Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story, except for Ellie, who is mine.
Chapter 5
As the first rays of daylight streamed through the net curtains, Sirius found himself being prodded awake by Buckbeak. 'Damn you Buckbeak, oh heck, I can't stay mad at you. Hmm what's on for today? Weasleys are coming, cleaning, kicking Kreature…feeding Buckbeak, which I should do now'
Sirius got up from the chair where he'd fallen asleep reading his journal the night before. He had been reading it to Buckbeak, who seemed to enjoy the story. He had gotten all the way through November and was just starting on December when he had fallen asleep. 'Damn chairs, note to self, never fall asleep sitting up ever again.' Sirius went over to the window, pulled out the sack of rats and began feeding Buckbeak. " You know, I've always liked hippogriffs. Ever since we studied them fourth year. Good year that was, fourth." Sirius said thoughtfully as he fed the hungry hippogriff. "Did I ever tell you about Ellie? She was great. Met her fourth year and all. Shall I tell you the story?" Buckbeak tossed his head and ate another rat. "Alright, well, James had just asked Lily out for the sixty-seventh time, thirteenth time that year. I kept track you see. Well anyway, that doesn't have much to do with it but I thought it was funny. It was the Hogsmeade weekend in April and James had Quidditch practice, Gryffindor won the championship that year, and every other year come to think of it. Anyway, and it had been full moon night before and Peter had detention, supposedly, he was really out with Cassie Stevens but I didn't know that at the time. So I ended up going to Hogsmeade alone, right. Anyway, it was poring like mad when I left to go so I conjured myself an umbrella and started off back to Hogwarts. While I was walking I saw Ellie walking alone just ahead of me, she looked so miserable and wet so I caught up to her and let her share my umbrella. We walked back to school, neither of us said anything. I was remembering how we had used to bother her all the time, you know taking her books and stuff, well James and I did that is, until Remus told us to lay off a bit end of third year. No idea why, it was so sudden. Now I'm babbling on again. So anyway, we got back to school and she turned to leave and I grabbed her arm to stop her, I don't know why, all I knew was that I wanted to apologise for what we'd done to her, but I just couldn't get the words out. I'll never forget her eyes, the look she gave me that day. It was right scary, I could see something in her eyes, but it wasn't fear, almost wished it was. It was sort of like, just get on with it, whatever it is you're going to do, just do it and leave me alone. I felt so awful. Next thing I knew, I'd kissed her. Then she left. Lily came after Ellie left; she'd seen the whole thing. We talked for a bit, see, she didn't hate me as much as she hated James. I asked Ellie to the dance a couple weeks later and we hit it off. I loved her so much. Oh hell, look at me, reliving the past to a Hippogriff, how sad is that? Maybe Azkaban really did unhinge me after all."
Sirius sighed, got up, put the sack of rats away and went back to his own room. 'What day is it today? Ack! Stupid calendar's twenty years old. Hasn't been changed since I was sixteen. Not surprised.' Sirius grabbed a set of robes from the wardrobe and went to the bathroom to wash up.
Fifteen minutes later, Sirius was sitting at the table in the kitchen eating cold cereal. " What's it you call these again?" He asked Remus, who appeared to be looking for something.
"Fruit loops, now will you hurry up, the Weasley's will be here soon. Have you seen the oil for the lamp out in the entrance?" Remus said absentmindedly, still searching the cupboards for the oil.
"Try in the cupboard in the bathroom upstairs" Sirius said, staring into his bowl, memories floating in his mind like the soggy fruit loops in the milk. "What day is it today?"
"Tuesday"
"Yeah I know that, but what's the date? None of the calendars have been changed. The most recent one I can find is from 1983."
"Today's the fifteenth," Remus answered before disappearing up the stairs in his search for oil.
'The ides of July, beware the ides of July, no wait, March, dammit, always get that mixed up. Beware the ides of March. Now the ides of April are good times. What was it that happened the fifteenth of April? Oh yeah, first date with Ellie, what a disaster that was.'
