Potter | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 102

Jenna stared back at Sirius blankly as he awaited her to say something, but then she suddenly burst out in laughter.

       "Why are you laughing?" he fumed, frowning at her.

        "Because — you're so — dumb!" said Jenna between roars of laughter. When it finally died down, she sighed with a smile, shaking her head at him. "Oh, look at you... all that pretty head and not one single brain cell inside it."

       "Excuse me!?" Sirius raised a brow at her furiously.

       "I'm not seeing anyone, you dungbrain! I mean — technically, I go to see Dumbledore, but —"

       "You what!?" Sirius exclaimed as he went pale and Jenna laughed at his expression again.

        "Okay, okay," she said, shaking her hand at him impatiently. "We need to talk... but you have to promise not to tell anyone."

       "I don't know what I'm supposed to think right now..." he said worriedly, gaping at her.

       "Alright," Jenna started, clearing her throat, "Look... last year, when I transformed in front of Snape to my cat form to stop Remus from attacking him —" Sirius looked down guiltily at this part, "—Snape told Dumbledore about me."

       "That little git," Sirius mumbled angrily under his breath.

     "The point is," said Jenna, trying to get him to forget about Snape at the moment, "Dumbledore came and talked to me afterward. From what he said, I'm an advanced Metamorphmagus. Apparently, other ones my kind have a hard time changing their faces flawlessly at this age, let alone transform into an animal."

       "So...?"

       "I'm getting there." Jenna rolled her eyes at how he was so impatient. "Dumbledore thinks that I have potential and so he's offered to teach me a few things for — er — possible future situations."

       "What kind of situations?"

      "We're at war, Sirius," said Jenna, sighing. "And it's time for us to pick a side. And I know where I stand."

       "Let me get this straight," said Sirius firmly, standing up from his seat. "So you're telling me that Dumbledore's training you so you can fight for him?"

        Jenna felt her heart sink at those words and opened her mouth to protest, afraid that he would want to try and talk her out of it.

       But she was caught off guard when he said, "Well, I want to join too!"

       "Wh-what?"

       "We're at war, aren't we? This is my battle too! I want to fight along."

        "Sirius, it's not as simple as that. It's not like the times you pick up fights with Slytherins in the corridor," Jenna tried to reason. "This is real. Dumbledore's told me what they are capable of — It's too dangerous!"

       "You're such a hypocrite!" Sirius scoffed. "You can't expect us to stand aside and let you take on all the good Death Eaters for yourself. We want some too!"

       Jenna laughed, shaking her head at him in disbelief. "It's not like I'm gonna go straight off now. Dumbledore said it might even take years for the right moment for me to initiate."

        "So, what kind of a job does he want you to do?" Sirius asked, sitting on the arm of her chair. "What is he teaching you?"

        "You know... defensive stuff," she answered, completely ignoring his first question.

       The truth was, Dumbledore had told her that she would be going undercover as one of Voldemort's Death Eaters, but he hadn't told Jenna who she would be impersonating. And more of that, he still hadn't explained how this plan was going to work out.

"Wait," Sirius started, looking puzzled. "That doesn't explain how your name doesn't show up on the Marauders Map."

"Yeah... about that..." Jenna cleared her throat and looked down awkwardly. "That night when I came to your room in the middle of the night and said I had a nightmare — I had sneaked in to get the Map and erase my name off it. I didn't want you guys to see where I was going."

"Well, that explains a lot," Sirius muttered to himself. "So how long have these lessons of yours been going on?" he questioned.

       "Er... since the beginning of this year."

       "And let me guess," Sirius started with a grin, "all those times when you went to Dumbledore's office, you told your friends that you were with me."

      "Yup." Jenna nodded, chuckling guilty. "I'm sorry. It's just that Dumbledore had made me promise not to tell anyone. I wasn't even supposed to tell you!"

       "Well, you couldn't have kept it from us any longer. Of course someone was going to get suspicious."

       "I know," she said. "But still, I'll have to keep it quiet for as long as I can. Will you help me?"

       "Help you? With what?"

       "With covering up for me," she explained. "If James or anyone else asked for me whenever I was gone, just come up with a story or something."

       "Alright." Sirius nodded and Jenna smiled at him. With that, he grinned and leaned down, kissing her lips softly.

        But Jenna suddenly pulled away and came to a halt, frowning as she realized something.

        "What?" Sirius asked, still slightly dazed after the kiss.

       "You actually thought I was cheating on you?"

        Sirius blinked at her a few times. "Er..."

       Jenna shook her head angrily and promptly got off her seat. "You really think I would do that to you?"

       "What — no, no — of course not," said Sirius briskly, standing up as well and moving toward her, cupping her face with his hands gently. "I — I was just going crazy that you wouldn't tell me where you've been going off to."

       "Don't you trust me?" she whispered, looking up at him with a hurt expression.

       "Of course I do!" Sirius huffed to himself before saying in a weak voice, "Look, I just don't want to lose you. I was afraid that — you would want to leave me."

        "Or maybe you had done it to other girls too often that you plainly assumed that I would do the same to you."

       Sirius dropped his hands from her by those words, furrowing his brows as he stared at her blankly.

       Jenna just shook her head at him and turned on her heels leave, but she stopped in her track when she heard a quiet bark behind her.

        Turning around, she saw Sirius in his dog form, sitting there and wiggling his tail.

        "That's not going to work on me anymore," said Jenna firmly, folding her arms.

      But just then the black dog started running in circles and chasing after his own tail.

       Jenna couldn't help but chuckle at that, watching him with amusement until he finally stopped as he went toward her and sat down by her feet, giving her the puppy eyes.

       "Stop," said Jenna, trying to supress her smile. But the dog started whining sadly, looking up at her pleadingly. "Shush, Padfoot! You'll wake everyone up!"

       But the dog started howling sorrowfully. Sighing to herself in defeat, Jenna finally got down to her knees. "Okay! Okay!" she said, scratching his ears as she laughed.

        The dog barked playfully and suddenly leaped forward and gave her cheek a small lick.

     "How could I ever stay mad at you?" said Jenna, chuckling.