The new year began with another terrible snowstorm and Giselle couldn't help but feel connected to the harsh weather, she felt equally as horrible and cruel. Playing it cool was a whole lot harder than she thought and the dense knots of stress in her stomach refused to loosen, they got tighter whenever she caught herself gazing at him, she couldn't believe she was being so weak. The knots were determined to stay until she spoke to Sirius alone. She needed to hear him say that they were going to be civil, that they were fine, and they were indifferent to whatever the letters said - that was the old them, the new them had no feelings towards each other whatsoever. Everything was fine. It needed to be fine, there were no other options.
It wasn't until the morning of the school's return to Hogwarts that Giselle found the courage to talk to him. She had purposely avoided catching him alone, if she sensed that the others were about to leave her with him she would make up an excuse and run off, dreading the strained air that would fill the silence between the pair. But with the imminent arrival of the rest of their house, she kicked herself into gear and prepped her speech in front of the bathroom mirror. The talking points that she had come up with started to tangle in her brain as more thoughts popped up so she resorted to writing them down. She kept the folded parchment in her pocket in case she thought of another topic she wanted to clarify with him but the longer the list got, the longer she put off their impending conversation.
She had to be strong and calm, her facade was that of a girl who simply wanted her old friend back and nothing else. She needed to get her story and motives straight before Marlene came back. If she asked Giselle what was going on between them then she wanted to tell Marlene the truth, and that truth needed to be that they were dropping all of their grudges and starting over. They were just friends… or acquaintances. She didn't know where she stood with him. Sirius gave no indication of his feelings concerning her letters, he was a closed book and he wasn't letting anyone take a peek; it was as though he was ignoring the whole situation altogether.
"The Express arrived in Hogsmeade ten minutes ago," announced Lily to the common room as she glanced at her watch. The Gryffindors were stretched out throughout the room, making the most of the space before the peace was ruined and they no longer had full reign of the tower. It was a prime luxury that they were reluctant to give up.
"Can't we change the password and stop other people from coming in?" James called out over his shoulder as he haphazardly pinned a few last minute notices to the board in the corner, "Ravenclaw tower is big enough for two houses, I'm sure the birds won't mind."
"I'll leave it to you to make that announcement then," sighed Lily, smacking Remus' feet from one of the antique side tables, "so this is why I keep finding mud everywhere?!"
Giselle peered over the top of her newspaper to stare at James incredulously. "You've been inside the Ravenclaw tower? Without me?"
"You were otherwise engaged, being in France and all," countered James, not bothering to glance back at her, "that's your own fault."
"Is it nice? Or is it really pretentious like the Slytherin common room?" she wondered, rustling the paper as she threw it on the table she was sitting at, curious to know what the other houses were dealing with.
"Half-pretentious, half-underwhelming," answered Remus, sorting through his chaotic school bag, pulling parchment out at random, "their tower is huge but ours is better decorated and our bedrooms are bigger."
"Personally, I think Hufflepuff have got the best deal," Peter joined in, slowly rousing himself from his comfortable slouching position on the sofa, "they're right next to the kitchens."
"But we're right next to the Room," scoffed Sirius, confused by Peter's statement, and he frowned at him through the mirror he was using, "you know, the Room that can literally give us anything we ask for?"
"It can't conjure food though, remember?" countered Remus, scowling at a past memory but Sirius didn't seem too bothered as he continued to smirk.
"Yeah but it can conjure food-flavoured items, that's practically the same thing," he said confidently but Lily's hurried yelps cut off Remus' comeback.
"The carriages are starting to arrive, we need to go down now!" she urged as she stared out of the window, tousling her hair and straightening her Head Girl badge, "let's go!"
"Of course, your Majesty," drawled James and he slipped his hand around his girlfriend's waist, "anything the lady wants, the lady gets."
"The lady wants you to move your arse, come on," smirked Lily and the Heads' departure sparked movement from the rest of the room.
