Vivicendium ➝ Sirius Black/OC

Canis major

Chapter Twenty Five | Canis major

[Constellation of Sirius, the dog star]

Rumors regarding the fiasco of Slughorn's Christmas party spread through the school like wildfire. During the next few mornings, it's all students can talk about during breakfast, much to Slughorn's dismay. The professor seems to be quite out of sorts as he digs into a generous English breakfast, with all the additional commodities that one might expect. Even the poached eggs (his self-declared favorites, which all of his potions students discover at some point during his wayward lectures) do not seem to uplift his spirits, which have been thoroughly dashed by the failed festivities and the many letters from parents that have been swarming in since. Unfortunately for him, Slytherin parents can be quite nosy when it comes to their children, and take any slight against them as a personal injustice.

Vivian, though she hadn't written to her own parents about the ordeal, even receives a letter the very next morning about it, which is somewhat surprising to her. While her parents tend to keep to themselves concerning her extracurriculars and such, she usually receives regular correspondence from her mother, at least, every few weeks during the school year. Yet she hasn't gotten any letters from either her mother or her father in the past month at all, and so when her family owl swoops down the next morning and delivers a roll of parchment that bears her name written in her mother's preferred silver ink, she is a bit surprised.

Most of the Slytherin table is vehemently chattering about 'those blood traitors' who ruined their evening, and so nobody gives Vivian a second glance when Leopold snootily drops down onto the table next to her. Vivian jumps a bit at the owl's abrupt appearance, nearly knocking over her pumpkin juice. Leopold, haughty creature that he is, blinks at her in an almost judgmental way and hoots impatiently, already ruffling his wings as if preparing to fly off again, whether she takes the letter or not.

"Oh alright, I'm hurrying," Vivian mutters to him, rolling her eyes as she reaches forward to carefully untie the roll of parchment from his leg. Leopold's wide stare seems to peer right into her soul, and she is quite sure that if he could, he'd be rolling his eyes at her, too.

Across from her, Morrigan leans backwards and groans in an overly dramatic voice, "Ugh. That creature again? Your owl is insane, Blair."

Suffice to say that none of her friends have a high appreciation for poor Leopold. Back in third year, Leopold had made a dive right for Morrigan's head during a particularly busy morning, having apparently decided to bypass the table entirely. The end result had led to the thoroughly amusing sight of the owl getting tangling in Morrigan's hair, which had then led to the girl swatting the poor thing onto her plate, where Leopold had given her a menacingly condescending glare (as only owls can do). Vivian had to intercept before Leopold could retaliate, which would have undoubtedly happened given the state of his pompous and, in that moment, very bruised, ego.

There have been several other incidents concerning him over the years, including but not limited to: him unashamedly sticking his rear-end into Narcissa's food, getting into a physical altercation with Rosalind when she once tried to stroke his feathers, him proudly ruffling his wings and knocking over glasses of pumpkin juice, and generally being a vain, stuck up creature with no regard for anyone.

In any case, Leopold doesn't have a stellar reputation at Hogwarts, which is something that rather amuses Vivian.

"Yes, he's a spoiled brat. Aren't you, Leo?" Vivian asks in a mock-cooing voice, which seems to bring personal insult to the owl. Honestly, sometimes she thinks the creature actually knows what she's saying. Leopold gives her a snarky hoot and ruffles his wings again, blinking at her in that judgmental manner before he hoots once more and flies off, looking very eager to be rid of her. Vivian can't say that she's disappointed.