Chapter Seven: There's always someone else
I had just left James and Sirius after Transfiguration to pop in to the loos before Potions when I heard the gossip. As I was doing my business in a stall, I heard a group of girls chatting together. One of them was crying.
"How can he actually be going out with her? After we snogged at Slughorn's party last year I was sure he was going to ask me to be his girlfriend, but he never did," the girl wailed.
"Yes, but Laura love, he doesn't date. He never has. The most you'll ever get out of him is a snog. Everyone knows that."
"Then how come he's walking her to her Charms lesson right now?" Laura said, between sniffles.
"It's probably a Love Potion. She's Head Girl so she's awfully clever, isn't she?" another girl's voice mused, a bit spitefully.
"He kissed her cheek as well, do you think he really does fancy her?" Laura's other friend said quietly, though she was quickly shushed when Laura burst in to fresh sobs.
I knew by now they were talking about Sirius and Emmeline, so I was just concerned with getting out of there as quickly as possible. The girls stopped dead when they heard the toilet flush and all eyes were on me when I exited the stall and headed to the sinks to wash my hands. I heard frantic whispers and suddenly, one of them spoke up. I recognized her as Dora Finley, a Hufflepuff in Fifth Year.
"Hey, you're in Sixth Year right? Bridget Willoughby?"
I nodded. "Um, yeah. Anyway, I have to get to Potions, so good luck with OWLs girls," I said hurriedly. They moved to block the door however and I sighed in defeat.
"I've seen you talking to him. You two organized that protest against the Defence Professor, didn't you?" the other girl whose name I didn't know said.
"Oh, you're right Beth, she had a go at Sirius at Breakfast last week too," Laura said, eying me with interest. "Do you know him?"
"Who?" I said, playing dumb.
"Sirius Black, of course," Dora said, saying his name with reverence.
"Oh yeah. We're mates," I said, immediately regretting divulging this information.
"But, he doesn't have any girl mates," Laura said, a bit stupidly.
"It's a relatively new development. Now really girls – I have to go."
"What's going on between Sirius and Emmeline Vance then?" Beth asked, her eyes flashing.
"Um...it's not really my place to say," I said awkwardly, wondering if I could make a run for it. Dora looked pretty built though, and I wasn't entirely sure she couldn't have me pinned on the floor if I made the slightest motion to leave.
"But if you know him – you must know. Or were you just lying about being friends with him?" Laura said, accusingly.
"If I say I was, will you let me get to Potions?" I asked, tiredly.
"Please, just tell us! Is he really off the market? After all these years - have we really lost our chance?" Dora asked, her lip quivering. Taking a look at her buckteeth and face covered in caked-over foundation, I couldn't help but think guiltily that this girl probably wouldn't have stood a chance with him anyway, but I just shrugged.
"Um, they went to Hogsmeade together," I said, saying the only thing I could think that had already passed through the Hogwarts rumor mill.
Beth waved that off. "Well of course but that's not much news. He takes girls to Slughorn's parties and Hogsmeade all the time."
I didn't want to say that he'd never taken a date to Hogsmeade before, for fear of sounding as stalkerish as they did, but just shrugged again.
"Sorry, that's all I know."
"Will you find out for us, please?" Laura begged, tears streaming down her face again. Although she was pretty, I was a bit surprised that Sirius had snogged her when she seemed this unstable.
"No, if you're so desperate to find out, ask him yourselves or ask Emmeline," I said, trying to push past them. Dora and Beth held strong however and their height gave them a significant physical advantage over me. Laura was much slighter, a few inches shorter than I was, so I wasn't really intimidated when she stepped forward, especially when I saw that she had mascara dripping down her cheeks.
"We can't just talk to him!" She said looking appalled at the idea.
"Oh for goodness sake!" I said, losing patience. "I know he's good-looking, but he's not Merlin's gift to women, just talk to him if you 'must' know!" I snapped and then with a few well timed flicks of my wand, I had them all clutching their faces with boils erupting all over them. It was a bit over-the-top, but it gave me enough time to slide past them without completely immobilizing them. I was sure however, that they would skip their next lesson anyway, to get some treatment from the Hospital Wing.
