This chapter is going to be very serious. If you know what I mean ;)

Chapter 10

"So, this is nice." I muttered, mostly to myself.

We were all sitting at The Three Broomsticks. The boys and I plus Marlene, Mary and Lily who looked like she seriously would prefer gauging her eyes out with a spoon then to be sitting here with us. The air was awkward and no one really knew what to say.

"Shut up, Winnie." Sirius said as he took a sip from his butterbeer.

"Hey don't be mean to her!" Mary said, narrowing her eyes at Sirius. I felt a strange happiness surge through my body, even though I was not insulted by Sirius and even though he wasn't purposely being mean to me it was nice for her to defend me. I would definitely be putting her in my top five favorites list. A smug smirk worked it's way up to my lips and I stuck my tongue out at Sirius.

"Very mature." Sirius said, scrunching up his nose.

Marlene drummed her fingers against the table, "So..how have you all been?"

"I'm very well, thanks. How about you?" Remus said politely.

"I'm fine." Marlene said, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

"James," I whispered to him quietly, thankfully he was next to me so I wouldn't have the others hear anything, "Lets just leave."

James's eyes widened, "What no! we can't!"

"Why not?" I muttered sadly. He ignored me.

Lily turned to Remus and asked, "Remus, have you done the reading on the uses of the Shrivelfig plant?"

"The what?" James asked, bemusedly.

"It's a plant that's found in Abyssinia-" Lily began but was cut off by a bored Marlene.

"Nobody actually cares Lily," Marlene said.

"I care!" James said a little too excitedly.

Marlene "Oh, sorry. Nobody cares except for James." Her gaze met mine. "Winnie, d'you want to go to the bathroom?"

I shook my head, "No, I'm fine."

She got out of her seat and gave me a pointed look, "Are you sure?"

I took this as a sign that we needed to talk so I said, "You know what? That sounds like a good idea. Sorry guys, got to go." I stood up quickly and followed Marlene into the bathroom.

She hunched her shoulders as she walked over to the sink, "This is horrible! everyone is acting so awkward." She said, exhaling.

I nodded, "I know, it's never like this when I'm with the guys." I turned to her ,"Y'know I'm surprised Lily came I mean she hates James."

"I made her come but now I regret coming myself." She groaned. "Oh what do we do? We have to fix this!"

"What? Why do we have to do that?" I frowned.

She looked at me like I was an idiot, honestly I was just lazy. "Oh I don't know because it was our idea in the first place!?" she said exasperated.

"But that doesn't mean we have to actually do things!"

"Winnie! we are going to fix this. Somehow!" She said and proceeded to gently push me out of the stall, I could almost see the engines starting to work in her mind.

But what lay before us was a sight that was stranger to me than anything else, they were all getting along. Seriously, they were laughing. Together. I had to physically squeeze my eyes shut and open them again just to make sure that I wasn't going crazy or worse, hallucinating.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Marlene said gaping.

"Did we get drunk by accident or something?" I asked no one in particular.

"We're gone two seconds! two seconds and this happens!" Marlene says, approaching the table.

I scanned the table for my bag but found instead my place taken by none other than Sirius Black who wasn't even fazed by the fact that I was glaring at him, instead he was focusing on something Remus was saying. I narrowed my eyes at him and said in the scariest voice I could muster.

"That's my seat."

He looked at me and gave me a submissive shrug, as if he didn't just steal my seat!

"Get off!" I said slamming my fists against the table, making the drinks jump up a little.

Sirius raised his brow at me and leaned in towards me and said in the most annoying voice ever:

"Nah, I quite like this seat."

"Get out of that seat or I'll make you get out, Padfoot." I growled.

My heart dropped into my stomach. I didn't realize that I actually did growl like a cheetah. My animagus. The boys also realized it because they all turned to me with wide eyes and tight lips, as if telling me silently that I just exposed myself. Of course like any other person I decided to do what I did best. I improvised.

