Open Wounds (Sirius Black)

Matches and Detentions

October had passed in a blur, and as the thirty-first approached, the excitement for the dance grew, as did the nerves. Students began asking one other in nice ways to accompany them to the dance. It made me wish Kas had asked me in a different way rather than simply asking me.

"Whom are you taking?" James inquired of Sirius, who shrugged and remained silent. More pieces concerning Kas's father and the lies he writes in the Prophet had appeared earlier in the week.

"I asked Ally," Remus added.

Everyone was staring at him. The brows of James and Sirius were elevated to the heavens.

"You asked someone?" Peter was taken back.

Remus nodded, "Yes, and she said yes."
"Congratulations, I don't know why these idiots act like you can't ask someone to the dance," I said.

"Thank you, Dessa." He laughed.

"It's not that he can't ask someone; he's refused to for five years," Sirius sat up, finally saying something.

After breakfast, the five of us went outside to do some potion work, and I was surprised when Sirius welcomed me.

"I am just saying," Remus said, glaring at Sirius, who put his hands up in defense.

"Anyway, the first quidditch match is today, are you nervous, James?" I inquired.

"Ravenclaw stinks, and we've been working hard; I'm also going to ask Lily to dance with me, so don't ruin it."

"I'm not going to do it, James."

"James, I am not going to ruin it. Lily is going to Snape, I wouldn't even bother-" He interrupted me.

"Dessa, Lily can do much better than Snape-"

I cut him off, "like you?"

"Precisely like me," He said adjusting his tie.

"James, you should just go alone like Peter and I are doing," Sirius said, laying back in his book bag.

"Umm no, I am not going to be embarrassed by showing up without a date," he said, as if Sirius should never have proposed it.

We stayed out there for about an hour before heading inside to attend divination which was a class that started mid-October. The journal to the classroom felt like hours, the stairs circled up the tower, climbing up a ladder through a hatch, and into the very top of the town.

"Come in, come in, my dear children!" The Professor was an older lady, she was about sixty or so. I glanced back at the four boys, James pushed me inside.

"Hello, take a seat, my first students to arrive," She clapped her hands together.

"Who are you, my sweet child?" She asked as I took a seat on a cushion.

"Odessa Potter, ma'am," I glanced back at James who chuckled, It never failed wherever we went people talked to me and not him.

"Ah, a Potter, I should have known, you look exactly like your mother when she was your age... how old are you?" She tilted her head to the left looking at the ceiling and waiting for me to respond.

I cleared my throat, "um, fifteen."

"Yes," she started nodding, "Exactly like Euphemia."

"A Black! How exciting!" She hurried up the steps a little to where the boys were sitting, I turned around to laugh at James.

"What house are you in?" She hunched over.

Sirius leaned back slightly, glancing at James then back to the Professor, "Gryffindor."