. Girls have this thing that you might not be familiar with it's called feelings!"

"Come on, Winnie. They should know that I'm not a long-term kind of guy." He said and tried to walk away from me.

I moved to stand in front of him so that he would pay attention to me once his grey eyes met my dark brown ones I began, "They do know that but the thing is you make them feel special and then they forget about that and they think that they may be the one that, as she said 'tames the beast'. I don't think you realize the impact you have on these girls."

He sighed as if he had heard it all before, "Alright Winnie, I get it. But what am I supposed to do? Stop being handsome?"

I rolled my eyes at his cockiness, "No, I think you should just make it obvious to everyone that you're not looking for anything serious. Or maybe you should just find one girl and stick to her, for once in your life!"

"Find one girl? Do I look like James? Besides, none of these girls are actually interesting and if they are they dumb themselves down when I'm around." Sirius said and he started to walk towards class with me.

"Come on, Padfoot! They're must be one girl who you actually like or find interesting."

He shook his head, "Interesting? Yes, there are plenty of interesting girls but girls I like? No."

"Are there any girls you like at all? Even platonically?" I asked, sort of giving up on hope that I would ever help Sirius find love.

He stroked his chin and pretended to think about it, "Well, I like you..platonically of course. I like my cousin Andie and I like my owl Azul. There you go, three girls I like." He smiled.

I rolled my eyes, "So there is no hope." I said as we reached the Herbology class. He shook his head, eyes twinkling in amusement as he went to sit with Penelope his herbology partner and I went to sit with James who had his head on the table.

"Whats wrong with you?" I ask as I sit down.

"I'm lonely, Dot! Lonely I say." He said and sat up, turning to me.

I gave him a small smile, "Lily again?"

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose "Do you think I should give up on her?" He asked unsurely.

I stopped. I didn't know what to say so that he wouldn't get hurt besides: "I think you should try."

"What do you mean I should try? I did what you told me- I left her alone but now she doesn't care about me anymore - like I predicted by the way! What do I do now?"

"Hmm," I pondered, moving my head from one side to another as if trying to catch a good idea. "James, maybe you should try to well - talk to other girls. I mean there are loads of girls who are dying to go out with you, who knows you might meet someone better?"

"Someone better than Lily? No way!" He said quite loudly, making the entire class turn to look at us - including Lily who was turning red from embarrassment.

I tried to suppress my snickers but I couldn't which eventually lead to me bursting out in laughter which in turn made James laugh which in turn caught Sirius's attention and made him laugh at our silliness and that my friends is the story of how we got detention and fifteen points taken away from Gryffindor. Each.

"It's like having fun isn't allowed in our school!" Said Sirius angrily as he mopped the floor

I rolled my eyes and continued dusting the cabinets, "Tell me about it." I muttered.

He gave me a confused look, "I am telling you about it?"

I laughed and kept on dusting, "Sorry- it's a muggle thing."

"Tell us about your muggle life, Winnie. You hardly talk about it." James said while he scrubbed the trophies with a toothbrush. McGonnagall's special punishment exclusively for James.

I shrugged, "I guess if you're a muggle born you feel like being from a non-wizard family is sort of embarrassing so most of us try not to bring it up." I then paused to think about my life. "There's not much to tell, before Hogwarts I had a cat named button - she died. I went to muggle school for a few years, which was awful and in the muggle world our pictures don't move."

"Your pictures don't move? That's weird." Sirius said shocked. If only he knew how mundane life as a muggle truly was it would blow his mind.

"To you! seeing moving pictures and talking portraits were the strangest thing to me." I say remembering how confused I was when my brother Greg showed me a moving picture for the first time.

"Muggles." James said, shaking his head ever so slightly.

I playfully rolled my eyes, "Yeah muggles."