What have I gotten myself into? Look after Sirius Black, isn’t that a tad difficult if he’s always running around the place pulling silly stunts? Where was I supposed to even start?
“You need to gain his trust.”
It was what Lily had said to first achieve. His trust? I’m supposed to gain the trust of a Marauder? Well, I couldn’t let Lily down, if I wanted to start a friendship, now would be a good time to begin.
You can only imagine my anxiety as I walked down to breakfast for the first day of classes. I received my schedule and was even shakier to see that we had double potions with the Gryffindors that day. I groaned and suddenly didn’t feel like eating any porridge or toast.
Sure, it was good news because I could get started on the gaining trust situation but my only problem was that I had no idea how to do that. I had no idea how I was going to even manage enough strength to talk to him. After breakfast and copious amounts of pep-talking myself, I headed down to professor Slughorn’s dungeon where our class was to take place.
I looked around to see where I should sit. I sat down at a table and waited for everyone to come in. James sat down at the table next to mine and Sirius and Lily came in at the same time. Lily saw that there were only two sits left open, the one by me and the one by James, which was interesting because there are usually girls trying to compete for his heart, despite Lily.
Lily rushed to sit next to James and caught Sirius by surprise. He gawked at her oddly, and headed to the seat next to me much to the dismay of all the girls in the room. I looked up in horror at Lily who stuck her thumbs up in a grin. I groaned and put my head in my hands.
“I’m not that horrible, am I?”
I peered in the direction of the voice and saw that Sirius looked a little upset that I was showing quite a display of agitation at the idea of sitting with him. I shook my head and forced a smile on my lips. He nodded and sat down.
“Welcome back students, this term we’ll be studying advanced potion making, so get excited!” Professor Slughorn exclaimed with an excited glint his eyes. He always reminded me of a walrus, with his thick blonde mustache and large build, “Be wise with who you sit with this term, they’ll be your lab partner for the rest of the year.”
Oh great, just add on to my despair. Don’t get me wrong, Sirius Black is quite easy on the eyes but now I’ll be forced into this little deal that Lily has caught me in. Sirius looked at me in the corner of his eye and seemed content with the idea of having me as a partner.
“You’re good at potions, aren’t you?” He asked as he turned to face me. I felt the words get caught in my throat as I watched his gray eyes examine mine; this was going to be tougher than I thought.
“Uh…yes...sort of…I think so?”
He stopped focusing on me and a corner of his smile lifted up and he chuckled, “All right then.” I saw Lily over his shoulder giving me an agreeable nod as if I had done something right. So being a complete nutter is doing something right?
I took out my potions textbook and placed it in front of me to analyze the potion we were assigned to do. Sirius smacked his forehead and laughed.
“I’m sorry, but I forgot my book up in the common room, I threw it at Remus,” He explained simply but then added, “On accident of course,” when I looked a little concerned. I pushed my book to the middle so we could both look at it, he moved his chair a lot closer and I became suddenly aware of his intoxicating cologne or whatever he was wearing. How was I to pay attention when I had Sirius right next to me giving off his “I’m a god” vibe?
“I don’t understand how anyone can be good at this subject; all the ingredients and clockwise and counter clockwise turns are just too precise.”
I, then realized that Sirius was quite a talker, which probably led to his instant detentions. I was trying with all my might to read the instructions but I had to read it at least three times to even know what we were making.
“I mean, honestly, when are we ever going to use this? That is unless you’re a healer or you become the next crazy Madame Pomfrey. Learning this stuff is pointless, look at Snivellus one of these days, all he probably thinks about is how to create the most lethal poison to kill one of us off,” Sirius continued, “…Hmm what we should really learn is how to make the little grease ball into a bludger, that way I could hit him all the time and no one would know—“
“Mister Black, I would suggest you pay attention.”
“Oh I’m listening sir!” Sirius perked up. Slughorn raised his eyebrows in disbelief.
“Okay then, what do you add after stirring the potion clockwise three turns to turn the concoction into a light periwinkle?”
Sirius dropped his jaw and squinted his eyes. I had fortunately been paying attention to some parts of the potion and whispered under my breath, “toad spawn.”
“Uhhh I do believe it is toad spawn sir,” Sirius pretended to say in an intellectual voice. All the girls giggled much to his delight and professor Slughorn looked impressed.
“Well I’m glad you’ve been hanging on to my every word.” He turned and continued to watch all the other students attempt to finish the potion. Sirius looked at me in surprise.
“You didn’t have to tell me…why did you?”
I shrugged and then understood that I was getting his trust.
“I knew you probably didn’t know and I didn’t want you to get in trouble.”
He gave me a small smile and nodded. Even after we had gotten done talking and I had started making the potion, he kept staring at me in curiosity.
~*~
She’s an odd little thing, that Madison Richards. I was really shocked when she told me the answer it’s like she’s trying to be my friend. Sure, it’s nice but I’m not used to girls just wanting to be my friend. It’s a little unusual, you know? But hey, if Moony can have friends who are girls then I can too, right?
Madison is a lot different than other girls I’ve met. For one she doesn’t drool when she’s around me and for two, she’s a lot smarter than the other girls. I watched as she worked on the potion, I’d help her when she needed it but she looked quite alright at doing it all.
I gaped over at Lily and James who were smiling at each other as they chopped up the ingredients. I was a bit jealous of what they have. They’re constantly talking like they’re friends and I know they snog every now and then but I’d like to have what James has. Only I can’t find a girl who will just talk to me. I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t enjoy the broom closet snog sessions with pretty girls but when James is talking to Lily and Remus is off doing his own thing, I’d like to talk to someone.
I snapped back to reality and doodled on Madison’s textbook. She returned after bottling some of the potion in a vial and turning it in. She seemed really joyous after making the potion too.
“So is this what you do for fun, making potions?” I asked amused. She laughed and shook her head.
“It’s fun making them but it’s not all I do.”
I raised an eyebrow, wondering if she ever had any real fun in her entire life.
“Have you ever gotten in trouble?”
She smiled but then it suddenly turned into a worried look. I seemed to have hit a peculiar chord because she shook her head furiously.
“No, getting in trouble isn’t good.”
I chuckled loudly causing people to look over. I looked Madison straight in the eye and grinned my infamous grin.
“Getting in trouble is my expertise.”
Madison frowned a bit and sighed. For some reason I thought I heard her mumble under her breath. Something along the lines, “I was afraid you'd say that.”
A/N: Sooo I thought that was an interesting chapter…give me some reviews and tell me what you think!
Printer Friendly Version
