Chapter 3: Smitten
"Are you Brenna Templar?" A second year Gryffindor asked walking up to the girls as they ate in the Great Hall.
"Um, yeah"
"Professor Miller would like to see you in his office, and do you know where your brother is, I'm supposed to tell him too." The young girl glanced nervously at the Slytherin table.
"It's alright I'll go find him." Brenna said standing up and smiling at the relieved girl who walked off to sit with her friends.
"Brenna, I know your brother's a Slytherin, but they don't take kindly to Gryffindors, be careful." Alice said as Brenna nodded before walking over to the Slytherins.
She easily spotted her brother amongst the crowd, unfortunately he was doing his job well and that meant he was sitting with the Slytherins that were most likely Death Eaters or Death Eaters in-training. She recognised the boy that was talking mostly to her brother as a Malfoy, the blond hair and arrogant persona gave him away instantly. Well, this should be fun.
"What brings a lovely Gryffindor to the Slytherin table?" Malfoy drawled looking Brenna up and down perversely.
"Lucius this is my sister, Brenna. Brenna this is Lucius Malfoy." Brenna gave a curt nod wanting to get as far away from there as possible.
"Normally Gryffindors are not welcome here, but for you, we can make an exception. Have a seat" Malfoy offered gesturing to the seat next to him.
"Actually I've got to get going. Cyrus, Professor Miller would like to see us in his office." Nodding Cyrus stood from the table.
"See you around Brenna." Malfoy said as the Templar twins walked out of the Great Hal.
"Sorry about that Bren, Malfoy's a creep."
"Next time I'm being more Gryffindor and less accepting, I don't want him thinking of me as a friend or worse…" Brenna trailed off with a shudder as they got to the Defence Professor's office.
After knocking, Brenna opened the door and walked in.
"You wanted to see us, Professor?" Brenna asked as Cyrus stepped into the office behind her.
"Yes, please, come in, sit down." Miller said gesturing to the two seats in front of his desk. Cyrus shut the door behind them as Brenna took a seat. When Cyrus took the other seat, Miller continued.
"Now, since you both are new, I'm not sure how many spells and hexes you know that would be useful in a duel," More than you could imagine Brenna thought as she shared a look with Cyrus, "and we will be working on duelling this term, I have arranged for you to be tutored so you can catch up."
"That's really not necessary, Professor, I'm sure we'll be fine." Brenna tried to get out of being tutored.
"Nonsense, I insist, I would hate for you two to be behind the class because of a technicality. The tutors I have arranged are notorious troublemakers but have the highest marks in your year. I would like for you to tell me how your session goes since it is their punishment for some misdemeanours to bring you both up to speed.
"If you are both available you may begin your tutoring tonight. The two Gryffindors-"
"Did you say Gryffindors, Professor?" Cyrus asked playing the Slytherin role well.
"Yes I did Mr Templar, is that a problem?"
"No professor" Cyrus muttered.
"Good, as I was saying, the two Gryffindors will tutor you 3 times a week until you know all the spells and hexes needed for this course, I will leave it to you to work out times that will fit your schedules. Tonight you will meet at 7 in the library. Please let me know if there are any complications. Mr Templar, I feel obligated to tell you that these boys often prank Slytherins, though they hopefully will not tonight, I can not promise anything…Miss Templar your tutor will be Sirius Black and Mr Templar yours will be James Potter. Please let me know tomorrow how this goes."
"Of course Professor" Brenna said less than thrilled.
"You may go." He said dismissing them as they stood and left the office. After shutting the door behind them, Cyrus and Brenna groaned.
"I can't believe we have to get tutored!" Brenna said as they made their way back to the hall.
"At least you're a Gryffindor; I have to get tutored by Slytherin-hating Gryffindors!" Cyrus complained.
"Yeah, that sucks, Cy." She said sympathetically as they got to the doors of the Great Hall. After saying goodbye to each other, Brenna and Cyrus parted for their house tables and afternoon classes.
At 7 o'clock sharp, Sirius and James sat at one of the tables in the library impatiently waiting for their tutees to arrive.
"I hope I get a hot girl." Sirius mused while tapping his fingers on the table.
