For as long as he can remember, the very attractive and self-assured Sirius Orion Black has been fascinated by Zara Magnus. The earliest mention of her came when his uncle Alphard shacked up with a Muggle. His mother had sat in the living room and wailed for hours about how it was as bad as when Matthias Magnus, son of Ida Malfoy and Marlon Magnus, had married a muggle waitress.
"A lowly, dirty-blooded muggle serving wench! And they've bred. Now… my insolent brother will do the same. A dirty half-blood born to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black... the traaaa-vesty!"
He couldn't believe it. A muggle girl and a wizard boy made a baby. How could it be? In his tightly controlled environment, he was made to believe the entire thing was physically impossible. He could scarcely imagine a muggle and a wizard interacting, let alone kissing like those icky books with the knights and the sorceresses.
As was the case with all of Alphard's trysts, his stint with the Muggle didn't last. However, his mother's reaction was permanently imprinted in his young mind. His mother, always composed and unwavering, had thrown a tantrum. His mother who often went days without uttering a word to him had spent weeks muttering "Toujours pur". Blood traitors inspired more passion in her than her own son.
And thus, he makes the mistake of questioning her.
Sirius was born mischievous, and he was no stranger to his father's belt, but nothing compared to the beating he received from his mother when he asked what was wrong with marrying a muggle.
"How dare you? I will not have a blood traitor as a son. You will not even think of mixing with dirty blood!"
At the tender age of five, the chaos brought on by the half-blood Magnus child had already shaken the very foundations of his world.
Never subordinate, his mother's overreaction had served to light a fire in his belly. As he grew older, the muggles of Grimmauld Place became his salvation. When he could escape from his nanny, he would sneak off and spend afternoons playing "footie" with the muggle boys. In the mornings, he would watch as the girls put on their scandalous little Muggle cloths and went off to school. Whenever he felt particularly lonely, he would crack open his window and listen to the sounds of their lives; the honking of their mechanic carriages, yelling in foreign languages, giggling children.
He doesn't hear of the Magnus Half-blood again until the summer before his first year. Ida Magnus (née Malfoy) arrives at Grimmauld Place for tea following the announcement of her nephew Lucius Malfoy's betrothal to his cousin, Narcissa.
It is clear upon entry, that even if it was his mother's drawing room, Ida Magnus was in charge. While Walburga was forced to play hostess, Ida Magnus lorded over a cup of tea – her hair a shock of pale blonde, perfectly coiffed atop her head, her eyes – pale green, icily keen.
She brings up her Half-blood granddaughter early, almost as if she were daring his mother to say something about it.
"My Zara will be beginning at Hogwarts this Autumn as well. I would prefer Beauxbatons…the French are far more sophisticated than the Scotch. Alas, it is tradition."
Sirius watches his mother from afar as she brings her cup to her mouth. Her lip quivers in that way it always did when she was holding her tongue. "Your granddaughter, I presume. The one born by that Muggle serving wench?"
Ida does not miss a beat. "Yes, an unfortunate circumstance. She is quite the talented young witch. Zara showed signs of magic seconds after being born. Not like your uncle Marius – you could smell the Squib on him."
His mother – who was still in possession of some level of her sanity in the early 1970s – turns the conversation in the direction of a new boutique opening in Diagon Alley. But later, when the Malfoys and Ida are long gone, she is in hysterics.
"That women had the audacity to wax poetic about her embarrassment of a son's late-night mishap on my chaise. The nerve!"
His father sighs, flipping to the next page of his book.
".. And then she dared mock me for Marius! As if the shame of having a Squibb in the family could possibly compare to a blood traitor son! I am of the mind to floo over to my brother's estate right now and call off this wedding!"
His father abruptly closes the novel in his hands with an audible slam and rolls his eyes.
"Stop being dramatic, Walburga." He hisses. "We will not break a Malfoy betrothal because of some distant cousin! Abraxas' son is a pureblood and he's been courting Narcissa for years. What would people say? Besides, Ida's blood traitor son is long dead. Now quit your wailing and pour me some whisky."
His mother's lip quivers, but she falls silent and obeys his command. Only a deviant woman would talk back to her Lord Husband, and Walburga despises deviance.
Sirius watches as she struts out of the room, on a war path to evoke her wrath upon whichever house elf was closest. Despite her hatred of muggles, social propriety held his mother's true devotion. If the consensus among the men of House Black was to turn a blind eye to Lucius Malfoy's half-blood cousin once-removed, then she would not be the one to make a scene.