FLASHBACK
"Eleanor! Wait!" Sirius called as he sprinted after Eleanor Carter, dodging students and drawing stares. Eleanor turned around to see who had been calling her name and Sirius skidded to a stop.
"Will you go to the dance with me?" Sirius blurted, becoming uncomfortably aware of the students who had watched his hundred-yard dash. Eleanor hesitated for a moment and silently nodded before turning and continuing to walk to the Great Hall, leaving Sirius standing there dumbstruck. It had been so easy, so simple. Normally it took a bit of awkward waiting and a lot of giggling to get a girl to go out with him. But there had been no giggling, just a simple nod. He realized he had yet to hear her speak.
"Hey mate, how'd it go?" said James, who had just turned up with the others.
"What'd she say?" Peter asked eagerly
"She didn't say anything--"
"Ooh, tough break" James said with what seemed to be sympathy, deceived by his large grin.
"--She just nodded."
"Nodded?"
"Yeah"
"No giggling? No smart remarks? No begging?"
"No, just a nod"
"Creepy, anyway, there's Lasagna on today for dinner."
"You have got to have the attention span of a goldfish James" Remus said with a laugh and they all went into the Hall for dinner.
The day of the dance, the excitement in the castle was almost palatable. Sirius had had to endure the sly comments of the others, with the exception of Remus. Finally seven o'clock had rolled around and everyone was gathered in front of the doors to the Great Hall, dressed in dress robes of every colour. Everyone was there, everyone except Eleanor.
"Have you seen Eleanor?" Sirius asked James while straining his neck to see over the crowd.
"She's probably here somewhere." Peter said, climbing a few steps on the nearest staircase, looking for Phoebe Adams, who he had managed to ask out at the last minute.
"Hey! What if she stood you up, Sirius!" James said with a laugh.
"Shut it James, there she is! No wait, no it's just Cassie."
James began to laugh even harder and the doors to the Hall opened. The students pored in, jabbering excitedly.
"You coming Sirius?" Remus asked
"Not just yet, I'm going to wait here for a few minutes, maybe she just doesn't like crowds."
"Alright then" said Remus. He went into the hall and Sirius was left alone in the entrance. He paced back and forth, waiting for close to half an hour before giving up and finally going into the Great Hall.
The house tables were gone, and smaller tables with a dozen chairs each were strewn about. He soon found the table where Remus and James were sitting. Peter was off dancing with Phoebe, who didn't seem to be having a good time. As Sirius passed the two of them, he could see her wincing as Peter stepped on her toes repeatedly.
"Didn't show?" Remus said quietly as Sirius slid into one of the empty seats surrounding the small table.
"No"
"Well, don't feel bad, James isn't having too good of luck either."
"Lily still won't talk to you Jamesie?"
"Shut it Sirius, and don't call me Jamesie. At least I wasn't stood up by Eleanor Carter." James said nastily.
"No, you were just blatantly rejected for the fifteenth time this year."
"Both of you, shut it," Remus said wearily, stopping the stream of insults, "and it's actually the sixteenth time, you're falling behind on your records Sirius. And I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason why Eleanor hasn't come. Now if you'll excuse me I need to relieve myself, knew I shouldn't have had all that tea at lunch." And with that he left the hall.
"Well, well, Black and Potter, both dateless. What's wrong, did everyone finally pick up on your tricks?" Said Lily, who had come over to the table looking rather pleased to see both of them alone.
"If you must know Lily, Sirius has been stood up and I only have eyes for one girl, you." James said, running his hand through his hair.
"Oh sod off Potter." And with that Lily left just as Peter and Phoebe came over to their table.
"Hey guys, having a good time?" Peter said with a large grin.
"Not really." James replied.
"Where's Remus?"
"Bathroom"
"I told him he shouldn't have drank so much tea. Want to go get something to drink Phoebe?"
"Sure" Phoebe said and the two of them left.
"She's coming," said Remus, who had just returned.
