Hi dears
How are you all doing? Here's a little chapter for you, a bit sooner than expected but what can I say, I was feeling like it. I kind of really like this one because I feel I was able to show how they really feel about each other, something I wasn't really good at doing before (not saying that I'm great at it now but I've improved heaps or so I think so)
Please enjoy and if you're having a bad day I can assure you, It shall pass too. Much love to all of you and thank you so much for the reviews I got the other day 3 Love hearing from all of you and would also like to hear suggestions if you have any or questions x
Oh, and yes, don't forget. J.K Rowling owns Harry Potter and it's series. I only own my OCs
Let's face it, making mistakes like this will make worse what was already pretty bad
Mind, stop running
It's time we just let this thing go
It was a pretty good bad idea, wasn't it though?
Natalia and Sirius Black were at one of the old classrooms no one used anymore. He had explained to her how to get there and now both of them were sitting around an old desk, halfway through a box of chocolates and not even near a quarter of their book's chapter. She was wearing a pink headband that accentuated her hair colour which she had been told looked pretty on her, and both were still on their school uniforms, despite it being a Friday after class; the reasons behind it were that Natalia had been taking a nap and hadn't had enough time to change because she had taken too long trying to get her hair to behave and Sirius had been working on a prank with James, which left him also, without time to switch outfits.
"I still don't understand it! I don't think I'll ever get it. It's just not for me"
Sirius rolled his eyes while closing his book patiently.
"You'll never understand it with that attitude"
"What attitude?"
"The 'I can't get what I want easily so I just give up on it' kind of attitude" he mimicked, making her sound like a child, or so she thought in annoyance "Just because Transfiguration's not your strongest subject doesn't mean you'll never get it"
"I'm not giving up on it!" she squeaked "If anything, I'm putting lots of extra effort, am I not taking lessons from you?"
The boy took a few seconds to think It over before he shrugged, agreeing on it "I guess you're right. Still, you have to try harder"
"But I don't want to try harder!" she cried "I just want to drop this stupid class and do fun stuff"
"Then why don't you do it?" his annoyance was palpable on his voice, but of course Natalia didn't catch it.
"Because of mother, obviously, duh! I've tried telling her millions of times that this is useless for me and she's still making me take it! Something about being a better witch or so, but I don't get it"
"I don't see your brother taking it"
"I know, right? That's what I said. He gets to have a free period and I don't get to have anything"
They stood silent for a while after her little rant and then the Gryffindor cleared his throat while picking up the book they had just been working on and standing up. The Slytherins eyes were a bit too open and Sirius knew already that she was close to complain, they had barely been studying for half an hour but he had important things to take care of.
"Are you leaving? You can't leave if there's still doubts from the student, that's like teaching's number 1 rule, you knew that?" she accused, quickly standing up, not willing to let the other boy leave without the assurance she'd pass her next exam.
Sirius snorted.
"Not that I'm happy about it, but you do know we're meeting again on Tuesday, right? We'll go over it again then"
"Why can't we do it now?" she folded her arms
The boy rolled his eyes.
"Because, unlike you, I have a life of my own, and I happen to have a Halloween party to plan" he smiled petulantly "Not to mention I'm tired"
"A party? Where? I haven't hear a thing about a party"
Sirius snickered.
"Well of course you didn't. It's at Hufflepuff's and if I recall well, all of you snakes hate Hufflepuffs"
"We don't hate Hufflepuffs! We just make fun of them sometimes and so does the rest of Hogwarts"
Sirius denied with his head, but recognized the true on the girls' words, still not willing to admit it to her face. He guessed it was simple human nature; some Hufflepuffs were basically asking for someone to make fun of them and who were they to deny it to them?
"Whatever Yaxley, they don't like snakes. That's why no people from your house are going."
Natalia stood silent for a few moments, arms still crossed and eyes glued to the floor. Sirius would've left already if he didn't know for sure she was coming up with something to say and he had interest in hearing what said comeback was since lately most things that came out of the witch mouths managed to somehow surprise him- either for the better or the worst.
"Well, I want to go"
That one hadn't really, but still, it was amusing to see that little head of hers thought she had any chances of going anywhere else but the dungeons. The boy looked at her on disbelief and then chuckled quietly, making the blonde frown.
"Why're you laughing for? I want to go, invite me"
Sirius still had an amused face on his face as he picked the rest of his stuff up and answered.
"No. In case you haven't realized, people from outside your house find you despicable and they don't like you. Not that I can blame them, really"
The boy was already walking out of the classroom, satisfied with the shocked expression on the witch's face which he knew for sure had been his doing. If there was something he was sure of, it was that little Miss Yaxley didn't get enough people denying things to her, so he was glad to be the one to give her a right dose of it every once in a while, to keep her on her toes.
