Black // Marauders

18. The Werewolf.

Persie pulled out the last book on Human Transfiguration that she needed, before walking them back to her corner in the library and setting them down on the table. She glanced out at the lake and sighed. Why was she stuck inside on such a nice day? Because she was taking Transfiguration at NEWT level. That's why.

Internally cursing McGonagall, she sat down and pulled some parchment from her bag, opening the first book and scanning through for anything relevant.

"Am I interrupting?" Sirius asked as he settled into the seat beside her and she raised an eyebrow and stopped her page flicking, "No. Since when do you come into the library?"

"Since I started failing all of my classes." He told her before she frowned, "I highly doubt you're failing everything."

"You're right. I'm not. But according to McGonagall, I am not working to achieve my full potential." He said, putting the last two words in air quotes as Persie looked at him for the first time, "She's right though. You could do much better. If you stopped being such a nightmare-"

"When have I been a nightmare since we came back from Easter break?" He asked, before she began to smirk, "You flooded the second floor corridor yesterday."

"That was Remus." Sirius stated, before she scoffed, "No, it wasn't! He was with me!"

"Alright fine. So I flooded a corridor. Don't be mad at me." He shrugged, before she glanced him up and down and screwed her mouth up in nervousness, "Sirius, I think we need to have a talk."

"If this is about what happened on your birthday-"

"Yes, it is. And I'm not taking no for an answer." Persie told him as she glanced around, "If you want, we can go somewhere else."

"No, it's fine." Sirius replied, before shaking his head, "I just think we're on the same page."

"Sirius. It's happened twice." She said bluntly, "I'm just checking that it is not going to happen again. It's not going to develop into anything. I just wanted to cut this off before anyone's feelings get hurt. Yours included."

"Well, I'm not involved if you're not involved." He muttered, before she furrowed her eyebrows, "What does that even mean? Either you have feelings or you don't! It doesn't matter what I want."

"Yes it does!" Sirius exclaimed, "It matters to me!"

"Mr Black, if you wouldn't mind taking your conversation elsewhere that is not a silent working area-" Madam Pince stated as Persie scooped her books and stood up, "Don't worry, Miss. I was just leaving."

Sirius' eyes widened as he stood up and followed her to the bookshelves as she placed all of them back in their respective holes, "I would very much appreciate if you gave me some personal space, Sirius."

"Why are you doing this?" He asked quietly as she shoved past him to get to the next aisle and he let out a breath of annoyance before turning to follow her, "Pers."

"I think the actual question is why are you doing this?" Persie told him sternly, putting her last book back as she stormed back to her table and he stood there speechless for a second. Sirius turned after a minute to see her picking up her things, before he jogged to follow her out of the door and grabbed her arm, "Why am I doing what?"