"What?" said Sirius, who hadn't been paying attention
"Eleanor, she's coming" Remus said exasperatedly.
"See James, I told you she didn't stand me up."
"Oh shove it, I'm going to go get a drink or something." James said and left the table.
"What is his probl---" Sirius started, but a girl in purple robes looking uncertainly around the room had caught his attention. Sirius waved and she jostled her way through the crowd of dancing students to the table.
"Sorry," Eleanor said quietly as she slid into James's vacated seat.
"No worries, you're just in time for dinner, they should be handing out menus soon." Sirius said, recovering from the shock at finally hearing Eleanor's voice. As soon as he had spoken menus appeared on the tables. "Speak of the devil."
There was an awkward silence, Eleanor stared at her plate and Remus was watching the others dance. Finally the silence was broken by Sirius.
"Eleanor,"
she looked up at him, as if surprised to have someone speak to her.
"Call me Ellie, please, Eleanor sounds like an old lady's name."
"Um okay, but uh, why didn't you come before?"
Ellie went red and looked back down at the plate. "When you asked me to go with you, I didn't think you meant it. I thought it was a prank or something."
"What?!"
"You know, Sirius Black, stud muffin extraordinaire, puller of pranks and breaker of hearts all over Hogwarts strikes again. I didn't want to be another one of your victims."
Sirius was struck dumb at this remark, but Remus was trying his hardest not to laugh.
"Stud muffin?"
Ellie smiled in spite of herself, the effect made her virtually unrecognizable.
"Sorry"
There was another awkward silence, which was finally broken by James returning to the table in an even worse mood than when he had left.
"Turned up then, have you?" he said rather rudely, sitting down next to Remus. Ellie blushed again and looked down at her plate. she seemed to be fiddling with an elastic band around her wrist, snapping it repeatedly. Sirius was glaring at James.
Peter and Phoebe returned and sat down. "Have you guys ordered yet?" Peter asked, oblivious to the fact that the tension between the others had become thick enough to cut.
"No, not yet," Sirius said, picking up his menu, the others did the same.
The orders were placed and the food appeared. Everyone sat eating in stressed silence before James interrupted the peace. "So does this one talk Sirius, or is she just here for decoration? Doesn't do much for the décor though." he said, nodding in the direction of Ellie. Everyone stopped eating.
"Shut it James," Remus said quietly.
"Let the girl speak for herself, that is, if she can." James said nastily.
"Come on Peter, um, let's go for a walk." Phoebe said quickly, sensing the imminent argument.
"Yeah, let's go."
Peter and Phoebe left, but James was just getting warmed up.
"Come on, speak up, what're you afraid of?"
"Lay off James," Sirius said.
"Once whatsherface here says something I will." James said with a smirk. Suddenly, Ellie got up from the table and slapped James as hard as she could.
"How about that for an answer, because it is no more than you deserve. I've had enough of people like you making my life hell with your snide remarks and stupid pranks. Why can no one just leave me alone!" Ellie said and ran off. The hall had gone quiet when Ellie had slapped James, now everyone was muttering quietly about what had just happened. James just sat there, shocked at what had just happened. Lily came over again and addressed James. "She's right you know, you did deserve that." she said with a smirk and walked away again.
Sirius too had been stunned at what had just happened. When he finally got over his surprise, he left for the common room, trying to find Ellie. But she was nowhere to be seen. He just sat in the dark common room, trying to absorb all that had happened that night. A couple hours later, the dance ended and everyone went back to their houses. Sirius went to the dormitory and had just finished putting on his pyjamas when James approached him. He had a red handprint on his face and looked quite ashamed.
"Listen mate, I'm sorry I ruined your night. I was just in a bad mood and I shouldn't have taken it out on you."
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to James."
"I know and I'll apologize to Ellie first thing in the morning."
END FLASHBACK
Sirius was brought out of his thoughts by the door slamming and his mother's portrait screaming. The Weasleys had come.
A/N wow that sure was a long one. Hope you like it. Don't forget to review please and keep reading!
