claret, sirius black

14

chapter 14

JAMES POTTER AND Sirius Black would never admit it, but in their first few years of school they were both bullies. They claimed it was harmless, they never picked on anyone purposely they both just liked to wind everyone up, bonus points if they were in Slytherin.

Sirius Black isn't a bully anymore, he hasn't been since he was fourteen but he doesn't half feel awful about what he said to Lenora Claret in the kitchens. Remus called him an idiot and gave him the cold shoulder for the rest of the night but for some reason Remus didn't mention it to James or Peter, luckily.

Remus said he would only be lucky if Lenora didn't tell her brother what happened in the kitchens.

At first, it seemed that she hadn't said anything to Basil - but a few days later when Sirius was walking alone through the hallways of the castle whilst on his way to his afternoon Transfiguration lesson. Basilton Melonkind, Lenora's mildly scary, older half brother glared at Sirius as he walked past, ushering him to the side of the hallway to talk.

Sirius felt his cheeks flush, he couldn't tell it was because he was nervous or downright petrified. Basil is ridiculously tall, he must get his height from his mother as Lenora is also tall (close to six foot when she decides to stand upright instead of slouch). Basil leant against the wall, his arms crossed over his Ravenclaw tie. Sirius could've just carried on walking, Professor Mcgonagall would have probably let him have safe keeping inside her office, but he decided to follow Basil to the side of the hallway. James would call him an idiot if he saw the strained look on his face.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something, he had no idea what was going to come out so he was relieved when Basil cut him off before giving him the chance to make a fool of himself.

"What have you done to Lenora?" He asked, his forest green eyes narrow as he scanned Sirius' face. "You made her cry."

"I didn't mean to," Sirius ejected, his voice a few octaves higher than he would've liked. Basil speaks much more eloquently than his sister, who tends to miss out half of the letters in a word whenever she's speaking. Basil tutted, his eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't think anyone purposely means to make someone cry," Basil told him, a loose brunette curl fell out in front of his face. It was distracting. Sirius didn't think Lenora was the type of girl to cry often, but then again he doesn't really know her.

He felt awful about it anyway.

"Do you want me to apologise?" Sirius asked, he cursed himself for sounding so pathetic. Basil intimidates him more than anyone and he's only ever spoken to him twice.

Basil has much more colour to his face than Lenora does, his eyes are brighter and his hair is thicker.

"You should leave her alone," Basil kept his eyebrows furrowed as he spoke. "That means not following her," he added.

"I don't follow her," Sirius scoffed, his voice high pitched again. Basil rolled his eyes, uncrossing his arms and standing upright.

"Leave her alone Black," Basil instructed, "She doesn't deserve to be stalked by the likes of you."

Sirius opened his mouth, "I don't stalk her!" He protested but Basil walked off, not looking back.

-

"Is that why your face is so red?" Peter Pettigrew laughed as Sirius explained what had happened on his way to Transfiguration. He had to wait the entire hour to tell his friends as Mcgonagall was not in the mood for talking in her lesson.

Sirius gasped, holding the palms of his hands to his face. "I'm not still red," he sighed, defeated.

The boys, especially Remus, found it hilarious that Basil had cornered Sirius to give him a telling off in the middle of the corridor. Sirius didn't explain the full story of what happened leading up to Basilton telling him to leave Lenora alone, although he's certain that Remus figured the entire thing out before he did. He told the other Marauders that Lenora figured out he was following her and she ended up telling her brother, who was more than happy to call him out. James laughed at him, as if it wasn't his idea to begin with.

"You're lucky you're not on the Quidditch team," James chortled, "We play Ravenclaw next Sunday and he'd kick your ass off of your broom."

"Hopefully he kicks you off yours," Sirius sulked from where he sat cross legged on the cold floor of the dorm.

James winked, "He wouldn't get the chance," he said cockily.