Brightest ✯ Sirius Black

✯twelve✯

"your existence gives me a headache. go stand over there"

Cleo was finding it harder and harder to help the boys become Animagi, especially now that Christmas was coming soon, and it had been almost a month since she sent a letter to her parents and they still hadn't responded. Each day, she was growing more and more worried for their safety, and tried to busy herself with her schoolwork, but even that was difficult. The boys were determined to master it before Christmas, even though that was highly impossible.

The boys finally managed to master the spell they needed, and now they were in the process of attempting to carry the Mandrake leaves in their mouths, which they had to do for an entire month. It had only been about 5 days, and it truly was one of the most entertaining things Cleo had ever seen. The first day, at breakfast, they hardly ate anything, and when they had tried to nibble on something, Peter had accidentally swallowed his, which resulted in Cleo having to sneak back into Herbology to get another leaf for him. The same day, Sirius got mad something James had made fun of him for, and used his to spit it at him, sticking it to his face which made James scream so loud he spit his own out, and Peter laughed so hard he choked on his own. Cleo decided then to just grab as many leaves as she could because if they couldn't get through the first day of it, there was no way they were going to get through a whole month. 

No one else knew what they were doing except Cleo, so when everyone asked why the hell they were all talking so strangely, she simply shrugged boredly, as if she had no idea.

To be honest, she had highly doubted they would make it this far, but they once again managed to surprise her.

She sat with Lily at breakfast that morning, when the three came in with a grinning Remus behind them, and shortly after, a fuming looking McGonagall. They sat down.

"Good morning boys," Cleo said, looking at them curiously. The three gave her hums and tired waves. Cleo tried hard to hide her grin as she looked at Remus, who was smiling down at his plate.

"What happened?" she whispered to him.

"McGonagall found out," he simply said.

"So did you, I guess," she muttered.

"They already got a scolding from me this morning, but then when McGonagall came into the common room as we were leaving, you should've seen the looks of pure terror on their faces," he sniggered. Cleo smiled, but then she let it drop.

"Wait, did they mention me helping them at all?" Remus shook his head, and Cleo gave a small inaudible sigh of relief. As much as she loved getting into mischief with them, the thing she hates most was getting in trouble.

"Wre cahn 'ear you, ya know," Sirius glared at her.

"I know," Cleo nodded. "What do you have to say about it?" she grinned at him, waiting for some kind of muffled retort.

"I hate you," he said, his speech muffled by the leaf under his tongue.

"Why? I'm fantastic," she shrugged. Lily on the other hand, was about ready to get up and storm away, because James, impaired speech and all, was loudly and desperately trying to profess his love for her still.

"RIRY," he shouted, his L's becoming R's because of the leaf in his mouth, "YOU ROOK DIVINE DIS MAWNING."

"Keep it down, will you?" she hissed, looking around.

"HOW CAN I?" he shrieked causing a scene. "I AM DESPERATERY IN ROVE WIT YOU!" he shouted.

"Bloody hell, how can you stand this insufferable toerag?" she groaned, turning to Cleo but making sure he definitely heard her insult. "And what is in your mouth?" she yelled at him.

"They grow on you," Cleo shrugged. "Kind of like a fungus." Sirius kicked her leg under the table. At her shriek of pain, he started to laugh as best he could.

At the sound of James yelling, "RIRY MARRY ME", Lily got up from the table, groaning. "I'll see you in Charms," she sighed, before all but sprinting out of the Great Hall away from the mess that is James Potter.

"I rink i'm warming up to her," he smiled. Remus snorted and shook his head.

✯✯✯✯

McGonagall, as punishment, called on either James, Peter, or Sirius for answers the entire class. Of course, besides the fact that they never paid attention, they tried their best to answer in the longest responses they could muster, usually ranting about absolutely nothing relating to the topic of the lesson, so the whole class had to sit and listen to them try to speak for 5-10 minutes, which was painful enough because no one could understand them. Eventually, she got so annoyed by their antics that she gave them all a weeks worth of detention and stopped calling on them together, ending the lesson 15 minutes early due to a headache.

"She officially hates us now," Remus said as he and Cleo were walking behind James and Sirius. Peter had took off to the common room as soon as class ended, something about not being able to handle this anymore, or at least that's what it partially sounded like.

"And I officery hate dis plan," James groaned.

"I cahn't taste anyting anymo'," Sirius added. "And do you know how hawd it is to snog with dis ting?"

Cleo frowned at the thought. Of course, she was fully aware of his playboy antics. He usually went running to either her or James to tell them about his latest "catch", but that didn't mean it didn't hurt her any less.

"Don't worry," Remus whispered in her ear, "he hasn't been with anybody in the three weeks he's had that thing." Of course, Remus had seen Cleo's frown, and he definitely wasn't blind like Sirius was. It seemed everybody but him could tell that she was smitten with him, and had been for the past 5 years.

She sighed sadly, but gave Remus a kind smile and wrapped her arm around his waist, pulling him in for a tight side hug, both of them grateful that they had each other to share their troubles with.

"Don you two go gettin' too cormfortaber now, or I'll haf to shove Loony in bof of your faces!" James turned, pointing at them.

"What's Loony?" Remus asked, confused. Cleo's eyes widened as she shook her head quickly at James, trying to get him to stop talking.

"Cleo? What's Loony?" Remus asked, looking down at her, knowing she wouldn't lie to him.

"Uh, nothing, I don't know anything about it," she said, her voice cracking. "I have to go to the bathroom!" she yelled, running the opposite way down the hall.

"Sirius?" Remus asked, but Sirius and James both turned around again and walked faster to the common room. "James! What's Loony!" he shouted after them as both boys broke out into a run. "James!" 

who would be cuter: cleo and sirius or remus and luna

honestly when i first started writing this i was shipping cleo and remus way more than anyone else in my book #whoops

yaaaass lily evans SLAY QUEEN

vote and comment! GUYS MERRY CHRISTMAS

love

em