Chapter 7: Heartless

It only took walking half way to their next potions class after lunch for Sirius to start planning his message for Luna. Impulsivity and fixation is what some people would have called it, but Sirius thought more of it as efficiency. His brain always worked quickly and with his Gryffindor bravery, he jumped head first into solving his problems. The problem today being his brothers friendliness with Mrs Slytherin. Ever since the incident with Severus and nearly being expelled, Sirius had had to be much more subtle with how he dished out his pay back. So his goal of getting back at Luna was going to have to be subtle but effective. Sirius was taken out of his thoughts by an exuberant James exclaiming, "Sirius! I just looked at the timetable, and just realised Slughorn wasn't lying when he said, those who kept taking the subject would be rewarded. We are making Amortentia! The strongest love potion in the world!" James half shouted.

Sirius' mind working at a thousand miles a minute said slyly, "And making someone love you for money is far worse than making someone love you for a laugh right?"

James looked confused, "Um no they are both bad. Wait. What are you talking about?"

"You will just have to wait and see my friend." Sirius replied with a big grin and a glint in his eyes.

"You know I should be nervous about that but all I can think about is Lily's smell." James replied honestly.

When Sirius walked into the room, the first thing he noticed was Luna had taken Lily's normal chair at the front, which left a disgruntled looking Lily sat a row back and the rest of the class in disarray from that chair being taken. Sirius winked at James and said, "time to divide and conquer my friend," as he walked over and confidently sat next to Luna. James shrugged it off and beelined for Lily's new seat.

Luna had done time over summer thinking about the best way to introduce herself to the Marauders and Lily. She had dreamed up nice conversations where she learned all the things they liked and loved and she shared with them her dreams and aspirations. Reality never has a way of playing out like we imagine in our dreams and Luna was rudely reminded of this by one Sirius Black.

Sirius arrogantly introduced himself, pouring emphasis on Black as he said, "the names Black, Sirius Black." Sirius flicked his hair back with his hand and gave his best flirtatious grin with what he thought was a piercing look.

Luna sniggered and replied theatrically, "the names dreams, as in never in your wildest dreams would I succumb to that look."

Sirius taken aback and a little impressed. "Ah well, worth a try. I. Guess you would prefer the Black who wants to sell his soul and become a death eater," Sirius said with a nonchalant shrug trying to look casual.

"Hmm, choose the Black who thinks he can just look at me and I will fall to my knees, or the one who actually treats me like a human being. Real hard choice," Luna replied sarcastically while starting to write notes ignoring Sirius indicating the conversation was over.

Sirius persisted however, "quite the holier than though attitude you are giving off. Looks like I've dodged a bullet anyway." Sirius normally knew how to rub people the wrong way, he had been doing it to his horrible mother his whole life, but this to him presented a challenge. He really wanted to get a response out of Luna now. He could see why James always tried to get a rise out of Lily now when they were younger. It was fun teasing and trying to get someone cold and sharp to react.

Luna smirked at this comment and replied, "don't worry you dodged a missile," Luna cupped the side of her mouth and added in a mocking whisper to Sirius "I'm a vegan."

Sirius mock jumped and put a had over his heart, "thank Merlin then, I eat possums for breakfast on a full moon."

Luna couldn't hold back her laugh at this. "Weirdly specific date, but you know I don't even think you are lying about that," Luna replied casually.

Sirius inched closer as he said in a hushed tone, "trust me darling, I don't lie, just like I'm not lying when I say I can brew a strong enough love potion to leave you breathless. Be careful love not to get too close while I work. Unless of course you want to know what it's like to be in love with a Black, so you don't have to waste Regulus' time finding out."

Luna caught the hint of bitterness behind what he said and was surprised. The presumption Sirius had made about her one conversation of hers with Regulus was bad, talk about jumping to conclusions.

"Oh please. Someone with the brains to eat a possum, couldn't put something this complicated together. I'll happily take whatever brew you think you can put together," Luna replied confidently.

"Challenge accepted," Sirius shot back quickly without making eye contact trying to disguise his excitement at how easy he thought it would be to win. With a new look of determination set in Sirius eyes, they halted the conversation and began to read through the ingredients list and instructions.

From a couple metres behind them, Lily turned to James with surprise in her eyes, "did you witness the same thing I just did?" James looked hesitantly back to Lily from the scene in front. "I don't think I want to know what he is going to do to that poor girl."

"Oh, so she's a 'poor girl' now she's Sirius victim, instead of Slytherins newest monstrosity? That's not actually what I was meaning though."

