CHAPTER 24: The Chat
Sirius woke up the next morning to James staring at him.
"James, babe, I love you but you have to stop doing that," Sirius said, rubbing his eyes. James continued staring at him.
"Padfoot, I'm really intrigued by your face. Can I sit on it?"
"Yeah, why not," Sirius snickered as James burst out laughing. Stretching and cracking his back, Sirius looked at Remus, who was naturally sitting and reading on his bed.
"Mornin' moony," Sirius shot him a seductive look as Remus didn't bother to look up.
"Morning Padfoot, and no, that face will not make me fall for you," Remus said.
"Drats- next time," Sirius said.
"Honey, you came back late last night. What were you doing?" James narrowed his eyes at Sirius. He stopped and quickly thought of an answer.
"Doing some chick, whaddya think?" Sirius said, running his hand through his hair.
"Nice. Can I join next time?" James hopefully asked.
"You don't even have to ask, bud," Sirius replied. James squealed and hopped out of the dorm. Peter remained sleeping, his mouth wide open.
"So, which chick was this?" Remus asked, flipping a page.
"Ahh well…aha…I wasn't exactly screwing a girl…" Sirius trailed off. Remus suddenly looked up with much interest.
"Then what were you doing?" He scrutinized. Sirius was about to tell him his encounter with Isabella when he stopped himself.
Can't tell Remus I was with his girlfriend, Sirius thought.
"I was…chatting with Hagrid! Man, Fang's getting big," Sirius lied. Remus snickered.
"Right you are. Hey, I know this is a stupid question for you, but have you seen Isabella anywhere?" Remus closed his book. Sirius quickly shook his head.
"Why would you think I know where she is, Moony? Jesus Christ I don't watch her everyday," he defensively said. Remus rolled his eyes, expecting this answer.
"Yeah, alright. I'm going to go find her," Remus said, getting up.
"Okay byyyyyyyye," Sirius blew a kiss.
Well, that was great, Isabella thought to herself, lying next to Regulus. She looked around the gloomy, dark room and compared it to the Gryffindor common room. So much shittier, she thought.
"Regulus, wake up," she said, nudging him. Regulus stirred but didn't wake up.
"Oi, wake up! I can't go down there by myself," Isabella nudged him harder again. Regulus groaned and rubbed his eyes.
"Fuckin' hell Clarke, just let yourself out," Regulus yawned. Isabella sarcastically smiled.
"Yeah well I don't feel like dying today, so get up," she said, putting her coat on.
"Aw, my guys don't kill- just severely injure," Regulus deviously smiled.
"Mmm yeah, not feeling that today," Isabella replied with the same sarcasm. Regulus snickered and got out of bed.
"Alright lil' Bella, I'll help you find your way out," he mocked.
"It's Isabella," she corrected. He snickered again.
"Feisty," he said to himself. He opened the door and purposely let himself out first, Isabella walking behind. They came down to the common room and saw a few Slytherins sitting there. Seeing Isabella there, they slowly rose to their feet.
"Regulus, what the hell is THAT doing here? Gryffindor scum," Lucius Malfoy gritted his teeth. Isabella narrowed her eyes but chose not to say anything back; she was, after all, surrounded by future Death Eaters.
"Chill," Regulus said, continuing to lead Isabella to the door. As she walked to the door, she felt unbelievably uncomfortable from the glares and death stares she was getting.
"See ya next time Clarke," Regulus grinned before shutting the door on her. She rolled her eyes and made her way back to the Gryffindor Common Room.
There's no way in hell I can talk to Prongs or Moony about this, Sirius thought to himself, pacing around the empty room. Peter had naturally followed James to the kitchen.
"What the fuck is wrong with you Sirius? You HATE Isabella, remember?" Sirius' little devil cooed in his ear.
"Sirius, you might be turning over a new leaf with her! Pursue these feelings," his angel cooed in his other ear. Sirius waved the imaginary floating beings away from his ears and walked down to the common room. Upon arriving, he saw Lily curled up in the cozy armchair, reading her book.
Jackpot, he thought.
"Evans! So good to see you," Sirius strutted over. Lily took one look at him and scoffed in disgust.
"Don't you have to stick your head down the toilet?" She said, pissed off. Sirius snickered.
"Evans, that was the lamest diss I've ever heard," he said, but decided to change topics. "Listen, can I talk to you about something?"
