Katherine was eating a peach from the plate Jake had left her. It was perfectly ripe. She reveled in eating real food for the first time in a long time. She forgot what she had been missing. There was no point in staying in the library now, her cover was blown by both Jake and Regulus. She packed up her things, including the platter of fruit, and set off out the door.
She walked to the door and saw one of the last people she expected; Sirius Black. She gave him a small smile and a nod before brushing past him and heading to the dormitories.
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It took him all of seventy-three minutes, but Sirius finally worked up his nerve to try to open the door. It was a big step, to be sure. He didn't get a chance to actually turn the knob, however, before someone threw the door open and stopped. Then he saw Her. It almost hurt him. As much as they pretended to still be friends, they hadn't even dared look one another in the eyes since that fight. He knew that he missed her, he just didn't know how much until he looked into her eyes. They looked different. That ever-present gleam of humor, sarcasm, mischief, whatever it was it was gone.
Then she walked around the corner and he lost control of his movements. He hadn't meant to, but he somehow ended up chasing after her.
"Kitten, wait." His voice echoed down the deserted corridor. It sounded desperate, even to him. "Please. I need to talk to you."
"What do you want this time Black?" She rounded on him. Her tone was angry, her expression was hurt. "Are you going to tell me I'm a whore? No, you would never say that. You would word it to hurt me as deeply as you possibly could. You're good with words, Black. You can make someone feel so important and special, and you can tear them down to the final vestiges of lost dignity." She looked away, but he still saw the moisture starting to gather on her lashes. "No, I don't want to hear anything you have to say, Black."
She started to walk away. Never in his life did watching a woman walk away from him. Never before did he wish that she would turn around and give him one smile, a wink, to just look at him. But he knew that was asking too much.
"I'm sorry." He said quietly. His voice was thick with emotions he never knew he possessed. "I know that you'll probably never forgive me, I know I don't deserve it, but I am sorry and I'll do anything to prove that to you." He paused and looked at her still form, she was listening to him. He felt lighter, maybe there was hope after all. "I'll live everyday for you, I'll-
"Sirius, just stop." She turned around and looked at him. "If you go any farther I might think that these are declarations of your feelings for me or something." She smiled. "You are right though, it will take a while for to forgive you. At least you took that first step." She turned her back on him again and walked away.
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She stood in the middle of the quittich pitch, shivering and clutching her light sweater to herself. It was December and it had yet to snow. Stranger things had happened, she was sure, but it still didn't feel right to see the barren ground so close to Christmas.
Who was she kidding? Nothing felt right lately, and it wouldn't feel like Christmas for a long time. Why had she ever decided that a walk around the grounds would clear her mind? No matter what she did, no matter how clear or muddled her mind might have been, her thoughts always reverted back to him.
She was relieved that Sirius had apologized, but she couldn't be sure that he meant it. For all she knew he was forced to by James because Lily asked him to. She could never be sure of where his allegiances would lie because he kept his cards close to his chest and revealed very little about himself, to her anyway.
Why was she even at the quittich pitch? This was where it had all started, everything. The sneaking, the lies he told her, when she fell for him.
Her drooping lids immediately flew open. She fell for him? She never...but that would explain why she was taking everything so hard. No. She was hurt, to be sure, but she wasn't heart-broken. No, she was just piled with stress and the whole 'Sirius thing' (as she had come to refer to it) had been just enough to set her off the edge.
It started to rain and she lifted her head to the sky, feeling the ice-cold droplets hit her skin and steal what little warmth she had managed to salvage. She let it all go. Any doubts, and thoughts, any worries, they were all washed away with the December rain.
A trail of warmth traveled down her cheeks and she realized that she was crying. Her resolve had broken. She let the tears fall. She cried for her lost bond with her brother, for her mother's distance and erratic behavior, for her last year of safety at Hogwarts, but most of all, she cried for Sirius. She let the tears mingle with the rain on her cheeks for the loss of all the things that could have been.
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Padfoot playfully nudged Mooney as he ran ahead of him, daring his friend to chase after him. Wormtail sat on Prongs' shoulders and squeaked in surprise as the werewolf passed them with such tremendous speed.
Sirius let his tongue loll out of his mouth lazily as he ran ahead of his friend to the open grounds of Hogwarts.
Mooney tackled him and he started to fight with him. They happily rolled around on the ground, nipping and biting each other playfully as they went. Prongs shook his head in good-humor, his antlers making a whooshing sound through the air as he did. Wormtail squeaked again. Mooney wanted to play with the little rodent, but Padfoot stopped him by nipping his flank and drawing the attention back to himself.
