Day in Avalon

Chapter 26: Late Night Studying

"How much more do we have to write?" groaned Sirius, loudly into the night. The two conspirators sat in the dimly light cavern of the library hall alone, with only the sounds of quills scratching against parchment. It was nearly midnight as the two scrambled to finish their project that was due tomorrow afternoon.

"About another paragraph for me," yawned Andy. "As for you, I have no idea."

"Will you check please?" asked Sirius as he handed over his parchment to her.

"Check it yourself," she said as went on to finishing up her part of the project.

"I can't. My eyes are going crossed eyed," said Sirius as he blinked rapidly trying to get his vision back.

Andy tried to fight the urge to roll her eyes in frustration at her partner, but once she saw just how tired he was, she sighed out of pity for him and took his portion of the paper and the rough draft she had checked over a few hours ago.

"You've got about a paragraph and half," she said as she scanned both papers to make sure there we no repeats.

"Urgh…I can't take it anymore," whined Sirius as he folded his arms and put his head down on the table.

"Your last paragraph is five sentences long. So you really only have…ummm…ten more sentences to write," stated Andy. Sirius looked up in surprise at the piece of parchment Andy was holding up.

"I can deal with ten sentences," he said as he grabbed his work and began to finish up the remainder of his essay.

"I'm sure you can," chuckled Andy as she picked up her quill and began to write some more. After she wrote about three words, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in the center of her writing hand.

"Ouch!"

"What's the matter?" asked Sirius looking up with concern.

"Ah, writer's crap," hissed Andy. "Oww! Aw man that hurts," she cried as she flexed her hand trying to get rid of her crap.

"Here, give me your hand," said Sirius as he held out his hand for hers.

She gave him a waywardly look before she reluctantly gave him her hand. As soon as he had a hold of it, he began to rub the sore muscles of her hand. Andy was amazed at how gentle he's ministrations were and couldn't help but give off a soft moan of delight as the tense muscles slowly eased back to normal.

"Nice huh?" he asked with a lopsided smirk.

"Yeah, that feels really good. Thanks," she replied as he let go of her hand.

"You're welcome," he said with a grin. That simple grin caused Andy to slightly blush although she would never admit it to anyone at that moment.

"You're pretty good at that," she said after a few moments of silence.

Sirius looked up from his paper raised eyebrow to her wondering if she was being sincere. Seeing that she was, he decided to answer her in the most natural way he knew when he was with her. "Had a lot of practice," he said with a sly grin and a wiggled of his eyebrow.

"Urgh…I not even going to ask as to what that implies," said Andy in disgust. This caused Sirius to laugh uncontrollably at the reaction he wanted to get out of her.

"On myself, I mean. I use to get writer's crap all the time during fifth year," he said.

"Ah, I see," said Andy quietly, realizing that she played into a trap. With that, both of them went back to work trying to finish off their project for the night.

"Done! Finally!" stated Sirius. He threw down his quill and lifted his arms over his head in triumph and to stretch out his sore muscles.

"And I'm just about….finished!" said Andy as she scribbled out the last word of her essay placed down her quill as well. "Oh Merlin, I'm glad it's finally over with."

"Me too. How about nest term, we start early and not wait until the last minute?" suggested Sirius as he performed a drying spell on his paper.

"Hey I did my part of the project earlier. Besides, if someone hadn't been fooling around with one's girlfriend, then we wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place," countered Andy as she finished up drying her essay.

"Always blaming me aren't we, Sparky?" chuckled Sirius.

"Well in this case I'm right."

"Ha ha ha…always got to be smug about everything?"

"No, not really. Only when I'm around you," said Andy sweetly.

"Oh, I should feel so special and honored," said Sirius as he placed a hand on his heart to show how touched he was. Both of them began to pack up their things and stood up to stretch out their muscles.

"You should," fired Andy.

"This is a little strange isn't it?" said Sirius suddenly. Andy looked up and gave him a quizzical look, not sure she understood him.

