When with Rome {Sirius Black}

22.2 Hogsmede with Lockhart

Gilderoy and Barbara were walking towards Zonko's, after filling up on candy at Honeydukes and going to a bunch of other places. The Ravenclaw boy had planned on getting lunch with his date in Madame Puddifoot's Tea Shop.

Barbara was extremely pleased with being able to walk freely in Zonko's without being under her brother's invisibility cloak. She began to check out each and every product and put a few in her bag intending to buy them and sue them against her brother at some point. She then began to walk to the back of the store when she noticed her date left her side in order to talk to Sasha. Barbara recognized the Fourth Year because she had caught her and Sirius snogging once, something she tried to erase from her mind.

She smiled happily as she noticed there were a bunch of hair dyes that lasted a week, some old-time dungbombs, and a bunch of other old-time pranking gear in the back shelves. She grabbed a bigger bag and filled it with more than she could imagine. Barbara couldn't wait to use it during her Third Year and her summer.

When she turned to ask Gilderoy which he thought would be better- a hair prank or a dung bomb in her brother's dorm room- but he wasn't there. Confused, Barbara called out his name.

"Gilderoy?" She was beginning to become annoyed. It had been a few minutes since the last time she said his name; and her patience was running out.

Finally, when she was about to head to the register to pay, she saw him run up to her. He looked like he ran a marathon with a dragon chasing after him. Wonder what that was about.

When he finally caught his breath, he finally responded to Barbara. "Sorry. I couldn't get out of that conversation with Sasha." Without another word, he took her prank-filled bag and walked with her to the register.

"Ah, now what do we have here, kids?" Mr. Zonko asked Barbara. She saw the owner's eyes light up with excitement with seeing his old products.

"Oh! These bring back memories! I did;t even realize they were out on the shelves still. Tell you what, I'll give you a fifty percent discount." Barbara was elated to have a giant bag of pranks just waiting to be used against her brother. 

"Your total is five galleons, five Sickles." Zonko said. I handed him my money.

"Anytime," he said, "for Valerie's daughter."

Barbara gave him a knowing smile, and left with Gilderoy to Madame Puddifoot's. The Ravenclaw asked Barbara to be his girlfriend, to which Barbara said yes half-heartedly. Barbara held suspicions of Gilderoy's intentions but decided to put them on the back burner, believing them to just be thoughts stirred from her childhood incident.

As soon as Barbara stepped into Madame Puddifoot's with Gilderoy, she immediately felt sick. This restaurant was beyond packed with trinkets Barbara had called "too cute for a baby kneazle" all along the shelves. Hogwarts students on dates were so uncomfortable close to each other that Barbara consciously pulled her hand away from Gilderoy's. Soon, a waitress wearing a small, pink apron approached them. 

"Hello, dears!" The woman exclaimed. Barbara's ears were ringing with how high-pitched the woman's voice was.

"Hi, table for two, please." Gilderoy requested. Soon, Barbara was following Gilderoy and the waitress to a small booth. She giggled when Gilderoy's head hit one of the shelves behind him.

"Careful, Gilderoy, don't want to knock that shelf over. With the amount of stuff on it, it's bound to cause a concussion."

He laughed at Barbara's joke. "Don't need one of those, I'd like to stay in Ravenclaw and not in St. Mungo's."

Barbara smiled and leaned over the table, her ears listening to their surroundings but not the boy in front of them. "What's it like in the Ravenclaw Common Room anyway?"

"It fits into the stereotype quite well. Bookcases are scattered about and the tower is quite breezy. It's really comforting; and the tower's ceiling is scattered with stars. It helps a lot of people taking astronomy to just lay in the middle of the floor and look at the stars. It does get annoying though because I've already tripped on a few people by accident."

She enjoyed talking to Gilderoy once he was in earshot. He had a vast vocabulary and definitely fit the stereotype regarding how intellectual Ravenclaws were. They planned to partner for their next Transfiguration project and help each other out with their worst subjects: History of Magic for Barbara and Charms for Gilderoy.

After their date at Hogsmede, Barbara and Gilderoy parted ways when she spotted her brother and the Marauders. "Thanks for the lovely day, Gilderoy! See you tomorrow."

"Hey, Barbara. How was your date with Locky?" James asked her as she walked up to him.

"Is that your new nickname for him? And it went okay, we're going as boyfriend and girlfriend now."

"Wow already?" Sirius asked, sounding surprised. Barbara gave him a look.

"Sirius, we're in our Third Year. It's probably not going to last so where's the harm in calling it something I want it to be before I change my mind?"

"What makes you think it won't last? Did something go wrong?"

Barbara smiled kindly at Peter. "No, Pete. Nothing went terribly wrong. we're just so young that it doesn't really matter; and there was something that didn't sit right with me for some reason."

"Then why did you still say yes to be his girlfriend?" Sirius asked angrily. Barbara, annoyed with Sirius questioning her decisions, fired back.

"Because, Black, if you weren't listening before, this relationship isn't going to last but I still wasn't to see where it leads to. If there was another sweet guy interested in me, then I would've given him a chance. But seeing as your the other guy interested in me, I'll take the nice one instead of the prat that songs a different girl every week."

Instead of sticking around for a rebuttal, Barbara decided it was best to leave. She was angry with Sirius questioning her decisions. He had no right to considering what he's done with girls in their year. Didn't know James decided to project his voice from his boyfriend's mouth.