- Text Size +
Glacius


Sirius ran faster than he’d ever run in his entire life, down the length of the tunnel, headed for the school. He shoved the warm cheese and pork chop that Peter had stolen for him into his mouth as he went, knowing he wouldn’t have time to get to breakfast. He fell a couple times, tripping over roots and hitting the ground with his knees, only making his messy clothes even dirtier. Yanking the invisibility cloak on over his head when he reached the Whomping Willow, he pulled the lever and scrambled out onto the grass before bolting out over the grounds. When he’d reached a shaded place, back pressed to the castle stone, he pulled the cloak off and jammed it roughly into his bag. “Alright, quickest way to Charms,” he murmured, thinking about the layout of the castle, desperately wishing he had the Marauder’s Map with him to check on it.

Finally, he sprinted toward the greenhouses. He crept along, ducking below a fence covered with big yellow flowers that giggled and waved their leaves at him as he snuck by them. He peeked over as he neared the back of greenhouse three and then hurriedly vaulted over the fence and made for the entrance between the Bell Towers. He rushed across down the corridor, his eyes flicking out the door to the Transfiguration courtyard, where he saw a herd of Ravenclaws walking by, probably on their way to Herbology with the Slytherins. He dodged ‘round a bend and into a passageway they’d found that would bring him up to the Charms corridor.

He came skidding down the hallway toward the Charms door - from the wrong direction as they usually would - just as Lily was stepping inside, also looking hurried and disheveled, though not anywhere near as badly as Sirius did. He was panting and red faced and her hair was out of place and they ran into each other and both took a step back as Lily’s books spilled to the floor before them. Sirius reached for one, and so did she, and their heads banged against one another with a thunk and they both pulled back, groaning. Lily reached again for the books, then looked up at him. “You’re alright then?”

“Brilliant,” he wheezed.

“Good.” She turned to the Charms classroom, “Oh. Um. Whatever James Potter tells you happened - he’s exaggerating,” she added and disappeared inside.

Sirius raised an eyebrow and quickly hastened after Lily, tossing himself in next to James at their usual seat, still breathing heavily.

James looked over at him. “Oi, you are rank,” he complained, waving a hand beneath his nose to evacuate the smell. “You couldn’t have changed?”

“I only just… made it here… as it is… you tosser,” Sirius panted, clutching a stitch in his side.

“You look like bloody hell,” James commented.

Sirius grinned, “I feel like bloody hell, too. Oiiii that’s a long run.” He leaned back in his chair, exhausted, then he noticed that each of their desks had a cup of water upon it and he leaned forward, “Perfect day for Flitwick to be providing refreshments,” he said, catching up his water and throwing it back quickly.

“Uhhh,” James reached a hand out to stop him, but the water was already down, and Sirius was smacking his lips. James looked up at Flitwick, who had just finished putting the last of the glasses before Lily. “Sirius has drank our assignment, Professor,” he said.

Sirius wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and put the glass down.

“Mr. Black! Please don’t drink the assignments!” Flitwick waved his wand, “Aquamenti,” he called and it refilled instantly with more water as Flitwick put the tray he’d been carrying down on his desk and climbed up his stack of books to be seen from the front of the classroom. “Today, we’ll be learning the Freezing Charm, glacius,” announced Flitwick. “The Freezing Charm is most useful in situations in which you need to cool things down - for example, an you’ve found an ashwinder in your closet or a salamander. But the Freezing Charm will do wonders for creating ways across running water in a pinch and also --” he waved his wand at an extra glass and instantly there was a frost to the outside of it, “-- making a cold drink on a hot summer day.” Flitwick grinned, lifted the glass, then looked at Sirius again, “But still, please don’t drink the assignment.”

They began working on freezing and unfreezing the cups of water and the moment Flitwick was distracted - Peter had managed to freeze himself with the first wave of his wand - James turned to Sirius. “You’ll never believe what happened last night.”

Sirius glanced in Lily’s direction and had a feeling he was about to hear whatever it was that she’d been so keen for Sirius to know had been exaggerated. He looked at James. “What happened?”

“Evans kissed me,” James whispered.

Sirius’s eyebrows nearly shot up off his forehead. “Kissed you? Evans?” He looked over at her. She’d already gotten her water frozen, as though there wasn’t a challenge to the assignment at all. Sirius turned back to James, grinning in amusement. “Yeah right.”

“No, she did,” James said eagerly. “Right here.” He tapped the side of his mouth with his wand.

“Careful you don’t freeze your nose off,” Sirius said, snickering as a couple icy sparks fluttered from James’s wand, making a frost on his eyebrow.

James wiped his eyebrow, “It was incredible, mate,” he sighed dreamily.

Sirius laughed and rolled his eyes. Lily was right - he was sure James was exaggerating. He pictured Lily having accidentally kissed him somehow - there was no way she’d done it on purpose, not Lily Evans to James Potter. No way. Sirius said, “What in Merlin’s beard made her give you this alleged kiss?”

James flushed. “Well, see, she was asking about you and Moony and was getting terribly nosey and I was just really tired of her asking all these questions all persistent like and finally I told her I’d tell her exactly what was going on - the whole story - if she’d snog with me for ten minutes in the common room.”

Sirius stared at James for a moment. “That is called extortion, mate, and it’s illegal.”

James said, defensive, “I didn’t think she’d do it! I just wanted her off my back, you know?”

Sirius snickered. “C’mon James. We both know Evans didn’t snog you.”

James nodded, “Yeah, you’re right, she didn’t snog me, but before we went to bed, she kissed me. Just once. It was pretty quick, but it was still a kiss.”

“So what did you tell her then?” Sirius asked.

