Orphic » Sirius Black

Chapter 11 - Sonnets Of A Sorcerer

James and Sirius ended up caught in detention for a few days. No matter how low Sirius had kneeled, professor McGonagall didn't believe that he wasn't involved somehow. And to even worsen things up, she had sent them to different rooms for their punishment. But McGonagall did not know the existence of James' two-way mirrors.

Two weeks later, Sirius stepped out of the castle with his hands in his pockets, the subtle breeze of the cold air of February blowing his hair aside. It was such a tragedy that he had to spend half of his Saturday locked in a classroom writing lines instead of being with his friends drinking butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. That's the price you pay for enchanting the toilets of the prefect's bathroom, he thought. If he'd known it was going to take that long, he would have probably dragged James with him and now he wouldn't have to be walking all the way to Hogsmeade alone.

As if some angel above was hearing his train of thought, the sound of quick and strong steps was heard from behind. He didn't have enough time to turn around to see who it was, because Juniper strutted right next to him, without even stopping, mumbling under her breath.

"June!" Sirius called with a fake offended tone. Juniper abruptly turned around, her eyes wide. The blue scarf around her neck was messily tangled and some hairs fell from her braid, framing her face. He found it rather cute.

"Oh, hi. Sorry, didn't see you there," she muttered a bit embarrassed when Sirius got to her side. "I was in a hurry, didn't mean to ignore you."

"I noticed," he chuckled. "Are you going to Hogsmeade?"

"Yeah, the lads are already there," she breathed, and Sirius saw an angry frown starting to form on her face again. She turned to see him as they walked side to side. "You too? Why aren't you with your gang?"

"Truth is," he began, lowering his voice, "I got detention."

Juniper laughed. "Why am I not surprised?"

"It's called having a reputation," he explained, and Juniper rolled her eyes.

They walked out of the school grounds quietly.

"What do you have there?" Sirius asked, gesturing with his head to the book Juniper had on her hand. She closed her eyes and let out a long sigh before raising it up to show it to him: Sonnets of a Sorcerer.

"Oh, this?" She huffed as she pointed a finger to the cover. "This is a normal, not-cursed-at-all sonnets book."

Sirius smiled widely at her words with pride. "You removed it! You are bloody brilliant, June."

But Juniper didn't celebrate. Instead, she gave him a pained, raging look.

"It was never cursed!" she screamed, shaking her hands desperately in front of them before starting to ramble, "Flitwick found the copy on the Restricted Section, but turns out that the cursed one is lost somewhere else in London. Here at Hogwarts was always the average one. I never even had a chance of getting my hands on the bloody thing!"

"Well, at least you can still read it."

"That's not the point!" Juniper was in a frenzy. Sirius had to bite his tongue to avoid a laugh from coming out. "Do you have any idea of how many books I've read to find one, just one, spell to get rid of the curse? It was all a waste!"

"But... What is it that you say? 'Knowledge is power' and stuff? You probably know a whole bunch of jinxes that could leave us all passed out for hours."

"I don't say that."

"You've got a pin with that phrase on your bag." Sirius pointed to the little blue pin embedded on the handle of her bag, near her hand.