As angry as he is at her, he can't help but look for her at dinner their first day back at Hogwarts. James, Remus, and Peter are rambling on about Merlin knows what, and Sirius tries to act interested, but he can't. He hasn't talked to her since that day at her house. He finds her sitting at the Ravenclaw table surrounded by couples; Steven and Jenna, Benjamin and the brunette with glasses, and Jeremy and that blonde Sirius asked out back in third year. She looks bored, stabbing her dinner plate with her fork. He doesn't blame her. He imagines it would be-
"You could always go talk to her," Remus tells him low enough so the others won't hear.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Sirius lies, snapping his eyes back to his dinner.
Remus smiles knowingly. "Of course not."
Sirius forces himself to pay attention to the conversations going on around him and join in, but he finds his gaze straying a couple of tables away when he isn't consciously avoiding it. Why does their not talking bother him so much? What is going on with him?
OoOoO
It's been eight days, three hours, and sixteen minutes since they last spoke, but it isn't as if Corinne is counting or anything.
They've been angry at each other before, but it would usually end within a day or two at most. Then again, they've never had a row this serious before. After he ignored her in the corridor the first day back from the holidays, she wondered if this was officially the end of their short-lived friendship. She hasn't mentioned their previous arguments to anyone other than Jenna, but she needs to talk to them now. She can't hold it in much longer.
"So he's angry because he thinks Damien is cheating on you?"
"He doesn't just think, he swears by it. He said Damien confessed it to him."
"Why would he be lying about that? Especially to you, his friend?" Ben asks.
"I don't know. He doesn't like Damien, and I think it bothers him to see me with him because of that."
"So you think he's making it up so you'll break it off with him? That doesn't sound like Sirius."
"Well you don't know him very well to begin with do you?" Jenna snaps at Steven. In truth, Steven spent a lot of time with Sirius, too. Jenna then addresses Corinne. "Don't listen to them. We know Damien. He isn't like that."
"Sirius could be wrong," Jeremy tells them, "but I'd be careful if I were you. Just in case."
"Be careful? How? Are you saying I should spy on him?"
Jeremy shakes his head. "No, I just mean that you should keep your eyes open. Don't ignore signs or your gut feelings."
"Hey, I've been wanting to play Midnight Tag again," Jenna cuts in, changing the subject.
"Didn't you just hear that Sirius isn't speaking to me?" Corinne asks, annoyed at Jenna's lack of sensitivity.
"Yes, but is he the only other person in this castle we can play with? We'll play a free for all, like we used to. We'll see if there's anyone else who wants to play, and voila, a game is born!"
"Count me out," Corinne tells them. "I have to study."
"Maybe some other time," Jeremy says, "I have Quidditch practice."
"Oh, boo to you! Fine, we'll just play some other time. I should probably go to the library anyway. I need to finish Slughorn's essay. I'll see you all in Charms," she says, picking up her bag and walking away.
"Bye," they tell her.
"Come on, let's go for a walk," Steven tells Corinne after a couple of minutes.
"Sure. It beats sitting here sulking," she mutters, following him out of the Great Hall.
She sneaks a glance at the Gryffindor table as she passes by and spots Sirius right away. He's with the other seventh years, laughing and joking around. He doesn't even look bothered that they haven't talked. It upsets her, but mostly it hurts.
"Corinne," Steven says as soon as they step outside, "How well do you know Damien?"
"Not you too," she groans. "Come on, Steve."
"We both got to know Sirius pretty well after the Incident," he says. "You, more than me. He wouldn't lie about this just because he doesn't like Damien. You know that."
"Yes, but it doesn't mean he's always right," she says, starting to get frustrated. "Maybe he just thinks it's true."
"Corinne, you said that he said Damien confessed. As in, he told Sirius outright that he was cheating. This can't be a misunderstanding now. Either Sirius is lying or Damien is. You know this too."
"Well I don't know what to tell you, Steven!" Corinne says, throwing her hands up. "I know Sirius wouldn't lie but Damien has done nothing to even hint at unfaithfulness. I won't end what we have without proof."
Steven sighs, knowing he will not win. "Alright, I'll drop it. But be careful, okay?"
"I am," Corinne says.
"Good."
"Good." she shrugs.
"So, we haven't talked in a while. How have you been?"
"Fine, just trying to keep up with school and trying to figure out what to do after Hogwarts."
"You're still going for Healer, right?"
"Well, yeah, but that's only because I don't know what else to choose. I don't really know what I want to do."
"Would you like to be a Healer?"
"Yeah, it's not bad. But maybe there's something I would like more."
"Well, with things going the way they are, I think we're going to need a lot of Healers," Steven says darkly.
"Let's not talk about that," Corinne says.