"I'm exhausted, do you reckon McGonagall will hunt me down if I skip this meal?" wondered Remus aloud as he shrugged on his school robes but Peter's solemn head nods only made Remus sigh louder. Giselle, not realising she was holding her breath, watched Sirius carelessly redo the knot in his tie whilst she battled with her nerves to spit out the words she needed to say. He was following the two boys out of the tower, too lost in his own thoughts to pay her any attention, but the creature inside roared and commanded her to talk. It was now or never, he'll be glued to Marlene's hip the second she walked through the castle doors.
"Uh, Sirius?" chirped Giselle, finding her voice at the last possible moment, "wait a second, we need to talk."
Sirius hesitated in the portrait hole, muttering something to Remus who peered over his shoulder with the ghost of a smile on his lips, but to Giselle's relief, the boys left Sirius alone and he turned to face her with what she could only describe as an agonising smile. He looked constipated and she couldn't help but snort at his discomfort.
"How may I be of assistance?" he asked politely, not moving from his spot. He looked as tense as she felt and she didn't blame him. She had to spit it out, she had to rip the bandage from the wound.
"Are we cool?" she blurted out, fumbling slightly, "are we just going to pretend like none of that happened?"
"Errrrrr… no?" answered Sirius slowly, sounding incredibly unsure, and Giselle's face dropped. She didn't know what that meant.
Sirius panicked at her expression and he took a step forward. "Oh, wait, I meant to say yeah?"
Giselle blinked, disorientated by his wobbly replies. "Huh?"
"I don't know?! What do you want me to say?" he exclaimed, exaggerating his shrug with a disconcerted look. "A lot happened in a very short amount of time, I feel like I've just experienced a whole year all at once. I'm still… processing everything," he told her honestly and Giselle nodded in thought, standing up straight and crossing her arms as though they were protecting her from getting her feelings hurt. He wasn't being clear whatsoever, she still couldn't read him.
"You don't have to say anything then," she replied in her most casual voice, seeming unfazed, "but I still want to talk." Sirius' anxious expression somewhat softened and he nodded, mirroring her shy stance.
"Then talk, Elle. I don't want to stop you, I want to hear what you've got to say," he muttered deeply and his crackling tone almost vibrated through her body as though he had whispered it into her ear. Giselle licked her dry lips and took a quick deep breath, channeling the confidence of the powerful creature within. Her unbothered facade came to her a lot easier this time.
"Firstly, I'm sorry that you never got your letters, I can't apologise enough for what Barty did-," she started to reel off her apology but Sirius barked out in laughter and strolled forward, dropping his stiff demeanour instantaneously.
"Ok, no, start again," he ordered her, shaking his head in disappointment, "remove that apology from your speech, that was a terrible opener."
Giselle frowned, miffed by his opinion. "I thought it was a very strong opener actually-," she tried to defend but Sirius was having none of it.
"Then you thought wrong! Don't apologise for something you had no control over, I don't want to hear you say that again," he said sourly, scrutinising her with a quick glance up and down, "try again."
"So you accept my apology?" asked Giselle, the clown taking over for a brief moment, and he scoffed.
"What apology? I don't know what you're talking about," challenged Sirius, widening his eyes in a dramatic attempt to play mind games and his foolishness was a breath of fresh air.
"All I hear is 'apology accepted'," she sighed, satisfied with the smirk that ultimately replaced his guffaws.
"I could just agree so we can move on from this but I can't let this go. Don't ever apologise to me for something that Dickhead has done," he told her honestly, not wanting to hide his passion on the subject, "I really can't think about your father right now so if you could quickly move on, that would be great."
Giselle could only open and close her mouth as though her jaw was mechanically jammed, his strong protests were shocking but overwhelmingly comforting and she eventually found her voice again with a weak smile. She had to do better this time.
