CHAPTER 2

The first month passed in a haze. Vesper sat through several more boring lectures about NEWTs, held Quidditch try-outs (she was Captain, and determined to beat Gryffindor this year), and handed in seven essays. She also earned herself three detentions; one from Slughorn, which she served with Sirius Black, James Potter, Charlotte Reese and Neil, one from Flitwick, which she served with Sara, Sirius and James, and one from Sprout, which she served with Charlotte. That was an awkward evening, but she had to smile every time she thought about it. On Wednesday of the first week she had found out about Charlotte's summer job during breakfast. During herbology, she had decided to mention it, and Charlotte had thrown bubotuber pus at her. Vesper had easily ducked it, and it had landed on Peter Pettigrew, who had been standing behind her. Professor Sprout was absolutely furious with both of them, but neither was really very repentant. Vesper had mentioned Charlotte's restaurant job several times throughout the rest of the week, though never with such satisfying results.

The second Saturday afternoon found her with the rest of her team, out on the Quidditch pitch for their first official practise. Slytherin House had expected her to kick Sara off the team, now that she was considered a blood-traitor, but to their utter shock, Sara was returning as Keeper. Vesper thought it was stupid to kick a good player off the team because they had a falling-out with the rest of the world. Sara had been thrilled, and not a little surprised when Vesper had told her she would be keeping her.

"Vesper-"

"Don't argue with me, Wilkes," Vesper had said, cutting off her friend in the voice she reserved for those with whom she needed to keep her reputation. "You're the best bloody Keeper in this House, and I'll be damned if I'm going to kick you off because stupid people think it's a good political move. Quidditch isn't about politics; it's about skill. So stop arguing and get flying!"

Sara finally stopped trying to argue with her friend and flew up to the goals with a wide grin on her face.

The rest of the practise went by fairly uneventfully, unless you counted Bryson Rosier, Vesper's fifth-year cousin and one of the Beaters, slamming a bludger in Sara's general direction. Vesper laid into him pretty well, and then turned to the rest of the team to inform them that if they had a problem with Sara being on the team, they could leave. No one left the pitch, though they all shot their Captain strange looks; apparently none of them had ever seen her get angry before.

She hung back when the rest of the team headed up to the school. She sat in her office, staring at the blank wall. If there had been some way to be 100% sure that no one but her would ever come into this office, she would have posted a large picture on the wall directly across from the door.

"Why can't I?" she asked out loud.

She waved her wand once, and a large moving picture appeared on the opposite wall. She smirked at the seven figures in scarlet.

"This year, James Potter," she said quietly, "This year I will beat you at Quidditch. Just you wait."

It was Saturday, and James didn't want to do anything but sit outside under the tree and stare at Lily Evans.

"Seriously, Prongs, this is creepy," Remus said, acutely uncomfortable.

"You can leave," James snapped.

"What, and leave you all alone to stare at your lady-love?" Sirius mocked. "Then you'd yell at us later, after she came over and yelled at you for being a creeper."

James looked up from the notes he had brought out as a prop, in case Lily asked what he was doing, and glared first at Sirius and then at Remus.

"Look, if you don't want to be here, then go somewhere else. You could go do something useful and spy on the Slytherin Quidditch team for me, or you could go inside and sit in the dorm and pout. I don't care."

Sirius and Remus exchanged a look. As much as Sirius would have loved to go watch the Slytherin team practise, he knew Vesper well enough to know she would probably hex him into next week if he tried. So he sighed in irritation and flopped onto his back, closing his eyes and wishing for sleep.

"Hey, who wants to play exploding snap?"

Sirius cracked one eye, and reached over to smack Peter once, hard, on the head before closing his eye again and continuing to wish for sleep.

"Ow!" Peter exclaimed angrily. "What was that for?"

Sirius shrugged.

"Padfoot, please stop beating on Wormtail," Remus intoned boredly.

"Would you rather I beat on you?" Sirius asked.

"No," Remus replied firmly. "I would rather you not beat on anyone."

"Whatever."

Vesper trudged back to the common room after practise, hurrying up to her room briefly to grab her toiletries bag before hurrying to the loo for a shower. Sara was already there, and after Vesper had locked the door, they chatted amicably about practise.

"No offence, Vesper, but your cousin's a jackass."

"Who, Bryson?"

"Yeah."

"I know. He's a good Beater, though."

"You're sure he's Colby's brother?"

Vesper laughed. "100% sure."

"But she's such a sweetheart."

Vesper shrugged, then remembered Sara couldn't see her. "Yeah, but I'm Lucius' sister, remember?"

"Right," Sara scoffed. "I still think you're adopted."

"It doesn't matter if I'm adopted, we were raised the same."

"Yeah, but if you were adopted then you have different genes. So you make decisions differently," Sara pointed out.

"Sara, this theory might be a bit more plausible if I didn't look enough like Lucius to be his twin."

"Maybe you're both adopted."

