The Art of Persuasion

Chapter 6 : The Stick Man Wars

"Lily, it's been an hour, can we stop studying now?" I begged as I was quizzing her for the hundredth time in the Common Room. She held up one finger, signaling just one more question. I shook my head at this.

"You've memorized the whole bloody book. I'm hungry, come on, lunch is starting in five minutes," I said looking at one of the clocks in the room. Lily sighed and sat down on the couch besides me. She took the book from my hands and looked at it herself.

"Fine, you win. You're always so impatient..." she mumbled the last bit. I pretended I didn't hear it. I got up and stretched my achy arms. I spotted the Marauders watching us from the stairs leading up to the boys' dormitories. I also pretended I didn't see them and urged Lily to get up.

"Come on Lily, I'm starved and Geoff is most likely bugging the living hell out of someone. Let's go already." Lily held her hand up while still reading the book. I assume she was telling me to hold on for a moment, but then again, I wasn't sure. She could have been telling me to shut the bloody hell up.

"I thought you said I won! I'm hungry, hear that?" I pointed to my growling stomach. Lily rolled her eyes and put the book the down in defeat.

"I heard it all the way from the stairs. I do suggest trying to control your hunger, love," a conceited voice said from behind me. A sigh escaped from my chest.

"Good Afternoon Sirius," I greeted turning around, wearing a fake smile. Curious second years watched us.

"I thought that Sirius Black didn't have a girlfriend anymore...damn," one disappointed girl mumbled.

"Are you joking? He's four years older than our age! I'm sure that's illegal somehow," another second year chirped in. Sirius smiled at them, which caused them to giggle. He then turned to me once more.

"Mind if I steal Evelyn away from you, Evans?" he asked, though I knew he was going to take me away anyways.

"Shouldn't you ask her instead?" Lily retorted with a slight glare. He turned to me.

"Would you mind, love?" he asked, still smiling. I returned his smile, to make it appear that I didn't mind. Though, I do admit, I was a bit curious what he wanted to talk about.

"Great," he said simply, grabbing my hand. I tried not to jump, but I felt my heart a pound a bit as he did this. He led me out of the portrait hole and continued to swerve left and right till we were outside. He then led me to the Quidditch Field. I watched silently as I saw a familiar face on a broomstick.

"It's Captain What's-His-Face!" I exclaimed, pointing towards him. Sirius stared at me with an amused expression.

"You mean Dagget?" he corrected, pointing at the man I was pointing at. I nodded and watched him practice with his beater. It looked like to me, he was hitting them pretty hard.

"Not bad at all, that Dagget. Actually, it appears he's much better than last year, which brings me to what I wanted to talk about." He gave a slight pause and looked towards me. I tried my best not to frown, knowing that I wasn't going to like this.

"You see it appears that I need to practice a bit more than I thought I would. In other words, I need you to cover for me tonight, you know for our detention." He gave me a slight sheepish grin, but to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure if he felt guilty at all.

"...It was your fault that we have those detentions. Your bloody mouth got us even more detentions and now you expect me to cover for your doings?" I felt my cheeks enrage with flame as I said this. He opened his mouth but closed it again and stared at me with his intense grey eyes. He sighed and ran his hand his sleek, black hair. I found myself wondering how exactly his hair felt like.