Zeus || S. Black

Chapter 6

After they left the lesson, Mara, Elise, and Angelo walked back towards their common room. 

"Your sister's super smart," Elise told Mara as they were turning a corner. Mara hadn't really looked around the classroom but according to her friends, Elise had Stevie as her partner and Angelo had Remus as his. 

"Good," Mara began. "Hopefully she'll learn something from you. She's never been the greatest at school." 

Elise and Angelo gave the girl a look, wondering why she was disclosing the information, but didn't say anything. "Well it seems like Lupin either doesn't know about me or doesn't care and I really appreciate it," Angelo told the girls, which caused them to smile. 

"See, not everyone is awful and bigoted," Mara told the brunette. 

"I don't know," Angelo began, "like I said, I'm not sure if he knows." 

"Remus seems like a reasonable person, I'm sure he wouldn't say anything demeaning," Elise responded, wanting her friend to feel good about himself. 

"I guess," Angelo conceded before the trio entered the Ravenclaw tower. 

The next week, the class was once again collaborative as Mara had to meet up with Sirius Black and teach him the false memory charm. Mara was taught that it was easier on yourself than another person so when Professor Flitwick told the class that the sixth years were to change or add a memory to the seventh years, the Ravenclaw was taken aback. She had only been able to do that at the end of her sixth year herself. But whatever he said goes, so that was when Mara began to teach the rowdy Gryffindor how to cast the spell. 

"Alright Sirius, you have to imagine the situation first, and it should be plausible so its more believable for the person your casting it on," Mara explained to the sixth year. 

"Alright I think I got it," Sirius said after a few minutes of in-depth thought. 

"And you remember the spell?" She asked, not really wanting to go to Madam Pomfrey after this lesson. 

"Of course I remember the spell. Who do you take me as? I'm not Prongs," Sirius told the girl before looking at James who was currently failing at casting the spell. 

"Okay, I just really would rather I come out of this without a missing appendage," Mara warned before she lowered her wand, taking a seat as to not fall back on the hard concrete, just in case. 

After a few moments, Sirius raised his wand to cast a spell and a feeling of warmth overtook her. Mara closed her eyes as to remain unbiased before the spell took hold. Once five minutes past, Mara opened her eyes and looked at Sirius, and instead of a former indifference, there was more of an inquisitive nature towards the boy and she didn't know why. She began to rack her brain, but every memory she had seemed to be her own, though that was the intent of the charm. 

As she went through her brain, analyzing every memory, Sirius stood in front of her with a sharp grin, knowing his spell worked. Mara wasn't as ready to concede, however, as she wanted to figure out which memory it was that he manufactured. 

It took another ten minutes before Mara sighed and said, "I give up, which memory did you give me?" 

"Couldn't figure it out?" Sirius teased, now milking the moment as he wanted to impress the girl in front of him. 

"I mean, considering you're so self-obsessed it has to be a memory with you in it," Mara said, deflating Sirius' ego a bit. "It wouldn't be when you told me the quidditch plays because you'd want it to make you feel smarter, not dumb," Mara continued, only making Sirius even more dejected. 

"I'm between two memories," Mara confessed. 

"Which two are those?" Sirius asked, curious as to what made her confused. 

"Well the first was about you skipping class and being at the black lake. A little stalker-like I must confess," Mara began. 

"And the second one?" Sirius asked. 

"The second one was of you and my sister in the great hall. You helped her with her friend, Marlene, after they had a fight." Sirius raised an eyebrow. 

"Why're you thinking the first one?" He asked. 

That was when a blush crept on Mara's face. "Because after that my interest in you seemed to pique," She mumbled, but it was loud enough for Sirius to hear which caused a smile to creep on his face. 

"And the other memory?" 

"Well, you were kind to my sister which would always put you on my good side and it showed that you can be kind, not just an egotistical asshole like you portray yourself as," Mara explained. After a moment of silence, Mara was ready to hear which one was the lie he created as she asked, "alright Black, which one was the fictitious memory you came up with?" 

Sirius' smile seemed to only grow as he said, "what if I said it was neither?" 

Mara raised her eyebrows in shock as she said, "what do you mean it wasn't either?" 

"Like I said, neither memory is the one I gave you," Sirius told her once more. 

"Fine then, which one is it?" Mara questioned, now really curious. 

"I'm not going to tell you." 

"You're not going to tell me?" 

"I'm not going to tell you," Sirius confirmed. 

"That's not how this works Black," Mara argued. 

"Well, that's how it works now. Until you pick out the memory it's going to stay as your memory," he explained. 

Mara narrowed her eyes but before she could argue, Professor Flitwick told the class that time was up and Sirius ran out of there faster than a bat out of hell. 

After that Mara walked directly towards her friends and as they exited, Elise was the first to speak up. "I was wrong," Elise began, causing her friends to give her a questioning look. "I take back what I said about your sister. She's not smart. She's an evil genius." 

"What was your memory?" Angelo asked, holding back a pre-prepared laugh. 

"She made me think I peed myself in potion's class last year," Elise mumbled, causing the pair to laugh. 

"That's better than Remus making me think I ever liked Patricia Levenseller. I almost went through an identity crisis!" Mara laughed even harder, thinking of her friend as ever liking a girl. 

"What about you, chuckles?" Angelo questioned. 

"I'm not sure."