schcrzos:
Sirius leaned into her, and whispered with a small grin “Why should I waste time going to some Hogwart’s finest club when that time could be better spent at Hogsmeade…err I mean with the Beauxbatons”
“Something you and Ms. McKinnon would like to share with the class, Mr. Black?”
“Nothing professor, just showing Marlene a better way to grind the Occamy eggshell” Sirius replied in his most sincere tone, drawing a clap from the Professor “always the astute presence in the classroom, Mr. Black”
As the professor turned his back to demonstrate the sequence of spells, Sirius leaned against Marlene again, whispering “Now you know how I’m THAT lucky”.
“I swear if you mention them once more I’m gonna rip yo-” Hearing the Professor’s voice, she looked up at him, interrupting her threat to Sirius in favor of getting out of trouble early on. “Sirius is just so considerate, Professor, on top of being such a dedicated student, wouldn’t you think?” Matter of fact was, despite Marlene doing great in his classes, Professor Slughorn looked at her as though he didn’t really understood what she was doing there: something she didn’t really mind, but there was no way in Hell she wasn’t going to use her speaking time in his class to promote Sirius even more; Anything that would send Sirius more into the spotlight to be a tremendously desired member of Slughorn’s little “excellence” club meant hours of amusement for her.
“Yeah, you’re that lucky because Professor Slughorn has a massive hard-on for you and your ‘talents’.”
Sirius shrugged, whispering back “The man doesn’t have a wandering eye for the transfer students, can’t fault him for sticking with the best”.
2 hours in, everyone had left the classroom, save for Sirius and a handful. Sirius hadn’t stuck behind by choice though, more so on the urging of the Professor. “Mr. Black, are you sure you don’t have time on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for a little tea and discussion? Perhaps I could ask Mr. Potter to come if that’d persuade you.”
Sirius gave him a blank stare at the mention of Mr. Potter “With all due respect sir, I think Marlene and the others vastly overestimate my abilities. I’m just a regular seventh-year who..” Slughorn cut him short “Nonsense, my dear boy. I expect you to join us”. Sirius saw he couldn’t steer his mind away at that moment; he’d just have to talk his way out of it next time.
Sirius crashed in the Gryffindor lounge, and there was no sign of either James or Remus. James he figured was probably still after that redhead. As he laid back idly in the corner, he looked at the far-off dancing embers, as if waiting for something to happen. Near the end of Potions class, he had slipped a small blank piece of parchment inside Marlene’s bag that would only reveal his words when she tried to discard it. It read “P.S. After you’ve fixed your hair, let’s go to the Three Broomsticks”.