"I can agree to those terms, may he never be mentioned again," she said confidently but she paused, mentally removing all of her talking points about her father from her speech. Two full minutes passed and she still hadn't found her next point. A single bead of sweat ran down her back and she quivered, internally panicking as Sirius simply stared at her, refusing to say anything. He did say he didn't want to talk, snickered her subconscious.
"Er, one minute please," she smiled awkwardly, her hand frantically searching for her list in her pocket and she pulled out it, shamelessly recounting her bulletpoints to find her place.
"You wrote this down?" chuckled Sirius, taking another step forward to catch a glimpse at her letter but she shied away, hiding her parchment with her arm.
"I have a lot of things to say," she countered with a sarcastic pout, but she gasped as her next point came back to her, "ok, I've got it-,"
"Why don't I read the list instead? That'll save us both some time?" suggested Sirius, daring to swipe at the parchment but Giselle slapped his arm away, backing up against the table behind her to stop any more of his advances.
"Stay," she scolded playfully, pointing a finger at him and his mischievous grin fell almost immediately. He was vastly unamused but it did stop him in his tracks.
"Good boy!" teased Giselle, slipping the list back into her pocket.
"Bye," Sirius turned on his heel in a huff, making a point of his dramatic exit with a flourish of his robe but Giselle couldn't let him leave yet. They had barely scratched the surface of their problem.
"Ok, ok, I'm sorry," she laughed, automatically reaching out and grabbing his shoulder to prevent him from ditching and she felt his muscles stiffen at her physical contact, she tried not to retract her hand too fast.
"You think you're so funny, don't you?" he growled, allowing her the chance to make it up to him by addressing her again and she quickly dropped her hand, ignoring his snide comment with her prettiest smile. Her warmth helped immensely, she saw the corner of his mouth twitch and he sighed, running his hands through his hair to relieve some of his frustration. He was stressed, she could sense it in the air around him.
"What do you want, Elle?" he spat out suddenly, locking eyes with her and Giselle swallowed the lump in her throat. Say it, encouraged her subconscious, hanging on to the edge of its seat.
"I…" she trailed off, shoving her darker thoughts away, "I want to make sure that things are ok between us, hating you is exhausting and I can't be arsed with drama, especially with exams coming up. I don't want to hate you anymore."
Not that! Tell him you want him! Tell him that you still love him! screamed her subconscious, failing to claw its way to the surface.
"That's all," Giselle added as an afterthought when she saw the crease between his eyebrows deepen. The knots in her gut twisted, finally shaking out all of the tension she collected over the week, but her heart was hurting, punishing her for her lies. It felt betrayed, her words cut her heart open and she knew she was going to suffer terribly for that decision, but she couldn't say it out loud.
"That's it?" asked Sirius, his voice quieter than she expected but he cleared his throat when she nodded and he stood up straighter, chest puffed out slightly.
"Oh! That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," he admitted, his whole facade changing before her eyes and the butterflies burst inside her like fireworks when his handsome smile consumed him, he was looking at her like he was genuinely happy to be in her presence. She smiled back at him.
"What were you expecting?" wondered Giselle, mind abuzz with theories.
"I didn't know what to expect, you've been very guarded," he admitted with a shrug, "but I'm thrilled we're speaking again, to be honest pretending that I didn't think you committing arson and attempted boat theft was incredibly ho- uh, badass was starting to get to me."
Giselle couldn't stop herself from beaming, she was grinning so wide her cheeks hurt. She knew he liked it, she could tell every time the boys brought it up in front of him, the glint in his eyes was hard to miss and his gritted teeth gave away his internal battles with joining in the conversation regarding her antics. "You did a poor job at pretending, I already know you loved that," she said nonchalantly and Sirius guffawed, batting away her comment with a tut.
"Psssh! Please have a little compassion, imagine if the roles were reversed? You would have struggled too," he told her as though it were a fact and she scoffed, playfully shoving him away as she headed towards the Fat Lady's portrait. They had been up here alone for a while now, she knew Lily would be highly suspicious and annoyingly vocal about her opinions if they didn't come down soon. Sirius rushed to join her side, too immersed in their discussion to give up.
