Chapter Two: "Why is nobody any good on a broom these days?"
Lou had been good friends with Marlene and lily since her first night at Hogwarts. She'd met them as soon as she was shown her dorm, made up of the three of them as well as two other girls, Mary and Dorcas. Lily in the earlier years was always very close with Severus Snape from Slytherin, or snivellous as he was now more famously known. This meant that while the two of them had been off doing whatever they did all that time, and Mary and Dorcas went about their own lives, most of Lou's time had been spent with Marlene, sharing the same dark humour and love for music and getting along like the sisters neither of them had ever had but had always imagined.
The two of them also shared an extreme lack of enthusiasm for their academic studies, which set them even further apart from the other girls in their dorm and gave them much more time to themselves.
It was even thanks to Marlene that Lou had tried out to be a chaser on the griffindor quidditch team in her third year, mainly from pressuring her into it, and had surprised everyone including herself when McGonagall had suggested she try playing as seeker.
That was the same year Sirius had become a beater, playing with Amber Jones who was then in her fifth year. james potter had already been a chaser since first year after practicing his whole life up till then with the dream of being the youngest seeker in just under a century, but at that point Fabian prewett had been seeker for three years and was still better than the eleven year old james. Fabian had also been captain of the team for a couple years but had left school, leaving a golden legacy behind him and his younger brother Gideon, the keeper, to pick up the mantle even though he was only in his fifth year back then.
Now, in lou's fifth year, Gideon was still captain and remained keeper, with Lou as seeker and black and jones still beaters. Potter however was the only chaser left standing from the original team and now as he stood staring absolute daggers at Lou across the quidditch pitch she found herself cursing both of her closest friends, Marlene and lily, for ever getting her into any of this mess, quidditch and yesterdays antics above all.
Although most of the pink was gone now there was still a rather obvious purple sheen to their dark hair and a fair amount of pink around their necks and elbows, as well as other places the potion had seemed to remain firmly stuck.
Amber had made a big point of laughing at them as soon as they'd got to the pitch, while Gideon had managed to stifle his amusement enough to give them a stern-ish telling off for being fifteen minutes late, but the large grin across his face pretty much gave him away.
Tryouts were always a pretty stressful time for a team, if they couldn't get the players they needed they risked having to play with less or less skilled players, even more stressful was having to get new players to form part of the meld of the team. It was important they work together and the players they'd had the year before had all been wonderful at it, winning the house cup and, almost more importantly, beating slytherin 310 - 120 in their last match.
As always most of the people who'd turned out for tryouts were only here to see Sirius Black. Granted much more this year to see if him and potter were still bright pink than just the usual swarm blushing and giggling girls trying to show off, but it still got in the way and certainly didn't help Lou, who now had about a dozen thirteen year old girls staring daggers at her, along with potter, and the remainder of the crowd shouting out that she was a 'Legend' and congratulating her, in one big bad mixture.
"Wow, Potter does NOT look happy with you" ambers voice came from beside her. They'd been standing about waiting for the hubbub in the stands and the pitch to die down and Sirius to actually come out of the changing rooms for a while now, but it seemed to just be getting worse.
"Don't see why, it wasn't even my idea" Lou said after a loud sigh.
"-Alright! Oh, for the love of merlin's merkin, if your not even a Griffindor please get out!" They laughed as they heard an exasperated Gideon shout at the group of girls that had formed outside the entrance who were now scuttling away in a huff.
"Hadn't even considered Sirius's admirers as well, caught one of them trying to bewitch my broom to fling me off earlier" Lou absentmindedly stroked the polished wood of the handle comfortingly while saying this. She loved her broom very, very much.
"I wouldn't worry about it, anyone with a mind would have figured out he's only got eyes for Potter by now and given up, probably would've never worked." Lou snickered at the suggestion.
"You have a point there".
"Oi! You lot, stop just standing there, do something useful would you!" Came Gideon's voice from across the pitch.
"What about him?!" Amber shouted back, pointing at James defiantly.
"I'm waiting for Sirius!" He called, matter-of-factly.
"-I meant you too, you woozy git!" Came Gideon's only response.
Begrudgingly the three of them set off to help, with the try-out's coming into the air see if they could score. Potter was instructed the lacklustre job of staying on the ground to make sure the smaller students kept in a line and didn't break anything. This also had the added benefit of giving anyone who was just there to get a good look at him the easy opportunity to do so, and then swiftly leave after he'd threaten to hex them, which seemed to do the trick.
