Chapter 6: The Green-Eyed Monster
James and Sirius walked into the History of Magic room. Normally they were never early for class it was unheard of, but today, for some odd reason, they weren't pranking a random Slytherin or wandering the corridors looking for someone random to hex. Instead they were doing the unthinkable…going to class early.
Taking their normal seats at the back of the class, James and Sirius began brainstorming ways to get the infamous Lily Evans to say 'yes', the first Hogsmeade trip was usually the first or second weekend of September. A few minutes later, Brenna walked into the class and Sirius' breath caught in his throat as he watched her glide across the room, the sun glinting blue off her black hair which draped her back. Without really looking at Sirius or James or the rest of the class, she took a seat on the far left of the room, one right beside a window in the second last row. The window seats were usually the first to go, but that particular seat remained empty even with only a couple minutes to the bell for one reason…the person that normally occupied the seat.
Regulus Black was not someone people messed with. 5ft11" with shaggy black hair and arrogant grey eyes he looked a lot like his brother. Sirius Black was 6ft and had longer shaggy black hair with grey eyes, though Sirius' grey was more stormy and striking than his brother's and his entire appearance was often judged more charming. Every girl admitted that the Black boys were hot, they were the standard.
They both had an air of arrogant disposition, a lazy nonchalance and mystery that made girls fall for them and at least want to know more. Neither one was very affectionate. Sirius was a playboy and Regulus just didn't show much of any emotion, this made girls want to be the one to change that, they wanted to be the one to make them go crazy.
Naturally, Sirius was the more appealing of the two; he was a Gryffindor, a member of the Marauders and practically royalty. Regulus was a Slytherin and in the eyes of Hogwarts' society he was frowned upon. When it came down to Slytherin or Gryffindor, the school would choose Gryffindor without much thought. The Slytherins had a reputation as bullies and dark wizards. He rarely showed sentiment besides hostility toward the other houses, Gryffindors in particular.
The two Black brothers were in the same year at Hogwarts though they were not twins. Regulus was 11 months younger than Sirius and that meant that the two boys were constantly living in each other's shadows, forever competing against each other to be better in the eyes of their parents (though Sirius had given up on that long ago letting Regulus take the lime light with the family) and everyone else. They strived to be better at Quidditch, at duelling and anything else that could be measurable.
This competition is what hit Sirius when he noticed that Brenna had unknowingly taken Regulus' seat in the class. No one else would've dared to do something like that, everyone knew Regulus had a mean streak, hell all Blacks had a mean streak. Silently, Sirius watched his brother stalk into the room and over to his usual seat, the seat Brenna sat in looking out the window.
He knew that Brenna could hold her own. He knew that she could hex Regulus to pieces, but somehow that knowledge did nothing to calm him. Just the possibility of Regulus hexing her or even posing a threat to Brenna made Sirius want to jump out of his chair and hit the prat in the face. It was irrational and he had never felt this way before. He never felt the need to protect a girl before, to keep them safe.
James was very conscious of Sirius watching Brenna and Regulus. He too was watching them, just to make sure a duel didn't erupt in the middle of the classroom, but from what he could see, Brenna and Regulus weren't going to spontaneously combust. Of course, he knew that Sirius was really concerned about Brenna; he recognised the intensity that he watched her. James looked at Lily that way when she was with Snivellus or other guys, particularly Slytherins, or at least he thought he did. All James ever wanted was to make Lily happy and keep her safe. If anyone ever presented as any kind of threat, even minor, James was prone to over react, take today's Defence class as evidence.
The way Sirius watched Brenna talking to his brother, whispering to him throughout the lesson and listening to what he said in return, was tainted with jealousy. It was almost like Sirius was watching his brother beat him at Quidditch-alright well that wouldn't happen in Sirius' head-it was like watching Regulus excel easily at something Sirius found extremely challenging, in this case, Brenna. He didn't have a conversation with Brenna the way Regulus did. Sure, she had shown him something she didn't trust anyone else with, but the rest of the time she gave him answers that had tons of meanings to them, she never really gave him a straight answer, everything was coded.
But with Regulus, Brenna seemed to be having an actual conversation with him. There were questions that had straight forward answers, comments and replies. Sirius hated watching his brother, a Slytherin; interact better with the newest fifth year Gryffindor than him. I mean really, Brenna was a girl and girls loved Sirius, there were tons of them around him all the time, every one of them wanting to be around him. So why was Brenna different?
I guess I'm not most girls. Brenna's words from their first tutoring session rang in his head as he suddenly became aware of James' eyes studying him.
"What?" Sirius whispered more at James than to him.
"What are you looking at?" James asked knowingly.
"Nothing, day dreaming" Sirius answered averting his gaze from Brenna and Regulus.
"Really? So you're not looking at Brenna talking to Regulus?"
"No, why would I be?" Sirius lied, something that was obvious to his best mate of 4 years.
"That's a lie" James stared at his friend for a few moments before Sirius sighed.
"I just don't trust him okay? He's a slimy creep."