On the other end of the room, the girl frowned, that being the first time she was being told such things to her face. Of course, she knew she wasn't high on her roommates' chards, but they never voiced it out loud to her, they'd simple stick to talking behind her back just as she did with them; and really, Natalia was bloody sure that all their dislike came from pure jealousy, so she didn't mind it on the least, if anything, it made her feel flattered. Sirius Black, however, may have been trying to be funny ad smart with his comments just then but she didn't find it amusing on the least.
"Locomotor wibbly" she whispered while taking a hold on her wand, a very average sized, pretty dark laurel wooden one with dragon's heart core.
Sirius fell down as if he was a dead weight, not expecting something like that to happen at all. His legs had simply given in, collapsed, and there had been nothing to do about it once it happened; they felt like jelly. Not to mention that with the fall, it came the biggest pain on his arse, as he had landed on it first. If he had been able to stand up immediately after what happened, he'd have surely turned around and pay her back for whatever she had done. He remembering having learnt that jinx back in third year and he had used it many times on others; he remembered fondly of this particular time, with Snivellous, but he had never had it used on him. That'd be his first.
There was no sound coming from either one of their mouths, and after Sirius allowed his legs to fully recover, thing which took about five minutes, he got himself back up again while relaying all his weight to a chair that was nearby. When he turned to look at the producer of the charm, he saw her with her arms corssed and a grumpy face that held not an ounce of regret nor self-preservation. If she was intimidated by the darkness on his eyes, she dind't let it show.
"Did… did you just jinx me?" he asked slowly, arching his brows. Of course the question was wrong, given that it had obviously been the case, but since the witch seemed reluctant to talk, he had to be the one to do it.
"Of course I did. You were very rude" she said casually, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, as she gracefully took a seat, crossing one leg in front of the other "Now apologize" she demanded.
He rolled his eyes, walking closer towards the blonde, so she could feel somehow intimidated by the now much visible height difference. However, it didn't seem as if he was having that much of a success since her face stood unchanged the closer he got. He couldn't describe what he was feeling at the moment, but something around a mixture of anger and impressment would do.
"I must apologize… really? After you jinxed me? Something doesn't sound quite right in that sentence, princess"
This time she rolled her eyes, not caring a bit about his logic and even less about that silly nickname which she found to be nothing but cute if anything. She looked at him tiredly, as if she had had it with waiting for him to do what he should.
"Apologize."
"No!"
"Invite me to the party then"
"Why do you even want to go to this bloody party? Don't you have another one in Slytherin anyway?"
Natalia smiled calmly.
"Yes, I just know how much it will piss you off if I go to yours. If you hadn't been so rude to me, maybe I'd have already dropped the whole subject and gone to my own"
He was about to answer but realized that with a girl like Natalia Yaxley, their argument could go on and on forever and he really had to get going because he was in charge of the alcohol trafficking. So, he decided to do what he thought the smartest thing was, which was to sigh and agree much to his displeasure; after all, there was a really big chance she was indeed just doing it to annoy him and may not even show up at the end of the day.
"Meet me by the second bathroom in the third floor at eight tomorrow"
When he left, Natalia tried to smile. She had gotten what she wanted one more time, but she found herself unable to twitch the corners of her mouth, Sirius Black's harsh words being the only thing echoing through her head.
When she told Sirus the reason why she wanted to go, she wasn't lying. At the begging she had just asked because she wanted to see his reaction, she believed that out of courtesy he ought to invite her, she wouldn't have attended, of course, because Slytherin really threw magnificent parties, but when he denied in such a rude way she just couldn't stop insisting. He had called her despicable and many other things. She made it a promise to herself to now go and ruin his whole Halloween night just as he had ruined her day.
• • •
Jane and Natalia had no trouble getting past the Dungeons on Halloween night. Terry Shaquif, the prefect who was in charge of that night's patrol had only made it into the Quidditch team as a backup and hadn't had yet the chance to play. Natalia promised him she could get him to play a game or two during the year, so he let them get away. Not to mention, she guessed tons of people would be going around the castle that night.
What had been quite difficult, in the other hand, was convincing her brother that Jane and she were missing a Halloween party to study. Simon Yaxley had of course not believed a word of it, but after Jane pulled a somehow convincing story about how she would prefer to avoid a certain boy because he didn't trust her, which was true according to what he had said once, and since the blonde was too tired to put much attention to it, he let them get away with their lie.
Their escape from the common room had been successful, and so they were waiting nervously where Sirius told them to—well, he had technically told Natalia, but it was natural she would tell Jane. She wouldn't dream of going anywhere without her best friend, especially not somewhere full of people who found her despicable, according to Sirius Black. The feeling the girlfriends shared was absolutely natural given the situation, or so they had told themselves, one was seeing the boy she fancied and the other was walking into unknown territory.
"Do you really think this skirt looks good on me? I mean, James is going to be there, don't you think I should have worn something nicer?"
