Avery and Sirius were standing next to the door to the Common Room, talking to each other. Krystal lugged her bag past the Fat Lady and into the room.
"So, I was thinking about who I was going to ask out to the dance," Sirius began.
"Krystal!" Avery declared.
"NO!" Sirius quickly replied.
Krystal smashed back against the doorway and felt her face turn very red. This was bad timing. She couldn't see them anymore, but she could still hear them.
"Excuse me?" Avery demanded.
"She's your sister," Sirius explained.
"So?" Avery asked.
"So, you wouldn't date Regulus would you?" Sirius pointed out.
"Nah," Avery replied. "I don't do boys younger than me, and I really doubt I'm his type… Although, he is cute…"
"Avery!" Sirius desperately moaned.
"I wouldn't!" Avery reminded. "If you didn't want me to, I wouldn't, even if he was our age and super hot." She paused. "But I'm fine if you go with Krystal. You two would be cute together."
"But she's your sister," Sirius repeated, changing tactics. This time, he stressed "your" instead of "sister", giving it a slightly different meaning.
Avery's answer was the same. "So?"
"So, you're a little… protective of Krystal."
"No, I'm not," Avery denied.
"Remember what happened to the last guy who looked at her too long?" Sirius pointed out. "I think you gave him a black eye."
"There was a guy looking at me?" Krystal whispered in surprise. That couldn't be right…
"Oh, yeah…" Avery reminisced. "I was aiming for his nose, but he ducked."
Krystal pictured Sirius nodding in the pause that followed. "Krystal is off limits," he declared. "She's your sister, so I'm not even allowed to look."
"That's not true," Avery replied. "I kind of… sort of… trust you. I trust you more than James."
Krystal almost snickered. Avery trusted almost anyone more than James. The only exception would probably be Voldemort or Bellatrix.
"Anyway," Avery continued, "you should ask Krystal out. You would be cute together."
"Okay," Sirius responded.
"Were you planning on taking Abby?" Avery inquired. In Krystal's head, she was probably narrowing her eyes.
"No," Sirius admitted. "We broke up a while ago."
Avery was probably shrugging. "I'm going with Jamie, I think," Avery declared.
There was a silence. "I'll ask Krystal."
This scene references the upcoming "prom" that Avery and Krystal came up with (and that Ember ends up doing most of the boring planning for). Avery insists that "real proms" only let people in if they come with a date. So the tickets are only sold in pairs, and both people must show up to get into the party. This rule was probably made up to force James to ask Lily out (he flirts with her a lot this year, but is too scared to actually take her on a date).