Mischief Managed!

18.

Sirius Black ruffled his shaggy hair with frustration; his dark eyes glittered with suppressed emotion. The Carved Witch mounted on the wall beside him regarded the teenager curiously, finding him more than a little reminiscent of the Head Boy.

"I'm sorry, but the Head students are not currently here," she told him helpfully.

Sirius groaned. All he wanted was a quiet heart-to-heart with his best mate, but apparently this was too much to ask. Sirius began to pace the corridor impatiently. All this had started with that stupid letter. Sirius' finger throbbed painfully. And that bloody owl had bitten him, too.

Sirius had never liked his father's owl: Maleficent had a cruel streak.

He had even had his speech ready. He was going to sit James down, and first and foremost swear his allegiance to the Marauders, always and forever, over and above his Black family ties. He was going to reassure him that he was still the same old Padfoot that had helped defend James from Snape in the first year.

And then he was going to-

"H… hello, Sirius."

Jolted out of his thoughts, and rather rudely too, Sirius turned abruptly to come face to face with a Ravenclaw girl. And Merlin, the girl was positively simpering. Sirius cast her an irritated look. He really didn't feel like dealing with a simpering sixth year right now, thanks.

"Rita Skeeter," she told him self importantly, sticking out a hand for him to shake.

Sirius ignored it.

"Are you waiting for the Head Boy?"

Sirius turned away, clearly disinterested with a conversation. He knew he recognized the girl from somewhere. She had long, artifically wavy and badly dyed orange hair, and green-rimmed glasses. Her uniform was in immaculate condition and…

Sirius stopped in horror, and turned to regard the girl's scarf. There was only one witch Sirius knew who was practical enough to wear her scarf like that. Sirius eyed her suspiciously, and all of a sudden something added up. Turning away again, very quickly, he mentally assessed the evidence, suppressing a very strong urge to kick the wall. The girl was trying to imitate Lily, for Merlin's sake! While Sirius, on principle, had no objection to James' ladylove, other than the fact that she made him miserable, Sirius was fairly certain that one Lily was quite enough.

Sirius turned back once again to frown at her. He squinted, trying to pick up any sort of discernibly individual features. It was then that he noticed that not only were her glasses green: they were bejeweled.

Sirius inwardly groaned. He had had many run-ins with this girl. Not that this seemed to be at all surprising: anybody who felt that spectacles rimmed with jade and emeralds (probably fakes, too, he concluded nastily) were attractive was sorely mistaken. Usually, this Skeeter had mousey brown, dead straight hair. She really wasn't anything special, in Sirius' opinion anyway. And now she had gone and transformed herself into a mini-Lily… Sirius grimaced, knowing instinctively that something stunk, and badly.

"What are you doing here?" he asked wearily, rubbing his forehead.

Rita beamed. "Well I'm not telling you that, am I?" she asked rhetorically. She was smiling smugly, cradling what looked to be a scrapbook in her arms. That is, until Sirius moved slightly, enough to notice the big, messy Evidencescrawled across the scrapbook's cover. Sirius' traitor mind became instantly intrigued, imagining what was in there. He battled to maintain his disdainful disinterest.

"I'm actually waiting for the Head Girl to come out-"

"She's not in at the moment, please return later!" The Carved Witch interrupted helpfully.