Summary: A sleek Scandinavian, detention romance, a summer fling, the one girl he never expected, and more. Read all about Sirius Black's twisted love-life and the girls who made it click.
Rated: M. Actually, there's nothing too lurid in this chapter, though there are plenty of opportunities for extreme M-ness. I guess I'm just not chill with writing hardcore "lemon" stuff. If you want to read porn, go and read it somewhere else. This story is as yet only a semi-guilty pleasure.
Still definitely M, though.
Disclaimer: See Chapter One.
A/N: So! This story is really ridiculously fun to write, and it's a shame because I'm quite busy and don't often have evenings free (or weekends where I don't have more exciting things to do) to write more. As it stands, when I get very bored in class I plan out future chapters and/or plot twists in my head. So now I've got the whole damn story hammered out, but have yet to type it! Perplexing, eh?
Anyway, I got sick of Claire and this chapter is the result. Enjoy!
Chapter Five
Red-handed
Tuesday detention was rather enjoyable. Sirius came in on time; Claire came in only moments later. Lamont looked surprised at their promptness, but did not comment; instead, she gave them instructions to keep categorizing as before and left the room without another word.
"So!" said Sirius brightly, grabbing Claire about the waist and forcing her over to the wall. Claire smiled and leaned up to kiss him gently on the lips. Then she opened her mouth to say something, but Sirius didn't let her; he kissed her passionately and didn't pull away until a good ten minutes later when she ran out of air and pushed him back.
They didn't talk much for the next hour or so. It was as if they had come to an unspoken agreement: Sirius wouldn't try to persuade Claire to go out with him, and she wouldn't risk talking for fear of being persuaded despite herself. Instead, they kissed one another, touched one another, smiled contently at one another, and said little. At one point they sat on the floor, Sirius leaning against the wall below the chalkboard and Claire sitting between his legs. Sirius gave Claire a massage while she taught him how to say phrases in French.
"And what if I wanted to say, 'What the fuck is that monkey doing?'" Sirius murmured in her right ear, grazing it with his lips.
A corner of Claire's mouth twitched into a grin as she leaned back into him; he wrapped his arms around her middle and she tilted her chin back to smile up at him.
"You can't say that. I mean…" She thought for a moment. "You can't say 'fuck' in the middle of a sentence like that. It doesn't work that way."
Sirius frowned, and ran one hand up her stomach to her breasts, where he rested it contentedly. "Well, how would you say something of a similar infliction?"
Claire raised her eyebrows. "How about a phrase that you could actually use?" she suggested. "Those are generally much easier to translate."
Sirius gave a huff of indignation. "Hey, I could very well see myself spotting a monkey… in France… doing something unusual and needing to say, 'What the fuck is that monkey doing?'! God, Claire – do you want me to be inept?"
Claire laughed gently. "Well… I don't know. There's not really a word for 'fuck.'"
"How sad," said Sirius at once.
Claire rolled her eyes. "Not like that… just, people don't say it that way. They say putain or merde or whatever. Or putain merde… like as one exclamation."
Sirius nodded, and gave an exaggerated yawn. "Fascinating." Claire laughed and he grinned roguishly at her. Then he began unbuttoning her shirt, and she stretched her arms up around his neck and pulled herself up to kiss him.
A while later, when Claire was sitting topless in his lap, Sirius asked couldn't help himself.
"Go out with me?" he prodded, but Claire rolled her eyes, thought for a moment, couldn't come up with anything satisfactory to say in response, and so resorted to taking his face in her hands and kissing him tenderly. Sirius grinned through Claire's kisses.
"Is that a yes?"
Claire shook her head, still kissing him.
"Is that a maybe?"
Claire groaned and pulled back to glare at him, their eyes inches apart. "Sirius, just shut up and kiss me back."
He grinned. "Can do." He pulled her closer to him and kissed her sweetly enough to turn the mind of any sane girl.
"Fuck... putain merde! Why are you so good at this?" Claire demanded, looking at him accusingly.
Sirius shrugged, and smirked at her. "I'm just lucky, I guess."
-
At dinner, Peter had big news.
"I'm going out with Linnet Blakely," he said.
"Who?" James demanded.
"The spell girl," Remus supplemented, looking bemused. "Huh… since when have you liked her, anyway?"
Peter shrugged. "Well… Coralee Schuyler found herself some Hufflepuff bloke and Linnet was telling me about it in the library. Then… well, we sort of started snogging…"
Sirius raised one eyebrow. "Sounds like something I would do," he said pleasantly. "Good for you, Wormtail."
Peter rolled his eyes and tried not to grin.
James put on an incredulous face. "Um… hello? More details, please?"
Peter couldn't hide his grin now. "Well… the two of them are friends, yeah? So, Linnet already knew that I liked Cora and we'd always talk in the library about it. Then today I heard that Cora was going out with some guy and I went to find Linnet to pour my heart out and have her give me all the painful details." He was now grinning sheepishly. "Somewhere in the middle of comforting me – because she's really a nice person, she's very kind – she took off her glasses for a moment to wipe them on her shirt and then she smiled at me…" He exhaled slowly and said with mock-seriousness, "It was then that I realized she was truly gorgeous."
James, Remus, and Sirius all stared at him, wearing identical grins.
"Is she really?" James then said, conjuring an image of Linnet Blakely in his mind and frowning a bit. "Gorgeous, I mean? You sure that's not too strong a term…?"
"Oh, shut up," Remus said, rolling his eyes and elbowing James in the side while Sirius snorted.
Meanwhile, Peter smiled, unperturbed. "Well, I know she's not, like, really hot, but, hey – I think she's quite pretty."
James nodded in agreement. "So what happened then? You leaned in and kissed her in slow motion while romantic orchestra music played in the background?"
Peter leaned his head first to one side, then to the other. "Something like that."
"Good for you, Wormtail," Sirius said briskly for the second time in five minutes.
"Congrats," Remus added, smiling broadly.
Peter grinned. He swiveled in his seat and scanned the Ravenclaw table for Linnet Blakely, who had been watching him out of the corner of one glasses-clad eye. She waved, and Peter winked at her.
