*I'm so very sorry about the lateness but my internet was acting gay. I've got the next chapter ready, and will put it up depending on reactions. You know how I know your reactions? Reviews! So please review.*

'I felt like I'd found a tiny piece of the Bianca Hughes puzzle.'

It was a tradition in the making. In the free period after McGonagall's class, Bianca would let me have the time with my friends. She would save library visits till later. All in all, she was easy to be around. When she wasn't quipping at me about my 'womanizer' reputation, she would crack the funniest of jokes. Even Lily liked her. Well that was mostly because she'd seen her be nice to a first year. The girl took being a prefect very, very seriously.

She came down just a few minutes before the bell. "We have Charms next?" she asked me in a charmingly broguish lilt. We were only a week into the semester, so her slight lingering confusion about the schedule was understandable.

"Double charms, actually." I informed her.

Glancing down at the bulging bag she carried, I stopped in my tracks. "There's no way we're taking those many classes." I told her.

"We're not. I'm just trying to catch up with the syllabus here." She clarified.

"Well your book bag doesn't seem very stable." We were outside now, the fat lady singing behind us.

As if to prove me right, there was a sharp ripping noise, and all her books spilled onto the floor. I bent down to help her gather them. As I handed her three fat, out of course books, an old picture slipped out into my hand. It was of a tall, well-built guy who was smiling out at something beyond the camera, hand in his short hair. Frozen in the moment. A muggle picture, I realized. He looked similar to Bianca. There was a pressed orchid sticking up from the back of the picture.

I handed it back to Bianca who snatched it back quickly, her face burning.

"Reparo." I muttered to fix her book bag. I enchanted it further to strengthen it and then once more, to increase it's holding capacity. Old Flitwick should have been proud of me.

"Thanks." She said.

"Who is it?" I asked her, curiosity prodding me to ask her, though it was apparent she did not want to talk at the time.

"My brother, Brad." She said, and there was love in every syllable, shining through her reluctance.

"But this is a muggle picture?" I said, kind of like a question.

"Yes. He serves in the Navy. He's actually Captain Bradley Hughes. This was right after he bagged captain." She told me. It didn't answer my question, but at least that explained the uniform.

"In the Royal Navy? Why?" I asked. Wizards didn't usually venture out into the armed forces.

"He chose not to be…he chose to give up magic." She said, the words tumbling out faster than I could catch them.

"He chose to –" I choked on my words, and then started again. "Why?" I asked simply, my brow furrowing. It was bizarre.

"I'll tell you sometime." She said in a harsher voice than I was used to. "It's a long story."

"I'll hold you to that. Meanwhile, we have a class to attend. Flitwick's decent, really. If you can see him." I said, unsubtly changing the subject.

"Why? He invisible or something?" A smile graced her face again, her sadness buried deep in an instant.

"No, just short." I snickered.

"Are you knocking short people?" Her face screwed up in mock rage.

"Yep." I told her, laughing now.

"I'm short." She bit out. And she was. Tiny. No taller than five three.

"And that'll just make my two months entertaining. You don't know how many short jokes you pick up when you're my height."

"So help me, Sirius. If you get on my nerves too much, I'll jinx you." She waved her wand threateningly at me.

"And risk detention? I don't think so." This conversation was taking on the same direction as my recent one with James. Again with talking to me like she knew me since Eve.

She smirked, and we were on our way. I felt like I'd found a tiny piece of the Bianca Hughes puzzle. Just a small one though. There were still loads to go.

I found myself getting extra homework yet again for Flitwick because he, too, didn't believe me when I said I was paying attention in class.

"Two full parchments on the founder of the Aguamenti charm." A smug smile played on his face.

"Two!"

"And a half. On Thursday." He said stubbornly. I resolved to increase my onslaught of short jokes on him. He couldn't give me detention over Christmas break.

Oh hell. Lily wasn't there in this class, and she'd given me hell about McGonagall's homework. Even threatened me…I wasn't even sure if she'd help me with this. I only had a day for it, too. Well damn, I was a goner.