"With your luck I won't be surprised if you do." James added. "Well I suppose I should go to my own table since Miller did say we had to tutor them privately." Sirius gasped.
"Prongs, why the hell are you considering obeying Miller?" Sirius asked with melodramatic wide eyes.
"Because, Padfoot, I don't particularly feel like spending the rest of the year in this bloody Library," James said as he stood and walking over to a fully visible table across the isle.
A few minutes later, Brenna walked into the library, her dark hair falling around her face nicely. She scanned the tables for the boy that Alice had pointed out earlier as Sirius Black.
Sirius looked up at the sound of the doors swinging open to see the new girl in his year walking in. He couldn't remember what her name was but he remembered the face. Please Merlin let her be the one that I tutor he thought glancing sideways at James who had also noticed the girl. Looking back at the new girl, Sirius realised that she was walking toward him, a tote bag slung on one of her shoulders she stopped looking between the two tables that Sirius and James sat at.
"Is one of you guys Sirius Black?" She asked as Sirius grinned and James rolled his eyes.
"That would be me, what can I help you with, gorgeous?" Sirius said as the girl turned to face looking him up and down quickly.
"Most likely nothing" She said as she took a seat at the table earning a snicker from James and raised eyebrows from Sirius.
"You know I am going to be tutoring you, gorgeous."
"I am aware, and you can stop calling me gorgeous or I'll hang you upside down from the ceiling of the Great Hall." She said with a venomously sweet smile.
"You think you could do that? The girl that's here for tutoring thinks she can take on a legendary Marauder?" Sirius asked challengingly.
"I'm here because Miller thinks that I need to be quote 'brought up to speed'. What he doesn't realise is that I could also hang him upside down from the ceiling of the Great Hall."
"Cocky one isn't she, Padfoot?" James asked from the other table.
"Not cocky, I simply have a very accurate sense of my abilities. Now aren't you supposed to be tutoring me?" She asked irritably as her brother walked into the library and toward the two tables.
"Oi, are you James Potter?" He called walking up the isle.
"Oh kill me now, a bloody Slytherin." James muttered as Cyrus came to a stop in front of the tables. "You're late" James said glaring as Cyrus merely shrugged sitting down.
"So sue me." Then, glancing across the isle and seeing his sister, Cyrus smiled. "How's it going, Bren?"
"I just finished explaining that if Black calls me gorgeous again I'll hang him from the ceiling of the Great Hall."
"You realise if you do that Malfoy might kiss you right?" Cyrus asked as James and Sirius exchanged a confused look. Brenna pulled a face before answering.
"Never mind I'll come up with something else."
"Oi, you're supposed to be getting tutored not socializing." James said irritably to Cyrus and Brenna. Rolling her eyes, Brenna turned back to face Sirius.
"Ok I suppose we should start over, I'm Sirius Black." He said with a smile.
"Brenna Templar" She said giving a curt nod and a half smile.
"Well Gorgeous I-" Sirius started but stopped short when he was hoisted in the air by his heel. "What the bloody hell?" He asked calling the attention of both James and Cyrus.
"I told you not to call me Gorgeous now didn't I?" She asked still holding him in the air.
"Merlin, woman put me down." He said as the blood rushed to his head. Shrugging Brenna lowered him to the ground. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" He practically spat at her.
"Oi don't talk to my sister like that!" Cyrus said standing up.
"It's alright Cy. And in response to your question, I was simply demonstrating to you that I know the Levicorpus Spell, its right there on your list." She said with a small smirk. "Merlin Black calm down you're a fifth year Gryffindor not a three year old!" Brenna said at the look on his face.
Sirius and Cyrus sat back down, James grinning at Brenna's audacity.
"Right well let's get back to the tutoring and from now on give me some warning before you decide to show me a spell." Sirius said.
The rest of the hour went by much better. No one was hoisted into the air and no fights threatened to break out. Surprisingly enough, James and Cyrus got along fairly well as long as neither one insulted the other's house or things that went with their house. Sirius continuously flirted with Brenna and she simply responded with a snarky comment or an eye roll. At the end, right before they would leave for their respective common rooms, the four students sat at one table discussing when they would meet again.