I cleared my throat, trying to pass the growl off as a cough, "Whoa, what was that?" I said laughing.

"You alright there, Winnie? Sounds like you're coming down with a cold or something?" Mary asked.

I nodded and coughed again, "Oh yeah, I think I am. You know what? Keep that seat Sirius. I'm going to step out for a bit." I ran a hand through my hair and quickly walked out of there.

Once I got out of there I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders, it was like I could breathe again. My eyes searched Hogsmeade for a place to sit and I counted my blessings when I found an unused bench two feet away from me. Once there, I closed my eyes and laid down. It was only minutes later when I felt someone sit down on the bench in the empty space.

I must have sat there for some time because after quite a while I felt the bench move slightly as someone sat down on the empty space that my legs couldn't cover.

"You comfortable?" A deep voice said. Sirius.

Ugh. It was like I couldn't escape this guy.

"Very much so," I muttered, keeping my eyes shut.

Even though my eyes were shut I was sure that he was looking at me. Do you know that feeling when you're doing something but you feel like someone is staring at you and then you turn around and see that they are? That's how Sirius is. All the time.

"Don't worry they didn't notice." Sirius said laughing.

My eyes fluttered open and I sat up, "Really?"

He nodded, "Surprisingly yeah, but I think it's 'cause you're naturally weird so everyone just brushed it off."

"Thanks?" I said unsure if he was making fun of me or praising me.

He stood up and stuck his hands into his pockets, "Hey, d'you wanna walk?" He asked, with his puppy dog face. Honestly, he really did look like a sad puppy when he did that, I assumed it had something to do with his floppy hair. I was going to say no and ignore him, but he made it very difficult with his lopsided smile and puppy dog face. I now understood why girls couldn't resist that face.

I swung my legs off the bench and jumped up, "Okay."

We walked in silence, I kicked the rocks on the ground and swayed side-to-side. Sirius kept on glancing at me every thirty seconds or so wondering when I was going to start a conversation but I didn't, I resumed kicking the rocks that were on the path. Until I swung my leg to hit the rock and ended up hitting Sirius's leg causing me to slip and fall, of course.

Sirius's eyes widened as he extended his arm, "Winnie, are you okay?!" he asked, laughing as he helped me up.

I took it gratefully, "Thanks. I don't know how I managed that. How did you not fall?" I was trying to distract him from the fact that I was extremely embarrassed right now.

He shrugged, "Your kick wasn't as strong as you thought, Powers."

"Apparently." I said stuffing my hands into my pockets, in annoyance.

"Are you angry at me?" He said, furrowing his brows.

"I'm always angry at you." I said nonchalantly.

"I know, it's annoying." He said, putting his hands behind his head as he walked.

"Hey! you're the one who annoys me with all the annoying things you do." I said, scowling.

He stopped walking and turned to me with a serious (ignore the pun) look on his face, "Can I tell you the truth?" I nodded, wondering if he was actually going to be honest or not.

"I purposely wind you up." he said, his face breaking into a smile.

"What?" I gaped.

He nodded, "Yeah, it's hilarious. You get this irritated look on your face and you get all fiery and angry, it makes my day."

I shifted my weight from foot to foot, "I want to punch you in the face so badly right now, the only reason I'm holding myself back is because we're in public."

I wanted to punch him for being so damn annoying but at the same time I wanted to laugh. What kind of idiot goes to such drastic measures to irritate me? for a laugh! he really needed to sort out his priorities.

"You're right, we are in public. D'you want to go to Zonkos?" He asked, slipping his arm across my shoulders.

"Yeah, we should go to Zonko's so I can find something there to murder you with." I said, deadpan.

He rolled his eyes, "Why is homicide something that is constantly on your mind, Winnie Powers?"

"Because I'm like every other girl, obviously." I said, sarcastically.

He laughed, "No, that's what I like about you." He said and patted me on the head.