"Not likely. Remember that we both look identical to our father?"

"Oh. Right."

"I appreciate the effort, though."

"Yup."

James, being James, had moved from the sunny lawn to the common room at almost the exact second that Lily, Chloe and Alice had, just before it got dark. They'd all skipped dinner. Sirius remembered wondering vaguely where Charlotte was, before remembering that she had earned herself detention from Professor Flitwick for a fight she'd started with Taylyn Morton in class on Friday. Luckily, Flitwick had been too occupied to notice that Sirius and James had been taking bets on the fight. Most people had won, because most people had been betting on Charlotte. Sirius and James had lost quite a bit of money.

Remus, being Remus, had taken it in stride and positioned himself at a small table in the common room to work on his homework. Peter was whining, and Sirius, being Sirius, was bored.

"I'm bored," he announced.

James shrugged, not looking up from his Arithmancy notes. "Amuse yourself."

Glaring at James' head, remembering all the times before the "Lily Epidemic" that he had announced he was bored and James had immediately jumped to do something with him, Sirius stalked out of the common room. He seemed to be doing a lot of that recently…

He walked into someone very small just outside the portrait hole, and was about to tell the younger student to watch where the bloody hell it was going when it started talking.

"Bloody hell, Black, can't you watch where you're going?" Charlotte demanded. "I'm not in a good mood to begin with, and then you have to go and walk right into me."

"Well, if you weren't so damn small, I would've been able to see you and we wouldn't have a problem."

"Charlotte! There you are!"

Sirius and Charlotte glared at each other as Chloe approached.

"Char! Have you been in detention all this time?"

Charlotte shrugged. "I hexed Morton in the middle of it. Flitwick extended mine."

Sirius snorted. "You would."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Charlotte, Lily's looking for you," Chloe said quickly, averting a disaster. "Sirius, you should probably get back inside the common room, too. Lily's on a rampage tonight. Apparently she wasn't very impressed with James staring at her all afternoon."

"It's not even curfew!"

Chloe looked at her watch, then showed it to him. "Yes, it is."

Sirius swore colourfully before turning around, giving the Fat Lady the password, and crawling through the portrait hole before the girls. He went right up to his dormitory without saying anything to his mates.

The first week of October was hell for all the seventh-years. Their teachers had started reviewing everything they'd ever learned, on top of teaching them new things that they would need to know for their NEWTs. Vesper had a perpetual headache, and Sirius was not helping things.

Vesper found herself in the middle of a sick and twisted grouping. Lily Evans spent all her time in the library, which meant that both Sev and James Potter also spent all their time in the library. Which meant that James' entourage was usually there, and Vesper was usually there because she needed Sev's help with her Potions homework. Sirius, who never actually did homework, spent most of his time harassing Vesper and Sev as quietly as possible. Vesper had taken to using him to practise her non-verbal spells on, but he had caught on and started shielding himself.

On Thursday night, Vesper was in the library long past anyone else. Lily had long since relocated to the common room, and Sev had left shortly after her when he was done his essay, despite Vesper's protests. James, Remus and Peter had left at the same time as Lily, but Sirius had disappeared into the stacks about an hour before everyone else had left, and James couldn't be bothered to look for him.

"He knows where the common room is," he'd stated as they left. "He's probably snogging some girl in a back corner somewhere."

This statement had affected Vesper more than she let on. She wasn't with Sirius anymore and he was at perfect liberty to snog whomever he wished. She had said that at the beginning of their fourth year to Kyler and Sara and she was sticking with her statement. But that didn't mean the green monster in her chest agreed. Just because her family no longer considered Sirius suitable company for their very eligible daughter did not mean she had to agree with them.

She was engrossed in her Potions research when a hand on her shoulder startled her out of her wits. She whipped her wand out and spun around, finding herself face-to-face with a startled-looking Sirius. Her wand was at his throat and his hands were in the air.

"Merlin and Salazar, Black," she snapped. "What the hell do you want?"

"I just wanted to let you know the library was closing," he said innocently. "Could you lower this thing?"

Vesper glared at him but removed her wand from his neck. "Sod off, Black."

"That's not very nice," Sirius said, affronted.

"Sirius," she said quietly. "Leave me alone. I mean it. I don't know what I can say to get it through your thick skull. Leave. Me. Alone!"

Sirius stared at her. "Are you okay, Vessie?" he asked, looking truly concerned.

"Don't call me that," she snarled, pointing her wand at him again. "I mean it, Black. Leave me the hell alone."

She scooped her books under her arm and left the library, leaving him staring at her retreating back.

Sirius watched Vesper leave the library feeling more than a little disappointed. He knew, of course, that Vesper was defying her family by spending time with Sara Wilkes, and he was more than a little hurt that she wasn't willing to take the same risk with him. Admittedly, Sara had only left home this last summer, and Vesper had not been nearly as willing to defy her family when they were fourteen. He sighed as he remembered the day his friendship with Vesper had ended, that fateful June day at the end of third year...