"Do you mind if we head up to the library really quick? I need a couple of books." Bianca asked me softly before lunch. "I really need them before History of Magic."

"Why? Binns never asks questions." We were already headed in direction of the library.

"It's good to know. Besides, British history is fascinating. You don't know how boring year after year of leprechaun history gets. Your Goblin revolutions are far better. Fascinating!" She repeated.

I wore a stunned look. Slowly, emphasizing each word, I said, "I would never have imagined you a nerd, Bianca."

"I'm not a nerd!" She said shrilly. "I—I've failed loads of tests."

"How many?" I taunted. "Two?" I was laughing now.

"Oh, you're such a dog." She huffed. I froze when a sudden expression of knowledge landed on her.

"You are!" She exclaimed. "You laugh like you're barking, and your hair is like the fur of a dog!" She said, pleased with her revelation. "Careful with the short jokes, Sirius, I'll come back with doggie cracks."

If you only knew I thought as she laughed. "I'm rather like a wolf, I like to think." I tried to get her off topic.

"Not at all, you're far too tame for that." She mused over her new joke, much like a little girl. It was adorable. Shut up. I told myself. I was entranced by a new girl, really? Me, Sirius Black. No matter how damn vain I sounded, I was Sirius freakin' Black. I had witches on the tips of my fingers. I refused to show the slightest interest in her – unless of course, she started it. The thought of her casting me furtive looks from behind her books was pleasing.

"Don't forget, Bianca, that I have two on you now. I've got short jokes, I've got nerd jokes…you never know what I'll unleash on you."

"I'll show you a nerd." She muttered, launching herself onto me. Taken entirely by surprise, I missed a bookshelf by very little. She had me pinned down, a knee on either side of my ribs. "Care to rethink that?" She asked.

It wasn't hard getting her off me; she was amazingly light. I pinned her down by the shoulders even as she kicked her feet in an awful tantrum. "Not that I don't enjoy having you straddling me," I said, smirking and drawing out 'straddling', "but I think I'll hang on to the nerd thing for a while."

"You need something?" The vulture like librarian snapped, appearing suddenly, looking pointedly at Bianca kicking up hell under me. I let her up quickly.

"Hey, Madam Pince!" I said cheerfully as we both straightened up. "I need a couple of books, and so does Bianca here. We were just looking for you."

She said something along the lines of 'sure you were', and then looked away.

"That was rude of her." Bianca giggled. "She didn't even offer to help us find books!" She dissolved into a fit of hysterics again.

"Hush." I impersonated Pince. "Or the books will get you!" I hurried along to the next shelf anyway, searching for material for my punishment essay. Two and a half rolls of parchment, really. I was in the completely wrong row, of course. Ended up finding material for Bianca, instead of what I needed.

"Hey, you!" I called. "Isn't this what you need?" I brandished a book at her.

"Yep." She said. "Found yours yet? I'm starving."

"I didn't, actually. Seen anything for me?" I stared at the seemingly never ending shelf and ran my hand through my hair. This is hopeless!

"Nothing. How about we come back up later? I'm going to pass out if I don't eat soon."

"But Flitwick will have my ass!" I complained.

"Come on," She said in an imitation of someone calling their dog; she even whistled, "or else McGonagall will get you!"

I growled, but followed her. After all, it would be a bloody four month detention if I wasn't seen with her at all times. "You so owe me." I muttered about a thousand times on the way down.

"Wait for me."I told her, ducking into one of the washrooms. When I came back out, she had invited trouble. Lucius Malfoy was jeering at her. Fabulous.

"Where's your guard dog?" He asked her. His cronies laughed sluggishly behind him.

"Oh he's so much more of a man than you are, Malfoy. Get away from me before I hex you." She threatened. Well. That was such an ego booster.

"You?" He snorted. "Your knee feeling any better?" He asked, his ugly face contorting into what might have been a sympathetic expression.

