Painted Scars // WOLFSTAR

Year One: Secrets

One thing Sirius didn't like about being back at Hogwarts? Classes.

His bones were still rattling from the chilling goodbye his mother gave, promising to remove him from the school for good if he stepped even a toe out of line. Needless to say, Sirius was trying to be on his best behavior. Even if that meant sitting through Slughorn's class without complaint.

James and Sirius were leaning over their cauldron, and James put in the next ingredient. "Eugh," Sirius said when the potion turned to a sludgy brown. "Are you sure you diced that?" His friend turned back to the book in surprise.

"I was supposed to dice it?" Sirius made an exasperated noise, poking at it with his spoon. "It looks angry," James said, which was very astute. The potion was gurgling at them in discontent, likely upset at its unfortunate color.

"Eugh," Remus said when he turned around, making the same noise that Sirius had. "What'd you two do to it?" He was peering into the cauldron with a grimace. Sirius pointed at James instead of answering. "James, you really are awful at Potions. I don't know why he keeps offering to pair up with you."

"Because he's just as bad as me," he replied, mentioning the time he forgot the Sopophorus bean again.

"James, man, it was one time! Are you ever going to let that go?" James grinned at him. "Is there any way we can fix it? Peter, you're good at Potions, help us." Peter turned around at that, eyes going wide when he saw the potion.

"You didn't add the Addler's Tongue whole, did you?" James looked very sheepish. "If we had more time I would start over. But since we don't, try adding the oil there. Hopefully it will be enough to counteract it." Sirius made a grab for it, adding it as Professor Slughorn came around behind them.

"My, my boys, you're going to need to work at this much harder if you want to succeed in this class." Sirius went a little pink, glaring when he heard Snape snickering with his friends across the room.

"Hey, shut up, Snape!" James yelled at him, apparently hearing him too.

"Mr. Potter!" Slughorn gasped in disbelief. "That is completely inappropriate! Ten points from Gryffindor. And clean up this mess, you're as bad at keeping an organized station as you are at making potions." That seemed a bit unfair, Sirius thought vaguely. Certainly not very inspiring, which teachers were probably meant to be. "Mr. Snape, you should work on being kinder to your peers. Five points from Slytherin." Alright, he changed his mind.

"Snape's really starting to get on my nerves," Sirius mumbled when the Professor walked away. The group all seemed to agree. "One of these days I hope his potion goes bad and Slughorn gets to embarrass him for it."

"It could happen today," James said with a grin, holding up more of the Addler's Tongue. Sirius shove him with a smile at the stupid suggestion. "What? You don't think Snape could accidentally mess up his potion?"

"I don't think you're sneaky enough to slip it into his cauldron without being caught. It would also be just a bit suspicious if he messed up his potion the same day that you yelled at him." James waved him off.

"Slughorn's getting older, his brain is starting to fry. He probably doesn't even remember us fighting."

"You're terrible," Sirius said with a grin. James pushed his glasses up his nose and a glint of silver ignited his memory. "Oh, James, how could I forget? Thanks for the Christmas gift, mate, it's so cool."

"Yeah? I wasn't sure. My mum said I probably shouldn't spend so much, but I wanted us all to have something to show that we're friends." He was grinning now, turning over his own wrist and looking down at the bracelet. Sirius stuck out his arm so the four of them could compare. Everyone put out their arms except for Remus. "Don't you have yours on, mate?"