Liquid Luck [Sirius Black]/editing

chapter 9

I sit on Sirius' bed, swinging my legs back and forth off the edge just for the sake of having something to do. "Where's Sirius gone off to? You two are bores." I groan, "I mean honestly, you're reading and you've been eating for the past hour!" I point at each boy. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out which boy is doing what.

I continue, "Sirius would at least do something better than what you're doing. James too." In fact, now I think of it, I haven't seen either James or Sirius at all today.

"You're looking for Sirius?" Peter asks, finally paying me his attention.

"Yeah!" I say excitedly straightening my hunched back.

"Sirius went to get –" Peter all-knowingly begins, only to be cut off by a very frantic Remus who drops his book whilst throwing himself on top of the smaller boy. He slaps a hand over Peter's mouth for good measure before another word could be uttered.

I gape at the scene in complete confusion. Peter struggles beneath Remus' firm grasp but calms once a warning glare is sent in his direction.

Remus faces me, forcing a smile with all of his teeth showing, and says, "Sirius had to go owl his family. James went with him. No point in going looking for them though! They're probably done now and onto something else!"

Remus Lupin is a bad liar. Pass it on.

I ignore him and direct my attention to Peter. "What were you saying, Peter? What did Sirius go to get?" I ask, using my sweetness in hopes of charming the truth out of him.

Peter's eyes widen in realization as he gazes at me. I can only gather that something must've clicked in that daft mind of his. The stout boy utters a much more enthusiastic repetition of what Remus had said.

I narrow my eyes at the innocently grinning boys. Not caring enough to conduct a full interrogation, I shrug my shoulders. "I'm going down to the Great Hall to stuff myself with food. Anyone care to join?"

"I was actually hoping to do a bit more reading." Remus says, getting comfortable on his bed with his book open in his lap once more.

"Fine by me!" I turn towards Peter, "Pete?"

Peter excitedly nods his head. The boy would agree to anything if only it were food-related.

He opens his mouth to presumably accept, though Remus, yet again, interrupts. "I think we're fine here. We're not hungry anyways, isn't that right Peter?" Remus says through gritted teeth.

Remus is clearly well aware of Peter's difficulty in secret-keeping. I don't blame him for not trusting the boy with whatever secret is being kept from me.

"What? Erm, right! Yeah, I'm starving but...no! I mean, I'm hungry...but, what am I saying? Haha I'm not hungry!" He laughs nervously, painfully struggling with his words. "Sirius is definitely at the Owlery." He states proudly looking at Remus.

Remus cringes, as do I. His stuttered words physically pain me to listen to.

Out of all of the people that I've ever known, Peter Pettigrew is the worst liar of them all. I would not trust this boy with any of my secrets. He cracks too easily under pressure. Remind me to work on that with him sometime.

"Yeah, er, okay Peter." I bid them quick goodbyes followed by a small wave before dashing out the door.

Something I've come to realize during my first half-year at Hogwarts is that this school has too many stairs. This must be why we don't have any physical education classes. Getting from classroom to classroom is exercise enough.

And so, as I run down all the many many stairs this school has to offer, I find myself growing exhausted. Feeling too tired to go on, I sit myself down on the bottom step. "I think I'll just lie here for a moment to catch my breath." I mumble to myself. Though as soon as I rest my head down on the cold stone floor, my eyes flutter shut and I find myself drifting away from consciousness into a peaceful slumber.

I couldn't tell you how long I slept there even if I wanted to, but somewhere during my nap, James and Sirius returned from sending a letter to Sirius' family.

They found my sleeping figure sprawled out on the floor. Sirius and James exchange no words, as Sirius lifts me up in his arms, and carries me away, bridal style, to sleep somewhere more comfortable.

*

I let out a slight groan upon waking up. "Where am I?" I mumble in a groggy voice from my nap.

"Afternoon, sleepy! You are in my dormitory, welcome welcome!" Sirius exclaims, jumping off of Peter's bed and walking over to sit beside where I lay on his.

I frown, still deeply confused. How long was I out?

"Why am I here?" I ask, my voice thick with confusion. I prop myself up on my elbows and rub my dry eyes.

"On my way back up to the common room, I found you passed out on the floor." Sirius smirks. "Being the caring and considerate best friend that I am, I took the liberty of bringing you somewhere more comfortable."

"Oh. Thanks, Sirius." My face burns a dark red. "By the way, the only reason I was passed out was because the stairs were mocking me."

"How so?" Sirius asks with a grin, pretending as though he's truly interested rather than amused.

"There are so many! And then the floor invited me to lay down, so naturally I accepted." I explain in complete seriousness.

Looking back, I now realize how insane I must sound. And judging by Sirius' expression, he finds this all rather funny.

"...and I can fall asleep just about anywhere in a minute or less."

"Really?" He asks now with a look of genuine curiosity displayed across his face.

"If I want to." I smirk coolly. "It's a gift."

"Brilliant!" He grins.

"Say, Sirius,"

"Say, Chiara," Sirius mocks.

"What's your favourite food?"

"Chiara Holland, ever the most random conversationalist to exist." Sirius smiles fondly. "Mashed potatoes. No question about it. And the ones here at Hogwarts," Sirius emits an odd noise at the thought of the food he's oh-so fond of. "well to put it lightly, I would die for the mashed potatoes here."

Sirius loves mashed potatoes. Noted.

"What about you? What's your favourite?" He asks with genuine curiosity.

"As much as I enjoy a nice bowl of mashed, my favourite food has got to be chips." I pinch my fingers and thumb together and kiss them, tossing my hand dramatically away from the lips. "Delicious."

"I mean, both of our favourites are made up of potatoes. So, we technically share the same favourite." Sirius says.