Nyctophobia - Sirius Black

Chapter 14

Ruby hadn't even realized it was her birthday until she saw the date on the Daily Prophet. January 9th. Her birthday had never been a celebration, or anything to be happy about. She had always measured the days in January by how severe her beatings were. They always got worse around that time, and she only knew it was her birthday when their father didn't even come home that night.

Neither she nor Severus had told anyone it was their birthday, so they were shocked when Jana handed them each a package.

"No. Absolutely not. We are not taking anything from you." The twins had immediately insisted, pushing the packages back to her.

"You are taking them." Jana glared, pushing it back into their hands. "You need clothes, and it's your birthday."

"We don't need anything. We're doing just fine." Ruby glared back.

"I'm not taking no for an answer. You are going to take them, and you are going to wear them."

"We don't want charity."

"It's not charity. It's a friend giving her friends a present for their birthday. That's what people do on birthdays. Just because it's never happened to you before doesn't mean it can't happen now."

"We aren't going to take what we can't return."

"Well, I'll tell you want I want for my birthday. I need you two to brew a potion for me. I'll get you the ingredients, you just need to brew it for me. You two are great at potions."

"He's great at potions." Ruby pointed out.

"Well, you're better than me, and it needs a powerful spell too. See? Now it's a trade. You take the clothes, and brew the potion for me. Which I really really need, by the way."

Ruby narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but nodded, knowing Jana wouldn't give up. Jana smirked satisfactorily.

"What potion do you need?" Jana led them to an empty classroom and cast several silencing charms before holding up a paper that looked like it had been ripped out of a book. "An animagus potion? Why would you need that?"

"I want to become an animagus, obviously."

"You know that's illegal, right?"

"So is serving the Dark Lord, but my siblings don't seem to have any problem with that?" Jana grumbled.

"So all three of you will be arrested and you can spend all of eternity together in Azkaban." Severus said drily.

"I'm the literal worst person you could ask to help you with this." Ruby looked up from the paper. "I'm horrible at Transfiguration."

"You're not horrible at it, it's just your worst subject, and that's only because you're not taking Divination."

"And you're supposed to do the spell yourself."

"I know, but that's not what I need help with. I need help sticking the mandrake leaf in my mouth so I don't swallow it."

"I can do that." Ruby agreed.

"Great. Now we need to get to classes." Jana said.

"Wait. Why do you want to become an animagus?" Severus asked suddenly.

"No reason."

"It's not to help a werewolf, is it?" Both girls looked at him startled, although Ruby looked a little confused, and Jana looked a little guilty.