After breakfast they had Potions with the Slytherins.
"Okay Emerald can you sit down for the class and try not to touch anything." Sirius asked squatting in front of her. She nodded and climbed up on the bench beside him.
Sirius didn't realise how seriously she would take his request. She hadn't moved a muscle for twenty minutes.
"Okay kid, kid you can move." Her shoulders sagged in relief and she stood so she could see what he was doing.
"You're not going to add those roots are you?" She asked glancing at his chopping board.
"Yes I am, what's wrong with them?" He asked examining them. Potions had never been his strongest subject.
"The instructions say dice and you chopped." She replied pointing at the instructions.
"What's the difference?" He remembered vaguely his mother telling him the difference.
She glanced at him. "Can I have some roots?" She asked and he handed her the remaining ones not understanding what she was going to do. She picked up the knife and positioned it above the roots and began cutting them with a speed Sirius hadn't thought was possible. Now he knew why the older Emerald always finished first.
Sirius was worried she was going to slice her fingers but she didn't and a few minutes later she stopped cutting and showed him perfectly diced roots.
She carefully added the roots spoonful by spoonful then stirred clockwise twice and anti-clockwise once. Then she grabbed the flobberword tails and carefully minced them.
She set them off to the side and picked up the manticore tooth and crushed it into a fine powder. She added the flobberworm tails tablespoon by tablespoon. The the tooth, teaspoon by teaspoon. Then she stirred it anti-clockwise for thirty seconds. Then she turned up the heat and left it to simmer.
Sirius watched wide-eyed as a child eleven years younger than him did the potion twenty times better than he ever could.
She sat down and pointed at Slughorn.
"Tell him you finished it." She whispered. Sirius glanced at her but shrugged and put his hand up.
"Sir I'm finished." Slughorn looked up from his papers surprised.
"Are you quite sure Mr Black?"
"Yes sir." Slughorn walked over and inspected it surprised.
"Its perfect Mr Black. I must say I'm surprised. This is the first passable potion you've given me in my memory."
Sirius looked very offended but Emerald smiled at her lap.
"Yes you may leave early maybe take your little friend around the grounds until your next lesson."
"Thank you sir." Sirius nodded and looked at Emerald who was already standing and held out his hand for her to take. She stared at it wide-eyed and Sirius saw a small bit of himself in her.
She tentatively reached her hand out and clasped his softly. She glanced at him nervously and when he gave a small smile and she relaxed slightly. Slughorn watched the exchange closely and filed away her reaction for later. He wasn't a Slytherin for nothing.
"Off you two go." He said cheerily.
Sirius brought her around the school grounds but remembering Antonin's warning steered clear of the Black Lake.
She skipped beside him holding his hand.
"What's in there?" She asked pointing at the Forest.
"Centaurs, spiders, unicorns and lots more." Sirius replied but he didn't like the gleam in her eye. Again it reminded him far too much of him and James when they were planning to do something they weren't supposed to do.
"That's cool." She mumbled and Sirius pulled her away from the Forest.
"We've got History of Magic, Emerald."
They sat down in the History of Magic classroom.
Emerald was bored and began fiddling with a piece of parchment. She unknowingly began to fold it into a swan and just kept fiddling.
Sirius was about to grab a piece of parchment to throw at Lucius Malfoy when he spotted the beautiful swan she was making out of the parchment.
When she was finished he picked it up carefully and then discreetly cast a few spells on it. One would make sure it didn't break and the second made it fly around and play with Emerald.
She giggled and climbed off the chair and hid under the table with her newest toy.
Sirius stuck his head under the table. "Come on we've got one more class until lunch."
"What is it?" She asked taking his outstretched.
"Care of Magical Creatures." He replied pulling her up.
"I love creatures." She cheered.
"Now can I carry you 'cause we're going to be late." She looked at him cautiously before nodding. He scooped her up and began to run. She laughed adorably and Sirius began running faster just to hear that laugh again.
The class was gathered and the other three Marauders were wondering where Sirius was. That was until,
"INCOMING." Sirius shouted as he attempted to slow down. He tripped and they both went rolling in the grass. Sirius was breathing heavily and Emerald was laughing immensely.
"Again again." She chanted and Sirius laughed picking her up again. They were both covered in grass stains.
"Maybe later." He promised and she smiled. "Now don't you want to see what we're learning about?"
"Unicorns Mr Black." Kettleburn interrupted disapprovingly. "They much prefer girls to boys and the younger the better. For example they would be much more comfortable letting young Ms Dolohov near them than they would Mr Black."
There were four unicorns standing around nervously. Emerald's eyes widened.
"They're much prettier in real life than in the books." She whispered to Sirius.
"You read about Unicorns?"
"I like dragons lots and lots but I like unicorns as well." She answered staring at the unicorns.
"Do you want to come say hello?" Kettleburn asked gently and she glanced at Sirius who nodded putting her down. She crept over cautiously and stood in front of the unicorns in wonder. She gently reached a hand out -similar to how Sirius had held out a hand to her- towards the biggest one who she guessed was the dad therefore was in charge.
She just left her hand in the air inviting the unicorn to come closer if it wanted. He eyed her carefully before trotting forward and nuzzling her hand. The rest of the family taking this as a good sign all came forward and doted on the small girl.
James smiled at her big grin as she stroked the baby unicorn.
"Well as you can see when you treat unicorns with respect as Ms Dolohov did they are much more likely to like you." Kettleburn lectured.