I hurried down to the Dungeons five minutes late and was surprised to see Sirius strolling to the classroom himself. His strides became a bit longer to keep up with me, though he didn't seem in much of a hurry to get to class.
"Why are you late?" I asked, as we turned some corners.
"Walked Emmeline to class," he shrugged, though there was a smile playing at his lips.
"Don't you care that you're late?" I said and he rolled his eyes at me.
"Surely you know me better than that, Bridge."
"Well I'm not in the bloody Slug Club and Slughorn will give me detention if I'm late!" I said, turning the last corner and stepping towards the door.
"Leave it to me," Sirius said, stepping in front of me and opening the door.
"Oho, late again, Mr Black!" Slughorn said quite cheerfully.
"Sorry Professor, we got stuck on the third floor – Moaning Myrtle's flooded the corridor again," he replied smoothly, letting me step in behind him and try to not look guilty.
Slughorn let out a laugh. "Moaning Myrtle! What a wonderfully appropriate nickname, Sirius! I myself have been trapped during one of her floods. Do come in, we're just getting started with Lily reading out her essay. Hurry up Miss Willoughby," he said gesturing me inside and sending Sirius and I to our respective desks. Slughorn motioned for Lily Evans to continue reading and she did so as Sirius and I tried to take our places.
"I have a bone to pick with you," I whispered to Sirius as he sat down with James and I continued to my seat further along the aisle. He turned and raised an eyebrow at me but I said no more, sitting beside Ollie and turning my attention to the essay Lily was reading and the beaming smile on Professor Slughorn's face.
I was concentrating on grinding my Valerian root, when someone tapped me and I jumped, spilling too much in to the mortar. I sighed and pulled some of the sprigs out before turning to look at Sirius. He was leaning against my table with an expectant look. Ollie, who was sitting beside me, gave him a scowl, as he too had to re-measure his ingredients.
"What?" I said, as I continued grinding the root.
"I should ask you the same thing. What bone do you have and why are you picking on me?" Sirius said with a grin and I shook my head with a sarcastic laugh.
"Can you move over, Black? I just re-measured my crushed beetles," Ollie said in a stiff voice.
Black glanced over his shoulder at Ollie and shrugged.
"Sorry mate," he said, not sounding sorry at all as he moved closer to me. I practically heard Ollie scowl as he crushed some ingredients with extra force.
"Stop annoying my friends," I whispered to Sirius.
He rolled his eyes. "Chamberlain doesn't want to be your friend and he certainly doesn't want me to be either," he teased, though he had the sense to keep his voice lowered too.
I rolled my eyes back at him. "Anyway, leave me alone – I'll tell you later, I need to concentrate. Besides, shouldn't you be focusing on your own Potion?"
"I'm letting it stew," Sirius replied, running a hand through his mass of gleaming hair.
"You're on step six already?" I asked in awe.
"Yeah, I'm good at Potions," he shrugged.
I looked at him skeptically. "Then why do I always hear at least one explosion from your table per lesson?"
Sirius barked a laugh. "That's James and sometimes Remus. They're useless. James barely made the grade to continue to NEWT. Anyway, don't change the subject! Why are you all pissy with me?"
"I'm not pissy, but I do need some information," I said carefully reading the next line of instructions before adding a pinch of the crushed mixture to my cauldron.
"Don't forget to stir," Sirius said helpfully and I scowled as I stopped myself from moving on to the next step before stirring.
"So, what information do you need?" He said, yawning and stretching his arms over his head. Although he looked handsome as ever, I saw that he had bags under his eyes and a thin, fresh scratch was running down his neck and disappearing under his robes.
"Where did you get that scar?" I asked, distracted.
Sirius wrinkled his brow and then quickly brought his hand up to cover the scar. "Oh, Peter's...um, rat got me." He smirked to himself at this but looked at me innocently.
I raised an eyebrow at him and he busied himself with looking in to my cauldron.
