Part Four:

I couldn't stay away from girls for long. I couldn't. Especially when I saw her.

It was the sorting at the beginning of the third year. I wasn't really paying much attention: I was so hungry, I thought I was going to pass out. But all that faded when I saw her standing up there, amoungst the rest of the first years.

What's she doing up there? I thought. She couldn't be a first year, could she? But when McGonagall called out the name "Shaker, Smruthi", she sat on the chair and put the Sorting Hat on.

I felt my heart sink as the hat called out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" Not only was she in my class, she wasn't even in my house.

I kept sneaking looks at her all throughout the feast. I thought she was so gorgeous, with her wavy black hair, light brown skin, and dark eyes that seemed to shine in the light of the Great Hall. Like I was going to let the fact that she was two years younger then me and in a different house stop me.

I kept my crush on her a secret for a couple of weeks, as I found out some more stuff about her. I found out that she was half-Indian and Muggle-born, and that everyone called her Ruthie. A heard all this from a group of Gryffindor first-years, who were seriously hot for her. Watch out, you damn hornballs, I thought. She'll be mine.

I'd gotten cockier over the summer, as I sprang up five inches and got, in the girls' opinions, even hotter. So I was certain that getting Ruthie to go out with me would be easy.

I was wrong.

I found out that Ruthie studied in the library sometimes with some of her friends from other houses. I went there one night and watched as her friends and her laughed and gossiped. Eventually, they all left in small groups or one by one, leaving her alone.

Now was my chance.

Trying to be casual, I sat down at the table next to her. She gave me a weird look and then looked back at her book. I saw what she was reading: a chapter about the uses of trollwood in healing potions.

"Potions, yikes," I said, trying to make conversation. She grunted in reply and continued to read. Ouch.

"So..."

"What do you want?" she suddenly asked in a sharp, cold voice. I was shocked: a younger girl would talk to me like that?

"I'm-"

"Sirius Black," she finished, not looking at me. "Yes, I know."

"Oh?" I was flattered. She'd heard about me.

"Yeah, half of the first year girls are drooling over you," she said. She looked me in the eye. "But I'm not one of them."

"Well, we'll just have to do something about that, won't we?"

"Look, Black-"

"Sirius," I said. "You can call me Sirius. And I can call you...?"

She stood up. "Nothing."

"Wait, Ruthie." She had begun to turn, but she looked back at me, surprised.

"How do you know my name?"

"I've...been hearing it around."

She frowned. "Really? Well, just forget it, then. You can get any girl you want, so..."

"But I want you."

She stalked away. I stared after her, thinking, just a matter of time. No problem

But my efforts to get her to go out with me were in vain. She was determined to hate me: I just didn't know why. I prayed that she hadn't befriended any of my ex-girlfriends, but if she had...basically, it was hopeless.

But I was determined not to give up. I was short of stalking her when she began to go out with another third year, a Hufflepuff named Alexander Threacher. He came up to me one night in the Great Hall. "Look, Black, you better stay the hell away from Ruthie. She's my girlfriend, and she doesn't want anything to do with you."

I gave him a dirty look. "I don't want anything to do with your girlfriend, Threacher. She's delusional." He walked away, and everyone at the table stared at me. "What?" I demanded all of them before I began stabbing my shepard's pie to death. They all turned away.

**************

Like Ruthie said, I could get practically any girl I wanted. So I made it my mission to do so. I tried to forget about her and find another girl.

It wasn't that hard. Along came a second-year, Chelsea Perry of Ravenclaw. The only "problem", if you could call it that, was Chelsea's fifth year brother, Travis, who was on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team that clobbered us the year before.

On day after Charms, I saw her in the hallway. Well, I didn't see her until I'd knocked into her from around the corner.

"Oh!" she cried as the books she was carrying flew everyone. She looked even alarmed when she saw it was me who she knocked into. People laughed, and my friends walked off, laughing too. But I stopped to help.

"Sorry about that...Chelsea."

She, like Ruthie, looked shooked that I knew her name. "Um...no, it was my fault..."

"Hey, I was the one who wasn't watching where I was going." I gathered up all her books, and was about to hand them to her when I said, "Hey, how about I carry these to your next class for you. Where are you headed?"