Vesper was sitting on the train platform alone. Sirius assumed she was waiting for her family. She was apparently getting a head start on her assigned summer readings when his shadow fell across her book.

"Now, what's a pretty girl like yourself doing sitting all alone on a day like today?" Sirius drawled.

Vesper looked up and shielded her eyes from the harsh sun as she smiled at her friend. "Lucius is coming to get me. He got held up at work. I got his owl on the train."

"My own parents are running a bit behind," Sirius commented, taking a seat beside her. "What say we wait alone together?"

"I'd like that," Vesper admitted.

"What are you reading?" he asked.

Vesper held up the book to show him the cover.

"The Reproductive Cycles of Mandrakes. Sounds absolutely riveting."

"Oh it is," Vesper replied with a laugh. "You'll really get into it."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments before Sirius broke it again. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"If you had to name your child after a star, what would you name it?"

Vesper shot him a confused look. "That's an odd question."

Sirius shrugged. "It's an old Black family tradition, you know."

"I'm well aware of your family's odd tradition, Sirius, but I'm not a Black."

"Ah, but you were supposed to be," Sirius countered. "Are you telling me that in the almost 13 years that we've been practically betrothed you never once thought about this dilemma?"

Vesper's cheeks warmed as she looked down.

"Are you actually blushing?" Sirius asked, genuinely shocked. "Now I am truly intrigued. Does this mean you have thought about it?"

Vesper knew denying the fact was useless. "I always liked Lyra for a girl. Or Mira."

Sirius nodded slowly. "Both very good choices. I'm very glad to hear you're not one of the hardcore ones who like to choose the oddest names possible. What about for a boy?"

Vesper shook her head. "I was just planning to pray that we never had a boy."

Sirius laughed.

"And what about you?" she asked, still unable to look at him. "What names have you thought of?"

"I always liked Cassiopeia for a girl."

"Really?" Vesper asked, looking up at him in shock.

Sirius shrugged. "At least it gives her a normal nickname. We could just call her Cassie."

"Very true," Vesper agreed. "And for a boy?"

"We were never going to have a boy," he replied, winking.

Vesper looked away and a grin broke out on her face when she saw her brother walking toward them.

"Lucius!"

Sirius stood with Vesper as her brother approached. Her grin faded slightly when she saw the dark look on his face.

"Malfoy," Sirius said politely, nodding his head in deference to Lucius.

"Vesper, come," Lucius snapped. "Where are your things?"

"Lucius, Sirius said hello to you," Vesper said quietly.

"I heard him," Lucius said. "I asked where your things were."

"Aren't you going to say hello to him?" Vesper insisted. "It's rude to ignore him."

"You would like me to speak to Black, Vesper, is that what you're telling me?"

"Yes?" Vesper said, slightly unsure about the anger in her brother's voice.

"Very well, if it will make you happy," Lucius conceded. He turned to Sirius and his voice was icy when he spoke again. "Mr Black, if I ever see you within 15 meters of my sister again, or if I ever hear tell that you were speaking to her, I will personally hunt you down and hex you. Stay away from her. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Sirius' face was unreadable as he stared at Lucius. "I understand," he said icily. "My apologies."

He turned on his heel and walked away, out of Vesper's life for what he knew was the last time.

"Lucius..." he heard her say quietly

"Point me in the direction of your luggage, Vesper, we are already late and Mother and Father will not be pleased if we are any more so."

Vesper was in the library alone after dinner the following Wednesday night, slaving over yet another essay for Professor Slughorn. She really tried hard in potions class, but somehow it all went over her head unless Sev re-explained everything to her after. Unfortunately Sev was in detention with Potter and Evans tonight for trying to hex Potter in the middle of Charms. She sighed and decided she needed more material, and made her way to the back for another book.

"Well, well. Miss Malfoy. What an…unpleasant…surprise."

Vesper stiffened and turned, a sneer on her face. "Black. My sentiments exactly."

They glared at each other for a moment, before they both realized that they were completely alone. Vesper quickly looked at the floor, turned back to the shelf, and continued going through the titles as electricity crackled through the air between them. She refused to acknowledge him further, even to tell him to go away. She didn't think she would be able to get the words past her suddenly dry throat. She felt, rather than saw, Sirius move beside her until he was standing in front of her. He lifted her head until she was looking into his eyes, then quickly closed the distance between their lips.

Vesper was disoriented when he pulled away, just as quickly as he had kissed her. She looked at him with wide eyes, and he grinned and winked at her before turning and walking away.

"Vesper!"

Vesper started when Lorin called her name, and hurried to compose her face before turning to him.

"Lorin."

She didn't hear anything Lorin said to her; she was too busy worrying about what had just happened between her and Sirius, and what could have happened if Lorin had walked over a minute earlier.

A/N: R&R please! It's greatly appreciated :)