The Best of Friends (Sirius Love Story)

CHAPTER ~ SIX

Arianwen had found a new way​ to spend her time. At the spot near the lake which was covered by reeds, she would make a small opening with her hand, and look through at all the people that would walk by, or stay to look at curious objects.

She had never seen anything like it, and truth be told, she was utterly astounded. She had seen a girl eating a brown frog, a boy using his hand and a feather to create strange symbols on his friends face when she fell asleep, and another, who every night, she saw staring at the stars using a strange tube with a circle of ice inside it. Something else she had seen, and really she found it the most astounding was the boy she had seen with Sirius, the first time they had met.

Remus, she remembered his name to be, sat in the same spot with the other three every day, staring at a rectangularly shaped object in which you could open, and when you did, it revealed hundreds of thin, frail looking rectangles. And what she found to be most peculiar was that Remus would merely stare at the book, sometimes for hours, as if he understood it.

...

One day, as she was watching Remus's pale fingers occasionally turn a slice of the thin material, she was spotted.

"Oi!"

"Gah!" She jumped backward into the lake in surprise, her hands raised, ready to defend herself if necessary.

"Sorry, its just me."

Just him. Just Sirius.

"Oh, is anyone else with you?" She asked.

"No." He ducked down behind the reeds and out of sight. He kneeled down and examined the flattened area and beamed, "did you do this? Its perfect for the potion, I'll have to get a cauldron of course, but I can bring one down tomorrow."

She looked at the slightly muddy area laden with dead plants and frowned, "perfect's hardly the word I'd use to describe it."

He shrugged, "its perfect in the sense of closure."

She snorted, "I still can't believe you're doing this."

He grinned back at her, he hadn't even seen her smile before.
"You don't have to say it like I'm insane. I have complete confidence in this. Besides..." he smirked and leaned toward her, "I didn't peg you as the snorting type."

The corner of her lips lifted and she pushed him,

"shut up."

He leaned back and sighed, though the smile remained on his face, "you really don't believe the potion'll work?"

She thought for a few seconds before replying, "It's not that I think it won't work. I just think it'll have terribly complicated ingredients that may or may not be merely lying around."

"Well, I am going to do it, you know. in fact." He stood and brushed a few dead cattails off his robe, "I'll go grab a cauldron and the book, right now." He turned and started walking back towards the group of boys still sitting a few feet away. "I'll be back tonight." And with one final salute, he was gone.

Maybe...

*sigh*

Maybe she was the insane one.

...

Arianwen had spent the remainder of her day swimming beneath the dark waves of the Black Lake. Though it would seem to most people boring and, well, black, Arianwen quite enjoyed the majesty of it. She had even managed to catch another glimpse of the giant squid before she realized that the moon was beginning to shine through the surface of the water.

Thus summoning her to the surface where she was met by the beaming face of Sirius. He sat, his legs crossed, in front of a large black pot. In his hand, he held a thick book titled Potions: Aquatic Creatures and Elements. While in his other hand he held his wand, which illuminated the walls of the towering reeds around him. When he saw her, his solemn and concentrated expression quickly switched to that of a smirk.

"Look who decided to show." He raised his wand, "good evening Wen."

She crossed her arms, "Wen?"

"I'm trying, okay? Honestly..." He held the book and flipped a page, "ready to live the life of a human?"

"Sirius, how complicated is the potion?"

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair and set the book down in front of her, open. On the page, Arianwen saw a small drawing of a girl with shining blond hair and a tail; beside it was an arrow pointing to the same girl, but with legs. Though she was unable to​comprehend what the book said, she noticed that the list of symbols appeared relatively short.

She glanced once more at the book, then at Sirius, "well, I cant exactly tell what the symbols mean, but it looks like you don't need a ton of ingredients."

Sirius held up his hands, "hold on a second, you can't read...??"

She rolled her eyes, "No, Sirius, I can't, what good would those (she gestured towards the potion book) do underwater."

"Fair point, and you're right, there isn't a lot of ingredients, surprisingly..." he paused, his fingers tapping thoughtfully against his chin.

Arianwen held her head up with her hands, her elbows on the grass, "but..."

Sirius looked at her, "but... the ingredients are incredibly, rare."

"See, I don't know what you were expecting. What did I tell you."

His gaze met hers and his arms crossed defensively, "For your information, I was well aware this wasn't going to be easy."

"Oh, really?"

His arms remained crossed, though his confident tone faltered as he answered, "yes, and I'm still committed to do it, its just going to take a bit longer than I had originally planned."

She sighed, "Sirius, I hope you don't feel like you have to do this."

Though he didn't answer, he met her gaze solemnly and stood. His physique rivaled that of a shadow in the dim moonlight. "I've already promised to do it, so I'm going to."

"Fine," she decided, "just don't do anything that'll get you into an extreme amount of trouble."

He grinned, "that's one promise I can't keep."

Before she could come up with a reply, he gave her a salute and began walking backwards towards the castle. Though as she was  too far away from him now to warn him, he unfortunately ended up backing directly into the wall. However, she found this quite amusing.

Perhaps there as hope after all. Though Sirius did make it clear the potion wasn't an easy one to make, he hadn't altogether rejected the idea. And that night, as Arianwen swam back towards her home, there was a new light in her heart, that maybe, perhaps, she wasn't entirely alone.