Sirius Black prided himself on being loyal. After hours of deliberation, he had decided to keep his end of the bargain he had made with Dorcas Meadowes, despite the total shite she had given him about Lily Evans and Moony.
That was the easy part. He was wrestling hard with himself over whether or not to tell Remus. Even though Sirius knew that Moony did not have romantic feelings towards Lily Evans, he didn't want people like Dorcas Meadowes spreading rumors. Telling James was out of the question. Sirius didn't want to see how his best friend would react to that. The idea of Evans and any bloke made him rage. The idea of Evans and Moony would surely put him over the edge.
Meadowes' comments had made Sirius hyper-conscious of Remus' conduct towards Evans. Remus was awfully polite to her, especially when compared with the way James and Sirius treated her, but that was how Remus always treated Evans. Of course, Remus was a smart guy, he wouldn't go publicizing his feelings right in front of James. If he did have those feelings, which he didn't. Since the two sat on opposite sides of the room in the classes they shared with Sirius, he never saw them interacting there, except for the occasional smile, which seemed natural enough. Meadowes had to be wrong.
Mid-November was always a stressful time for James. With Quidditch season just entering full swing and the prospect of winter exams, his plate seemed impossibly full. This year was no exception. As captain for the first time, he now felt solely responsible for the success of the Gryffindor team. Their first match was in three days time against Ravenclaw and while the team seemed spot-on, better than last year's, he wanted this year's cup more than ever. If he could lead the team to win the cup, maybe Evans would finally see him as something besides an arrogant bully. He rubbed a bruise on his right arm from an outing as Prongs, Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail two weeks before and bent further over the Quidditch plays in front of him. Sloper could fly that fast, couldn't she? Pass the Quaffle to Idle, they won't expect that.
Suddenly a creak broke James out of his reverie. Lily had climbed through the portrait hole, an arm-load of books indicating that she had just come from the library.
"Alright, Evans?" he nodded.
She nodded sarcastically.
For some reason, James couldn't stop himself from talking, even though he knew how she would react. "Are you coming to the Quidditch match on Tuesday?" he smirked to conceal his lack of confidence.
"I am," she nodded, "but not to see you."
"Are you sure about that," the smirk grew to a suggestive smile. "Sure you don't want to see my amazing physique in action?"
"Yes," she put a disgusted look on her face. "I'm going to watch Annabelle, who happens to be the only reason I'm not cheering for Ravenclaw."
"Come on, Evans," he pleaded, his elbows on the table. "Go out with me."
"For the millionth time, Potter," she let out a large amount of air. "I will not go out with you."
"You know you want to," he smiled, looking up at her with eyes twinkling behind his glasses.
She groaned loudly and stormed off to the stairs.
"Evans…" he called. "Hey Evans, come on."
When she had disappeared up the stairs, he sighed and returned to his Quidditch plans, but he couldn't pay attention. All he could think about were how beautiful Lily's eyes were when she was angry.
Lily Evans collapsed on to her huge four poster bed, letting the books she was carrying fall next to her. He was incorrigible. Honestly, a normal person would have given up years ago, but James Potter was not a normal person.
"Let me guess?" Dorcas asked, poking a head out of her drawn curtains. "Potter?"
Lily sat up suddenly in surprise and, a few seconds later, nodded. "What are you doing in there?"
"Studying," she said, showing Lily her Transfiguration book. "It's quieter in here than in the common room and I'm not ready to go back to the library yet."
"Makes sense."
"So what happened?" Dorcas asked, pushing back the red damask.
"He asked me out again," Lily sighed as she lay back down on her quilt. "I officially can go nowhere without being subjected to a date offer from James Potter. I think he might show up in the girl's loo one day."
Dorcas laughed.
"I mean, honestly, the bloke has a one-track mind." Lily stared at the canopy above her head, focusing on a tiny black stain, "Well, two-track, he does think about Quidditch."
"You know, Lily," Dorcas put her Transfiguration book on her bedside table. "There are a lot of girls who would kill to have James Potter madly in love with them."
"I don't know why," she sighed.
"What is it that you hate about him so much?"
"Why do you care?" Lily shot, sitting up and glaring at Dorcas. "Do you want to shag him too?"
"Potter is hardly my type," Dorcas said flatly. "He's two inches shorter than I am."
"Right," she said quietly. "Sorry, it's just a question I get asked a lot."
"Is there a secret answer?" Dorcas raised her eyebrows.
Lily guffawed. "Not really."
"Fair enough," Dorcas opened the curtains to her four poster bed all the way. "You mind if I ask about Remus?"
"What about him?" Lily had an unconcerned look on her face, as she began to organize the stack of books on her nightstand.
"I've just noticed that the two of you have gotten awfully close lately," Dorcas sat on the edge of her bed, playing with the quilt that covered it. "You won't be breaking up any friendships anytime soon, will you?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "James Potter would get over me in a second if I started dating one of his best friends. I'm just a challenge to him, that's all."
"Well, if that's true, will you be dating one of his best friends?"
"If you haven't noticed, I like them not Gryffindor," Lily said, picking up her Charms book.
