Think You Know Me? {Marauders Era}

5: Partners

Think You Know Me? 5

DISCLAIMER!! All characters, places, objects, things, etc. created by J.K Rowling belong to her :) I only own the characters I have created like Stella and Sera, nothing else :)

Chapter 5:

September passed quickly, with heaps of boring classes, petty insults, and comforting Hayley. Brenna had officially ditched us and was now hanging around with Bellatrix and Narcissa Black, Lucius Malfoy, Rodopholus Lestrange, and Severus Snape - the blackest of blacks. Hayley was devastated over the loss of her best friend and nobody - not even her beloved brother Benny - could fully cheer her up.

"But I don't want to go!" Hayley said in her newly adopted, hollow voice.

"You have to, come on, it's not like you have to sit by her or anything - you can sit between us if you like!" Sera reasoned, trying to convince Hayley to come to Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"I don't want to go," Hayley repeated, her voice considerably more colder than before.

"Hayley," I said softly, stroking her short blonde hair.

"You can't keep avoiding everyone like this, just come to this last class and then you can go off into the kitchens and have a nice hot chocolate or whatever. Come on, it will be fine."

There was an urgent undercurrent to what Sera and I were saying, trying to convince Hayley to come out of her shell of depression and start to live again. Sera and I both know full well that Hayley - not unlike a large portion of Slytherins - had issues with self-harm and suicide attempt. Me and Sera worked hard not to leave her alone for too long, as her current state is quite a lot like what she was like when she went through those times.

"Just today," Hayley mumbled, getting up and getting her things as if in a zombie-like state. I sighed with relief and walked beside my friends to last-period DADA.

"As I told you in a previous lesson, today - the first lesson of October - I will be assigning you all partners to work with outside of class to complete a project on a Defence subject," Professor Dicklefinns spoke in his droning voice.

"It has been decided by the Ministry that your partners will be a person of the opposite sex - I will call every girl up to the front of the class to draw a name out of this hat-" he produced a large magician-style top hat from a drawer in his desk, "-and the name that she chooses shall be her partner for the next month."

Dicklefinns started to call girls up to the front, at random, off the roll. The first Gryffindor/Slytherin pair was a Gryffindor called Daena Jacks and a Slytherin called Thomas Dibben. Daena kicked up a huge stink and Thomas scowled at her as if he hoped his eyes would burn her body into hell. The second pair that kicked up a huge stink was Lily Evans, who pulled James Potter's name out of the hat and promptly offered Daena to swap partners. James had a massive crush on Lily - since first year - but Lily hated him due to the fact that he was an arrogant asshole and he also bullied her Slytherin ex-bestfriend, Severus Snape. Dicklefinns said no swapping was allowed and so Lily stormed out of the room in a fiery temper that matched her hair. James looked pleased but also slightly hurt.

I didn't pay much attention until Sera was chosen; she walked calmly up to the front of the class and pulled out a name from the hat. You could tell from the slight curl of her lip that it was a Gryffindor.

"Remus Lupin," she said with a slight sneer. Remus gave a slight nod and Sera sat back down.

Hayley was the next to go up, pulling out the name Rixon Smith - a sexy, rugged Slytherin with a seductive smirk and gorgeous body. Hayley looked pleased - the most pleased I've seen her in ages - and came and sat back beside me.

It was a while before my name was called, but when it did, I calmly walked up to the front of the room and stuck my hand into the hat. I felt around the pieces of paper for a bit before selecting one at random and pulling it out. As I unfolded the paper, I caught sight of the name and my stomach felt like it was weighed down with lead. An angry sneer made it's way onto my face as I spoke the name,

"Sirius Black."

Every Gryffindor girl who still hadn't picked gave a sigh while every Slytherin girl smiled at their luck. I just scowled and went to sit back at my seat without a word, shooting an angry glare at Black, as if it were all his fault.

Everyone chose their partners. Dicklefinns got up to speak again.

"Please go sit with your partners for the rest of this lesson to decide what topic you will study."

Great, my day just got a whole lot better. Note the sarcasm.

I stayed in my seat and looked expectantly at Black, who hadn't moved either. He glared at me and I just picked a pencil up and started to sketch the view from the top of the Astronomy tower in a very off-handed and absent-minded way. Black gritted his teeth and came over, sitting in the seat that Sera had moved from.

"You're very stubborn, you know that?" He said finally, looking down at my drawing. I self-consciously put it inside one of my books.

"I know, blood traitor," I said off-handedly after noticing Brenna watching me with interest. I can't have any rumours that I'm being disloyal to Slytherin floating around.

"Wow, that was hurtful," Black said dryly, putting a hand over his heart in mock-hurt.

"Listen, I've had a bad day and I'm not in the mood to play around or make jokes. Can we just decide our topic and get it over with?" I pleaded desperately, pressing the tips of my fingers into the side of my temple in attempt to quell my headache.

"Okay, let's study something cool then that we're not allowed to do in class - like the unforgivable curses!"

"I already know them. Let's do patronuses," I said. Black screwed up his face.

"Really? Those are hard. And boring. Mine is better."

"Actually, mine is better," I sneered.

"Mine is more fun."

"Mine is more learning and, in the end, much more defence-like."

"I'll give you five galleons to do mine."

"I have enough money. I won't hit you with a book at any time during our studying if you do mine," I bargained weakly, my headache starting to get overwhelming.

"You wouldn't do that anyway," Black said. Psht, he doesn't know me!

"I will actually participate in the assignment if we do mine."

"You will bloody well participate anyway! But, you see, I happen to have this condition where - in my sleep, of course - I accidentally blurt out things I have heard... Rumours, gossip, and stuff like that..." I spoke in an innocent tone, Black looked slightly confused.

"I have been known also to spout secrets, tales; who kissed who's boyfriend; which Slytherins are practising dark arts in the old Divination classroom; which Gryffindor has been sleeping around with Slytherins..." I let the last one sink in and Black's face paled.

"Patronuses? What a brilliant idea! Let's start tonight in the library at eight!" Black said in a rush. He glared at me but I pretended not to notice.

"Trust a Slytherin to use blackmail," he muttered under his breath.

"Trust a Gryffindor to think that only Slytherins would," I replied calmly, although his comment had hurt.

The rest of the lesson was boring, we remained where we were whilst Dicklefinns reminded us about all the rules and guidelines of the assignment. I barely listened though - it felt like my head was splitting in two. I just sat there with what I hoped was not a pained expression, and rubbed the side of my temple.