September (Instrumental)
- Sparky Deathcap
Sunlight crept through the room, piercing the side of Amie Walker's face, spilling into her eyes unpleasantly and forcing her to blink more frequently than she would have liked. September evenings were ideal for her study sessions, since harsh overhead lighting gave her headaches and the sun would be out for an hour or two more, but there was the critical thirty minutes or so when the star would do anything in its power to be more of a hindrance than a help.
"Found it." The sharp rays were blocked by a body, and Amie looked up to Sirius Black, eyes squinted out of habit.
"You did?"
When Sirius sat down, his head just about blocked the worst of the sun from her eyes, and Amie felt suddenly much more grateful for his presence than she had been before. The feeling increased tenfold when Sirius produced a book from behind his back: The Odyssey, in all its glory, held in his ringed fingers.
"Yep. Had to do a bit of digging, but I told you I'd get it." His eyes sparkled as he presented the library book to her.
"I looked for it yesterday and it was nowhere to be found. Are you a wizard, Sirius Black?"
"Why, how ever would you come to that conclusion?" Sirius reached behind his head and pulled his wand from his hair, which tumbled down from its messy up-do, reaching to just about his shoulders. A beautiful mess of dark curls that Amie couldn't help but stare at as Sirius haphazardly dropped his wand onto the table, watching it roll until it stopped just before the drop.
"Thank you." She meant it when she said it, and Sirius was aware of her sincerity.
"You're welcome," It was all getting a bit mushy for him very quickly, and so Sirius cleared his throat as he tugged one of his books towards him, "So, what about you helping me with this homework?"
"Sirius, you're a year older than me. If anyone is supposed to be helping anyone else, it's you."
"But I don't know," He whined, "You're super smart, and I need your help."
"You're useless."
"And you're pretty."
Sirius Black was one-hundred-percent flirt and zero-percent personality. Or so that was what Amie told herself when he turned his charm on her. Because she had housed a crush on Sirius since the very first time he smirked at her, and it took everything in her to squash it down, because Sirius would never even look in her direction. Least of all because of...
"Jay would kill you if he knew you said those things to me." She reminded him without looking up from her book.
She was used to his flirtatious nature by now, but James had yet to bear witness to his charms. He was rather protective over her, especially now that all of her brothers had left the school. Once they had, they'd made James - their neighbour and long-time honorary Walker brother - swear to keep Amie safe. He'd taken the task very seriously, and even extended said job to his friends.
His friends - a group of boys who could only be described as annoying to their very core - Sirius, Peter, and Remus, had become Amie's friends through James' overprotectiveness, so she couldn't complain too much. But when Amie was interested in a boy, every time, without fail, he would be scared away by James Potter, his idiot friends, and their stupid pranks.
"Yeah, whatever. Prongs couldn't touch me." Sirius scoffed cockily, swiping away the stray hairs that had fallen into his eyes and pushing them behind his ears.
"He could, and he would. Especially with his new Head Boy power."
Somehow, in some stretch of Professor McGonagall's hopeful mind, James had been made Head Boy of Gryffindor. When Amie had heard the news just before the school year started, she'd thought it was one of their pranks. It wasn't. Remus was furious for a day or two and refused to speak to James for a bit because of it; everyone thought that he would be the one to get the position, he deserved it more than James did.
But Lily Evans was Head Girl, and Amie couldn't blame McGonagall for attempting to play matchmaker.
"Never bloody shuts up about it, either," Sirius grumbled, swiping at the pages of his book with an unkind hand, "You'd think that he'd go and live in his fancy Head Boy room, but he won't leave us alone."
"He loves you too much."
"And therefore..." Sirius' face now adorned a grin as he twisted in his seat, "He wouldn't care if I liked you, because he loves me soooo much."
Amie couldn't help the small blush that crept up her neck and onto her cheeks. Despite the knowledge that Sirius Black flirted with everything that breathed, she couldn't help her response to his words. She'd harboured her crush for him for a long time, and recently, he'd seemed to reciprocate. But she couldn't be sure. She could never be sure with Sirius, he was as hard to pin down as a toddler on a sugar high.
"What are you doing in the library, Sirius?" She changed the subject, hoping that the redness in her face would soon subside, "You hate it here."
"I already told you: I need your help." Amie watched Sirius as his eyes darted to the side - a tell-tale sign that he wasn't being truthful.
"Sirius."
Least of all his hatred for the library environment, Sirius was incredibly intelligent; a fact that he seemed to want to hide around those he wanted to favour him, and a trait that only reared its head when Sirius decided to let it.
"Moony studies with you all the time." Sirius' voice was now high-pitched. Another sign that he was lying.
Sirius was the worst liar ever known to man. He couldn't hold eye contact, he couldn't even get words out, sometimes. Lying was something he'd grown to despise, something he'd always hated doing, especially after how he grew up; having to lie to everyone about everything that happened in the house he lived in.
