Sirius Black spotted Luca Baier instantly; he always did. She was dressed simply in a black sundress and sneakers. Her chocolate brown curls were piled on the top of her head in a messy sort of bun, exposing an awful lot of her neck. Sirius swallowed a rather large lump in his throat at the sight.
She was standing away from her parents, arm in arm with her eldest brother Robin. He'd finished up at Hogwarts last year, and judging by the look on her face, she was extremely reluctant to leave without him. Robin ran his hand through his light brown hair and laughed as Luca punched him in the arm, her face screwed up in mock anger. But then her aristocratic features broke into a warm smile as she threw her arms around her brother.
Her parents were a little ways behind them, talking to their youngest daughter, Femie, who was already dressed in her Hogwarts uniform; her mother straightening her green and silver tie and smoothing her blonde hair. Sirius assumed Luca's other brother and sister must've said their goodbyes already.
Sirius tightened his grip on his trunk; he had to refrain from walking over to her. He couldn't give either of their parents the satisfaction.
"Oy! Sirius!"
He turned to see the familiar thin face and perpetual messy hair of James Potter bounding towards him. He muttered a quick "later" to his family, who weren't paying the slightest bit of attention to him, before hurriedly walking to his best friend.
"I have never been happier to see you, mate," he grinned.
"Same, brother, and I have the most hilarious news for you." James helped Sirius lift his trunk onto the train before elaborating as they headed down the corridor, "Remus-you remember Remus don't you? He calls himself our friend? Well, anyway, the bloke went and got himself made prefect."
Sirius let out a bark of a laugh, "You have to be joking. All the trouble we've gotten him into and Dumbledore is going to just let that happen?"
"I reckon he thinks he's giving him authority to keep us in line."
"Merlin's beard, this is definitely a joke."
"Saw the badge. Not a joke. He's sitting in a compartment near the front with Peter, probably willing himself to blend into the seat so we don't make fun of him."
"Well what are we waiting for? S'no fun if we don't break his spirit."
"That was satisfying." Sirius tossed his feet up in Remus's recently vacated seat. He'd left to go to the front of the train for the prefect meeting when they'd left the station. "Poor guy, he's in for a rough year with us."
"No kidding. How was your summer then?"
"Rubbish. Glad to be back."
"That bad?" James looked sympathetic, but knew his friend well enough not to do any prying.
"Always. You?"
"Not too bad. Mum misses you. By the end of the summer I was sure she'd forgotten that I'm her son, not you. You'll have to come round for Christmas. How about you Pete? Good summer?"
"Great!" Peter chimed in excitedly, his round face lighting up at being addressed by James, "We went to Greece last month, it was amazing. I got a horrible sunburn though, can't seem to get rid of it."
"Yeah, that's obvious Pete," Sirius rolled his eyes. His friend was a violently deep shade of red, almost purple, under his thin blond hair. Peter might've been blushing, he couldn't tell, but he turned away embarrassed. Luckily, the food trolley appeared at that very moment to break the awkward silence threatening the compartment.
An hour or so later Remus had returned and the four of them had been chatting merrily about the upcoming year for a while before Sirius saw a familiar pink haired girl pass the window into the corridor.
"Well, I'm off for a bit lads."
"Who're you snogging these days mate?" James asked idly, messing up his hair as he pondered his next move in his chess game against Peter. "Have you moved on from Meadows?"
Sirius pulled a face. "Have you not heard about McKinnon and Meadows?"
"What?" James and Peter nearly fell out of their seats. "When the hell did that happen?"
"I'll fill you in later. Or maybe Remus will, he set them up after all."
"WHAT?"
Sirius nonchalantly left after dropping his gossip bombshell; heading the opposite direction from where he'd seen Esther pass by. Glancing casually into each compartment, he found who he was looking for.
Just last year, all five of the Baier siblings had ridden the train in the same compartment. Robin Baier had his arm carelessly thrown over nervous-looking Femie's shoulder as he gave her advice for her first year. Clemens was helping Satchel with her abysmal chess strategy (while winning by a hilarious margin). And Luca herself watched her brothers and sisters with unmistakeable affection.
The scene this year couldn't be any more different.
"Hello beautiful," he said, sliding the compartment door open.
"'Lo Sirius," Luca said from behind her book.
"Hello beautiful to you too, Black." Across from Luca sat her friend Simon Foy, who was looking him up and down teasingly. "You just get more gorgeous every year."
Simon was a sixth year Ravenclaw; tall and lanky with short, dark blonde hair and deep blue eyes. He had a rather hawkish nose, with wire glasses perched on the end. It was easy to mistake him for a geeky, Ravenclaw stereotype at face value; a mistake that Sirius hadn't made twice.
