Sirius! Wake up!"
I blinked my eyes open at the sudden sound, my head rapidly raising itself up from the table I'd been sleeping on? My hands and feet automatically taking up a prompt defensive stance.
My gaze briefly took in the professor in the middle of the room, currently urging people to- Leave? From the looks of which we were currently the last off.
Where the fu-
-Jab-
Turning towards Potter, because who else would have the balls? I found the wizard staring at me with an exasperated look on his face.
"Come on! We have to go, the lesson's over!"
"But- I didn't learn anything!"
James didn't dignify that with a response as he settled for grabbing his bag and promptly making way towards the door, my own feet automatically following, a single hand scratching the side of my head. Briefly looking back towards the table I'd sat at, I promptly remembered what had ended up happening.
I'd messed up the runic sealing.
James idly turned back towards me for a moment, a single raised eyebrow on his face.
Figuring I'd spoken out loud again, I promptly explained what I'd meant. "..."
Now, while I could've simply copied out whatever runic seal I'd used in McGonagall's lesson, it wouldn't have been enough to stop the headmaster from actually modifying it- For whatever reason.
Honestly. Who did things just because it made something safer? Cowards that's who.
James rubbed the bridge of his nose at that one, just as we both passed the professor himself.
"Now remember- Mr Black," Odd-
-Jab-
-job called out just as we reached the door.
Rolling my eyes, I turned towards the miniature professor.
"Yes... Sir?"
Honestly? Didn't have a problem with Flitwick, pretty cool dude all things considered.
He let me sleep in his lesson. What more could I ask for?
"Do try to avoid overexerting yourself like that, perhaps next time don't blow up any of the classroom desks?"
It was rather eerie he'd managed to say all of that with a smile.
Still, I nodded in response and turned back ahead, rather eager to leave the classroom itself. James Potter, for once, taking the lead himself.
It seemed the professor had figured me to have suffered a sudden case of magic exhaustion, which considering I'd rescinded that first desks life-span back to the beginning of its time certainly made enough sense on paper.
"If you feel any other signs of distress, a quick visit to the infirmary will have you feeling better by dinner!" The professor called out further just as we left the room. The two of us immediately releasing a sigh of relief as soon as we were out of earshot.
"Ok, really this time, what happened!?" James questioned warily.
I blinked, not realizing I hadn't in fact told him anything.
"Forgot to put in a two." I shrugged my answer, electing to take the lead myself. Which was as true as I was going to bother explaining at any rate. Given the seal itself solely worked off using numbers and no other letters meant the numbers themselves had far more meaning and power behind them to help make up for it- which more or less left the side-effects rather bizarre, to say the least.
Stupid freaking two.
It seemed, in my infinite wisdom, my attempts to prevent Dumbledore from modifying my work of art had somehow turned the desk from a thought-translator to a sleep-inducer.
James Potter chose that moment to stop walking, instead electing to give me the most deadpan stare I'd seen out of him yet.
"What?" he questioned, genuinely baffled. Which was a rather odd response... I'd figured that would've been enough of an explanation but evidently not.
"Considering that desk's still enchanted, I feel bad for the first poor NEWT-class bastard that decides to sit there."
"...Again, what?"
Well, he's clearly not listening.
"So, what'd you end up learning?" I chose instead to question as we once again started moving back towards the great-hall, just in time for lunch at that.
After which was... Astronomy? Which... Well... Yeah... That wasn't going to be fun at all. Really hope the stars are all there this time...
James' response was fairly level if one ignored the sudden frown on his face at any rate. Still, the boy was a good sport, even with my ignorant ass, given he actually answered me properly.
"...We learned the levitation charm," The boy promptly took his wand out again, albeit taking a step back from me as he- took out a feather? With his other hand. At which point, using his wand-arm, he promptly cast off said spell.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
I watched as he let go of said feather in mid-air; without it falling. In fact, I'd go as far as saying the feather inched upwards the slightest bit.
"...You know, it'd probably go higher if you just threw it," I shrugged and simply kept on walking, completely missing the sudden twitch that popped up on his face. "But man, that charm brings back so many memories!" I couldn't help but add, earning another confused, albeit curious, expression out of the boy.
"You've practiced this before?" He questioned, his feet for whatever reason, moving closer towards me. A single hand raised for a whisper of sorts. "Where'd you get the wand? Did your father let you use his one to-?"
"..." Well, I am pretty sure James just snitched on his father. Under-eleven-year-old wizards weren't exactly allowed near any magical wands.
For good reason too; Accidental magic was so much more lethal with a wand-focus amping it up, before concentrating it.
At the mildly irritated expression on the boy's face, I chose to answer his question.
"No... I wouldn't say that. The charm just brought back some fun memories with one of my cousins,"
"...Oh, which one? I might know them," James deadpanned towards me, still somehow keeping in step with me despite the constant change in our pacing speed.
"The crazy one,"
"...That doesn't help,"
"Neither did that charm,"
"...Ok I am curious, what exactly happened?"
I briefly considered the question, idly scratching my non-existent chin as my mind wondered whether what I was about to say constituted as child-abuse or not.
Unlike James, I didn't really want to snitch on my family, so... Yeah.
"Well, see, basically- Why are you looking at me like that?"
"...Just.... answer," The boy sighed, taking a single turn left as he did, my own feet copying him.
"..Okay then, basically, my family has this little fun tradition with every newborn baby-"
"Oh my god, don't tell me they levitated you into the sky and dropped you on your head!?"
"What- That's oddly specifi-"
"Oh, that explains so much!"
"Hold on a-"
"How many times were you dropped as a baby?"
Visibly twitching, myself for once, I held in the urge to sigh. "I wasn't dropped as a baby!"
"...Oh? What's the story then?"
Maybe if you'd let me finish- Why am I arguing with myself?
Briefly shaking the irritation out of my face, literally, I collected my thoughts and tried to remember what the hell it was we were talking about- Oh right!
"As I was saying, my family has a tradition where whenever there's a newborn in the family, the cousins get to play something called 'Curse the baby!'"
"..." James Potter stared at me, seemingly speechless at the words.
"Of course, it didn't really work with me because the magic just kept bouncing back towards them but you get the idea!"
"...So many questions..."
"You can ask one, we're almost at the hall,"
"...What does that have to do with the levitation charm?"
I blinked at the question.
"Oh! No, you misunderstood!"
"Oh-?"
"They literally used curses, it's not a euphemism, they only used Dark magic!"
"...I am going to have my lunch and pretend we never had this conversation,"
"Funny, my cousin said the same thing to me the first time she tried playing 'Curse the baby' with my brother,"
"...There's two of you!?"