There seemed to be a sharp retort at the edge Bianca's tongue which I would have loved to hear, but my stomach was growling, and I didn't need her getting into fights with Malfoy. It would not only get her into heaps of trouble, but also really anger McGonagall. I did not want to be on her wrong end at the time.

"Enough, Malfoy." I said coldly.

"Hello, cousin." He said in an equally cold voice.

"You're no family of mine." The words flung themselves at him before I could stop myself. I didn't want to get angry at him, but it was damn hard.

"Don't get me wrong, Black. I don't want to be associated with you, filthy blood traitor as you are. It was simply a slip of tongue. Your brother, however, seems to have no problem with me calling him that. Seems to wait for it, in fact."

"He's no family of mine, either." I snapped. "And I don't care what you have shoved up your ass right now, Malfoy, but I'm hungry, so get out of my way before I eat you." My stomach growled quietly. It would have been funny if it weren't so irritating. "On second thought, though, I don't think all that slime would go down my throat anyway."

He looked like he had swallowed something foul and that was our cue to walk away.

"What held you?" James was indignant when we finally got to the Great Hall. The girlfriend was not in her usual place next to James, but was instead crying copiously a few seats away. I noticed Lily was not in her usual place opposite me either. She was sitting a few seats down, trying – and failing – not to look smug.

"Malfoy." That always explained being late in our cases, "Well anyways, Prongs, why the hell won't you follow Moony's advice?"

"What advice?" He asked lazily.

I jerked my thumb towards Rebecca. "Why can't you just leave them alone and you know…go after Lily seriously?"

"I've been asking him the same thing since third period." Remus put in. "He won't budge."

"Fine, fine." He grumbled. "When she won't give me a chance, I'm not going to bother. And Rebecca was getting clingy. It's irritating." He said defensively.

"Even I treat them better, Prongs." I chided.

"Yeah, well. I'll try." He said morosely.

"Don't have to. There's Lily."

"She. Won't. Give. Me. A chance! How hard is that to get through your head?"

"You flirt all the time!" I said exasperatedly. Bianca was watching this exchange in amusement beside me.

"Yeah, so?"

I leaned in so only he and Remus could hear. "What if I told you that I invited her to our game nights? For the next two months. Or however long my detention is."

Remus caught on immediately, but James had a little trouble processing it. "I repeat: so?"

"So, you fool, you'll get chances almost every week, won't you. Just take the opportunity. You have a nasty reputation with the girls here anyway."

It dawned on him how good this could be. "Thanks, mate." He said.

"Yeah."

I was sitting with my head in my hands and an empty roll of parchment that evening. Bianca was reading quickly next to me; her work was going much faster than mine. I'd only written my name and the title yet.

"Hey, Sirius!" Dawn Mason, Chaser extraordinaire, called from across the common room. "Captain Potter says we have practice Saturday morning. Long, hard one, so you'd better have a good pair of gloves. He intends to get in lots of Quaffle work." I lightened up a little, until she said, "Defensive, Black. Your work." Sometimes I hated being the Keeper. I nodded to her. She was one of those no-nonsense people that neither James nor I'd gotten to, so she was nice to both of us.

I turned to Bianca with a resigned look. I hated having to ask. I guess she knew that.

"So I guess I get to see you fly Saturday, huh?" She said.

"You already saw me fly at tryouts." I replied, not missing a beat, though I let gratitude color my answer. At least she had a little concern for my ego.

"That was flying?" She snorted indelicately. "Looked like you were trying to chase your tail." She said, giggling.

"Point to you." I conceded with good grace. We'd begun a game, of sorts. We'd keep quipping at each other until one of us was stumped. That was a point. I was leading by three.

"Just for forfeiting, I'll help you with your essay." She said gleefully.

"There is a God!" I said dramatically.

My essay was finished within half an hour.

Do you want to see game night in the next chapter? Or is there something else in particular I haven't written enough on. You know I live for reviews. Virtual firebolts for all those who review. :D

*The usual. Rate, recommend, comment?*

Rose.