A couple days passed, a horrible some at that. There have been truckloads of homework each day, both from normal classes and this privet lessons with Alex. This was a lot more than Sirius could ever handle, at least not normally. Each day, there seemed to be more and more for him to do. More to memorize. More to study.
It was strange. He had been putting a lot of effort into his work lately. Was he trying to prove a point, maybe that he didn’t need a tutor? Of course, the only reason he would want to do that is to get away from Alex. There was something about her that made her look so scary, so intimidating.
It was around 6 o’ clock on a Saturday. The day had a calm sense to it. The sun was just starting to set as fall was making its transition into winter. The marauders were planning another one of their strange schemes.
What are they doing this time? It was something to do with hammers, duct tape, and a whole lot of bubble gum. Heaven knows what a person could do with that. No one could ever tell what a Marauder was going to do. This was the first time in a while that Sirius had any real fun. At least he thought he was going to have fun. His mood totally changed when what Sirius described as “The Devil Girl” walked strait up to him.
Ugh, what is she going to do now? I want a weekend with me, my friends, and not her. Those were his thoughts right when Alex snatched a piece of bubble gum away from him and started chewing it.
“So, what exactly are we doing here? Are you going to dump lard on another innocent squirrel?” they all grimaced at the little sarcastic joke that she had made at them.
Sirius spoke up. “We are about to achieve a great goal. You are going to leave.” There didn’t seem to be any approval to that demand. He looked kind of scared at that.
“Listen, I’m not here just to torment you, although that is always entertaining. I’m here as a messenger girl.” Sirius was a little confused at what she meant. A message? From who?
“Professor McGonnagol wants to meet you in here office strait away. Be sure to get there as fast as you can. She says it’s urgent.” She started to walk away, but she stopped for a moment. “Oh, and you have something in your hair.”
Sirius looked frightened. He is always very conscious of his hair. He started running his fingers though it, and found it. There was a pink sticky glop of gum in his sleek black hair. Then he realized that Alex was no longer chewing gum.
Sirius was about to scream at her in so much fury, but she was gone. But right now he had more important things to get to. He had to see his professor. He can’t keep her waiting forever. He had enough time wasted from tutoring and he didn’t need more time wasted from detention. He would have to mess with his hair later.
Into the school he went, leaving his friends behind once again. He went through the hallways with so many emotions going through his head it was giving him a headache. But the biggest one was curiosity. He had no clue what was in store for him in his teacher’s office.
As he went through, the paintings were waving hello, and he waved back. Before he knew it, he was in front of the two great doors he had always loathed.
Sirius knocked on the doors, and they opened by his professor. He was invited in and offered a seat. He sat in his normal chair. He even claimed it to be his own. He put his name on it with a quill when Professor McGonnagol wasn’t looking.
Sirius was wondering what he had done wrong now. It was strange. He actually hadn’t done anything bad for the past couple of days. He was way too busy with his homework. This was awkward for him.
The first one to speak was his teacher. “Mr. Black, I have some news to share with you. This indeed is important.” She stood up and started pacing. “Your grades-“
She cut herself off. What about his grades? Why is this so important? He is doing his homework for once. She should be happy. Sirius was confused at this. Doing your homework makes your grades go up, don’t they?
She started again. “Your grades are not improving at all. Why is this?”
“Professor, I’m doing my homework. Doesn’t that do me good? I haven’t missed one assignment in days! I-“
He was cut off. “There is no point in doing homework if you don’t take time to make sure that the answers are correct. Isn’t this right?”
She got him there. He had been working hard, but didn’t check his work. He had been randomly putting answers to the questions to get them done. And on essays, he had been writing things that he thought were related to the topic.
His teacher decided to leave that question un-answered, and moved on to the next thing. She took out a bunch of papers. Sirius recognized those papers. They were the assignments he had gotten from Alex. How did Professor McGonnagol get those? “Do you know what these are, Mr. Black?”
He nodded his head yes to them. She thought that he would recognize his own handwriting. He was still confused to how she got them. What was the point of her having them in the first place? “How did you-“
“Miss Coder, your tutor, gave them to me, and they are quite interesting.” She was fingering through the papers with a lot of interest. “I have looked over them very closely, and, I have to admit, I am extremely surprised.”
What is it? What, what, what? Sirius was in extreme anticipation at this point. There was something different about those papers that his teacher noticed, but he didn’t know what. Then, she went explaining.
“These papers, they all… they all have correct answers.” At this, Sirius was mesmerized. He had an expression on his face that couldn’t be identified. That is because he didn’t know how he really felt. He was a bit offended that His teacher was surprised at his grade increase, but he was also intrigued at how well he had done on the homework he didn’t even need to turn in.
Did he do this subconsciously? He must have. It would make sense that his subconscious would make him do better on the work from the person who wanted to murder him. He didn’t even realize that he had done so. He ran his fingers through his hair in disbelief, but stopped when he felt that sticky pink gum in his hair.
Professor spoke again. “I don’t understand what all of this all about, but I want to see some changes. There needs to be some grade improvements. If you can do your papers this well for Ms. Coder, you can just as well do them for your normal class.”
He was dismissed with that last statement to think about. Work harder than he already was? He was working until midnight for Pete’s sake! Now Professor Crazy-head was telling him to work harder. His situation was hitting him hard. But then he wasn’t thinking of that any more, because now he was thinking of something else. He needed some peanut butter to get the gum out of his hair!
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