Chapter Eleven: Dress Code Detention and a Spell
Australe Leo Black ~ Friday, September 5th, 1975 ~ Hogwarts, Hogsmead, Scotland
Today was the day of my detention. I had decided that since I was going to learn about the dress code tonight, why would I start wearing the correct dress code now when I wouldn't even be doing my lesson learning till tonight. So instead of wearing the ugly sweater and scratchy skirt, I put on a pair of slacks, a white long sleeve and my robes. I was still wearing colours along the same lines of what my uniform should have been, but just not my uniform. I thought it was a pretty nice outfit until Professor McGonagall yelled at me for not using the dress code again. So, I had landed another detention the following night as well.
So now, I was sitting in my two hour long detention copying word for word, the dress code. I swear on my life, it was literally fifty pages long. Trust me I know because I took the time to count the pages before I started writing. Half the things in there were really stupid too. There was one that said,
'Students must not have scuffs on their shoes.'
Then there was this one,
'Students will not have wrinkle lines in their collared shirt.'
Stupid right? Yeah, I knew I was right. But I copied them down like a good girl and when my two hours were up, I was only twenty six pages into the hand guide and McGonagall had told me that I would finish it the next day. So I traipsed up to the Gryffindor Tower and fell asleep before I could talk to anyone.
Australe Leo Black ~ Saturday, September 6th, 1975 ~ Hogwarts, Hogsmead, Scotland
The following day when I got ready, I put on the itchy skirt and the crispy, collared, white dress shirt. I made sure that there were no wrinkle lines, then tied my tie and pulled my sweater over my white shirt. I was already feeling so uncomfortable. But I still slipped my robes and then pulled my shoes on. I decided to still wear my black boots.
When I got down to the common room, Remus was waiting for me. He gave me a small smile, and I shrugged my shoulders, trying to get the shirt to be more comfortable. Remus laughed.
"You look smart." Remus told me.
"I feel generic." I said and he gave me another laugh.
"I don't think you could ever be generic." He told me and we left for breakfast.
I got a lot of puzzled looks about my attire for my friends when we got to the Great Hall. Everyone knew that I didn't follow the dress code a lot of the time. I had never really got caught for it either, now as I came to think of it. The teachers knew that I was a child that got good grades and was a relatively good student. They let me just surpass this rule until yesterday.
After breakfast, when we were walking into Transfiguration, McGonagall came up to me.
"I see you have remembered what you are suppose to wear now. Good job, Miss. Black." When she turned her back I scowled at her.
Later that day, I went back to finish my detention off. I finished the last twenty four pages and the rules were just as stupid as the other days.
'Students must have a brown or black school bag.'
or even better,
'Students must have their shirts tucked in."
'No distracting colours are to be worn.'
By the end of the detention, I had a headache. My mind was so full of rules that I thought I was going to pass out. I was so happy when I finished the two hours.
"Alright, Miss. Black, you may go. I will expect you to dress appropriately from now on if you don't want any more detentions." Professor McGonagall told me and I got ready to go.
"You know what, Professor? I think you better give me a copy of the dress code handbook because, being perfectly honest, you'll see me tomorrow and I'll be wearing bright orange." I told her with an innocent look. It was true, I wasn't going to follow this dress code all the time. It wasn't fair and I was pretty sure there was a right somewhere in the Ministry of Magic's rights book that said we were entitled to our own personality and were entitled to illustrate it in any way, shape or form.
McGonagall huffed and copied the pages I had written with her wand and handed them to me. I thanked her and left. When I got to my dorm, I threw the pages in the waste basket and went to hang out with my friends.
Australe Leo Black ~ Friday, September 24th, 1975 ~ Hogwarts, Hogsmead, Scotland
It has now been about a month since we had been back at Hogwarts and James had made the Quidditch team. He had taken my word into account and chose Kate Marren as the seeker. He had also given one of the chaser positions to Darcy Tane. But, the last spot he had given to Nathan Hiemer. It was unfortunate but unavoidable. We had practiced hard and now it was our first real test. We had a Quidditch game today against the Ravenclaw team. They were good, but I had to admit that we were really good too. Hopeful we would win the Quidditch cup this year.
So as we got ready in the change rooms, I started to get really jittery. I always did before games. But today was different. It was the full moon and we had finally completed the research for the animagus transformation. After the game, we would be trying out the spell and going to try and help Remus tonight. The other girls just thought I was nervous for the game, but Remus and the guys knew otherwise. Remus was actually not feeling well at all but he still came out to watch the game for James, Sirius and I.
