I honestly don't know what I was thinking. I mean, at first it was all "Yeah, this is going to be fun! Let's go seduce Black and see if I can do it!" If I had known how twitchy the Puff was going to be then I would have saved myself the irritation and told her to piss off. Honestly, why in the world would a bloke like Black bother with her?

I have to admit there was something that was almost endearing about her constant anxious rambling. There is a definite emphasis on the word "almost". I mean, it's hard to find someone so twitchy more than annoying. Anyways, either Sirius was a saint and my services were no longer needed OR I was missing something. Either way, I needed to know if I was wasting my time or not. After all I had better things to do than help a Puff find out she's paranoid.

Anyways, my plan to interrogate Black literally came out of nowhere. I was just innocently lounging with some of my mates outside after Herbology and BAM! Black and Potter came running outside like a herd of angry Centaurs were chasing them. I didn't even have the time to make a witty and mildly offensive comment about their frazzled state before they went ducking behind the stone castle wall. It wasn't until then that I realized why they were running like a bat of hell. I never really understood that phrase. I mean, bats don't even run. They fly. Anyways that's not the point. The point is that Professor McGonagall came fuming out of the castle like someone'd lit her knickers on fire while she was still wearing them.

"Where are they?" she demanded.

I feigned an innocent and naïve expression, "Who?"

"Potter and Black, Clark. I know they came this way, now which way did they go?"

"Potter? Black? Which one? I mean, they're both pretty popular last names. Maybe if I had their first names then I could help you," I replied with a shrug.

"Very funny, Miss Clark. James Potter and Sirius Black but you already knew that. Now where are they?" she snapped impatiently.

"Wait, you lost your Head Boy? That's very bad people management skills, Minnie," I shook my head at her disapprovingly.

"Detention!"

I shrugged innocently, "Have you checked detention? Considering it's Black and Potter they practically live in detention or you might want to check the Quidditch Pitch."

She straightened up slightly, looking less like a demon now that she had an answer. "Thank you, Miss Clark." She walked away, looking like she really did have a stick up her arse. Maybe Madam Pomfrey could do something about that for her…

"Well that could have been worse," my mate, Robin, commented as she took a drag of her cigarette.

"Thanks for that, Cherry," I heard Sirius say as he cautiously peeked his head out from around the corner. Once he was confident that McGonagall really was gone for good both he and Potter came nonchalantly shuffling out from behind the wall.

"No worries," I replied with a shrug. "So what'd you do to brass her off this time?"

Black and Potter exchanged mischievous grins that piqued my interest. "Nothing too special," Black replied vaguely.

I gave him a look of disbelief, "Riiiggghttt. Whatever, Black, we have Muggle Studies bullocks to do. What time's good for you?"

He shrugged, "I'm free now."

I flashed him a pearly grin, "Great. Let's go see if we can't survive a trip to the library."

I don't know how we survived our trip to the library. He and I both nearly died of coughing attacks when we walked in. Perhaps the dusty atmosphere was something that you just needed to build up immunity to. Luckily for both of us, however, we didn't plan on spending much time there to build up that immunity. In fact, as soon as we coughed through checking out a few relatively useful looking books on motorbikes we ran away from there like we were being attacked by a herd of brassed off Hippogriffs.

We found solace in a non-dusty empty classroom. It was obvious, however, ten minutes into our attempt at working on this project that our attempts were futile. I mean, I still had to find out why he was dating Marren so I wasn't exactly set on spending my time learning about motorbikes and apparently he was just as distracted.

"Black, you've been reading that page for the past ten minutes," I told him disinterestedly. "Have you forgotten how to read?"

He gave me a playful scowl, "No, I – I guess I'm just not up for reading about Muggle engines."

I gasped, putting a hand over my heart, "Not up for reading about Muggle engines? That's practically blasphemous!"

He rolled his eyes at me, "Shut up Clark."

"Alright fine, I'll bite. What's got you so distracted, huh? Your Puffer girlfriend find a way to steal your thoughts?" I questioned, giving him an obnoxious wink. There was something that made being obnoxious with him so easy. It was probably the fact that he was naturally even more obnoxious than I was.

He gave me yet another scowl, good-naturedly swinging the textbook he'd been attempting to read at my head. I easily ducked, sticking my tongue out at him. "It's not that. It's just – It's complicated," he replied with a shrug.

"Ah," I nodded knowingly. "I think I know something that'll help take the edge of that frustration." I reached into my bag, pulling out a small plastic bag.

"Is that what I think it is?" he questioned, looking interestedly down at my bag.

I smiled coyly at him, "Maybe."

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you could get into for having that? McGonagall would –"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Is the bloke who just brassed McGonagall off to the verge of murder really going to lecture me about breaking rules?"

He held up his hands in surrender, "Fine, point taken. I just hope you know what you're doing."

I faked a pout, beginning to roll a relatively small blunt, "Don't you have any faith in me at all? Now, are you going to make me smoke alone or are you going to get over yourself?"

He sighed, watching me light the end. He looked like he was struggling with his inner self conscience. Luckily for me I think I smoked my own conscience away years ago. "Well I guess a little bit won't hurt," he conceded.

Success! Hopefully a few hits and his tongue'd loosen up a bit about why he was dating a Puffer. I mean, they were practically not even on our level of the food chain. I handed him the roll, giving him the first hit. "Good man. I swear it's not as bad as people make it out to be. You might even like it."