"Jane that skirt is one of the nicest I have, for Merlin's sake. I got it in Gladrags Wizard wear when I was in Paris" her best friend said, touching the material "See? It's wool! I completely adore it! Feels nice, doesn't it?"
The witch frowned
"It feels a bit itchy…"
"That's because you're wearing thin stockings! I told you to wear thicker ones"
"Well I didn't have any because I was only informed we were coming to this party twenty minutes ago. Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Natalia rolled her eyes
"First off, I told you an hour ago and I did it so wouldn't have time to convince me not to go. Besides, what would you have worn to our own party?"
"Well, I could've managed with my old ones because everybody knows me there but here we're going to meet James and I-
"Enough. You could've worn mine. I've heaps of those"
"Yes, and you're also at least twenty centimeters shorter than I am" she added "Speaking of that, do you think your skirt looks, maybe, too short on me? Because I
She was unable to finish her whining because soon enough there it were Sirius Black, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin. The first looking absolutely pissed, Potter showing a huge smile and the other two seemed frankly a bit nervous and out of place.
"Hey, Jane" The boy with glasses immediately said
"Hi, James!" she replied, almost too excited "Hi everyone"
Both Remus and Peter said their greetings to both the girls very respectfully, thing to which Natalia replied to with a short nod, barely registering them. Sirius, however, stood silent with is arms crossed over his chest, like a little boy who isn't happy about the company his parents are forcing him to frequent.
He had been hoping no one would be waiting there for him, thinking the girl's head would have luckily made some sense out of the situation and decide instead, to attend her own party as anyone with a brain would've done, but he was terribly disappointed to find her standing there with her best friend. Of course he could've opted not to show up at all, but he had made the mistake of telling his mates about the whole conversation, and Remus had forced him and everyone else to turn up, just in case; it wasn't nice to stand people up; not even snakes.
"Are you ready then?" he asked, full of annoyance and with no much patience left.
Both girls nodded, and were soon following the boy towards Hufflepuff's common room, which happened to be just passing the kitchens, thing Natalia didn't fail to notice, squeezing her best friend's hand to let her know as well, in case she hadn't realized. She cursed herself for not really paying attention on the way there, because she didn't know how to get there again, but hopefully on her way out she would.
At the entrance, a small first or second year was waiting, looking quite terrified when he caught up on the arrival of the group of older students. He seemed tired; clearly they were interrupting his curfew which should have been at least half an hour ago.
"H-h-hi" he managed to say "Are you coming to the party?"
The boys nodded and after, the little kid tapped the barrels in the rhythm of some sort of song none of the Gryffindors nor Slytherins knew of and thought was as silly as they came, perfectly suitable for the badger's house, really. After the catchy melody was over, the door slit open and all of them got into the warm place, James messing up with the little boy's hair on a playful manner right before entering.
Once inside, they were greeted by loud music, cheerful faces and the unmistakable and always welcoming smell of alcohol. How they had been able to manage to keep all of that secretive was a big wonder that none of the teenagers cared for to think about. For the boys, there were tons of people smiling at them and giving their greetings, the girls instead were left there without people taking a second glance at their faces, which they supposed was good, considering the minute they realized who they were they'd probably ask them to leave.
Sirius turned around to look at Natalia, for the very first time in the night and once they were face to face they were able to see the indisputable big amount of annoyance resting in each other's eyes, none of them happy about the given situation. He was annoyed because he had not only invited but also escorted someone he didn't like to a party, and she was still hurt about the things he had said before and that because of those things and her bloody pride, she had to be standing at Hufflepuffs common room on Halloween night when she should had been having fun at her own house.
"Here's the deal, get lost and don't talk to me during the whole night, go it?" and not waiting for an answer, Sirius Black left, followed by Lupin close behind.
James talked for a fair bit with Jane, asking her quite mundane stuff; after all they spoke every day since they've been paired, but still managed to make conversation out of the silliest things and chuckles were never missing from their encounters.
Clearly, Natalia wasn't pleased to have her best friend busy when she didn't have anyone to talk to but chose to ignore such fact knowing that the taller witch surely was enjoying the chat with Potter and would still for a while. Looking around the room inspecting everything that surrounded her, on an effort to look busy and not too awkward, she failed to notice how Peter was trying to get closer to her, aiming to gain her attention.
"Are you having fun?" he said loudly and quickly, compressing somewhat of a smile.
Natalia lowered her look to where he stood- her heels giving her an advantage height wise. It appeared as if it was the first time she noticed he was there, which probably was the case.
"I just got here" she replied drily.
Peter answered a few seconds too late, resulting on the girl losing what little interest she had on the conversation, posing her eyes to where Jane and James stood chatting happily.
"Yes, yes, sorry about that" he said quietly, blushed ears and cheeks "You look nice" he added. It wasn't only the true but his friends always said girls liked to hear things as such.
