fatal love

Chapter 49

The 29th of November was the full moon. That was always depressing, but this month, there was a silver lining. It meant they were one third of the way done to completing the Animagus potion. All of them checked it every day, adding ingredients or stirring when necessary, and encouragingly, so far it looked exactly like it was supposed to.

The full was on a Friday, so on Friday evening, Remus had left them to go and transform, while James had gone off somewhere with Florence, and Peter was serving a detention for falling asleep in Charms. Bored, he decided to go and bother Marlene.

He found her in the Common Room with Evans and Mary, and he jumped onto the sofa, lying horizontally and putting his legs in her lap.

"McKinnon," he grinned, "what are we doing this evening?"

"Nothing," she said, rolling her eyes, "we need to be in good shape for Sunday."

Sirius stiffened.

"What's Sunday?" Mary asked.

"Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff!" Marlene exclaimed. "And me and Sirius are making our debut as Beaters!" She glanced at Sirius, who was pulling at a hangnail. "Are you nervous?" she said delightedly.

"No," he said stubbornly.

She slapped his leg lightly. "Don't be nervous, you daft wanker. You're a good Beater. And Morvaina's had us doing enough training to take on the Wimbourne Wasps, I reckon. We'll trounce Hufflepuff, don't worry."

Sirius nodded. "How are you not nervous?"

Marlene shrugged. "I already know I'm a good Beater."

He pulled a face at her and she smirked. Honestly, playing in front of the whole school was a bit nerve-wracking. He'd worked hard to get on the team, and he'd been working hard in training ever since, but he might still cock it all up. He didn't want to be the reason Gryffindor lost, and he didn't want to give the Slytherins, Regulus or Walburga any more ammunition to use against him.

Sunday morning, he was just as stressed as James when they both woke up at the crack of dawn. Sirius glanced over to Remus' bed, and thanked Merlin that he'd been allowed to come back to the dorm last night. He was snoring softly, curtains hanging open. Sirius had made him promise at least ten times that he would come to the match and cheer him on, and Remus had laughed each time, saying of course he'd be there. Then Sirius had backtracked, saying he was probably still recovering, and the match wouldn't be that interesting anyway, and Remus had told him to shut up.

Smiling a little, he pushed James out of the way and went to the bathroom. He couldn't have his hair down when he was playing, which was annoying, because that's when it looked best, and the whole school would see him today. Instead, he spent five minutes twisting it into a knot on the back of his head. And yes, he was aware he was a little vain, but sue him, he liked to look good.

"Come on then, Potter," he sighed. "Let's try and eat something."

"Distract me," James pleaded as they went down to the Great Hall.

"Um... how's Florence?"

"Good. She's good. We're good."

"Not going to break up after playing against each other?"

"We talked about it. Neither of us will go easy on the other, the best team will win."

"So me hitting her with a Bludger won't cause a fight?"

"Well, I'd rather you didn't injure my girlfriend," James said, starting to grin slightly, "but if it's between that and winning the match, go for it."

"Good to know you have your priorities straight," Sirius smirked.