"Potions." I felt my heart sink: I had Divination, which was miles from Potions. But I decided, who cares? I walked her, anyway.

On the way to the dungeons, we talked about Quidditch. "I would've tried out for the team this year, but my brother doesn't really want me to..."

I laughed. "Do you always do what your brother says?"

She blushed. "Well...he's just trying to look out for me..."

"You seem like you can take care of yourself just fine." She smiled at me, took her books, and stooped up to peck me on the cheek. "Thanks," she whispered, and disapeared into the dungeon.

I would meet her after all of my Charms classes and walk her all the way to the dungeon. After a couple of weeks, I asked her out. She seemed hesitant to answer.

"I really like you, Sirius. But, you see...my brother wouldn't like it-"

I tutted. "Not him again. Come on, Chelsea, he's not your keeper is he?" I smiled at that, since Travis was Keeper for the Quidditch team. Chelsea seemed to think it was funny, too.

"Well...just let me think about it..."

"What is there to think about? Do you like me, or not?" I knew I was putting her on the spot, but I didn't care.

"Of course!"

"Then what's the problem?"

"I already told you! Travis!"

"Screw him," I muttered, then said, "Look, Chelsea...I can get any girl I want, and I picked you." I knew I'd gone too far now, that I was being downright mean, but it worked. She gave me a weak smile and agreed to be my girlfriend.

She was right about Travis, though...he didn't like it much. He came over to me in the Great Hall, just as Threacher had before. "Black! A word." He pointed to the door leading out.

I gave him a smile. "Whatever you have to say to me, you can say it in front of my friends." Travis gave my friends a wary look, but continued:

"I just wanna let you know...if you break my sister's heart, I'll break your neck."

"I have no intention of breaking Chelsea's heart."

Travis stalked away, and everyone at the table stared at me again. "Geez, Black, having enough trouble with the ladies lately?" Longbottom said with a smile. I couldn't help smiling back.

Chelsea wasn't nearly as beautiful as Ruthie, but she was very pretty: light brown hair that felt like silk in my hands, eyes the color of the ocean, and a big, gorgeous, bright smile. And I liked her a lot: she was smart and funny and...willing.

Yes, I got my first taste of oral sex from her. She was the one who brought it up one day: we were in the library, when she said, "Sirius, I feel..."

"What?"

"Like...we should..." She got around to it, and we went off to a broom cupboard. I hoped her brother wouldn't find out, so I kept it a secret, even from James.

The second game of the Quidditch season, against Ravenclaw, was coming up. "I'm so torn," Chelsea revealed to me. "I don't know who to support."

I laughed at her. "Support your own house, I won't be mad or anything."

I thought that things would be simple, that we would go out there and clobber the Ravenclaws. Practices were a lot smoother now, even with psychotic Daphne there, and we were a lot better then we'd been the year before.

But I didn't count on Travis.

During the game, Longbottom and I were on our guard, hitting Bludgers at the other players at full speed. I hit one towards one of the Ravenclaw Chasers, who ducked it...and the Bludger went straight into Travis Perry's face, which caused him to miss the goal that James made.

After we won the game (Daphne caught the Snitch, miracle of miracles), both Travis and Chelsea were pretty pissed. Travis stomped over to me, and took me by the neck of my Quidditch robes. "You're gonna pay, Black. That was a cheap shot..."

"It was also an accident!" I cried, trying to keep my cool. But, tall as I was, Travis was even taller, and a lot more menacing as he held my face up to his. I shot Chelsea a pleading look, but she crossed her arms and looked at the ground.

"But it wasn't an accident when you made my sister suck your cock, was it?" he demanded, practically spitting in my face.

"Wha-" I pretended to be ignorant. Travis dropped me.

"You just stay the fuck away from my sister." With that, he strolled off. I looked up at Chelsea.

"What happened?"

She turned away. "I think we should break up, Sirius." Before I could say anything, off she went.

Fine, I thought as I stood up. I don't need that little girl anyway, who has to go running to big brother all the time. James, Remus, and Peter came over to me, and walked me back to the castle, trying to take my mind off my humiliation: everyone in the school had seen Travis threaten me, and seen Chelsea break up with me.

But my trouble with the girls was far from over...