"Okay. Er, so I noticed you spent yesterday with Kelly and Lisa," Steven says, referring to the two other Ravenclaw seventh year girls.
"Yeah, well I wasn't in the mood to be the seventh wheel yesterday. Besides, Kelly and Lisa are nice, and not always snogging someone," she laughs.
"Sorry about that," Steven says, scratching his head. "I guess we should probably tone it down a bit."
"Don't worry about it," she shrugs. "It's forced me to make new friends."
"Like Sirius?" he asks. It may be a sore subject for her, but he wants to know if there is anything between them. Is Sirius, and not Jenna, the real reason she broke off their relationship? Did all of those hours together make her realize that she fancies him? Or are they, as she claims, nothing more than friends?
"Yeah, he's great too. He has his own crowd, but we make an effort to talk a few times a week even if it's just for a few minutes. Or at least we used to."
"Jenna thinks he fancies you." And I'm starting to wonder if she's right, he thinks to himself.
Corinne laughs. "Come on, Steven. Like you said, we both know Sirius. He would never fall for me, or me for him. We still spend half of our time arguing."
"That's true," he grins, remembering their fights in the Gryffindor common room when they were supposed to be researching. "He's not bad though. We talk every once in a while. Remember when you used to hate him?"
"How can I forget? He was such an insufferable prick," Corinne says.
"But now you miss him," Steven states as more of a fact than a question.
"Hardly," Corinne scoffs. Steven gives her a look, and Corinne concedes his statement. "Okay, fine. Yes, I miss him. But only in the same way that I miss Jeremy, or that I would miss you if we didn't have our one on one talks. It's the friendship that I miss. Nothing more."
Steven accepts her claim, and though she sounds sincere, he wonders if she's lying to him or to herself.
OoOoO
It isn't until day eleven (the seventh hour and forty-second minute, to be exact) that Sirius finally speaks to her. Unfortunately, he chooses the most inconvenient time to do so.
"Damien! Mate, how's it going?" Sirius says in a false bravado, loud enough to be overheard in the boisterous Three Broomsticks atmosphere.
"Sirius? What are you doing here?" Damien asks, looking surprised.
"That's usually Corinne's line," he says, flashing her a grin. "You two are more alike than I thought! So you two don't mind if I join you? No? Great!" He takes a seat at their table, not giving them a chance to protest.
"No, I don't mind. This is actually perfect because I need to meet with Chad right now."
"Wait, what?" Corinne protests. "If this is because of Black, he should be the one to go-"
"No love," he smiles gently, "it's not that. We agreed to meet around two, and that's twenty minutes from now. I really should get going."
"You didn't mention it earlier."
"No, I was trying to find a way to bring it up without making you feel abandoned, but now that Sirius is here he can keep you company."
"But I- okay, I suppose. I'll see you next weekend?"
"Of course," he smiles, giving her a small kiss and walking out. "I'll see you around Black."
"Sure," he waves Damien off, more upset than he's letting on. He doesn't for a second believe that he has to meet with Chad. More likely, he's meeting date number two. He forces a grin and turns to Corinne. "So, what now?"
Corinne glares at him, picks up her coat, and walks out of The Three Broomsticks.
"Oi! Corinne! Where are you going?"
She keeps walking, not bothering to turn and answer him. Everything was going just fine until Sirius showed up.
"Corinne," Sirius says, whirling her around, "talk to me."
She considers pulling out of his grip and continuing to walk away, but if he wants her to talk, she'll talk. "So you don't speak to me for almost two weeks, and the first time you do it's to ruin my date?"
"I didn't want to ignore you," he says quietly. "I just didn't think I could be your friend. It's incredibly frustrating watching someone you care about blindly walking off a cliff and ignoring warnings. I decided that it's your decision though, and that part of being a friend is to accept a person's flaws and still be there for them when needed."
"Oh how noble of you," she says caustically, refusing to be appeased. "You had no right to ruin my date like that!"
"You think I ruined your date? You heard him, he was leaving anyway!"
"He was not! That was just an excuse he used because you interrupted us!"
"When are you going to face the truth, Corinne? You really think he went to meet Chad?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do."
"Oh please! He's on his way to meet up with his second date of the day!"
"Just because you would do something as atrocious as that doesn't mean he would. He cares about me, and I trust him."
He chooses to ignore the jab she just made at his character. "Then let's tail him, see if he's lying or not."
"I am not going to spy on my boyfriend! He left because you were being obnoxious!"
"If he really wanted to spend time with you, he would have told me to sod off and you know it."
The truth of the words sting, but Corinne forces that aside. She refuses to be wrong about this, not for the sake of pride, though that certainly is a part of it, but because if Sirius is right then that would hurt her much more than she thinks she can bear. "Sirius, every time we start getting along, you do something stupid to upset me!"