"Here, you need to add the juice before you add the eyes," he said, reaching for my dish of frogeye solution. "It changes the color more quickly."
"Oh go do your own bloody Potion," I heard Ollie mumble. His cauldron was smoking and his normally soft, wavy, brown hair was frizzed up around his forehead.
Sirius looked back over his shoulder and chuckled. "And maybe you ought to concentrate on your own work instead of eavesdropping on our conversation."
"What did you say?" Ollie snapped, angrily getting closer to Sirius' face. Although he wasn't short, Sirius was a good two inches taller than Ollie and it didn't look as menacing as my fellow Ravenclaw might have intended.
Sirius just laughed indifferently. "Calm down, Chamberlain. I'll get lost as soon as Bridget tells me what she wanted to tell me."
Ollie grumbled and stepped back to his cauldron. His cheeks were a little pink and he refused to look our way again. I gave Sirius a look of exasperation that he returned with a mischievous grin and I sighed.
"I was just cornered by some Hufflepuff girls demanding to know what's going on with you and Lover Girl."
Sirius laughed. "Don't call her that, Bridge."
I smiled back. "Look, I told them I wasn't going to gossip and that they should find out themselves – but do us a favor and spread the word or something. It's not like you and Emmeline are some big secret."
Sirius groaned. "Ugh, why does it need to be such a big deal? I can't bloody scratch my arse without people wanting to know about it."
I wrinkled my nose and shook my head at him and he laughed again.
"Oh fine, I'll tell Hannah Simmons or something, that girl's got a gob bigger than Russia. Everyone at Hogwarts will know within a..." he trailed off and scratched his chin thoughtfully. "But do you think I ought to ask Emmeline first? What if she wants to keep it quiet?"
I was quite impressed with him and smiled. "Oh yeah, go on, ask her first. I can keep hexing people out of my way if they bother me for information."
He smirked. "Who did you hex?"
"Their names were Dora, Beth and Laura. They're in Fifth Year," I explained as I stood back to let my Potion stew.
"Never heard of them," Sirius said dismissively.
"Sirius! Apparently you snogged Laura at one of Slughorn's parties last year!"
He scratched his head thoughtfully. "Did I? Must have been the one I passed out at."
We both laughed at this and he glanced at the clock. "Back to work. I better save James from exploding another cauldron. And honestly, Chamberlain looks like he could use your help," Sirius said loudly as he walked off. I scowled at him warningly but turned to help Ollie, as his Potion really was looking worrisome.
"Oh Ollie, you forgot the Thistle!" I said, grabbing his mortar and dumping some measures in to the cauldron.
He sighed with relief as his Potion stopped smoking. It wasn't the right color by a long shot, but I wasn't really sure how to fix that.
"Um...you might scrape an Acceptable at least, if you follow the rest of the instructions exactly," I said to him doubtfully as he wiped his face and flattened his wayward hair. "I could ask Sirius how to get the color back on track if you like," I suggested, looking over to where Sirius had saved James' Potion. It now looked very passable indeed.
Ollie shook his head. "No. I only messed up because of him in the first place."
"Yeah, he did knock over a few ingredients," I mumbled with a shrug.
"No, he was distracting me," Ollie said shaking his head.
"Really? I thought he was distracting me," I chuckled.
Ollie smiled at me. "Well, that's why: it bothered me." He blushed and looked at his book and I felt my own cheeks go red. Hurriedly, I began adding more ingredients as I stirred my own cauldron.
"I'm a bit jealous of him, to be honest," Ollie said in a low, slightly embarrassed voice.
I almost dropped too many rat-tails in as I jerked my head over to look at him. He had a sheepish expression on his face and he smiled at me. Putting down my rat-tails, I looked at him curiously.
"Why would you be jealous of Sirius, Ollie? He's a nutter!" I laughed. "You're normal at least."
"Well, you spend a lot of time with him..." he muttered and I felt my cheeks flush again.
"Oh. Right," I mumbled, trying not to smile too obviously. I sat down, leaving my Potion to cool before I put my sample in to a flask and Ollie sat down, forgetting his Potion was still simmering. I chose not to say anything because I was feeling a bit nervous all of a sudden.