"Us getting along like this, I mean," he added.

"Yeah it is," said Andy after a moment. "But we still fight about stuff like usual."

"Yes, but not in awhile," remarked Sirius.

"Okay fine. You're an egotistical, stuck-up, pretty boy, who thinks the world only revolves around your pathetic life," said Andy plainly.

"Yeah, well you're a nosey, condescending, back-stabbing, know it all who thinks she can wrap any man around her little finger," said Sirius.

"Oh please. Is that the best you can could up with?" sneered Andy.

"Nope, but I'm too tired to think of anything else," replied Sirius smoothly.

"Ha ha ha," said Andy dryly. "Feel better now?"

"A little," he shrugged. "So I guess it's off to bed." Andy nodded in agreement as she checked off the last thing on the things to do list that Sirius had wrote down earlier that evening. As she folded it up, she noticed there was a small blob on the back of the paper.

"Ah, a nice long sleep. Just what I need right now," said Sirius merrily.

"Uh oh," said Andy suddenly as she stared at the words on the back of the paper.

"Uh oh? What 'uh oh'? There is no uh oh!" said Sirius tiredly.

"You are not going to believe this."

"What? Is it bad? Tell me isn't bad," pleaded Sirius.

"It's bad," said Andy darkly.

"I said not to tell me! What is it?" he asked not really wanting to know.

"We have to perform the spells we found."

"That's not bad," said Sirius not seeing what was so terrible.

"Together! If one of us doesn't perform it correctly, then we both get marked down," said Andy in anger.

"That's not a good thing," sighed Sirius in exhaustion. "Hoe do you even know this? Why didn't we see this before?"

"Because you wrote it on the back of the paper you idiot!" growled Andy.

"I'm the idiot! How come you didn't remember it anyway?" fired Sirius.

"Because I was a tad bit more concerned about finding the spells than performing them, since you were to busy with your mates and Felicia," stated Andy.

"Oh! So it's my fault?" shouted Sirius pointing a finger at his chest.

"Argh, this is getting us nowhere. Come on, let's find a place to do the spells," groaned Andy as she swung her bag over her shoulder and stormed out of the library.

The two of them headed out of the library into the darkened castle in search of private room to work on their spells. They eventually ended up in an abandoned classroom on the second floor, since that was the most deserted place in the castle they could find at that moment.

As they worked on practicing the spells they chose to perform for their project, the two of them nailed two of the spells after nearly an hour and a half of practice. As for their third…

"AHHH! I'm never going to get this! I HATE McGonagall and I HATE this stupid project!" screamed Andy as she fired her spell three more times. Each as pitiful as the last.

"Gee, Sparky, I couldn't really tell," said Sirius in a false cheerful tone after he hanging his head in frustration.

"Shut up! Urgh, this is useless. I'm never going to get this and I'm never going to pass transfiguration," cried Andy as she threw her wand in anger. Sirius had managed to catch her wand walked over to her. He spun her around and looked straight into her eyes while he spoke.

"Hey, look at me. You're not going to fail. You're just trying to hard. Here let me show you," he said as he handed Andy back her wand and pulled out his own.

He pointed it directly at the vase that was sitting on the stool that they had set up. He spoke the incantation, and a bolt of lightning hit the vase, springing it up into the air and then suddenly turns into a huge olive tree.

"See. It's easy," said Sirius.

"Yeah, maybe for you. You're the one that has the bloody subject come easily to," snapped Andy.

"It's not that hard," chuckled Sirius. "Here let's pretend that you're going to cast." As he said this, walked behind Andy and moved her so that she was standing in front of the vase that he had brought back to original form.

"Blackie, come on. I'm too tired," she whined.

"Do you want to fail?"

"No! How could you ask me that?" said Andy in a threatening tone.

"Then trust me. Now close your eyes and turn around," he ordered. Andy opened her mouth in protest but realized it was useless. She complied with his request.