The werewolf's tongue drooped from his jowls as he was about to pounce on the large black dog and continue their game. Suddenly, his nose twitched as he sniffed the air, his head shot up into the air and his eyes became hard and focused on some unseen thing in the distance.
He ran after the scent, his sudden departure making it harder for the others to catch him.
Padfoot let his canine instincts take over as he ran after the large lupine creature, trying desperately to understand what had made him abandon the rest of them so unexpectedly. His keen nose caught a familiar aroma on the breeze. His human mind raced. He recognized that smell, it still clung to some of his clothes, he often caught whiffs of it in the halls between classes and felt like an idiot for dwelling on something he had tried so hard to get rid of.
It was coming from the quittich pitch.
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She heard it before she saw anything. She knew that it undoubtedly wasn't a good thing to hear heavy panting and feel the thud of an animal's running feet on the ground in the middle of the might, but she clung to the last bit of optimism left in her, hoping it was a unicorn, or a giant three-headed puppy. She may as well wished for the Loch-Ness monster and the yeti to show up holding hands and throwing free chocolate at all the little children that would no doubt be (overweight and) following them. What she did see caused a sharp intake of breath. She froze and stared at the large creature running toward her from the opposite team's goal posts.
Closer.
It was a large animal, no doubt from the canine family. The only difference from it and a dog would be its massive size and how its hind legs were longer then the front, and the fact that it was currently foaming at the mouth. It ran on all fours, obviously for speed and traction, its gaze hungrily taking her in.
Closer.
She knew from the beginning that there was no point trying to run away; she was a crap runner and it just took half of the quittich pitch in seconds. She started to feel regrets for all of the things she left unsaid to all of the people she cared about. She wouldn't have the chance to patch things up with her brother, catch up with her mum, or start over with Sirius.
"Well," She said to the werewolf, "I hope for your sake I taste good, because I'm not getting anything out of this."
There was no chance to escape now, even if she somehow thought to pull out her wand (which was still up in the common room with her books and secret stash of the best, and least healthy, candy known to woman-kind). She accepted her fate and stood there, watching intently. She was in fact astounded by the fluidity and grace of the creature, she found it almost comforting that the thing that was about to devour her moved so beautifully. Almost.
She was going to die.
All at once, a blur came out of nowhere and tackled the werewolf to the ground, the force of impact making them land a good ten meters away.
She blinked once, twice, as she tried to see what had just happened. A gigantic black dog stood up and shook the rain and dirt from its coat. The werewolf stood as well, but looked right back at her. The dog caught its attention by letting out a blood-curdling snarl, arching its body and letting its wet fur stand up. the wolf simply swiped it away with its front paw, causing the poor thing to yelp and hit the ground with a muted thud.
The wolf advance on her once again, this time more slowly and deliberately. She stared into his brown eyes and smiled at it. If she was going to die she was determined to do it with a smile, lest she be one of those people in the casket that looked so somber and completely devoid of love in their lives. (Not that she was likely to have an open casket after what the werewolf was probably planning, or even a corpse for that matter.)
The dog recovered quickly enough, and leapt on the wolf's back, piercing its shoulder with those long fangs. The wolf somehow managed to grab the dog and throw it off of his back, making him land right in front of the prey. The dog stood up, shakily, and bristled and snarled once more, clearly not going to give up anytime soon.
"Thank you." She murmured to her protector, her arms still clinging to her sides, her whole body still trembling.
Then, her world went dark.
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Author's note!!!
I wanted to write something exciting. Part of me just wanted to see if I could. Many of you are probably wondering how the hell all of that happened if Mooney was so fast. Well, I'll tell you. Most of that were Kate's thoughts, and thoughts happen on many layers at many speeds and level of consciousness. Not many of these thoughts were forced, they just kind of popped into her head and floated away. Is that the way most people think or is it just me? Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this installment of Seriously, It's Just a Fling. (Should I change the title? I only picked it after deliberating for a few seconds when I realized that I needed one. Any input would be nice.)
On to our lucky winners this evening! All of the following will receive an un-dead monkey! YAY FOR YOUS!
fastfashiondispatch
anyavioletta
Snuffles-sweetie
Sirius-Baby (dontcha just love the new name?)
Toad321
HAPPY NEW YEAR YOU GUYS!!