-
As Sirius lay in bed Wednesday morning waiting for his turn to get up and use the bathroom, he smiled to himself, recalling the previous day with Claire.
He liked her an awful lot, he had to admit. She was a appealing, she was attractive, and she was a challenge. Today he was going to force her to go out with him. No, force wasn't the right word at all – he was going to convince her to go out with him. Or better yet, allow her to admit what she had known for at least a week now: that she desperately wanted to go out with him. And marry him. And bear his children.
Sirius grinned slightly. He had had no thoughts of marriage yet in life, and he had no genuine ones now, but he did like the mental image of several little Blacks with Claire's high cheekbones in berets and pigtails, jabbering away in French outside of a wee cottage while Hector Zabini glared at them jealously from a passing car. Sirius chuckled to himself.
He spent most of that day fantasizing about Claire during class, to the point where Remus, who was looking from Sirius and James (who was gazing avidly at Lily's back) with an ever-increasing look of concern on his face, whispered, "Sirius, one hormonal love struck friend is bad enough."
"For the love of God, snap out of it!" Peter added helpfully, putting on a desperate face and pretending to sound panicked.
Sirius grinned at them slowly. He had just been reliving the events of the previous evening, when he had trailed his tongue up Claire's neck and then given her a full-body massage. Ah, good times.
-
Wednesday detention proved unfortunate. Actually, unfortunate was an understatement, Sirius would think hours later as he lay in his bed trying to sort things out.
It started out as all of the other detentions thus far had: Lamont left, Sirius and Claire enchanted the quills, and then the making out began. They had been kissing one another for about an hour, and Claire's shirt was unbuttoned save for the second to last hole, when there was a brief knock on the door. As Sirius and Claire turned toward it, suddenly panic-stricken, their arms still wrapped around one another, marks of Claire's lipstick lying rather prominently on Sirius's cheeks and mouth, the door swung open.
In walked Hector Zabini, saying cheerfully, "Hey Claire, I just ducked out of detention! I figured I'd come by here and say–" He seemed to realize what he was seeing, and stared at Claire, who had hastily pulled away from Sirius and pulled her shirt closer around her, with a look of utter disbelief on his face. "–hi," he finished.
The room was deathly quiet; only the ceaseless scratching of the quills could be heard in the background.
"Okay, seriously, what the fuck?" Hector demanded at last, glaring at Sirius and then at Claire again, who had covered her mouth with her hand and looked extremely apprehensive.
Sirius bit his lip awkwardly and tried to wipe some of the lipstick – why the bloody hell had Claire worn lipstick today, of all days? – off of his cheeks. He wasn't quite sure what to do. While he didn't really care if Hector was angry at him, he did not like how troubled Claire was looking.
"Black, what the fuck have you two been doing?" Zabini insisted, taking a step forward and looking at Sirius with intense antagonism.
Sirius shrugged. Quite honestly, he wanted to reply, "Oh, nothing but having an illicit affair behind your unaware back! Hahaha! Take that, you arrogant Slytherin prick!" However, saying this would have been exceptionally brainless, so Sirius kept quiet.
Claire had started speaking. "Hector, I can explain," she murmured.
"You had damn well better!" Hector snapped at her. "Or should we just call it quits right now, then?" He looked on the verge of tears.
Sirius coughed into his fist somewhat inelegantly. Maybe they would call it quits and he and Claire could go get back to what they had been doing before goddamn Zabini had interrupted them!
Claire, however, took a step forward hesitantly and then strode across the room. "Hector," she whispered, putting her hands on his arms and looking up at him. He shuddered and glared at her. There were tears in his eyes. It was all so melodramatic and awkward that Sirius couldn't help but want to laugh, not because it was particularly amusing but because he needed to do something.
"Hector, I'm so, so, so sorry," Claire whispered, leaning toward him and whispering in his ear. "I'm honestly and truly sorry." She pulled back to look at him, then turning her head toward Sirius said, "Sirius, go work on categorizing, would you?"
Sirius raised one eyebrow at her and made his way to the front of the classroom, where he took one of the quills and let it guide his hand along the parchment.
Claire was talking quietly to Zabini again. "Hector, I swear I can explain. It's just..." She frowned. "How did you get in, anyway? Lamont locked the door."
Hector shrugged dully. "Locked from the inside, maybe. Those are the harder charms to break, aren't they?"
Claire gave a shrug of affirmation. Then she took a deep breath and said, "Hector, please don't be upset. The only reason anything happened was because we've been going out for ages and I guess I felt like I was missing out on… on life." She looked at him imploringly. "Please understand… it's no different from at the wedding when you were angry over the way I was greeting old friends."
A corner of Zabini's mouth twitched slightly. Sirius, focused intently on his quill, felt his brow furrow. That manipulative Claire Delacour… it wasn't true at all, she'd told him that what they had was different from all of those escapades down in France.
"Hector, I need you to forgive me," Claire said quietly. "I still love you and I know you're upset but… this is me. I'm friendly and comfortable and sometimes I get a bit carried away."
"I know," Zabini mumbled, raising an eyebrow in annoyance.
Claire gave him a tiny, desperate smile. "Hector… s'il te plaît…" She had switched into French now and Sirius could no longer follow the conversation. At first it was one-sided but then Hector murmured something, and Claire smiled, and then Hector said something else and Claire squeezed his hand.
Then Lamont strode back into the classroom, the clock showing quarter to six.
"What on earth is going on here?" she demanded sharply. Her eyes shifted from Sirius, who had hastily grabbed Claire's tireless quill and sat on it to keep it from writing more, to Claire, who was holding Zabini's hand and talking to him in very gentle, pleading French, to Zabini, who was meeting Claire's gaze determinedly.
"Oh… Hector stopped by after his detention and we… I… was just saying hello," Claire replied at once.
Lamont's nostrils flared.
"I'm sorry, Professor," Claire continued. "I know it was wrong, just – well, detention was almost over…"
"Miss Delacour, please return to you seat. Mr. Zabini, please leave this classroom." Lamont turned to Sirius. "At least Mr. Black is still at work."
