xXxEmxXx blackflamephoenix hplova fredfredmole30 tessa17 alligracesmith CiraCazaliez Mydogtrixie32123 (twice:D) Thanks for all of your lovely comments:D
This chapter has a very, for lack of a better word, serious title but do not fret- it's just like the others but y'know, not:D Sorry rambling nonsense now go ahead and read it.
Oh, one more thing I was going to call it prune wars but changed my mind last minute:D
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
“Courtney, step away from the plant that’s about to bite your head off.” I laughed at Alice’s warnings but, her being the expert in herbology, stepped away from the vicious green thing that had constantly been trying to eat me since I entered the room.
Most Hogwarts students were at Hogsmeade. It was the end of October and the first Hogsmeade weekend since I’d arrived for my sixth year at Hogwarts. Everything had, surprisingly, been quite quiet the past month; well, as quiet as it could get when you’re around Sirius and his friends. Remus was ill again so he wasn’t at Hogsmeade. And yes, I know what you’re thinking; ‘Shouldn’t you be with Sirius?’ ‘Why aren’t you with him?’ or something else along those lines but I was meeting him later at The Three Broomsticks.
I was also under strict orders from James not to get injured before the quidditch match which was the day after Hogsmeade. It was Gryffindor verses Hufflepuff and James was ready to lead his house to another victory.
Me and the girls had accompanied Alice to Dogweed and Deathcap, a herbology store that Alice wanted to look at. When I say girls, this time, it excludes Keilyn who had stayed behind to keep Remus company. Keilyn and Remus seemed to be growing closer but if anyone asked they would both just say that they were ‘just good friends’.
“Alice, if you’re not going to let me annoy the dangerous plants can we please leave?” I asked, getting bored of watching Alice be fascinated by something green and leafy. She sighed and led the way out.
After quite a fair share of debate we all agreed to go and look at the shrieking shack. It had been ages since I’d seen it last and I was desperate to see if it was still as creepy and haunting. I wasn’t disappointed. The only problem was, a large group of Slytherins, including Regulus and Severus (whose nose was looking even more crooked since Sirius had taken a crack at it), who were jeering at us as soon as we arrived.
“Maybe we should just leave...” Alice suggested, timidly glancing over at the ugly bunch who were shouting insults at Lily.
“No. We are not about to be scared away by some prats in green.” Lily said, firmly and then proceeding to approach the fence that blocked the rest of the way to the shrieking shack.
“Bet you wouldn’t have the guts to get any closer would you? Eh, Templeton?” Regulus jeered at me. My head turned to face him and though his face was contorted into a look of hate, his eyes were telling a different story. They were joking eyes, eyes that were so similar to Sirius’s.
“Is that a challenge, Black?” I called back, folding my arms. He gave me a small wink that none of his friends noticed.
“If you want to accept go ahead, get yourself killed in the process for all I care.” He continued and the Slytherins laughed. You would’ve expected me to get annoyed at that but didn’t hurt at all. I knew he was joking and the poor little Slytherins didn’t know that.
Without a word I began to climb over the fence. By the time the girls had realised what I was doing I was already over and on my way to the shrieking shack. I never backed down from a challenge and I wasn’t a Gryffindor for nothing. The girls were trying to call me back and I didn’t reply, I turned once to see them looking incredibly nervous as they followed in my footsteps. A warm feeling came over me, despite it being bitter and cold, a feeling that told me that they were loyal to me. I smiled at the thought.
I got to the door of the shrieking shack and clasped my hand around the handle. I turned it with a creak and the door opened, I half expected it to fall off of its hinges. The girls had caught up to me and each of them were looking completely unsure. I was surprisingly only a little bit scared. What could be in here that four intelligent witches couldn’t take on? A small voice in the back of my mind answered that question; ‘Alot.’
Hesitantly, we all stepped into the shack. The door shut and me, Alice and Lily all snapped our heads around to face it.
“Calm down, I was only closing the door.” Marlene said, quietly. Something about this place made us all want to keep our voices down, as though if we were to be too loud we would wake something. Something bad.
“I don’t like this place.” Lily stated in a whisper. I looked to her to see she didn’t look scared, she was merely saying her opinion.
BANG!
“W-what was that?” Alice stuttered looking at the door the noise had came from. I pulled out my wand and the others mimicked my movements.
BANG!
I walked towards it and gripped the fragile door handle. By this time, Alice’s hand was shaking. I kept mine steady and opened the door.
SPLASH!