"Listen Bridget, you know Slughorn's Holiday party next month?" Ollie asked, tapping his feet on the ground.
"Um...yeah I've heard of them. I'm never invited though!" I laughed. I hadn't been invited to join the Slug Club as Slughorn hadn't gotten on very well with my father when he was in school. Ollie however, was related to some very famous politician in the '30s who had served as the only Wizard in Muggle government back then, so he had, of course, been invited to Slughorn's parties since First Year.
"Yeah, well his Holiday parties are always quite fun and I was just wondering..." he hesitated and when I looked over his shoulder I could see Sirius watching us with amusement and his eyebrow raised. He turned to whisper something to an also watching James and I forced myself to look at Ollie who was smiling shyly at me. The frizz had left his hair and it looked normal now and as always his clear, smiling blue eyes made my stomach flip over.
"Will you go with me?" he asked, his face hopeful as he put his hand on my knee and grabbed my hand.
A million things were running through my head as he looked at me. His cauldron that was now bubbling over; the chuckles coming from James and Sirius; the realization that Remus was missing from classes today and then suddenly my father. Was I ready to pick things up with Ollie again after what happened last year? Or should I just try to treat this as something new, rather than an extension of our brief relationship last year?
"We could go as friends...if you're not..." he was stumbling now, looking embarrassed but I held up my hand and stopped him.
"I'd love to go to Slughorn's party with you," I said, smiling shyly at him.
He broke out in to a happy, toothy grin and said, "Thank Merlin – I've been trying to work up the courage to ask you since Hogsmeade." He pulled me up to give me a quick hug.
And then, his cauldron blew up.
We looked at it with dismay as everyone turned to stare and Sirius and James dissolved in to full-blown laughter. Slughorn shook his head but smiled sympathetically at Ollie.
"Now, now Oliver, more attention on your work instead of pretty ladies next time," he said, patting a mortified Ollie on the back before returning the cauldron to its original form. This however did not address the mess that still lay sticky and dripping off our desk. Thankfully, my Potion was still in order and I hurried to fill a flask before I started helping Ollie clean up.
"You can turn in another sample this weekend on your own time, Oliver," Slughorn said to him, kindly. "Now class, fill your flask samples and bring them to the front – you are dismissed."
The class scrambled to pack their things up, twittering and chuckling about the explosion. James and Sirius were still laughing raucously as they walked out of the classroom causing Oliver to scowl in their direction. He sighed and glanced at me.
"Well, I would've liked to have seemed a bit cooler when I asked you, but at least you still said yes, right?" he said with a laugh.
I laughed with him. "Of course! At least we avoided the wreckage – it would've been much worse if you were asking me with pink Potion all over your face!" We laughed again and he put a hand on mine.
"You don't have to help – go ahead to Lunch. I'll see you there," he insisted.
"Are you sure? I don't mind," I said, hesitantly, eying the huge pool of stubborn goo that remained all over the desk.
"Yeah, I think I need a minute to recover my pride, actually," he half-joked, closing his eyes. I chuckled again and patted him on the arm trying to put him at ease but decided to leave him to it.
"Okay then, see you soon," I said with a smile before heading to the front to drop off my flask and leaving the room.
In truth, I was quite happy to leave so that I could tell Nicola the news privately before Ollie showed up at Lunch. Unfortunately, my plans were ruined when I saw Sirius and James waiting outside the classroom, identical smirks on their faces.
"You two are so mean! That happens to everyone!" I said, as I pushed past them and made my way down the corridor.
"Yes, but not while they're in the middle of trying to flirt," James joked.
"I hear at least one explosion a lesson from you, Potter! Isn't that because you're too busy eying up Evans?" I said, scowling at him. I noticed that like Sirius, he looked more tired than usual – his eyes were bloodshot behind his glasses. That didn't stop him from grinning widely back at me and clicking his tongue.
"Yeah, but I can laugh it off – did you see how red Chamberlain was?"
