Chapter Three

"Smooth, Romeo," James spat at Sirius as they sat down to eat in the Great Hall ten minutes later. Everyone had headed back to their dorms to drop off their bags. The girls hadn't arrived yet, so that meant free talk time for the guys.

"What did you do now, Padfoot? "Remus asked, raising an eyebrow and reaching for the pumpkin juice.

"You can't keep doing this, Sirius," James cut in, giving his friend a slight glare. Sirius was about to ask what the hell he was talking about when James continued. "Don't give me that look. You know what I'm getting at. You do this to all the girls. Play Prince Charming and then when you've had your fill, throw them back to the side lines. You can't do this to Chelsea. Did you see how she was looking at you? Stop before you hurt her."

"Prongs, I don't want to hurt her! I thought we covered this earlier. She means more to me than just a one-nighter. You even called it love!" Sirius exclaimed, ignoring the confused look on Remus's face.

"Yeah, well maybe I was mistaken," James replied, grabbing a roll and ripping a chunk off. "How do I know your serious? I mean, telling the truth?" he added quickly, seeing the smirk on Sirius's face.

"Look at me, Prongs," he waited for James to actually look him in the eye before continuing. "I won't hurt her. I love her."

"What are you guys talking about?"

The boys looked up to see Chelsea, Abby, and Lily Evans all staring down at them. Well, Lily was glaring in James's direction.

"Nothing," James and Sirius said, turning and becoming very interested in what was being served for dinner.

"Um..alright," Chelsea said, taking a seat next to Peter. Lily and Abby sat near Remus, Lily still glaring at James.

"So Evans, to what to I owe the honor of having your eyes upon me this evening?" James asked, grinning at Lily.

"You know full well what you've done, Potter," she growled, flipping her fiery red hair over her shoulder and joining in Abby and Remus's conversation.

James looked thoroughly confused when he turned to Chelsea and asked, "What did I do?"

"The question is, James, what haven't you done?"

"Good point," he replied, his grin returning to his face.

"So, Dugan," Sirius said, making Chelsea look in his direction. He smirked. "Fall down lately?"

Chelsea scowled and narrowed her hazel eyes at him. She turned away from him and proceeded to pile her plate with mashed potatoes and chicken before saying, "Just when I think you've matured, you go and say something ignorant. Brilliant, Black."

When seven o'clock rolled around, Sirius, James, and Chelsea, along with the rest of the quidditch team, all headed down to the pitch for practice. Their first match had been against Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor had just barely won. James was determined to slaughter Slytherin in the next match. After everyone was suited up and on the field, James called them all together.

"Alright, everyone, listen up. We have to be brilliant in this next match. If Slytherin beats us we'll never live it down. Oh, and we'll be out for good," he added, staring intently at each team member.

"James, mate, calm down," Sirius said, laughing at how serious his friend looked. "We'll be fine. But if we don't get any training in we will get beaten to a bloody pulp."

"Right," James said, clearing his throat. "Mount and fly, everyone!"

As everyone took off, James let loose the snitch and bludgers, and threw the quaffle into the air. Chelsea zoomed after the red ball, caught it and began to pass it back and forth between Sirius and the other Gryffindor chaser Michael Bell. Practice was going smoothly until Sirius flew over to her and asked, "So if you fall off of your broom, do I have to catch you? Seeing as every time you've fallen today I've been there to help you."

Chelsea glared at him, caught the quaffle, and shoved into his gut. With a loud "Oouf!" Sirius did a flip and then threw it back once he was stable again, a wide grin on his face. Chelsea caught it with ease and tossed it to Michael, who then threw it towards the goal, where James swiftly caught it. The rest of practice pretty much went the same. Sirius made teasing remarks, Chelsea got pissed and pummeled him with the quaffle. As the team was leaving the locker room and heading up to the castle, Sirius caught up to Chelsea and walked beside her.

"So, this weekend is the first Hogsmeade trip."

"Yeah.." his teammate said, glancing at him.

"I was wondering if you, um, wanted to...hang out?" Sirius asked, a small blush creeping onto his face. He coughed and turned away.

Chelsea watched him from the corner of her eye with a small smile. 'Is he...blushing? Sirius Black is blushing' "Uh, sure," she said, finally.

"Really?" He asked, excitement in his voice.

"Yeah," Chelsea said, laughing at his apparent joy.

"Wicked."