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SIXTEEN A DOG WALKS OUT OF A BAR...
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A MOMENT OF SILENCE lapses over them—long and arduous as Ina stares at where Sirius is standing frozen in the middle of the Hufflepuff common room.
Peter stands a bit behind her, a mess as he wrings his hands together nervously.
"...I can explain."
Ina looks at Peter, and then to Sirius below, and raises an eyebrow.
"Okay," she starts slowly. "Then explain."
Despite his statement, Sirius stays quiet, his eyes wide. Ina thinks he might be debating whether or not he should turn on his heels and make a break for it.
After a moment too long, she grows impatient, and with an annoyed sigh, begins the trek down to the common room. She is so confused and curious for answers that she barely even registers Peter skittishly following her.
Now—here's the thing. Ina doesn't consider herself a scary person. She's not intimidating, and out of the 206 bones in her body, she thinks only 2 or 3 of them are actually mean.
But the way that Sirius shrinks back as she approaches him really makes her think, if only for a moment, that maybe she does have a fwe frightening qualities.
"Let's hear it, then," she says finally, and Sirius winces.
If she wasn't so focused on figuring out what the heck is going on, she might have found it mildly amusing (if not a little endearing) just how much of a scaredy cat he is.
"Well, you see... It's actually a funny story..." Sirius begins, but before he can finish, his voice cracks audibly at the end of the sentence.
Before Ina can retort with something snarky, a muffled thud resounds from behind her, drawing both of their attention. She turns around to find Peter in a sprawling heap at the bottom of the stairs, which—now that Ina is no longer on them, seem to have turned into a steep, spiraling slide.
She lets out a startled yelp at the sight—she had almost forgotten about that countermeasure that all Hogwarts girls dormitories have to keep guys out, so the sight is a little more than surprising.
A pink flush creeps up Peter's neck once he realizes the two of them are staring at him, and he scrambles to his feet quickly before practically tripping over himself in his attempt to get to Sirius.