Sirius laughed loudly at this and I sighed.
"Stop following me, you gits," I grumbled, pathetically.
"We're all going to Lunch, Bridge – it's kind of impossible," Sirius teased. "So, what was Chamberlain saying? Was he worried that me and you were an item?"
"No, actually – he asked me to Slughorn's Holiday party," I admitted, turning a corner and brushing by some small Third Years.
"Oi, get out of it," James said, hexing one out of his way. I rolled my eyes. I'd forgotten that Sirius and James seemed to think they ruled the Hogwarts corridors.
"He asked you to Slughorn's party? That's a month away – bit keen isn't he?" Sirius said to me after laughing at the Third Year, who was now hopping uncontrollably on one foot.
"Can't you take the curse off him? That's mean." I said distractedly, looking over my shoulder and coming to a stop.
Sirius shrugged and James shook his head as we watched the Third Years scramble to help their friend who now looked quite alarmed at the rate with which he was hopping.
"Nah, they've got to learn to avoid things like that. Besides, I don't need to take the curse off him myself – it's just Finite Incantatem," James said with a giant grin as his victim's friend bend down to try and hold the hopping foot to the floor.
I frowned as he and Sirius laughed harder.
"They're Hufflepuffs, it'll take them bloody ages to work it out," Sirius said winking at James.
"Potter! Just go and take the curse off him!" I insisted, irritably.
"Leave it alone, Bridge – tell us...how much does Chamberlain fancy you exac-" Sirius started to say, trailing off as James elbowed him in the ribs.
"Oh bollocks – will you take the blame on this one?" James whispered to Sirius indicating his head towards a girl with fiery red hair and a very ticked-off expression heading our way.
"Don't even bother trying to make them do it, Bridget. They're too wrapped up in themselves to actually consider helping anyone else," Lily Evans remarked in annoyance, waving her wand and wordlessly stopping the Third Year from hopping.
"In the future, Finite Incantatem usually stops silly hexes like that," she said to the group kindly. The nodded and threw a frightened glance at James and Sirius before hurrying away.
"I don't get you Potter! Why do you feel the need to hex people for no reason?" Evans said, turning on him with a look of disgust on her beautiful face.
James elbowed Sirius in the ribs again and with a sigh, he stepped forward.
"Actually it was my fault, Evans. And to be fair, they were in our way and we were in the middle of teasing Bridget," Sirius said in a casual tone.
I scowled. "Leave me out of this, you plonker," I said and he laughed at my insult.
"So you hex people out of your way just for fun?!" Lily said, her face turning redder by the minute. "I thought you might have learned something by now...grown up a bit! But clearly, you two are just as conceited and arrogant as always!"
"Aw, give it a rest Evans – it's not as if I murdered the bloke. He just had a hoppy foot," James said with a charming grin.
"I thought Black said he did it," Lily said, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Oh well...um, yeah...I meant him," James stuttered.
Lily let out another huff of irritation and then walked past us to go to Lunch, glancing at me and muttering "How you put up with the pair of them, I'll never know..."
Sirius burst in to laughter. "Honestly, you'd think we'd hexed her best mate or something. Your bird is insane, Prongs."
James scowled. "No she's not. And she's not my bird. Why doesn't she give it a rest? I'm only teaching the younger ones to be prepared!" He ran a hand through his messy hair making it look even worse as he stared after Lily with a puzzled look.
I scoffed. "That's one way of putting it." Then, thinking that Evans had the right idea, I also stormed away from the two boys but since I could hear Sirius laughing about it in the background, I knew they obviously weren't taking my outburst as seriously.
I was sitting in the Common Room during my Free trying to practice the Aguamenti incantation to prepare myself for Charms when a Fifth Year girl named Rebecca Fields walked up to me, looking flushed and quite giggly.
"Bridget?" she prompted when I didn't look up and merely cursed in frustration at the glass I'd failed to fill with water.
I threw my wand down in annoyance and raised my eyebrows at her. "Yes?"
"Um...Sirius Black asked me to check if you were in here," she said, giggling again.
