Troubled Love║Sirius Black

Chapter 19

Only having been back at school for a few weeks, homework instantly swarmed the students from the minute they set foot back in the castle. So with late evenings filled with revision and work, time spent outside between Hallie and the girls had been limited.

Even the boys, who deemed work to be completely unnecessary, were up early and staying up late in order to keep up with the shed loads of work the teachers are setting. Even James, who vowed to never complete his homework, was trying his hardest to keep up.

After all, Professor McGonagall had set back training until he was caught up. And James Potter would not miss his training. Quidditch was far too important in his mind.

"I might cry," Hallie complained, smacking her head against her potions textbook in anger. Never before had Hallie wanted to kill a teacher as much as she wanted to kill Slughorn in that moment. "Why has he set a 12 inch essay on Golpalotts third law in potion making? Actually scrap that. Who the fuck is Golpalott?" Hallie looked over at Lily helplessly.

Lily also seemed to be struggling, even though she was always on top of her workload. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun, signalling she was in for a 'getting shit done day.'

"Golpalotts third law is when a blended poison is equal to more than the sum of the antidotes for each of the separate components," Lily recited, not looking up from her parchment.

"Lily," Hallie whined. "In English please!"

Marlene barked in laughter, yet she too was listening in.She was unable to admit that she had no idea they had even covered that in class.

"Basically the poison is created by mixing several poisons together right?" she said, as Hallie nodded slowly. "It couldn't be created by finding the antidotes to each separate poison in the blend of them, so the potion maker had to find a single ingredient which transformed the near-alchemical into a combined whole, therefore counteracting the blend of poison."

Hallie looked towards Lily, her mouth agape. "I asked for English Lils! I think I'd understand German better than that. And I've never even met a German person!"

"I don't know how else to explain it to you," the girl sighed deeply.

Hallie ended up daydreaming, staring blankly out of the window onto the school grounds that were frosted over and icy. Letting her mind wander, she thought back to the Quidditch match that was to occur in the next month.

"Hey James?" she asked, finally pulling herself up from her spot on the floor that was surrounded by paper. She moved to the couches in front of the roaring fire. James looked up from his transfiguration book. "When are we training next?"

"Monday maybe," the boy noted. "That's why I'm trying to do all the Transfiguration work fast, so I can actually do a training session. My logic is, if McGonagall sees I'm doing all the Transfiguration work, she'll assume I'm doing the rest of my subjects too."

Remus scoffed from behind a mountainous pile of parchments and textbooks. "She's not stupid Prongs."

"And I'm not exactly cut out for this life either," James replied in exacerbation, gesturing around to the piles of work scattered across the common room. "In fact, it actually makes me feel quite sick, having to do all this," he added, gesturing to his own workload in vigilance.

"Course it does prongs," Remus chuckled, getting swiftly back to his work.

"Hello boys," Sirius declared, traipsing into the common room happily. From what Hallie gathered, he hadn't been completing his homework at all - one look towards his school bag and all Hallie's questions were instantly answered. There were stacks of parchment sticking out the top of his bag in all directions.