Wristbands | Sirius Black [1]

Chapter Four

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[Chapter Four: Wristbands]

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     Ever since Aspen's surprise encounter with Sirius Black, she hasn't been able to look at the boy the same. What if he recognized her? No other girl in the school wore the amount of wristbands that she wore. Or any, for that matter. Then again, she did cover her face with her hair. For the wristband problem—she could just wear long sleeves for a little while. Honestly, she'd do anything just to avoid confrontation with the boy.

The whole situation was pathetic. After about twenty minutes of crying with Moaning Myrtle, she began to recuperate. It was just an essay, she didn't even get yelled at . . . why was she crying? Well, maybe McGonagall did want to yell at her . . . she just didn't have time seeing as Aspen ran away.

Her mind went from possibility to possibility. She should cry! She probably just ruined her dream career of becoming an Auror! Although, her rational side reminded her that missing one essay out of her whole seven years at the school wouldn't affect anything, would it?

Honestly, she didn't care as much about it the rest of the day because she spent a quarter of the day writing it and then she handed it in. If she did it right, only a few points would be taken off for being late—at least that was what she hoped.

After delivering her essay she returned back to the Gryffindor common room. She quickly slipped to the stairway towards the girl's dorms and went up to her room. No one was in it at the moment so she grabbed some clothing and got dressed. Of course, Mr. Cracker had to remind her of his presence in the jar by jumping against the glass making a loud clunk.

"Yes, yes, I know you're here Mr. Cracker. No need to break your jar." Aspen sighed, pulling on a grey sweater over her wristband-sleeved arms. The Nutcracker crossed its wooden arms and waited for Aspen to open the jar. She felt bad for keeping him inside the little prison but if she allowed it outside, he'd wreak all kinds of havoc. Plus, every time she tried to let the wooden toy on his own, he attempted toy-suicide.

Once she opened the jar, like an acrobat, the Nutcracker jumped up, grabbed the edges of the jar and flipped itself out of the jar. It landed on the table with a large thump and attempted to run but Aspen quickly grabbed him.

"Every time I let you out, you try this," Aspen scolded the Nutcracker, "but you never succeed, when will you learn?"

The Nutcracker only crossed its arms and Aspen sighed as she placed him on his dresser. The previous weeks she used magic to build him a small house, a dollhouse, of sorts, but it had running water and electricity. To say it was hard was an understatement. She stayed up a whole weekend building the contraption, she even paid a younger student a galleon to steal her some things from the potions storage room.