Obsession • Sirius Black

Chapter 5

Tuesday 9th September 1976

(Edited)

Today was the first day I had potions. Potions was the only lesson that I actually enjoyed, purely because I was one of Slughorns' favourites, but still. Potions was also one of the only classes that had all of my friends in (Lily, Marlene and Remus). Unfortunately, James and Sirius were also in that class but I was determined to not let that get to me.

Lily and I entered the classroom 5 minutes early and fought over the nicest potions book. I won, obviously.

We sat down together and chatted to Slughorn about our summers. It was annoying how much of a suck up Lily was, but to be fair, so was I.

When class actually started, Lily, Remus, Marlene and I all took our places at our table as Slughorn gave his usual speech:
"Welcome to sixth year potions, this year we will be learning some exciting new things so I have to go through the safety-"

He was interrupted by howling laughter entering the classroom. It was James Potter and Sirius Black, of course. They just kept laughing, completely oblivious that everyone was watching them.

Slughorn sighed and said, "Mr Black, Mr Potter, detention tomorrow night."

The boys just grinned at eachother, completely unbothered that they would be spending tomorrow night scrubbing floors.

I heard Remus mutter the word "Idiots," and I let out a small chuckle.

Slughorn carried on with his speech and then I heard him mention something about partners and I quietly said, "I dibs Remus,"

"That's not fair!" she whispered back, annoyed that I got to him first.

"You snooze, you lose," I smirked at her.

"Do I get any say in this?" Remus asked, interrupting our friendly squabble.

"No!" We both whisper-shouted at him.

"Please, Soph, I don't wanna be stuck with Marls, she's rubbish at potions." she complained.

"Thanks, Lils," Marlene said with two sarcastic thumbs up. She didn't actually take offence to it. She was used to this by now over the years. We loved Marls but potions was definitely not her strong suit.

Lily and I never went together as partners for three reasons:
A: We would fight too much.
B: We like to compete with each other.
C: All reasons above.

"But," Slughorn started, "This year is different, because I will be picking the pairs."

I heard everybody groan around me. This was not going to end well.

He then started to read the list.

"Peter Pettigrew and Rachel Simmonds,
Jordan Hughes and Emma Harris,
James Potter and Lily Evans,"

I heard a "YES!" from the back of the classroom and turned to see James jumping up and down and punching the air in excitement. Lily on the other hand groaned and put her head in her hands.

I also noticed that some of the Ravenclaw girls were giggling and crossing their fingers. Obviously, praying to be paired with Sirius.

"Jade Anderson and Remus Lupin,
Marlene McKinnon and Noah Harris,"

I took a deep breath as I heard Slughorn say "Sophia Parker and..."

"Sirius Black."

Of course it was. Just my luck. My favourite lesson instantly became the worst. I didn't care to listen to the rest of the partners, too busy trying to plan a way to escape this.

Sirius high fived James and strode over to me, slinging a heavy arm over my shoulder. His fan girls scoffed at this. I shrugged his arm off and glared at him while he innocently smiled at me and sat down on the wobbly potions stool. Seriously, these chairs had probably been here since Dumbledore was a student.

Slughorn told us what page to turn to and I got up to get the ingredients. Black followed after me.

"Go out with me, Parker," He said, casually as he ran a hand through his hair and spun his wand in his fingers.

"No," I replied, just as casual, with a sarcastic smile on my face.

"Why do you hate me, love?" He asked with no smirk for once, he looked genuinely curious.

"Many reasons, Black." I stated, bluntly.

"Tell me some," he asked.

I sighed and walked over to our table as I said,
"You're arrogant, you're obnoxious, you're a player, you're annoying, you're an asshole, need I go on?"

"Interesting," he said, blankly, "So if I sorted all of that out, you would date me?"

"I- Uh- No, Black." He caught me off guard with that question.

"Why not? If I stopped all that then that would only leave the positives about me."

"What positives?" I asked rhetorically, adding some spiders legs to our cauldron and the potion made a satisfying sizzling sound.

"Ouch! You wound me, darling," he chuckled, clutching his chest and pretending to be in pain.

I chuckled at this dramatic display. Yes, I actually laughed at Sirius Black instead of threatening him.

I covered my mouth and tried to pass it off as a cough and then walked away, feeling both embarrassed and shocked that Black was capable of making me feel emotions other than frustration.

I turned and recognised a group of popular Ravenclaw girls glaring daggers at me. I tried to ignore them as I grabbed some more ingredients but it was quite uncomfortable feeling their piercing glare behind my back.

I looked up at them and instead of trying to hide that they were staring at me. They just looked me up and down, judging me.

I then walked back over to the table and spent a painful hour trying to make the potion without hexing Black.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••