"… but I would have successfully stolen that ship," he added smugly, and Giselle rolled her eyes.
"You wouldn't have been able to take down the Russian aurors that turned up! They were huge!" she defended herself, "one of them, and this is not an exaggeration, was half troll."
"Now I'm disappointed in you! Don't make me disappointed in you, Elle, we just became friends again," frowned Sirius, shaking his head as they left the seventh floor, too caught up in each other to notice their path. "I thought you were the - and I'm using your words here - 'magical creature connoisseur'?"
"Duelling a half troll and navigating a stolen ship at the same time is hard! I'd love to see you try," she drawled back, flicking her hair over her shoulder and side-eyeing him. His smirk was heart-skipping and she averted her gaze, anxious of her own reaction.
"Well then I'll be sure to call you when I run into a troll on a boat. Be ready though, that's more common than you think these days. It's quite the epidemic," he told her deadpanned, and Giselle nodded as though he had given her a real piece of life-saving advice.
"I'll be sure to keep my eyes peeled, thanks for the heads up," she murmured, dropping her eyes to her shoes as they descended the never ending stairs. She didn't want to look at him too much, his pleasant eye contact was still new and she had trouble calming the butterflies in her stomach whenever they met. Hastily avoiding an accidental hand brush as they turned a corner, Sirius hung back and Giselle caught a whiff of his musky, lingering aftershave, it intoxicated her all of a sudden and she was transported to somewhere warm and safe, she was wearing his sweater and he was holding her tightly, his large hand pressing her into his chest.
But she was yanked from her fantasy when Sirius interrupted her dangerous daydream with a surprise question.
"How are you? Honestly?" asked Sirius from behind her and she effortlessly caught her stumble by grabbing onto the bannister. Her wounded heart started to race and her palms were moist with sweat.
"Oh, um, yeah I've been… fine," she replied coolly, trying not to look back at him, but when she heard him laugh he couldn't resist whipping her head around.
"What?"
Sirius stared at her as though he could read her true feelings on her face and she felt the blood seep into her cheeks, humiliated that he knew she still liked him, but to her poor heart's relief he didn't come to the same conclusion. "Come on, that was the worst lie I've ever heard! And that's saying something because Moony is a terrible liar!" he exclaimed, amused at her nerve to try and dupe him, "you can't just turn up here on Christmas Day with a busted face and say you're fine!"
The familiar throb of agony rocked her body when she thought of her eye and she rushed to save face, she didn't want to surrender everything to him straight away. Talking to him about family… It was way too soon. She couldn't handle her own situation let alone delve into his.
"Yeah… well," Giselle sighed and turned away, holding her head high to combat her shakiness, "I thought you didn't want to talk about Dickhead?"
She heard him skid to a stop and all of a sudden she was facing him, his hands on her shoulders and his eyes wide as he glared at her. He was trembling, she could feel it.
"What?" He hissed, sickened.
Giselle froze. "I… what? I thought Lily told you-,"
"She only said it was a family problem and we assumed Junior - it was Barty?!" His voice was dripping with venom, his mere tone made her skin crawl. He was beyond outraged and his passion felt hotter than a tight embrace, it almost took her breath away. They had stopped on the third floor, shielded by the shadows of the floor above, and the gentle rumble of a staircase moving to accommodate them gave Giselle a chance to catch her breath and figure out the right reply, but he beat her to it.
"You're not going back there, right? Of course you're not, you're an intelligent girl," He asked under his breath, loosening his grip on her as though suddenly realising he was touching her, and she gave him a freakish head spasm. A compliment? This was too much.
"It's fine, I'm fine, I'm never going to see him again and yes, I am smart thank you very much. I'm working on a plan to get myself disowned before summer so I won't be his concern anymore… it's fine," she repeated with a strained smile on her face and she automatically restarted their trek down the stairs, heaving out all of her tremors. Her casual approach was greatly welcomed by Sirius and he sighed, his apprehension melting into relief.
