secrets ❐ sirius black

1

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"Midnight in the Common Room." Sirius Black whispered as he passed by on the way to his seat at the far end of the Gryffindor table. None of his friends had noticed his brief stop; unfortunately, Blake's had. 

"Sirius Black!?" Devon Bradshaw asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. Blake's blonde best friend was curious, Sirius Black was practically legend among the fifth years. The boy was a notorious player, toying around with girl after girl and getting bored all too quickly. The girls of Hogwarts should have learned by now that Black was bad news; however, they all hoped for the chance to get their heart broken by the sixth year. Blake must have been the only girl in Hogwarts who did not want to be the object of his affection, if only for a couple days. She wanted something else from him, and hopefully tonight he would provide.

"He must've thought that I was someone else." Blake lied, hoping that Devon would stop asking.

"What'd he say?" Devon asked.

"I'm not sure, I was too confused that he was talking to me to comprehend what he was saying." Another lie. It must've worked well enough for Devon, as she turned her attention to their other friend, Carter Thomas. 

Classes went by excruciatingly slow now that Blake knew that she would begin the process of becoming an animagus that evening. It was as if time itself was warning Blake to not follow through with this dangerous process. In her extensive research Blake had read of disastrous incidents where wizards and witches had been left partially transformed and ridiculed by society. She also knew that becoming an unregistered animagus meant the certainty of Azkaban if the wrong person ever found out, but Blake had no choice. She could not wait to be of age to exact this transformation, every day that went by was another day where Blake could not help. 

Ten minutes before midnight, Blake (after checking that her roommates were asleep) changed out of her pajamas and into a knit jumper and leggings, slipping on a pair of sneakers once outside of the room so that her footsteps did not wake anyone in the dorm up. Seconds after she arrived at the bottom of the stairway, Black emerged from the opposite stairwell. His grey eyes locked with hers as he walked toward the portrait hole and gestured for Blake to follow. 

"Where are we going?" Blake asked, before a hand quickly covered her mouth. 

Black waited a moment before speaking. "Sorry, thought I heard something. Come on." He said, enveloping the two of them in Potter's large invisibility cloak.

The pair walked through the castle in silence, concealed by the cloak. Blake had to be careful to not stray too far from Black so that the cloak covered the both of them entirely. Eventually they exited the castle and retreated into the chilly autumn air. Blake had not been anticipating an exit from the castle and found herself wishing that she had brought a jacket. The warm greenhouse was a welcome destination for Blake once Black had unlocked the door. He led Blake to the far corner of the greenhouse. Blake conjured up memories of three years previously, when she had learned about mandrakes in Herbology class. Luckily, these mandrakes were asleep and would not emit their deafening shrieks. Black cautiously plucked a few leaves from the nearest plant, careful to not disrupt its sleep. 

Once they moved away from the sleeping mandrakes, Black spoke for the first time since inside the common room. 

"Lucky for you, the full moon's this Thursday. As soon as the sun sets, place the leaf in your mouth. You have to keep it in there for an entire month– until the next full moon."

"You're kidding." Blake replied. "I should have known that this was a joke to you." Black's face remained expressionless.

"Do you want to become an animagus or not?" He questioned.