Chapter Eight

Lips Like Fire

Sirius moved past me towards the railing, brushing me aside in favor of a better view. "Possibly the most intense game of the year," he said over the roar of avid and loyal Gryffindors, "and here you are, wondering who to root for. You are truly unbelievable, Gracie!"

I growled, squeezing my way next to him, and shot him a kick in the leg. "Just because I didn't dress up as the Gryffindor mascot doesn't mean I've suddenly abandoned all of my House pride," I attested, in regard to the mass of maroon and gold paint that had become Sirius's entire face. Beside him, Remus's cheeks were adorned with a much calmer pair of house-coordinated stripes. Where Peter was, I truly had no idea, but the way that my fellow classmates were gathering around the front of the stands like it was the dead of the winter and we were surrounding the only fire left on the earth, I did not blame him for skipping out. I was beginning to think I might die of suffocation if this went on much longer.

If I could have, I probably would have skipped out, too, and spent the day throwing cockroach clusters at the Giant Squid; but, Sirius was adamant that I witness Ravenclaw's defeat, and I had to admit, despite the chaos, I was a little interested in seeing Kenneth's performance. He was Seeker, after all, and that made him one of two star focuses of this game.

"Excuse me!" a shrill voice called out, and I stole a glance over my shoulder and saw a bright red head of hair bobbing its way through the mob. "I said, excuse me! I am Head Girl, and if you do not move out of my way, I will personally arrange you a detention this afternoon with Filch!"

I watched with mirth as she peeled her way through to the front. She threw her hands down on the rail, cheeks flushed and breathless from the effort, and turned to me with her eyebrows raised. "Well, that was effective," she said, disregarding my amusement at her struggle. "Maybe not the most honest I have ever been... Against the rules... None the matter," she said, breathing out in a mad rush. "How's the game?" Her gaze drifted to the Quidditch pitch, where the players were pelting through the sky at such speed it was becoming difficult to specifically follow anyone. And a certain dark, messy haired boy of interest happened to be one of these darting specks in the air.

"Marvelous," I informed her. "40-10, Gryffindor in the lead."

Sirius leaned in across me, and I swatted at his hair in annoyance as it brushed against my face. I had half the mind to yank it away, but the faint smell of coconut drifted towards me and I was stood there, immobilized, wondering how he could possibly smell so good. Shampoo was probably the most reasonable answer, but I had no idea that boys actually made an effort to smell good. Not that I had ever smelled a boy, actually, now that I came to think of it... Why am I even thinking this? What is wrong with me?

He was reacting to Lily's appearance, attempting to carry his voice over the roar of the stands, and I quickly let those thoughts slip my mind. "Have either of you ever noticed how breathtakingly attractive James is on a broomstick," Sirius asked, in all seriousness, "or was just that me?"

Lily released a breath, shot him a glance and then looked back out onto the field. The agitation quickly faded from her face, and she smiled goofily, returning another glance at Sirius. "That's not funny," she insisted, though she certainly looked amused.

Sirius quickly stood up straight, and held up his hands. "Not joking! Only complete honesty. Right? You agree, Remus?"

"Oh, yeah," Remus said, nodding his head, "almost as attractive as Howell, I would say."

Lily let out something of a giggle and a snort. I rolled my eyes at the two boys, and Sirius responded to Remus's comment with a playful bump of my shoulder. "Did you see how he nearly had the Snitch a moment ago?" Sirius asked loudly, and much too emphatically. "And how it slipped right through his fingers, just like that?" He threw his hand in the air, spreading his fingers as if it was a bird in flight.

I swiped at his arm, muttering, "Sirius, sod off."

"He's irresistible up there, he is," Sirius continued, ignoring my request. "I can completely see why you would root for him rather than your own House. The House that has served as your shelter and resting place and sanctuary for nearly seven years now, I completely—"

The stream of Sirius's words was drowned in an overwhelming pulse of sound from the students, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw both. Something had happened and one of the Gryffindor chasers—I couldn't tell who, but it wasn't James—was hit by a bludger, and it completely destroyed the end of their broom, resulting in a spiral nose-dive towards the ground.

