That one moment

This is a snapshot, a moment in the middle of a story that you won't know yet. Just one single moment in the mind of Sirius Black as he contemplates where he is and with who... and then coming to a surprise realization without even meaning to: that Lily Evans, despite her history with his best friend, was in fact in love with him.
Too bad that the discovery cost Prongs a cracked rib or two

oOoOo

Sirius still remembered the firs moment he had realized that Lily Evans was in love with his best friend.

He doubted even Evans herself had known, but it would have been obvious to anyone who had been looking in her direction in that split second during which everything happened - which was unlikely, because the game had been full on. Practically the whole stadium had held their breaths collectively when the great moment came - after all, the Quiditch finals were always a great occasions in this final, both Gryffindor and Slytherin had been particularly vicious.

Sirius practically had to drag Anya with him to see the game. She had wanted to stay in, practice her choreographies a little more, but he had unilaterally decided that she had been doing enough of that for three days and deserved a couple of hours of break - and he deserved a couple of more hours with her. She had been a hard one to persuade, but she had caved eventually, especially after being under the full effect of the best puppy eyes he could manage - an attempt in the face of which she had rolled her own liquid brown orbs and laughed in his face. But then, with a secret smile on her lips that he never would be able to fully understand and a glint to her eyes that she always had whenever she looked at him with the intent of jumping him, she threw herself in his arms, the warm chuckle sliding off his skin like a caress, sneaking one arm around his neck, another grabbing him by the hair and pulling him down easily. He went with her, his arms had found their way around her waist before he even thought of telling them to do so. He followed her wherever she wanted to take him because he had learned that he was perfectly happy with wherever she wanted to go.

The kiss she so suddenly planted on him had tasted of the long hours that they had been apart, it tasted of how much she missed him, how much she… yes, loved him. And every time he felt that, every time her love assaulted his senses – because it was so easy to spot it, the exhilarating thrill of it - it shook him to the core, it cracked him open to the very deepest, most hidden part of his soul, his most greedy, needy part, a part he never knew existed. It hurt in a way he wasn't able to explain, in a way that made it hard to breathe, hard to think about anything that was not the desperation of these sensations, the whirlwind of which made him feel indestructible and so very fragile at the same time. It made him want to sink under her skin and stay there.

Sometimes the intensity he was capable of scared him. Whenever she was in his arms like this, he had to remind himself to hold back and play nice, because surely, the kind of desperate need he felt was nowhere within the parameters of normal. The depths of feeling that were piercing his soul, feelings he had never believed he was even capable of holding within him, they freaked him out to the very core… but there was nowhere else he could imagine being.

That moment, that kiss and all the ones before it, the way her lips tasted, the way her skin smelled and how it felt against this tongue - that was what he had been thinking about when he had looked to his right, smiling at the bored look on her face as she followed the game with as much interest as she would dignify on of professor Beans particularly droll lessons. The stadium was so loud it was like a constant car crash and it was so crowded that people were pushing them even closer together in their seats than they already were. To Sirius, they might as well have been alone.

The feeling inside his chest unwounded, expanded, constricted around his heard and his insides. The arm he'd had around her shoulders brought her closer. She moved without even breaking eye contact from the field. She never hesitated for him, not once. The moved together, he had learned how to do that early on. She had seemed to never need any instruction, she was always in sync with him. His hand sneaked in her hair, he caught one of the smooth lengths of it and twirled it around between his fingers. It was his favorite game. His fingers brushed her ear, the soft skin underneath, skimmed her racing pulse… the smirk on his face got wider as he neared his face to the side of hers, practically breathing in her ear.

He knew she was uncomfortable. She never held back when they were together, the passion of her always threatened to sink him, overwhelm him and he loved it… but she was so easily embarrassed by public displays of affection. She was sitting so rigidly now, but her heart rate skyrocketed when he kissed her cheek ever so innocently, just as his fingertips brushed her soft throat.

Who would have thought that a couple of touches were so much fun. That knowing he could made her heart-rate go up like that with just a few brushes of his finger could make him so lightheaded, dizzy almost.

She turned to look at him, a reproach in her eyes in her tightly pursed lips, the embarrassment burning pink on her cheeks, even though her breathing was irregular and her eyes lingered on his lips. If she would just lean in for just one inch, she could have him… Her breath was already caressing his lips. Just one small fraction of an inch… her eyes were already closing, her lips opening ever so slightly and it was all he could do not to kiss her senseless, sink into her until he couldn't breathe.
But the kiss never came.

Because she was waiting for him to do it and he didn't. He was teasing her, and by the way she pulled back a fraction and narrowed her eyes at him, she knew that.

His smirk earned him a pinch on the thigh and Sirius jumped, then started laughing loudly, startling a couple of people around him. She rolled her eyes at him with a snort and pushed him off herself, turning to watch the game, but the little smile on her lips was one she couldn't hide. Amusement danced in her eyes. He was still looking at her, that's why he caught the double take she did, as if she'd seen something that startled her. Her hand came to his arm to get his attention.