"You're not angry at me Corinne, you're angry because deep down you know I'm right."
"When will you give it a rest? I trust him okay?" And she does, for the most part, but there's a small part of her that has begun to doubt him. This isn't the first time he leaves early because something suddenly came up or he has to meet with someone. Though they're perfectly legitimate reasons, her gut is telling her something else, and Jeremy told her to trust her gut feelings. It's just a small part of her though. It means nothing.
"He's a prick, you're better off without him, and you definitely shouldn't trust him."
"I'm perfectly capable of deciding who's a prick and who isn't on my own!"
"Obviously not since you're still seeing him!"
"I can take care of myself, Sirius!"
"Well I'm sorry for caring about you!"
"I didn't ask you to care!" she shouts back. She storms off, angry at him for making her doubt Damien and angry at herself for pushing her friend away just as they started speaking again. After all, he is only trying to help her, no matter how misguided that help is.
"Believe me, I didn't want to," Sirius says quietly to her retreating back. He considers letting her walk away, and he would have, but at that moment he sees Chad through the Honeydukes' window and knows this is his one chance. He races after the fuming girl.
"Corinne! Oi, Corinne!"
"Sirius Black, if you do not leave me alone I will hex-"
"I know you're furious, but do you trust me?"
"I told you I do," she says exasperatedly, some of her anger ebbing.
"Then follow me."
"If you're trying to prove-"
"You said you trust me. Please, follow me."
"B-"
"Corinne. It's simple. If you trust me, follow me. If you don't, then don't."
"Oh fine, but I still haven't forgiven you!" she says, trudging along behind him.
"That's fine," he says, leading her to Honeydukes. "It's too late to trail McLaggen, but here's the next best thing. Look through that window and tell me who you see."
She peers through it as discreetly as she can, and she makes out Chad. "It isn't two yet."
"I know, which is why we're going to follow him around to see if he ever does meet with McLaggen."
"No, what if he sees us?"
"You're right. I have a better idea. Follow me."
He leads her to the side of the shop and pulls out James' invisibility cloak. "Here," he says, throwing it on her. "It's an invisibility cloak, but don't tell anyone we have one. It's supposed to be a secret."
"Er, right," she says, doubting it's even real. Loads of people just place an invisibility charm on a cloak or some other object. It wears off after a while. "What are you doing?"
"Follow me," he says, leading her into Honeydukes this time. They weave through the crowded shop, trying to avoid people. It's so crowded in there that people wouldn't even notice someone trailing behind Sirius, even if she were visible.
"Chad, mate! Fancy seeing you here!"
The surprised young man turns to greet whoever called him. "Sirius! How's it going?"
"Pretty good, just buying some chocolate for a friend," he winks.
"I see you're still good with the ladies," he laughs. "You and Damien have always had all the luck."
"What can I say?" he grins. "Speaking of Damien, where is he?"
"You just missed him. He was with Corinne earlier but had to go."
"Blimey, I wanted to run something by him. Do you know where he went?"
Corinne's heart is pounding in her chest. She wipes the sweat off her face and leans in the slightest bit to hear the exchange more clearly.
"Well, between the two of us, he went to see his other girlfriend, the one from the Ministry."
"Oh, right, he mentioned her. They're getting pretty serious aren't they?" Sirius asks, grateful that Chad is being so open with him; he must not know that he and Corinne are close. He wonders where Corinne is and if she'll finally accept the truth.
"She's older, if you know what I mean," he says with a sly grin.
"That's always nice," he says, forcing a laugh. "Well, I'm just going to have to see how my plans go without his advice. I'll see you around."
"Good luck mate."
"Thanks."
Sirius walks out, assuming Corinne is right behind him. When he reaches the side of the shop though, she isn't anywhere. "Corinne?"
No response. Did she get lost inside? No, there's no way she could have gotten lost. She must have run off- with the cloak. Blast. James will not be happy about this when he hears- unless he doesn't find out. Sirius races back to castle, the long way. He can't really take the shortcut through Honeydukes' cellar without the cloak. He doesn't get very far before he's stopped by Remus, Mary, and Theresa.
"Sirius? Why are you in such a hurry?" Theresa asks.
"Huh? Me? Hurry? Not at all," he lies poorly.
"Right, that's why you weren't running and you're not out of breath," Mary tells him.
Remus, however, suspects that it has something to do with Corinne. "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah why wouldn't it be? Just perfect," he says, itching for an excuse to get out of there. He's suddenly distracted by another thought. "Hey, where's Pete?"
"He said he was feeling sick so he went back to the castle. He was acting strange though. Very jumpy."
"Hmm," he says, realizing that this is the perfect excuse to leave. "I'm going to go check on him."
"I'm sure he's fine," Mary says, "We were just on our way to The Three Broomsticks. Care to join us?"