"Now imagine yourself about to cast your spell," he said in a low tone. She sighed in frustration as she tried to visualize what he was saying and relax at the same time.

"Okay now imagine yourself raising your wand slowly," he said softly. He come up from behind her and gently raised her arm that held her wand slowly and pointed it at the vase.

"Now clear your mind of everything. Don't think about school, or the project, or friends. No one and nothing else, except you and the spell. Just relax."

Andy let out a sigh of relief and allowed all her feelings of tension ebb away as she listened to Sirius's soft voice. She couldn't help but feel totally relaxed with him standing right behind her and supporting her arm.

"Good, now turn your wrist ever so slightly, and now say the words while seeing it workout in your head."

Andy spoke the incantation in a low voice and pictured the bolt of lightning shooting from her wand hitting the vase, and in its place a huge olive tree would be standing.

'What a stupid dream. I'm never going to get this spell,' thought Andy to herself.

"Andy? Andy, open your eyes," said Sirius softly next to her ear. She slowly opened her eyes and was blown away by the sight that was before her. Standing in the place of the vase, was a perfectly transformed olive tree.

"D-did I do that?" whispered Andy in shock.

All Sirius could do was smile at the look on her face. "And you said you couldn't do it."

"I did it! I actually did it!" screamed a gleeful Andy as she spun around and hugged Sirius who was slightly taken back by her actions. But as she clung to him, he began to enjoy the feeling of her being so close to him as he wrapped his arms around her completely. As soon as she realized she was in a warm embrace with her supposed enemy, she reluctantly pulled away.

"Uh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.." started Andy as looked down at the floor in embarrassment.

"It's fine. I know. You were just happy," said Sirius.

"Thank you for helping me out," she said timidly after a few moments of awkward silence.

"It wasn't a bother. Do you want to practice some more?"

"Nah, that's okay," she said as she shook her head. "You go ahead and get some sleep. I'll stick around for a little bit more."

"It's okay. I don't…mind," yawned Sirius.

"Blackie, you're practically asleep on your feet. Go to bed!"

"I can wait ten minutes for you," said Sirius sharply.

"Black come on. I'll be there in a bit. Go to bed!" ordered Andy as she continued to perform her spell on the vase and then turning it back to its original form.

"And let you roam around a dark castle at two in the morning? I don't think so!"

"What are you afraid for my safety or something," she asked as she looked over her shoulder at him.

"No, actually I'm afraid for my own. It's scary in a big dark castle," he said in a mock baby voice.

"Ah…always knew you were a big baby," snapped Andy. She continued to practice for ten more minutes until she felt she had mastered it enough to get a passing grade.

A few minutes later, the two of them quietly left the classroom and headed back up to Gryffindor tower. They made it there in recorded time and without meeting anyone along the way. As they entered the common room after waking up the fat lady from a deep sleep, they found the fire that was in the hearth had died down to a few glowing embers.

"So how do you think we'll do tomorrow?" whispered Sirius as they headed for the staircase.

"You mean today?" corrected Andy. "Hopefully well enough to get a decent grade."

Sirius let out a chuckle and nodded in agreement. He was completely exhausted and knew that the moment his head hit the pillow, he'd be out like a light. But that feeling didn't last long when he received one of the biggest shocks in his young life.

He didn't realize just how close Andy was as they stopped at the landing separating the boy's and girl's dormitories. But in the blink of an eye she was on her tip toes a bit, and placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you for saving my behind," she said softly as she looked into his grey eyes. She started to feel lost again as she stared into his eyes and knew she had better leave soon before she did something that she might regret in the morning. "Good night, Sirius."

And with that she left a very stunned and confused boy standing in the dark alone staring at the spot she once stood at.

"Good night…Miranda," he said softly into the night with a smile.

Disclaimer: Please read previous chapter disclaimers. I'm too tired to type anymore.