Chapter 4: Unrequited

Sirius stood alone in the courtyard of the castle, staring past the castle walls, over at the mountains that lay a few miles away. Just then, he noticed a shadow appear on the grass in front of him, next to his own shadow.

"Dominique…"he said, without turning around.

"Wow, you already know my shadow? Should I be flattered or scared?" Dominique said, laughing lightly. When she saw that his countenance did not change, she cleared her throat and stepped up next to him. "Sirius…look, I'm sorry I asked about"—

"I told you, don't worry about it" he said, not looking at her.

"How can I not, when I see that it bothers you so much? If it helps, well, I can hardly see that it would help, but so you know, I hated my parents."

"Nah, I don't think that helps."

"Well, I mean, we're on the same boat though, I think."

"Yea we are. But we probably hated our parents for different reasons. What's your excuse?"

Dominique sighed deeply. "They didn't care about me. Or love me…they just loved each other…they'd spoil me, but it was just because they wanted me to keep busy with other stuff and stay out of their way…So, I hardly felt any remorse when they died…they were hardly even my parents…Remus' parents were more like parents to me…that is, when they lived by us.."

"oh…so you've got that whole negligence thing….man, I wish I had that…"

"Why did you hate your parents?"

"Well, my family…for several generations, has been a bunch of pureblood fanatics…and they've got too much family pride…think that being a Black makes you royalty or something…I couldn't stand it…especially since I've got halfblood friends."

"So you ran away from them because of that?"

"yea…couldn't stand hearing them talk about that stuff all the time…plus my younger brother, they love him, because he's keeping up the family tradition by hating so called mudbloods…"

"Does he go here?"

"yea, Regalus…in 5th year…my cousin's also in the 5th year, Narcissa, whose sister is Bellatrix…and of course you've met her…"

"wow…and they're all…like your parents?"

"yep…"

Dominique stared awkwardly at Sirius, feeling a bit sorry that she had brought this up with him again. "Lovely weather…"

"Oh yes, quite.." Sirius answered.

"I'm really sorry I"—

"I said not to worry about it!" Sirius replied, turning to face her for the first time in their conversation. He smiled at her and touched her cheek. "Don't worry your pretty head about it."

"Dominique! There you are!" Sirius and Dominique turned around to see Kierra running in their direction. "Oi, D, listen, I'm sorry, about back there…in our room…oh, hello Sirius"—

"What happened in your room?" Sirius asked, looking from Kierra to Dominique.

Kierra looked quickly at Dominique, looking a bit apprehensive.

"Oh…we just had a little misunderstanding about some stuff…" Dominique said quickly, "and it's quite alright Kierra."

"Is there any point in asking either of you to elaborate?" Sirius asked.

"Nope" Kierra and Dominique said together.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm off then," he said, looking at his watch. "I've got a hot study date." Sirius glanced over at Dominique to see her reaction. She looked neither alarmed or amused. She had simply raised a questioning eyebrow at him. "It's with James of course…" Sirius added, grinning at Dominique, making her and Kierra laugh.

"Well, you two have fun then" Dominique said, waving to Sirius as he departed.

Several hours later, James sat in transfiguration staring at the back of Lily Evans' head. 'God, this class is useless…' he thought, as he distantly heard Professor McGonagall's voice, lecturing the class about something or the other, he wasn't sure which. Just then, he noticed Sirius, who sat in the desk next to him, scribbling something on a scrap piece of parchment.

'ooh great, a note!' James thought, 'at last, something to break the monotony with…' James waited for Professor McGonagall to turn her back, and just as she did so, he turned to face Sirius, half expecting to reach over to get his note, but to his surprise, Sirius dropped his arm backwards, and held the note out for the student behind him, Dominique.

'oh drats,' James thought, 'he'd rather be passing notes to her, and not me?'

About a minute later, James heard Dominique whispering a spell, and within seconds the small piece of parchment flew back onto Sirius' desk.

James looked up to see if Professor McGonagall had noticed, and much to his disappointment, she hadn't. Their note passing had gone on for the remaining duration of the class, causing James to be even more distracted from the lecture than he already was.

"Hey Sirius," James called after him, who was walking with Dominique after class, "hey, I just got my order for dungbombs today…you wanna try some out with me?"

"Er, maybe later, Dominique and I were going to take a walk." Sirius replied, who instead of looking at James, was studying Dominique's side profile.

