Black Spirit • harry potter (AU)

t w e l v e • the quidditch final

Every house table was buzzing with the news of Sirius' break-in to the Gryffindor tower the next morning at breakfast. There wasn't a moment when I wasn't getting stares from my peers and strangers. As far as I could tell, Fiona and Cormac were the only ones that didn't stare at me like I was about to lash out or flinch every time I made a sudden movement.

Everything I had learned last night was replaying in my head. I could not believe that Ron's rat was the one responsible for Harry's parents deaths, my father's imprisonment and the death of 12 muggles. It seemed outrageous, but it was also starting to make sense.

Ron's rat had been sick all year. Ron was complaining about in constantly, he wasn't eating or sleeping and was only getting skinnier and skinnier. Peter was worried, scared of Sirius.

The whole situation made me feel frustrated to no end. So by the end of the day, when I was sitting in the Slytherin common room again after dinner, I was so sick of the whispering that when someone tapped me on my shoulder, I snapped.

"What?" I spat, turning around annoyedly, coming face to face with none other than Draco Malfoy. "Oh, it's you." I said, my tone perhaps repulsive, but I had had an extremely bad day.

"It's me." He smiled, a strange sight considering I almost always saw him sneering at Gryffindors in the halls. He quite rarely smiled. "Had a bad day?" He asked, sitting down on the sofa next to me, stretching out his legs and pulling out a box of Bertie Bott's every flavour beans.

"You can say that again." I said, closing my History of Magic book and slamming it on the couch next to me. "I just don't understand! It's not like I was the one who almost killed Weasley, why am I being stared at and whispered about?" I exclaimed in a fit, throwing my arms up in the air.

"Yeah I get that a lot, too." Draco said, "My dad was accused of being a death eater, and I probably have to deal with people thinking I'm exactly the same for the rest of my life." He said, almost gagging as he spat out a bean. "Soap." He said.

"Yeah! It's like they expect me to come out of my dormitory one day with a scythe and start cutting down students like grass." I said, making Draco choke on another bean as he laughed.

"I don't know anyone less likely to kill someone than you." He said after he had finished laughing.

"Thank you, that means a lot." I said with a smile, my mood lifting considerably. "Hey, what'd you do for Christmas?" I asked.

"Oh I just went home to my parents, had an extremely dull and boring Christmas dinner with just my mother and father, got the new Nimbus 2002 for Christmas." He said, looking extremely proud of his broom.

"Ah, well at least the broom was good even though everything else was rubbish?" I said, conversationally.

"Yeah," he offered me a bean and I carefully picked a red one, hoping for some kind of berry and mumbling a thank you. "What did you do?" He asked.

"We had Cormac and Fiona's families over. It would've just been me and my mum but we decided to invite company. My godfather was also there." I said, gagging as my mouth filled with a metallic taste. "Blood, yuck." I said, spitting the bean into the paper bag Draco was holding and also spitting into occasionally.

"Godfather?" He asked, smiling a little at my disgusted face.

"Yeah, Remus Lupin." I replied.

"Professor Lupin?" He asked, startled. I nodded with a slight grin.

"Well, yes. Didn't I tell you?"

"No, I never knew he was your godfather." He said, still taken aback by this information. "That's why he was so pleasant towards you! I bet he would've given me a much worse detention if it had been just me." He said.