Chapter 16
September 14th 1978
Regulus
"Severous." I call out and hoping to get my friend to look up from his personalized potion textbook. "How can I help you Black." He drawls not even looking up from his book, instead simply flipping to the next page. "Could I borrow a vial of Vetaserum?"
He looks up from his book lazily. "And by that you mean can you have a vial of illegal Vetaserum, seeing as you can not return it and to borrow is to use something then return it at a later date." He lectures and i roll my eyes. "Fine, Sev. Can I have a vial of Your Vetaserum."
He studies me for a moment before turning back to the book in his lap. "Fine." He says and I smirk and wait for further instructions. He doesn't go on.
I tap my foot in annoyance before huffing. "Severous!" He rolls his eyes before looking up at me. "It's in my nightstand in the top drawer, you should be able to find it based on the labels—that is of course based on the assumption that your incompetence does not branch as far as your comprehension of basic reading." Always the drama queen.
"Thank you for your assistance Severous, the favor will be returned." I give a little mock bow and turn to the stairwell to go up to our shared room with Lucius, Barty, and Mini Malfoy. I get two steps up the stairs before I'm intercepted by Narcissa and the others all coming down to head down to the great hall for breakfast.
"We're all headed down for breakfast, will you two be joining us?" She asks in her ever so polite tone and I give a sly smirk. "Not now cousin, I have business to attend to, but I'll be there shortly." I tell her leaning onto the railing as to let them all get through to the main level. "Suit yourself, little cousin." Andromeda answers as they all start heading for breakfast. Severous Narrows his eyes,
"What are you up to, Black?"
I saunter into breakfast about fifteen minutes later, quite satisfied with myself as I take my seat at the breakfast table next to Bella and Lucius. "And where were you, exactly?" Andromeda asks and I simply smile into the cup of pumpkin juice I brought to my lips. "Don't concern yourself with my tedious adventures, Dromeda."
I see Narcissa narrowing her eyes in suspicion but I don't give her any more reason to suspect me of anything and fall into easy conversation with my pears, Lucius and I discussing plans for the team this year.
I pretend to listen, nodding my head occasionally, offering small clipped answers when necessary, but really my attention is on the other side of the room, where a girl sits adorned in red and gold. I smirk in triumph when I see the golden girl take a sip from her goblet of Vetaserum dosed pumpkin juice.
You might be wondering how exactly I managed to slip the potion in her drink when she's constantly surrounded by her gryffindor entourage, well I didn't.
After grabbing the Vetaserum from our dorm, I simply stopped by the kitchens and asked a house elf for a bit of help on a matter of concern. I fed them the excuse that, 'Miss Granger hasn't been feeling well and asked me for a potion for her ails, but was a bit embarrassed to take it in front of others.' The house elves immediately melted, saying that they'd 'do anything for mistress granger!'
And just like that my plan was sealed...
Sirius
I see so much of my brother in my niece that it's scary. She talks like him, she acts like him, bloody hell she even eats like him. She doesn't drink coffee just like him, instead choosing to drink Hot choco with nutmeg and cinnamon, just like he always did. It's almost like I have my brother back—only less conniving.
"James, do close your mouth, it's bad etiquette to chew with one's mouth open." Now that, is all Cissa. She definitely got my cousins grace, that's for sure. And from what Harry has told me she has Bella's temper too, but Dromedas kindness.
Harry shakes his head smiling as his father smirks. "Oh I'm sorry, Your Majesty! I wasn't aware my etiquette was such a concern for you!" Hermione glares. "Well if you weren't eating like such an animal, it wouldn't be!" She crosses her arms. James smile just gets bigger.
"Oh princess! you know what? For you, I'll chew with my mouth closed like a proper gentleman." He says putting an arm around my niece as she rolls her eyes. "I do insist you stop calling me that." She responds waving off the rest of the sentence and I practically see his eyes light up with mischief.
"Oh, I'm sorry Princess, I wasn't aware it was a problem." He grins and she elbows him in the side. "Your quite the violent princess!" He groans, clutching his side. She smirks, flicking him on the head. "And you forget it." She whispers menacingly into his ear.
She turns to me. "Hey Da—erm, Sirius?" She grimaces, and everyone knows about the situation does too, I pretend not to have noticed, all while my mind is whirling. "Yeah, what's up?"
How could I not have realized that I might not be the only one seeing regulus in the other. Regulus and I did look fairly alike though not identical. is it possible that she sees her dead father every time she looks at me?
"I, uh, was just wondering what class we've got." She still stumbles over her words in embarrassment as I once again, pretend I don't notice. "Potions with Slytherin." I sneer.
I don't understand why they are so adamant about putting the houses that hate each other the most in the two most dangerous classes together. Since being at Hagwarts, I've had Potion and DADA with Slytherin every year without fail. It's like they want us to kill each other. James groans.
"Oh goody."