I screamed, I had been soaked by something slimy and pink. As soon as it had happened I’d known who’d done it. I recognized the sniggers from the cupboard in the corner. I wiped the gunge from my eyes, if only whoever had been looking through the peep hole had warned the other on who they’d just pranked. The girls behind me were laughing their heads off; half at me and half at the fact I was about to murder the humans that hid behind this door.
I slammed it open to see James and Peter sniggering, I was half-surprised to see Sirius wasn’t with them but I thought that could wait. When they saw who they had pranked they both stopped laughing and froze. It took a few seconds for James to recover.
“Every man for himself!” He yelled, shoving past the girls and fleeing from the shrieking shack.
I quickly muttered ‘Tergeo’, the gunge immediately disappeared and I chased after James. I could see him shoving through the Slytherins and the fact remained that he knew I was faster than him. I sprinted after him, surprising myself at how easily I jumped the fence as though it was steeplechase. I carried on chasing him and I was catching up to him. He ran into Madam Puddifoots and I followed. We were immediately surrounded by happy couples. I only stopped when I saw a very familiar head sitting at the table to my left. I froze and James looked back to see why couples had stopped jumping out the way. He saw what I was looking at and he stiffened up.
Sirius was sitting at a table sipping tea with a Hufflepuff girl. I walked up to the table picked up the tea and threw it in his face. He jumped up out of instinct and I could tell the tea had burnt his face.
“Courtney? What the hell?” He yelled. Looking at the look on my face and back to the Hufflepuff girl his expression suddenly changed. “No, Courtney, come on. You don’t think- it isn’t like that.”
“Go to hell, Black.” I seethed and then I turned on my heel and stormed out of the shop. Everyone was staring at either me or Sirius, shocked. Once everyone had gotten over the fact that me and Sirius were together they’d then made bets on how long it would last before we broken up. I saw a few people passing money to the other. I gritted my teeth and made my way up to the castle. I refused to cry. My heart felt as though a bludger had crushed it into pieces but I would not cry.
“Courtney, will you slow down? You’re being stupid.” Sirius called from behind me, he sounded bored. I was so angry but I stopped anyway.
“No, I’m coming to my senses. I should’ve listened to the warnings that people gave me.” I snapped, whipping around to face him.
“You don’t honestly think I was cheating on you do you?” Sirius asked, walking up to me so there was only about a metre between us. “You’re so stupid.” He said, rolling his eyes. I slapped him and started walking up to the castle. He chased after me and grabbed my arm.
“Let go.” I demanded, my eyes in slits.
“I love y-“ He began but I interrupted him with a scoff. “No, listen to me. I love you, that Hufflepuff girl was helping me out with you. She’s going out with Amos Diggory. The Hufflepuff seeker? Amos said she was good at the whole romance thing so I asked her to help me out.”
“Why were you in that stupid tea shop then?” I snapped, though a small feeling of guilt was creeping up inside me.
“Amos was in the bathroom. She was giving me advice before we met up.”
At this tears began to form in my eyes and I looked down at my feet, letting my curls hide my face. A tear fell from my eye and hit the crisp grass.
“Hey, love, why are you crying?” He asked, concern clear in his voice. Sirius placed his hands on either side of my face and used his thumbs to wipe my tears away.
“I feel so stupid.” I whispered, as soon as the words had escaped my mouth Sirius dragged me into a hug. But it wasn’t a normal hug, no. It was one of those hugs where it was so tight that it hurt my tummy but it made me feel safe. It was a hug that made me breathless and gave me butterflies in my stomach.
“You’re not stupid; you just have extremely bad timing.” Sirius told me, resting his chin on top of my head. I let out a small laugh.
“I love you.” I whispered into his chest. It was so quiet I didn’t think he’d heard me, for the second time that day, I was wrong.
“I love you too, and I promise you, nobody will ever take your place.” He replied, releasing me from the hug and slipping his hand into mine. “Now, where do you want to go?”
We ended up going back to The Three Broomsticks and meeting up with the others who were all looking extremely worried. When we approached hand-in-hand their faces all looked relieved.
“We thought you guys were going to break up.” Marlene told me as I sat down.
“Nope, we belong together.” Sirius said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes.
“Oi, Cheesy McCheesyton, while you’re up go get us some more butterbeers?” James said, extending a hand that was full of galleons. Sirius rolled his eyes and went over to get us some drinks, Peter followed to give him a hand.
“Did you know?” I asked James, he knew what I was talking about.