Natalia nodded, not really listening anymore. Perhaps If she had, she'd have at least muttered a 'thank you' since compliments were always nice, but instead, walked away towards something that caught her eye, leaving the small Gryffindor standing by himself with a feeling of utter embarrassment. Why did he have to be so weird around girls?
On a corner of the room two witches were standing awkwardly, both of them with drinks in their hands. Natalia immediately recognized both of them and smiled; relief visible across her face. The long light haired one was Amelia Avery and the brunette, Anilius Scytale, both pureblood seventh years from Slytherin. Natalia knew them from social events where they'd share greetings and polite smiles but being older they really never spent that much time together or talked at all.
"I can see both of you seem as lost as I feel" Natalia chuckled with a smile on her lips, soon joining the small gathering and making herself visible for the other two.
The girls looked surprised but soon enough offered a relieved smile, much like the one Natalia had herself, their shoulders not as tense anymore.
"It's good to find you here, Yaxley" Amelia, the most disinhibited one of the two said.
"Natalia, please" the witch insisted, making the older two smile.
"We're glad to find you here" the blonde added "We're getting a bit gloomy being the only Slytherins and all"
Natalia nodded with a friendly smile.
"And how did you hear about the party?"
"Anilius's fiancée invited us" she said while taking a gulp out of her drink "He's a Hufflepuff" Amelia added, suppressing a small smile which she guessed was only for her to see, and not her friend.
The younger witch frowned. While having heard that the only heiress of the Scytale family on the British side recently got engaged, she still didn't know with whom, just assuming it would be with someone older or a foreigner.
"Tobias Fawley" the brunette clarified, noticing the interest of the youngest Slytherin "He's over there" she pointed with her head towards the right.
Natalia turned her eyes to get a good look out of the wizard. Tobias Fawley was a good looking and good hearted pureblood boy, related to Natalia through their great-great grandmother, who they shared, but then again, so did many other purebloods.
"So sweet!" She exclaimed to the brunette who offered her a smile.
Soon enough, Jane joined them all, a not so pleased look on her face. She was about to rant to her best friend about whatever happened to her, but Natalia elbowed her so she would notice they had company and that it would be rude to start off their conversation yelling and whining. So indeed, she had to keep all those Lily Evans related hate poems to herself, at least for a while.
"Hi!" she said quickly, recovering from the surprise of seeing them there "I'm Jane"
Both the older girls smiled, and the blonde one even giggled a little.
"We know, you silly head. You're Jane Abbott"
The younger girl went a little red on the cheeks.
"Well, enough talking all of us" Amelia said "We should show these people the way Slytherins do it"
All of them smiled and laughed, agreeing with her. Amelia was obviously referring to the way snakes liked to party which was slightly better than the way the people in the room accustomed by the looks of it. Usually, parties in Salazar's house involved a lot of snogging and related things, smarter robes and people who could hold their alcohol way better than fellow wizards could, which by consequence meant, more alcohol.
"Here, have our drinks" Anilius said "I'll tell Tobias to get us new ones" she explained to her friend and left so she could get a hold of her fiancée.
It was firewhisky and while both sixth years had enjoyed of its flavor and effect before, this time it felt different: it was sweet and wasn't as strong as they were used to tasting it, making them both frown immediately upon the missing burning feeling on their throats which they had been so eager to receive.
"Bland, isn't?" Avery smiled while catching both girls' attention "These Hufflepuff's have a weak tolerance, that's for sure. I've drank 3 already and I'm as sober as a gobbling"
Soon, Anilius was back with more drinks she could hold, her fiancée following behind and carrying some more. He got into small polite conversation, which he started, with both Jane and Natalia and left soon after to chat with some of his friends.
By themselves again, the four girls were having fun, dropping one or two not so kind comments about the people that surrounded them, causing all the others to giggle, but mostly having typical girlfriends' conversations. Since the alcohol tasted so light they had several cups during the night, causing on a big amount of hugging and silly talking as if the four were friends since ancient times.
Jane had already told them all about her long time crush on James Potter and they all seemed sympathetic of it and told her that the 'mudblood' stood no chance against someone as good looking and smart as Jane. Avery told them how she had been engaged to the same person for years, one of the Nott boys who had left school about three years ago, and how excited she was about finally marrying him; according to her, Thimaeus was a smart, handsome and funny man. Anilius didn't tell much about her engagement or any personal subject whatsoever but was sympathetic towards anything the other drunken teenagers said; she was simply not really talkative, as neither were her own parents, as Natalia could clearly remember.
"So, Black offered to help you and then said all those things to you?" Amelia asked horrified, a hand over Natalia's shoulder
Natalia took a big gulp and saw the end of her cup. Again.
"Yes, he said that I was despicable and disgusting and all sorts of things! I almost cried!" she whined in indignation.
