A/N: Sorry for the day-late update :| It's fairly hectic with school so the next update won't be this weekend, but next Friday (that would be June 1). Sorry, guys! :(
Rachel sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall the next day, early in the morning.
The earliest she'd ever woken up, actually.
Her left hand was supporting her head and her right hand was holding a fork that was pointlessly pushing her eggs around her plate. She sighed and dropped her fork on her plate. She wasn't going to eat anyway.
The real reason she was so down about everything was that Rachel had been proven right once more. Not once in her life had she seen any proof that love was useful and that it lasted and made people happy. She let herself slip for the smallest moment, and she only got hurt. She should've known better, especially with her parents. Love couldn't withstand everything.
And, of course, one would say there was Alice and Frank, but they were slowly falling apart as well. Frank was going off into the real world after the school year and while they were both adults, they were still young and didn't know what to do. And quite evidently, they were letting the rumors and opinions of others influence them.
Marlene sat across from Rachel and shot her a smile, "This is odd behavior from you. Up before the rest of us."
Rachel sighed and let her head fall on the wooden table with a loud thud. "I don't know what to do anymore, Marls."
"Are we really still at this issue?" Marlene asked exasperatedly.
"Yeah. Sorry," Rachel replied sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and attempted to eat her breakfast.
"Study," Lily said pointedly to Rachel, narrowing her eyes at her.
Rachel narrowed her eyes back as she replied, "No."
Lily rolled her eyes and went back to her reading.
"Honestly, all you have to do is read," Remus said.
The three of them had decided to coop up in the library, seeing as they all had friends that didn't want to study.
"But I hate Transfiguration," Rachel whined.
"It's easy, Rachel," Remus replied. "It's just on Animagi."
"Animagi are not easy," Rachel said. She pointed at Remus. "Do you know how long the minimum time is to correctly master an animagi?"
"Two years."
"That's—" Rachel paused and let her hand fall. "That's right."
"Yeah, well, you'd be surprised how much the Marauders know about animagi," Remus replied.
"You mean yourself?" Lily asked
"No, I mean all four of us," Remus replied. "We all got O's"
"What?" Lily and Rachel exclaimed simultaneously.
Madame Pince hissed at them to be quiet and Remus shrugged and went back to his work.
Rachel sat on the grass right by the Black Lake. She had just taken her last exam for the school year: Potions. Sirius was in that class and when the test had ended, Rachel could tell he was heading for her. She made a beeline for the door and got lost in the streaming crowd of students.
She had been sitting in front of the lake for three hours.
Because while she did feel that she did well academically, the school year still felt like a failure. She may have been the one girl in the school that didn't care for Sirius Black, but that obviously went down the toilet. And it wasn't like she ended up winning from that anyways.
It had been a waste of energy and stress, in her opinion.
She closed her eyes and attempted to relax. She'd be home in a week, smelling barbeque everyday, going to the beach, and maybe even getting closer to the blond Irish boy that had moved next door during Christmas break.
She was almost entirely relaxed when she sensed someone sit next to her.
Her eyes snapped open and she sighed when she saw Sirius. She quickly turned her gaze away from him and stared blankly out at the still waters of the lake.
"I think we should talk," Sirius said quietly.
"Why?" Rachel snapped. She took a deep breath. "Sorry."
Sirius didn't reply.
"What's there to talk about?" Rachel asked, after a long pause.
"What do you want to talk about?" Sirius asked, leaning back on his hands.
Rachel turned to him with a frown. "So you don't want to talk about—" she stopped. She wouldn't bring it up if he wouldn't. "Fine. What do you want to know?"
"I don't know," Sirius replied.
"Well, I don't know why you're sitting here talking to me," Rachel replied bitterly.
"Fine, tell me about your family."
Rachel's head snapped towards Sirius in surprise. She quickly recovered as she replied smartly, "Tell me about yours."
He gave her a small smile as he said, "Everyone knows about my family."
Rachel faced the lake again. "Touché," she admitted. "Fine. Well, I only have my dad with me. My mom left. She didn't die. Just… left."
"Why?" Sirius asked.
