The Pureblood Princess | Sirius Black

|65| We are Occlumencing

As winter turned into spring, Adelaide's days were some of the happiest and least stressful she'd had since the school year began. She focused on her classes, not as an outward reflection of a need to control her life as before, but out of a genuine interest in the subjects themselves. Her friendships with all the third year girls grew deeper, she even considered Marlene a good friend of hers... especially since she knew Sirius didn't fancy her. And her love for Quidditch grew with every practice... except the ones where they had to run laps.

All in all, as Gryffindor approached their second game of the season against Hufflepuff in late March, things were good. All the anxious thoughts of arranged marriages and worrisome plots from Tom Riddle, felt so far away and distant that sometimes Adelaide wondered if it had all been a bad dream. It was hard to believe that in a world full of such light and happiness and laughter, that there could be people who were doing all they could to destroy it in the name of prejudice and power.

However, Adelaide knew that no matter how lovely life seemed at the moment, evil and danger lurked in the shadows, waiting to strike... and she would be ready when it did.

After Adelaide's numerous requests to resume lessons with Dumbledore had been denied, she had begun to work with Sirius on his Occlumency .. which was proving to be more difficult than she had anticipated...

"You just have to clear your mind of all emotions!" Adelaide told Sirius for the umpteenth time.

"Oh! That's all?" he replied sarcastically.

Adelaide groaned and flopped backward on the opposite end of his bed. "It's really not that hard."

"Easy for you to say! I am a highly emotional being Adelaide!"

"I'm aware." she grumbled under her breath. "Okay. Imagine that your emotions are things, objects. So let's say your annoyance for these lessons looks like a—"

"It looks like a cat toy."

Adelaide sat up to look at him. "I was going to say a scarf..."

"Can it be a scarf with cats on it?"

Adelaide considered his request. "I suppose. Okay, so your annoyance looks like a scarf with cats on it. Now I want you to close your eyes and imagine putting it into a drawer."

Sirius closed his eyes. "What kind of drawer is it? Are we talking about a dresser drawer, a bathroom drawer, a desk drawer, big drawer, small drawer—"

"It doesn't matter!!"

Sirius opened an eye. "I think someone needs to put their anger scarf into their own mind drawer..."

"Just shut up and do what I told you!" she snapped as he chuckled.

"So bossy... Okay, I am putting the scarf with cats into your desk drawer..."

"Why my drawer?" she asked, forgetting to be upset.

Sirius opened his eyes and smiled. "Because then you'll have a cute cat scarf to wear if you get cold while doing your homework." he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, closing his eyes when he saw her smile despite herself. "Okay, so what's next?"

"O-oh um... next you close the drawer and lock it with a key."

"Locking drawer and leaving the key under that box of muggle quill things you use to doodle with."

"They're called pencils... wait how did you know—? ...You know what, nevermind... Now, you should feel less annoyed." Unlike how Adelaide was feeling at the moment.

Sirius opened his eyes. "You know what... I actually do..." he said honestly.

Adelaide beamed. "Terrific! Okay, now another technique that I use to calm down is to take in my surroundings."