Amie allowed her eyes to drop down to the book in his grasp, deciding to put him out of his misery. "Transfiguration? You should really go to James with that one."
"I don't want to ask James." Sirius pouted like a child, and Amie raised a dark eyebrow.
"Why not?"
Sirius grinned, "He's not half as attractive as you are."
"And yet you'd probably still have more of a chance with him." She shot back with a smile to let him know that she didn't mean it.
"You're so mean. Maybe I should ask for James' help after all," Sirius pouted yet again, and Amie twisted her eyes to him, raising one of her eyebrows, "Yeah, alright," He grumbled.
Asking James for help meant all the gloating and taunting that came with his assistance. Amie was far more agreeable.
Sirius couldn't help but stare as she leaned down to read the page he had pointed at, as her brown hair fell around her shoulders and her blue eyes travelled down the page, taking the information in. When she concentrated, a little dimple appeared above her right eyebrow and she drew her lip between her teeth. Who could blame Sirius for staring?
"I've never even heard of this, Sirius," She shook her head, "You know, considering I'm in the year below you, and all. If it was potions you needed help with, maybe I could have been of assistance."
"Ah, that's alright, I just won't do the homework. Minnie doesn't expect much from me anymore anyways."
"You seem far too proud of that."
Sirius grinned as he closed the book with a heavy thump, "If you're not going to help me, could we at least go somewhere less quiet?"
"What do you have in mind?" She mimicked his smile, something she usually ended up doing around Sirius. His laughter, his cocky grins - they were contagious. As much as she hated to admit it, she looked for them everywhere.
"Somewhere outside while it's still bright enough to be out there."
"I like it. Let's go." She made sure to carefully pack The Odyssey into her bag before she shoved the strap of her bag onto her shoulder and manoeuvred her way out of the library, trailing behind Sirius.
She often felt like somewhat of a lost dog around Sirius. Following the boy blindly wherever he went, listen to his words intently, wanting whatever he wanted. She was doing it even now, wandering after him as he led the way, letting him pick the position, the pace, the place. He had a commanding presence, and Amie couldn't deny that she felt commanded.
"Oi!" Sirius shouted from the entrance of the library, pointing a finger down the corridor at Remus Lupin, who was walking towards them. Remus grinned, speeding up to meet Sirius in the middle, only flinching a little at the harsh slap to his arm.
"Hello, Sirius," Remus' smile softened as he greeted his friend, and then stiffened once he noticed Amie beside him, "Evening, Amie."
"Remus. How's your day been? I haven't seen you."
Remus stared for a moment. At her. Amie wondered if maybe she'd accidentally split ink on her chin, or if she'd drastically messed her hair up in some way - either way, she was going to kill Sirius for not pointing it out to her sooner. His chocolate brown eyes roamed over her face for a split second too long for it to be normal. She definitely had something on her face.
"It's been nice," He said, mostly to the floor, "Quiet, with James out at quidditch all day-" Then he peeked up at Sirius. "-You must have gotten ready rather quickly, James only just got in."
"I pretended to faint, he totally bought it," Sirius gushed, wolfish grin spreading across his cheeks, "He's such a worry-wort, it was the best way to get out of practise. Oh, come on, Moony. Don't look at me like that. It's the first weekend back, hex me if I don't want to spend it sprinting up and down the quidditch pitch. And don't even get me started on the uselessness of exercise - our sport is literally riding a broom, I'm not running anywhere."
"I see you're very passionate about this," Remus mumbled, peering at Sirius out of the corner of his eye, "Well, I shan't mention it unless he asks me. You're welcome."
He didn't say goodbye before he walked past them and into the library, smiling a greeting at Madam Pince before getting lost in the stacks of books. Sirius looked over his shoulder as he went, scoffing with a shake of his head.
"Did he really just use the word 'shan't' in a sentence?"
"I think he did."
Laughter following their way, the two ventured out of the large open doors, joining the many students that had decided to take advantage of the cooler early-evening after the warm day. Mountains stretched further than Amie could see, bright green grass touching the horizon and pushing even further, trees taller than giants clustered around, students playing muggle games like football, or just sitting and basking in the glowing sunset, talking.
Amongst those sitting and talking, were James and Peter, who had chosen a tree to slump against to wallow in their post-summer sadness. It was Amie who started heading toward them, somewhere along the line grabbing Sirius' hand and dragging him along behind her. Sometimes, he let her pretend as if he were the puppy dog.
"Hi, boys," She greeted as she sat down opposite them, "Having a nice afternoon?"
James only grunted in response, slipping down the rest of the tree trunk and throwing his arm over his eyes once his head hit the ground. Peter was much more hospitable, shuffling his knees up to his chest and resting his chin on them.
"It's been okay. Prongs mostly wants to get back to summer."
