Chapter 4

'No' Sirius murmured, pulling away from Claire. 'I can't do this Claire, I won't hurt you, and if I kiss you again I'll only be leading you on, I'm sorry.' He finally looked up at her to see her looking back at him. No she wasn't looking at him, she was glaring at him. He didn't think so much ugliness could have existed in such beauty, but as usual he was wrong. She stood and grabbed her book bag which struck Sirius on the arm, it couldn't have been accidental, Sirius knew she had done that on purpose. He watched her leave as he sat on the rock rubbing his arm. He looked out across the serene black lake, the giant squid was chasing a stone that had just been skimmed along the top of the water. Sirius looked up to see who it had been, but there was no one there. The entire lake was empty, except for him. Then he saw her, it had been a girl skimming rocks, but now she was running back towards the castle, her long brunette hair sweeping behind her.

'Keira...'

Sirius got up and headed back towards the Great Hall, it was half past eight, he figured the others would be down any time soon and he needed to get his time table.

'Double potions first thing on a Monday morning!' James whined.

'Oh, James honestly, potions isn't that bad, if you needed help you should've said' Remus said, quite patronisingly.

'Yeah that's all good Remus but it means a double period full of Slytherins!' Peter looked reasonably sick at the thought of Slytherins. Sirius wasn't surprised, Peter was an easy target for the Slytherins and they never let him forget that.

'Hey, it's alright Wormtail, we're the Marauders!' Sirius said with a grin. 'They can't do anything to you with us around!' Peter looked down, trying to hide the fact that his cheeks were bright red. He hated that he had to rely on his friends for protection.

Just then three girls sat down opposite the Marauders.

'Hey Evans...' James said smoothly, trying to be sexy.

'Push off Potter, I'm not in the mood' Lily Evans spat back.

'What's got your wand in a knot Evans? Is it the thought of me naked?' He smirked.

'Seriously Potter, leave it!'

'I can just sense your sexual frustration, it's okay though, I'm up for it if you are' James said smugly, winking at Lily who just scoffed at him.

'Honestly Potter, not even the imperius curse could make me do that!' She snatched her time table from Professor McGonagall and stalked off in a hurry.

'Ooh Rejected!' Remus laughed at his friend's misfortune, who sat there looking thoroughly disconsolate.

'Oh come on guys, James leave her alone, is not clear enough already?!' Cassie retorted rather haughtily, then realising people were looking at her, she hurriedly went back to ripping apart a piece of toast.

'She doesn't get it does she...' James sighed.

'Come on Prongs mate; just give it a bit of time. She'll never say yes if you carry on asking her five times a day, as you have done for the past 5 years!' Peter said. James just sighed and began pushing his food around his plate. It was true, James had been asking her out since their first year, but no one seemed to realise at all that he loved Lily Evans, most people passed it off as another Marauders joke. James would give anything for her to know the truth but she didn't want to listen, she hated him, but that didn't stop him. 'She'll say yes, I'll bet you all my chocolate frog cards that she says by the second year!' James had once told his friends. Of course now he had very few chocolate frog cards.

'Hey Keira...' Sirius said quietly, a sombre ton to his voice. Keira looked at him and gave a little half smile before going back to her time table. They sat there in silence for about ten minutes before deciding that they should probably head down to potions. None of them wanted a detention on the first day back.

'Okay everyone, I would like an essay on the properties of moonstone by this time next week.' Professor Slughorn announced, to which came a simultaneous groan from all the students in the class.

Remus, James and Sirius didn't mind doing the work, it was just that it actually had to be done. They were all top of their classes, along with Lily Evans, where as Peter cringed at the thought of work. He wasn't exactly the brightest of wizards, although he was not completely incapable but lacked the knowledge that his friends seem to possess.

They began to pack up their things, Sirius picked up his notebook which, instead of having notes on it, had an extraordinary drawing of a pretty brunette girl. Sirius decided he needed to talk to her. He used to like talking to her. He never knew why they grew apart, they just did, but even so he didn't like that she hated him and wanted to change that. Looking up from the picture of Keira he saw the real thing rushing out of the door. Shoving his books and wand into his bag he ran for the door, but it was too late, she had gone and besides, Claire was bearing down on him like an angry hippogriff.

'Sirius, I want to talk!'

'Listen Claire, I told you...'

'I know what you told me!' she snapped, cutting him off 'But it's what everyone else told me that matters!' She was breathing heavily and anger flared in her eyes.

'What have other people told you?' Sirius was completely at a loss as to what she meant.

'That you said that I was just some slut! After we broke up you told people I was just a slut and it didn't matter!'

'I have never said that! You know I never meant to hurt you and you should know I wouldn't say that!' Before he could defend himself any more Claire had slapped him right across the face and stormed off crying. Sirius felt his face where she had slapped him, it was raw and tender, he looked around at his friends who were staring at him in somewhat disgust.

'I never said that! To anyone!' He shouted before running off while his whole potions class, minus Keira, gawked at him.

Keira was racing off, she didn't really want to be around anyone at the moment. She ran up to the library to get a start on her potions essay. She found the book she needed to research the properties of a moonstone, sat down on a table between the stacks and set about starting her essay. She held the book up so that she could read it better but, from over the top of her book she could see Harry Carter staring at her from over the top of his. She sighed and went back to reading, pulling the book higher up so that she couldn't see him and more importantly so he couldn't see her. She honestly hated all the attention she got from guys. Although she may not appear it, she was actually very self conscious and hated the thought of attention.

'I heard she slapped him!' Came a whispered giggle from behind the one of the book stacks.

'I know, it was only 5 minutes ago outside potions!'

Keira had just come from potions around five minutes ago, but she hadn't seen anybody get slapped.

'Yeah well he had it coming, I mean Black treats girls like dirt!' Keira couldn't help but smile at this, he did treat girls terribly. But she couldn't help feeling sorry for him, he probably hadn't deserved it, if there was one thing she knew about Sirius it was that people didn't know the real reason behind what he did. Keira didn't understand either but she knew he couldn't do something like that on purpose, at least the Sirius she knew couldn't, he may have changed since then...

Frustrated with herself for thinking about Sirius again, Keira packed her stuff away and decided to spend her free lesson outside while the weather was nice. She was just leaving the library when she saw Sirius stood in the doorway, his face red. So those girls had been telling the truth. He just stood there smiling at her, as if he had been waiting for her to come out.

'Hey' she said meekly. 'Does it hurt?' she asked pointing to his cheek. He just nodded and she realised that his face wasn't only red from being slapped but he had been crying. They stood there for a little while just looking at each other.

'Come with me' Keira told him, unsure of why she was doing this anyway. They walked down to a spot on the grounds underneath a beautiful willow tree, a spot where they used to hang out in their second year and just sit.

Sirius looked at her, a big grin spread across his face. 'I remember this place' he chuckled.

'I know' she couldn't help but smile back, they both sat down under the tree leaning against each other as they just sat and gazed across the grounds.

'This doesn't mean I like you though' she said quietly and tentatively.

'Why don't you like me anyway?' He asked, looking right into her eyes. 'What did I actually do?'

'I... I don't know' she said, looking right back into his eyes. They held each other's gaze for while until Sirius pulled Keira in tight and hugged her, just held her close to him so that he could smell her perfume and feel her warmth. Keira could smell his aftershave, she had never noticed it before which was a good thing. She hated guys who wore too much. Suddenly coming to her senses she pushed him away and stared right into eyes, right into his soul, and she knew. She knew what she had been questioning for days.

'I can't, not now...' She ran back into the castle, back into her dormitory and collapsed on her bed. She finally knew, though she didn't want to admit it to even herself...