When we got onto the field, the commentator called out our names. It was Tiny Newsome, the head girl this year.
"And here come the Gryffindor Quidditch Team! Potter leading the line as the captain and chaser. Then it's the other chasers, Hiemer and Tane! And for the beaters we have the Black twins and seeker Marren. Bringing up the rear, the Gryffindor keeper, Jet!"
We go to the center of the field and James and the Ravenclaw Captain, Sheer, shook hands. Then we were up in the air and it was a whirl wind of players moving past me.
"Potter with the quaffle, passes to Hiemer then to Tane, Tane scores! Ten nil to Gryffindor!" Newsome called out and the Gryffindor students let out cheers.
"Ravenclaw with the quaffle," Newsome continued, "Nice hit from Beater Black, Sirius Black that is, and Hiemer takes the quaffle and puts it through the hoops! Twenty nil to Gryffindor!" She said and Sirius hit his bat with mine, like a high five. Then the bludger came at me and I took a swing aiming for Sheer who had the quaffle. The hit wasn't as clean as I hoped it would be but I still got the Quaffle out of her hands. Although I think she might have a slight tummy ache when this game was finished.
"It's now ninety to eighty, Ravenclaw and, yes, I think Gryffindor seeker, Kate Marren, has seen the snitch! She has, she has! Seeker Marren is speeding to the ground and, yes! Seeker Marren has caught the snitch! Two hundred and thirty points to ninety! Gryffindor has won the Quidditch match!" Tiny said ecstatically and we all ran towards Kate where she is still holding the snitch. Gryffindors were pouring onto the field when I engulfed Kate in a big hug.
"You did it!"
The Gryffindors held a big party in the common room that night. The three boys and I had a hard time getting away from the party so we could go and preform the spell to help Remus. In the end just before nine thirty, when a first year called Professor McGonagall because he couldn't sleep, the party was broken up. Everyone was extremely mad at him but it made it easier for us to escape, along with the help of James' invisibility cloak, and run out of the common room.
It took a little time to get ourselves organized but we stood in front of the Whomping Willow, just after Remus had gone through.
"Okay, Aus, since Remus isn't here, for obvious reasons, you're our best bet for doing this right." James told me as we gathered around the papers that we had written the instructions on. All of our research was spread out around us.
"What?" I yelped, "I'm no smarter that you guys! Hell, I don't even think I get better marks than you in any class. Well, other than potions, and history of magic, and charms, but that's beside the point. I think we should all do this." I said aloud.
"Right so in case it goes wrong, we can all blame each other?" Sirius asked. I laughed.
"Okay, fine. I'll figure it out. Now why don't we all practice our patronus charms and them we'll work from there." I thought before explaining the best plan of action.
"Yeah, that's a good idea." Peter stated and we all took out our wands. Simultaneously we all casted our spells.
"Expecto Patronum!"
A few wisps of silver vapor flew out of each of our wands. We needed stronger memories. I though of the time when Remus kissed me first and we all tried again.
"Expecto Patronum!"
This time a fox flew out of the tip of my wand and danced around. I called out in excitement. James' was a large deer, a stag, Sirius' was a large dog and Peter's was a rat.
"Okay, now as we still have our patronuses, think of the animal. Try to imagine walking as your animal, breathing as your animal, becoming your animal." I try to coach the boys as I try to preform the task myself. We were going to have to stand in a patch of direct moonlight and try to persuade our patronus to become one with our heart and soul. Earlier in the evening, we had taken a potion that would help us along this transformation.
It took a few tries, and I was starting to become more nervous because with every minute that went by from us trying, it was another minute that Remus was alone. But finally, I felt something pass into me and a weird sensation occurred. I felt myself shrink and suddenly, I was staring up at the three boys from two and a half feet off the ground.
Soon enough, the rest of the boys followed me. I looked up and saw a great stag, a shaggy black dog and looking down, I saw a rat with a pink tail that looked like a worm. With my eyes, I looked at Peter and tilted my head towards the Whomping Willow. He got the idea and ran to prod the knot on the tree to freeze it. Once it was, we ran down the tunnel to go help Remus.