"Oh, you poor thing!" The older witch said, placing a hand over Natalia's "I remember what he did to this girl in your year a few years before, he tricked her into thinking that Alastar Travels-
"That was me"
"Oh"
"And you know what's worse?" Natalia said after "I feel bad! I thought we were somehow kind of getting along… you know? I think that's just what he does to people; pretends he's nice to them and then betrays them. Just as he' has done with everyone around him, even his own family. I'm silly for feeling this way, am I not?"
"Oh, of course not, he's a dorcus"
"Totally"
"Absolutely, Nat"
Natalia looked down and grabbed her 7th cup of firewhisky which would likely not make it to end of the hour. It was a nice thing they had moved right next to the drinks table so they were very easy to replace once one came to an end.
"Then why do I feel like he isn't?!" She cried "He was so nice offering to teach me and I-I tried to be nice to him and then he was mean and I wanted to be meaner" she explained.
"Then go and be mean" Amelia encouraged.
"But I don't want to be mean to him! I want him to like me" Natalia said quickly with teary eyes. She so not wanted to cry over someone she hated and who very likely hated her back, but she was a very drunk teenager girl who didn't handle rejection very well, not much more could be expected from her, and that's how she justified her whining.
"Then why don't you tell him that?" the dark haired girl asked, a bit tired of the blonde's whining and crying, not drunk enough to keep listening to her high pitched voice as her friend was.
"Here, let's go find him" Jane took her hand quickly "I am completely and most certainly sure James will know where he is" she said, stumbling a bit with the words, after all, that was a very long sentence for a drunk witch to make.
And without taking a second to think about it, the two girls were giggling, holding each other hands and walking on a line so they wouldn't crash with as many people. Natalia cleaned off her tears quickly and decided that what she was about to do was completely normal and necessary.
They found James Potter quite easily, considering he always seemed to be watched by many more members of the party, who silently hoped they were drunk enough to go and talk to him, because let's face it, James Potter was a cool guy to either have as a friend, or as a beau. He was holding a drink on his hand when they spotted him, fixing his glasses to steady them, talking to an annoyed looking Lily Evans, fact that made the Slytherin girls roll their eyes.
Soon, Jane was in front of the guy, stepping over the redhead who's annoyance levels seemed to be up to the roof after that, leaving soon as a result, making James's eyes follow her with desperation.
"Hi, James. Having fun? I am" The blonde said while putting on an enormous smile which made all her tiny face go funny. She crooked her neck to the left, to block James view from the redhead. If James Potter was paying attention to anyone that night, she decided that for the first time, it should be her.
The boy, far too polite to do anything else, smiled at his friend, understanding that she had probably had far too many drinks to even realize that she had just scared Lily away from him. And really, he had to admit, he had probably scared her off himself.
"Indeed it seems like you are" he chuckled, putting the other girl on the back of his mind "How much of that had you had?" he pointed to the glass.
The witch just looked back at her friend and both of them giggled like first years that had too much candy on Halloween.
"I'll take that as a lot" James laughed.
"That's not important now… mate" Jane smiled, touching his chest with one of her fingers playfully, making the last word pop when coming out of her mouth "Now, tell us where Black is"
James frowned, smiling with amusement at the confidence with which the girl had commanded him to do something.
"Why do you want to know where Sirius is?"
Jane rolled her eyes, laughing.
"I don't wanna know where he is, I only care about knowing where you are, mister" she giggled, clenching her nose and then pointed to her friend "She is the one who wants to know where he is"
The boy seemed surprised and babbled a bit but replied soon: "Er… he just left with Marlene 'few seconds ago, actually" he fixed his glasses "They should be getting out or out already"
Natalia didn't waste a second of her time and soon left the scene meanwhile Jane was now with the only boy she wanted to be seen with.
It was only James and Jane there, no one else who mattered around, and what's more important, Jane's shyness was nowhere to be seen either. The boy seemed to find her newly discovered confidence quite amusing, and he thought it did her good. She didn't seem to lose the smile off her face, her make up making her look slightly older, and her demeanor so different from usual, but still Jane, just different.
"Are you having a nice time, Jane?" he asked politely while taking a short sip from his drink. He was drinking his alcohol with lemon juice, since he didn't like the taste of the first.
"Well, I was, but my friends abandoned me" she noticed, placing one of her lips over the other, a childish thing to do, which James thought was cute.
"Not all, I'm here" he smiled.
She looked at him for a long minute, which for her only felt like seconds but made the boy laugh a little bit awkwardly. She smiled at his features. She really liked how his eyes weren't really brown, they were light hazel and they had little toffee dots, which she knew he had gotten from his mother. Those eyes seemed so kind all the time and they made her feel special even when she knew there wasn't a reason why he should find her to be so. His lips were thin and pink and she could see a little bit of skin peeling out of them; if Natalia could see that she would've been horrified but Jane liked it. She liked everything about the Gryffindor.
