SEREIN || Sirius Black

Chapter 19

Clara woke early on the last Sunday morning of November. She opened her eyes to see the faint rays of an early sun bouncing through the room. Yawning she rolled over peeking through the curtains seeing a light blanket of snow coating the school grounds. She smiled thinking back to her home, Ilvermorny, and all the snowfall the students had grown to love over the years. Kids from all over America came to Ilvermorny to study, it always cracked Clara up watching the reactions of students from Florida seeing their first snowfall and blizzard. The snow brought a warm comforting feeling to Clara's chest.

She shivered uncovering herself from her toasty blankets making her way to the showers. She took her time this morning seeing as nobody was up. After her long shower she made her way back to her dormitory changing into jeans and a knitted sweater. Once Clara was satisfied with her appearance she went down to the common room with a muggle book, Jane Eyre, in hand. She couldn't help that she was a sucker for these kinds of muggle books.

Clara had only one task today, bottle up the Wolfsbane she and Remus had begun brewing a week ago. Each night either Clara or Remus would make the trek out to the Shrieking Shack to check on the potion giving it the required number of stirs. Each night Clara grew more nervous even though the potion was turning out as her notes had described it should. She couldn't bear the thought of accidentally harming Remus.

She was going to go to the shack on her own but decided to wait to talk to Remus about it, unsure if he wanted to join her for the final time. Thankfully Slughorn didn't notice the missing cauldron or ingredients. Clara had been on edge for almost the entirety of the previous week waiting for some sort of punishment that never came.

Not long after she sat down to read, she looked up to see a few tired faces. "Morning James, Remus." Clara lazily smiled at the two boys.

"Good morning!" James replied all too happily for an early Sunday morning.

"What are you doing up?" Remus asked ignoring James.

She set her book down giving her full attention to the two. "Not sure, couldn't sleep. I did want to ask you about the potion though."

"Oh?" James asked curious as to what she was referring to.

Remus nodded letting her go on. "I'm going to go bottle it here soon. It should be done within the hour. I wanted to see if you wanted to come?"

"Of course!" He smiled nodding his head fervently.

"What are you two on about?" James asked eyeing Remus.

Clara elected to keep her mouth shut knowing it wasn't exactly her place to go talking. She waited for Remus to respond to him. "The Wolfsbane you idiot."

James' eyes lit up in realization. "Can I come too?" He turned to ask Clara.

She shrugged. "I don't mind. But it's up to Remus."

Remus copied Clara's shrug. "If you really want, I suppose."

"Alright then." Clara said standing up. "I need to run down to grab a few jars. Why don't you two meet me by the Whomping Willow in ten minutes?"

They both nodded before heading back to their dormitory. Clara quickly went down to the potion's classroom hoping it'd be unlocked again. She mentally thanked Slughorn when the door opened with no magic necessary. She grabbed seven jars and slipped them into her purse thanking Flitwick for the extension charm they learned earlier in the year. She left the classroom as quickly as she got there. She jogged to the Whomping Willow noting it took her more than the ten minutes she expected to take. Remus and James stood there chatting as she came upon them.

"Ready then?" She asked.

"Ready." James grinned.

Remus took his wand out pointing it to the base of the tree. He muttered the same incantation under his breath Clara heard him use previously causing the tree to stop dead in its tracks. The three of them walked silently to the Shrieking Shack, Clara grew more anxious as the three of them trekked along the path.