Sirius raised his eyebrows briefly at her and turned back to his parchment.
-
"Are you fucking with me?" James shouted. "Zabini fucking walked in on you?"
Sirius shrugged. "Yeah. It was pretty awkward."
James looked flabbergasted. "I'll say! And what'd Claire do? Did she cry?"
Sirius shook his head at once. "Nah… she was pretty suave about it, actually; I saw them talking after dinner and they looked pretty civil."
They were up in their dormitory, changing into their pajamas. "Well, I'm not going to say I told you so, but…" Remus trailed off.
Sirius smiled grimly. "Yeah… well, it is sort of depressing, but I reckon we'll figure it out in detention tomorrow, right?"
Remus shrugged. "Maybe. Have you talked to Claire since earlier?"
Sirius shook his head. "No..." Suddenly he groaned. "God damn it! Why the hell did Zabini need to find out? Ugh, Claire should have dumped him ages ago…"
Peter smiled slightly. "You'll move on, Padfoot; you always do."
Sirius frowned. "No, I don't think I will. Well… maybe eventually, but for now I feel extremely hurt and emotionally distraught. Do comfort me."
James snorted. "Oh, I'm so sorry the affair you started turned out badly," he said sincerely. "You truly are a victim."
"Poor baby," Peter added.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Shut up; I don't need sympathy from you two." He turned to Remus hopefully.
Remus rolled his eyes. "Well… I suppose you feel sad, but… look here, let's just go to bed, yeah?"
"Wait! I want to hear about Peter's little stroll with Linnet Blakely earlier!" James chirped up. He glanced at Sirius. "Not to change the subject too drastically, that is."
Sirius groaned. "Ugh. Do what you want."
"Well, we went down toward the lake and held hands for a bit by the east shore," Peter piped happily.
"Aw!" James crooned.
Sirius grunted and rolled over on his bed, determined to go to sleep. All in all, the evening had been quite the disappointment. He pondered what he could have done differently.
Why does Moony need to be right all the time?
Why does Claire need to like Zabini so much?
Why don't I feel guiltier?
-
Claire was not at detention on Thursday.
"She came to me and said the two of you distract one another too much while working," Lamont said dully. "I agreed to transfer her to a different detention hall."
"Oh," Sirius mumbled. He sat down, waited for Lamont to leave, and then spent a very dull two hours watching his quill categorize and wishing that he had remembered to bring his mirror so as to talk to James.
Claire did not speak to him in the hallways anymore. She would catch his eye when they passed one another, but as soon as he opened his mouth to say something she would shake her head furtively and continue on, usually on Zabini's arm. It appeared that nobody knew about the situation but a select few; Claire had not told her friends and Zabini had not told his. They appeared to be working through the problem, largely, Sirius was sure, due to the fact that Claire was a master of manipulation and getting away with things. What he could not understand was why she insisted on staying with Zabini when the situation was so ideal for moving on.
Whenever Evetta Niall or Tara Nevan or Savannah Baron tried to flirt with him now, he didn't respond. On Friday evening after Quidditch practice, Savannah ran to catch up with Sirius and James as they headed back up the sloping lawn toward dinner.
"Hello," she said brightly, avoiding James's gaze and addressing Sirius.
James smiled weakly and Sirius said, "Hey."
Savannah flashed a smile. "So… lovely evening, yeah?"
It was. The sun was just setting behind the mountains and the air was soft. It had rained the night before, but now the sky was relatively free from clouds. Tonight was to be a full moon, and Sirius was looking forward to the time a few hours from now when he, James, and Peter would sneak out to see Remus.
Sirius nodded. "Mm."
"So," Savannah said again, taking her long blonde hair out of its ponytail and then combing it up into a new one with her hands, "how's life, Sirius?"
"Mm," he said again.
Savannah laughed delicately. "Glad to hear it."
Sirius smiled. "How's yours?"
She shrugged. "Can't complain." She hesitated a moment and then linked her arm through his.
"What, should we skip up to the castle now?" Sirius demanded, unable to hide an amused smile as he turned to look at her.
She shrugged, and swung her arms back and forth a few times exaggeratedly. "If you want."
Sirius barked out a laugh. He glanced back at James, who was wearing a painfully forced smile that looked more like a grimace, and then back at Savannah. "I think I'll pass, actually."
"Awww," Savannah said, putting on an air of extreme disappointment and pouting out her lower lip. She was getting too flirtatious; Sirius fought hard not to roll his eyes.
Instead, he gave a forced laugh. "Yeah, well, my apologies," he said, extracting his arm from hers under the pretense of scratching his head and thinking wistfully of how wonderful it would have been to bitch to Claire about all this.
-
Up in their dormitory after dinner that night, waiting for eleven o'clock when they could sneak out of the castle to see Remus, Peter was talking animatedly about Linnet Blakely, of whom he was evidently enamored.
"She's so smart!" he gushed. "She helped me with my Herbology homework today, and she's not even in N.E.W.T. Herbology yet!"
He was sitting against James's bed, looking at James, who was lounging on Sirius's, and Sirius, who was sitting on his pillow and leaning against his carved wooden headboard.
Sirius snorted despite himself. "What on earth does she see in you?" he demanded, careful to keep his tone lighthearted.
Peter smiled. "Who knows? All I care about is that she's so awesome!"
Sirius smiled, too, but blandly. This was reminding him very much of how he had gushed over Claire.
Ugh, but it's all still true about Claire, he thought resignedly. He wished there were a way for him to go and have a nice long chat with her without Zabini finding out.
"So, Padfoot… Savannah," James said, interrupting Peter's longwinded description of how he had kissed Linnet Blakely behind the greenhouses the other day.
Sirius raised one eyebrow. "What about her?"
James shrugged. "Well… look here, are you going to go out with her any time soon? Only I think if you don't, she and I are going to be forced into increasingly awkward situations for the rest of our lives."
Sirius shook his head rapidly, not having listened very closely. "Um… what?"
James smiled. "It's just that whenever she comes over to hit on you, I'm always right there! It's very… weird. I'm of the opinion that you should just let her snog you and get it over with."