I frowned. "Huh?"
"Well, he's waiting outside the Tower for me to see if you're here," she said, grinning very widely.
"Why would he do that?" I said stupidly.
"Well, he wants to talk to you, obviously! I didn't know you knew him – what's he like?" she sighed, dreamily.
"Haven't you just walked him all the way to our Common Room? What do you think he's like?" I asked, irritated at her ridiculous expression.
"Oh I couldn't possibly talk to him! What would I say? He's too..." she sighed again, her eyes flitting in to the distance.
"Well, could you tell him I'm busy, please? I'll see him in Charms," I said, dismissively, picking up my wand and waving it at the glass again. It shattered and I groaned. "Reparo," I muttered before realizing Rebecca was still standing there, staring at me in awe.
"You're not going to see him?" she asked in shock.
"No, I see him all the time – I need to study now," I replied as patiently as I could.
"And you'll really let me tell him? You don't want to do it yourself?" she said, her eyes round and excited. I looked at her and felt a pang of sympathy. I wondered if I had ever been like her – hoping desperately that I'd be able to talk to him. I thought about it and remembered my crush from Third Year and embarrassingly, that was probably the case.
"Um, yeah. You'd really be doing me a favor," I said, smiling at her, trying to hold on to my last shred of indulgence.
"Oh thank you, Bridget!" she said gratefully, running off to the entrance of the common room and flinging open the door. I watched the door swing closed and chuckled with amusement. It must be nice to get such a thrill from simply talking to someone. Lately, the only feeling I got around Sirius was a mixture of annoyance and fondness – the way one might have for an unruly, stray puppy. I'd forgotten how exciting it was to talk to a crush that you thought would never in a million years speak to you. I smiled to myself thinking that for a period of time last year, I'd felt that way about Ollie and now we were going to Slughorn's Holiday party together.
A minute later, I heard a fresh round of giggles and looked up to see a madly blushing Rebecca leading Sirius in to the Common Room. She was staring at him in awe as he surveyed his surroundings and gave an impressed little nod. When his eyes rested on me, he broke out in to a large and annoying grin.
"Thanks for letting me in, Bex. I've always wondered where Ravenclaw Tower was," he said, smiling at her and patting her on the back. She visibly swooned at his nickname for her and hurried off to a group of her curious friends who were staring at her in awe.
"What did you do to the poor girl? I told her to say I'd see you later!" I groaned, leaning back in my armchair as Sirius sat on the empty sofa to my right. He shrugged.
"I didn't really accept that answer and after I asked her nicely, she was more than willing to let me in. Nice digs by the way, Bridge – it's almost as nice up here, as Gryffindor Tower."
I rolled my eyes.
"I owe that Rebecca girl one. This is the only Common Room that me and my mates haven't found," he said, grinning. "Useful information."
"Why didn't you just ask Emmeline to show you?" I said.
"Ah because that would be breaking rules and my girl sticks by the book," he said with a little smile.
I made a face and tried to practice again, sighing when only a few trickles of water spurted from my wand.
"Oh, haven't you got that down yet? I suppose it's a bit tricky – took me about thirty minutes," Sirius said arrogantly, watching me struggle.
"Oh shove it. We can't all be natural geniuses!"
Sirius laughed. "I'm not, you have no idea how much I had to practice for Transfiguration last year!"
I waved him off dismissively. "Yeah right! You got an O for OWLs and the only person who gets spells quicker than you in lessons is James and he's top of the class."
Sirius shrugged. "Well, it's not all about exams..." he said quietly.
I sighed, throwing my wand on to the table again. "What am I doing wrong, then?"
"No idea."
I huffed in frustration, "Big help, you are!"
"I didn't come to study with you Bridget. I came to get the goss on you and Chamberlain," he said, propping his face up with one hand and batting his eyelashes at me dramatically. I couldn't help but laugh at his imitation of Hannah Simmons but blushed at his question.
"We're just going to the party together...for now."
"Well, careful he doesn't try anything too quick – he touches you an awful lot," Sirius said, his voice suddenly serious.
