Back at the bar.. (Open to Ravenclaw)

[sacredharpie]

There was a loud thump as Jordan slammed her door shut. In the length of time since the Secrets Board fiasco, she'd kept herself sequestered in her room with a stack of spellbooks and scared house elves brought her food. Whenever she wasn't studying, she was sleeping, eating, or bitching. Only so much time could be spent in seclusion, and she

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[toujours_sirius]

Sirius had been lurking around Ravenclaw a lot these days, although not so much by the bar, which had at one point been one of his main hangouts. Instead, when he hadn't been in his own room in Slytherin, he had been at Lily's place, watching her dog while she was off doing her work. (And, of course, he was occasionally with Homsar. The pull of Homsar's marshmallowy, Jengatastic goodness was too strong to be resisted!) Besides, he had promised Remus that he'd try to refrain from drinking when not around either him or Lily, and the bar provided endless temptations for him to break that promise.

But he had been feeling a bit better lately and, not being on dog-sitting duty at the moment, was actually rather bored, so he decided to head over to the bar for some company.

And that's where he saw Jordan, about whom he had had a rather interesting conversation with Lily on the Secrets Board. He had no intention of breaking his unspoken man code with Cox, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to get to know her better, right?

After grabbing a glass of Coke, he sat down next to her and said in an obviously exaggerated pick-up-y sort of way (and in a fake American accent to boot!), "Howdy! So, what's a pretty girl like you doin' in a place like this?"

[sacredharpie]

She looked over at Sirius and laughed. "Your accent sucks." She took another drink of her liquor before she she continued. "I'm taking a break. I've been studying magic for the past few days based on Dr. Maturin's book recommendations. Of course, there's only so much seclusion I can handle, so I figured I'd get out and get wasted."

"What about you?"

[toujours_sirius]

Sirius laughed with her. "I know. I tried to work on it when I was in Reno, but my efforts have apparently proved fruitless." Smiling, he took a sip of his Coke. "Sounds like you've been reliving my teenage years, except mine had less studying and more getting wasted."

Toying with his glass, he continued, "I've not been up to much of anything, really. Dog sitting. Playing around with some Muggle things to see what sorts of ways I can charm them to be more interesting. Definitely not studying."

He observed her for a moment. People go into seclusion for reasons. It's what Lily had done when Voldemort had come back. It's what he himself had done just recently in Lily's room after the heartbreaking discovery he and Remus had made.

Still, he didn't want to pry; if she wanted to talk about it, she would. Instead, he said, grinning, "Why the fierce round of studying? Preparing for a duel, perhaps? If that's the case, I think you'd be better off shopping for some leather trousers than studying potions or whatever it is Maturin's got you learning."

[sacredharpie]

"Reno?" She raised a brow. "What on earth were you doing there? I figured you kept pretty close to the school..."

When he asked about why she'd been studying so much, she blinked, the glass in her hand freezing for just a second on its way back to the bartop. When she answered, her voice was quieter. "Trying to figure out if I should stay..if I can't learn anything, not much point, is there?"

[toujours_sirius]

"Long story," Sirius said, smiling and shaking his head slightly. "The gist is that I ended up there when my bitch of a cousin hexed me through a magical curtain while I was trying to defend my godson from a mad, genocidal Dark Lord. Not quite the first-class British Airways way to travel, I know." He laughed, although there was something a bit dark and haunted behind it. "Let's see, my time there was fairly evenly divided between attempting to get out of the loony bin the Muggle police threw me in and pumping gas to try and earn enough money to come here and be with my godson. Not particularly glamourous, I'm afraid, except for the bit where Jim Morrison and I were lovers."

Yeah, his mention of Jim was mostly gratuitous. But Jim's name seemed to pique the interest of most people, and from her answer to his question about studying, Sirius got the sense Jordan wasn't in the best of spirits, so he thought he might try to spread a little cheer. He hadn't been feeling so fantastic himself these days, but thoughts of Jim always made him perk up at least a little bit (in various sorts of ways).

"I can't imagine you're rubbish at magic. I mean, there are some real morons at this school, walking arses, and if they can learn magic, I'm sure you can." He took a sip of his Coke and tilted his head, regarding Jordan. "I could teach you a drinking spell, if you like. That's where the real uses of magic lie, right?" He grinned.

