What Sirius never said

Chapter 6

By the time Monday came around I had finished my homework. I had gone for a stroll around the grounds on Sunday evening and that helped clear my head. After a good night's sleep I had a spring in my step as I waved goodbye to Andy and Helen and strode along the fourth floor corridor.
I turned into the normal classroom and took a seat in the middle of the room. McGonagall followed me in, calling the class to attention as I extricated my stuff from my bag. I looked up to the blackboard as she was starting to organise new partners for this week. She paused when Black raised his hand, waiting patiently for McGonagalls attention.
"Mr Black?" She asked.
"Professor, I wondered if I could stay partnered with Trudy" he stated. I stared. I evidently wasn't the only one surprised by this statement.
"Why?" Potter turned to him. "I thought we were hoping to work together man?"
Black turned to him, still keeping half an eye on McGonagall. "Mate, you know she's never going to let that happen. And realistically, I want to do well in this class! Greenwood explained stuff in a way that I understood. I learnt a lot from her" he shrugged.
McGonagall turned to me. "Is that alright with you Miss Greenwood?"
I could feel everyone's eyes on me. "Errr, okay? I guess?"
And that was that.

Black and Potter caught up with me as I left the classroom, heading for Herbology.
"Sirius and Trudy sitting in a tree" Potter chanted. "K-I-S-S-I-N-G"
"What are you doing?" I asked in annoyance, as Peter Pettigrew appeared on the other side of him.
"It's a muggle chant that Remus taught us" James replied smugly, swinging an arm around my shoulders.
"Where is Remus?" I asked, looked around.
"Oh, he was sick the other night so had to go to the hospital wing for a while".
"Poor guy. He doesn't seem to have much luck with his health" I answered.
"Anyway, as I was saying" Potter continued. "You and Sirius are partners now. So you'll be spending a lot of time together. And I bet you 100 galleons that you'll fall in love". I snorted and pushed his arm off my shoulder.
"Fat chance of that happening."
Potter paused, staring into space as if he had just had a genius idea. The students behind him started to complain but he blinked and ran the next couple of steps to catch up with us. "Do you think it would work with me and Evans?" He asked excitedly. "If I ask McGonagall for us to be partners and then she'll have to fall in love with me?"
"Please, James" I turned to him. "Leave the poor girl alone!" I skipped the next couple of steps on the stairs to get ahead of them and made my way across the entrance hall towards the doors.
"You don't mean that!" Potter called after me "she'll fall in love with me eventually!"

That night I headed to the library after dinner. Andy and I worked through our potions homework together. He stood up when he had finished his essay and stretched.
"Alright. I'm calling it a night. Are you coming?" He asked.
I looked around the library at the other tables of students. There were quite a few sixth years, evidently struggling under the enormous amount of homework we had been given. But there was no sign of Black.
"No, I think I should stay and do some revision. I need to get on top of it and I don't want to be caught out by our exams."
"They're months away" he laughed at me "but alright, suit yourself".
I refocused on my textbook as he left. I hated revision. It got so dull and always seemed so endless, so I did what I did best in these circumstances. I got out my colourful inks.
By 9:30 I was pretty much done. I had a plan of action and I had covered a chapter of work. Just as I was about to leave, however, Black walked in.
"Where have you been?" I asked him.
"Detention" he grimaced. "James and I managed to really piss off Burbage in Muggle Studies earlier. You ready to revise?"
"No Black. I'm done for the day. I've been working here since 6 and you never showed. So I am going to go for a walk to clear my head and then I am going to bed. Okay? I'll be here tomorrow. If you manage to squeeze it into your schedule"
I glared at him and stalked out.

Black evidently took my words to heart, or at least managed to not get caught for a day, because he was waiting in the library for me after dinner on Tuesday.
"I'm sorry about yesterday" he said lowly as I sat down opposite him. "I should have at least warned you I wasn't coming. But... I will tone it down for a while. I honestly don't have time for detention with all this work. Not with Hogsmead next weekend... what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry for wasting your time and I will try to be better".
"Apology accepted" I grimaced. "And I'm sorry for flying off the handle. I was just tired and needed some fresh air."
"I thought you hated the cold? You're always in your thick coat and scarf wrapped up to your nose" he teased.
"I hate the cold inside" I tried to explain, knowing full well that it didn't make any sense. "But I love it outside. I know that doesn't make much sense. But, at least when it's cold outside you can come in and warm up, but when it's cold inside the castle, I have to go all the way down to the common room to warm up and I don't often have time to do that."
He chuckled "You're weird".
"On that note" I slid my revision plan across the table for him to look at. "Provided you don't get yourself into too many more detentions, this is my plan for the next few months"
"Damn, you're organised too" he said, his eyes widening as he looked over the schedule. "You haven't put anything down on each Sunday" he pointed out.
"I don't know about you but I can't work all day everyday!" I said. "Sunday's are a day off. Other than this week. We have Saturday off because of the Hogsmead visit"
He nodded. "Where's your favourite place in Hogsmead?" He asked, leaning back in his chair and watching me across the table. I put down my quill and thought.
"I don't really know. I haven't actually explored much of the village. I mostly just go to the steakhouse, or the three broomsticks"
"Why?"
"My parents take me and my brother out for lunch on Hogsmead weekends. It's a nice chance to see them during term time". He stared at me like I had just grown another head.
"You mean to say you spend your one day out of school with your parents?" He seemed shocked.
I nodded. "Yeah, a few people do. I like spending time with my family, sue me".
"I wonder what that's like" he muttered under his breath. "But seriously, you've never been to Zonkos or anything?"
I shook my head. "Nope. I normally meet up with Helen or Jane or someone when we've finished lunch and then just stock up on parchment, ink and other supplies"
"Alright, well this week I am taking you to Zonkos. I mean, Zonko was a legend. Do you remember him? Left here 4 years ago and started the shop straight away. He was a major inspiration for me and James. The king of chaos" I chuckled, but interrupted his flow to remind him that maybe we should be doing some work.
Three hours later and we had covered our revision for the day and moved on to our own work. I was making vampire dental charts for defence while Black made star charts for astronomy. I pointed at his moon. "This should be in the third quarter" He looked up. "Don't tell me you're amazing at astronomy too"
I shrugged. "It's an occupational hazard of being a Hufflepuff. Tweedle leaves all her favourite books in our common room, and I have a lot of time for reading"
"How come?" He asked.
"My friends are all in the Padleigh team. They take it really seriously and spend a lot of time practicing, which means I have a lot of time for reading. I actually find astronomy really interesting, and how it affects all magic. You know?"
He looked at me intently. "What do you mean it affects all magic?" He asked.
"Well I mean, you have the obvious. You've got werewolves and the full moon. But it affects the magical properties of potion ingredients, magical creatures. Heck, it even affects the magical powers of wizards and witches. If you talk to animagi they always say that their transformation is most complete around the full moon, though of course you then get tales of people like Ulrich the odd who had such a complete transformation into a rabbit one fill moon that he forgot he was a wizard. He had to be retransfigured by his wife when she realised she hadn't seen him for three days!" I snorted.
Black just looked at me like I was mad. There was a pause as we watched each other across the table in amusement. But were interrupted by Madam Lamarque the librarian.
"What are you still doing here? The library is closing" she called in her shrill voice, making me jump. I hadn't realised it was that late already.
We gathered our things and left in a hurry, walking together to the end of the corridor.
"Well, night Greenwood" he grinned over his shoulder, starting up the stairs.
"Night Black" I called, as I started downwards.