"And you can't stand the fact that he's actually having a conversation with her whereas you've only asked questions and gotten cryptic answers." James said knowing his friend way too well. Sirius' eyes narrowed as James smirked knowing everything he said was right.
"He's still a slimy creep." Sirius muttered looking away again.
"I never said he wasn't. But I'm just saying you might not want to beat the crap out of him for talking to her, take it from me when I say that girls don't like it when guys beat up their friends." Sirius' head snapped back to James and he glared at him.
"They're not friends; she knows more than to be friends with him." He said though he sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.
"Well do you think she's going to come to Quidditch Trials tonight? We really need a new Seeker."
"I reckon we should ask her again, remind her and force her to come if we have to."
"You realise we can't actually force her to come right?" James asked raising an eyebrow at his friend.
"Sure we can, we are the Marauders after all."
"Yeah but she knows way more magic than we do." James pointed out wondering where Sirius' memory of the duel they witnessed between Cyrus and Brenna had gone.
"So we use force, sling her over your shoulder and carry her down." Sirius gave a nonchalant shrug.
"I'm thinking we should just ask her, and if it comes to force, you're the one that's kidnapping her." James said before they both returned to their previous engagements of staring aimlessly around the room.
At the end of the lesson Brenna and Regulus packed up their things silently. Neither one had spoken through out the majority of the lesson, only a little spatter of a conversation.
"Next time the window seat's mine, Templar." Regulus said as he packed away the last of his things.
"We'll see" She answered knowing that she would be first to class in order to claim the seat.
"That we will" Regulus said his mouth once again twitching into a ghost of a smile before walking away leaving Brenna to finish packing her unused parchment and quill.
Sirius and James walked over to her as soon as Regulus had left; they figured it would be best not to start a fight with Quidditch that night.
"Hey Brenna, are you going to come to Quidditch Trials tonight?" James asked as Brenna turned to face them finished packing her bag.
"Um, yeah I think so; you guys said Gryffindor needed a Seeker right?" Thank Merlin Sirius isn't going to try and kidnap her now. James thought nodding.
"Yeah we do, do you need a broom because you can always borrow one for the trials until you can get one." Sirius asked as Brenna smiled.
"No I brought mine; I could never leave it at home." She said shaking her head at the idea as the three walked out of the now empty classroom.
"Oh yeah, what model is it?" James asked completely attentive since they were talking about one of his favourite subjects (the other being Lily, or 'Lily-flower' as James nicknamed her).
"Nimbus 1500" Both boys' eyes widened and looks of surprise grew on their faces.
"Really? That's the best broom on the market!" Brenna smiled at them her eyes twinkling brightly, she honestly loved Quidditch, it was nice break from her hectic life…plus she was pretty good at it.
"I know I love it."
"I heard it reaches 100 miles an hour in 10 ten seconds"
"And it can turn 360 degrees at a fixed point in mid-air." Sirius and James added in a description of the broom's superior qualities just as enthused as Brenna.
"Yeah, it's the best broom I've ever had."
"Damn you are so lucky." James said shaking his head.
"What model do you guys have?"
"We've both got Nimbus 1000's; James' parents gave them to us when we made the team in second year." Sirius answered.
"Nimbus' are the best. They combine the easy handling of the Cleensweeps with the reliability of an Oakshaft 79." Brenna said happy to finally have someone to talk about Quidditch and brooms with; Cyrus was easily bored with the topic, mostly because he had the same broom as Brenna and knew the exact same things as she did.
"You really know brooms, huh?" James commented.
"Well, Quidditch is a good distraction, so I know a lot about it." And there she goes with the cryptic words again! Really, what does she need to distract herself from? Sirius thought, though he didn't voice his concern out loud. "Anyway, what time are the trials at again?"
"They start at 5, and you should probably wear something you can run in because the captain, Wood, likes to make us run laps. He says that it helps weed out the ones that aren't committed."
"Yeah, because usually a bunch of Sirius' fan girls show up pretending to want to try out just so they can see their 'amazing Sirikins'." James elaborated as Sirius shoved him hard into the wall and Brenna looked at them both with raised eyebrows.
"Sirikins, huh?" She asked stifling a laugh. Sirius glared at James.
"You just had to say that didn't you?" James shrugged keeping a slightly farther distance so Sirius didn't punch or shove him.
"Really though, Sirikins?" Brenna asked somewhat disbelievingly.
"Shut up, it wasn't my idea." Sirius grumbled running a hand through his hair.
"Hey, no judgement…but really Sirikins that's the best they could come up with?" James burst out laughing at Brenna's comment.
"No one ever said they were smart." Sirius laughed with James and Brenna. He was actually having a conversation, a conversation with the mysterious new girl, a conversation with Brenna. Smiling like an idiot, Sirius walked alongside Brenna and James up to the portrait hole.
"Right well, I'll see you later, there's homework that needs doing." Brenna said stepping into Gryffindor tower and after the boys had said a quick 'goodbye' she joined the other girls that she shared a dorm with.
A/N: Please review, i dont know what you like and what you hate unless you review. Quite a few people read this story and not 1 single person reviews! So be the first one...review.