sanguine ⏩ sirius black

07.

"SIRIUS, CAN YOU PASS ME THE MOONSTONE please?" Remus asked, holding out his hand for the ingredient without taking his eyes off of the potion. Slughorn had the sixth years brewing a Draught of Peace and Remus had gotten paired off with Sirius for the day's assignment.

However, while Sirius was usually a more than adequate partner, he was falling a bit short today.

"What?" Sirius said, shaking himself out of a daze when Remus nudged him.

"The powdered moonstone," Remus repeated, "Preferably before the potion explodes and Slughorn thinks we did it on purpose."

Sirius handed Remus the ingredient and apologized, "Sorry, it's just... I'm a bit out of it today."

"Not just today," the werewolf replied as he added the last set of moonstone to turn the potion grey, "Ever since you got back from your first detention, you've been acting weird. That was practically three weeks ago." 

Sirius did not respond as the boy lost his train of thought, staring into the cauldron. He hadn't told his friends about his and Farrah's late night interaction on the first night of his detention. He hadn't told them about what she had told him that night. 

And he definitely hadn't mentioned how it was eating him up inside. 

Since that night, his thoughts had been haunted by the dark-haired girl and her words to him. For the past two weeks and something, he had laid in his bed, unable to sleep as her voice was stuck in his head.

"You've never been the hero in his story. You've always been the villain."

"You've never been the hero."

"Always been the villain."

He wouldn't admit it but it was slowly driving him insane. She was slowly driving him insane. He had only known Farrah MacMillan for two months and she had already turned his world upside down. 

"Sirius!" Remus called out, snapping his fingers in front of the grey-eyed boy's face.

Sirius jumped and looked up at his friend, causing Remus to shake his head. While adding the last few drops of hellebore, the Prefect said, "Okay, you need a drink. Thank Merlin the party is tonight."

"Party?" Sirius asked, resting his chin in the palm of his hand as he watched Remus finish the potion.

"Yes, Sirius. The Halloween party that Dorcas and Marlene are throwing tonight. The one that we all promised we would attend."

"Oh," the Black boy replied as he called Slughorn over to see their completed potion, "I must have forgotten about that."

"Yeah, you must have," Remus said, packing his belongings into his bag, "Anyway, you have been focusing a lot of your energy into the Halloween prank that you insisted on planning yourself."

"Yeah mate," James interjected as he and Peter joined them from their table, "This had better be a good one."

The mention of the prank brought a smile to Sirius' face. During one of his many sleepless nights, the idea had come to him and ever since then, he had spent his every spare hour planning each detail of the ordeal. This would be a prank to remember.

Especially for the person it was intended for. 

"Trust me," Sirius said, a smirk on his face, "It'll be one for the books."

Slughorn dismissed the class with wishes of a happy Halloween and the sixth years dispersed, the Marauders making the trek to Gryffindor Tower to prepare for the party.