[sacredharpie]

"Jim Morrison, really?" She smiled, amused. "Impressive, I must say."

When he mentioned a drinking spell, she raised a brow, her smile growing. "A drinking spell? What kind of drinking spell? I must admit the idea is intriguing."

[toujours_sirius]

"Oh, he was," Sirius said with a suggestive eyebrow raise. "Impressive, that is. And a good man. Eccentric, but a good man."

Pleased that Jordan was smiling, Sirius put down his glass and drew his wand. "I know all sorts of drinking spells, as well as sobriety spells - good in a pinch, you know? - but this one's my favourite because of its sheer convenience." He leant over the bar to fetch a glass. "Fermentummenti!" he said firmly, his wand poised over the glass. Almost instantly, a light red liquid poured out of his wand and into the glass. Sirius fixed his gaze on his handiwork, focusing and concentrating until the liquid slowed to a trickle towards the top of the glass.

"Firewhisky," he said, pushing the glass towards Jordan. "Don't get too excited; I didn't make it myself, although I have experimented with making moonshine in the past. But you've got to do most of that the old-fashioned way - you know, distillation, fermentation, that sort of thing. This trick just takes alcohol from somewhere else and conjures it into the wand."

He grinned. "Still thinking about leaving when you can learn useful stuff like this here?"

[sacredharpie]

"Sobriety spell?" She laughed, just a little. "Now that's some useful magic." Her eyes grew slightly wider as she watched his enchanted Firewhiskey pour from the wand and into the glass. Lifting it, she took a sip. "Not bad, Sirius. That's a spell that I wouldn't mind learning."

She pulled her wand out of her pocket, holding it stiffly in her hand. "Now what was the phrase for that?"

[toujours_sirius]

"Fermentummenti," Sirius repeated. "But you can't just say it. You've got to know there's a bottle somewhere you can get the alcohol from, and you've got to concentrate on that bottle, think about its contents moving into your wand. In most cases, you can't just conjure something out of thin air. I mean, it's possible, but that's very advanced magic."

Dumbledore had done it a lot, but of course he was an exceptionally powerful wizard...although one would think that such an able wizard would be able to transfigure himself out of a popcorn kernel and back into the realm of the unpopped. Ah well, Sirius had a bit of a bone to pick, so to speak, with him anyway. Maybe it was better he was currently taking up residence in the Popcorn Room.

"Right, so let's have you have a go." Sirius leant over the bar again and pulled out a bottle of Firewhisky. Putting it in front of them, he continued, "Okay, so you can see where you'll be taking the alcohol from, which will make it easier on your first try." He slid another glass over to her.

"So just hold your wand over this glass and - ...wait a moment, your grip's going to cause you some trouble. Here, just relax your hand." He slid off his stool so he was standing next to her. Placing his hand over hers, he adjusted her grip on the wand. "The wrong hold and you could end up mixing a shower of sparks with the Firewhisky...which would be interesting, but probably not a good thing for the Ravenclaw Common Room." He turned his head and grinned at her.

"All right, so have a go at it. Fermentummenti. Nice and confidently, like you know you're going to pour yourself a drink."

[sacredharpie]

She listened intently as Sirius spoke, making mental notes on what he said, and nodding in the appropriate places. When she set her mind to something, she was determined to do it right, and learning magic was no different.

Glancing at the procured bottle of Firewhisky, then at the empty glass, she took one last drink of her own glass, and cleared her throat.

"Fermentummenti." As she spoke, she visualized the liquid flowing from the bottle through her wand, into the glass. The tip of her wand spat forth only a few drops, however, and she glared at it.

"It didn't work."

[toujours_sirius]

"That's all right," Sirius said. "You didn't blow anything up, nor did you melt anything, so consider yourself ahead of the game. Most people aren't as lucky on their first try. In fact, it'd be rather unusual if it worked at this early stage. And this spell isn't exactly for beginners. It's something my mate and I invented in my fourth or fifth year, when we were far past the stage of transfiguring matches into needles."

He settled back into his stool. "And you did get a few drops out. I'd say that's pretty damn good for a first try. Anyway, it proves you're a witch, in case you were worried about that." He smiled reassuringly at her.