Nonetheless, Walburga would rather be cursed by Merlin himself than allow for the Black name to be sullied.
The morning he is to leave for his first year at Hogwarts, she finds him. Bending down to his level and magicking away a piece of lint, she whispers, "you stay away from that Half-blood. I will not have you mixing with that mutt, no matter if she wears the Slytherin house colours".
He blinks at her blankly.
Oh, if only she knew.
Ever the hyperactive young lad, Sirius gets swept up into the excitement of things quickly. Immediately upon boarding the train, he finds a friend in the Potter boy who shows him how to jinx tails on the bottoms of unsuspecting Prefects. Thus, the mysterious Half-blood is temporarily forgotten.
After being sorted into Gryffindor, his mind is racing. The excitement of being a member of his dream house is overshadowed by the lingering fear in his stomach.
What will mother and father do?
Will they let him play with his little brother Reggie again?
Will they demand he be resorted into Slytherin?
Will they pull him out of Hogwarts and send him to muggle-born-free Durmstrang in the desolate col-
"Zara Magnus!"
He whips his head up and watches as a timid, round girl steps up. She's completely different from what he would've thought. Dark hair, dark eyes, warm brown skin. She's the opposite of what he imagined a granddaughter of Ida Magnus to look like. He can scarcely believe that she shares a drop of blood with Lucius Malfoy, who is perpetually pale as parchment. Maybe she'll be in Gryffindor too. Maybe he can tell her about his mean mom and ask her about what it's like being raised by muggles.
Maybe she'll be his friend.
"RAVENCLAW!"
Well, that's that.
Now – Sirius has never been one to shy away from socializing, yet he cannot get himself to speak to her! He watches her in Charms nearly everyday – diligently taking notes, laughing with her housemates, completely ignorant of him. When him and Potter make Flitwick's toupee levitate she doesn't crack a smile. She simply continues working on her wand movement. When he turns her desk into sponge, she doesn't even rat him out! She sighs and asks Flitwick how to reverse a softening charm.
It isn't until she receives points for her house after being the first student to get a Reparo done correctly that he finally says something to her.
"Hey Magnus, do Ravenclaws ever get tired of brownnosing?"
As is the case with most things done by Sirius Orion Black, he doesn't think when he says it. Likely, it was just a stupid, last-ditch attempt by a pubescent boy to get the attention of a girl he fancies. Unfortunately, it worked.
She whips her head around toward him, "I don't know, Black," she sneers, her eyes narrowed. "Do you ever get tired of being a rude toad?".
Thus, the tone for their relationship is set. So much for being friends.
In second year, during his first ever Quidditch game, he is distracted by her in the stands. She's hunched over a notebook, scribbling away like a mad woman, paying no attention to him. He has the whole school oohing and aahing at his balletic batting (even the snooty Slytherin girls), but Zara isn't even looking!
He pauses to glare at her for a moment, and just like that – he takes a bludgeon to his stomach and is knocked off his broom. Right before he hits the ground there's two things on his mind – one, that Hufflepuff beater has quite the arm on him! And two, did Zara see him fall? How embarrassing!
In third year, during a Hogsmeade trip, he catches a whiff of her lavender shampoo and finds himself following her into a book store. He'd never admit it, but he purposefully bought the same book as her– Pride and Prejudice, a muggle novel about familial wealth, marriage, and first impressions. He doesn't care for it himself, but the amount of times he sees her with her ratty copy over the years would mean she probably does. He wonders what she likes about it so much.
On a warm day in his fourth year, a few students head over to the Lake for a swim. Zara's there with a few Ravenclaw girls – Regina Shacklebolt and two others he doesn't know by name. He watches as she strips out of her robe into one of those one-piece Muggle bathing suits, and he's taken off guard by her figure. Tits! She has tits! The dark stretchy fabric does little to hold in her breasts which seem to have filled out since he last got a good look at them. In their school robes, he was lucky if he got a flash of leg.
That night she comes to him in his dreams and he awakes to sticky knickers.
Later, in History of Magic, she enthusiastically answers a question about the Goblin rebellion, and he's sure to ask her whether it's harder to lick Professor Binns' arse since he's a ghost. She throws an inky quill at him and him and they both wind up in detention. While they both do their time scrubbing floors after hours, he comes to learn that she's changed her shampoo from the lavender one to another which smells like green apple. He prefers the lavender. She doesn't say a word to him.