“Yeah but by the time I’d realised what you thought was going on, you’d left.” He explained, giving me an apologetic smile. I nodded slowly.
“Oh well, you my dear friend, are going to wish you’d never pulled that stunt earlier.” I smirked, thinking about possible ways I could get him back for the gunge.
“It’s not going to be like the summer is it?” James groaned. “I’m too busy for a prank war.”
“Busy doing what?” Marlene asked, eyebrows raised.
“Trying to get Evans to believe me when I say I love her.” He said still moaning as soon as he’d said it he’d winced; waiting for Lily’s hand to collide with his skull. Lily, instead of hitting him like she usually did when he made a comment like that, blushed. She actually blushed. Me, Marlene and Alice all exchanged looks. James looked at the blushing Lily and smiled a shocked smile.
“You look cute when you blush.” James complimented Lily, causing her to go an even brighter shade of red. Sirius and Peter returned with butterbeers and handed them out. Lily sipped hers quietly while James couldn’t take his eyes off of her.
But we did get them to join in with ‘Never have I ever’. You hold up five fingers and everytime somebody says statements like ‘I’ve never eaten a rabbit’, if you have you would put a finger down. The last player left in the game wins.
“Never have I ever gotten drunk.” Lily announced when it was her turn. Everyone put a finger down, even Peter. Then again, the way Peter acted, you would’ve thought he was a permanent drunk. James went next.
“Never have I ever made out with Remus Lupin.” He said, eyeing the girls quizzically. My finger went down and the boys turned to stare at me.
“It was one time, it was fourth year and we were completely hammered. Blame Slughorn for making his parties so boring, somebody spiked the punch with firewhiskey. I didn’t even remember it until Slughorn made some comment about how friendly me and Remus were.” I defended myself. Sirius was looking at me in disbelief.
“You’re working your way through the marauders.” He joked, nudging me lightly in the side. We all laughed at the silly nickname the boys called themselves. Sirius thought we were laughing at his joke, though, so he had an annoying satisfied look on his face.
“Never have I ever been in love.” Marlene said, smirking as Sirius, James, Alice, Lily and I all put our fingers down. All our eyes were on Lily and she was blushing even more. James wanted to question her but I shook my head at him. Lily knew that she had just given away a secret to us girls as she’d never really been in a relationship with someone. Surely she couldn’t have fallen in love with James that quickly could she? I looked at Sirius and thought about how quickly I fell in love with him and cancelled out my first thought.
I was now down to three fingers and was losing the game.
“Never have I ever eaten a prune.” Peter said when it was his go. This led to the game being forgotten about and everyone going into a very detailed discussions about whether they had eaten prunes or not, or why they were put off by prunes. They were still going on about prunes as we re-entered the warmth of the Gryffindor common room more than half an hour later. Remus and Keilyn were by the fire, Keilyn on the floor and Remus on the couch.
“Have fun?” Keilyn asked me, as I was the only one who wasn’t arguing over how prunes came into the world.
“As much fun as you can have with them lot.” I said, rolling my eyes and shaking my head at how stupid our friends were. I plopped myself down next to Keilyn on the floor and with the others shouting about prunes, Remus woke up.
“Finally, you’re awake! We can have proper intelligent conversations instead of stupid ones about prunes.” I raised my voice for the last bit so the others would hear. They didn’t, though. They carried on arguing. Remus chuckled. “Do not chuckle at my frustration Lupin.” This caused him to chuckle some more. “How are you feeling anyway?” I asked, softly.
“I’ve been better.” He muttered. Keilyn had gotten up to join in the argument. “Are me and you the only sane ones?” He said amused.
“Seems like it.” I muttered, we both had slightly amused looks on our faces. Our friends were certainly something that’s for sure.
“Why is Sirius looking at us like that?” Remus questioned, curiously. I looked to see Sirius eyeing us suspiciously. I laughed, lightly.
“He found out about Slughorns party of 1974.” I replied, smirking in Sirius’s direction.
“H-how?” He spluttered, obviously he thought I’d forgotten about it.
“A game of never have I ever.” I answered, laughing at his reaction. Remus calmed down and started coughing. I patted his back and conjured a glass of water. He drank it, gratefully.
“Thanks.” He said, after taking a few sips. I nodded in response and put the glass on the table. Our friends soon joined us as their argument had finally come to end. I sighed and shouted ‘finally!’
