Genetics • Sirius Black

Chapter Sixty Three: Goodnight, Grey.

By the breakfast came rolling, everyone was chatting about the absurdly intricate and randomly time Marauder's prank on the DA teacher.

A complex circus was constructed outside her room, transforming the entire floor. Illusions and convincing-looking fake lions and elephants wandered around the place, and it became quite a spectacle for the first years. Quite a hit among the muggle-born students, who were most familiar with those types of circuses, but there was an odd range on that floor while teachers tried to chase out the lions without being stumped by the mirror maze.

Argus Filch suffered a great many hits to the face on those mirrors.

However, Sirius Black, usually starving for praise and eager to show off his excellent work, found that he still was having fun with the prank. On the other hand, James Potter slightly missed the days when he was hiding his collaboration with Freya.

"She came up with the whole plot of the maze and had it mapped out in two minutes." Sirius praised while tying his tie, chuckling as he looped the fabric. "But she did such a good job we got stuck for like twenty minutes in the thing."

"I know, Padfoot." James's voice was tired, and he swore he knew their night probably better than they both did at this point, considering how much Sirius talked about it. He glanced over at Peter Pettigrew on the bed next to him, telepathically begging him to get Sirius to stop talking. Peter had no such intentions and seemed to enjoy Sirius's story. Falling back on his bed, James glared at Peter.

Peter smiled, recalling how often James spoke of Lily their third year. "Now, you know how we felt."

"I was not like that." James defended.

"You're right; you were much worse."

"That's different. I was in love."

At that, Peter made a face, and before he could comment, Remus Lupin came through the door, finished with his morning rounds. "Padfoot, I'm glad you don't want to kill her anymore, but could find a less disruptive activity to do with Freya."

"Absolutely not," Sirius replied, not giving it a moment's thought.

A groan left Remus as he thought of how he had spent the entire morning trying to stop (or at least pretending to try and stop) the swarm of kids on the stairs to see the circus. "Tell me it's James's turn tonight, then."

Sirius roughed up his hair in the mirror. "No can do."

"Freya's apparently requested that only Sirius assist her for the time being," James explained and tossed a pillow at Sirius who caught it quickly. "Let's hope they actually work on the potion this time."

***

When Freya Grey sat beside Regulus Black at the breakfast table, he noticed a slight change in her from yesterday. It was a calm that contrasted how her leg bounced all through breakfast,  lunch, and dinner yesterday.

She greeted him politely, and she smelled of that specifically sweet scent that occurred when she wore her hair in its naturally curly state. Was Freya glowing?

Amused, Reg's lips turned up. "Did you finally push Lucius down the stairs?"

"If I did, you'd have no proof." She chimed back.

He was curious, but he knew what happened to the cat and decided to be thankful she was happy. Speaking of content, Lily Evans was bounding up to them with her hair tied down her back and her prefect badge gleaming. She sat down across from them, ignoring the withering glares she got as usual. "Someone made a circus."

A brow raised, Regs looked at her. "A circus?"

"It's a place that has clowns and performs for amusement." She described, and he held back a laugh.