"She was a muggle and when I was six years old, I did a bit of uncontrolled magic and dumped a fish tank," Rachel said. "She was more freaked out about the magic part. So freaked out that she left, I guess."
"But… your dad has a job in the wizarding world, right?" Sirius asked. "Wouldn't she have noticed something from that?"
"Nope, my dad has a muggle job," Rachel replied. "He was a healer, but he knew my mom would get scared by magic, so he became a muggle doctor. What a waste. After she left, he wasn't himself for at least a year. I was on my own."
"That's stupid, your mom leaving because of that," Sirius muttered after a long pause.
"Sometimes I think it affected my dad more than it did me," Rachel replied.
"So you're a half-blood," Sirius concluded.
Rachel turned to him with a small smile and shook her head.
"What? How come?"
Rachel sighed and shrugged. "My dad was a muggle-born. I don't really know what that makes me."
Sirius seemed to think about that for a while before replying, "Neither do I."
Rachel laughed lightly. Sirius looked at her oddly and asked, "What?"
"I can't believe we're socializing like normal people," Rachel laughed.
"I can be normal," Sirius stated defensively. Rachel gave him a pointed look. "When I want to," Sirius added.
There was a pause before Sirius said, "I bet you have some huge plan to take over the Ministry and be in charge of everything. Make it law for people to give you all of their candy."
Rachel laughed. "Oh, you've got me all figured out."
"Seriously though, what do you want to do when you get out of here?" Sirius asked. "I don't doubt that it's extremely nerdy."
Rachel smiled. "I want to be a journalist."
"What, and work for the Prophet?" Sirius asked, shock filling his voice.
"No, in the muggle world," Rachel clarified. "I can't wait to escape the wizarding world all together."
Sirius gave her a shocked look. "What?" he exclaimed. "But the wizarding world is so amazing and interesting and there are so many opportunities waiting out there and—"
"And it tore apart my family," Rachel interrupted.
Sirius looked away and sighed. After a long silence, he quietly said, "It did, didn't it?"
"Your little wand-waving isn't so amazing now, is it?" Rachel teased with a smile.
Sirius smiled back at her. "Why do you play Quidditch?"
Rachel shrugged. "Hell if I know. I only like flying," Rachel replied. "I was forced into the whole Seeker thing."
There was silence for a while. They both just sat there in quietness and stared out on the lake.
After a long internal battle, Rachel sighed and said, "I don't understand what you—"
But she was cut off quite abruptly by Sirius' lips.
She didn't hesitate to kiss him back, her hands going to his shoulders and pulling him closer. Once more, Rachel couldn't help but feel herself going back to Hogsmeade on that cold winter's day. Especially when she smelled the faint scent of firewhiskey on him.
Sirius pulled away reluctantly, but his face was still dangerously close to hers as he breathed out, "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Rachel replied, just as quietly.
"You know for what."
He gave no explanation, only joined their lips once more. And Rachel couldn't say she minded as she leaned back on the ground and as she pulled him closer and closer so their bodies were perfectly molded together.
Sirius pulled her so close, as if he was afraid that if he let go she'd get away again and it would take him a whole other year to get her back again.
Everything felt so… right. It felt right when her hands lightly skimmed down his back and long his sides. It felt right when she sighed and when he felt her hands going into his hair.
It felt incredibly right when he moved to kiss along her jaw and smelled the scent of wild violet in her hair.
He didn't want to move from that moment. He suddenly despised summer break.
But he had it for then. And that would be enough.
From far away in a small blueberry bush, the scene would've looked like a fairytale ending, or any other relationship at Hogwarts.
But to the onlooker hiding in said blueberry bush, it was disgusting and left a sour and bitter taste in the spy's mouth.
However, a plan was already devising in the hider's brain.
I'm not entirely happy with it, but oh well :) If you're suddenly worried it'll be moving too fast... all I can say is, don't worry. Trust me on that one. Also, next chapter is longer (3 cheers for Amelia!)
-Who do you think the spy is?
-End of sixth year... moving right along into seventh. Do you think they'll still be together for 7th?
-Grammar/spelling?
-What do you think the spy will do?
Thanks for reading! :)