Regulus
We're thirty minutes into potions and I still haven't gotten the chance to test out the effects of the Vetaserum. I watch her from beside Severous, her foot tapping against the floor, her body angled so she can watch longbottom Jr and Crouch absolutely fuck up the assigned potion.
She winces every two seconds, so I'm guessing they're not doing too great but I'm too busy watching her to notice. She looks like she's trying to hold herself back from jumping up to do it herself. I see her sneak a peek at Slughorn her eyes almost yelling, 'you're not going to stop this madness?' This goes on another five minutes before she huffs standing up and walking over to them, plucking the knife from Longbottom Jr's shaking hands.
He looks up at her as she starts to chop the ingredients herself. "I'm sorry Neville, but I refuse to watch you fail potions for the Seventh time." He looks relieved, like he was about to shit his pants before she came along.
She nods down to where she's slicing the ingredients. "It says slice Thinly Neville. Thinly." She emphasizes as she slices off another piece. "Now put those in the cauldron." She orders and poor little Longbottom fumbles around like a lost puppy as he tries to fulfill the simple instruction.
She turns to Barty. "Do try to contribute Crouch, I find it hard to believe that a Slytherin such as yourself would be incompetent at Potions." Crouch sits up opening his mouth with a rebuttal but is cut off once again by the cunning witch. "So your either Lazy, or simply stupid, pick one, however if it is just laziness—as I believe it to be—it won't continue from hence fourth."
The statement is both an insult and a compliment, so it's no wonder when Barty just smiles and starts preparing ingredients. The witch is clever, I'll give her that. She prepares the potion as well as a professional potioneer would, exact and precise in her measurements, never missing a step.
I'm about to start my investigation when Crouch does instead. "So, Granger right?" He asks grinning at her as they both prepare the potion, The granger girl stopping every once and a while to fix whatever mess longbottoms managed to make while she wasn't paying attention. "Yes, crouch. That is my name." She says coldly but he doesn't falter.
"So, beautiful witch like you, savior of the wizarding world, I'm supposed to believe that no wizard has tried to snatch you up?" He says mischievous and I see longbottom stiffen. She shakes her head not fazed. "Not really, no." I'm surprised but I know it's true seeing as what was in her pumpkin juice this morning.
Crouch continues. "Any siblings?" He asks forgoing the potion entirely, choosing instead to rest his chin on his hand and grin at her. Almost all of the Slytherins are watching the interaction by now, them too curious about our resident mystery girl. "Not blood." She answers simply and I see longbottoms mouth tilt up a tad.
"So what's your story, Granger?" He asks, and it's like he's the one who slipped truth serum in her drink with plans to question her, because he's practically doing the job for me. She sighs. "My mother was a genius, my Father commanded respect." She chops the piece of lugworm she's holding extra hard. "So, when they died they left no instructions, just a legacy to protect." She seems to not even notice that she's said the words out loud and simply resumes the potion almost as if she'd simply said it in her own mind.
Even longbottom has looked up, interested in hearing what the golden haired beauty has to say. At this point the entire class has tuned into the conversation, Slytherins and Gryffindors alike listening intently to the little witch.
I furrow my brows as Crouch goes further. "So, what houses were your parents." Crouch you fucking genius. I didn't have to do any work to get my answers, crouch did it all for me simply for his own amusement and curiosity. "Slytherin and Gryffindor." I snap my head up, my brain coming up with a million different scenarios. What Slytherin girl would go within a seven foot pole of my brother?
I'm not the only one who found the comment odd, as longbottoms head snapped up so fast I thought he'd break it. "But you're a muggle born?" He asks confusion marring his face. Everyone in Slytherin watches with keen interest as the scene unfolds.
The girl goes dead pale, as if finally realizing she's been talking out loud. I can practically feel her horror. She quickly tries to backtrack. "Oh, erm, well, you see—what I meant was that If my parents were witches and wizards—which they're not—they would be in Slytherin and gryffindor." She says rubbing the back of her neck nervously, glancing over and the 'marauders' none of which were paying attention.
Longbottoms oblivious ass stares at her in confusion. "Hm, when I met your parents at the train station your parents seemed like quite hufflpuffs, or maybe ravenclaw." The girl looks like she's having an internal breakdown, her eyes are wide and flipping to a million places in the room. She chuckles nervously. "What can I say, my Mum can be quite the Slytherin when she wants to be." She fiddles with her hair nervously. "Erm excuse me, Neville. I have to go do...something!" She rushes out before hurrying out of the class room.
Slughorn turns around startled by the sound of the door slamming. She scans the room and takes note of which seat is empty. "Is Miss Granger Alright?" He asks though the question is for anyone who will answer it, his eyes find mind specifically. I smirk.
"I think Miss Granger is a bit under the weather."
2070 words
Hey guys, I know this one is a little shorter then usual but I hope you like it. Got a little cute James Hermione moment. I'll try to get next chapter out as soon as possible but there might be a delay from here on before classes are starting up, but I will try my absolute best for you guys.