"So, what do you think of the party?" he asked awkwardly "The rest of the Quidditch team and I helped organized; it's not only for Halloween but also our seeker's girlfriend birthday, Emma Thornwood, do you know her?"
"Good party!" she yelled, completely ignoring most of what he said, too distracted by his physic. "You look nice"
He got a little red on the cheeks and laughed it off since he had never gotten that kind of compliment said to his face from anyone who wasn't Mrs. Potter or related to him in some way.
"You too, Jane"
That had decided it for her. In Jane's blurry mind, those words only meant one thing, and it was that he liked her as much as she liked him. Then, without thinking it, she leaned over for a kiss. She just really wondered what his lips would feel like and she thought maybe that night she was pretty enough for him to accept her. She wasn't asking for much, just a tiny kiss, and so she went for it.
James' eyes went wide when he noticed what the blonde was trying to do and soon enough he grabbed her gently yet quickly by the arms to stop her, taking a few steps back while doing so.
"Jane, you're too drunk, aren't you?" he said playfully, recovering from his initial shock, not thinking too deep of it, after all, that's what drunk people did, they just tried making out with people not matter who they were "Really, how many drinks have you had?"
Jane shrugged.
"Who cares?" she muttered like a little kid, her eyes getting teary and angry "No one cares and you don't care and I don't even care"
She had hiccups and was now crying, something James would have found adorable if seeing it on a play or from a different perspective. He looked at the girl in front of him, the girl he considered a friend and who he knew didn't like him that way; she was simply too intoxicated to distinguish what was appropriate for friends and what wasn't. Soon, she was burying her face on his chest and hugging him by the waist; it took him by surprise, but soon he hugged back, touching her back delicately, too scared to hurt her if he applied too much pleasure.
Just as he was thinking that it felt somehow nice, he flinched when he felt her puke on his shiny shoes.
• • •
Natalia was dead sure she had ripped her tights on her way out of Hufflepuff's common room; she was just trying to be fast not to let the boy get away. Who cared about the tights? She had thousands of them at home.
She wasn't quite sure why she was doing what she was doing. Sure, what she had told the other Slytherins had been true, she truly felt like she and Sirius Black were becoming some kind of friends again, one of those odd pairings everyone finds strange but work anyway, like Snape and Evans, but what he had told her hours before made it clear he didn't find anything about her good enough to be friendly material. She really just wanted to ask him why.
It was really confusing and she hadn't want to admit it before, but she had really liked the feeling when he defended her that Friday night when Rosier tried to hurt her; she had been way too embarrassed then to notice it but when she was in bed about to fall asleep, it was all she could think about. Never had any boy from outside her family done something like that for her, to stand up for her to another wizard of such a family as the Rosiers, for instance. Wizards barely talked to her, let alone do something as nice as what Sirius Black had done that night, and he didn't' even like her. She knew the whys of boys not paying her any mind, for she had heard the gossiping behind her back: if they knew her enough, they found her too silly and childish, if they didn't, they found her scary. Sirius seemed to see her as both those things and yet so many more, and none of those were an impediment for him to do nice things for her in such odd ways, like offering for tutoring or calling Evan out.
She could feel he did, and she thought that he knew she knew. It was only a suspicion at first, but after that night at Hagrid's it became evident: she interested him. Probably not on a romantic or even sexual kind of way, but he found interest in her personality and the things she did and the things she liked. He hadn't really expressed it out loud, but she could tell; the way he looked at her down at the forest, how he listened when she spoke about the silliest things—even if he would tell her off about it after; he also laughed at her jokes, when he didn't find them offensive, something only Jane did.
And she'd be lying if she didn't say she found him equally interesting as well. There was no point denying that she paid a lot of attention to boys, always analyzing if any of them could make a good husband or if they were romantic or smart, but she always got bored after studying someone for a while, especially if she got to know them a little. Not with Sirius. He was something else; no matter how long it passed, there was something about him that would never bore her. He was so profound, so much more than anyone else; he was the boy everyone wanted to have, both sides, pure and not, yet, none of them could have him; he was too rebellious for purebloods and their rules, making him even more exciting and desirable and he was also a Black, so people from the other side were weary of him as well, the traditions he was indulged since a young age hard to die. Everyone wanted to love him, and they somehow did, their own way. Natalia believed, and she truly did, that if she wanted to and tried hard enough, she could be the one who could love him fully, to love all of him, both sides.
She didn't love him though; he scared her, no matter how hard she tried to deny it. He was so close to be all she and her family despised; her father had said once in fact, a couple of years back "That Black boy is bad news, I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up a blood traitor next year. Poor Orion" Yes, she was too scared of what he could potentially become to be In love with him or even fancy him, but yet… she couldn't deny she was attracted to him, and she believed, deep in her heart, that he was attracted to her as well, like friends.
