A Touch of Black

chapter 2 - At Least this Time it Wasn't a Fire

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was sitting at my table, doodling in my notebook, while Sirius sat to my right adding his own ideas to my drawings. I was busy drawing a large tree beside a lake, much like the one near the black lake, while Sirius was drawing a boy hanging upside down from one of the branches. I turned to Sirius and gave him a questioning look, but he just ignored me and and kept drawing.

"Attention class!" Slughorn called, trying to get the student's attention. Us Gryffindors shared potions with the Slytherins. "Today you will be working in groups of two, working together to make 'Living Death'. And of coarse I'LL be the one assigning the groups." Everyone groaned showing their obvious displeasure. "Now Mr. Lupin and Miss Evans will be couple", James shifted in his seat, obviously not liking Slughorn's choice of words. "Potter with Rowley" Lily glared daggers at the girl as she batted her eyes at James. "Black and Hawke, you'll be working together. This time, try not to start a fire" Slughorn pleaded, referring to when we had attempted to make a 'simple' love potion. Honestly, the explosion wasn't that big, and there were no injuries. Although, Slughorn and a few unlucky Slytherins did have to regrow their eyebrows.

Sirius nudged my shoulder and gestured down towards my page. What I saw had me laughing hysterically, clutching at my stomach, unable to breath. On the page Sirius had drawn a picture of him and me standing beside a cauldron while it suddenly bursts into flames, leaving both our doodled faces covered in ashes, while our hair stood on end smoking uncontrolably. It was actually quite a good rendition of what happened.

Sirius and I got to work on the potion, well I did, Sirius was playing with the Sopophorous Bean. After successfully snatching the bean away from Sirius, I ordered him to start cutting up the roots. I got to work on the bean, which was proving to be unbelievably difficult to cut. I looked around to see if anyone else was having better luck, but noticed that no one could seem to get the juices out. I looked over towards the Slytherins and almost got hit in the face by a flying bean, the owner immediately rushed after it, face pink with embarrassment.

When I turned to look at Severus, I saw him glancing down to his book before mumbling to himself while shaking his head. I then watched as he took his silver knife and pressed down hard on the bean, causing it's juice to ooze out. I immediately reached for a silver knife, almost cutting off Sirius' fingers in the process, before taking the bean and crushing it.

By the time Slughorn told us the time was up, I had followed almost every single thing Severus did. I only missed one step when Sirius randomly flicked me in the nose.

Slughornwent around to everyone's cauldrons, dropping a single leaf into the potion. One group's potion turned a bright shade of pink, while another's just evaporated into nothing. Slughorndropped a little green leaf into Snape's potion, and we all watched as it slowly sizzled before burning up. When Slughorn got to our table, he hesitantly leaned over and peered into our cauldron before stepping closer saying "My, doesn't this look promising." Our potion was perfect, it was exactly the color that the book said it should be, and if Severus' was perfect, then ours must be.

Slughorn let the leaf fall into our cauldron, everyone leaned in expectantly. The leaf started sizzling quietly, but before Slughorn could say anything, the cauldron exploded in a cloud of green smoke which left green slime on our faces and robes. Slughorn lifted his hands to his face, wiping the slime out of his eyes before giving a small smile, "At least it didn't catch fire this time."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We were all gathered in the common room, classed were finished for the day, and we were relaxing by the roaring fire. Lily was sitting on James' lap as they shared the comfy chair in the corner. I was again sitting between Remus and Sirius, Remus seemed to be thinking intently on something, while Sirius had his head resting on my shoulder.