Chapter Twenty-One

The next couple of days passed without incidence. Severus and I actually talked like friends do, and Slughorn officially admitted me into the Slug Club- by which I mean he stated I was a member and as such should be proficient at making a certain potion. Cassi finally spilled all the details of her and Amos; she said he had been dropping hints left and right, as had she, that he thought they should be a couple. She stated her jealousy over thinking he wanted me, and said it had propelled her toward actually being serious about him. She said she had the strangest feeling they should be a couple. That same evening, working on Divination homework at a table with Xeno and Pandora, while Bartram and Natalia sat at the end of the table playing chess, Xeno looked up at Pandora and simply asked if he could see her over winter break, because he was in love with her and wished to meet her family. Pandora, as eccentric as he is, agreed on the terms she gets to meet his family as well, because she's madly in love with him too. So that happened.

Saturday morning arrived like a gift-wrapped paradise.

We wouldn't leave for Hogsmeade until noon due to the weather, Cassi told me when I first woke up at seven, and I was able to sleep in. I woke at a quarter past ten, and rose from my slumber rejuvenated. Journeying to the bathroom, I bathed quickly, washing my hair, and then cast exaresco to dry off. It was a sunny day, unusually warm for October, and I dressed in a short-sleeved, oversized gray Rolling Stones shirt with a wide collar (almost a one-shoulder), and black pants. After lacing up black oxford heels I rarely wore, I brushed my hair out and did a small touch of makeup, something I rarely did. I glanced at my reflection; my dark gold hair was a thick, voluminous mess, but it actually looked alright for once. The touch of makeup around my hazel eyes made them pop some, though against my usually tan skin they didn't stand out much. I decided it was good enough and left the lavatory, heading back to where Cassi was in the courtyard. She was dressed in a beige and black polka dot button-down with a pleated beige skirt and ankle-high black granny boots. Her curly hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, falling in curls just past her neck, and she wore pink lipgloss I was sure would touch Amos's lips.

"Don't you look cute," I greeted her. She smiled and looked down at herself.

"Do I?"

"Yes. Amos is going to love you."

She grinned, and then looked at me. "Why are you dressed like Mick Jagger?"

I checked myself. "If this is how Mick Jagger dresses, then he's more fashionable than I gave him credit for."

"It isn't how he dresses, but it would be if he were a teenage girl."

I grinned. "Well, then, I'm fashionable teenage girl Mick Jagger, and I have to find Sirius soon."

Cassi grabbed my arm. "Wait, no, don't go yet. At least let Amos get here."

A few minutes passed and it was time to go; neither of the boys had shown up. As Cassi and I headed to the village, we chatted idly, just enjoying each other's company. She commented once on how weird it was that I seemed almost dressed-up for Sirius; she knew he and I were supposed to be spending most of the day together, and no matter how much I claimed it wasn't a date, that was still what she called it. Was it a date? Remus did think we were flirting. It's not a date. No.

I reached the village and spotted the familiar ebony waves of hair through the crowd, and then as we passed the edge of a hill and started downhill, I saw him laughing with James and Lily and Vanica. Dammit. Not her again. Cassi saw the look I had and followed my gaze; she grinned at me.

"Are you jealous?"

I shook my head. "No. I'm not 'jealous', I'm just mad at Sirius. He made plans with me and then he's- he's over there."

She raised her eyebrows, and then turned forward again, sighing, "Jealous!"

I grinned and elbowed her. "C'mon, let's go wait for your beau."

We paused outside of the village at the edge and waited; after a few minutes, the Hufflepuffs reached us, tailed by Slytherins. Amos broke from the crowd and jogged over with an enthusiastic grin. Cassi smiled back, and Amos barely shuffled to a halt in time. It was weird to see him out of school clothes; the dork was wearing a tight, dark gold button-down tucked into dark blue jeans. I held down my smile and cleared my throat.