"Oh, that was not pretty," a voice called over the commentator's box, namely, Alex Fronsac, seventh year Ravenclaw. People were shouting about a foul, but the game went on. "No fouls, no fouls, everyone can calm down. That's what happens when you're not paying attention, Swott! Maybe then if we're paired together in Potions again, that'll teach you to listen to—oh, right, talking about the game, I know, Professor! One Gryffindor chaser down, two to go. Just kidding, Potter and Matlock, we Ravenclaw are very friendly players. Olney has the Quaffle, Ravenclaw in possession, maybe we'll make this pass, nope, that's an interception—Gryffindor in possession, Potter passes to Matlock, will they get it pass Winikus? Will they get it past—oh, of course, ten points for Gryffinor. Hurray."

I scoffed, sharing a look with Sirius. "There's a reason Prongs and I tested that inside-out trouser charm on Fronsac in particular last year," he said to me, grumbling.

Fronsac was a little infamous for his sarcasm. Professor McGonagall was always scolding him on his commentating, too; I didn't see why he was still up there after three straight years.

"Ravenclaw beaters are looking a bit cranky again, maybe they'll knock another Gryffindor out—I'm only kidding, honestly!—oh, has Howell spotted the Snitch? Is he... no, false call. Oh! And Matlock narrowly misses a Bludger to the head—Ravenclaw takes the Quaffle from Potter—Wilk aims the Bludger at Fawcett, but ha! Missed! Oh, wait, Merlin, Fawcett drops the Quaffle, and—Potter sweeps in with a masterful dive and recovers the Quaffle, Gryffindor in possession! But, wait, that—"

The rest of Fronsac's words were drowned as Lily let out an ear piercing shriek and a collective mass of students gasped in fear as a Bludger pelted James straight in the shoulder and he immediately lost control of his broom.

My stomach lurched, but it had been nothing in comparison to Lily's outburst. She flinched, jumping about a foot in the air, and grabbed the railing as hard as she could. It seemed like she thought maybe her grip would somehow help him adjust himself on his broom, but whatever unconscious attempt it might have been, it did no good, and he completely lost his grip.

The whole stadium erupted in alarmed cries. The fall had been much worse than Benjamin Swott's fall, the other Chaser; James plummeted like a falling star, and tumbled to the ground in a heap of Quidditch robes, indistinguishable across the field. This time, Madam Hooch released a small whistle, and Madam Pomfrey was rushing onto the Pitch; Lily was rushing back through the mob before I could even call her name.

"James Potter, you are a git! I cannot believe you! How could you not pay attention to what was happening on the field?" Lily screeched, voice pulsing with furious concern, face almost as red as her hair. "So irresponsible! What were you even looking at? You looked away from the field, and then you got hit! What were you doing? Showing off, maybe, because you have too much damn pride? Look at you, look at your shoulder! You are so irresponsible that I cannot even—"

"Miss Evans," Madam Pomfrey's sharp voice broke across Lily's rampage. "Yelling at Mr. Potter will only make his condition worse. If you do not settle down immediately, I will have to completely retract Mr. Potter's visitor privileges for the day so he can rest."

Lily turned to Madam Pomfrey with wide eyes, and the color in her face faded gradually as she allowed herself to calm down. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she apologized, shaking her head and taking a deep breath. Her eyes flickered back to James, who was gazing up at her, looking terrified. She sat next to him on his cot, lowering her voice considerably. "I'm sorry, I just..." She paused, eyes intent on his face. "I got a little carried away. This, though," she said, gesturing to the splint and bottle of some ungodly very-close-to-toxic potion that lay on his bedside, "is your entire fault. You looked away. If you'd been paying attention..." She trailed off then and wrapped her arms around herself, looking like she didn't want to go on. I could see her replaying his fall over and over again in her mind, and she winced every time.