At each end of the pitch Gideon and Amber were playing keeper in-front of their respected set of large golden hoops, Lou had taken to just hovering around in the middle to keep an eye out and watch how each person did, catching the quaffle every now and then when someone threw it way off mark. They were about about ten minutes in when she passed by the stands on her broom and heard a rather loud exclamation along the lines of "oh my god, he looks even fitter with purple hair!" That signalled Sirius had finally finished trying to get his shoes on.
Lou had to say she didn't see it, his usual dark brown locks arguably were much nicer, especially considering how messy his hair was and the bags under his eyes.
She didn't know it but he marauder in question hadn't actually had a good nights sleep in about a month now, at first just from the last few nights of being forced to be around his family and then from staying up into the early hours of the morning with his friends. More than anything else they'd been trying to finish turning into animagi for the first time before the full moon came along, then more recently trying to get rid of the bright pink colour they'd been dyed, but it wasn't exactly a rare occurrence before that anyway. He was always the worst of them at dealing with a lack of sleep, so it was reasonable that he had chosen to power-nap in the changing rooms for as long as he could, using the excuse that he'd tangled his shoelace in a knot and couldn't remember the spell to fix it.
Of course he remembered the bloody spell, who did they think he was?
Lou on the other hand just guessed he was having a bad day, which was understandable. It wasn't that he wasn't still very attractive though, every girl in their year was very much aware of that fact, especially after the Infamous growth spurt of '73, but it was much too predictable to be madly in love with Sirius black these days considering he was practically always surrounded by a gaggle of obsessed pre-teens drooling over him at every turn. It made her feel a bit sick.
Didn't help his ego much either. Lou thought to herself, overhearing yet another crazed girl shout an insult at her as she flew away to hover somewhere else.
Somewhere in the distance Gideon was shouting profanities at some unsuspecting second year at the top of his lungs;
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE IN HUFFLEPUFF? I ASKED YOU LOT TO BLOODY LEAVE!"-
"Bloody hell, looks like fabiean's back with us after all"
Lou was surprised when she heard the familiar, rather tired, gruff voice and turned to see Sirius flying over to her. He was referencing the reign of the last Prewett brother, who'd always been known for his use of the more savoury words in the English language during matches.
"Godric, where'd you come from?"
"Heaven apparently... " He sighed, nodding to a sign a couple of devout second years were holding reading 'WE LUV YOU SIRUS - OUR ANGEL'.
"... Not the worst spelling I suppose" he commented mostly to himself, with one eyebrow raised, "-did you see what that second year just did with the quaffel though? Unbelievable..." Sirius continued, leaned back on his broom with a cool nonchalance, shaking his head, "- who knew quidditch was a dying art?" He added, rhetorically.
"Mmhmm" She hummed in response, looking at him quizzically.
"Oi oi!" Amber came flying towards them while Gideon continued to take out his frustrations on another of the try-outs, "- watcher, Sirius!"
"G'morning" Came Sirius's reply.
"What's up with you two then? Glum and glummer," She asked
"A first year just flipped me the bird" Lou responded simply, a scowl on her face. Sirius laughed, saying something about 'no sleep' in response.
"Yeah well, pretty sure I've found a new chaser, Lauren Mac's little brother"
"He any good?" Lou heard Sirius ask,
"Could do with work, he's a bit jumpy, but you'd expect that after what happened to his parents,"
A cool chill ran down both Sirius and Lou's spines at the mention. Unbeknownst to her Sirius knew what had happened to the Mackenzie's, he'd heard about it through the door to his fathers study two summers ago and the words had stuck in his head to haunt him ever since.
Lou on the other hand was only thinking of her own parents.
As the two beaters continued to talk beside her Lou stopped paying attention. She wasn't having a good day and she'd just noticed group of Slytherins had arrived just to take the mick out of them.
The sky seemed to reflect her mood as well, moody and grim with a feeling in the air like heavy rain was coming.
"Why is nobody any good on a broom these days?" The voice of Sirius black broke her from her thoughts again,
"Got better things to worry 'bout suppose..." she trailed off, noticing Amber had left, leaving just the two of them again.
They hovered in awkward silence for a bit after that. She wasn't really sure why he was talking to her after yesterday. She'd always known james better than Sirius anyway, mainly because they'd been sat next to each other for a year of transfiguration now, after he and Sirius had managed to transfigure Peter into a mound of hair instead of a person and he'd had to be sent to the hospital wing.
