𝐀 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 ~ 𝐒𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤

𝐈𝐈 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐈𝐈

Leah White 

"WHAT?!" Leah spluttered. They were sitting in their dormitory again, this time in a circle on the floor, discussing the days events. Lily had just said what she did, and all the girls were shocked. 

"You talked to James freaking Potter ALONE?!" Marlene said, shocked. "AGAIN?!" 

Lily blushed. "Just to say I was proud of what he did." 

"Lemme guess, you kissed him on the cheek again?" Alice said, her eyes wide with excitement as she sipped from her straw that was stuck in a glass of apple juice. 

Lily turned as red as her hair. "Just on the cheek." She said quietly. "You know, to make him feel...appreciated?" 

Marlene rolled her eyes. "Yes, of course." 

'Tomorrow we have Herbology." Leah interrupted, saving Lily's embarrassment. "Oo, yes!" Alice said excitedly. "Frank loves that class!" 

"Perfect pair." Lily muttered to them, and they all laughed.  

                               ╔═══°∴,*⋅✲══〖✰〗══✲⋅*,∴°═══╗

Leah saw Sirius Black approaching with his friends.

She turned around and started a quick conversation with Ciara Finnigan, who had a good heart but wasn't that great at most subjects. Herbology being one of them.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sirius stalk past them, and she smiled to herself while continuing to talk to Ciara about Gryffindor's chance of winning the house cup. She was hardly listening to Ciara when James Potter and Remus Lupin decided to stand next to her. Remus looked ready to talk. "Uh-" Leah looked around. "Sorry, Ciara, we should probably finish this conversation later-" But Ciara got the message, nodded and returned to waiting for Professor Sprout to come. 

Leah turned around to come face-to-face with James Potter and Remus Lupin. Well, not face to face, because they were at least six inches taller than her. 

"Ok, what do you popular boys want?" Leah asked exasperatedly. She crossed her arms. Remus looked behind Leah towards Sirius, who was giving him a thumbs-up. He looked back at Leah and said, "To talk to you about-" 

"Sirius Black!" James piped up. Leah shot him a look. "Didn't Lily give you this whole heartfelt talk about Sirius Black, and here you are ignoring it?"

James shriveled. "He wanted to apologize, that's all!" 

Leah's mind was telling her to say that she didn't want an apology, whereas her heart was telling her that Sirius was truly trying to make things right. 

"Why isn't he here apologizing by himself?" Leah asked, checking the door every once and a while to see if Professor Sprout was coming. 

"If you saw him, wouldn't you ignore?" Remus pointed out and Leah nodded. "So here we are." 

"Fine, tell him I've half-forgiven him. He's obviously trying." Leah said, then looked back at Sirius, who was staring at Remus, James and Leah talking. When Leah turned her head, Sirius went back to pretended to talk to Peter.

James sighed, but he and Remus walked away without another comment. Alice and Marlene were across from Leah, gathering Herbology supplies. Once the two Marauders had walked away, Alice gave her a pointed look. 

"What?!" Leah said with a shrug. 

"He obviously likes you!" Marlene exclaimed. She was wearing gloves that had dirt on them, and as she threw her hands up in the air, the dirt splattered on to the unsuspecting Hufflepuff kid next to them. 

"Hey!" The Hufflepuff student said angrily, wiping the dirt out of his brown hair. 

"Sorry." Marlene said emotionlessly.

"He doesn't like me." Leah said immediately. "He just doesn't want to have a bad reputation of making fun of student's dead fathers."

Alice flinched at the casual way Leah was saying her father was killed. Leah ignored this.

"No, you should see the way he looks at you when you're not looking." Marlene said. Then Professor Sprout walked in, holding a dangerous looking plant. "Shoot." 

Alice looked positively excited at this new plant, as did Frank Longbottom. 

"Hello, class." Professor Sprout said, and there was a faint murmur of "Hello." From the students. "Can anyone tell me what plant this is?" 

Both Lily and Leah's hands shot up. Professor Sprout scanned the crowd. Alice's hand timidly raised. "Miss Fortescue!" 

"Uh-" Alice took another look at the plant. "Venomous Tentacula?" 

As soon as the words came out of Alice's mouth, Lily and Leah smiled and lowered their hands. "Good job!" Professor Sprout said, placing the plant down on a wooden, rusty table beside Alice. "This is Venomous Tentacula." 

Alice and Marlene inched away from the Venomous Tentacula, who's vines were swiveling around as if trying to find prey.  

'Your task is to try and sever the vines off the the Tentacula and pile them up." Professor Sprout explained. "You will work in partners." Leah looked at Lily, who nodded, saying they could be partners. 

"No, no, I will choose your partners." Professor Sprout corrected, which earned a groan from the class. Leah prayed in her head she would be partnered with one of her three best friends.

"Lily Evans and.." Professor Sprout started. James Potter was holding his breath and looked so hopeful, he was leaning over the dirt in the planter boxes. "Ciara Finnigan." James frowned. 

"Also, Mr. Potter, please get off the plant tables." Professor Sprout said sternly, and James hastily got back up. 

"Leah White and Peter Pettigrew." 

Leah cursed Professor Sprout in her head. Not that idiot Pettigrew. He would probably have the venomous tentacula wrapped around his head in two seconds.

Leah wasn't even listening while Professor Sprout said the rest of the partners, only hearing that Alice was paired with Frank. 

"Use Diffindo to cut the vines off." Professor Sprout advised. "And please don't underestimate the plant, it's extremely dangerous. I'm sure you have all heard how David Brown is in the hospital wing with an extremely harmed neck." 

They looked at the plant wearily, who was now waving his vines everywhere.

Peter ran over to where Leah was, and Lily moved away from him, somewhat disgusted. 

"Hi, Leah!" Peter said, and Leah smiled falsely and said, "Hello Peter." 

Professor Sprout handed them a pot filled with Venomous Tentacula, and Leah started slashing it's vines off immediately. 
"Wow, you're really good!" Peter said in awe. "Thanks." Leah said with a real smile. They quickly assembled a plan: Leah would cast Diffindo and sever the vines off (which she was quite exceptional at; Peter couldn't even take a leaf off) and Peter would wrestle them into a sack they magicked up. 

Leah had to admit; Peter wasn't quite as bad as she made out to be, he was actually very helpful. Near the end of class, their Tentacula almost didn't have any vines left, and they were in the sack instead. 

"Bravo, Miss White and Mr. Pettigrew!" Professor Sprout applauded. "Twenty points to Gryffindor!" 

Leah waved to Peter as he walked back towards his friends, who were beaming at him. Well, all except for Sirius. He was glaring at Peter with hatred. 

Hey guys! I know this isn't the best chapter, especially since I last updated a week ago. But it's more of a filler chapter, because something exciting is happening next! Or what I think is exciting, lmao. Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading! I appreciate it. :)

- g-lil-ginny