Sirius frowned. "What if I don't really feel like snogging her at the moment?"
James shrugged. "Get over it. Or else there's a Hogsmeade trip on Sunday; you should ask her out. She's quite pretty, and not a half bad kisser, either… I know from experience."
Sirius laughed. "That you do."
James shrugged again. "Whatever… hell, or just go out with Tara already, you're bound to do that sometime or another too, you might as well–"
"Ah! I don't like Tara!" Sirius interrupted. "And Annie... well, I'm not ready for her yet! Look here, I'm still emotionally heartbroken over losing Claire! Surely you can show some compassion…" He smiled to show he was kidding. Sort of.
James laughed gently. "Padfoot, dear, Claire was never yours to begin with. Get over it already."
Sirius sighed resignedly and decided not to bother claiming otherwise.
-
He did not get a chance to talk to Claire until Sunday, the last day of detention. He was sitting in the classroom feeling very bored and distracted, pondering why he was so unmotivated to move on from Claire, when the door opened.
"Hey," Claire said clearly, coming across the room toward him.
Sirius raised his eyebrows at her. Her hair was back in a ponytail today and she had clipped a pretty barrette onto one side. Sirius's heart started beating more swiftly in his chest. "Fancy seeing you here," he remarked.
Claire smiled. "Yeah, well… I'm skipping detention today."
Sirius lowered one of his eyebrows but kept the other one raised. "Are you now?"
She nodded. "Whatever. I wanted to talk to you."
Sirius smiled slightly. "Ah. Well, do talk."
Claire came over and sat down opposite him. She watched his quill categorize unaided for a few moments and then said, "Sirius, I'm sorry this didn't work out."
He shrugged. "Well, it wouldn't have, anyway. You know that."
She nodded. "Yeah… but it's just… I miss you."
Sirius smiled and took her hand in his; Claire didn't stop him. "I really like you, Claire… it's a shame Zabini caught us."
Claire smiled, too, but said nothing.
"So what's the deal with you two now?"
Claire shrugged. "Whatever. He's forgiven me, for the most part… I told him it wasn't that big a deal…"
Sirius snorted. "Not that big a deal… Claire, you are a filthy liar."
She shrugged again and then nodded in agreement. "Sirius, I'm probably not going to get to see you much anymore, so… I don't know. I guess I just wanted to tell you that… that I wish things could have worked out."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Claire, you know nothing had a chance of working out in the long run. Stop being all sweet and manipulative with me; it won't work."
To his surprise, she grinned. "I love you, Sirius Black," she said in a sing-song voice.
He raised his eyebrows at her and grinned back. "I love you too, Claire Delacour. Now come on, let's just snog already, for old time's sake."
Claire let out a bemused laugh of astonishment. "Sirius, dear, I came here to end our little romance on good terms, not to rekindle it."
Sirius frowned. "Well, that's no fun."
Claire sighed. "It's just… Sirius, not to be painfully cliché, but Hector is my future. School ends in two months and then he and I are going down to France to visit my family… hell, we'll probably be married within a couple more years…" She suddenly looked sad. "It's so strange… I never gave it a second thought until I got to know you…"
Sirius didn't let her keep talking; he leaned in and kissed her on the lips.
It all felt very familiar. Sirius was just sliding his tongue into her mouth when Claire regained control of herself, pulled away, and said, "That's it, Sirius. That's the last time."
"Claire…" Sirius began.
She shook her head sharply. "Sirius, think about it this way: I'm breaking up with you."
He smiled slightly. "When you put it that way…"
She smiled, too. "Move on, Sirius. Go find a new girlfriend; you deserve it." Suddenly she laughed. "Well, sort of."
He grinned. "You're breaking up with me… does that mean we were dating at some point?"
She rolled her eyes. "Think whatever you want. Just don't tell anyone." She squeezed his hand one last time. "Er… I won't forget you. Some time twenty years from now I'll hear about you and remember this."
Sirius winked at her. "Likewise."
Then she was gone, flashing him one last dimpled smile over her shoulder, and Sirius Black never snogged Claire Delacour in a deserted classroom again.
-
At dinner, Sirius was distinctly more cheerful than he had been over the past few days. Somehow, talking to Claire with such closure had helped him to see the hopelessness in the situation. Also, having her officially "dump" him was familiar enough to Sirius (though admittedly, he was usually the one who did the breaking up) that he knew how to rebound and react.
Thus, when James asked why Sirius was acting so jovial, Sirius replied,
"Oh, Claire broke up with me."
James put on an immensely confused look. "Um… okay…"
Sirius grinned. "I'm free now."
James raised one eyebrow. "Um… again, I'll say…"
He was interrupted by Peter, who came over to the table accompanied by Linnet Blakely, with whom he was holding hands. "Hello, everyone," Peter said cheerfully, leading Linnet to a seat and taking the one next to her.
"Joining us for dinner, Blakely?" Remus said pleasantly from across the table.
Linnet nodded. "Well… Peter ate with me yesterday, so we figured it was my turn to cross over."
Remus nodded. "How egalitarian of you."
Sirius smiled, too, his good mood lingering on. He turned toward Linnet. "Say, Linnet, I can never thank you enough for coming up with that categorizing spell." He put on a sincere, serene expression. "It has greatly improved the quality of my life."
Linnet giggled. Now that his mind was off of Claire, Sirius again noticed her straight teeth and dimples.
"Well, you're very welcome," she said pleasantly. She turned to smile at Peter. "Similarly, if you ever need help during detention…"
Peter grinned. "I'll know where to find you." They both laughed affectionately.
Sirius glanced at James, who was sitting to his right, and rolled his eyes; James smiled tolerantly.
"You two are adorable," Tara Nevan said loudly to Peter and Linnet, taking the seat across the table next to Remus. She leaned toward Sirius and James. "Hey, you two! How's life?"
James shrugged. "Decent."
Sirius twitched one corner of his mouth into a smile. "Lovely."
Tara nodded. "Cool… so, are you two ready to win the Quidditch cup next weekend?"
