COMFORT ZONE | Sirius Black [REWRITING]

51. Quidditch and Exam Stress

Wednesday, 26th March 1975

"Good evening, love of my life."

"Evening, Mads."

They were in the Great Hall, expected to scrub the tables clean without magic for the final of their two-week streak of detentions awarded by McGonagall.

Along with a total loss of one hundred points from Gryffindor which had quickly erased the amusement off their fellow house members' faces.

To say Wood had been simply annoyed at having to shift all their evening practices to the mornings because three of his players were involved in the infamous food fight would be a massive understatement; but Dorcas had applauded each of them in turn, so it wasn't all too bad.

And yet, this was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to the things plaguing Sirius Black's mind.

For one, he was in detention with Marlene and Dia while James and Remus had been paired off to dust all the portraits on the second floor. This wouldn't have been much of an issue had the two girls not gone off together to the other corner of the hall, giggling uncontrollably as they got to scrubbing.

Even more enigmatic, was how Dia had managed to get everyone to make peace with each other within an hour of the incident, along with earning Marlene's previously impossible-to-earn forgiveness. Sirius strongly believed it was a skill unique only to Dia because no one else could have ever pacified Remus afterwards the way she did.

And that was not where it ended either.

The other day, he had needed to stop his mouth dropping open when he'd seen her fluttering her eyelashes at Evans in Charms before the pair burst into giggles.

And apparently the girls did it all the time because are we even friends if we don't flirt once a day?

But when Dia had caught Benjy Fenwick smirking at this, she'd been quick to add that it was saved exclusively for her girl friends and that anyone who got ideas from it needed to piss off immediately.

The boy had stopped grinning very soon after.

Then last week, she had called Remus her sunshine when it was the day before the full moon. And she'd said it with such a straight face that it was foolish to believe anything except that she wholeheartedly meant it; even though Remus was gloom incarnated when his transformation was approaching.

On top of all that, for the first time since fourth year had started, Sirius had received a letter from his mother. It had taken him one look to see that it was full of admonishments for his detentions and shameful behaviour. Yet, as much as it had dampened his mood, he was still grateful that it was only a letter instead of a howler, which would've been far more embarrassing to receive.

Sirius' attention was diverted from the rag he had been using to scrub the Hufflepuff table when he heard a buzzing from his trouser pocket.

It took him a few alarmed seconds to realise that it was his two-way mirror.

"Sirius Black, Sirius Black, Sirius Black, Sirius—"

"Shut up, I'm right here," he whispered, hurriedly retrieving it from his pocket.

James laughed on the other side, and he could hear Remus huffing about something in the background. Then the boy's bespectacled face came into focus.

"Oh great! I've been calling you for ages—"

"Whispering his name wasn't going to work, I told you already."

"Well, we got there in the end, Moony," grinned James. "Anyway, where're the other two?"