I pranced over to them, and tapped James on the head. "Look at how worked up you got her, with your silly carelessness. You know, she could have popped a vein in her head, or something very... fatal," I said, very matter-of-factly.

"I have never seen her run so fast," Sirius added.

"Never seen her so livid. I got in her way for a second and she nearly ran me over," Remus said.

James chuckled, eyes focused solely on Lily's face.

She huffed, disregarding our comments. "What were you looking at, anyways?" I had missed it, but apparently, it was the very moment that he slowed down and stopped to stare at something that the Bludger clipped him in the shoulder. "What kind of dedicated Chaser looks away from the field—"

"Actually," James responded, tone rather unaffected, "I was looking for you."

That stopped her. Lily paused, straightening her back, slight color returning to her cheeks. "What for?"

"Well, to see if you actually came," he replied, a small smirk playing on his lips, "like you said you would."

Lily sighed. "James!" She slapped his arm, but apologized fervently as he gasped out in pain. "You picked that moment..." She muttered on, something about stupidity and pride, and rubbed her temples with her fingertips. "You're hopeless. Absolutely hopeless."

He gave her a cheeky grin, an attempt to console her, apparently.

"Well, not to interrupt this cute moment, but I think I'll be heading out now," I announced. Sirius and Remus both nodded alongside in agreement.

"Glad you're not too bad off, Prongs," Remus said.

"Yeah," Sirius chimed in, "even has a lady to keep him company. Can't say you're suffering too much, mate."

Lily breathed loudly, patience continually deteriorating. James shot him a look that said shut up before you get me in trouble with the silliest expression wiped all over his face.

"We'll leave you two to yourselves now," I said, yanking the boys by their sleeves for emphasis. "Don't have too much fun now. Remember, Lily, he's injured!"

She turned and gave me a look.

I laughed and waved to the both of them (only James returned a smile, of course—he was enjoying this). Right as we were leaving—and honestly, it was maybe 30 seconds—I took a glance back over my shoulder. They had already seemed to forget about us; Lily was speaking to him in hushed tones with her fingers laced in his.

I looked at Sirius, covering my giggle with my hand, and we shared a look as if we knew they'd end up like this all along.

"Oh, bloody hell, don't tell me they're serious," Sirius moaned.

We were standing in front of the Quidditch Pitch as students piled out; half of them were giddy beyond belief, singing and marching and dancing all over the place, while the other half silently moved inside as fast as they could, with the longest and sourest expressions I had ever seen. Sirius and I had eagerly rushed back to the Pitch, hoping to catch the last bits of the game, only to find we were perfectly on time for the end.

"No," I said, "they're not. You are." I nudged him, silently hinting that I was the funniest person to ever exist, and that he should agree with me immediately.

However, being the slow person he was, he only stared blankly. "What?"

"You're...serious." I blinked, waiting for him to understand. "Sirius. Get it?"

He groaned and threw his head on my shoulder, releasing a series of rather fake and melodramatic sobs. "Ravenclaw can not win! This is impossible, a disgrace, I will not stand for it—"

"Then sit," I suggested, patting him on the back.

"You're going to kill me with your jokes," he said, voice muffled by my shoulder.

People continued to swerve around us, many staring as Sirius continued to complain and cry and be very, very vocal with his disappointment in our team.

"Sirius, can we go inside now? It's getting dark," I whined, attempting to thrust him off my shoulder, but he wrapped his arms around my neck and stayed there like a sticking charm. "Siriusss! You're such a girl, get up!"

"No," he said, imitating a small, stubborn child. "You're breaking our contract."

I sighed—very audibly, so he would hear—and dragged my feet forwards, dragging him along with me. "What contract?" He proved very difficult to move, and I could only imagine that we resembled a penguin with our modified waddle walk.

"The one where we agree that we are both psycho and therefore must tolerate each other."

"I do not believe I included 'hanging on Gracie like a leech' anywhere in that letter," I retorted, "and I don't recall you even agreeing to that 'contract,' either."