Sirius nodded confidently. "Oh, of course. You should know that, already, Tara; I'm ashamed."
James was elbowing Sirius rather painfully in the side and coughing slightly.
Sirius elbowed him back. Tara raised one eyebrow at the two of them and said,
"Right…" Then she flipped her long light brown hair over one shoulder and turned to Remus. "And you, Remus, how's life?"
"I still don't fancy Tara," Sirius whispered flatly to James, "so stop elbowing me and coughing like an imbecile, damn it!"
James laughed. "Be that way," he replied stoutly.
-
Sirius had realized that a large percentage of the girls at Hogwarts were very, very annoying. They giggled and were stupid and asked dumb questions. Others, like Claire Delacour, were anything but irritating, but differentiating between the easily tolerable girls and the rest of the pack could prove difficult. It was thus with shock that Sirius realized Linnet Blakely was far from irksome.
He realized this on Tuesday afternoon. Linnet was in the Gryffindor common room (technically breaking the rules, but nobody minded) with Peter, and while he worked on an essay, she sat curled in a large armchair reading a book. Remus and James were in the library working on an essay and Sirius had just finished reviewing his Potions notes.
Sirius first came over to talk to Linnet because he noticed she wasn't wearing her large round glasses, and he wanted to know why.
"Say, Linnet, what's with the absence of glasses?" he asked.
She looked up from her book and smiled at him in greeting. "Oh… well, Peter was saying a while back that I might like contacts, so I sent out an owl order over the weekend and got them today. I think they look a lot better… what d'you think?"
Sirius nodded. "The look lovely… I can't see them, but they look lovely…"
Linnet smiled, showing her perfect teeth. "Thanks." She stretched, and put her book on the armrest of her chair. "What about you… ever wear glasses?"
Sirius shook his head. "Nah…" He put on a solemn expression. "My eyes are beautiful already."
Linnet laughed. "Well… I got mine when I was nine… Sort of hated them at first, but then I got used to it."
Sirius nodded. "Cool… so, are you coming to the match on Saturday? Going to watch us beat your house, and everything?"
Linnet laughed again. She seemed to laugh quite easily. How very childlike, Sirius thought approvingly.
"Well, I don't know about you lot beating Ravenclaw, but I'll definitely be there!" she replied, grinning broadly.
Sirius sat down in the chair next to hers, and Linnet continued to smile. "You have dimples," Sirius observed, leaning forward to examine one more closely.
Linnet giggled and reached up a finger to feel one herself. "I suppose I do," she admitted.
Sirius poked her cheek. "I'm jealous." He grinned at her.
"You should be!" Linnet replied, laughing again.
Peter looked up from his essay, smiling too. "Hey, Linnet–"
"You have dimples, too!" she exclaimed, as if realizing it for the first time. She slid off of her seat and skipped the few feet to Peter's chair, where she sat on the armrest. "Here, Peter, smile," she instructed, smiling as well. They struck something of a pose, both grinning at Sirius and bearing their pronounced dimples.
Sirius burst out laughing, not because it was particularly hilarious but because Linnet Blakely, with her pale British skin, large blue-gray eyes, and limp brown hair was so adorable.
And Sirius suddenly realized that Linnet Blakely wasn't all that half bad to look at. She had come back to her own chair, now, and was saying something to Peter, but Sirius wasn't listening; he was watching her. She had a small, ski slope nose, a smattering of freckles, eyebrows that had never known a pair of tweezers (not that they really needed it; but for a few stray hairs, they looked pretty well shaped to begin with), and sad stormy-blue eyes. Her hair, which fell past her shoulders, was a mousy sort of brown, and it was not straight but not quite wavy, the kind of hair that can be straightened or braided or curled with ease but does not look particularly exciting otherwise. She also had some pimples on her forehead, but Sirius didn't notice them because nobody ever notices anyone else's acne.
The removal of her glasses had definitely bumped Linnet Blakely out of the Unnoticeable category; right now, she was probably in the Not-Particularly-Gorgeous-But-Still-Nothing-Wrong-There category.
"Hey, how old are you?" Sirius asked Linnet when she had finished talking to Peter.
"I turned fifteen in February," she replied.
He nodded. "How about you, Peter?" he asked, trying not to smile. "How old are you, again?"
"Seventeen in January. You know that," he replied without looking up.
Sirius grinned. "That's a large age difference. Good job snagging an older man, Linnet; I'm impressed."
Linnet giggled again. "Thank you."
Peter snorted. "You can't start talking about age differences, Padfoot."
Linnet laughed, not that she really knew what Peter was talking about, and Sirius said, "Oh, of course I can..." He glanced at the clock over the mantle and wondered dully when James and Remus would come back from the library. Actually, come to that, he needed to visit the library himself.
"I'm going to go to the library and find something to help me write my Transfiguration essay," Sirius said. "Care to accompany me, either of you?"
Peter shook his head, but to Sirius's immense surprise Linnet glanced at her watch and said, "Actually, I need to find a book for Potions… I'll come."
"So long," Peter called as Sirius and Linnet made their way across the common room and out of the portrait hole.
"See you!" Linnet piped back happily.
As they strolled down the seventh floor corridor, Sirius interrogated Linnet regarding her romantic involvement with Peter.
"So… do tell all," he finished pleasantly.
Linnet giggled. "Well, I always knew how nice he was… and you know Cora, my friend?" Sirius nodded, and Linnet continued, "Well, Peter fancied her for a while, and he and I would always talk about it, and I really hoped that the two of them would get together…" She smiled at Sirius shyly. "Actually, I sort of like you for a while then..."
Sirius pretended to be surprised. "Really?" he asked, laughing a bit.
Linnet nodded. "Yeah…" There was a brief, awkward silence, and then Linnet continued, "So then Peter kissed me in the library, and I was so surprise because I'd thought that he'd always liked Cora! And… now we're going out."
Sirius smiled slightly. Ah, the romance of the innocent… he wondered what Linnet would say if he told her about his intrigue with Claire. (Of course, he wasn't really planning on telling anybody, at least not while Claire and Zabini still attended Hogwarts.)
