In Perpetuum

Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Utrum perfectio sive non inveniens quaerit

 

“So, how do you feel about animals?”

Hermione examined Sirius over the top of her Lemon Meringue pie. Lily, who was sitting next to Hermione, thought it rather brave of Sirius to interrupt Hermione when she was eating her dessert. Usually nothing could get between Hermione and dessert. Whilst Sirius was often reckless to the point of foolishness, Lily thought that he should have known better in this instance.

“What do you mean?” said Hermione icily, her fingers clenching slightly around the silver fork that was mid-way to her mouth.

“Just wondering, if you had a choice, what animal would you prefer?”

Hermione’s eyes narrowed as she leaned over and whispered.

“If this is your way to try and figure out what animal you are going to transform into, you’re going the wrong way about it. Especially here.”

She inclined her head towards the other Gryffindor students who had decided to join them for dinner, and even more importantly, dessert.

“Nah, it’s not that, although I am still curious about it. I wish it didn’t take so long.”

Hermione bit back a retort about the importance of being patient whilst Sirius went back to his own slice of pie with a pensive look on his face.

All was quiet for the sum total of about five seconds before Sirius piped up again.

“But just say you could chose an animal? What animal would you like to have roaming around with you?”

Lily glanced between the couple, then at the half-finished slice of pie on Hermione’s plate.

“Sirius, you’d better stop pestering your girlfriend. She is very capable of hurting people who get between her and her food.”

Sirius shifted his eyes back over to Hermione who was indeed giving him a look of warning.

He immediately stopped protesting and went back to his food.

HPHPHPHPHPHP

“Right! So where do we want to go first?”

Sirius was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet as he and Hermione were walking hand in hand alongside Remus, Estrella and (unfortunately) Peter. James was walking a small distance behind the group with a slightly dejected look upon his face. He was walking alone because Lily had refused his invitation to come with him. She had not deemed his behaviour at the Halloween Ball to be appropriate, and had refused to come along.

Apparently James could not be kept down for too long because his long, drawn out voice was shortly heard from the back of the pack.

“Quuiiiiidddiiiiitch!”

“Merlin, James!” said Estrella exasperatedly, “Do you ever think of anything other than Quidditch or food?”

“Nope,” said James, an enthusiastic tone still present in his voice.

“Fine,” said Hermione with a touch of amusement, “you can go amuse yourself with the new Cleansweeps, or Nimbus, or whatever it is. The rest of us are going to behave in an age-appropriate way and head over to the Hogs Head for a drink.”

James decided to remain put in an effort to appease his sister. Despite her playful tone, he was not fooled by it. He reasoned that Christmas was fast approaching and he wanted to live to see it.