"Ay! Good! I guess that means you can join my runaway band since you meet the requirements," he said brightly, "considering you're a pianist it would be stupid of me not to ask."
"Your runaway band?! You have a band?! Since when? Whose in it?" spluttered Giselle, pausing once again to gawk at him. Sirius looked incredibly proud of himself as he brushed his long hair out of his face.
"It's me, Remus, and now you. We were messing about last year in the Room when we found a couple of old guitars and, as I'm sure you can imagine, magic was made. We're only accepting outcasts into the band, hence why the others aren't in it… that and James really can't carry a tune," he explained and Giselle snickered at the idea of James being a frontman of a band. She had never met someone more tone deaf than Potter.
"Fair point, but what about Pete? He can sing," she wondered and Sirius shook his head with vigour.
"Oh hell no, he can't upstage me! I'm the front man and lead guitar, Moony is on bass, and now you're on piano, plus Worm and his mother have a fantastic relationship so it doesn't work with our image," said Sirius thoughtfully and he placed a hand over his heart. "It was a sacrifice I was willing to make."
"I didn't say I was joining your band yet," she told him, looking him up and down as though she were the one with the final say, but Sirius didn't look worried.
"You're gonna wanna join," he said as though it were fact, "you haven't heard our band name yet."
Giselle slowed as they emerged onto the ground floor and she arched a brow, waiting patiently for his announcement. "And?"
"Spiders with Dicks," he said proudly and Giselle couldn't stop herself, her laugh echoed like a church bell around the cavernous staircase hall and she wiped a tear away at the potential band shirts they could sell with the glorious image of a hung tarantula on the front. Sirius was delighted by her reaction to his creativity and he crossed his arms, his smile wider than ever.
"Wait, that's amazing!" gasped Giselle, flapping her hands as she caught her breath, "ok, you're right - I'm in. I'll be your Elton John."
"Only if you promise to wear the extravagant costumes like he does, Remus said no to that idea but if you agree then we can overrule his objections," decided Sirius, suddenly invigorated with new band ideas and he instinctively grabbed her forearm, too intoxicated with enthusiasm to notice what he had done. Giselle thought her blood turned to concrete, she couldn't move at all. You have to get over this if you want to be his friend! scolded her subconscious, act natural!
"Remus is gonna hate this," said Giselle, huffing out all of her anxiety with a deep breath, "let's do it."
"He'll be fine with it," assured Sirius, finally dropping her arm, "he can deny it all he wants but he comes alive when he plays, he needs to feel that excitement again especially with all the stress he's putting on himself with finding a job after school. We need to lightly encourage him to have more fun." The deep crease between his eyebrows was back and Giselle felt her own face crumple, thinking about Remus.
"He'll be ok," she said coolly, not wanting to dampen the tone, "I took him to Slug's party and the people from the Prophet were very impressed with him so we can only keep our fingers crossed. Besides, we always have fun."
"Great move on your behalf, by the way. He said they want him to send in some drafts of his essays," revealed Sirius, eyes crinkled like a proud father, "he wouldn't stop talk-,"
But the door directly in front of them burst open and the very man they were talking about waltzed in, looking for the pair that were taking too long. The trio froze and stared at each other, nobody daring to say the first word.
Remus glanced from one to the other and slowly let his smile take over his face. "...So? What are we talking about?"
"You, actually!" said Giselle jovially and she hooked her arm through his. His face paled, emphasising his deep scars.
"What about me?"
"Oh Moony you have no idea! Spiders with Dicks is back and bigger than ever baby!" exclaimed Sirius, snatching his best friend's other arm, "and Elle and I can gang up on you and peer-pressure you into sending the Prophet your works! You were totally right, talking to Elle was the best idea ever!"
