Silver Lining

Chapter 5

"This is horrible."

"It's alright for you, you have my gorgeous face to look at. I've just got... you."

"You are positively insufferable!"

I let out a groan of frustration, the corridor now filled only with the sound of Sirius and my footsteps against the tiled floor. The walk down to the dungeons was already going badly, and we were only just starting our detention.

Only twenty minutes ago, Lily and I had walked into Professor McGonagall's office and found our seats, waiting for the rest of the detention recipients to arrive. When we were all present, McGonagall explained we would each be doing jobs around the school in pairs, and one student would stay to help her with her own tasks.

As soon as we heard we'd be in pairs, Lily and I immediately moved closer together, and we weren't the only ones - Remus, Sirius and James were sitting in their own group, and Lethbridge and Jefferson were sitting together as well. McGongall pursed her lips.

"I'll be choosing the pairs, thank you very much. Miss Evans, Mr Lethbridge, you two can begin walking to the library." Lily shot Lethbridge an uncomfortable look. "Mr Potter, Mr Jefferson, you will go and do some work for Mr Filch." The glare between those two was a force to be reckoned with. "Miss Andrews and Mr Black, Professor Slughorn requires your assistance in the dungeons, and Mr Lupin, you will stay with me." Everyone else in the room seemed rather disgruntled at the pairings, but I couldn't be more against it. It was so tempting to ask for someone else, but I knew it would be a futile attempt, so settled with muttering curse words under my breath and walking out of the room before Sirius could shoot me more than a glare.

And that was how I ended up standing outside the potions classroom with Sirius Black on that dreaded Friday night.

"Aren't you going to knock?" Sirius raised an eyebrow as we stood awkwardly outside the door to Slughorn's office. I scoffed and rolled my eyes, raising my fist to hit the door anyway. Our round-bellied professor threw the door open, smiling happily even though we were there to be punished.

"Miss Andrews, Mr Black, please come in!" I nodded in appreciation as he held the door open for us, ushering us into his dark office. "Now, I won't give you anything too strenuous tonight. All you need to do is clean up the store cupboard and then you are free to go. Yes?"

Sirius and I nodded sharply, showing we understood the instructions before trudging out to the store cupboard. Sirius pulled the door open this time, coughing as a wave of dust and unpleasant smells washed over us.

"Well, this should be fun," he commented, and I knew it was going to be a long night.

---

"Throw me a rag, will you?"

I smirked and grabbed one of the old pieces of fabric from the bench beside me, chucking it at the back of Sirius' head. He scoffed and grabbed it aggressively.

"I didn't mean throw-"

"I know what you meant," I cut in, grinning to myself in the darkness of the small store cupboard. I'd conveniently left my watch in the bathroom this morning and had no means of telling the time, so I had no idea how long we had been in there. Occasionally I saw the small amount of light from outside the doorway glint off the watch on Sirius' wrist, but I refused to give in and ask him what it read.

Oblivious to my mental debate, Sirius continued his work, rhythmically lifting up jars and dusting underneath them. I had a slightly more interesting task - I was opening jars and bottles of mysterious contents and sorting them into categories of all things weird and wonderful. I have to admit, some of the things I found in those containers I would much rather forget. After a long time of silence, Sirius spoke.