"Cassi, could I borrow Amos for just a second? Have to, um, lay down the best friend advice."

She laughed and agreed, and I grabbed him and tugged him around the corner and halfway down the wall of the building. I turned to him.

"Amos, let me help you." I pulled his shirt out of his pants and smoothed it out, and then tugged his pants down some.

"But now the bottom of the shirt is wrinkled!"

"Just barely! Trust me, it's better this way. You're very slender, so the shirt looks incredibly baggy, and odd, tucked in. Plus your pants were, um, pulled in a way that they outlined something."

"Oh."

I nodded. "Okay! Best friend time." I tried to kill the awkwardness and lay out some very simple rules, and then stopped when I saw Sirius's head poke around the corner. He grinned as I stared over Amos's shoulder, and then he strode forward. Amos turned at the footsteps, and then greeted Sirius with considerable civility.

"Hey! You two snogging?"

I gaped. "Sirius, he's here on a date with Cassi. I was fixing his shirt and giving him the best friend talk."

Sirius grinned. "Don't let me interrupt, go on and finish. I'd like to hear this."

I paused, and then said, "Fine." I turned to Amos. "Keep your hands out of her skirt. You can touch her sides or shoulders or arms or back if she gives you permission, and you can touch her face or hair if she gives you permission or seems to want that, but if she doesn't want to or tells you to stop, you respect that, or you get magically castrated. If you think I'm fierce on the quidditch field, you haven't seen me angry. It'll be more than an accidental bludger tossed your way."

He laughed, but had a soft glint of fear in his eyes that I recognized from the last couple of guys to date Cassi. "Oh, okay. Alright. I, um, I'll be perfectly respectful."

"See that you do. Now then, go free."

I clapped his back and pushed him toward Cassi, and then turned to Sirius. "Okay. Just the two of us, then."

He stepped forward, grinning at me still. "You are the most intimidating Ravenclaw I've ever met, and I kind of love it."

"I'm not intimidating. I'm just able to intimidate."

He raised his eyebrows. "That's not what Amos Diggory, secret lover of Hazel Drummond and future boyfriend of Hazel's best friend, thinks."

I punched him in the stomach. "Sirius Black, you are the most drama-happy gossip-monger I've ever met."

He stepped closer, now inches away. "You promise?"

I grinned. "No."

He chuckled in a deep pitch and ran a hand through his hair, a strangely masculine thing, and I almost wanted to throw him against the wall and snog him right there. I could smell the rain and pine scent again, and it was… Alluring.

I stepped back with impeccable power of will, and then forced a bright smile. "Alright, then. Where to first?"

"Zonko's, of course!"

By mid-afternoon, we had pranked multiple people in the village. When I asked, Sirius informed me that James was on a date with Lily (Severus was ill- physically and figuratively), Remus had stayed behind to study, Peter preferred to sleep rather than go to Hogsmeade, and therefore he was "all mine" for the day. We hung out like good friends; play-fighting, arguing about little things, pranking James and Lily, hiding, discussing all the wonderful things we could do with merchandise from Zonko's, and, now, enjoying butterbeers together at the Three Broomsticks.

"So then James hops on his broom and flies off, screaming that McGonagall would kill him if she caught him so she was never going to catch him. She was furious when he landed, I thought she really might kill him. But he only got a month of detentions, and alongside that a position as keeper for his ability to dodge the spells she hurled to stop him from continuing to fly off."

I chuckled. "And that's how he got involved in quidditch?"

"That's it. And I tried out because he did, and our captain liked me enough, so I stayed in."

I chuckled. "Cassi is truly indifferent about quidditch. I don't know anyone else so immune to the sport, and it's strange that we're best friends, considering that. Just before the term began, she was convincing me not to take divination because she thought it wouldn't be beneficial to my future career as a pro beater. A lot has changed since then."

The last part sobered me some, and I could see it on Sirius's face as well. His head tilted some as a sudden smile sprung on his lips. "Yeah; back then, we weren't friends."

