A/N: Thank you to all of you who have reviewed, put this story on their alert or favourited it. It makes me so happy. And now for the next chapter. Read, enjoy and review! Happy holidays everyone. xoxoxo

"There are two types of people - those who come into a room and say, 'Well, here I am!' and those who come in and say, "Ah, there you are.'"

-Frederick L. Collins

On Saturday morning, Sirius made his way down to the Quidditch pitch yawning. It was 6:15 in the morning. Too far bloody early in the morning to be functioning in his opinion. He barely could string any coherent thoughts together.

Shivering slightly in the cool morning air Sirius dropped his broomstick on the dewy grass and stretched. He had come down a little earlier than James wanted them, but he liked having a bit of the school all to himself even for a little bit.

Or so he thought. Turns out he didn't really have the place to himself after all.

He squinted at the figure who was running around the Quidditch pitch. They were too far away for him to make out who it was. He frowned and prepared to kick someone's butt, something he did not want to do at 6:20 in the morning.

All thought of butt kicking went out of his head when he saw who was running.

Because of course, it was Lea.

Of course.

The ear wax flavour Bertie Bott bean of of the century.

"What are you doing out here?" he blurted out all cockiness abandoned.

She stopped and caught her breath. Tucking a loose curl behind her ear, she appraised him coolly. "Running,"

"At this time? Since when do you run?"

"I always run at this time. 5:15 is when I usually come out. I'm done here."

"You run for an hour?" Sirius was mildly impressed.

"More or less,"

"And how long have you been running for?"

"Dunno. Ever since I can remember really. What are you doing out here?"

"Quidditch practice,"

She made a noise of understanding. Taking a seat on the ground she stretched for a few minutes and Sirius observed her quietly.

He wasn't so much as observing her as he was checking her out. She was a fit girl, he suddenly realized. Short, slim and subtly muscled, Lea was in good shape.

"Do you play any sports?" he found himself asking. He wanted to talk to her, engage with her longer than a few sentences.

"I played a bit of football when I was younger, but not really. Sports aren't really my thing."

"But you run,"

"I think it's important to be fit and healthy. I want to go into the Wizarding Armed Forces and be a Healer, it'd be kind of dumb if I wasn't in a healthy condition. Plus I dunno, I like running, empties my head." Lena heard herself and shut up. She said too much.

"Yeah I'm sure your mind doesn't shut off with all the studying you do."

"I'm not always studying, I like to read a lot. Reading is fun."

Sirius looked down at her and she smiled wryly up at him. "Yes, I said it. Reading is fun. Ask Remus."

"But you could be doing so many other things!"

"Such as…"

Sirius was at a loss for a moment and then quickly answered. "Hanging out with people! Talking….uhhh,"

"Making out with people?" Lea retorted. It was common knowledge that when Sirius was bored he'd choose a random girl and make out with her of hour or two, just to entertain himself.

"Well if that's your cup of tea."

"Yeah no. Reading is more my thing. And moving your mouth is more of yours I suppose…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius asked a bit indignantly.

Lea just looked at him and he glared at her. "Nothing. Forget it. I don't know what I'm saying." She got up and started to move past him but he grabbed her arm.

"No, do enlighten me."

She looked down at her arm and he let go. "Fine. I just think you're a bit shallow. I mean, you know you're good looking, and yet you still seem so needy for attention."

"You think I'm good looking?"

"See! Just like that. And c'mon. You and I both you you're plenty handsome. Sometimes I think you're too pretty for your own good but that's just me."

"So you find me attractive?" Sirius couldn't help but feel a little pleased at the fact that she found him good looking.

"Am I blind? Yes I find you attractive, quite, actually, but that's doesn't mean I'm going to trip over myself trying to get your attention."

"Well why not!"

Lea laughed. "I don't need it. I don't really like you that much."

"You don't like me?" Sirius asked feeling a little bit hurt.

Lea paused for a moment. "Well…I don't like you, but I don't not like you. You don't really mean anything to me, you know? You're just this guy I know, you're just kind of there."

You don't really mean anything to me.

Those words left Sirius devastated inside. He didn't know why, but this girl got under his skin and it bugged him.

Before he had a chance to say anything, James appeared from nowhere and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go Padfoot. We're gonna do a little scrimmage before I discuss tactics. Morning Lea," he added belatedly.

"Morning James. Have fun. Don't kill yourselves before the match." She answered before walking towards the locker room. Sirius watched her with flat eyes and shook his head.

"What's up mate?"

"Nothing James. Let's go."

Sirius remained uncharacteristically quiet during practice and throughout the day. Lea's words kept replaying over and over in his head and it grated him. It also puzzled him as to why he felt so hotly about her opinion of himself. For heaven's sake, she was just some chick.

Yeah, just some chick who happened to be immune to him. This was a first. And it was totally absurd.

But there was a small part of him that unconsciously liked her because she didn't put up with his bullshit. She was…so coolly confident and he liked that.

However, he still wanted to figure out why exactly he didn't mean anything to her. Sirius Black never meant nothing to anyone. Well anyone under the age of eighteen. His family didn't really care too much for him.