It did pass her mind that maybe all those thoughts were just there because of the alcohol but soon realized they were there from way before that night, the firewhisky simply being the antidote that allowed her to stop suppressing them. She could only hope he had drank enough too to let the feelings she sure knew he had out as well and they could finally be… friends? Yes, she guessed she wanted them to be friends, like when they were little.
Outside the common room she looked both ways on the corridor and the sound of steps made her run to the left, assuming it could be no other but him. She ran for less than a minute when she caught sight of Sirius Black cornering a blonde girl who looked an awful lot like Marlenne McKinnon. She frowned at the picture but decided not to pay too much attention to it, her mind only able to focus on one thing, if she did drift away from her purpose, she'd probably forget about it.
"Black!" she shouted, a bit out of breath "Black, pay attention to me! I need to talk to you"
Sirius's cocky smile vanished while he turned his face slowly, hoping the person who he thought was yelling at him was someone else than the snake girl. His smile was completely gone when he realized what he feared was true: it was no one else but her. Why was she there? Merlin only knew, and Sirius Black knew it wasn't his place to figure it out,.
He ignored her, hoping she'd get the hint and walk away and turned back to Marlenne whose brown eyes were pleading for an explanation, which he hoped she'd soon forget of. He had had too much of Natalia Yaxley for the day, the remaining sharp pain on his arse a reminder of that; the girl was absolutely draining. He was about to whisper something silly on the Gryffindor girl's ear, thinking the Slytherin girl was long gone, when she spoke again:
"Please?"
He had never heard her use such a soft tone when talking to him, nor that word when talking to anyone. He rolled his eyes, not really believing he was about to do what he was about to do. A voice inside his head told him many times to stay with the Gryffindor he was with and to let the other witch go away, but he didn't. He couldn't stop himself. He pulled his arm off the wall and took a few steps back from Marlenne.
"It will only be a second" he said quickly, winking an eye cockily.
The Gryffindor witch opened and closed her mouth multiple times, trying to argue against it but it didn't seem to matter as Sirius was already walking away from her, not waiting for an answer. Did he even care about what her answer was? Both of them wondered the same thing and for the sake of their own minds dropped the question. He was indeed curious about whatever Yaxley had to say to him, he had to admit, as he mostly all the time was.
When they were both next to each other the blonde witch nodded, her own way of saying thank you, he guessed, and began walking, gesturing him to follow, which he did. They both walked in silence until they were away enough from the party, not looking at each other's faces even once, every once in a while sneaking a peak at each other. At some point she went ahead of him and he had the chance to observe her from behind.
Her light tights were ripped, she was wearing an almost knee length pink skirt and her walk was being sloppy. Her blonde hair was very curly, even if he could had sworn she had it almost straight when going to the party. He could clearly state she was drunk, being on a similar state as well. However, drunk or not, he still couldn't understand why she was taking him away from the rest of the party. Better yet, he couldn't understand why he was allowing her to do so.
They stopped walking once they reached the greenhouse, a fair way from the party. She got in first, the tunnel which took one into the room being too tight for two people, making him follow behind without saying a word. How she managed to get in there in her drunken state was unexplainable to Sirius.
He sighed and she turned rapidly, now looking at him but still a few meters away. With one hand on a desk and the other over her hip, she looked upset; he could tell that. It felt as if she was struggling to let whatever she had to say out.
"You have to promise not to be mean" she said.
Sirius blinked.
"What?"
"Promise me you won't be mean to me!" she repeated, getting the hand out of the table and hugging her other arm with it "I won't be mean to you in return, I promise"
"What is this all about?"
"Sometimes you're so nice" she let out quickly, not even talking to him anymore but to herself instad "and… and It feels good. And I know I probably shouldn't be saying this and I've been drunk before so I think that's probably it, but you make me feel nice and according to Millie Wickholm from Twitch Weekly if someone who's a wizard makes you feel like that it means you fancy them but I don't fancy you! I just wanna be friends with you"
"Why—
"And sometimes you're so mean as well and it makes me really mad and sad at the same time but I think I feel like I kind of forgive you so much easier than I would to other people. Does that mean I fancy you?" She arched a brow "I don't think so, I just wanna be friends with you" she repeated.
To say least, the dark haired boy was… surprised.
That was the first time something like that had ever happened to him. She had indeed left him speechless. Was she confessing to fancy him? A whole new experience for him, not one he was sure to have experienced. All those times, with all those other girls, it had always been him the one to open his heart out or well, pretend to do it; but there it was: Natalia Yaxley, Slytherin, pureblood, blood supremacist, and someone who had claimed to loathe him and his friends, claiming that there was a small chance she fancied him while she kept on repeating she wanted them to be friends.
