Troubled Love║Sirius Black

Chapter 12

"Now class," started Professor Merrythought as she paced around the classroom, observing the class's assignments one by one. "As you all should have done, I asked each of you to research something that we have done in the last 6 years of your time here at Hogwarts and write your opinions on it. For example, you could have researched a certain counter curse and you would have told me why it was useful and what your opinion on it was. Was that clear?"

The class nodded their heads in a unanimous agreement. Hallie on the other hand was becoming impatient. She began to bounce her knee hurriedly and drum her nails hurriedly against the desk.

Hallie's original essay had been written about the impediment jinx, but instead she rushed to create a new one in the space of the ten minutes free before the lesson. Professor Merrythought wanted anything? Hallie was going to give her something that she believed and hoped would make a difference.

Lily, having been watching the girl for some time, placed her hand on top of Hallie's. "What's wrong?" she whispered, as Hallie whipped her head around again.

"Nothing, I just want to..."

"Who wants to go first?" interrupted Professor Merrythought.

"Me Professor!" Hallie replied urgently, throwing her hand into the air.

Lily looked at the blonde in complete and utter confusion. Marlene had a similar reaction, looking towards her sceptically. "What's she doing?"

"Hals, when have you ever offered to go first?" added Mary, as creases formed on her forehead. "Are you sure you're alright?"

I mean yes, Hallie had never once offered to go first. Who in their right mind would? But this felt more important than ever - she was desperate for Remus to talk to her again.

Professor Merrythought ushered Hallie up to the front of the class. She shuffled the parchment through her hands, casting a subtle glimpse towards Remus; the minute their eyes met, he cast his gaze away.

This was it.

"My essay is on Werewolves," Hallie began, watching as all four of the boys looked in between each other nervously. Remus' shoulders hunched - his body frozen in shock.

"Wait, I have a question," added Sirius, as he shot Remus a thumbs up as if to say, 'I've got you.'

"Yes."

"Well you see Brennan, werewolves was a fourth year topic," he said with a smug grin. A grin that Hallie wanted to wipe off of his stupid face. "You can't do that."

Now it was the girls turn to retaliate. She wanted nothing more than to see his stupid smirk vanish in an instant. "Well Black, your head obviously wasn't screwed on right, as you clearly weren't listening. The topic can be from any year."

The class laughed, as Sirius' face flushed a nervous pink. "But..." he retaliated yet again.

"Please be quiet," Hallie added harshly, before muttering under her breath. "I can't even hear myself losing the will to live."

Marlene's laughter was louder than anyone else's in the room, as she muttered, "he looks like a right dickhead right now."

Hallie giggled, smiling innocently towards the boy. "Now as I was saying, my essay is on werewolves. So..." she started, making sure that Remus was listening to every word that she said. "I want to talk about the prejudice that werewolves face. Werewolves don't have a choice when becoming one, nor changing on a full moon, so therefore why should we discriminate against them. Werewolves are human beings, who can't control their transformations. Honestly, I think it's disconcerting that people would view them any differently from regular human beings. There are plenty of types of people in our magical world that aren't fully human," she said, casting her eyes to Remus once again as she spoke. "For example, there are humans in the wizarding world who are part giants, part trolls, part elves, part goblins..." she paused, looking towards Remus, who for the first time looked at Hallie directly... "part veelas," she continued.