"Erm… how about you?" Linnet asked. "Who was your last girlfriend?"
Sirius grinned, and gave an uncomfortable laugh, not because he was uncomfortable but because that was how people were suppose to respond to a question like that. "Well, my last girlfriend, I guess, was Leda Mitchell... you know her?"
Linnet thought for a moment and then nodded. "Hufflepuff sixth year? Yeah… what happened there?"
Sirius smiled, amused that he was having this rather personal conversation with a fifteen-year-old. "I don't know… it didn't work out." Because I cheated on her with Vanity Linus, he added to himself.
"Oh… so, you've been single since then?" Linnet asked naively.
Sirius hesitated for a moment. "Er… yeah. No real commitments, or anything."
Linnet nodded and reached her hands up behind her head, braiding her limp hair as they walked.
"Wait, don't do that," Sirius said, grinning. "It looks much better down."
Linnet blushed and lowered her hands. Sirius realized he was slipping into his flirtatious mode… and with Linnet Blakely, no less! Good lord, he was rebounding pathetically…
But then again, what was the harm in doing something with Linnet Blakely?
Oh yes, Sirius recalled belatedly, she's going out with Wormtail.
They had reached the library. Sirius bid Linnet adieu and set off to find Remus and James.
-
On Friday after the last Quidditch practice before the final match on Saturday, Sirius went up to the common room to find Peter and Linnet once again sitting by the fireplace. This time, rather than doing homework, they were talking, and Peter had his arm around her.
"Awww," James crooned in Sirius's ear as they climbed through the portrait hole, closely followed by Savannah Baron, who had trailed them up to the castle.
"They are so cute," Savannah whispered in Sirius's other ear. He smiled at her and nodded slightly; lately, Gina Davies and James had been conspicuously trying to make him go for Savannah, and it was almost working.
After showering and changing their clothes, Sirius and James made their way back down to the common room to find that Remus had joined Peter and Linnet by the fireplace.
"How come Moony doesn't have a girlfriend?" Sirius murmured in James's ear, voicing something that wasn't always applicable but at the moment seemed legitimate.
"He's too closeted and self-righteous," James replied at once.
"Ah…"
They found seats near the fireplace. "Hello, you two!" James said cheerfully. "Oh, and Moony…"
"Hi!" said Linnet pleasantly, snuggling closer to Peter.
Lily and Savannah came down the girls' staircase, Lily with a white headband in her thick auburn hair and Savannah running her fingers through her own blonde hair, which she had evidently just cleaned and blow-dried, based on how long and windswept it had become.
As Savannah whispered something to Lily with a furtive glance in Sirius's direction, James caught sight of them. "Lily!" he called pleasantly, standing up and striding over.
Lily heaved a deep breath, pointedly turned on her heel, and made her way back up the girls' staircase, calling something back to Savannah that sounded like, "Oh darn, I forgot my… um… comb."
James and Savannah glanced at one another awkwardly and then Savannah said, "Right…"
She turned around, too, and headed up the girls' staircase after Lily, no doubt with the intention of convincing her to come back down to the common room.
Meanwhile, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Linnet all laughed. "Oh, shut up," said James distractedly.
"What are you doing in here anyway, Linnet?" Sirius asked, turning away from James and pretending to be affronted. "This is the Gryffindor common room... and you, well, aren't in Gryffindor!"
Linnet giggled. "Just don't tell on me, okay?"
Sirius smiled blandly. Watching Peter sitting there with Linnet, he began to realize that it had been nearly a week since the last time he had kissed a girl… far too long, in his opinion… and Linnet Blakely was, well, reasonably appealing.
Come to that, Sirius was finding himself increasingly interested in the concept of hooking up with Linnet Blakely. Not dating her, or anything like that – but he wouldn't say no to snogging her for a while. He liked kissing new girls; it was fun to add names to his repertoire.
Ugh. Claire Delacour to Linnet Blakely… he was sure lowering his standards.
Oh well.
Actually, now that he thought about it some more, turning to gaze at the fire so Linnet wouldn't notice he had been watching her, the real reason he wanted to potentially hook up with her was to spite James, who kept telling him to go out with Savannah or Tara.
Also because hooking up was fun. He was in the mood to have fun.
Besides, he'd probably hook up with Savannah after the Quidditch cup anyway, especially if Gryffindor won.
"I'm going to go get some chocolate upstairs," Sirius announced. "Anybody want some?"
"Ooh, yes!" Remus said at once; James rolled his eyes, Peter smiled, and Linnet giggled.
"No shit; anyone else?" Sirius asked, turned from person to person.
"What do you think, Padfoot? 'No, nobody here likes chocolate'" James said sarcastically.
Sirius smiled tolerantly. "Well, I need help carrying it all down, then," he replied. He turned to Linnet. "Linnet? Care to leave dear Peter for a moment and help me out?"
Linnet looked surprised. "Oh! Okay."
She followed Sirius out of the common room; they made their way up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.
She was good deal shorter than he was. Or no, she was probably about as tall as Claire, but while Claire had perfect posture and poise, Linnet was willowy and slight.
What would boarding school be without hooking up with people? Sirius thought idly.
When they reached the dark hallway outside the door to the sixth year boys' dormitory, Sirius decided this was as good a place as any. He stopped, turned to Linnet, who was waiting expectantly for him to open the door, and leaned forward.
Right before he closed his eyes, Sirius caught a glimpse of hers, which were wide in surprise. Yet she didn't look angry at all; on the contrary, she looked flattered.
Sirius forced his tongue into her mouth after only a few moments. Linnet gave a slight gasp of surprise; Sirius wondered if Peter ever used his tongue when kissing her. Then she yielded and Sirius slid his hands to her waist and pushed her back against the wall. Linnet put her hands around his neck and started using her own tongue.
Sirius was surprised by how decent a kisser she was – not as good as Claire, of course, but considering that Linnet's first kiss had probably been that one with Peter less than two weeks ago, she wasn't half bad.
They stayed there in the hallway for a good ten minutes, until finally Sirius said, "We should probably bring that chocolate down soon."
