The Lesson I learned

By: Sailoranime

Disclaimer: Not mine.

AN: Ah... well, here it is. I always have trouble writing sequels and stuff, so this might not be really great.

He couldn't believe he was about to do this. It was... unthinkable! But here he was, walking to his doom. Sirius gave a dramatic sigh and ran his hands through his hair. No one understood. Being the most handsome, popular, and covetted boy in the school was hard work. It was all James's fault, he reasoned, for falling for Lily. The whole female population knew about James's infatuation with the redhead, so they had left James alone and instead focused on him. Yes, he had to admit, it had its perks. But then there were also situations like these...

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. James had come out of it okay, hadn't he? Despite Sirius's constant teasing remarks and snide comments, he'd managed the situation with dignity and he had put an end to it eventually. But perhaps this doesn't make sense to you. You see, the reason behind our loveable marauder's bad mood is a girl. Not a girl he fancied. Not a girl who was a friend. A girl that was stalking him. Yep. Sirius Black was being stalked. Stalked by the same girl who had stalked James last year. Sirius hoped she'd move her attentions to Peter next year, the poor sap needed a girlfriend. Someone to keep him occupied and change his beliefs on where babies came from.

However, all his prayers seemed to go unanswered, and Deanna Navarro was still stalking him. There WAS a simple solution to the problem, but Sirius would never sink that low. He would never ask James how to get rid of her. For one thing, he'd never live it down. James would return every remark Sirius had made last year with twice the viciousness. Then there was bound to be a lot of teasing about him not being able to handle a girl on his own.

No, he decided. He'd handle it on his own. No matter what it took. He'd give in to her demands. He had to. There was no other choice. Finally, he reached the classroom they, or rather SHE, had picked for their meeting. He took a deep breath and counted to ten. In French. Then, after much mental preparation, he opened the door with a pained look on his face. SHE was sitting on one of the desks. Oh, the horror. She wasn't bad looking, she was actually pretty. Her body was okay too, and the muggle skirt and shirt she was wearing looked rather good on her. The only problem was...

" Oh my god! Sirius, you're here! I wasn't sure you'd come, you know. I mean, you're like so cool and you must totally be busy with other stuff, you know. I was like so totally disappointed when you didn't show up at the time I told you, and I was about to like, you know, leave. But then I thought, what if he's just a little bit late. And I'd totally wait forever to see you, you know." Sirius would have come up with a sarcastic remark, had the girl not spoken faster that a herd of rampaging Hippogrifs.

He had never particularly liked her. She was Slytherin after all. Why, though, he could not say. He had alwasy thought she was nice, though still very annoying. It wasn't until last week when she had sent him that blasted note that he realized her true nature. Oh, he had read so many times in hopes of guessing whther she was sane or not that he had memorised the note by the end of breakfast. His fist tightened over the wrinkled and abused note in his pocket. He took it out, and read it one last time

Dear Sirius,

I wanted to ask, did you get my bouquet of flowers? I thought you might not have because you never talked to me about them... Oh, and did you love the way I enchanted your quill to keep writing 'I love Sirius Black' all over your parchment? You never even looked at me, so I wasn't sure... I'm not sure if you saw, but I enchanted the enchanted ceiling the other day to spell out 'I love you, Sirius' with the stars. I thought the two weeks of detention I got would be worth it, but you didn't even say anything to me!

I thought you might not know it was me, so I was more obvious the next time. But you never even said anything about the ants I sent scurring to your dormitory to deliver a note to you and spell 'Deanna loves you, Sirius.' It was the only reason I could think of. I've been following you around for a while now, hoping to overhear you talking to your friends about me, because now the posibility that you didn't know it was me was ruled out. I thought maybe you were a little shy. But that doesn't seem to be the case either, because you never mentioned me. Not ONCE. So now I'm making you an offer. I found a certain thing in Muggle Studies that might interest you. Something you'd never want anyone seeing, as it would ruin your reputation. So meet me in the potions classroom at five tomorrow. And bring your acting skills!

Sincerely,

Denise

Yes, Sirius had noticed all of these things. And it had been hell making sure the others didn't. It had taken all the cunning he posessed to keep the others unaware of his plight. He had been fairly successful, except for the quill incident. James had noticed before he had, but he had written it off as his overly large ego, much to Sirius's relief.. At first, he had thought she was bluffing. She had to be. But there was that last line... She had to have found it. There was no other explanation. He could have sworn he had lost it in DADA, but maybe he had been mistaken. Whatever the case, she had found it. And she was blackmailing him with it. He had thought about destroying that picture, the last of its kind, but he had put it off for so long. He should have done it sooner, instead of always thinking he could not be bothered with it at the moment.

You see, when he was 9, his mother had decided to skip the conventional punishments after a particularly loud argument with her. It had taken her days to come up with something evil enough. In the end, she would have given up... if it hadn't been for that little rat, Regulus. He had 'innocently' reminded Mrs. Black about the play that his school was putting on. And Mrs. Black found the perfect punishement. To make Sirius audition for it. Much to her delight, and his indignation, he landed the lead role. Of the princess. He had auditioned for the role of a minor character... an exceptionally happy one. He had marched right in there and said all his lines in a grumpy and sulky voice.