"Well, I've only seen the glint in Sirius eyes like that a handful of times. This definitely means trouble and even a snake I would feel sorry for to be at the end of whatever he has planned." James paused and then remembered the rest of what Lily said, "and if not that, what did you mean?" James replied.

Lily raised her eyebrows and said, "Ok I think we just saw two completely different conversations. Sirius wasn't threatening her. Could you not feel the unsaid tension bleeding off them both as they got closer to each other." Lily said looking slightly frustrated with James' apparent blindness to what was going on. "I would of said that look in his eye was evil but also lustful."

James flinched slightly at hearing Lily use those words, but quickly defended his stance. "No, Sirius wouldn't flirt with her on principal, she's a Slytherin."

"James, wasn't your own mother a Slytherin, and doesn't Sirius think the sunshines out her bum. I wouldn't be so sure," Lily replied.

James looked lost in thought for a moment considering this and then quickly switched to teasing as he asked, "what's the lustful look then Lily that you thought you saw? Maybe if you gave me an example.." James said with a cheeky grin.

Lily laughed at the suggestion and said, "Good try James."

James cheeks flushed red seeing Lily laugh and replied jokingly, "worth a shot, just like my love potion will be," he said the last part suggestively.

"Over confident much, this is actually a really difficult potion," Lily said seriously. James looked at her disbelieving, tempting her, so she said, "You know what? What the hell I'll try your brew at the end of class. This is so difficult, I can't even master it and I'd wager my self respecting autonomy in who I love to prove a point to you and that smug look on your face. Who knows? You might find out what the sex eyes are," Lily said the last part in a mock scandalised voice.

If the look of determination Sirius had had was bad, James was ten fold worse now.

Luna disguised her laugh when Slughorn did the rounds during class complementing the boys on coming into the new year with a 'great new attitude for hard work,' completely naive to the fact that the teenage boys were driven by hormones and the idea of a love potion and winning a bet. Luna wasn't so good at disguising her snort when the second time Slughorn came by and said, "might have to pair you with these girls more often with the work you are achieving." Luna had to pull out a handkerchief to pretend she was coughing.

This sort of potion would never have been allowed to be made in her time at Hogwarts. The ethics board would have had a field day if it were even suggested about being brought back into the curriculum. Anything that could so easily be slipped into someones food that could put them in a very compromising position, to say the least, was never a good thing to have floating around. In this day and age people were trusted more to do the right thing than what they should have been. Heck, it still baffled Luna the more she thought about Sirius not being expelled for what he did to Severus. Even in her Dad's time, it's surprising she never heard of the consequences for Romilda Vane and her use of trying to use a love potion on another student. Luna had a lot more license to get up to trouble in this time and she was definitely going to take advantage of it.

Luna had a lot of time to think during the potions session, as she was making no real effort to make hers properly. The more dim she could come off to those in her year, the less likely they would try and recruit her for fighting in the war. She remembers hearing James and Lily were asked to join the dark side because of their raw talent, and Lily was a muggle born to boot. She must have been incredible for Voldemort to even consider her. Luna was very aware of them sitting just behind from her and Sirius, but she was avoiding turning around to look at them, in case she was overcome with emotion at seeing someone who looked like her Dad so much. After everything had been taken away from her, her first couple of days felt like even the slightest thing would tip her over the edge into hopeless tears again. She was also scared because of how they might treat her given who they probably thought she was with her being in Slytherin. If Sirius was anything to glean from they would probably be rather nasty toward her. Sirius seemed to be very adept at making the potion, so she figured she would use some fluxweed to protect herself from the effects. She shouldn't have expected anything less though, these boys were Animagi too.

At the end of the lesson, while Lily was busy making final touches to her potion, James snuck up behind Sirius and instead of asking, said he was taking some of Sirius'.

Luna schooled her expression and blankly looked forward when she could see in her peripheral vision James chatting to Sirius. She clenched her fist and tried to concentrate on thinking about the inside jokes she was laughing about Slughorn earlier that didn't seem as funny any more to stop herself from tipping over the edge. James only briefly looked over in her direction seeing her tenseness, gave Sirius a wink and said, "troubles in paradise hey?"

Sirius replied causally, "just knows she's about to be publicly humiliated for underestimating me."

James then took the potion from Sirius, confident it would work, and later pretended to get it out of his cauldron for Lily's benefit once he had returned to his seat. In truth, he probably could have brewed a love potion in normal circumstances, if he weren't shaking from trying to impress Lily and miss measuring ingredients with a steady hand. James proceeded to fill a cup for Lily of the potion. Lily laughed when she was handed it and tipped the majority of it back into James' cauldron. "If it works, which I still doubt, I'm only pretend loving you for five minutes, not a year. I'll only take a few drops."