Remus looked like he was falling into a deep pit of regret and he gazed at them mournfully. "Why do you two have to be like this?" he croaked and Giselle shrugged, leaning her head on his shoulder to savour the mini reunion.
"Because we love you!" she sang as they headed towards the Great Hall for dinner.
A few weeks passed and Giselle felt as though she were back in her fourth year again. Marlene was more than excited to welcome her back into her life and she assured Giselle countless times that she was only being loyal to Sirius, she missed her just as much and all animosity between them faded away like smoke in the wind. Having all of her Gryffindor housemates back on her side was refreshing and duly needed as she kept running into her younger brother around the castle more than usual. He would pass her in the halls and recount the Christmas tale of their father teaching her a lesson to anyone that would listen but she didn't dare rise to it. That was what he wanted and she wasn't giving him any satisfaction.
Her friends, however, were more than willing to shout back and Junior finally left her alone when February came, but the damage was already done. Word that Giselle had been shunned by the entire Crouch family joined the titters of gossip that spread through the castle and her brother's housemates were keen to remind her of her disgrace whenever they got the chance.
"You have ten minutes left!" called out Professor Slughorn and the class remained silent, each student focusing on their bubbling cauldrons as though their life depended on it. Giselle puffed a strand of hair out of her face and narrowed her eyes as her shining butter yellow potion swirled to a stop. Her bubbles were thicker than they should have been but she knew she was on the right track by the sour snarl on Severus' face beside her.
"How did you do that?" he spat, eyeing up the careless splatters of ingredients around her work station with disgust, "it shouldn't be that creamy already. Mine hasn't done that."
"Sucks to be you, I guess," she muttered under her breath as she started to sieve her concentrated liquid sunshine and she smirked as he tutted, trying to match the consistency of her potion as he sprinkled another pinch of mysterious powder into his cauldron. She took her eyes off of him for a split second to grab her phial but when she turned back she saw Severus smirk as his bubbles started to churn like fresh butter. She scoffed.
"That was quick!" she commented, arching a brow, "see? No need to be so jealous."
Severus growled and clicked his tongue, disgruntled by his table partner as always. "Like I'd be jealous of you, Crouch. I don't know why you're acting so high and mighty," he grumbled, busying himself with bottling his own creation and Giselle purposely jolted the surface. Snape swore under his breath and flicked the droplets her way, splashing her carelessly.
"Don't start," warned Giselle, wiping the potion from her face but the faint look of daring on his sallow face was rather amusing. She didn't mind starting a potion fight, she always wondered what would happen if someone bathed in the essence of sunbeam, it might cheer the grumpy prick up a bit. Before she could decide on tipping her cauldron over or aiming a kick at his, Severus shoved his equipment out of her way and bared his teeth in warning.
"If you want to ruin your own chances at succeeding then go ahead but do not drag me into your misendeavours. Your brother was right," he said sharply but as he turned away she heard him mutter under his breath, "...cracked blood traitor."
A dense weight dropped into her stomach and she slammed her ladle onto the table, unable to control her temper. "Excuse me?!" she asked loudly, drawing the attention of the chamber.
"Shut up," spat Snape, annoyed she was causing a scene, but she wasn't discouraged by his embarrassment. Not at all.
"What right do you have to call me a blood traitor? You're a half-blood! Who do you think you are?!"
"Times up!" interjected Slughorn hurriedly, dabbing his shiny face with a handkerchief, "bring your bottles to the front and off you pop!"
Riled up by Snape's stupid comments, Giselle dumped her phial next to her name on her professor's desk and stomped off to join Lily who was waiting for her by the exit. By the intrigued expression on her face she knew the matter would continue.
"So he called you a traitor, huh?" snickered Lily airily as they headed up to their next lesson.
"The audacity! Where the hell does he get off? I mean, fair enough I started it but jumping straight into a blood feud? Voldemorts got these kids wrapped around his finger, that was insane!" she burst out, exasperated by the Slytherin. Lily twitched at the name of the dark wizard but she patted Giselle on the shoulder, silently agreeing with her sentiment with a side hug; it was enough.
