Bless the Beasts and the Children - 8. Chapter 8

I quickly dashed up the rotating stairs until I reached the seventh floor. Common sense said James was probably either in the Common Room or in our dorm. Remus might be there as well, but I’d have to take that chance. If he was, I’d simply find a pretext for getting James alone. What that might be, I didn’t know. I’d think of something should the need arise. I was good at thinking on my feet.

I gave the Fat Lady the password and she admitted me. I spotted James right away. He was deep in conversation with Hestia Jones. They sat together on a sofa farthest from the fireplace, in the shadows. I barely refrained from rolling my eyes. Despite his protests of devotion to Lily Evans, James had a flirtatious streak in him, and he was far from shy with the ladies. He called it hedging his bets. I called it playing the field.

Of course, knowing Hestia, they were probably talking Quidditch.

I glanced furtively around, as I approached the couple, without trying to be too obvious, but Mr. Potter understood all too well who I was looking for.

“Prefect rounds,” he said, and I relaxed a little. Remus wasn’t here, and that’s what counted. At least for the moment.

“Hey, Sirius,” Hestia greeted me with a smile. “Get any Quidditch practice in over the summer? We start in just a couple of weeks.”

“I’ll be ready,” I replied, handily evading her question.

Of course, there would be try-outs, there always were. But we three always made the cut. I’d stopped stressing about it after first year. On the other hand, I had no opportunity to play over the summer. Quidditch was not exactly Black-approved. Didn’t matter. I was still in good form and I knew it.

“James, you wanted my help on that assignment. Let’s go up to the dorm and I’ll show you now.” I gave James a significant look, in case my words didn’t do it.

“I what?” He looked confused.

“Excuse us, Hestia, gotta go.” I pulled James off the couch and pushed him in the direction of the stairs leading up to the dorms. The girls’ rooms were all warded to keep the boys out—as if I had any interest in intruding upon the female domain—but the boys’ rooms were not so warded. In fact, most of the boys would have welcomed feminine intrusion. But none of the girls had an interest in entering. Having seen how some of the others lived, I didn’t blame them.

“Do you have to be so rough? I’m moving,” James protested as I practically shoved him up the stairs and into our dorm room, closing the door behind us. Peter wasn’t there, probably raiding the kitchen, and neither was Frank. He was probably with his girlfriend, Alice Parkinson. They were already talking about getting married when they left Hogwarts.

Sometimes I was very jealous of them.

“Sirius, what’s wrong with you? What assignment are you talking about?” James flopped onto his bed, running his hand through his hair. It looked even messier than before he’d touched it. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Dumbledore’s office, getting detention?”

“I just came from there.” I dropped onto the end of his bed and faced him, sitting cross-legged.

“So, what do you have to do and when?”

“Nothing and never,” I replied impatiently.

James gave me a surprised look.

“He let me go. This time. But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” I proceeded to tell him about the strange encounter with Sybil Trelawney, and what she’d said. James whistled, long and low.

“Do you think she knows something about what we’re doing? What should we do?”

I shook my head. “She doesn’t remember what she told me, and I think it was sheer luck, that’s all. I don’t believe in that Divination rubbish.”

“Neither do I.” James laughed. “Lily hates the class too. That’s why we both dropped it as soon as we could.”

“Amen to that,” I said fervently. “I’m not going to waste my time worrying about it. That’s only part of the reason I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to remind you about the twentieth. We only have a couple of weeks left.”

James became serious immediately. “I haven’t forgotten, Sirius. It means as much to me as it does to you, trust me.”

The next full moon was September 20^th, and on that night, Remus would become a werewolf. It had taken quite a bit to get him to entrust us with his secret, back in our first year together. That was when James and I vowed to do something to alleviate Remus’ monthly misery, and we began to work on our transfiguration skills. We figured if we could come become animals, we could keep Remus’ wolf occupied and content, so it wouldn’t want to swan around eating people. Even though his wolf was safely contained in the Shrieking Shack, we knew it had to be horrible for Remus, to be so all alone.

James and I had already accomplished our goal, long ago. He was a large stag, which we nicknamed Prongs, and I was a big black dog. Peter was our problem. He was slower at spells than we were, but with our help, he was close. The question was would he be ready in time for Remus’ next change?

“What will we do about Peter?” I asked.

“He’ll be ready,” James said with a confidence I envied. “He’s almost there now. I’ll keep working with him. You keep Remus occupied.” He began to smirk, and I felt my cheeks heat up. I knew exactly what he meant. Not that I objected, mind you.

Suddenly, I perked up, alert. Since I’d learned my animagus form was a dog, I swear my hearing’s gotten better. And I thought I heard steps coming our way.

“Quick, grab a book!” I hissed in a stage whisper, as I grabbed the nearest one I could reach. I’d considered locking the door when we first came in, but that would have looked suspicious. The door opened, and Remus appeared. He looked surprised to see the two of us as he entered.

“All done with rounds?” I asked, closing the book which I certainly wasn’t reading and tossing it onto James’ bed as I rose to greet my boyfriend with a nod.

“Um, yeah,” he said, “what are the two of you up to?”

“Just studying,” I replied innocently.

“Did you come back alone?” James pretended to be nonchalant, but I knew better.

“Lily’s in the Common Room,” Remus replied, and James blushed.

“I didn’t ask about her,” he said even as he made a beeline toward the door and disappeared in short order. Remus turned to me, his brows quirked.

“What?”

“What were you really doing, Sirius?”

“Studying,” I began to reply but he shook his head.

“Your book was upside down when I walked in. Try again.”

I had no better answer, so I pounced on him instead and got him flat on his back on his bed, me hovering just above him. “I missed you,” I said sincerely, and that was the truth. He opened his mouth, as if to ask more questions, so I silenced him with a good long kiss.

Hopefully, that would hold him for a while.