"It's a gift," Sirius shrugged. "How are you lot doing?"
"Better now that we're heading to Hogwarts," Luca marked her place in her book, took off her glasses, and turned to face him. "You?"
"Pretty much the same." Sirius closed the compartment door and sat down next to Luca. He took in the freckles scattered across her tanned nose and cheeks. Her almost-cartoonish big brown eyes met his; his palms were sweaty, and he couldn't think of anything to say. His heart was pounding and he was having trouble ignoring the feeling that he wasn't feeling very much himself. Luckily Luca just smiled at him as if she didn't notice and broke the silence for him.
"I heard your friend Lupin made prefect. I suppose that's to keep you and Potter in line?"
"Yeah, that's not going to work and he knows it." Sirius laughed, trying desperately to make himself relax.
"You lot are going to need the laughs this year anyway. O.W.L.s this year." Simon teased, "I know that's the only way I made it through last year was you and fucking Potter just fucking shit up whenever you felt like it. And the parties."
"It's our civic duty, truly."
"Well, thanks for that, mate!"
"So what's your brother doing now that he's out of school?" Sirius changed the subject, grinning at Luca.
"Well, I imagine he'll be pining for me now that the summer is over," she rubbed on her collarbone, a nervous habit that always had the adverse effect of making Sirius's tongue feel like sandpaper. "But you know him. He wants to get into some kind of care of magical creatures. He was going on and on about dragons at the beginning of the summer, but he's been talking to some witch about breeding unicorns for the past couple of weeks."
"That's so cool," Sirius said in earnest, "He's always been good with animals. Even before school."
"Do you remember that party? At my family's summer home? When we were like seven?"
"When he brought that niffler home from the woods?"
Luca laughed, throwing her head back. "That idiot. I swear. I'd never heard Walburga scream like that."
"Well, lucky you," he said, grinning. She smiled sympathetically at him, her brown eyes bright with the ghost of her laughter.
"Do either of you have the time?" Simon said awkwardly, forcing Sirius and Luca to turn away from each other.
"It's half past 4."
"Shit, I'm supposed to meet someone for a snog like half an hour ago."
"Merlin, Simon. You met someone for a snog a couple hours ago." Luca looked aghast at her friend.
"I'm in demand these days, darling."
"You're a slut these days, darling." Luca called after him as he left the compartment with a laugh.
"I think he's just meeting my brother." she said in a stage whisper, making Sirius laugh again.
"How are your parents taking that news?"
"Oh, about as well as when Robin was sorted into Hufflepuff. I'm sure they thought he would be the gay one after that, but," she paused, biting her lip, "it was a rough summer for Clemens."
"My mother was mortified when she heard; your family have been making waves in the entire Pureblood society. Mum's gone on and on about how embarrassed she is for your parents." He paused to give her a disgusted look. "I don't doubt that they've been intolerable."
"Lucky for Clem, Robin and I won't stand for their bullying anymore. We outnumber them at home anyway. They spent most of their time praising Femie for the sun shining out of her ass."
"Oh, I'm definitely familiar with that. Reg made the Slytherin Quidditch team reserves last year."
"Oh, ew." Luca scrunched up her freckled nose, "I don't know if you heard but Femie Baier passed all her first year exams. Forget Robin's SIX N.E.W.T.s or Clemens' SEVEN O.W.L.s. First. Year. Exams." she smacked his knee between words for emphasis before laughing again.
"I wonder what it's like to absolutely hate your children." Sirius said airily.
"I don't plan on ever finding out." Luca said sternly. "When I have kids, they're going to be the light of my fucking life. Even if they're in Slytherin."
"Even Slytherin? I'll avoid that possibility all together. I'd never marry a pureblood. I want no chance of that bloody ideology infecting my future kids."
"Well that would do it," Luca smiled, not quite letting it reach her eyes as she turned to look out the window.
Sirius didn't notice; Luca's blonde cat had chosen that moment to jump from the overhead compartment on to his face.
"ARGH!" he shouted standing up as Luca yelled, "CYRIL!" But barely a moment later the cat had jumped off Sirius and onto the empty seat he'd previously been sitting. He blinked up at Sirius with his pale green eyes and meowed innocently.
"I'm so sorry, he's such an awful brat." Luca stood up and took his face in her hands, "Let me see. Did he scratch you?"
"N-No, I don't think so." Sirius felt his face burning under her fingers as she inspected him for injuries. "Just a heart attack, no biggie."
He felt his face go even hotter when Luca ran her thumbs over his cheeks, finally meeting his gray eyes with her gaze.
The compartment door banged open, causing the pair to jump apart. They turned to the door to see James Potter and Esther Perkins.