"Forget about those snakes, we're out of here in less than five months! We'll never have to hear their racist shit ever again… if we can help it!" reminded Lily cheerfully.
"True, but five months is still so long," groaned Giselle, pouting at Lily glumly.
"You were away from them for two years! I think you can handle five more months," she sassed back.
Waving goodbye to Lily, Giselle left her friend in the castle and started to make her way down to her Care of Magical Creatures lesson when she heard the caws of the raucous pair running after her, screaming her name. Her fluttering heart skipped as she turned back to greet the only other Gryffindors that shared this class with an easy smile.
"Hey! Elton! Wait up!" cried Sirius, hopping over the boulders lining the rocky path.
"You walk so fast," panted Remus, clutching his side with a grimace, "what's your hurry?"
"I don't walk fast, you're just slow," she corrected him with an eyelash flutter and they continued down the hills to their usual clearing in the Forbidden Forest. With the snow clearing faster than expected, Professor Kettleburn decided it was high time that they finally interact with creatures that could murder them in a heartbeat… from a safe distance, of course.
"Guess who we saw stalking the corridors on our way down here," started Sirius, dying to gossip, and Giselle arched a brow. She hazarded a guess by the wicked gleam in his eye.
"Hmm, I wonder-," she sighed.
"What did you do to it? It looked pissed," smirked Sirius, nudging her side.
"It called me a blood traitor. Snape has been talking to Junior, I didn't realise they were best buddies," she sneered, glowering at the distant line of oak trees they were heading towards. The thought of Junior worming his way through her classmates was deeply disturbing but she should have expected this from her potions partner - yet it still unnerved her. "Like he knows what a blood traitor is," she added bitterly.
"The audacity!" choked Sirius and Giselle nodded vigorously.
"That's what I said!"
"You sound shocked," tutted Remus disappointedly, "you should always lower your expectations when talking to a Slytherin."
"I can't talk about this right now, we're about to meet a Manticore for the first time and I want to be in a good mood for it, they sense discomfort," huffed Giselle, but the boys weren't listening and continued their small rant about their least favourite Slytherin, Remus being less malicious as Sirius. She listened to them trash-talk the snakes and soon they shifted onto the others in their year.
"- he's been hanging out with Walters too who is just as awful. But, you know, Walters has his own feelings about Elle that we won't discuss," mused Remus but Giselle scoffed, smacking him on the arm.
"Yeah, I'm on his hit list," she relayed to Sirius but Remus shook his head.
"Oh no, it's worse than that," he divulged and her stomach plummeted, suddenly anxious.
"How much worse?" she whispered, brows furrowed nervously.
"I overheard him talking to Selwyn about how hot you are and what he wanted to do to you-," but Giselle cut him off with a series of scoffs ranging in pitch.
"WHAT?! Oh Merlin… ugh!" she groaned as the boys revelled in her reaction, hooting in glee as she blushed furiously. That was so much worse!
"So? Whaddya think?" teased Remus, wriggling his brows, "could you be the future Mrs Walters?"
"Mhm actually when you say it like that, the name has a certain je ne sais quoi to it," she drawled back, rolling her eyes but Sirius seized up at the sound of her French phrase. She noticed his dip in mood but chose not to comment, the churning of her stomach told her not to intervene.
"I don't think it suits you," sniffed Sirius, looking down at her patronisingly, "you can do way better than him."
Yeah! You! Her subconscious interrupted in roar but Giselle stomped the voice out, extinguishing the flames before they grew. She needed to focus on someone else but it didn't work last time, she was starting to doubt her own self-confidence. They reached the clearing and Professor Kettleburn called over his small group of students, eager to start the lesson, but Giselle couldn't let his comment go. It was glued to the back of her mind, refusing to budge, and it only got brighter as she suddenly realised that Walters was also in this class. He was the tallest by a few inches and he towered over the rest of them from the back of the group but from his tall vantage point she knew he had a clear view of her. She could feel his leer on the back of her legs and she automatically tightened her robes.
