How can you not?

"You hate quidditch?"

Bridgette puffed indignantly and stared at her friend. He's intelligent, but really, he can be quite thick at times. Right now, the hand holding his spoon has stopped mid-air in its course for his mouth, and he was staring at her like it was the first time he had seen her in his entire 17 years of existence.

"I do not hate quidditch, Sirius," said Bridgette coolly, and choosing her words carefully, "I just…don't like it as much as you do."

By now, Sirius has regained the control of his hand and had the spoon in his mouth. It stayed there. His eyes were still wide open and unblinking. The last time Bridgette saw him like this it was when he caught her in nothing but her underwear. Last time that happened Bridgette managed to plant an extremely large lump in his head.

"Sirius," said Bridgette concernedly, for he had been silent for an entire minute. It was at these types of moments that she showed concern for the boy. They were friends, after all, the kind of friends that shout at each other a lot, but friends nonetheless. "Are you all right?"

He mumbled something incoherent. Bridgette gave him a confused look, and Sirius promptly took the spoon off his mouth. "How can you hate quidditch?" he asked incredulously, pointing an accusatory spoon in her direction.

Bridgette sighed and pointed the spoon away from her face. "I told you," she said patiently, quidditch was a touchy subject after all. James, his other best friend, was sitting behind him with the same look of stunned disparagement in her direction. She smiled weakly at James. "I don't hate quidditch. I just don't like it."

"Oh."

There was a half a minute's silence.

"HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE QUIDDITCH!" shouted Sirius indignantly, standing up and knocking pumpkin juice onto the clean table cloth.

"Sirius!" shouted Bridgette. Some of the pumpkin juice got down to her robes. "These were newly pressed!" she shouted, but her voice was no match for Sirius' extremely deep loud voice

"HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE QUIDDITCH!" said Sirius again, just as loud, with an expression of disbelief in his face. "I'VE KNOWN YOU FOR FIFTEEN YEARS, AND YOU CHOOSE NOW TO TELL ME THAT YOU HATE QUIDDITCH!"

"I told you," said Bridgette, her voice a little higher now, "I don't hate quidditch!"

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!" said Sirius indignantly. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY BEST FRIEND? I WANT HER BACK!"

Bridgette sighed and massaged her eyes. She liked the fact that Sirius cared so much about her to believe that he knows everything about her, but she is a girl, and girls, unlike boys, change their ways very easily and oftentimes without any warning, making their side of the human sex extremely hard to understand. Bridgette sighed even louder. The entire Great Hall, once again, had stopped and was watching the entertainment, namely them. Remus had an amused look in him. James, who's captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, was looking at her still with the same disbelieving look in his face. Well, that was understandable.

"You know what," said Lily beside her, smiling at her a little, "you really should pick your battles."

"Waters, answer me!" said Sirius suddenly. Bridgette stared at him, he has never called her Waters before, and it didn't take to her liking. True, most of the time she called him Black, but that was because saying Black requires shorter sounds, and sounds very strict everytime she starts to tell him off for something that caused him detention, which is practically everyday.

"I just don't like quidditch as much as you do!" she said. "You don't even play for the team!"

This was true. Sirius was an excellent quidditch player, a beater, and an avid flyer. Only there were better beaters and flyers for the team so James had the painful task of telling him that he wasn't in the team. Sirius took it fine, only he wouldn't talk to James for the rest of the day after that, even after James' bribes of chocolate, money and him doing his - Sirius' - homework for a whole month. Bridgette thought that he would crack once James brings up the homework part, but Sirius refused, saying that he didn't want his grades to go down a single point. James practically begged her to make him talk to him again and it took a whole night's cooing of Sirius by her to get him to start talking to James again. She liked the attention that Sirius was showering on her, but really, the boy has to get a life, and a few hours a day away from her. She rejoiced when Sirius was talking to James again, for she practically pushed Sirius in his direction, "take him! I don't want him! You have him!"

Yes, that was how the dynamics of their friendship work. It's a weird set up but they both love it, and nothing anyone else says otherwise can make them change their minds.

"Yeah, well," said Sirius, thinking quick of something to say, "at least I tried out!"

"Sirius, you've seen me fly," said Bridgette exasperatedly, "it's not very good!" Bridgette, as much as she hated to admit it, couldn't fly, and it wasn't for the lack of trying. She's just uncoordinated with brooms, or any mode of transportation that requires her to be exposed to the open air at more than 10 feet above the ground.

Sirius snorted. "That's not a reason to hate quidditch, that's a reason to hate flying." He turned to his audience. "What are you looking at?"

They faced their tables as one in one smooth motion.

Sirius gave them all a smug look and sat back down. The rest of the great hall then turned back to the entertai - er, them.

"Sirius," said Bridgette through gritted teeth. "You're getting really annoying."

"So are you."

"I told you I don't hate quidditch. I still watch the games you know."

"Only because I drag you to the field."

"No you don't"

"Yes I do."

"Name once when you had to drag me to the field to watch."

Sirius thought for a second. "During our fourth year, Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw."

Bridgette remembered and stared at him disbelievingly. "I was sick that day! I had horrible flu!"

"Yeah, well, I still had to drag you to the match!"

"I got even sicker because of you! You got sick as well!"

Sirius grinned. "You just asked me when. You didn't ask why."

Bridgette stared at him. "You're an idiot."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

James whisted. Sirius grinned. This was his favorite game, and Bridgette had to admit, it was hers too. "Time out you two," he said, enforcing his head boy authority. "Either act your age right now or go back to the common and fight there." he said, then smiled, which quickly turned into a grin and a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Personally though, I would stay and fight here, the entire student body's getting interested, and some are even starting to conjure up popcorns."

Remus then coughed and looked at Sirius and Bridgette guiltily, and they were both glaring at him. He had a very large box of popcorn sitting innocently in front of him, his wand guiltily next to it.

Bridgette tutted and stood up quickly and marched all the way out the great hall. Sirius quickly followed her and they went to the Common Room together. He kept muttering and Bridgette heard "really" and "nobody hates Quidditch". Bridgette didn't bother to answer him. She knew he wasn't really angry at her. Annoyed maybe, but not angry. Sooner or later he would calm down and start teasing him again, but Bridgette would rather it be sooner.

"Do you hate me, Siri?" said Bridgette, as they were nearing the doors out the Great Hall.

"I can never hate you," said Sirius, "you know that."

"Oh, good."

"But how can you hate Quidditch!"

They argued all the way out the Great Hall, the Entrance Hall and into the Common Room.


The next day Sirius still hasn't forgotten that Bridgette hated quidditch. It irked him that for the past fifteen years she has never once mentioned that she didn't like the sport, but she had been watching the games since the first day of the season in their first year.

"Maybe you just never bothered to ask Padfoot," said Remus reasonably. "You did say you knew everything about her."

Yes he did say that, on more than one occasion in fact, and the fact that he found out something new about her today made her even more interesting and at the same time, mysterious. What if there were more things that he didn't know about her? Maybe he should do a bit of investigavtive work...but how? Bridgette was known to be notoriously alert of her surroundings and he should know, he had yet to scare the wits out of her by surprise and it wasn't for the lack of trying.

But right now for Sirius, his mission is to stop Bridgette from hating the game of quidditch and flying.

"Padfoot," said James, "she doesn't -"

"I know Prongs," said Sirius, "but even so, she should learn to appreciate the game more. And she would appreciate the game more if she knew how to fly."

"You'll never get her to fly." said Remus.

"Yes I will."

And he knew exactly how.