“Don’t disrespect prunes.” Peter growled at me. I gave him raised my eyebrows at him but all he did was glare at me. I shook my head at how insane he was and, thankfully, the rest of the day passed without anymore talk of prunes. I woke up the next day in Sirius’s arms. Careful not to wake Sirius up I slowly sat up and looked around. I was in the boys dormitories. Again. I’d only just realised the boys had no curtains. When I looked to where they should be hanging on each of the boys beds there were little bits of curtains left and a scruffy carving that said; ‘who needs privacy.’
I smiled and tried to think back to how I ended up in here. At a loss I began to think of other things, like the quidditch match today. My stomach did a flip and I realised how nervous I was. I had a lot to live up to considering how amazing my brother was at seeking. He was one of the best Hogwarts had seen and I could no way beat that. I conjured a piece of paper and a quill and left a note for Sirius. Then, I quietly left the boys dormitories and went back to my own.
All of the girls were still asleep so I took a very long shower. When I say long I mean till my fingers were shrivelled to look like, for lack of a better word, prunes. I then dried my hair, pulled it back into a very messy bun and got dressed. I didn’t head down to breakfast yet, though. I was too scared to face the words of luck from the Gryffindors and the jeers from the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs.
So, instead, I began to read the book I had bought at the start of the year. I felt sorry for the werewolf who wrote it. It wasn’t like it was his fault. He had to go through horrible illnesses and then the pain of transforming every month. It must be terrible. For some reasons, the symptons seemed familiar. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, though. Probably because I couldn’t think straight because of the nerves.
I read it for ages; I was still reading it when the girls woke up. I was disturbed while Lily was showering, though, by a bright light in the shape of a dog that was bounding around me; I couldn’t help but grin at it. As soon as it stood up it led me down the stairs of the dormitories right to Sirius.
“Was that your patronus?” I asked in disbelief as the patronus faded though the grin remained on my face. All of the nerves I had disappeared as Sirius grinned back and pulled me into a hug.
“Yeah it was. Do you think it represents my inner self?” Sirius asked, as he let me go.
“Oh yeah, you’re a complete bitch.” I joked, and Sirus frowned at me.
“No, the dog is a manly dog. Like I am a manly man.” He said, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“Whatever stops the tears, Sirius.” I said, planting on what I thought as going to be a quick kiss on his lips but he wouldn’t let me pull away. I smiled into the kiss and so did he. He deepened the kiss and before I knew it we were full-on snogging in the Gryffindor common room.
“Get a room you horny adolescents.” James’s voice came from the entrance to the boys dorms. I immediately began to blush.
“I’m pretty sure this is a room and it was empty until you came down.” Sirius growled at him. James smirked.
“Now, you two are forbidden to distract eachother on the quidditch field. You got it?” James ordered, deadly serious. I nodded with a smile while Sirius’s face was just as serious. “This is nothing to smile at, Courtney. This is a life or death matter.”
“Life or death?” I questioned, raising my eye brows.
“Yes, we win you live, we lose I kill you, got it?” James growled.
“You’re saying you’re going to kill my girlfriend?” Sirius asked, smirking.
“Yes.” James replied.
“Fair enough.” Sirius joked. I let out a yell of protest and he apologized and gave me a kiss on the forehead.
“Knob.” I grumbled. The talk about quidditch had brought back the nerves and I could feel the colour draining from my face. Sirius and James noticed, going into a full-blown conversation on whether I looked more like a ghost or a marshmellow. I rolled my eyes and went to breakfast with the boys at my heels. When we reached the great hall, though, both stood protectively by my side. I was about to ask but, seeing the look on my face, I didn’t need to because Sirius answered.
“We may be used to people shouting abuse at us but you aren’t.” Sirius’s answer made me grin at both of the boys. They were right, though, people did shout things at me. Things I’d rather not write down. Luckily, Sirius and James were there to threaten whoever shouted anything at me. Anything towards them they didn’t care about.
We sat down and I felt like I was too nervous to eat. Sirius loaded a plate full of various things and I just stared at it. James and Sirius were happily eating away, talking tactics. My mouth became very dry and I swallowed, it didn’t help.
“Eat.” Sirius commanded. I was startled by the fact somebody was talking to me.
“I can’t.”I replied, clutching at my stomach. I wondered how many hippogriffs were flying round in there.
“Look, we’ve all been there. We’ve all had the whole first-game-nerves but we feel better if we eat something. So, please, have one slice of toast. For me?” Sirius pressed on, I looked at him and he smiled warmly. I thought that one piece of toast couldn’t hurt. As soon as I bit into it I realised just how hungry I actually was. All the while Sirius sat there with an annoyingly smug smirk on his face. I ignored him, though, I was too busy eating.