"Oi!" hissed Giselle, sliding over to join the pair who were passing out protective leather armour that were required for their lesson today, "do me a favour and keep me as far away from Walters as possible. He keeps staring…" she trailed off as she glanced behind her shoulder and she caught him red-handed as he glared at her from the other side of the clearing.
"Gosh, he is very stare-y today," murmured Remus, craning his neck to get a good look at him, "he must be horny-,"
"Why does it always come back to sex?!" groaned Giselle, snatching her own leather mitts and shoving them on a little harder than necessary.
"Because we're trapped in a school and it's all that anyone thinks of," drawled Sirius casually and he caught her eye. Her heart went wild and she hoped he couldn't hear the blood gushing in her eardrums. Was Sirius thinking about sex right now? He stares at you all the time, I bet that's what he's thinking about too, her subconscious added unhelpfully and she bit her bottom lip hard in an attempt to distract herself with pain.
"I really wish I didn't know about Walters, thanks for ruining my day guys," she grumbled in a sulk but Remus objected with an exaggerated sigh.
"I was only trying to help! I don't know if you were open to dating outside of your house or not," he tried to defend but Giselle blinked back.
"Yeah but not a bloody racist, Remus," she said loudly as though making a point and Sirius snickered, slapping Remus on the back.
"I don't know what you've been smoking but you need to stop," he said deadpanned, "Giselle? Dating a Slytherin? Grow up."
Remus held his leather clad hands up and tried to stifle his smirk. "Oh, and you've got a better suggestion?"
"You bet I do!" snapped Sirius, suddenly extremely defensive.
"Hold on, who said I wanted to date anyone in the first place?" Giselle tried to interject but her exclaims fell on deaf ears.
"Really? Who?" sassed Remus.
"You!"
The trio fell silent and Giselle couldn't help but laugh. It wasn't a bad idea but she never saw Remus in that way, the mere thought of them being together was a little strange… although she knew he'd make a good house husband. "I'm sorry, what? But Remus is gay?"
"Actually I'm more of a 'I'm attracted to the person, not the gender' type of guy," Remus corrected her but he was too busy scowling at Sirius to pay her much attention.
"I don't know why you're looking at me like that, I think you two would make a very cute couple! You wouldn't be disappointed with what he can bring to the table, if you know what I mean," Sirius wiggled his eyebrows at Giselle and she could only gawk back at him. He wouldn't suggest Remus if he wasn't absolutely certain that he didn't want her… ouch, her subconscious whined, heartbroken at his inference, but once again she pushed it aside and played it cool.
"I guess Spiders with Dicks needs some kind of edge, our fans would go nuts over the twisted love triangle," she voiced her false opinion and Remus laughed heartily, relieved that she wasn't uncomfortable with Sirius' suggestion.
"I'm flattered but I'm gonna have to turn you down," rejected Remus and Giselle's jaw dropped. Even if this was a joke she still felt a little wounded.
"Oi! What the hell?!" she gasped, smacking him with her leather gloves, "I… am… a… delight!"
"I just meant it wouldn't be fair on you! With the whole furry problem and all," he tried to justify but before Sirius and Giselle could shout at him for being ridiculous, Professor Kettleburn finally re-emerged from the bushes with an overjoyed shriek, signalling the Manticore was ready.
"We're coming back to this conversation," warned Giselle as she pushed the boys towards the line of students heading into the darkness of the trees. Sirius nodded as though he had the final say and shot down Remus' rebuttals, telling him he was being way too hard on himself, and Giselle profusely agreed with more encouraging smiles. Remus finally gave up and let them ramble on about his toxic self-image but he couldn't hide all of his feelings as he entered the fray with the biggest smile on his face.