The Three Broomsticks, January 1977

"Moony", James said, waving a hand in front of his friend's face. "You all right?"

Raina, who had been staring at Sirius for the past fifteen minutes, nodded and looked up at him.

"Yeah. Uh, who's that girl Sirius is talking to?"

James squinted as he looked across the Three Broomsticks at his friend's table. "Dunno. Why do you ask?"

Raina shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "No reason. I just - I've never seen her before. Just wondering."

James gave her a knowing look.

"What?"

"If you need to say something to him, go", her friend told her. "I'm sick of you being so sad about this."

Raina's attention switched to Sirius and the girl when they laughed at something.

"But we're friends", she said. "What if I ruin everything by telling him? Then what, James? What if he doesn't like me?"

James leaned across the table.

"Listen", he said. "Sirius will kill me if he knows I told you this, but he really likes you. This past summer, you were all he talked about."

"Really?", she asked, blushing a little.

"Would I lie about this?", he winked at her. "And don't worry about the other girl, I think you could take her in a duel."

Raina rolled her eyes as she stood up.

"Here goes nothing."

"Hey, Sirius?", she said as she got to his table.

He looked up and smiled. Stupid charming smile.

"Oh, hey, I didn't know you were here. What's up?"

"I - uh, can I talk to you?", she looked at the other girl. "Alone?"

"Sure", the girl said. "I was about to go to the bathroom." She stood up and walked away.

Raina sat in her place.

"What's up?", Sirius asked, sounding and looking a little worried now.

Raina looked over at James. He gave her two thumbs up and smiled.

She cleared her throat.

"Ireallylikeyou."

"What? Slow down."

"I really like you", Raina repeated, her eyes on the table. "And I know that this could completely backfire and ruin everything, but I had to tell you before - "

Sirius cocked his head to the side. "How could it ruin everything?"

"Well, if you don't like me that way, then it'd make things really awkward and…"

"But what if I like you, too?"

Raina stared at him, a smile slowly making its way onto her face.

"Do you?"

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, I do. Since the beginning of last year, actually", he chuckled. "When you tried to talk me out of getting a motorbike. I don't know what it was, but at that moment, something...clicked, I guess."

Raina laughed a little. "Is that why you were grinning at me the whole time, even though I was almost yelling?"

Sirius nodded. "Do you want to go somewhere else?", he asked.

"What about the girl that was with you?"

Sirius waved that off. "Oh, don't worry about her. I've been helping her with Transfiguration. She asked me to come here with her."

"Shouldn't we tell her we're leaving?", Raina asked.

"I'll tell her", James said as he sat down with them. "I'll wait here; you two go have fun."

"Thanks, mate", Sirius told him.

They spent the rest of the day wandering through the village together.

I imagined this to be a lot more fluffy than it turned out. Hope you enjoyed it!