I laughed. "What?"
"Seriously, that bloke touches you more than I've seen anyone touch someone," he insisted.
"He's just friendly, Sirius. I know what I'm doing," I said, looking at him fondly. It was nice that he was looking out for my well-being.
He looked a bit embarrassed for a moment but smiled. "I'm actually glad he asked you to go to Slughorn's party – it's my birthday that day and I've managed to get all my mates in to the party for once. It was just you I was worrying about."
I raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you all in the Slug Club?"
"No, it's just me and James. Luckily though, I managed to get Evans to bring Remus as her guest – I got an earful from James, but Remus is just friends with Lily so it's not a problem – better than her asking someone else to go. And Dorcas agreed to let Peter tag along with her since apparently Fenwick asked someone else to go with him."
"Really? Who did he ask?" I said with interest.
"Some girl in third year named Lizzy? Dorcas is furious about it – it's quite hilarious," Sirius laughed
I laughed too. "She shouldn't be! That's his sister, she probably coerced him in to it!"
Sirius was hysterical by this point. "Aw, that is brilliant value. But I think I'll leave that out so she doesn't back out of taking Peter. The party should be a laugh, though. Since my invitation is for Em, I was a bit worried about who was going to take you."
"Well, I'll be there," I said with a smile.
"Good! Don't forget to get me a present!" he said cheekily and though I rolled my eyes, I agreed.
"Sirius?" a pretty voice said, making us both turn to look. Emmeline was standing there with her friend, Jessy Saunders with a strange expression on her face. She looked pleased, stern and confused all at the same time. She glanced at the two of us with our knees touching for a moment and said to Sirius in a slightly shaky voice, "What are you doing here?"
Sirius jumped up from his seat with a broad smile and lied smoothly, "Looking for you, of course!" He walked over and gave her a little kiss on the cheek. Emmeline's face brightened immediately and she blushed a bit.
"You're not supposed to be in here, you know," she protested weakly, though she looked very pleased at his presence in her Common Room despite his rule breaking.
"Yeah, I had some Fifth Year let me in and then I ran in to Bridget and was just telling her about my birthday at Slughorn's party," Sirius said, dismissing her reprimand, breezily.
Emmeline laughed. "Oh, has he demanded a present from you too?" she said to me with a knowing smile.
"Sadly, yes," I replied drily making her and Jessy chuckle.
"Well, we were just in the Library. I didn't know you had a Free today!" Emmeline said to Sirius.
"I do," he said, looking in to her eyes in a way I hadn't seen before. I wasn't sure if it was seductive or suggestive but just watching it made my ears go a bit warm. I couldn't imagine how Emmeline could only be blushing slightly when he was looking at her like that.
"So, I suppose you two are going to find a broom cupboard somewhere then?" Jessy joked, pointedly. "I'll catch you later then!" She disappeared through the girls' dormitory entrance bidding us goodbye and I turned to see Sirius whispering something to Emmeline. She giggled and nodded at him before smiling at me.
"Nice to talk to you Bridget, see you around!" she said, tugging on Sirius' hand. He winked at me suggestively and I made a face in response.
"See ya in Charms, Bridge," he called as they hurried out of the Common Room.
Thankfully I'd never seen the two of them snogging in public with the exception of their first, chaste kiss in Hogsmeade. They seemed to keep their PDA down to a minimum unlike some couples that snogged right in the middle of the common room (ahem-Nicola and Arron-ahem). I was grateful for their discretion because just thinking of Sirius and Emmeline off in a broom cupboard somewhere did something funny and familiar to my stomach and I shuddered to get rid of the feeling and concentrate on refilling the still empty water glass on the table.
A/N: Thank you! I got the best response so far from the last chapter. Thanks to Aqua4444, PurpleHaze09 and the anonymous reviews I got. Hopefully I don't lose those anonymous readers, because although they didn't like it - Emmeline will probably be around for a while - Romances are so much more interesting to me when there's a triangle/square :) Hope you'll continue reading anyway.Thanks everyone who is reading!