Family Matters (Stacy)

[Gloriana Louise Black]

Glo had been sent down to the library to return some books that Gio was finished with and pick up his new list; they were currently hard at work on a top-secret new project revolving around a spell known as the Shield of Heracles that Thom had stumbled across mention of in his research. It nullified the Killing Curse and was proving frustratingly elusive, so the pursuit of this spell had been dominating all of their lives for the past few months. She'd spent all of her free time in Gio's office working at calculations and energy-exchange mechanisms; she'd drank more than half her weight in coffee, ate minimally, and hadn't slept in a week.

She'd never been happier.

As House Black's prized braniac, Glo had never really been happy; her entire childhood was overlaid with a constant restlessness and desire for intellectual challenge. She'd been apathetic and passive during her Hogwarts years, numbed by years of coddling and over-protection lest she become ill. Her parents would not tolerate their trophy child being ill. When they agreed to send her to Italy, she'd been surprised but quietly accepting, and now she thanked them for it on every rare occasion that they spoke. For the first time in her entire life, Glo had friends; she finally understood how Sirius felt all the time. If she could only get along with Sirius, who she'd admired her entire life, she'd have everything she'd wanted out of life; as it stood, she could call herself nothing but blessed.

She hummed happily as she walked with Gio's teetering pile of books in her arms, carefully opening the door and slipping into the library only to run into someone and subsequently scatter all of the books.

"Oh, my! Are you alright?" she fussed as she kneeled to pick them up. "I'm terribly sorry."

[Stacy Lynn Applegate]

Stacy had been napping in the library, she'd skipped class several times before. The only thing that was different about today was it was history of magic, so it didn't really matter. It wasn't like she needed the class, she had already decided to just grow up to work on the orchard. It was easier than having expectations to live up to, but she was still going to beat Sirius out at his own game. She was determined to get better grades then him and what better way to get better then to spend sometime with the nerds in the library?

She had just woken up to leave, and was on her way to the door when it opened in her face and smacked her right in the nose. She stumbed backwards and screamed, "OUCH!" she rubbed her nose several times to make sure it was only just bruised and not broken.

"I'm fine. But, why in the hell are you opening the exit side of the door to the library? I may have just woken up but I do know right from left." she shook her head and saw the books still on the floor, "Let me help with that." she started picking up a few of the books.

[Gloriana Louise Black]

She glanced over her shoulder to find that she had, indeed, entered through the wrong door. Well, that was embarrassing. She felt her face turning faintly pink. Perhaps she should have gotten some sleep prior to coming down here, because she was sure that she knew which was the proper door, but oh well. Sleep just wasn't something she could fit into her schedule at the moment; she'd get a few hours when she could. It was still sort of novel to be allowed to have that sort of attitude about sleep.

She smiled sheepishly at the girl she'd run into when she kneeled to help her pick up the books. She was glad that nobody's nose had been broken.

"I'm afraid I couldn't see over the stack of books; it's been a while since I graduated from Hogwarts. Again, my apologies. I'm Gloriana Black," she added. "You can call me Glo if you'd like."

[Stacy Lynn Applegate]

"That's alright, not you're fault. You shouldn't even be carrying that many book. I don't think the library even allows anyone to take that many out." She said holding part of the stack. "Stacy, Stacy Applegate. Pleasure to meet you Glo." Then it struck her, "Black? As in Sirius Black?" She gritted her teeth.

Of course she'd meant that family. How many families had that last name? Couldn't be many. Stacy pursed her lips, if anything she should try to make nice with the family. The only thing she didn't want any of them to find out was that she was dating Sirius. It would make for many awkward meetings, and as far as the whole school knew, they resented each other! There would be no such thing as them two being romantically involved. But part of her squealed about it every time she thought about it. The rest screamed, DISGUSTING, DISTASTEFUL, IGNORANT! But that didn't mean she could still be friends with those in his family.

[Gloriana Louise Black]

"I'm one of Professor Gio's assistants, and I'm afraid that the librarian has yet to put limits on how much he can check out," she explained with a laugh. "Some of them are probably overdue, now that I think on it."

She blinked a little when Stacy mentioned Sirius and sighed internally. She had hoped that, in the time that she'd been away from the school, having the last name Black would no longer be a social death sentence. Evidently, she was wrong. Pity. Her cousin seemed to be doing so well from what she'd seen in the classes she'd helped out with; she was happy for him, but it appeared that she wouldn't be so lucky in her former school.

"He's my older cousin," she admitted. "You know him?"