James looking a little awkward, but agreed that this was a good idea. It only took a few seconds before the effects started and Luna and Sirius were forced to spin around before Luna could try her sample because they were interrupted by a guitar being Accio'd and then played. The scene of Lily playing to James looked like it could have come straight from a Jane Austin novel. Lily was very talented in playing and singing 'Can't help falling in love'. The class couldn't help but stop and listen to such a master piece. Half of the pureblood kids should have been annoyed by listening to a muggle song, yet there was pause from everyone in the room. Slughorn looked like he had just collected a founders trinket staring at Lily's singing in amazement.

This could not be matched by the way James was staring at Lily though. Love in its purest form could be seen emanating from James' whole being. James, like the song proclaimed, took Lily's hand and smiled with glistening eyes and was speechless. He opened his mouth to say something and shut it again because nothing he said could say what he wanted. Lily started to lean forward, however full of nobility, James told Lily not to make advances on him and that it wouldn't be right to kiss her under the circumstances, even though she was begging. It eventually wore off and Sirius knowing now that his potion was a success grinned at Luna and confidently said, "Bottoms up", and pretend toasted his empty cup to Luna.

Luna had it all planned out in her head of how she was going to act this out. She would lean towards Sirius put one hand on his thigh and use her other hand to motion him to come closer. She would lean to his ear pretending to look provocatively at him and whisper so only he could hear, "for a love potion to work Sirius, the person you use it on has to have a heart to begin with." She would then strut just like how Severus imagined James did out of the class having completely put this arrogant berk in his place.

This is not however how it played out because of all the extra time she had to overthink and come up with something that was actually going to help the situation. Seeing the way Lily sung to James, Luna felt troubled and for the first time not for herself because of all she had lost. Luna felt troubled because of how good they looked together and in a few years, if she didn't do anything, these two would die. They would only be in a relationship for three years and then give their lives for their son, her precious Dad. So for the first time in a long time she acted not for herself, but for the people that gave their lives for her Dad.

Once the effects had clearly started to wear from Lily, Luna took a deep steadying breath. She secretly took the fluxweed before hastily taking the cup from Sirius and taking it like a shot. Luna turned in her seat and asked Lily without looking her in the eye, "is it alright if I borrow that?"

Lily looked to James who gave a nod and awkwardly handed the guitar over that she had Accio'd earlier to Luna.

"All yours," Lily replied.

Everyone in the class was staring at this point to see what would happen, even Slughorn who should have been looking for the antidote was looking on in anticipation.

Sirius with his boastful smirk was intently staring at Luna waiting for her undying confession of love.

"Look into my eyes, and you will see what you mean to me," Luna sang as she intently stared at Sirius with the truth of it ringing in her ears even as everyone thought it was because of a love potion.

The song came to a close and Luna stared Sirius square in the eyes, tears flowing down her cheeks at this point and said gently, "Sirius Black, I have just sung that I would die for you and I would, so you need to know the truth." Luna paused. "I'm Voldemorts illegitimate daughter and your friend Peter Pettigrew is a traitor to you." People were gasping all around the room. "I don't want to lose you because of him. If you can't believe me, a simple revelio on his arm will show you the truth. Think about it though, he's a rat of a person. Should I really know that if he hadn't broken your trust?" Sirius completely shocked, looked towards James to catch his reaction. Both of them stood frozen for a second before James sprang into action. He leaped off his chair and cast a silencing charm around himself Luna, Lily and Sirius.

James asked, "Luna, Sirius would like you to tell him everything you can about Voldemort." James hastily added "as fast as you can," because he thought the effects of the love potion would wear off soon.

Luna, staying in character, replied talking to her Grandfather for the first time in her life.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle is an anagram for I am Lord Voldemort. He is the son of a squib Merope Gaunt, my Grandma, who forced his Dad, a muggle, also my Grandad, to sleep with him through a love potion. Merope eventually felt guilty and told him the truth, he left her and she died during childbirth. My Dad grew up in an orphanage and eventually killed his own father for abandoning him."

This was all Luna got out before Jason Mulciber came and pushed James out of the way and grabbed Luna shouting at Sirius, "you'll pay for that you filthy blood traitor. You don't deserve to lick the floor she walks on. Try get information out of her again and I'll kill you, I swear it."

Jason pulled a kicking and fighting Luna back from her family. Luna yelled, "WAIT SIRIUS, I NEED TO BE WITH SIRIUS," to keep the act going.

Once they were half way towards the Slytherin common room, Luna pretended she had no idea what happened. Luna was pleased that she had managed to get her message across, but also terrified that she had had the guts to put a target on her back from every side possible in this war.