[sacredharpie]

Sirius's words made Jordan feel a little better. She didn't know that it had been such an advanced spell, especially the way he made it sound so easy.

"You should be a professor. You're pretty good at teaching, especially to someone who's never done it before."She smiled back appreciatively. "Though somehow I don't think you'd be too interested in all the paperwork that goes along with teaching."

Lifting the glass, she tipped it upward, allowingthe drops to run into her mouth. Sure enough, they tasted like Firewhisky, which made her feel better about the whole thing.

[toujours_sirius]

Sirius had just taken a sip of Coke, and he nearly choked on it. "Ssssshhhh! Do you hear that, Jordan? Listen! It's the sound of the hallowed halls of Hogwarts laughing their damp, ancient arses off at the suggestion that Sirius Black, king of detention, might be fit for a professorship!" He was glad Professor McGonagall wasn't there to hear what Jordan had said; she just might drop dead at the proposal, and Sirius thought she was sexy rather liked her and wouldn't want to be the cause of her death.

"But I thank you for the compliment anyway," he added, grinning widely and possibly, possibly blushing the slightest bit. "I am looking for, you know, something to do with my life. I think the castle would launch me straight up and out into the Highlands if I were to make even the smallest attempt to submit my CV - which, incidentally, consists of one line, namely, 'Pumped petrol, Reno, Nevada' - for a position, but...thank you."

Sirius took a large swallow of his Coke. "What did you do before you came here? Were you a Muggle Healer, too?"

[sacredharpie]

Sirius was just so darned funny Jordan couldn't help herself. She started laughing. "I see your point, I think...but you are still pretty good at teaching."

As Sirius continued, she quirked her brow just a bit, frowning at him. "Well, that can't be all you did. I did a little bit of research into the history and found out that you and Lily and Lupin have led much more interesting lives than that. But, I understand, you probably don't want to talk about it.." Instead, she took the opportunity to answer his final question. "I was not a Muggle Healer, no.." I was on the Board of Directors. Basically," she sighed, "I didn't know much about healing, but I got to help make all the important decisions about how things worked at the hospital."

[toujours_sirius]

Sirius truly was flattered about the teaching compliment, and he decided to store it away in his mind for later. It was so completely opposite anything he had ever imagined for himself - which, ever since he had been imprisoned, had been pretty much nothing anyway - that it seemed entirely nonsensical. But it was still worth a re-think, and if anything, perhaps it would put Sirius down some sort of path for what he wanted to do with his life.

Jordan's mention of her research made Sirius laugh more, although there was a bitter edge to it. "Please tell me I'm not in the history books yet." He drained his Coke glass and set it down on the bar. "See, the thing is, 'Highest Security Prisoner, Azkaban, 1981 to 1993' isn't the most beneficial thing to put on a CV. And my work for the Order of the Phoenix isn't exactly a step on the career ladder either. And yeah, that's pretty much all of it."

He shrugged. He had always been fiercely proud of being in the Order and what it stood for, but considering it was a secret society, hidden even - especially - from the Ministry of Magic, it simply wasn't something he could cite as job experience.

Refocusing on Jordan, Sirius continued, "I hope your board of directors was less corrupt than the one for this school. Wankers and arseholes, the lot of them." He rolled his eyes. "So did you like it? And if you did, why'd you decide to come here?"

[sacredharpie]

Jordan could tell she'd stumbled into a bit of a minefield for Sirius. It was written all over his face, in his tone of voice, the fact that he wasn't joking with her nearly as much. It made her a little sad to see it, in all honesty, not because she felt Sirius was a joker, untouched by human pain, but because she considered him a friend. Or at least as close to a friend as anyone ever got to Jordan Sullivan before she verbally disemboweled them.

At his question, she smiled a little. "They were a bunch of assholes, that's for sure. I didn't really like or dislike it, it was just what i was supposed to do, being who I was." She didn't really elaborate, assuming Perry had undoubtedly told everyone who'd listen what a spoiled rich bitch she was.

Her smile grew, and she leaned over closer to Sirius. "I came here, because I heard Perry talk about it, and I thought he'd gone mad. Magic...it sounded like complete rubbish to me."