I smiled. "And I'm glad that changed."

"Strange to think Remus thought we flirt all the time," Sirius commented, "Isn't it?"

I chewed the inside of my lip for a second and forced the smile to remain. "Yeah. It would be mad to think we flirt, wouldn't it?"

"Exactly."

We both sat in awkward silence for a moment, drinking our butterbeers, and I coughed once. I pretended not to know why it bothered me so much to think he didn't flirt with me. Maybe I knew before he said that it would be strange; maybe I had been fooling myself. That's all it was- a fool's hope. Right?

We continued to talk for a few more minutes, but we could both feel that it was awkward, and Sirius excused himself to go talk to a few Gryffindors sitting at one of the booths. Yumi then swept up and sat next to me, her beige cheeks reddened and dark eyes bright. She ran a hand through her bangs, grinning.

"What?" I asked her, and she giggled.

"I think- um- I- Bartram and I-"

I turned to face her, a small anticipatory smile taking place on my lips. "You think what?"

She blushed deeper, glanced around, and leaned close. "We were just walking and talking, and the rest of the team had gotten a little further behind us, and we started talking about quidditch and then our owls and then he- um- we were standing really close, and I had just noticed we stopped walking and then I saw the look he had, and- well, then we were snogging."

Guess I was wrong about him and Natalia Abbot. And he's actually not into me anymore, which is relieving. God, he better not have done that to make me jealous, I'll send a bludger his way if he did. "Really!?" I nodded once. "I knew you two were getting closer, but that's still surprising. I didn't even know you fancied him."

She shrugged, leaning back. "I don't, really, but he's still worth considering- who is that?"

I glanced behind me. "Who?"

"In the booth, there," she said, nodding in the same direction. I looked again, and this time saw a tall dark fellow I had never seen before. I shrugged.

"I'm not sure. If you'd like, I'll go ask."

But in the same moment, he happened to glance up and his eyes met Yumi. A grin crossed his face and she excused herself, heading over to him. I shrugged and turned back to my butterbeer, still waiting for Sirius to return.

After half an hour, Sirius still hadn't returned, and I simply left. In the town, I saw Lily and James prance by, saw Severus bitterly watching from a bench, saw Xeno and Pandora snogging, and then spotted Amos and Cassi just returning from the trail to the forest. I flounced over to them and fell in step next to Cassi.

"Hi, you two," I greeted them. "Has was your forest excursion?"

Cassi turned bright red; I grinned. They definitely snogged a lot. Amos cleared his throat. "It was- wonderful."

"Amos got us lost."

"Did not."

"Did, too. If not for me noticing that boulder as the same we first passed, we'd still be lost in the woods."

Amos gave her an argumentative glare, and then ceded to her. I laughed and said I'd see them at dinner, and then started heading out of the village. As I reached the edge, the path back, someone caught my wrist and said, "Hazel! I've been looking for you."

I turned around in surprise to see Sirius. "Really?"

"Yes. We had plans, didn't we?"

I glanced behind him. "I thought we were done."

I realized after I said it that it could have been intended in multiple ways, and I saw that meaning skip past Sirius without him even glancing at it. "I was only talking to them for a moment-"

"It was half an hour, Sirius. I was going to head back and study, and leave you to it."

He shrugged. "If that's what you want."

But I had a feeling if I left now, things wouldn't be the same. But then, it was already too late, wasn't it? "Yeah. Sure. Bye, Sirius."

"Bye, Hazel. I'll see you back at the castle tonight, then. We're meeting in the Room of Requirement."

"Okay."

I started off down the path, subconsciously trusting that nothing would occur because of my early leave.

And, of course, that night the Great Hall was abuzz with two rumors:

That Sirius and I had gone on a date, and that Sirius and I had gone on a date the same day Priscilla Aldridge became his girlfriend.

Naturally, I was pissed.