"Thanks, but I'd rather go check on Pete. I have a bad feeling about the whole thing. Do you have the, er, parchment?" Sirius asks Remus.
"No, Pete said he needed it."
"He said he needed it," Sirius deadpans, suspicious now and no longer using it as an excuse. "What was he going to use it for, tissue paper? Something is definitely off here."
"It's Peter, what can he possibly do with it? He probably just wanted to sneak down the kitchens," Remus shrugs.
Sirius gets a bad feeling about it, but he lets it go. After all, Remus is right. It's Peter. "Okay, well I'm still going to go."
"I'll see you later then."
"Right, bye."
About five precious minutes were lost in that conversation. Corinne is probably back by now if she was running, which he is almost sure she was. By the time he gets up to Gryffindor Tower, he's terribly out of breath. However, seeing Peter in their dormitory puts him a little at ease. "Worm, you feeling alright?"
"Yeah, just a stomachache."
"Did you go see Pomfrey?"
"Sure did. She gave me a potion but it hasn't helped much. Why are you back so early?"
"I need to find Corinne. Do you have the map?"
"It's on Moony's bed."
"Thanks mate," he says, taking the map and tapping it with his wand. He searches for her name, positive that she's somewhere in the castle. He's right; she's up in the astronomy tower. He clears the map and pockets it, making his way up to her.
"Well, you were right," she says when she hears someone behind her. She knows it's Sirius
"I'm not here to gloat," he says quietly, taking a seat beside her. She looks so beautiful, sitting there looking so sad. The wind blows through her hair and Sirius catches the scent of jasmine.
"Yeah right."
"Do you really think so little of me?"
"I don't think anything about you, Sirius. All I can think about is what I just found out."
"I'm sorry."
"It isn't your fault."
"No, but I'm still sorry." She doesn't respond, so he fills in the silence. "You should come inside, it's cold."
"I want to be alone," she says quietly, her eyes pleading for him to leave.
He gives in reluctantly. "Okay. Just don't stay out here too long."
Sirius trudges back to Gryffindor Tower halfheartedly. He feels like he made a mistake by leaving Corinne. He knows she told him to leave, but maybe he should have stayed anyway. Maybe she didn't really mean it. Maybe it was one of those hidden messages women have where 'go' really means 'please stay'.
Women, Sirius thinks.
Remus greets Sirius when he enters the dormitory.
"Where's Prongs?" Sirius asks.
"Still out with Lily, no doubt," Remus responds. "But you're the one with the map. You could always check it if you're so interested."
"No, it doesn't really matter," he sighs, dropping onto his bed.
"It's Corinne, isn't it?" Remus asks. "I knew the second I saw you running towards the castle. She found out the truth, didn't she?"
"Moony, sometimes I think you should take over teaching Divination," Sirius tells his friend. "Yes, she found out, and as I'm sure you've already guessed, she didn't take it very well."
"You don't have to be a Seer to know she would be upset about it. Anyone would. How is she?"
"Sad and hurt, I reckon. She said she wanted to be alone so we didn't get to talk about it. Do you think I was wrong to leave?"
"I don't know," Remus responds, scratching the back of his neck. "Normally I would say you probably should have stayed, but considering that this is Corinne we're talking about . . . I really don't know, mate."
"It doesn't matter now anyway," Peter says. "You left, and that's that. Can't go back now."
"Thanks for stating the obvious, Worm," Sirius says.
"Just seems pointless, is all," he shrugs.
Sirius leans back and stares up at his canopy. Yes, it would seem pointless to Peter, but Remus is observant and James knows Sirius well enough to see that Corinne is important to Sirius. In which way, none of the three know.
"Let's go down to the kitchens," Remus suggests. He knows Sirius would benefit from doing something.
Sirius sits up. "Sure. Coming Worm?"
Peter is the first to the door. "A chocolate éclair sounds nice."
The three friends make a trip to the kitchens and return with handfuls of treats and pass the evening in their dormitory playing Gobstones and eating. James arrives some time later and joins them. Though Sirius is sufficiently distracted, his mind occasionally wanders to Corinne. He decides to seek her out the next day. However, he doesn't see her at all on Sunday. The map tells him that she's in Ravenclaw Tower, and when he asks Jenna she tells him that she's fine.
"Tell me the truth."
At that, Jenna sighs. "Okay, she's not fine, per se, but she will be. She's strong. She just needs some space."
"Alright. She's going to classes tomorrow right?"
Jenna fixes him with a stare. "This is Corinne we're talking about. Do you think she'd miss class?"
"No," Sirius smiles thinking of her. "No she wouldn't."
It's been less than a month since I last updated, aren't you proud? I'll try to update every week or two. By the way, Happy New Year to all of my wonderful readers!