"Well, it was implied," he muttered. "Wait! Wait, stop moving, I just remembered something."

"What? I'm going inside, Sirius, it's bloody freezing out here, and I'm taking you with me, if that's what it takes," I said, my teeth already chattering.

He released his grip on me, and I let out a gasp of relief. He narrowed his eyes at me, and then said, "I just remembered that James left his Quidditch bag in the locker room. I was going to go get that for him."

I dusted off my shoulder, as if it had recently collected dust from its encounter with his face. "All right. I will... see you later then," I said slowly, feeling as if I had forgotten something, too. I waved, waggling my fingers in his face, and he swatted it away.

"Wait here!" he said, bouncing on his feet. "Don't leave me! I'll be really quick, I promise."

"Sirius..."

"Our contract!" he pleaded. "Please, please, please!"

It was really hard to say no when his gray eyes were all wide and watery and pouty looking. As immature as he was acting, it was adorable. It really wasn't fair, either; of course he could pull off a puppy dog look excellently—he was a dog, pretty much.

"Fine," I hissed through my teeth, pushing him away. "Even though you're making up rules to our contract now, fine. Go, be fast, or I swear to Merlin's baggy trousers—"

"I don't even want to hear where you're going with that!" he called, darting off in the opposite direction as fast as he could, disappearing into a sea of people in moments.

It was only when I was standing there, alone, wrapping my arms around myself in an attempt to warm myself, that I remembered. Ravenclaw had just won—which meant, more than likely, that Kenneth caught the Snitch. Where was he? I had meant to congratulate him, but it slipped my mind...

But I had no idea where he would be, and Sirius had told me to wait here.

So I waited, and I watched the door as the last few people left the Pitch.

And I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And then, after a good ten minutes of standing outside the Pitch, alone, in the cold, freezing my absolute dudder butt off, the Ravenclaw team came rushing out, freshly showered and still pulsing with excitement over their victory.

They all positively zoomed past me, most not even taking a moment to glance my way—except for Kenneth, who noticed me standing alone immediately.

"Grace!" he called, jogging up to me. Oh my good Merlin, I needed his warmth right then. His eyes were brighter than ever, and the corners of his mouth were curved with a smile that seemed to be more prominent than usual. "What are you doing here, all alone?"

"Waiting," I murmured irritably. "Sirius is supposed to be getting James's stuff, and I told him I'd wait..." I shivered uncontrollably. "Oh, and I meant to tell you congratulations. So, congratulations, you champion."

He moved closer to me, seeming to sense that I was freezing my dudder butt off. Well, I wasn't really trying to hide it. "Thank you," he said, and he tightened his mouth, attempting to frown. "I mean, that was a terrible game. Gryffindor completely should have won."

I laughed, trembling all the way down to my toes. "Yeah, yeah," I said, rolling my eyes. "No need to pretend like you're not the happiest bloke in the world. You caught the Snitch, I'm assuming?"

"Mm-hm," he mumbled, and he brought me close to him, wrapping his arms around me. "You didn't see it?"

"Well, I was at the game, like I promised!" And I was very much grateful for his body warmth at that point, because I was afraid I was about to collapse otherwise. "But then James, well, you know... we went to make sure he was all right, and then when we got back, Ravenclaw had won."

He pressed his lips together tightly. "Well, if it's any conciliation, we only won because Potter was gone."

I let out something of a laugh. "Okay, right, because James is the only thing keeping that team together!" I shook my head, smiling. "Don't worry about it. I'm not the Quidditch fanatic out of them all. You should have seen Sirius. He was sobbing."

"Really?"

"No, but when he found out we lost, he was rather annoying."

"Hm." He gazed down at me, and stroked my cheek absentmindedly. "Speaking of which, are you still waiting for him, or can we move inside? Because it's a little too cold out here."