Linnet nodded, looking quite at a loss for words. Her cheeks were flushed, greatly improving her plain appearance, and she looked energized.
Sirius grinned at her, put his arm around her shoulders, and led her into the dormitory. He quickly grabbed a few wrapped chocolate bars from Remus's dresser, handed a few more to Linnet, and then the two of them hurried back down to the common room.
"If anyone asks, I had to go to the bathroom and you waited for me," Sirius murmured in her ear, and Linnet nodded solemnly as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Finally!" James exclaimed when they reached the fireplace.
"Sirius had to go to the bathroom," Linnet replied at once. She sat down next to Peter distractedly, and Sirius realized that he had just made out with his friend's girlfriend. Oops.
Then again, loads of people ruin their friends' romantic intrigues, so no worries, Sirius reassured himself. And it wasn't like he was going to tell Peter what he'd done… for that matter, Linnet didn't need to tell him, either; the two of them could happily date for the rest of their lives, never sharing the fact that Sirius had spent ten minutes kissing Linnet one Friday evening.
Linnet kept trying to catch his eye, but Sirius wouldn't let her. She really was a newcomer to illicit behavior... Sirius figured they should probably have a chat over cover-up protocol later.
-
Saturday afternoon was the Quidditch interhouse championship match. The conditions were rainy and visibility was low but the game went well from the start. Sirius flew around in the fog-filled air, hitting Bludgers sharply toward the Ravenclaw Chasers. Twice he caused one of them to drop the Quaffle, and both times Gina Davies grabbed it, passed to James, and won Gryffindor ten points.
Overall, the Ravenclaw Keeper was blocking most shots, but Gina's offensive tactics were resulting in so many attempted shots that by the first half-hour Gryffindor was up one hundred to sixty.
Savannah and James were working in perfect harmony, as they always did during matches, and as Savannah gave James a high-five in midair after a particularly difficult penalty shot, Sirius rolled his eyes at how pathetic their interactions were on solid ground.
"And Baron scores!" Gwendolyn Merwyn was shouting. "Ten more points to Gryffindor!"
Sirius followed Savannah with his eyes, and soon was careening after her, chasing after a Bludger that one of the Ravenclaw Beaters had sent slammed toward her.
"Thanks, Sirius!" Savannah called as she curved upward to hurl the ball to Gina. She whipped her long golden-blonde ponytail over her shoulder and flashed him a bright smile.
"Any time!" Sirius called back.
By the second hour of the game, the score was tied at two hundred and fifty all around, and things were getting more serious. But then, as Amos Diggory blocked an especially swift shot from one of the Ravenclaw Chasers, Ambrose Adams went into a steep dive and emerged moments later clutching the Snitch with both hands.
The crowd exploded with cheers and shouts from the Gryffindor supporters. "And Adams has the Snitch!" Gwendolyn Merwyn shouted. "Gryffindor wins the House Cup!"
The Gryffindor team landed on the pitch as fans poured out of the stands. Gina was hugging and kissing everybody repeatedly, Amos Diggory and James were chanting something about being champions of the world, and Savannah surprised Sirius (though not all that much) with a swift peck on the lips.
He smiled, delighted over the outcome of the match and feeling in the mood to flirt, put his arms around her, her head snug against his shoulder, and then stood with his arm across her shoulders while the Quidditch cup was presented to Gina amid much ceremony.
Twenty minutes later, as the team made its way back up to the Gryffindor common room for a post-match celebration, Sirius caught sight of Remus and Peter. Linnet Blakely, however, was nowhere in sight.
"Great job, mate!" Remus exclaimed.
Peter nodded in agreement, but he looked distracted.
"Eh? What's up?" Sirius demanded as Savannah Baron came up and wormed her way under his arm again.
"Oh… nothing… just…"
Remus coughed slightly. "Linnet just broke up with him," he said quietly.
"Oh," said Sirius, taken aback. "That's too bad… I'm sorry, Peter. Did she say why?"
"She just said she liked somebody else now," Peter said hollowly. He sighed. "Well, I guess we'll see you back up in the common room, yeah?"
"Yeah," said Sirius, turning to Savannah, who promptly kissed him again, and hoping very much that Linnet hadn't dumped Peter on account of their escapade the night before.
He caught sight of her through the crowd, a slight girl with mousy hair and large eyes, which were clear and bright without glasses obscuring them. Linnet saw Sirius and hurried forward to say talk to him, but before Sirius could say anything to her Savannah whispered something in his ear. As the din of the crowd was very strong, Sirius turned momentarily back toward Savannah.
"Sorry?"
She just laughed happily and pressed her lips against his again. By the time Sirius had grinned at her and turned away to try to catch sight of Linnet again, she had disappeared back into the crowd, feeling her heart breaking and trying very hard not to cry.
-
Up in the common room, post-match euphoria still going strong, Sirius quickly forgot about Linnet Blakely. He no longer cared that James was smirking at him in satisfaction as Savannah straddled him with her legs and kissed him passionately for the twelfth time in ten minutes. Lily appeared to be giving Savannah a satisfied smirk as well; Sirius grinned at her and whispered, "I think our friends have been planning this for ages."
Savannah nodded, grinned back, and kissed him again.
"Well, well! What on earth are you two up to?" Gina Davies demanded, plopping down on the couch next to them, a bottle of butterbeer clutched in one hand.
Savannah and Sirius both laughed; she slid off of his lap so that she was sitting next to him, her head leaning against his shoulder, and Sirius grinned at Gina and said, "What does it look like?"
"I was wondering when the two of you were going to get together!" Gina remarked, nodding knowingly. "I think I'll go find Amos and celebrate!"
"Oh, you can do better than him," Savannah said, looking extremely content now that she had Sirius's arm around her. "Go snog James or something!"
Gina tilted her head from side to side, considering. "Nah. He's destined for Lily; I don't want to interfere."
