Accio Evans

Chapter 10: Permanent Ink

Minerva McGonagall rubbed her forehead exasperately, the two boys had been sat in the far right corner of the room talking in hushed tones for the whole class and they showed no signs of stopping as she concluded the lesson. How either of them passed a single exam, she would never know. The two Marauders were still whispering between the two of them, both oblivious to the scathing glances shot their way by the Professor and several of their peers as their conversation continued. Minerva may at times detest the Marauders, but at least two of them were listening– Remus Lupin was sat two desks in front of the pair and was hurriedly scribbling down notes along with Peter who was sneaking glances at Remus' parchment and then returning to his own. She sighed in desperation at the sight the Sirius and James' parchment; Sirius' was completely blank and James' only bore his name in the scrawled in the top left hand corner, they continued to confer showing glances towards the table of girls sat at the front who were unaware of their importance to the two Marauders.

"But what do you think?" James whispered, his confusion expressed across his features as he wriggled his nose to rearrange his slipping glasses.

"I dunno Prongs. You seem to be pretty close, but then you can never read her..." Sirius' eyes wandered over to the table of girls sat at the front, although his eyes lingered on the brown haired witch as opposed to the red head that James' eyes seemed to be drawn to every few seconds.

"But she kissed me!" James hissed "that's got to mean something!"

"I. Don't. Know. Prongs." Sirius replied through gritted teeth, James' none stop talking was beginning to grate on him. Last night, James had seemed euphoric, ecstatic, on cloud nine as the muggles would say. However, this morning he seemed on edge, he'd been evaluating Lily's actions in greater detail than Sirius believed humanly possible. Sirius was about to add that he didn't really care and that James should just snog her and find out the answer that way when he was unexpectedly interrupted.

"Mr Potter, Mr Black, will you please be quiet!" Minerva McGonagall finally snapped. The two boy's heads shot towards her in unison. Sirius flashed a grin but the other Marauder looked uncomfortable at being caught out, pink flush crept up his neck and towards his cheeks.

Daring to glance around the room, James noticed the whole class seemed to be staring at him, including Lily from her table at the front of the room, Hestia, Jessica and Alice by her side. Lily was shot him a fairly amused smirk, although James could tell her mind was somewhere else.

Attempting to swallow his embarrassment, James found himself staring down at the blank parchment in front of him. Slightly ashamed at not having taken a single note, bar the untidy scribble in the corner that bore his name, he eyed his quill with distain, trying to distract himself from the way Professor McGonagall was staring at him – like she was ready to tear him limb from limb them, regardless of him being Head Boy or Quidditch Captain. Sirius, it seemed, did not share James' guilt at being caught out, on the outside at least. His perfect grin remained in place, and flashed a wink at the Ravenclaw Prefect Samia Rain, who sat across the room, but Sirius' attention was diverted from the Ravenclaw to the eye roll of a Gryffindor girl sat next to Lily, who was exchanging glances with James. Sirius noticed that Hestia had turned her attention back to the front of the classroom, disregarding Sirius and James. The turn of her back stung – but Sirius put her dismissal to the back of his mind, instead focusing on sending the fuming Professor a dazzling grin that would only further her irritation towards the pair of them.

She knew she was the only student in the room that was facing the front, bar James and Sirius, but she didn't care, she didn't want to see the looks Samia was sending Sirius, it made her want to be sick. Pathetic, stupid girl, all she ever does is flirt with people; at the thought Hestia resisted the urge to roll her eyes again. She could feel his eyes on her once again but she refused to turn back to him, he didn't deserve her attention she told herself, she didn't need him; although as she read the notes written across the board in her Professor's neat handwriting for the fourth time, she knew she was just kidding herself.