He cautiously accepted it, tentatively taking his first hit. He coughed, handing it back to me. I laughed at his baby-sized hit, taking in what I considered to be normal sized. "Alright so I have a question," I informed him, soaking in the familiar and comforting smell of marijuana.

"I probably have an answer," he wittily replied, snatching the blunt away from me and taking a slightly more impressive hit.

"Hmm maybe I should wait 'til you've had a little more of that before I ask," I shook my head.

"Ah so that was your plan, huh? To bring me here and get me wasted so you could get some answers?" he teasingly questioned, taking another hit. If he kept going the way he was going then he was going to be a goner in just a couple of minutes.

I didn't want him to know how close he was to my trail so I gave a nonchalant shrug, "What else would I want to get you wasted for?"

He scoffed, shaking his head at me, "Well aren't you a charmer?"

"No, that's apparently your job," I quipped, stealing the roll back. "Alright now are you going to be nice and answer my question or not?"

"How am I supposed to know that if I don't know what the question is?" he retorted as I took a puff.

"Okay fine, why did you agree to date a girl who won't have sex with you?"

Oops, I was going to try to be more subtle and tactful about that. Oh well, there was a reason that Tact wasn't my middle name.

He even looked more surprised than I was that my question had managed to spill out. "Wow, I – I don't even know how to answer that."

"Well generally it's considered acceptable by answering with the truth," I pointed out.

"Alright err I kind of… I started dating her because… Because of James," he admitted.

Well I definitely hadn't seen that one coming. That was definitely not what I was expecting. "I don't understand."

He let out a small laugh and I wasn't sure if it was because he actually found this entertaining or if it was the marijuana going to his brain. "Ali's friends with Evans, and James' been in love with Evans since forever. The idea was if I could get Ali on our side then Evans would be more likely to say yes to him. Well, that was brilliant and all except for the fact that I didn't realize how fragile she is. I couldn't just break up with her so we're in a bit of a rut."

Okay, that made a bit more sense once he explained it. "Was it worth it?"

He shrugged, "She's alright. Kind of grows on you after a bit. I mean she's passive most of the time and a bit timid but she's not that bad."

"So you're cursing yourself with celibacy because you don't have the heart to break up with her? I don't know if that makes you a saint or an idiot," I commented off-handedly.

He let out a canine-like laugh, "It's really not that bad."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Pet, the sexual frustration is practically dripping off of you. You're lying out of your arse."

He shrugged yet again, "And what if I am. It's not like I can do anything about it."

"Ah so the whole Camilla West announcement was obviously a fluke?" I questioned in disbelief.

He rolled his eyes exaggeratedly with a loud sigh, "Don't you have better faith in me than to think I'd shag her?"

"And the rumor that you slept with Courtney Steele last weekend is obviously hearsay too?"

"Well, erm, that might not just be hearsay," he admitted.

So he really was a no-good cheating bastard. "Might?"
"You have to understand, we'd been dating for months. I mean, it's been like seven months now. I was going crazy. It wasn't – It wasn't just about the sex," he told me, taking a long hit. He exhaled deeply, "It's hard to explain what it's like being with her. It's like – It's like I constantly have to watch what I say and what I do and how I do it. I just needed a break, you know? Just some time to forget about it. It's not that Ali's a bad person. I mean, she's sweet and brilliant and all but – It's like she's my exact opposite on everything. She's so careful about everything and she never wants to offend people and she's so skittish and I'm – I'm blunt and impulsive and I find her exhausting."

I had to feel sorry for the guy. I mean, infidelity is infidelity but he originally had good intentions. I could understand why dating someone who was your complete opposite was exhausting. "And how does she feel about it?"

He let out a humorless laugh, leaning back on his hands, "She once asked me if I loved her. The funny thing is I wanted to be able to tell her I did but I couldn't. I couldn't lie to her and I couldn't tell the truth."

"So what did you tell her?" I questioned curiously.

"I – erm – kind of just grunted. I think she took it as a yes though," he admitted.

"You do realize you're just leading her on, right?"

"Yeah."

I sighed and shook my head at him, taking the blunt back, "You do realize that cheating on her is going to do as much damage as breaking up with her, right? If not worse."

He sighed, "Yeah I know."

"You're lucky either she's gullible and naïve or really stupid because any other girl who thought you were cheating on them and they'd kill you. Well or maybe that's just me," I informed him.

"But I wouldn't cheat on you," he pointed out.

I scoffed, "Ah, I forgot you only cheat on girls who won't put out."

"No, that's not it," he shook his head at me, obviously feeling the effects of the weed. "You aren't as tiring as she is. When I'm around you I don't feel as exhausted and drained. I guess you and I are just more alike. I wouldn't need to cheat on you."

There was something about him saying that which made me internally giggle. What the hell was wrong with me and why was Sirius Bloody Black making me feel like a giggly schoolgirl?

A/N: This wasn't supposed to turn out like this. In my original planning Sirius wasn't supposed to admit that he cheated on Ali yet. Originally he was just supposed to admit why he was dating her. Obviously that's not what ended up happening. Oops? Anyways I hoped you enjoyed a little more Sirius/Cherry action.

Evan