Lady Lion [Sirius Black] [DISCONTINUED]

VII

"What? No way!" Sirius growled at Callie as she told Mercia and Remus about her day in the common room. "That little twerp is no good."

"I'll have you know Sirius, Severus was very helpful. He may be a little awkward, but he was courteous and I feel a little better about potions now that I got help from him!" Callie said, annoyance clear on her face. She tried to be calm around him, because sassing him back would only make things worse for her.

"Oh come on, he probably tricked you into thinking that he knew what he was doing." Sirius said back. Callie had no clue how to respond to it, considering it made no sense whatsoever. "If you need help in a class, come to me or something."

Callie almost laughed at that last part. "Severus was who Professor Slughorn recommended to help me, so that's who I will receive help from. I mentioned needing help earlier, why didn't you offer then?"

"Well, I didn't want to offer anyways, I just don't want you working with that little- ah!" Sirius ended his statement with a growl as he fell back onto a chair in the common room. Callie had no clue why Sirius was flipping out, all she knew was that there was a serious amount of bad-blood between them.

"What's going on down here?" James asked as him and Peter just arrived from the boy's dorms. They didn't have any idea of what was going on- all they saw was Sirius get fired up about whatever Callie was saying.

"Have her tell you!" Sirius exclaimed, motioning to Callie. James looked to Callie eagerly, feeling as though he was obligated to join in on Sirius' anger.

"Ok, I don't know why this is such a big deal. I wasn't even talking to Sirius about it, but he still freaked out!" Callie put her hands up defensively. "A Slytherin boy named Severus is helping me in potions since I haven't really been able to understand it on my own."

James face immediately turned to anger, clearly hating him the same amount as Sirius did- possibly even more. Peter looked confused, but as soon as he looked and saw that James was mad, Peter's face portrayed a mad look as well.

"That awful kid from the train ride here? No way, I can't have anything to do with him in Gryffindor. That little... Snivellus doesn't deserve anything to do with this house!" James ranted.

"Yeah, Snivellus Greasy!" Peter exclaimed, wanting to join in on the other two's anger, despite knowing nothing about Severus other than who he was.

"Why don't you guys like him?" Mercia asked, engaged with the conversations that occurred from Callie simply telling Mercia what she had been up to.

"We met him on the train ride down here- him and some girl- and he was really obnoxious and rude, especially with the way he felt about muggles and muggle-borns." Sirius said. "It reminds me of my family." The last part was a mere whisper. Callie was the only one who had heard it, but she knew better than to bring it up at the moment.

"That's it? Some guy was just being a little rude and now you hate his guts?" Mercia asked. It was clear she loved the drama, as her smile wasn't hidden even a little.

"He was arrogant- he saw himself so much better than me and everybody else." James said, fueling the fire.

"You're just describing yourself." Remus told James, who rolled his eyes in return.

"Look, I don't know what's going on here, but I'm going up to the dorms." Callie said, hearing Mercia say that she would go with her. She was aggravated with the devastation twins; it was a recurring theme during her time here at Hogwarts. She really tried to see the best in those boys, but they were constantly annoying her, and she couldn't deal with them anymore. She wished the boys would just leave her alone; she wanted to be unrecognizable to them.

"That was so weird!" Mercia exclaimed as she entered the dorms, sitting on the edge of the bed Callie had flopped down on.

"I was feeling good about having Severus tutor me; it was a good day. Then they came along and made it seem so bad!" Callie said. She was caught in between wanting to cry and wanting to scream. She couldn't believe that she was getting so upset about each little thing that Sirius and James did. Callie came from such a friendly and calm home life, so being so aggravated on a regular basis was new to her. She hated it.

Mercia remained on the edge of the bed, swinging her feet. "You know, I think there's something more going on. Maybe they fought or something! Or, maybe Severus stole something of theirs! Or, wasn't a girl mentioned? I bet Sirius or James likes her!"

"I couldn't care less." Callie sighed, burying her face into her pillow. She didn't want to yell about them right now- her family taught her better than to complain about people all the time. All she wanted to do was calm down before she went on to do her homework.

"Cals!" Mercia screamed after a few seconds, making Callie perk up. "W-What happened to your hair?!"

Callie's heart skipped a beat as Mercia said this. She jumped up and ran over to the mirror, and sure enough a red-headed girl was what her reflection held. Callie quickly changed it back to what it normally looked like, and turned back to the blonde girl. Callie hoped Mercia would just make some weird comment, and forget all about it. However Mercia said nothing, she only stood there staring with wide eyes at Callie.

"Magic is... weird." Callie said quietly. Mercia stood there staring, and Callie couldn't believe that she had no comments to make. Her usual child-like behavior had disappeared as she waited for some kind of explanation.

"Okay Mercia, I," Callie began. She didn't know what to say. There was copious tension between them at the moment, and it was making Callie feel extremely awkward. "I... Want to go down to the Great Hall? I'm starving!"

"No, Callie, what just happened?"

"Don't freak out..."

"I won't! Double pinky swear!"

"Um, okay. Here it goes. I guess it's just some magic I can do..." Callie told her. "I can, well, change my appearance to whatever I want; whenever I want."

Upon hearing this, Mercia lit back up with excitement. It was like there was a switch from serious to joyous. "Oh my god, really? That's so cool! How do you do it? I can't wait to brag about it; my best friend is like, extra-magical!"

"No!" Callie exclaimed, quickly apologizing after seeing that she startled Mercia. "Look, I don't really want people knowing about it right now."

Mercia was very confused. "Why not? It's awesome! Maybe you would be super popular!" Mercia started rambling on about how she thought it was the coolest power ever to Callie, who cut it off after a few minutes.

"When I want people to know, maybe I'll let you help me tell them." Callie smiled at Mercia, grateful that Mercia wasn't freaked out by her abilities. Mercia was still on her side.

"Yay!" Mercia was extremely joyous, although that was the norm for her. "This is so cool!"

Callie had hope that maybe telling Mercia would make it easier to tell other people. Who knows, maybe other people would think it's really cool too. The only thing that could mess it up would be if Mercia told anybody else about it before Callie could.