Chapter eighteen.

The following days passed as planned, I did avoid Sirius Black both in class and outside the classrooms, and I got the impression he was carrying out the same thing, which, I didn't mind. I spent time with Casper as usual and everything appeared ordinary, at least on the surface. Lara was careful to not bring up the elephant in the room, and I was forever thankful for her ability to calm me down.

On the inside I was slowly going crazy. The remembrance of his skin upon mine seemed to follow me around like my own shadow, which had a tendency to trigger all my bad sides. I acted more grumpy than Mr. Filch during christmas holidays, but I guessed the surrounding people, apart from Lara, assumed I was on that time of the month.

Beth didn't suspect a thing, and her cheerful self made it way back after her two month long Sirius Black- crisis. I believed the birthday party had made her some good. She had spent the night dancing, laughing, and flirting with at least eight different students and none of them had been called Black.

Because we all know who he spent the night with? Don't we?

"Good morning my cheerful troop of eager learners," Professor Sprout's merry voice rang out across the classroom. "Wake up you lazy oafs, I know full well it's early, but we have a lot of work to do today!" she shouted, making the half asleep students in the back jump in surprise. There was no in between with this lady. I loved it.

We were on our second class this Friday morning, first class was potions, and the hours in the dungeons had dragged by slowly. So I was excited for this herbology lesson, Sprout always kept the entire class alert.

"Now that I have all of your attention, I'll tell you what today's class will be about," she made sure everybody paid attention. "Today, I want you to go to the library and find as much information about Venomous Tentacula as you can. What it's used for, how it looks, characterises, how it smells. Everything. When you're done, you write everything you found down on the paper I'll hand you before you leave."

She lifted a bunch of parchments before proceeding.

"And to prevent you from not doing what you're supposed to I will pair you up two and two," She looked to someone in the back before continuing, "Yes Mr. Black, I'm talking to you."

"Hey." A tired voice from the back of the classroom called out.

A shiver made its way down my spine at the sound of his raspy voice. Can you imagine? A whole week with this nonsense happening as soon as he opened his damn mouth, or as soon as he walked past me, or as soon as he just happened to be in the same room as me. I couldn't stand it. All I wanted to do was to grab him by the robes and drag him to the closest corner of the castle, snogging him up real good.

But I had to act like the normal, boring and bitter Alissa, as usual. I had decided to remain the same, and not to be the next girl who gets stuck in the Black-trap. Even how tempting it was, to just let go of everything; every moral, every logical thought and every expectation about who I'm supposed to be and just follow what my body wanted me to do. It was tempting to just go a little crazy, to play by other's rules, just for once. But I didn't.

"Alissa, move!" Lara called out, and I realised I blocked the way for the queue that was forming behind me.

"Oh."

I rushed forward towards Professor Sprout who was waiting for me. In her hand she held a parchment with the assignment and in the other hand she held a folded little piece of paper. I secretly wished that the name on the paper would start with an S and end with a K.

I just need to be close to him, just for an hour or so.

"Here you go, love." she handed me the papers, and I stepped away from the line. I unfolded the little note and read the name written on it. Lily Evans. I could have got someone way worse. She's not only clever, but also one of the nicest people in this school. If you treated her right that is.

I scanned the room for the someone redheaded when Lara pinched my arm.

"Ay, why'd you do that for?" I fizzed.

"Look who my partner for today is." she faked a smile and showed me her note: Sirius Black. My eyes grew wide before I burst out laughing.

"Have fun!"

She grimaced at me before beginning the search for her partner, and I did the same.

I had little time thinking about the fact that Lara now had to spent two hours straight together with Sirius before I found Lily, standing together with Merlene outside the queue.

"Lily!" I shouted, and she looked my way. She gave me a quick wink and then kissed Merlene on the cheek before walking towards me.

"Hi partner." she smiled, while hugging her books against her chest. "Are you ready to go?"

I nodded, and we made our way out of the greenhouse, marching towards the library. Lily's long hair flew around her face when the strong wind crossed the courtyard and I pressed my arms close around my body, bloody November weather. Couldn't it snow already? We ran the remaining steps inside the castle and Lily let out a loud shudder.

"I hate this time of year!" she complained.

"Tell me about it."

We kept discussing weather and wind until we reached the entrance to the library. A lot of other students from our class had already arrived and were running around looking for the right books to read.

"Let's get to it then." I said, sounding anything but excited. At least I had one of the best in our class working with me, so maybe we would get the task done before the end of the period, unlike Lara and her not so devoted partner.

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