"Don't say the 's' word." James demanded from underneath his arm.
"It'll be alright, mate," Sirius laid a gentle hand on James' shoulder, "It'll be Christmas before you know it, and then New Years, and then your birthday, and then summer all over again."
"How's your day been, Amie?" Peter asked, eyes alight as though he were genuinely interested in the answer.
"Fine. Mostly boring, I've spent a lot of time sorting out our dorm - one of the girls has moved out, so now it's just the three of us. We decided to move the beds so that there wasn't just a gap, but it took all of us to get it done."
Peter smiled almost sympathetically, hugging his knees closer to his chest, "Well, at least it's just you now. Alicia was just ruining the fun for you three from what you've told me."
"Yeah, she really didn't like us." Amie laughed a little, looking up as she felt a tap on her shoulder.
Lily Evans, a girl in the boys' year, stood over her, her ginger hair practically giving off its own light as it caught the sun. She held out a book - the potions book from Lily's sixth year - and Amie took it gratefully. James, as though he'd sensed Lily's presence, scrambled to sit up and fix the top he was wearing back over his stomach, but Lily barely even spared him a glance.
"I haven't seen you yet, but now that I have, I remembered that I promised to give this to you. It's got all my notes in it, and..." She leaned down, the smell of her coconut shampoo drifting across the group, "A lot of the textbook instructions are wrong, so follow my lead."
She winked at Amie, straightened up, and then left, jogging to catch up with her friends who were walking towards the Black Lake, possibly to dip their feet into the refreshing water.
[***]
Night had fallen slowly, stumbling over the sky as if unsure about whether to occur, and the Hogwarts students had been forced to trek back inside for dinner, joining together as a school for the hour or so it took for everybody to eat their meals. Amie separated from the boys, allowing them to join Remus and a few of the girls at their table while she made her way to hers.
"My arms kill," Olivia complained as she pulled her hair up into a ponytail, "We should have asked Sprout to change the beds around."
"Where's the victory?" Daphne countered, "Ding dong, the witch is gone, and we're finally free. We needed to do it ourselves to mark our win." She swung her hand back and forth over her shoulder as if ringing a bell, but Olivia tugged the limb back down.
"Don't! We may be Hufflepuff, but that doesn't mean you won't get a slap to the face."
"I can take a slap to the face," Daphne leaned slightly into the girl next to her, "What I can't take is Alicia singing at the top of her lungs in the shower, and then demanding we make no sound once she's all tucked up in bed."
"You should feel lucky that you get to room with each other," Will - the only boy in the group - joined in, "I'm stuck with the macho men who make our room smell like... I don't even know what. Once a week I'm stuck in the common room because one of them has a girl up there."
Amie rested her head on his shoulder, "It's a hard life, Will."
"Truly." He mumbled, kissing her hair before she sat up again.
The group fell into a comfortable silence as they each continued to eat. Amie sliding the penne pasta onto the prongs of her fork, Olivia cutting meat off of a chicken wing, Daphne biting into a slice of pizza, and Will pushing the leaves of his salad around his plate. After being friends for five years, words weren't particularly necessary for the four of them to communicate.
The formal meal-time passed and students began intermingling between houses, the Hufflepuff table getting gradually emptier as they all joined their friends from Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. One exception to this rule was Dorcas Meadowes, who slid from the Slytherin table to join the group at the Hufflepuff one
"Okay, so," She started as she took her seat next to Olivia, "Alice told me that she and Frank were finally getting together. He finally got the balls to ask her out during the summer."
"Oh, Merlin," Daphne shook her head, "She can do better."
"What do you mean? Frank's lovely - he would be a good boyfriend." Amie argued.
"But it's Alice." Olivia winced.
"You hardly know her - we only know so much about her life because Cas is friends with her. It's the same with Marlene McKinnon, we're not friends but I know everything about her life," Will said in between bites of lettuce, "God, I wish my summer was so eventful that someone asked me out."
"Nobody had an eventful summer," Amie rested her cheek on her fist, "Apart from Alice, of course."
"Liv, did you get to visit Vietnam this year?" Dorcas asked, turning to look at the girl, who had grown suspiciously quiet.
"Oh, uh, no," She shook her head, putting her fork down and resting her hands in her lap, "No, I didn't. It feels like ages since I've been to see my family."
"I hear you," Will added sombrely.
His family had been divided as soon as he'd gotten his Hogwarts letter. Half in support of his magical ability, half confident that he was a child of Satan, and a freak. His muggle family found it difficult to deal with his magic, but his parents always loved him, and that was all he could hope for.
"We're all the family we need anyway," Daphne reached over the table to ruffle Will's hair as Amie enveloped his hand in her own.
"We certainly annoy each other like siblings." Will rolled his eyes as he tried to fix his hair, though the smile on his face made certain the girls they had done a fine job cheering him up.
Just as they always did.