"Ah…ok…later then!" James said, turning to leave. 'I love Dominique! She's so special!' James muttered quietly in his high pitched, mocking voice that he used when he was annoyed. His mood brightened up slightly when he saw Lily in the common room with Remus.

"Hey Remus!" he shouted as he plopped onto the couch, sitting right next to Lily. "Oi, hello Lily!" he said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Hello James" she answered, not looking up from her book.

"Whatcha all doing?"

"Working on Potions homework." Lily replied.

James suddenly grinned. "Miss Evans, did you just call me James? As in my first name?"

"Took you a while to register that one, Potter" Lily said, smiling slightly. Suddenly feeling stupid, James leaned back in his seat and decided to be quiet for a few moments.

"Finished!" Lily announced happily. "Well, I'm gonna head on up, I think Alice and Kierra are already up there. Have either of you seen Dominique?" she asked Remus and James.

"yea…she's taking a walk with her lover boy…" James muttered with a frown.

"Aww…is somebody jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous"—

"Missing your other half?"

"Oh go away Evans, or I'll kiss you." James snapped, making a move towards her. Lily quickly backed away, with a look of amusement and disgust before answering, "alright, sorry! I'm off then.." and with that she disappeared up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

James stared at Remus, who was looking over his potions homework. About a minute later, Remus looked straight at James and smiled. "Are you going to say something to me, or are you going to keep staring?"

"I don't get it. What does Sirius see in her?"

"Oh geez, let's not start this again."

"But Moony"—

"James, if you're upset about Sirius spending more time with Dominique and less time with you, go talk to him!"

"Fine, maybe I will!" and James got up and walked out of the common room, only to return a few seconds later. He marched past Remus and as he walked up the stairs to the boys dormitory, he said, "maybe tomorrow though. I'm kind of tired right now."

Just as the common room began to empty out, Dominique came through the portrait hole, looking very rosy. When she spotted Remus, she immediately made her way to him and sat right next to him.

"hey D-- you ok there? You're all pink!" He touched her face but quickly removed his hand, "and you're like an icicle!"

"Oh, Sirius and I were taking a walk outside...it got kind of chilly" she said, resting her head on Remus' shoulder. She sighed, causing goosegumps to form all over Remus' body. 'oh boy' he thought.

"man, I am so tired. What are you reading?" she asked, pointing at the book he had just closed and put on the table in front of them.

"oh, this?" he reached for the book to show her the title, "Hogwarts, a History". Dominique rolled her eyes and laughed. "What?"

"You're such a dork, Remus."

"Touche."

Dominique closed her eyes and smiled, snuggling closer to Remus, making him all the more uneasy. "You make a nice pillow, you know that, Remus?"

"Er-- thanks".

"Really! You're--" Dominique could feel Remus' body stiffen against hers. "You alright?" she asked, as she pulled away from him.

"Sorry, I'm just not feeling well," he answered quickly, "full moon's coming you know".

"Oh, that's right... So, your friends know about this, right? Sirius, James.."

"and Peter. They're the only ones. So please don't mention it to anyone."

"Of course...I still remember the night it happened." Her voice was almost a whisper. "When we were five..." a tear slipped through Dominique's eye, taking the notice of Remus.

"Dominique, don't"--

"It should've been me, Remus"

"No, D, it was an accident, and in accidents, there's no shoulds and shouldn'ts... It happened to me, and that's that. There's no point in dwelling on the past".

Dominique simply nodded, and looked up at Remus and sighed, putting one of her hands on his cheek. "You're so good about these things..."

"Only because I've got such good friends" Remus said, leaning his forehead against hers, "to get me through these years...friends like you." Just as Dominique's face broke into a smile, the portrait hole swung open again, and a house elf appeared, carrying a large bouquet of red roses.

"Excuse me, are you Miss Dominique Fiore?" the house elf asked Dominique.

"Er, yes I am. Why?"

"These roses are from Mr. Sirius Black. He wanted them delivered to you right away." he said, handing the roses to Dominique.

"They're lovely, Thank you."

The house elf tipped his ratty cap and bowed before leaving.

Dominique closd her eyes and smelled the roses. "Beautiful" she sighed. "He's so sweet, isn't he?" she said, getting up.

"yea, he is!" Remus answered, trying to sound enthused.

"Well, I'm gonna head up, I've got to show these to the girls!" Dominique said excitedly, "goodnight Remus," and Dominque leant over behind Remus and kissed the top of his head.

"Night" he muttered as she went up the stairs. Remus turned to see if she was out of earshot, and when she was, he let out a loud groan. 'This is going to be a long year' he thought.