"You still haven't changed into your robes?! It's getting dark out there, we'll be arriving soon." Esther was talking to Luca, as Sirius had already changed. But she was smirking knowingly at Sirius.
"I thought you were coming back, mate. I'm tired of beating Peter at chess, come play me."
"I guess I'll have to see you later, Black," Luca ran her hand down his arm and smiled.
"Absolutely Baier," he grinned right back at her.
As he left with James, who was babbling on about something, he heard Esther ask, "Did we just interrupt something?" but he wasn't able to hear Luca's reply as the compartment door slammed shut.
James was absolute rubbish at chess. Sirius beat him twice in the hour before they reached the castle. He was in a foul mood but his friends, who were rather used to his moodiness, had decided to ignore it and continued their conversations while he silently played chess. Once they had made it inside the castle however, he couldn't stop his spirits from lifting.
He positioned himself at the Gryffindor table so that he was facing the Ravenclaws, but he didn't see Luca yet. Or Esther.
"Do you reckon there'll be chicken? And shepherds pie? I'd kill for some shepherds pie right about now." Peter babbled as his stomach audibly growled. James laughed heartily, definitely exaggerating the sound as he watched Remus talking to Lily Evans out of the corner of his eye.
"Is there ever not shepherds pie, Pete?" Sirius had finally spotted hot pink hair and was tracking her progress into the Great Hall, looking for Luca.
"Remember the great shepherds pie famine our second year, mate? Dark times that." James said solemnly, closing his hazel eyes and placing his hand over his heart. Peter snorted.
Sirius finally spotted Luca; she was sitting facing him, across from Esther and Simon who's backs were to him. She was looking rather upset, which concerned him, but he thought of her brother being gone. That made sense.
She had her elbow on the table, head leaning on her hand, clearly not listening to Esther or Simon. She'd let her hair down at some point, and her long brown curls formed curtains around her face as she continued to pout.
But then she looked up and made eye contact with him.
His first thought was panic. However she just grinned and waved at him. He felt like his brain was moving through mud as it commanded his hand to respond. He grinned sheepishly and returned the wave.
"Who are you drooling at?" James practically yelled in his ear as he put his face next to Sirius's to follow his line of sight.
"I'm not drooling," he turned indignantly to his friend, "I don't drool."
"Tell that to your pillows, mate," Peter mumbled, mostly to himself. James threw his head back and laughed. Even Sirius let out a bark of laughter; Peter usually wasn't so quick on his feet.
A moment later, the doors of the hall opened and the first years were led in by Professor McGonagall.
"What are the chances you can die from eating too much?" James asked as they made their way to the common room after the feast.
"What are the chances you're going to stop asking me that after every feast?"
James ignored Sirius. "I've reached that threshold. I'm probably only moments from death. Tell Evans I loved her, will you?"
"I don't fancy getting slapped, so you'll just have to live."
James laughed, but then held his stomach as he groaned in pain.
"We're nearly there. We'll make it to bed and you'll eat twice as much in the morning. Fanged Frisbee."
"Where'd you get the password?" Peter asked in wonder.
"Our best mate is a prefect, you idiot." James cautiously let out a chuckle.
"Oh yeah."
They climbed the stairs to their dormitories slowly; James kept pausing for the stitch in his side. He finally quickened his pace when Sirius suggested he wasn't fit enough for Quidditch this year.
Sirius wasn't going to admit it, but he could definitely feel the effects of the feast by the time they made it to the dorm. He was already in bed with the curtains pulled when Remus returned from his prefect duties.
"How are the first years?" James asked from the other side of the room.
"Horrible. They're scared of everything."
Sirius could hear Remus rummaging through his trunk.
"You did bring the Gryffindor students up, didn't you Moony?" James asked in mock horror.
"Now that you mention it, they must've been Hufflepuffs." Remus deadpanned, causing James to laugh and then groan again.
"Remind me to never eat again."
"Hey, can I see the map?" Sirius poked his head out of the curtains.
"I've been prefect for a grand total of three hours. Can't you at least give me twenty-four of being good at this job, mate?"
"I'm not going anywhere," as if to offer proof, Sirius yawned loudly, "I just want to see it."
James grumbled as he got out of bed and dug through his trunk.
"Thanks, mate." Sirius disappeared back into his bed, but not before catching the confused look James and Remus shared. He ignored it, pulling out his wand. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He said before lighting his wand tip. After a moment, he found Ravenclaw tower and zeroed in on the dorm he was looking for.
Luca was pacing; Esther was sitting on her bed, presumably listening to her friend. Sirius laid down and watched the progression, finally falling asleep when Luca herself climbed into bed.