"The rules of fair play do not apply in love and war."- John Lyly
One of the small pleasures which I derive from life, as odd as it may be, are the number of detentions I have attended. To date, in my sixth year at Hogwarts, the amount totals at five. I feel that this number is sufficient to prove that I have had my fair share of fun, and that I am not a prosy, moralistic bore, whilst being acceptably low enough to indicate that I am not a trouble-maker.
However, out of the five detentions that I have received, this was by far the most unpleasant. Although I have cleaned out potions' cauldrons, picked Drooble's gum off desks, polished trophies and swept the Great Hall, I had never, until then, had to weed vegetable patches in the dark dankness of a rainy night. Being December, it was severely cold, and the scant two lanterns that Lily and I had to see by only elucidated the silhouette of the soil beneath our fingertips. We worked mainly in silence, our intention to finish this mundane task and be out of the clammy drizzle as soon as possible. Even under the watchful eyes of Filch, Katie and Alice had the better deal in cleaning out the Owlery. Filch probably didn't want to get his hairy moleskin coat any damper.
Any trace of the moon was obscured behind the clouds; the grounds were still and murky in the shadows of the Scottish mountains; the adumbral trees strained their emaciated limbs out from the Forbidden Forest a scant few hundred yards away. Somewhere inside the Forest, an animal howled.
"Pssst."
The sudden, harsh sound made me jump. Lily and I looked at each other, both shaking our heads to indicate that we had not uttered the susurrus. Very carefully, I edged my fingers towards my wand, uncaring of the muddy slush that I was smearing over my robes in the process. I then remembered that Filch had instructed us to leave them behind. I was defenceless.
"Pssst."
The sound came again, hissing through the still night air. Lily and I whirled around, looking for the source of the noise. Nothing.
"Psssst."
I shuddered. This time I had felt the hot breath on my neck, the murmur right next to my ear. Clenching my fists, I prepared to take a swing at the shadows from whence the noise had emanated, when with a whoosh of wind, black figures emerged from thin air. Lily grabbed my arm in fear, and with a pounding heart I shakily demanded:
"Who are you?"
And then, in the slow, steady drawl that rang with arrogance, money, and a blatant disregard for any rules whatsoever, a drawl that simultaneously made my heart beat faster and my face harden, Sirius Black stepped into the circle of our lanterns and exclaimed:
"Rather jumpy tonight, aren't we, Loganberry? One would almost think that you were expecting an attack. Then again, you seemed to learn the lesson of constant vigilance very well after being concussed with a tiny piece of chalk."
"I was not…"
I bit off my angry interjection, aware that the comment was intended to rile me. I was not going to give him the satisfaction of rising to his vexing utterances. Thankfully, Lily took over the matter.
"Well, if you've come to taunt us about detention, then you might as well just leave right now, because neither Rose nor I have any inclination to listen to your juvenile goading."
"You think we've come to laugh at you? Our fellow Gryffindors? I'm seriously offended." joked Black.
"Why else would you be here? Because you fancy a spot of late night gardening?" I snapped.
"Tempting as that sounds, in actual fact we've come to rescue the damsels in distress." he replied.
Lily snorted. "From what – pumpkins?"
"The question is, Evans, do you want our help or not? We are perfectly amenable to a lovely, dry evening next to the fire in the common room playing exploding snap or chess. Might I just mention that we are both currently in possession of a wand, whilst I'm guessing that you were instructed to leave yours in your dormitory. A little magic might speed the process along. So… do you want our help or not?" asked Black.
Lily and I tried to exchange a glance in the dark. Hating the fact that Black was right, I nudged Lily subtlety, and she stepped forward, and whispered angrily:
"We will accept your offer. Thank you."
"However," Potter took over, "Our help will be given on one condition."
I rolled my eyes. Of course there would be a catch.
"The condition is that the each of you have to go on a date with one of us."
I huffed audibly - there was no chance of that! Lily tilted her head in thought, and I settled down to watch the rant that those two both thoroughly deserved.
"We accept." she stated.
I blinked. Surely… I had heard wrong. Or had Lily just signed herself up for a date with Potter, and me for a date with him? My mouth went dry. I couldn't go on a date with him! There was no way that I, Rose Logan, would subject myself to spending time with that womanising misogynist! I had far too much self-respect.