Sirius grinned again; he was still high on endorphins and was greatly enjoying himself. Glancing around the room, he caught sight of Tara Nevan, who was chatting with two fifth year boys but kept glancing over at Savannah distractedly, looking somewhat put out. He also saw Remus, who had stuck up conversation with Lily (it appeared they were discussing Sirius and Savannah, actually) and Peter, who was sitting by the fireplace with his head in his hands and looking quite depressed.
"Why's Peter so sad?" Savannah murmured in Sirius's ear, following his gaze with her wide brown eyes.
"His girlfriend dumped him," Sirius murmured back, trying to conceal the guilt on his voice.
Then again, they were dating for less than two weeks, he told himself. He'll get over her soon enough.
"Aw. Poor guy," Savannah remarked. She blew her long, feathery bangs out of her face with one puff of breath and, leaning closer, touched Sirius's ear with the tip of her tongue.
Sirius smile satisfactorily and turned toward her, kissing her gently and then more forcefully. They pulled apart for a moment to grin at one another; Savannah was especially pretty at close proximity, where the sharp contrast of her straight nose and dark eyes and eyebrows with her golden, blonde-highlighted hair was more noticeable. They brushed noses ever-so-gently, and then Sirius kissed her again.
"Hello? I'm still sitting here!" Gina shrieked in amusement. "Damn… you two should've gotten together ages ago!"
"Dude, get a room," Tara Nevan said coldly as she walked by. She found Evetta Niall and the two of them headed up to their dormitory.
Sirius laughed quietly, feeling somewhat elated over having pissed Tara off, as she had really become quite annoying over the past few weeks. Savannah giggled.
"You're laughing," she murmured.
"So are you."
"Only because you were."
Sirius grinned slightly and kissed her again; he felt a clap on his shoulder as James walked by, saying, "Hope to see you upstairs… eventually."
Savannah giggled again.
"Annie, stop giggling and kiss me," Sirius murmured, running one hand down her side to her waist.
She stopped giggling abruptly and kissed him, per his instructions. Then she said, "So… Hogsmeade tomorrow…"
"Oh, yeah," Sirius said at once. "You're coming with me."
Savannah grinned and kissed him again.
-
"Hahaha!" James crowed triumphantly when Sirius entered their dormitory nearly an hour later.
"Haha what?" Sirius demanded, though he knew exactly what James was talking about.
"You totally got with Savannah! Ha, and there you were saying you weren't ready for her… weren't ready for her, my ass!"
Remus was grinning, too. "She's quite pretty," he observed fairly. Then he turned to James. "Though I must say I don't understand why you're so happy about Padfoot going out with your ex-girlfriend."
James shrugged. "Well… I don't know…" Suddenly he smiled slyly and plopped down on Peter's bed. "Actually, if you must know, here's my thinking: if Annie goes out with Sirius, she'll hear all the time about how fabulously awesome I am, and because she and Lily are best friends or whatever, Lily will hear all about it, too!"
Sirius burst out laughing despite himself; he was in a very good mood. "That's some plan, Prongs," he admitted. "Very clever… I'm impressed."
James lowered his eyelids modestly. "Why, thank you."
"Mm," Peter grunted, leaving the bathroom and heading across the dormitory toward them.
"Wormtail!" James said at once. "We must comfort you!"
"Sit down and have some chocolate," Remus offered, reaching for one of the bars on top of his dresser.
"In all honesty, you'd only been going out for twelve days," Sirius pointed out.
Peter sat down on his bed next to James and took the chocolate Remus tossed him. "I know," he said to Sirius resignedly. "It's just… I really liked her!"
"We know, we know," James said consolingly. "But just think! Now we can set you up with someone your own age!"
Peter rolled his eyes. "I guess."
Sirius sank down on James's bed opposite him.
"But you," Peter said. "What's the deal with Savannah? You sure got over Claire in a hurry, didn't you?"
Sirius shrugged, and smiled. "I guess… well, it has been more than a week, and besides, I rebound quickly."
James nodded. "You certainly do."
As he lay in bed later, not yet tired enough to sleep, Sirius smiled to himself. Claire Delacour was a thing of the past, though he still ached slightly when he thought about how compatible they were. Linnet Blakely was a fling of the past, something that he would likely not tell Peter about until, say, this time next year.
Savannah Baron was the present. Sirius wasn't sure how long his relationship with her would last, but he did know that she was pretty, and funny, and a very good Quidditch player. Being with Savannah made Sirius feel confident in his ability to get the girls he wanted when he wanted them.
After all, apart from his friends, that was all his life really came down to.
Sort of depressing, isn't it?
No, not really.
---
Yay! I got… (wait for it)… ELEVEN REVIEWS! Though I do realize that other people get way, way more…
But oh well; I am happy anyway!
Reviewers:
tulips car – thank you!
lavizsla – thank you!
SeaNymph – thank you!
The Cotton Candy Kisses – thanks!
Potpoury – thank you! Yeah, my mom would probably do that, too, except she speaks to me and my siblings in French all the time anyway.
kikialiena – thanks! Haha, I'm glad you're addicted…
dixio – thank you! Yeah, at the end I'm going to have a big epilogue thing that says what happens to everyone. It'll probably be all of their reactions to finding out Sirius supposedly murdered all those people, or something. They can have conflicting trains of thought and stuff. It'll be quaint.
je suis une pizza – thanks; I'm glad you decided it was okay after all! Well, this chapter has the Linnet thing, but it didn't make sense for it to become a long-term intrigue because Sirius and Linnet are so different. And actually, neither of the new relationships in this chapter refers to the stuff in the summary; that's all coming later…
lilyskywalker3 – thanks… heh, I hope this chapter didn't disappoint you too much!
Padfootz-luvr – thanks! Yeah, maybe it could still be T, but whatever. Hope I quenched your thirst for soap opera melodrama!
A/N: Well, I hope nobody's too annoyed over the thing with Claire ending… really, it had to happen sooner or later. And Linnet Blakely… well, I wanted to stick that in, and a bunch of reviewers said it was a good idea, so I figured I'd do it. FYI, the whole intrigue with Savannah will be somewhat temporary, as I still stand by the summary of a "summer fling" and "the one girl he never expected." So keep your eyes out for new chapters!
Please review...
Love, Simone