Dorcas smiled and nodded, getting the point. She picked up her Transfiguration and the two girls continued studying.
"Do you think he's going to do anything?" Remus asked, glancing over at a rather angry looking Cade Bradley during lunch.
"Don't know," said Sirius, trying to look unaffected. "It's not really my fault, you know, Julia just couldn't resist me."
Peter was looking at Sirius like he was the most amazing paragon of manhood that ever existed.
"You're disgusting, mate," James said, though he wore a smirk that proved he thought otherwise.
"I'm pretty sure it is your fault," Remus said through a mouthful of toast. "You did go after her. I can't believe you actually agreed to do that."
Sirius had told Peter and Remus the entire story that morning. Well except for the part about Dorcas spying on Lily. He thought Remus might react badly to that.
"She didn't exactly run screaming from me, Moony, now did she?" Sirius said, cockily flourishing his fork. "You think Meadowes has heard about this yet?"
"I think everybody's heard about it." James smirked, as Muriel McKinnon and Phillipa Gettilfinger glared at Sirius from their spots next to Julia. James waved, smiling, and they immediately turned around.
Sure enough the entire hall was buzzing with news of Sirius' exploits the night before. The rumors were rampant and some were mind-benders, like the one that speculated Sirius had used Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Bradley. The truth, however, was rather simple. He had met her in the library for a "Charms study session." After about ten minutes, their chairs were touching and Sirius was rubbing a hand up and down her thigh. The words "you're so beautiful" had been whispered breathily in her ear. Deep gray eyes in a young handsome face had pleaded with Julia's big blue ones. Soon he had whisked her off to the Astronomy Tower, pulling her by the hand, and not even trying to climb the stairs when they got there. The kissing had immediately turned passionate, thanks to Sirius' rather enthusiastic tongue, and within minutes he was pressing her against the stone wall, her robes and skirt up around her waist. Myles Ackerley, another Ravenclaw 6th year, had caught them. It was very probable that he was meeting Isabelle Stuart to do the very thing he witnessed, but that really didn't matter. All that did matter was that Myles had marched immediately back to the Ravenclaw common room and told Cade what he had seen.
"Nice job Black," Dorcas Meadowes sauntered to the table, wearing her typical half-smile. "It worked perfectly."
"My pleasure," he winked. "It was a rather easy task really."
"I'm glad to hear it," she nodded, the smile growing a bit. "Ready to suffer the wrath of Cade Bradley?"
"I think I can handle it," he said cockily.
"Good," she said. "Because he's coming over here right now."
Sirius turned his head quickly. Sure enough, the tall blonde boy was walking toward where he was sitting – his thin lips even thinner. He stood quickly, maintaining a stance of as much masculine bravado as he could muster.
"Black," Bradley said through his teeth as he reached the table. "We need to talk."
"About what?" Sirius said nonchalantly.
"About you fucking my girlfriend," he growled.
The two boys stood at almost exactly the same height, and next to each other, they looked like the two extremes of masculine beauty. Cade Bradley, golden and blonde, with his boyish features and playful charm was facing Sirius Black, the dark, strong-featured and stubble-covered man.
Dorcas backed away as Cade stepped closer to Sirius, getting right in his face.
"She seemed rather eager for it," Sirius said as if to provoke Bradley. "Maybe you weren't doing it right."
Cade shoved Sirius, hard. He stumbled back into the table, knocking over his chair and upsetting his plate. James shot up, standing there inches shorter than the other two. He wore an expression of bullish resolve. Sirius righted himself, tasting a cut on his wrist that his knife had given him when he had fallen. He licked his upper lip, in angry thought, and then shoved Cade back, harder. The Ravenclaw Quidditch captain fell to the tiled floor, and before anyone knew from where, William Seymour was at his side.
Cade rose like a wounded animal, the rage burning in his eyes. He pulled an arm back in a fist and Sirius waited for the contact.
"Oh for Merlin's sake, stop it" he heard a voice say calmly.
Cade had heard it too because he had put his arm down and looked to his left. Dorcas Meadowes stood there, looking haughtier than ever.
"You two are pathetic," she rolled her eyes. "So Julia Connors is a slag. You should shake his hand, Cade. He showed you what kind of girl you were actually dating."
"Oh shut up Dorcas," Cade said angrily. "I'll bet you're loving this."
Dorcas stood up a little straighter. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I find it awfully sad that Julia cheated on you less than a month after you started dating her. Though, it is rather karmic, wouldn't you say?"
He glared at her for a second, his bright blue eyes narrowed menacingly. Finally he scoffed, muttering something about it not being worth it, and turned back to the Ravenclaw table. Ackerley followed close behind.
"You alright?" Dorcas looked at Sirius.
He nodded, shrugging the incident off. "I could have taken care of it, you know."
The mysterious smile crossed her face. "I know," she said. "I just wanted to finish the job, if you know what I mean."
"Right," Sirius said, sitting back down. Then looking at James, "Relax Prongs, he's not coming back."
James deflated a little, sitting, though still glaring at Bradley over his shoulder.
"Just pummel him tomorrow," Dorcas said, as she walked down the length of the table.