But that wasn't the point. The point was this one chick had ruffled his feathers. And he intended to go and do something about that. He was going to be cool, calm and composed and confront the ice bitch herself.

Setting his mind, he got up from his bed where he had been lying on for the last hour and grabbed his broomstick. It was high time Miss Lea de Tourval got a house call from himself.

Lea shifted on her bed and turned another page of the book she was reading. No one else was in the dorm at the moment and she used these few times to play her music loud on the gramophone she and Lily shared.

Her music was playing so loud that she didn't hear Sirius enter the room, or him screaming at her until he poked her with his wand. She yelled and then reached for own wand ready to curse the first thing in site and then lowered it when she saw his face.

"What are you doing here?" she asked loudly over the music.

"WHAT?" he yelled.

Lea reached over to the side table and took the needle of the record. Silence filled the room. "I asked what are you doing here?"

"What do you mean, I mean nothing to you?" he yelled at her throwing his arms up in the air. So much for being cool, calm and composed.

She stared at him and then remembered their earlier conversation. "Are you upset?"

"Hell yes I'm upset! No one likes to hear they mean nothing!"

"Ok, I don't mean nothing, nothing. I mean, you're obviously something. But…I dunno. You're not important to me. I know you exist and that's about it."

Sirius looked at her with unfathomable eyes. "I exist."

"Yes, you exist, I exist, you're someone I know and I'm someone you know. And that's as far as it goes for me mate."

"I thought we were friends,"

Lea gave a sarcastic laugh. "Ha. You and I are not friends."

Sirius furrowed his brow. "Pardon?"

"You don't even know me. And I sure as hell don't know you. We just happen to be in the same circle of friends."

"So let's get to know each other!"

She let out mirthless laugh. "Pa ha! You Sirius Black don't make it a point to know anyone. People come to know you. In the six years you've been here, you've yet to make friends with anyone except your roommates. You four are so wrapped up in your own five year old world of playing pranks and Quidditch you don't even bother acknowledging that others exist. Remus and I? Yes, we are friends. But you and I? Definitely not. You don't even have any girls who are friends!"

Sirius sputtered. "Of course I have girl friends!"

"No. You have snogging partners, dates, flings and a scarily loyal fan club. But friends who are girls? No."

Sirius felt the urge to strangle her. She was so infuriatingly annoying. He could kill her.

Lea gave him a smug look that said "I'm right." She leaned back on her palms and raised her eyebrows at him.

"I despise you." Sirius growled.

"Good. Let's keep it that way." And with that Lena turned on her music again and grabbed her book, once again ignoring him.

He let out a steam of curses under his breath and stomped flat footed out of the room shouldering his broom. For every ten girls that batted their eyelashes at him, there was always one girl who a great big pain in the ass. And she was it.

Needless to say Sirius' temper was still smouldering when they faced each other on Monday night's practice. She scowled at him and then turned towards Professor Longstreet promptly ignoring him. Arrogant prick.

Lily and James had noticed this and exchanged looks. "What's got his knickers in a twist?" she questioned.

"Oh you know, the usual, girl problems." He replied rubbing the back of his neck.

"Of course. The usual. I mean, what else could you blokes possibly worry about? Besides girls and Quidditch." Lily rolled her eyes.

"Actually there's quite a bit that gets our knickers in a twist. Grades. Girls. Looks. Family, money, other blokes. The future. Yadda yadda yadda." He waved his hand. Lily looked at him strangely.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just didn't think you were so…real."

"Yeah. I surprise people like that. I mean, once I deflate my head a bit I actually do come off as someone more tolerable."

"Well maybe you should deflate your head some more. You're pretty tolerable right now to me and I hate you." Lily said without thinking.

"Still hate me huh?" James pushed his glasses up his nose. Lily smiled at that mannerism. She found it endearing. Whoa. Where did that thought come from?

"Well…hate's a pretty strong word. You're…okay."

"Okay? Really?" James asked with disbelief. Hope lit up in his eyes. Hope that she might accept him as a person more capable of talking Quidditch and hexing people for fun. Hope that maybe, maybe one day in the faraway future, she might like him.

"Yeah. You're okay. Keep deflating your head some more and you maybe even fine." Lily laughed seeing his pleased expression.

They stepped closer to each other and started to warm up by practicing the Jive. James spun her out quickly, she swiveled her hips and spun around him appearing on his left side.

"You seem more confident in your steps," he observed. She smiled at him. "Thanks, Lea and I spent some of Sunday night just practicing for fun. She has this incredible music collection so it's always fun to put something on and dance to it."

"Well if you ever want to practice outside of our lessons, you know where to find me. I'm always up for getting better," he said.

"Really? I mean, I don't want to bother you."

"No! It would be fun. Besides, I never say 'no' to dancing with a pretty girl," James grinned.

To his surprise Lily returned his smile and accepted the subtle compliment. His insides erupted into doing the Conga and he mentally was jumping up and down at his small, but successful step forward into persuading her that he was more than what met the eye.

A/N: please review!