During fifth year, Remus starts spending time with her. With the OWLs around the corner, his dear friend decides that the Marauders do not make for the most effective study buddies. Thus, the Ravenclaws it is. Every other day, his lycanthropic pal lugs his big bookbag to the library and diligently reviews for hours with Zara Magnus. One day, he asks him about her.
"Now, Moony…I know you like your dusty old books, but how can you possibly stay awake in the company of boring Ravenclaws like Magnus?"
Remus looks up from his novel and grins teasingly, "Wouldn't you like to know."
James lets out a thunderous laugh, "I bet you'd do all sorts of things in Magnus' company, Padfoot. Don't you think we saw you rush off with a stiffy after that day at the lake last year?"
"Yeah, you were real excited to be in her company then!" chortles Peter.
Sirius is flustered. How do they know? James is his best friend, but he hadn't told even him! He couldn't bear to be the one being teased, especially not about Zara Magnus. James thought the whole thing about fancying a girl was a big joke, that was clear from the way he treated Evans. Sirius was serious about his crush – no one was supposed to know!
"Magnus and me? I haven't a clue what you're on about!"
"I haven't a clue what you're on about," James mocks, his hands placed on his hips, "I sit beside you in all of our classes, I've seen you smell her hair!"
"I'm Sirius Black! I can have any girl that I want. I'm not like you, following around Evans since first year!" he retorts, "besides…my canine condition makes my nose very sensitive, and her shampoo is very strongly scented!"
James chuckles, "Say what you want, mate. I know what a lad in love looks like...and I know you."
It isn't until sixth year that he starts seeing Zara regularly outside of class. Marlene McKinnon, his fellow Gryffindor beater, starts going out with Regina Shacklebolt, the captain of Ravenclaw's Quidditch team and Zara's best friend. Suddenly, any party, anywhere and she is there.
At first, he's caught off guard. In a lot of ways, he had reduced her to a fantasy – a rebellion against his mother, personified. Her wide brown eyes, and her shapely thighs and her rounded hips were merely bonuses. The fact that she didn't seem to care for him just made her a fun challenge; something to occupy his mind while he engaged in otherwise meaningless relationships. Would he have to look at Zara Magnus as a whole, complete person? What if he hated the real version of her?
He's surprised to see her enjoying herself. Sirius partly expected her to be wallflower, nursing a drink in the corner of the room. But she's socializing, and dancing, and cracking jokes! Sirius settles into a couch with a strong butterbeer and is quickly joined by Janet Vance – his latest flame - who settles herself into his lap. While Janet noisily chatters away with a group of her friends, he turns his attention to Zara. Her hips sway sensually to a song playing at full blast, and she loudly sings at the top of her lungs with a group of girls.
Her friend, the short blonde girl, has a pleasant voice.
Zara, to put it lightly, does not.
If a screeching merman had a child with a banshee, it would sound like her. He supposes he should be turned off by it, but it just makes him want her more. Despite the gorgeous woman literally sat on top of him, he's enraptured by the bronze beauty dancing mere meters away. She is the thing of dreams – barefoot, flushed cheeks, hair down, bra-less. Maybe he's inebriated, but he wants her so bad.
He chugs down the rest of his drink, and makes his way toward her.
He leans against the wall opposite her, and stares at her intently. Immediately – he catches her gaze. She looks up at him for a moment, before turning away, her golden cheeks reddening. Not one to be embarrassed easily, she walks up to him.
"Sirius Black." She says simply in greeting.
"Zara Magnus," he smirks, "you're quite the singer."
She laughs, "You're one to talk! I heard you scream along to that Sex Pistols song just a few minutes ago!" she retorts, "how do you even know them? they're muggles!"
He smiles gently, lightly grazing his hand along the length of her upper-arm. "I know a lot of things that might surprise you."
She tilts her head and looks up at him through her long, dark lashes, ever-so-slightly leaning into his touch. "Oh, like what?"
He takes the opportunity, to put his hands on her waist and pull her closer, "maybe I can show you some time."
Her breath hitches and he leans in, taking a whiff of her tresses, "Your hair smells good…I always liked the lavender better than the green apples…"
Oh Merlin! What did he just say? So much for being suave.
Zara pulls back, widening her eyes, "What? my ha-"
"Black, step away from the girl!" hisses Lily Evans, appearing like a flash of angry, ginger lightning, and pulling Zara further away from him. "Don't you have other girls to go bother? Leave my new friends alone…come on Zara, Fawn is looking for you."
And just like that, Magnus slips through his fingers once again.