He preferred not to think of Natalia when they weren't forced to spend time together, he came to realized that it made everything easier. Thinking of her usually made doubts rise and he didn't like them one bit. He had doubted enough when he had been merely a child living under Slytherin guidance while hanging out with Gryffindors and slag; he had been divided back then between staying faithful to his family and their believes or his friends and theirs, and he had made a choice which he decided would soon voice out for the rest of the world to know. Yes, he had been through all of that, to now have a little witch making him wonder if it is possible for a person not to be fully evil despite some of their choices and actions.
Then it came Natalia Yaxley, a person who had always been there during the early years as she was sometimes a victim of his pranks, as most of her peers were, but not quite as much after their third when they began avoiding each other for Merlin's own sake. However, for some stranger reason, ever since their sixth year began, she managed to end up in every place he seemed to be at, and she raises questions and doubts from him; he found some things she said funny, things that his friends wouldn't, but he and Natalia did; he took pleasure from all the silly bourgeois things she did, not matter how much he tried to deny it: it was soothing to see how she knew which utensils to use when eating, just as he did but ignored, and he liked that she spoke French so much better than he did; and he knew, above all, that he shouldn't like those things, he should despise them, those where things his and her parents liked. Out of all the things, what he most liked about her was that she could always surprise him; he had been shocked when he had come to learnt the young witch had a warm heart for animals and creatures, something really unlike a high class pureblood witch; he was also often surprised at how much she could talk and wear her feelings out on her sleeve, she was straight forwards and always let him know how she felt about things he did or other stuff.
For all those reasons he decided, without really knowing it, it was better to distract himself with some other thought as soon as her name would pop into his mind. He supposed now, filled with alcohol and with nothing but honesty in his mind, that maybe he liked her and that was simply unacceptable. Had he really just turned into everything his family told him he should be? Was this just the beginning for a serious number of other things that would change on his personality and that would lead into him becoming just the same as every single other member of his family?
He tried really hard to think about the fact that Natalia Yaxley was nothing more than a spoiled pureblood that had grown a fancy on him and that he shouldn't let that fact change anything among them. But as he saw her standing there, his eyes couldn't keep away from her rosy lips, which were really pink and he couldn't stop wondering if that was due some kind of cosmetic spell or just natural; somehow, it became a necessity for him to know.
Natalia looked up and down, searching for something to say to make him say something. She felt silly. Had she really said all those things? Was she going to regret it in the morning? She knew what the answer to that was. Maybe she should make clear once more that she only wanted them to be friends, because that's what she wanted. But she didn't say it.
They stared at each other for what seemed hours, both of them had their mouths slightly open but no sound was coming out of them. He walked over her slowly, as if he was encountering a wild animal, he needed to know. She stood still, not even daring to blink, feeling a bit sick, everything spinning around her. Was he going to jinx her to pay back from before? Was he going to kiss her? She hoped he would do the last. Wait, had she just thought that?
For him, she no longer seemed like Natalia Yaxley, "daughter and member of", the pureblood brat that he learnt to despise after all those years in Hogwarts. Right there she was no other than Natalia, the girl who protected Harvey when she found it hurt in the woods; she was the girl who ate 5 slices of pizza and loved them; the girl who couldn't get a proper Transfiguration thing right. She was attractive and interesting and different from everyone else, both pureblood and not.
He stood right in front of her. Grey eyes over blue. Her skin seemed smooth and he felt desperate to touch it, so he did. With one hand over her cheek he stared back into her lips which he learnt didn't have anything more than a light gloss, so it appeared it was all her. Why had it taken him so long to notice her lips were the best ones in all Hogwarts? Who was he to deny himself a taste of those lips? Who cared who she was? It was just them there and no one needed to know, it would all be gone in the morning.
It was a slow, small kiss at first. Their lips were apart seconds after they touched, their breath colliding against the other's. After looking into each other's eyes and confirming that what they wanted to do next was wanted by both, they began snogging. It was very… desperate; the kind of way two drunken teenagers who had waited for long to do it would do it. He held her by the waist and she posed her hands over his shoulders. Soon enough, he had her over the desk, legs slightly open; just enough for his torso to fit in between and keep with the snogging session, hands going up and down each other's bodies, discovering each inch of them.
The only words exchanged between them were
"Is this wrong?"
"Maybe"
They kept kissing for much longer an average couple would. He even kissed her places where she never thought one should be kissed, like her neck and collarbone. They only broke the snogging session when they heard steps coming from the corridors, which pulled them back with reluctance from both wizards; they looked at each other's eyes and deciding it wasn't over, they kept kissing.
It was over when they heard those noises again, and after agreeing on it, they left on separated ways, none of them caring to be caught by any prefects of professors of ghosts, both still too intoxicated with alcohol and each other to think of the existence of consequences for anything they had just done.
One thing was for sure. Sirus Black knew Natalia Yaxley tasted like vanilla.