"Is Lily ok?" She asked softly, near his ear so that only he might hear, and nobody else. She was discreet like that.

And that's how your eyes found Lily Potter in those fatal moments of truth.

She barely holding her seat, eyes wide with something that resembled very much terror, her hands clutched din her lap and fingers contorting together. She seemed to barely be breathing. If Sirius hadn't known better he would have said she was having a panic attack or something.

That's when he caught on to the commentator's voice documenting the game.

"…Potter is flying like he is possessed, but Nott is right on his tail and flanked by Harris. They are just not letting him get away with his brilliance today."

Because James had scored the tenth goal of the day and he was on a roll. Nott and Harris were trying to bring how down by breaking the Chaser's formation - mainly by trying to hit James, or fly him off his broom. Sirius wasn't worried - Prongs could handle himself.

What was curious was Lily reaction. And Sirius remembered thinking, '…well well, someone is a little more involved than she wants to lead on… '

It was out of bland curiosity that Sirius kept keeping an eye on Evans as the game progressed. He wanted to see just how worried she would get if Prongs fell off his broom. If she cried, Sirius decided, she was in love with him. But Lily didn't cry. She had never seemed like the type for tears anyway… but she kept looking at the game with wide eyes as James evaded the Bludgers send after him and the attempts of the other team to break his game. This was all routine for Prongs, Sirius knew that. the better then player, faster did the game roughen up…

But maybe Lily wasn't aware of what that meant. Maybe this was the first time she actually cared.

That was when a brilliant idea came to Sirius.

"I'm gonna go down on the pitch for a second." He said hurriedly to Anya and smacked a kiss on her cheek just for the fun of it. She smiled at his kiss, but kept staring the back of his head as he descended down the steps and into the field just as the time of the middle-game time-out was about to start. Anya knew that he was going o talk to James, but she couldn't imagine what it would be about. When Sirius came up ten minutes later looking all self satisfied, she had to ask.

"What was all that about?"

His smile only got wider. "You'll see, I promise."

The game went on, James kept scoring and the game roughened up even more. Lily was sitting at the edge of her seat, and Sirius noticed that too. Now he wasn't really watching the game anymore, he was waiting for James to make his move.

And Prongs didn't disappoint.

The collective 'ooo-s' and 'aaa-s' and some screams from the crowd were almost distracting. But Sirius knew what had happened, even if McKlaren hadn't been so loud in his comments.

"…Oh for the sake of Merlin's saggy left- AWW Professor, that hurt! Ok, ok fine. James Potter was hit badly ladies and gentlemen, he fell from almost ten feet! Bloody hell Potter, what the duce were you looking at?"

And it was unorthodox that Sirius should smile at that, but he did. Because Lily Evans had barely held back a scream just because her hand had gone to her mouth. She was pale as a sheet and her hands were shaking and she had jumped off her seat almost before anyone realized what happened - proof that she had been looking at James the whole time - and almost hung of the railing trying to see what had happened to Prongs.

"Sirius…" Anya's distressed voice was his call to reality.

"Don't worry, he's fine." Sirius said and he sounded so sure that Anya felt confused. Her heart had almost stopped when she saw James begin hit with the Bludger and fall off his broom like that. She just hoped it wasn't so bad.
"Honestly, don't worry, it's nothing serious." Sirius said again, his hand fisting lightly on the hair at the base of her neck, a gesture she had learned to accept as reassurance. Well, if his best friend was calm, Anya decided that she could be calm as well.

"What are you looking at?" Anya asked, when she noticed that he hadn't taken his eyes off the field.
Sirius's smirk grew. "Look who rushed by his side with the speed of light." He said evenly. Anya frowned and looked down on the field. She could see the nurse and Madame Hook and even a few other people huddled around James. Then she took a closer look and distinguished something that looked like a small flame in the middle of all the green.

She frowned. "Is that Lily down there?"

Sirius' chuckle was one that he reserved for occasions when he was feeling particularly self satisfied. "Yup, it sure is. Funny how she seemed to have a heart attack when James fell off the broom."

His tone was light and someone who didn't know him very well, would have taken nothing that came out of his mouth seriously, but Anya knew better. Sirius never made allusions. He didn't fish for information, he tested his theories.

"What are you talking about? And don't be evasive, it's redundant."

His arm sneaked around her shoulders, bringing her close enough so whisper in her ear. One of her hands found its way to the side of his torso, probably to keep him at bay, but then it fisted in his shirt and kept him where he was. She did that too, all the time.

He smiled at the feeling of her grip on him.

"James might have a broken arm or a cracked rib, but trust me, he's never been more happy than he is right now." Sirius said, his warm breath tinkling her ear until she squirmed, as his eyes flowed Evans as she marched at the side of Prong's stretcher.

He had a feeling she would be spending some time at the nursery tonight.