Breaking Black (A Sirius Black Love Story)

Chapter 27

"Padfoot!" I squealed as my foot got caught in the hidden loop of rope on the shore. "Stop it before-"

Too late, I was dragged around the tree by the rope, whisked off the ground over a branch, and catapulted into the Black Lake. So much for throwing Snape into the lake! Sputtering and gagging on the water in my mouth, I struggled to stay afloat as well as keep the Mandrake leaf under my tongue.

"You alright Vix?" James howled as he grabbed my hand to pull me out. Instead, I pulled James right in the water with me.

"I thought you said the rope was next to that bush!" I spat and splashed James as Sirius howled with laughter. "That Mandrake leaf almost fell out of my mouth and I am not going through another month of this!"

"Don't worry, tonight we're working on step two," James said happily. 

"Oi! Get out of the lake! Unsuspecting Ravenclaw prefect!" Sirius called excitedly from his hiding spot behind the tree. This was routine: prank as many authority figures to lose as many house points as you can. Everybody in Gryffindor basically gave up on accumulating points after James' exploding quills set us back to negative 17 house points.

Now, we were in a race to see how many negative points we could accumulate. Amazingly enough, almost everyone in Gryffindor was joining us by pulling small pranks on teachers and talking out in class. James, Sirius, and I together lost 150 points during one hour of Herbology. So far, we were at negative 462 points! Quite the achievement, I'd say! Plus, I got to do what I love- cause trouble!

"Bag-o-Snakes?" I asked after dragging myself out of the lake and rifling quickly through my bag.

"You know me so well!" Sirius looked at me proudly as I threw him the Bag-o-Snakes. Filch banned anything from joke shops as soon as we started our pranking rampage. But he didn't know about the secret tunnels! We started our own little business... Selling Zonko's things at double the price! (Of course, we did leave money on the counter at Zonko's when we took things, we're not thieves!)

Sirius opened the bag and threw it right at the Ravenclaw girl's feet, making her shriek when three green snakes slithered out over her feet. While she screamed, James, Sirius, and I were cracking up. Finally, the snakes exploded into a shower of green sparks, and the girl, realizing it was all a joke, stormed up to us.

"You think this is funny, huh?" she hissed, her face contorting with anger. "Fifty points from Gryffindor!"

"Thank you!" I called after her through my laughter as she strode off, her head held high.

"Ready for the end of term feast?" Sirius asked as we began to walk back up to the castle.

"Oh definitely!" I grinned. "I really think Gryffindor has a clear shot of winning the House Cup this year!"

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"And the winners of the House Cup..." Dumbledore announced before the feast began. "Slytherin!"

A cheer erupted from the Slytherin table. Once again, we'd all been expecting this. With a laugh, I looked up at the house point hourglasses, where all of the Gryffindor rubies retreated into the top portion of the bulb like they were trying to escape.

"Another announcement." Dumbledore shushed the cheering Slytherins and silenced the great hall. "Congratulations... I suppose... To Gryffindor for breaking the record of least amount of house points at negative 512."

Much to the whole school's surprise, our entire table started cheering, even louder than the Slytherins. The whole purposefully losing points thing brought our entire house together! I couldn't be prouder to be a Gryffindor!