I know, it's been almost a year! A million apologies won't make this okay but that's all I have! Well, that and a new chapter.
Last time on When Broken is Easily Fixed:
Corinne sees Sirius and runs, hoping he's far enough away that his jinx won't hit her. She makes a right turn at the end of the corridor and continues running without a backwards glance. She rounds the next corner but stops when she realizes that she no longer hears him. She chances a sneak around the corner she just turned and grins when he is nowhere to be seen. He must have made a wrong turn somewhere.
"Tag, you're it."
Corinne jumps and barely manages to stifle her scream. "Sirius! You scared me!"
"Sorry," he grins, clearly not sorry at all.
"How- but- you . . . I just saw you back there. How in the bloody hell did you get here?"
"I came down from the fourth floor. I wasn't anywhere near there."
"No, I'm positive it was you!"
"Maybe you fancy me so much that you're starting to see me everywhere," he winks.
"Right," she says, spinning on her heel and walking away.
"Are you angry?" he asks, going after her.
"No, I'm not angry," she snaps, turning to face him. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, but no, of course I'm not-"
Sirius stops her with a kiss.
New Chapter: Rehashing the Past
Corinne freezes. His lips are on hers for a second before he pulls away. Corinne stares at him, registering nothing but shock. A thousand thoughts flit through her mind but she forces them away. The last thing she wants to do is overanalyze this. "What was that?" she asks quietly.
"My way of saying I fancy you?"
"Is that a question?"
He reckons kissing her wasn't the best way to go about it but he couldn't think of any way to bring it up with words. "No. Corinne, I've never been good at this."
"What do you mean you've never been good at it? It's your specialty- McLaggen The Grand Master taught you, remember?"
Her voice is steady, calm. Sirius takes that as a good sign. "I'm good at it if it's not real, but this is. I don't know what happened, but . . . something changed. These past couple of months of us being friends . . . well, I fancy you."
"I don't know what to say."
"How about something along the lines of 'I fancy you too, Sirius'?" he jokes.
"This is awkward."
"So let's make it un-awkward," he says. "Come on, let's keep playing."
"I don't know if I can act like nothing happened-"
"And you shouldn't, but I do want us to keep our friendship. If you need space though-"
"No, I don't want that either. I like spending time with you, I just . . . why'd you have to go and kiss me?"
He takes that as another good sign. She likes spending time with him. "Because I needed to put it out there. Seeing you with McLaggen made me realize how I feel about you. I had to tell you so there wouldn't be any misunderstandings in the future. At least this way I'll know that if you go out with some other bloke it's because you don't want me, not because you think I don't want you."
Corinne tries to filter through her emotions but comes up with nothing. This . . . thing, this confession, was completely unexpected. She never in a million years would have guessed that Sirius felt this way. It didn't ever cross her mind that this was a possibility, she didn't think of him in that way. "Sirius, I don't know how I feel about you."
"If you aren't sure, then it's because you don't fancy me, which is okay," Sirius says. He wasn't expecting her to swoon and admit her undying love for him, but he hoped she felt the same way he did. This outcome was always a possibility though, and he accepts it as graciously as he can. "I just wanted you to know how I feel."
"I-"
"Oi!" Jeremy says, running towards Sirius and Corinne. "We have to go. Malone is around the corner."
They follow Jeremy up the staircase and around the corner. "We'll see you around, Sirius," Jeremy whispers.
Corinne hesitates for a second, unsure of what to say. Bye seems insufficient, but there isn't time for anything else.
"I'll see you tomorrow," he says before continuing up to the seventh floor.
OoOoO
"I told her."
Three heads turn in Sirius' direction. "What did she say?" James asks.
Sirius strides to his bed and takes a seat before answering. "Well, I didn't exactly tell her, at first."
"Would you stop being purposely vague?" Remus says at the same time that Peter asks, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I found her while we were playing earlier. She was upset because I scared her so in the middle of her rant I cut her off with a kiss."
There's a split second of silence before James and Peter burst out in boisterous laughter. Remus simply shakes his head. "Of all the ways you could have let her know, you chose that."
"You're ballsy, mate," James says once he stops chortling. "What did she do?"
"She was shocked, but she didn't slap me or anything. We talked a little and basically, she doesn't know how she feels about me but she doesn't want space either."
"That's a good sign, right?" Peter says.
Sirius shrugs. "I reckon so. I mean, she could have run away kicking and screaming."
Sirius wasn't completely right about things going back to normal. For the next week, whenever Sirius walked into Potions or Defense, he found that Corinne was already seated next to one of her friends and would leave immediately after without so much as looking at him, and when she wasn't in class, she was in her common room. For meals, she would grab something quickly to go or stay and avoid looking at the Gryffindor table. If he went over to talk to her, she would give him a short answer and an excuse to leave. The first day he dismissed it as nothing. The second day he thought it strange. By the third day, he knew she was avoiding him.
OoOoO
Though she's been avoiding him since the night of the kiss, Sirius still walks over to where Corinne is standing with McLaggen and a girl he assumes is his girlfriend. Corinne may not want him there, but this situation can't be easy on her and he won't leave her to face this alone.
"There you are, Corinne! I was wondering where you went off to. Hello McLaggen, we always seem to run into each other at the most inopportune times," he says once he reaches them.
"What is inopportune about our meeting?" McLaggen asks Sirius calmly enough, but there's an edge to his voice.
"Nothing in particular, but seeing you in general is unfortunate. If you'll excuse us, Corinne and I have somewhere to be."
"So you're seeing Black now? You move on quickly."
"You're upset about that after what you did? Y-"
"You should go now, McLaggen, because your girlfriend looks bored and you stand to lose if we start rehashing the past," Sirius says.