“Ready to go?” James asked, a supportive smile on his face. I nodded slowly and followed him and Sirius right out into the changing rooms. We were one of the last ones there but everyone was looking ready and were all raring to go. James went over some tactics and then we all got changed. We still had a few minutes before the match started so I took this time to ask Sirius something.
“How did I end up in your bed this morning? It seems everytime I end up there I have no recollection of how I get there.” I asked, shaking my head at my comment afterwards.
“You fell asleep in the common room so I carried you up. How did you manage to escape this morning?” Sirius answered and smirking at his question.
“Thank you and easily; you boys sleep like sloths.” I joked, Sirius took mock-offense and then James came over and ordered for us to stand away from eachother so we could focus on the match. I rolled my eyes but decided not to cross with James when it came to quidditch. Before I had time to process it James was leading the Gryffindor team out onto the pitch where we all took off from the ground.
Usually Remus did the commentary but as he was ill Benjy Fenwick took his place.
“And here comes the Gryffindor team led by Potter. Then there’s Black, Meadowes, Vance, Diggle, Dearborn and Templeton. What a fine lady that Templeton is, quality seeker as well.” Benjy announced, I blushed and I saw Sirius glare at the commentary box. After being shouted at by McGonnagal, Benjy introduced the Hufflepuff team who were led by Roger. The captains took part in what looked like a very violent handshake and then the teams took their positions. Roger played seeker against me.
I immediately began to search for the snitch as Gryffindor straight away scored. I saw a bludger coming my way and instinctively ducked.
“NOT MY GIRLFRIEND YOU PRATS!” Sirius shouted and hit the bludger back with all his might. I smiled thankfully at him and flew around searching for the snitch some more. It seemed that the beaters were having a little game of their own; who could hit the other team’s seeker first.
So far one had narrowly missed my elbow and skimmed my head while Roger had been hit in the foot but otherwise fine. We gave eachother a look that said ‘one of us needs to find the snitch before one of us gets hit’.
I saw a glint of gold and immediately began chasing after it, dodging the bludgers. Roger had caught on and wasn’t far behind. I extended an arm and urged my broom to go faster. The snitch flew upwards and I followed it. Roger had to stop as a bludger had just flown infront of him. I smirked as I closed my hand around the golden ball.
“SHE’S DONE IT! TEMPLETON’S CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WIN!” Benjy shouted in triumph. I smiled before I was bombarded with bludgers. I avoided almost everyone apart from one that hit me in the back. My back arched and I let out a groan of pain. I went to glare at the Hufflepuffs but they were all on the ground. I looked around and saw a group of Slytherins high on brooms, out of the teachers’ sights, preparing to aim more bludgers at me.
I panicked and ignored the pain in my back and flew straight to the ground as more bludgers collided with the grass. I ran into the changing rooms and winced as my back hurt even more. Everyone rushed inside after me and asked if I was okay. I nodded even though I wasn’t and decided that I wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it.
“Well done, Court!” Sirius shouted, picking me up, spinning me around and squeezing me tight. I took a sharp intake of breath as my back killed but let it out, determined not to let Sirius see me hurt. Everyone else congratulated me and James and Sirius lifted me up so I was resting on their shoulders and they carried me back up to the castle, completely ignoring my requests to put me down. We got to the common room and Remus was standing by the entrance to the dormitories looking really pale. The boys put me down and I walked over to him.
“Guessing you won then?” He asked with a smile. I nodded and I was about to ask how he was feeling but he put a finger. “Nothing about me, well done.” I smiled and hugged him. Remus was a bit shocked but hugged me back anyway. Luckily he didn’t squeeze to hard, so he didn’t hurt my back.
“And what’s going on here?” Sirius asked, suddenly appearing at my side.
“I am leaving you for Remus because he’s fitter than you.” I said with a smirk. Remus blushed and Sirius stood there looking at my face, shocked. “You’re not the only one who can crack a joke around here you plonker.”
“I knew you were joking.” Sirius shrugged, trying to act cool. I rolled my eyes and smiled; although my back was in so much pain, we’d just won my very first quidditch match and what wasn’t there to smile about?
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
Whooo! That’s my longest chapter yet! Round of applause for your chosen one!:D
Anyway, the next few chapters are going to get interesting as Courtney begins to catch on to the fact that once a month, her beloved Sirius lies to her... DUNDUNDUNNNNNNNNNN.
Anyway, vote, comment and enjoy!
Your Chosen One <3