Charlotte was staring up at her four poster bed, the shower was running and Charlotte was certain that Lily was currently in the shower. Her curtains were drawn back as Gwen jumped into her bed and curled up next to her. "So, are you upset?" Gwen whispered turning to look at Charlotte.
"No, I'm really happy for you" Charlotte said smiling as she turned to look at Gwen. Gwen was beaming her eyes staring up at the ceiling.
"I really like him" she whispered quietly
"I thought you just wanted to see how long you could go without breathing last night." Charlotte jested. Gwen rolled her eyes and looked back at Charlotte.
"Where did you end up last night?" Charlotte sighed as she stared up at the roof of her bed, she knew that everyone was happy for Gwen and Remus, but Sirius and James were different animals. Remus was just a typical teenage, cocky, too smart for his own good guy. Sirius and James were just assholes. Privately, the three girls would agree that they were bullies, and somehow they rationalized Remus's part in it and Peter was just "poor Peter" to them.
"The kitchen, I was starving" Charlotte answered, her stomach tightened up. She had never lied to Gwen before or Lily - they were best friends.
"Yeah, Sirius talking about Porky the pig and his beloved sty as we ate pork chops was a little unappealing." Gwen muttered
"Or his weird comment about Remus liking rare meat, like a Frenchman" Charlotte responded. The two girls sighed as if they were saying Guys and with that the curtain opened and Lily with her wet hair jumped into the bed on the other side of Charlotte looking up towards the ceiling.
"What are we sighing about?" Lily asked.
"Guys" the two said in unison
"Of course" Lily said sighing and with that all three girls burst out in laughter.
"By the way" Gwen said rolling over onto her side "What were you and Potter doing last night?" Lily's face went beat red and she flung the pillow at Gwen, who quickly blocked it. The girls continued laughing until Marlene ripped back the curtains glaring at the trio "Shut up, it's Saturday" she seethed before flinging the curtains back. The girl stifled their laughs as they got out of bed, as they were leaving Lily flicked her wand at Marlene's bed and the mattress started shaking vigorously.
"ARGH! MCGONAGALL!" Marlene roared as the three girls burst out of the room and down to the common room.
The morning had flown by, Charlotte had met with McGonagall who, more or less, let Amelia Bones discuss with Charlotte what her career aspirations were and her knowledge of the muggle world.
Amelia ended the conversation by saying "You have the grades and the knowledge of the muggle world to succeed, but I don't know if this is really what you want?"
Charlotte had reiterated that this was all she wanted. But, she was unsure of herself - she had always been interested in being a Curse-Breaker, but Charlotte couldn't help but feel her stomach tighten up as she made her way down the hallway to the library. There is always Muggle liason Amelia had said as she watched Charlotte, looking back Charlotte thought that was a test - the disgusted look Charlotte gave to the idea of working with Muggle Liason showed both McGonagall and Amelia Bones that Charlotte wasn't actually interested in muggles or the muggle world, she wanted to fully integrate in the wizarding world - but Charlotte knew what it felt like to not know where your next meal would come from. She didn't like to think back on the days before she showed up at the orphanage.
Charlotte didn't even realize that she had made her way to the back corner of the library until she felt her leg bump the table "Shit" she mumbled as she rubbed her leg.
"I didn't see you at breakfast" Charlotte jerked her head up and saw Sirius Black sitting on the table in the back of the library holding in his hand what looked like two cups of coffee. Charlotte was certain it was coffee she could smell the aroma of it. He held out a mug to her, she sighed a deep relaxing breath as she held the cup under her chuckled "I thought of all things you'd want, you'd want coffee." Charlotte raised her eyebrows at him. She wouldn't say it was a secret that she loved coffee, she'd been drinking it since she was about 14 - initially because she was being pretentious and trying to act older and more mature. By 15 it was needed at least once a day - now at 16 it was a full on addiction. But, Charlotte would have bet 100 galleons that up until yesterday night Sirius Black only knew that Charlotte was a decent Chaser on the Quidditch team.
Charlotte sat down at the table, she was amazed at how relaxed Sirius was. He was sitting on a table in the library and he had brought in coffee. If Madam Conway walked in right now Sirius would be in detention for the rest of his career at Hogwarts. "Aren't you worried about Madam Conway?"