Besides… what would we talk about? I couldn't be alone with him for at least three hours - my tongue would freeze up! I'd spit all over him! I snort, or burp, and he'd be running out of the café/bar/restaurant/cosy corner as fast as he could to get away from me.
I grabbed Lily by the arm, ready to let her have it, when she nudged me, ungently, right in the stomach.
I would have demanded further explanation, but was unable to because she had winded me. Her best friend! I wasn't the one who had accepted a date with Potter, so she didn't need to take her anger out on me.
"You accept?" questioned Black, his eyes narrowing. "Really?"
"On my honour as a Gryffindor. I'll shake on it." she replied coolly.
He regarded her for a moment in the minimal light that there was, and then stuck out his hand. Lily placed her hand in his, and they shook on it. I stared in disbelief. Potter let out a whoop and punched the air. Then the both of them took out their wands and performed the simple weeding spell that Lily and I had been bemoaning all evening. "Simple." stated Sirius. Then, holding his arm out to me, he asked, "Shall we?"
I stared at him. I seemed to be doing a lot of that this evening. My eyes would probably pop out if I carried on being incredulous for much longer. Still dazed, with mystomach starting to flutter in the knowledge that I would be on a date with him sometime in the none-too distant future, I laid my arm over his and allowed him to lead me gently back towards the castle. Lily and Potter followed silently behind.
We entered the castle through a side door, as the entrance doors were locked at ten o' clock. Walking back to the Gryffindor tower was a silent affair, until we heard a mutter of voices and tramping footsteps. Prefects.
"Did you hear something, Nott?" articulated a voice.
Not just prefects. Slytherin prefects - who would be on the look-out to catch and demerit as many Gryffindors as possible. Obviously realising this, Black grabbed my arm and shoved me unceremoniously behind a wall hanging, into an enclave that I hadn't even known existed. Then he, Lily and James all piled in as well. To say that it was cramped was an understatement. I was squashed right in the middle between two people. I was back to back with one, who was up against the wall, and I was face-to-collarbone with another person in front of me. Judging from the height of the two people sandwiching me, neither of them was Lily. This meant that one must be Potter and the other must be Black. But which wizard was which?
I had my suspicions. The one whose chest I currently had my hands on, according to the ubiquitous Sod's Law, would be Black. I knew it. I could see nothing, feel nothing, hear nothing but the footprints of the prefects not far away, but I knew that I was now pressed up against Sirius. My mouth went dry, and my heart began to slam painfully against my ribs. The reason I liked to feel angry with Black, the reason I liked arguing and putting one over on him, was because this drowned the swamping nervousness that I felt around him. And when I was in a position like this…
It was all I could do to keep my breathing steady. It was akin to stage fright, except that it was Sirius fright. When he was my sole audience, the fear that I would mess up, that I would show myself to be an unattractive and uninteresting member of the female species, surfaced to engulf me, right at moments like these. However much I pretended that it didn't matter, I was deeply bothered about his opinion of me.
"I think they're gone," whispered Lily's voice, somewhere from behind him. The warm presence in front of me advanced cautiously out of the enclave, and Sirius's voice confirmed that they had indeed passed by. I stepped into the light of the corridor, and found Potter leaving the enclave behind me. My suspicions were confirmed.
The walk back to the common room was as silent as it had been before we encountered the prefects, and upon arriving inside the portrait hole, we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Lily turned to Black and said:
"I'll meet you here at nine o' clock on the 12th of December for our Hogsmeade trip."
He blinked at her in confusion, as did Potter.
"Pardon me, but why am I taking you to Hogsmeade?"
"For our date, of course. I thought it was part of the bargain?" she replied.
"Yes, but you were to go on a date with James here, not me. I'm going with Loganberry." countered Sirius.
"Actually, Potter stated that each of us would go on a date with each of you. Nobody specified who would be going with whom. Therefore Black, you and I will be going on a date to Hogsmeade on the 12th of December, and we will meet here at 9am. Rose will be going with Potter. Now, if you don't mind, I am tired and would like to be going to bed."
Having said this, she took my arm, and we marched up the girl's staircases to our dormitory, grinning at the boys' utter bewilderment. You could always trust Lily to find a loophole in the rules.