Paisley Higgs | (Sirius Black)

Prologue

I fiddled with the golden Gordian Knot that fastened my blue and cranberry robes and tried to focus on my History of Magic exam, doing my best to tune out the horrible scritch-scratching of quills, rustling parchment, and squeaking of Rodger Picquery's restless foot against leg of his desk.

But it wasn't working out so well.

Scritch-scratch.

I tried to read question number 7.

Rustle, rustle.

'The Giant Wars began in the year—'

Squeak, squeak, squeak.

—'after the fall of which empire'—

Scritch-scratch.

No, wait. The falling empires was part of question 8.

Rustle, rustle.

I wondered why they always referred to empires falling, as if they were just too clumsy to stay together when in all likelihood it was related to a complex series of social and political factors that—

Squeak, squeak.

Shoot. Back to number 7. 'The Giant Wars began in the year—'

Squeak, squeak.

I lost my place. No worries. I'd just read it again. 'The Giant Wars began in the year—'

Squeak! Squeak!

'The Giant Wars—

Rustle, rustle.

Squeak!

'—began—'

Squeak, squeak!

'—in the year—'

Scratch-scratch!

Squeak!

'—after the fall of—'

Squeak!

Rodger started tapping his quill against his desk.

Tap, tap, tap, tap

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!

'The Giant—'

Rustle, rustle

'Wars—'

Tap, tap, tap

'Began—'

Scritch-scratch

'In—'

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! Squeak—!

"UGH!"

I'd had enough.

I whipped around to face the boy behind me and said, in a not so quiet voice, "Rodger! For the love of Merlin, would you knock it off?!"

He, of course, looked up at me with a familiar surprised expression that said he had no idea what he had done to incite such anger... which, of course, only made me more upset.

He mouthed an incredulous, "What?" and I drew breath, intending to relate, in detail, how very irritating his restless foot was when—

"Miss Higgs! Turn around and keep your eyes on your own paper!" Professor Tibbs squawked.

I looked up at the plump woman in her lime green sweater and could feel my cheeks heating up. I wanted to tell her that I wasn't trying to cheat—that I knew all the answers—that I just needed stupid Rodger Picquery to stop making so much noise so I could hear myself think... so I wouldn't lose my train of thought... but instead I turned around as ordered and stared at my exam.