the lucky one, sirius black

10

chapter ten

"MURPHY, IF YOU can stop flirting with the patients for a minute will you come over and help me, sweetheart?" Madam Pomfrey asked from across the hospital wing.

Murphy widened her eyes slightly and looked over at Madam Pomfrey, only to see both her brother and Sirius Black's head pop out from behind the curtain like a pair of meerkats. Murphy felt her face almost turn the colour of Fabian Prewett's offensively red hair. Her face was stricken with what could only be pure mortification. She nodded to the red-haired seventh year that was lying on the bed before her and quickly walked across the room to where Madam Pomfrey was tending to James who Murphy hadn't even noticed had come in.

"Sorry if I embarrassed you," Madam Pomfrey said with a smile as she noticed Murphy's pink cheeks, James was sitting on the bed giving his sister the most sinister of glares that he could manage. "I need a couple of bandages, please."

Murphy swiftly nodded and glanced at her brother and his friends before rushing over to the cupboard where the bandages are kept.

James' arm looked broken in several places.

"What happened to you?" Murphy asked as she returned with a pile of bandages that Madam Pomfrey had taken to wrap around James' left arm. It was the first Quidditch match of the season, so it was a stupid question to ask what he had done when Murphy was almost one hundred perfect certain he had injured himself during Quidditch. "Did your massive head cause you to become top heavy and trip you over?"

Sirius laughed, but James screwed his face up and attempted to kick his sister, only to be rewarded with a nasty scowl from Madam Pomfrey.

"His psychopathic brother pushed me off of my broom." James pouted, nodding towards Sirius who rolled his eyes. Murphy couldn't tell if it was because James accused Regulus or because Regulus had actually pushed James.

"Oh, I doubt that." Murphy said.

Madam Pomfrey tied a sling around James' shoulder and told him to sit backwards otherwise he'd dislocate his shoulder.

"He did!" James exclaimed, his voice a few octaves higher than he had originally anticipated.

"Maybe it was an accident."

"Don't be so naive, Murph." James huffed, "He did it on purpose, probably because he's jealous."

"Jealous of what?"

James opened his mouth but only a messy splatter of words came out. Sirius, Madam Pomfrey and Murphy all looked at him expectantly as they waited for him to brew an excuse.

"Because Gryffindor are a million times better than Slytherin?" He said, sounding incredibly unconvincing and childish.

Murphy raised her eyebrows.

"He did it on purpose, that's all that matters." He said eventually. "Professor Mcgonagall isn't even going to do anything about it." He complained petulantly.

"You just don't want me to be friends with him."

"You shouldn't be friends with him Murphy." James said, ignoring that Sirius was standing right beside the bed, listening to his best friend spurt nonsense about how Murphy shouldn't be friends with Regulus. "He probably only talks to you to see what Sirius is doing?"

"James you're such a -" Murphy began before Madam Pomfrey cut her off.

"Would you apply some Murtlap Essence to Fabian's shoulder, dear?" She asked, her stern eyes glancing between the two siblings. "Then he should be able to leave."

Murphy nodded, glaring at James. She then glared at Sirius, just for good measure.

Murphy grabbed a jar of Murtlap Essence and some bandages and strolled back across the room so she could speak to Fabian again.

He's a Gryffindor seventh year, just like James.

"Back so soon?" He asked, a smile taking over his freckled face.

"I have to apply some of this," she said as she held up the jar filled. "Unless you want to do it yourself?"

Fabian shook his head. "I don't think I'd be able to reach," he shrugged, but he only moved one shoulder as his other one had become shredded at some point during the Quidditch match.

Murphy raised an eyebrow but smiled.

"There's a surprise," she said sarcastically as she unscrewed the cap. "Do you mind taking your shirt off, it's rather hard to put it on through the fabric."

Fabian looked at her for a brief second before nodding and happily pulling his shirt over his head.

"Why the hell has he just taken his shirt off?"

James bolted up, only to have Madam Pomfrey push his back down so he didn't hurt his arm or shoulder. James looked up at the healer.

"Leave her alone Prongs," Sirius laughed as he sat down in the chair. "She's just doing her job."

"Yeah, but." James stopped to look at Madam Pomfrey again. "Couldn't you have done it instead, Poppy?"

"You mustn't call me that, Mr Potter." Madam Pomfrey said sternly. "And Murphy is perfectly capable of doing it herself."

James pouted, he would've normally folded his arms across his chest like a child but Madam Pomfrey had a strong grip on his forearm so he couldn't move it.

"He'll probably ask her to go on another date."

James snapped his head so he could look at his best friend. Dark eyes narrow.

"Must you antagonise him?" Madam Pomfrey sighed as she let go and handed James a glass of something he certainly didn't want to drink.

Sirius grinned.

James glanced over the room to see that Murphy had finished applying the Murtlap to Fabian and they were engaged in another conversation. Merlin knows what Fabian was saying to her to keep her looking so intrigued.

"Can you go over and see what they're talking about?" James asked.

"No, leave her alone." Sirius laughed again.

"She doesn't want to go out with Fabian, he's leaving school at the end of the year and he's as thick as a cow." James said, not quite making as much sense as he would've liked.

"Merlin, James." Sirius laughed. "I'm sure she's capable of choosing her own friends and dates."

"She most certainly isn't." James said, "She had a crush on Moony, if that's not ridiculous then I don't know what is?"

Sirius guffawed, glancing across the room to see Murphy gently spreading a delicate amount of the pungent green concoction of Fabian's bare shoulder.

"Are you going to Sirius' birthday party?" Fabian asked, looking up at Murphy with his large, blue eyes. He wisely chose not to look at the bed that James was occupying, because if he did he was sure he'd die on the spot given the daggers James was shooting.

Murphy shook her head, "I don't think so."

"You should," Fabian said, smiling.

"It's not really my type of thing," Murphy replied, wiping her hands on a towel.

"What if you came with me?" Fabian asked, grinning.