"Well, Thursday's Quidditch tryouts and Friday's the first practice so we can't do those." Sirius said referring to himself and James.
"What positions do you play?" Brenna asked genuinely curious, she had always enjoyed Quidditch though she didn't play very often.
"I'm Seeker and Sirius is a Beater, do you play?" James asked.
"A bit, mostly Chaser." She answered.
"Well you should try out for the team; we need a couple new chasers this year our old ones graduated." Sirius explained.
"Maybe I will." She said with a small smile.
"Slytherin's got Quidditch trails tomorrow so that won't work for me, but we can all do Wednesday."
"Yeah but Miller said that we had do to have 3 sessions a week." James pointed out.
"What he doesn't know can't hurt him, and if he asks just say we're meeting on Saturday in the morning or something. Technically he didn't say we had to be in the library, our tutoring can be out on the grounds." Brenna pointed out.
"I like the way you think. So we'll do Wednesday and Saturday." James said.
"Have you guys ever duelled before?" Sirius asked Brenna and Cyrus who exchanged a significant glance and nodded. "I figure that we could always work on these spells by practice duelling that way we're more than prepared for class on Thursday." Sirius suggested. "We can practice outside in the courtyard, instead of in here."
"You four need to return to your Common Rooms now, the library is closing for the night." Madam Pince told them eyeing Sirius and James suspiciously. The four students stood up and walked quietly out of the Library, Madam Pince's gaze following them out the door.
"See you later, Bren." Cyrus said as he walked toward the dungeons completely ignoring the other two Gryffindors as a Slytherin would.
"Is he always that much of an ass?" James asked as the three began walking to Gryffindor Tower.
"He's only like that because he's a Slytherin and you're a Gryffindor." Brenna said somewhat hinting at the fact that her brother was not really a Slytherin.
"So he's like that to you too?" Sirius asked drawing the conclusion that since Brenna was also a Gryffindor Cyrus would treat her like dirt.
"Of course not, if he did I'd beat the crap out of him." Brenna said with a small shrug. The two boys looked at her.
"So you could beat up your brother who's a Slytherin?" James questioned.
"Why does the fact that he's in Slytherin always play a factor for you guys?" She asked once again she said that her brother was in Slytherin not a Slytherin.
"Because Slytherins are ruthless and don't like to be beaten at anything." Sirius said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"You guys beat Slytherins all the time so obviously you don't think it's impossible, you just think that because I'm a girl I wouldn't have the guts to do it."
"Hey, no offence, but most girls steer clear of that sort of thing, you know duels and hexing and stuff. It tends to get messy when it involves Slytherin." James explained.
"I guess I'm not most girls. And a word of advice, you two might not want to hex my brother, he gets a little…competitive."
"Well we like a little competition." Sirius said confidently.
"You only like competition you can beat, but you can't beat my brother if he was only using half his skill." Brenna said just as confidently.
"How do you know how much skill it would take to beat us in a duel if you've never seen us duel?" James asked pointedly.
"Seeing as you guys didn't learn the elements of a duel until yesterday, I can make an educated guess."
"Just because we weren't taught how to duel doesn't mean we don't know how." Sirius said knowing that he had duelled many times before.
"But are you good enough to duel my brother? The answer is no, I'm sure about that."
"You said you could beat your brother, so that means that you're better than him, right?" James asked trying to figure out this mysteriously confident new girl.
"Either that, or he's not willing to hex his sister." Sirius added.
"He's not willing to hex me because he's not willing to take the consequences. But then again, you guys are right, I haven't seen you duel, so how could I possibly know your ability levels, right?" She asked turning a full circle in their conversation back to where they first began.
"Would you like to see us duel?" Sirius asked with a half smile.
"I don't know it might get messy." She said with an innocent smile and shrug.
"For some reason I get the feeling you like things messy." Sirius said with a little sexual innuendo.
"Wouldn't you like to know" She said with a seductive smile before saying the password to Gryffindor Tower and stepping through the Portrait Hole.
"It seems like you're smitten Padfoot." James said chuckling at the shocked look on his mate's face and stepping through the portrait hole.
A/N: Review anyone?