When we reached the entrance of the Shrieking Shack, I pattered softly up the wooden stairs and moved my way around trying to find the room Remus described upstairs. It was very quiet, maybe even too quiet. I had never done this before. With my heightened senses, I could hear the soft clatter of feet on the wood. I took one more step forwards and,
~CREAK~
I froze. My paw had hit a board that was particularly noisy. I heard a howl and the scraping of claws. Then we saw a flash of something and suddenly Sirius was rolling around the floor with the werewolf. James and I ran in to help and within the next ten minutes we were able to get Remus off of him. Along the way, we ended up getting many bruises and scratches.
We ended up pushing the wolf into one of the bedrooms full of scratches on the walls. I peered into the wolf's eyes and tried to get a reading on them. I couldn't see any of the Remus that we knew and loved. All I saw was hunger for flesh and a passion for evil. I looked over at the rest on my friends and saw what they thinking. They were scared of him. James, the stag, seemed to have frantic eyes and started to push the werewolf away as he started to come at me. He wasn't strong enough though, and Remus rammed his shoulder into mine. I yelped in pain.
I could see in the werewolf's eyes that he wanted to get to me but he couldn't because James and Sirius were blocking him. I regained my stance so that I could go help them. Peter ran around and nipped at the heels of the gigantic wolf.
The stag rammed his antlers into it's head and was now having a hard time keeping Remus back. The werewolf was now pushing harder against him. I kept having to step back so I couldn't get caught under the weight of the stag if/or when he fell against the weight of the wolf. We were very close to the stairs now and the dog was trying to help the stag. The rat was hanging off the tail of the werewolf. It didn't look very comfortable.
I came to a stop. All of a sudden, I thought of an idea, maybe we could get Remus until one corner and make him calm down. Maybe we could get him to sleep or something. I slunk through an opening between Sirius and Remus and the wolf's eyes followed me. I ran towards a corner of the room and Remus followed me. I laid down, somewhat like surrender hoping that the werewolf would follow suit.
It did for a minute or so. When it got over, it sniffed me and I let out an internal sigh. Too soon, regretfully as he slashed at me with his claws and tried to take a bite off my side. Ow.
I rolled out of the way and propelled myself forward, trying to get away from Remus. But before I could push my way through, James kicked me by accident and I lost my footing. I sprawled away and hit the bed post. I hit my head pretty hard and when I got up, I saw stars before I passed out.
Sirius Orion Black ~ Friday, September 24th, 1975 ~ Hogwarts, Hogsmead, Scotland
This was a lot harder than I though it was going to be. Australe had just tried to calm Remus down and that had gone well for a few minutes. But it only worked for that much time. He changed his mind and tried to take a piece out of her. She ended up getting away as James and I tried to control him. Australe got in the way and James ended up kicking her by accident. She caught her head on the bed post side and in rendered her unconscious. She hit the floor boards hard and stayed like that. I could see that Peter was going over to check to see that she was okay. A few minutes later, he came back to us to try and help out with the werewolf.
We didn't know what to do other than try to keep the wolf away from Australe for the rest of the night. When we had finally and successfully caught the werewolf's attentions, although we were getting very tired, we tried to play with it. We led it into one of the farthest rooms from where Ausie was and to play fight with the wolf.
When the morning had finally come, the werewolf had turned back into Remus. All of us were sporting cuts and blossoming bruises. The first thing I did when the sun came up was run down to Ausie and make sure she was alright.
"Hey, James! Come here!" I called as I checked her pulse. She was still breathing.
"Yeah, what—oh!" James said as he came into the largest bedroom of the Shrieking Shack.
"I need you to carry her to the Hospital Wing. I'll get Remus." I told him and James quickly scooped Australe up easily into his arms. He carried her out of the house and I went to get Remus, who was probably the worst out of all of us, except maybe Australe.
"Come on, Remus. Get on my back, I'll give you a piggy-back to the Hospital Wing." I told him and Remus got onto my back. Peter followed us out and froze the knot on the Whomping Willow so that we weren't hurt as we exited and returned to Hogwarts.
When Peter, Remus and I got to the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey was just finishing patching up Australe. She was now awake and perfectly fine. When I let Remus down, she moved over and ushered him into the bed next to Ausie and then she moved to Remus, who had just taken a seat. After Remus was looked after, Madam Pomfrey turned to us and James, Peter and I had to make up some story about why we were out. None of us were really hungry so we stayed with out friend and decided to all take a nap. It was one long night.