"What you like me? You don't love me?" I said, grinning.

He chuckled, "You would love for me to confess that, wouldn't you?"

"Me and almost every other girl in our school. A couple of boys too, I hear." I smirked.

"It's nice to know that I'm attracting both genders." He said, looking proud.

I prodded him in the ribs, "Don't forget the ghosts. I'm almost certain the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw has a crush on you, she always goes pink when she sees you. You smarmy git."

He scoffed, "What about you? You're also pretty popular with the guys too."

I swung my hair across my shoulder and shot him a flirtatious smile, "What can I say? I do have this charm about me." I said, dramatically and then said. "Also, I have great hair."

He started to laugh, hard. To the point where he was attracting the attention of students and people around us. I felt my face flush as I realized how much of a couple we looked right now, I removed his hand from my shoulder but that didn't do anything to stop his laughter or to stop people from looking at us. Especially the girls.

"Sirius, stop it. You're embarrassing me." I said and proceeded to punch him in the shoulder.

The punch calmed him down and he grabbed his arm and winced, "Why would you do that?" he said loudly.

I inwardly groaned, "Quiet! you're making everyone look at us." I whispered.

He studied my face intently, "Who cares?" he said in his usual carefree tone.

"Um I don't know, because people will assume we're dating?!"

He laughed, "Am I that bad?"

"It's not you, you muppet. It's the fact that it's hard being friends with guys without everyone thinking that there's something romantic going on with at least one of you. D'you know last week a girl cornered me in the bathroom and asked me if we were dating! twice! even though we've all been friends for six years!" I said, huffing from annoyance.

"If I were you I'd tell them yes. Just to see what they'd do." Sirius said, grinning.

"They'd probably eat me." I said honestly.

Sirius laughed but then when he saw my face, his smile dropped. "Oh, you were being serious."

I nodded, "Unfortunately."

Sirius looked like he was trying to stop himself from saying something but he couldn't, "Don't tell James I said this but I think you'd be really good with him. You get on well."

My eyes widened, "What? are you joking? Me and James? No! he's my best friend. No!" I said, shaking my head.

It was a strange idea that I couldn't wrap my head around. James and I? I had never thought of him that way, maybe I did in first year for a bit but that was before I realized he was my best friend and even if I did like him I would never do anything to jeopardize the close friendship we had, he was closer to me than anyone else. I would never risk losing that.

"Well, you're definitely better than Evans." He scoffed.

"I love Lily, I do. But she is not the one for James. Sure she's cute but they're like oil and water. They just don't mix, y'know?" I said with a slight shrug.

"I wish he'd realize that there are hundreds of girls at Hogwarts. He could literally get anyone he wanted. Poor lad." Sirius said, shaking his head.

"Boys." I said rolling my eyes.

"Oh, I had no idea that I was a dolphin. Thanks for clarifying that up for me." Sirius said, smirking.

"You know there are boy dolphins." I said, laughing.

"You know what I mean, Winnie."

I laughed, "We should do this more. Less arguing more actually having fun."

He moved the hair from his eyes, "I'm always fun! I'm the king of fun. If you open a dictionary and search for the word fun you'll see my name there. But you know what, that's a good idea. Maybe I should stop annoying you." He then pretended to think about it, "Nah."

I shot him a half-smile, "Maybe I should stop punching you..No, you know what, I don't think so."

Once we reached Hogwarts and walked in, he suddenly slapped his forehead and then turned to me and shot me an apologetic look, "As much as I would love to hang out with you, I just remembered that I actually had detention with Filch today."

"You just remembered now?" I said amused.

"Yeah, I was supposed to polish or clean something. Sorry, love I must bid you adieu." He said and gave me a little curtsy. "But we will be doing this again, Miss Powers!"

"I'll be looking forward to it, Black." I smirked.

"You better," he winked and then ran off.

I laughed. He was such a idiot. But an idiot that was arguably my friend.