Granted, last year her and Sirius had spent the Christmas holidays together in the castle when he'd decided not to go home and they'd been the only two fourth years left, but that was almost a year ago now and they hadn't properly spoken since. He was always with James anyway.
She felt the need to say at least something, so decided she may as well address the elephant in the room;
"Y'know, about yest-"
"Are you ok-"
They both stopped talking after they had started simultaneously, the two of them turning away and blushing a little. Until Sirius motioned for her to go on with a nod.
"Well, erm, I know Potter's all angry at me about yesterday but no hard feelings right? It was just a laugh and Lily's idea anyway, y'know, just a bit of fun?" she said awkwardly.
"Oh yeah that, I reckon whole things a bit polarising for him, he's never really had the piss taken out of him like that before, other than from me and Remus of course"
"So you're fine then?" She didn't quite believe him.
He chuckled, "not really, but james refuses to admit Evans had anything to do with it, thinks it was your's and Mackinnon's idea, it pretty hilarious"
"that's bullshit!"
"Try telling him that"
"Where is he?" She asked, more than ready to argue her case. Lou watched as Sirius's eyes lazily searched the grassy pitch below them looking for his friend.
"Uh, I think he must have gone for a piss so you probably want to hold off on that one for a bit".
"Eh, so what were you saying before?" She asked.
"Oh, I was just gunna' ask if you were alright, after what Amber said you seemed a bit shaken?"
Lou knew full well what he was getting at and didn't like it. She'd been getting stares and questions her whole life about the death of her parents, she'd even been torn apart by the prophet on numerous occasions - 'only living witness of massacre is nine year old child' making the biggest story in decades despite her never even remembering it happen! It didn't help she'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning either, with Marlene trying stick a quill up her nose in her sleep as a joke, and that potions essay she hadn't started.
"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not talk about it" the venom in her voice was palpable.
"Bloody hell, suit yourself" he mumbled, "not as if you have any reason to be nice to me or anything"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well y'know, you did dye me pink yesterday, you could at least be a little more polite-" he groaned feeling a bit putout, "god forbid i have your best interests at heart" he added sarcastically.
Sirius wasn't sure what he was doing, he more just felt a bit stupid, he'd come over to make sure she was okay and now she was basically telling him to fuck off and he didn't like that. He had always felt as if him and Lou had some kind of mutual understanding, being the only two people in their wide group of friends who really seemed to know what was going on, what with the war and everything, because of things they'd seen and heard, even if they didn't talk about it. Now he just felt like a dog that had been kicked back into it's place.
"Oh so now it's a big deal? You and I both know that's not the same thing, Black." The stress she put on his last name made her meaning very obvious.
Sirius hissed through his teeth involuntarily but never the less gave a nod. He looked up and noticed as the sky had turned a rather fitting darker grey colour in the clouds.
They stayed in awkward silence again for a little longer until Sirius made to fly off, Lou stopped him,
"Look, Sirius, I'm sorry - I know you're not a bad bloke but you can act a real prick sometimes," her tone was apologetic, although she was sure she had nothing to a apologise for.
"Probably -" he nodded "- I didn't mean anything by it though, I'm not expecting you to bare your soul to me or anything, just thought I'd check you were alright" his tone was surprisingly soft, different from the arrogant drawl he usually spoke with.
"Are any of us alright these days?" She shrugged and laughed darkly, not knowing how else to answer but looking back to him anyway.
the tired teenager hummed grimly in reply, and yawned, before flying away on his broom once and for all.
Later on It had started to rain and the search for a third chaser was just as hopeless as it had been for the past half-hour.
Everyone in the stands had gone back inside from the weather and Lou envied them more than anything, feeling as if the rain was soaking her down to her very bones.
Gideon and Amber seemed to be in some kind of argument on the ground over whether or not she could play as chaser in the next match until they found someone decent. Potter on the other hand was nowhere to be found, but sure enough Lou noticed Sirius when she turned around.
She could not help but watch in awe as Sirius leaned back on his broom with closed eyes about twelve feet off the ground.
If she didn't know any better she'd think he was asleep.
"Sirius?" She called over.
"...huh, what?" He jolted fully awake, opened one eye and squinted at her.
"Don't fall off your broom"
Lou thought she heard him mumble something along the lines of 'illdowhatibloodywellwantmissus' in response and couldn't help but smile to herself. Despite how much of a git he could be.
Don't want to be doing too many authors notes through this story so you probably won't hear from me this much again but hope you enjoy!