"What is he talking about?" the girl asks.
"Other than your bo-"
Sirius takes Corinne's hand and pulls her away. "Let's go, Corinne. He's not worth it."
"Why didn't you let me tell her?" Corinne asks once the couple is out of earshot. "She deserves to know!"
"It's best not to get involved."
"If I were her, I would want to know. It's not right, leaving her in the dark."
"I know, but she wouldn't believe you anyway. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Corinne says, staring after them but not really seeing them. Her thoughts are far away.
"Are you sure? We can go back to the castle if you want."
"No, I'm fine," she says, forcing her mind to the present and her eyes to Sirius' face.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
There's an awkward silence where Corinne plays with her glove and Sirius waits for her to say something. When she doesn't, he speaks up. "You've been avoiding me."
"I changed my mind. Can we go back to the castle?"
"Will you let me stay with you for a while? We haven't talked in ages."
"Sure, that's fine," she says, recognizing that she'll have to talk to him eventually so it might as well be now.
Their walk back to the castle is in silence. Sirius doesn't even know where she's leading him until they're close to the Quidditch Stadium. She climbs up to the last step and takes a seat, trying to control her breathing and not sound too out of breath. Sirius takes a seat next to her, conjuring a jar and lighting a flame in it.
It's Corinne who finally breaks the silence, and when she does, her question takes Sirius by surprise. "Why are you always here for me?"
"You know why," Sirius says quietly.
"It doesn't make sense though," Corinne says, fighting to capture the fleeting thought in her mind. "We couldn't so much as stand each other's presence since first year, yet now you're the one who's been coming to my rescue after only a couple of months of friendship. And I know you know I've been avoiding you this past week, but you're still here instead of having fun with Remus, Peter, and James."
Sirius frowns. "I was with them but then we all went our separate ways. I think what you're really asking me though, is why I fancy you. I think I scared you off with that confession."
"I- you didn't scare me. I just think you're confused and I figured that if you didn't see me for a while you'd realize that."
"I'm not confused, Corinne. I'm sure about this."
"But . . . why? Why me? It doesn't make sense."
"It wasn't any one thing, it was all the little ones added together. I guess it started after the time fiasco. Even though you hated me, you stuck around and spent hours researching to help me."
"I did it to help myself more than you, and I wouldn't have researched with you except that James and Steven made me."
"So they made you bring me lunch, too?" he asks, knowing the answer.
"I only brought extra so you wouldn't steal mine."
"No, I know you. You like to act cold and uncaring, but no matter how bad our fights got, you still showed up the next day with lunch and books."
Corinne shrugs. "I'll give you that, but selfishness was definitely part of my motive so don't go thinking I did it all for you."
Sirius chuckles. "The thought never crossed my mind. Anyway, it all started from there. We stopped fighting all the time and then one day, without even knowing it was happening, I realized that I fancy you. I genuinely fancy you, Corinne, and I'm not confused or desperate or under the wrong impression."
"But we hated each other. Remember when we crashed our trolleys? I wished I had rammed you instead. And then remember the duel in Defense? You mocked and toyed with me before finishing me off. Or how about in second year when you poured slug slime all over my finished homework and I had to redo it all? And who can ever forget third-"
"Blimey, I can't believe you remember all that. I'm sorry."
"I wasn't always innocent," Corinne says, "and I didn't bring it up for an apology. I was trying to explain why I think you're confused."
"So we have a rocky history; loads of people do. And yes, we were quite vicious with each other at times, but that all changed for me."
"Sirius, I miss you, but I don't know that it's in that way and I don't want to lead you on."
"I missed you too so don't avoid me anymore, and don't worry about leading me on; you're not. I know where you stand and I respect that."
"Alright . . . well then, are we going back to being friends?"
"I hope so. Unless you plan on ignoring me again."
"I won't."
"Good."
OoOoO
"Boo!"
"Sirius! Normal people say hi without sneaking up on their friends!" Corinne says crossly.
"Normal is overrated," he grins, taking a seat next to her in the Great Hall. "So where are the others?"
"It's Friday night and they all have a significant other. Where do you think they are?"
"Taking a romantic stroll around the lake?"
"Sure, if that's considered romantic."
"Are you saying it's not?"
"What's romantic about walking around half blind in the dark and cold?"
Sirius lets out a bark of laughter. "What do you consider romantic, then? A duel to the death?"
"Nothing, I don't like romance. Now can I do my homework in peace?"
Sirius sits pensively while Corinne resumes her writing. When he finds the right words, he says: "You don't have to pretend you're made of ice."
Corinne puts her quill down rather forcefully. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that you can act like you don't like romance all you want but it won't fool me. I remember how you were with McLaggen. That girl loved romance."
"And look how well that turned out for her," she snaps. "That girl is gone now."
"I'm not him."
Corinne looks at Sirius, startled by the turn the conversation has taken; so much for going back to how things were. "I know," she says after a second, her voice devoid of emotion.
"Do you? Because sometimes I think you see me the same way you see him."
"If I thought you were anything like him, I wouldn't be here right now."
"Then why are you pushing me away?"
"I'm not-"
"You are though, and you don't even see it. McLaggen hurt you and now you've put up this wall keeping everyone away, including your friends."
"But you want more than my friendship."
"Why does that scare you?"
"It doesn't," she says without conviction.
"It does. It scares you because deep down in that place you can't lie to yourself, you want it too."
So the excuses: I suck at writing endings. I don't know how to end stuff. I have the idea in my head, executing it has been more difficult. I finally have it though, so this time, for sure, I promise I'll have it finished by December. I just need to work on the final chapter. I hope you enjoyed this!