"No," Lily bluntly replied. Sirius sat on the armchair opposite her.
"Evans…it's about someone we both know," he didn't want to say the name.
"Remus? Is he alright?" Lily assumed. Sirius shook his head and smiled.
"My lil' Remmy is doing fine Evans," he smirked. Lily rolled her eyes and guessed again.
"Potter? If it is Black, I swear-" she started.
"It's not James," Sirius looked around the room. "Lily, can we go somewhere more private?" Lily narrowed her eyes but closed her book.
"Fine. This seems very odd to me," she stood up.
"Great, lets go to my dorm- no, NO Evans, I'm not hitting on you!" Sirius defended himself as he got Evans to stop walking away. "It's just very private up there." Eventually after much persuasion, Lily was following Sirius up to his dorm. Entering the dorm, Lily cringed at the messy sight.
"You boys are disgusting. Of course Remus keeps clean, but that is just horrible," she said and pointed to James and Sirius' beds. "God, at least open the window," she winced. Sirius swaggered over to the window and opened it.
"Ya know, Evans, we could make a mess of our own-" Sirius joked but stopped. Something caught his eye, something down by the Great Lake. Two people, sitting by the tree.
Huh, both look strangely familiar, he thought.
"Right, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that and…what are you looking at?" Lily said and walked over to the window. She followed Sirius' gaze down to the two people sitting by the Great Lake.
"Oh hey, that's…Remus isn't it? And…Isabella, right?" Lily guessed correctly. Naturally, Sirius would have thrown a rotten apple at the two, or asked Peeves to hurl dungbombs at them, but he just stared at the two this time.
"I do wonder what Remus sees in her…but his decision and I'm always happy for him," Lily shrugged and walked from the window. Sirius couldn't take his eyes off them. "Sirius, sometime today please. I've got much better things to do," Lily took a seat on Remus' bed. Sirius shook his head and sat down on James' bed. He wasn't quite sure how to start, as he fiddled with his sleeves and hair.
"Lily…you know me…and I know you…and, uh, I think-" Sirius tried to start.
"Sirius, if you want to tell me you're gay, I already knew and I'll keep your secret safe," Lily said, a little humor in her voice. Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Evans, I'm not gay alright? Although Remus is sexy as hell," Sirius nodded to his own comment. "But nah, its…goddamnit it's Clarke." Lily's eyes widened as her smiled disappeared from her face.
"What about her?" she asked with concern. Sirius fidgeted with his shirt and shrugged.
"I don't really know," he said, looking down. "She didn't…ugh…she-she didn't deserve what happened today," he looked elsewhere.
"What happened today?"
"Fucking Whitney just decided to be a mega-bitch and make Clarke lose her job."
"…Whitney?" Sirius nodded. "I'm going to have a stern word with her."
"Like that will do anything, Evans. I don't know, like, Clarke is an idiot and a pain in the ass, but I don't think she deserved that," he said, fidgeting even more.
"…Wow Black, I never knew you had a shred of compassion in you," Lily said, her voice engulfed with amazement. Sirius shrugged again and looked down. "Why talk to me about this though?"
"Well Peter is useless, James would not comprehend and…I'm not sure what Remus would do," he confessed. "So…naturally…you're a girl and you could understand."
"Well, thank you for noticing I'm a girl. And yeah, well no- I'm not sure I understand. You hate Isabella- like you HATE her- and now you feel bad for her?" Lily leant forward, trying to understand. Sirius smiled a little but quickly hid it.
"We had a chat last night on the grounds. Well, not really a chat- more like a short exchange of words. I just thought- ya know- I'd…maybe ask if she…was alright…but then she flipped out at me so I thought 'fuck that' and just told her to fuck off," Sirius casually skimmed through.
"Wow, you really are charming," Lily sarcastically said.
"I know, sweetheart," Sirius winked at Lily. Lily glared at him.
"So what are you going to do about it?"
"Uhh…to be honest- give Whitney what she deserves."
"No, I won't let you do that. I will talk to her."
"Ugh fine…what do you think I should do?"
"I honestly think you should become friends w-"
"ALRIGHT LILY, thanks for the talk," Sirius interrupted.
"Just give her a chance, alright? Good luck with your issue," Lily formally ended the conversation and left the room. Sirius sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He walked back to the window and looked around. His eyes rested back on the two by the Great Lake.