"Still waiting," I said with a bit of a sigh. "He'll murder me if I leave without him, though he did promise he'd only be a minute." I shrugged. "Go on without me, though. I don't mind."

He leaned his face down onto mine, the tip of his nose on mine, and I could hear the softest smile in his voice as he whispered, "It's not that cold."

I laughed. "Lies."

"Oh well," he said, and he brushed his lips against mine, tauntingly, sweetly, daringly, almost.

I pressed my lips fully onto his in response, and instantly the chill in my body was set ablaze. My heart beat right in time with the movement of our mouths, and I forgot everything. Forgot that it was cold, that it was the middle of the night, that I had ever had any doubts about this boy, that Sirius was going to be here any moment, all of it. The only thing I could feel in that moment was him and the warmth that he always radiated.

My hands found the back of his neck, and my fingers were soon tangled in his hair. I could feel his hands at my back, holding me to him tightly, and everything felt so surreal, so indefinite and so... overwhelming.

I shifted only slightly, breaking away gently from the kiss, now incredibly breathless as the chill fell back over me. I lowered my arms, bringing them back into myself, and looked up at him.

That same smile was still on his mouth, like it never left. "Hey, Grace?" he said, gently, as if anything louder might disturb me.

"Hm?"

"I really like you," he said simply, and it felt like a whisper against my skin. "Just so you know."

My mind swam, images of Sirius and me dancing beneath the fireworks, him holding onto me and fake crying, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius... why were these thoughts here? I was with Kenneth. And he was fantastic, and he was brilliant, and he was more than I could ever ask for, and yet... it still wasn't right.

Not wrong, in any sense, and so I told myself, that even if it wasn't right, maybe it could be. It wasn't wrong, at least. And that was something.

"You, too," I said, inhaling slightly. "I like you, too."

He just smiled, and his eyes flitted away from me briefly. "You know," he said, "I feel like we never get enough time together... I think it's already time for you to go."

"Hm?" I looked up as Kenneth released me, and saw Sirius standing there with James's bag, bouncing on his toes like a jitter bug. "Oh," I said, and I let out the smallest laugh. "All right, then," I said, giving Kenneth's fingers a little squeeze. "We'll talk later. Okay?"

"Of course," he responded. He drifted backwards, gave me a little wave, and nodded slightly to Sirius before he turned down the path towards the school.

Sirius skipped up to me, still bouncing up and down uncontrollably. We met eyes, and he looked at me, almost expectantly, as if desiring an explanation.

"What?" I mumbled, shoving him along the path. My face burned, and I wondered how long he'd been there. Hopefully not too long. Hopefully... why do I care? "Thanks for taking forever. I appreciate it. This dudder butt of mine is officially an icicle." Stop caring.

"I can tell you were really suffering while I was gone." He rolled his eyes, and nudged me teasingly. "Sorry to interrupt you two, but I felt like I'd left you alone long enough."

"You think?" I sighed, rubbing my arms with my palms. "What took you so long, anyways?"

"Stupid team locked me out of the locker room," he grumbled. "Told me that I had to wait for the girls to get out of the showers first. Like I was going to sneak a look at them or something? Honestly. Ridiculous."

I laughed loudly. "You wouldn't have! Right? Tell me your morals are higher than that."

"Of course I wouldn't," he said. "Only with permission."

"Ew," I said, still laughing and jittering and mind reeling with the memories of the entire night. "Subject change! I'm dying. I'll race you back."

"I have to carry this big arse of a bag, that's not even remotely fair."

"I don't care. You left me outside, so it's only fair."

"Fine," he said, exhaling. "Probably beat you still. I'll count down. On three, all right? One—Gracie! Get back here, oi, Merlin—cheater!"

A/N: it is 1:26 am and I have school in a couple of hours, but I could absolutely not resist. Sorry if it seems a little rushed, but I was excited to get this out! Also, you might've noticed the title and summary changed.. Whatdya think, will it work? Let me know, I love feedback and I have lots of cookies to give for reviews! ;) teehee thank you all for reading!