“I told her you were alright, and that’s all the information that one kiss would get her,” James replied. “Even if it was a lovely kiss.”

Sirius eyed James. He could see the truth in James’s eyes and he glanced over at Lily Evans, who had peeked their way, but then quickly turned back to her water glass, ducking her head so her hair covered her blushing face. So she had kissed him. Well this was a new development - a very interesting one indeed. Sirius smirked and looked at James. “Alright, then, mate, how was it?” he asked.

James grinned, “Bloody brilliant.”

“Everything you hoped it would be?” Sirius asked.

“I hadn’t even realized I was hoping for it,” James replied dreamily, “But I know I am now. She’s awakened a beast.”

Sirius laughed, “I hear that.”

“Siriiiius,” James hissed, “I’m not fooling you, it was incredible. It was only a second - a peck, really - but I could picture doing it all the rest of my life.” He sighed and flicked his wrist at the water cup and a thin layer of ice crackled across the top.

Sirius waved his wand at his and frost hissed around the warm glass, freezing it quite quickly. “Well,” he said, running his finger over The Standard Book of Spells Grade 3 for the counter-charm, “I’m happy for you. But I think you’ll have a time of convincing Evans to go along with letting you fulfill that life’s ambition.”

James rubbed his chin, watching Lily work across the room. “I’ll melt her down, you’ll see.”

“Might want to focus on melting down your ice water first,” Sirius pointed at the glass.

James flicked his wand carelessly and the glass shattered, spraying water all over them. “Blimey!” he shouted.

Flitwick called out, “CAREFULLY!” across the room, but he was too busy with keeping Peter from backfiring his spell to react much more than that.

Reparo,” muttered Sirius and the glass returned to its unshattered form. “Aquamenti,” Sirius added, refilling it. He looked at James with a smirk, “Just don’t do that to Evans.”

James shook his head, “Certainly not.” He squeezed water out of his soaked robes. “You needed a shower anyway, though. Too bad you didn’t have a bar of soap handy when that happened.” He smirked.

“Yeah, yeah, just dog on me about that why don’t you,” Sirius said, grinning at the pun.

James elbowed Sirius. “So how’d it go out there? You haven’t told me yet.”

“Because you were too busy going on about Evans snogging you,” Sirius accused.

“Alright well I’m finished now. Did it work? Is he alright?” James asked. He flicked his wand and the glass froze properly, as it was meant to do.

“Good one, James,” Sirius said, nodding at the glass. James bowed his head to accept the praise. “Moony’s alright,” Sirius began, “We had a bit of a row when I first got there - he kept saying Alpha-male over and over in my head in this weird doggy language - but then I found a spot where he couldn’t get me and we sort of both calmed down and he just laid there all night. So at least his leg wasn’t hurt any more than it was already. He changed back when the sun came up and I braced his leg up. He said this was the smoothest full moon he’s ever remembered, so we did something right.”

James said, “Wait, so Snuffles and Moony can talk? And you understand each other?”

“Sort of. Well, I mean, we will if I learn the language a bit more. The instincts of a dog are there, I just have to tap into them, you know? Then we’ll be alright. I want to learn more about this Alpha-male stuff, too, learn how I need to react to it and everything. I think if I can make him see me as trustworthy, then maybe we can make it all work out.”

James was prodding the ice in his glass with his wand, checking if it was frozen all the way through or not. “You should use the falsum fidelius, like we learned in Veigler’s class.”

“That’s brilliant, James,” Sirius said, impressed, a grin spreading over his face, “You’re right, I should. That’s perfect!”

James nodded, “I mean, assuming it works on -- you know, mooniness, that is.”

When they’d finished with Charms they went next to Transfiguration, where Professor McGonagall taught them a spell called the snufflifors, which turned objects into mice. Sirius and James snickered in their seats at the irony of it being so close to snuffles, given where Sirius had just come from. It wasn’t until after class that Sirius was able to run off upstairs to change before lunch, but everyone was quite pleased that he had because the scent that was coming off his dirty old clothes was just too much to bear much longer.

“It was like you’d rolled in a dirty niffler pen and then crawled through a field of guano and had a dead hippogriff tied ‘round your waist,” James exaggerated.

“See, he exaggerates everything,” Lily whispered.

They were in the Great Hall at lunch when Dumbledore merrily pushed Remus in his wheeled chair up to the table. “I’ve come to return your friend to you, fresh from the hospital wing with his new cast.” Sure enough, Remus had a new, crisp white cast wrapped around his poor leg. “I trust that you’ll all take good care in seeing that it is decorated as nicely as the last one was,” he said.

Peter nodded, “We’re on the job.”

“Very good!” Dumbledore patted the top of Remus’s head fondly, then walked away.

Sirius grinned at Remus, “Hello again.”

Remus smiled, “Hello,” he said.

“Welcome back,” Peter squeaked.

“Thank you, it’s good to be back,” Remus replied. “Oi. I’m famished,” he said, and he hurriedly took up a few bacon sandwiches and a pile of green beans with pats of butter melting over the top and a shake of salt. “Merlin’s beard this smells incredible.”

Lily looked between Remus and Sirius curiously for a moment, then glanced to be sure Frank Longbottom, Annalee McKinnon and Ali Prewitt were busy in conversation and she leaned forward and hissed, “Why didn’t you bring him food when you were out there?”

Sirius looked between Lily and James, then back again, “I dunno how much I can say about the topic… James, exactly how much information did one kiss purchase?” he asked, smirking.

Lily glowered, “Don’t tell me anything! I don’t even want to know. It’s better that way, not knowing.” She turned away.

James laughed and high-fived Sirius.