They told him he wasn't right for that part. Keyword being 'that'. So they had given him the role of the princess, who acted sulky thoughout the whole story. The director had even said that his semi-long hair could be made to grow faster for a week before the prefomance if he took a potion every night. So he had attended the rehearsals at his mothers orders, and had taken the potion for a week before the play, causing him to look more like a girl everyday. He had told James he couldn't visit because he had gotten his spleen removed. James had not known or cared what that was, and had not insisted on visiting. That little brat, Regulus, had insisted on taking pictures during the whole play. He turned to the girl after she cleared her thoat.(AN: Umbridge, anyone?) He had completely forgotten about her presence.

" So what do you want, Navarro?" he asked, stuffing the note back in his robes. She seemed dilighted that he had kept it. Maybe she'd go easier on him. She jumped off the desk and walked over to him.

" Well, the thing is, I'm auditioning for this play during the summer, you know. And I'm not really sure I'm good enough, so I want you to rehearse with me. Since you love acting so much... Just this one time, don't worry. I'll give it to you after we're done." she slowed down a little, so Sirius could actually understand what she was saying. Well, almost.

" Rehearse? With you?" he was about to say, 'that's it?', but he kept quiet, afraid of giving her ideas. She nodded.

" Just this once." he asked. She nodded again. Knowing he was sentencing himself, he nodded. She smiled.

" Okay, we're supposed to mmet at a masked ball, you know. And since I don't, like, have a mask, I thought you could wear this." she said. Sirius once again was at a loss. He had not understood one word in that jumbled mess she called a coherent sentence. However, he was saved from asking when she took out a black thing from her pocket. Sirius took it and gave her a questioning look. She ignored it. He took it hesitantly. Deciding she was not going to be helpful, he took it, and made to put it on his foot. She giggled. Guessing that's probably not where it went, he made a second guess.

Slowly and hesitantly, he raised his arms over his head and attempted to put it on his head. The lack of giggling told him he was putting it in the right place, but that didn't explain why he couldn't see. She gave an exasperated groan and fixed it for him. Now he could see. The next sight he caught made him wish he couldn't though. She had now donned a mask with feathers all other sorts of sparkly stuff that covered her eyes. She looked like... a peacock's head or something. He was about to say something when he heard James's voice. Sirius felt like swearing. Loudly. He turned to the door and saw... no one.

" What was...? Oh, the mirror... What the hell does James want now?" he muttered, signaling to Deanna to be quiet.

" Sirius, what the hell are you wearing?" James asked sharply. Remus and Peter both appeared in the mirror quite suddenly, just as Sirius realized he was still wearing the weird black thing. He quickly removed it.

" What were you wearing that for, Sirius?" Peter asked. Sirius was now very annoyed. He was not about to be questioned by half-brain while he was negotiating. Or rather, being controlled.

" Never you mind. I really have to get going." he answered with a frown, and before they could protest, he tapped the mirror with his wand and the image diasppeared. Sirius sighed, hoping James wouldn't call him again. He stuck the mirror in his pocket and put the mask back on, although backwards, and then turned to Deanna.

" Come on, I don't have all day." he growled. She grinned, knowing he couldn't see her. Oh, this was going to be hell...

Finally, after a painful 4 hours, she was going to let him go. They had rehearsed every scene at least twice, and she seemed rather fond of the kissing scenes because he had made him rehearse them at least 3 times each. Sirius Black was not a happy man. He had the feeling that if he just snogged her senseless the first time instead of giving her quick half second kisses on her cheek, she'd let him go, but he wasn't about to do that. He would have preferred detention with Filch to this. At least he wouldn't have to kiss Flich. She sighed and looked though her bag.

" Okay, we're done!" she said in a very cheerful voice. Then in a strangely slow voice she spoke again. " You held up your end of the bargain. I'm holding up mine." she said, taking a folded piece of parchment out of her bag. Sirius was happy for the first time that day. And she had had the decency of keeping the picture covered! With a very relieved smile, he took the parchment. One could never trust Slytherins, so he unfolded the parchment to find something he had not expected.

'Why I love Acting

By: Sirius Black'

was written at the top. The paper had been graded, and it had gotten a 'D' for Dreadful. Mostly because he knew very little about acting and had written the paper while the other essays were being collected. But he hadn't lost this. He had thrown it away. His first thought was

'Ew... she was going through my trash,' but it was interrupted by a second more pressing thought. 'She never had the picture.' his eyes widened. He had done all this for nothing! He turned to stare at her.

" THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE? THIS IS WHAT YOU WERE BLACKMAILING ME WITH?" he thundered. She didn't look intimidated.

" I wasn't blackmailing you! I was requesting a favor from you in exchange for something. Besides, aren't you glad you got to rehearse with me?"

" NO! I NEVER WOULD HAVE COME!" Sirius raged. He felt very pissed off and misleaded. She looked angry now.

" You're lucky I allow you to get NEAR me, Black! I'm leaving!"

" Good! I want you to leave!" he stormed.

" Well, I am! And just so you know, James was a better kisser!" she shrieked, and stomped out. Seconds later, she popped her head into the room again, but now she was smiling.

" But thanks for your help. I'm bound to get the part this year!"

AN: Okay, I'm done. Ooh! That was a bit too long for me! Anyway, now for a chameless plug! grins This was a one shot spin-off for Dwelling. It was written because people asked me what Sirius was doing with a ski mask, and I couldn't explain within that story. So anyway, go read that. NOW. Just kidding. BTW, if you're a fan of the Marauders and a member at , check out Marauder Mayhem, a guild dedicated to the Marauders. We have contests, links to our favorite fanfiction and fanart, and special activities on the full moon in honor of Moony. Well, we have more stuff, but that's all I'm going to say here. BTW, it's under the username 'sailormelody', so kindly drop in. Well, that's it. Don't forget to review.