Sirius smiled and looked down at Charlotte curiously, Charlotte couldn't stop the red coloring creeping up her face. "Do you always live your life by the rules?"
"Char!" Charlotte turned around and saw Lily Evans coming towards her, her face was twisted up in a disgusted look as she made contact with Sirius "Black" Lily growled as she took a seat next to Charlotte. Charlotte watched as she grabbed the other mug and sniffed the coffee before taking a sip.
"That was mine" Sirius said smirking at Lily.
"You don't drink coffee, Black." Lily snapped back pulling a book out of her bag. "I got your class schedule here." Charlotte smiled as she looked over her classes.
"Defense against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions" Sirius said glancing down at Charlotte's schedule "We have 4 out of 6 classes together."
"Oh the joys" Lily voice was dripping with contempt for Black.
"What are you taking?" Sirius asked as he snatched Lily's schedule out of her hand "Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology, Charms, and Defense against the Dark Arts. We have everything together. Lily Evans are you trying to be an Auror?"
Lily's face had gone completely white as she jerked her head up at Charlotte, Charlotte smirked knowing that Lily's worst fear was having every class with James Potter and if she had classes with Sirius, chances were high that James Potter had all the same classes as Sirius. "No" Lily answered firmly composing herself as she looked back up at Sirius "Healer"
Sirius stroked his imaginary beard as he looked down at Lily "Very important career, you know I want to be a Hit Wizard - maybe you'll be my Healer?"
"Ugh!" Lily screamed slamming her hands down on the table "Do you know how irritating you are Black?" But, Sirius was ignoring her now, obviously irritating Lily even more.
"You know Remus wants to be an Auror, Gwen is wanting to go into Potions, James well interestingly enough he's taking the core classes - his dad told him he had to - but he's taking History of Magic, Ancient Runes, and Ancient Studies."
Lily had stopped her muttering as she heard that James was continuing on with History of Magic. "James, I mean Potter, is taking what?"
"History of Magic, Ancient Runes, and Ancient Studies. Monty told him he had to take a few of the core courses so he's taking all the ones to become an Auror to, but he's more interested in doing something with magical artifacts and reading about the history of the magical world."
"Potter is taking 8 N.E.W.T classes?" Lily's mouth was opening and closing slowly as if she was trying to process something horrific, like a death in the family or like how last year she found out that Petunia was dating a guy who actually made her a decent person to be around.
"Yes" Sirius affirmed. Lily stared down at her books and mumbled "I think I forgot my Transfiguration book" and with that she had jumped out of her seat and was marching towards the front of the library. Sirius and Charlotte watched her storm off "Guess she doesn't like the idea that Prongs isn't some bubbling idiot."
"Well he does act like one" Charlotte replied staring up at Sirius, god he did look hot Charlotte pushed the thought out of her mind as she turned back to her own schedule "Well I guess I have Ancient Runes and Ancient Studies with Potter then."
"What do you want to do?" Sirius asked sincerely, he had slid himself down to the chair. Charlotte couldn't help but wonder how he could gracefully push himself off the table and slide down on the bench with ease. If she tried that she was certain she'd face plant into the floor. Then again she had visited A&E this summer because she had ran into a parked car.
Charlotte did try to ignore the question, but Sirius kept staring at her - she hadn't even told LIly and Gwen the truth and here she was contemplating telling Sirius first. How could he do this? This arrogant ass somehow could make her feel as if he cared. But, every time she started to think like that she reminded herself that in a split second he got that secret he was vying for and her secret would be out to the world.
But, it spilt out - her brain had told her not to say a damn word, but her mouth had other thoughts. "I don't know. I want to be a cursebreaker, but I need to make sure that after I graduate I have a place to live and that I can take care of my basic needs. So I'm thinking about going to a muggle university so I can either get a job with Muggle Liaison or maybe if I'm lucky go into the Wizengamot." Charlotte felt her stomach sink as she realized how much she had let spill to Sirius Black.
Might as well have told him your whole family history.
"You're one of the smartest in our class." Sirius said softly tucking some of Charlotte's hair behind her ear. "I'd beat you're even smarter than Evans. If you want to be a Curse Breaker then you'll be one, no need to waste away your life in the Muggle Liason building."
"What if that's what I want to do?" Charlotte snapped back. She really didn't like the fact that all the sixth years were now comparing each other - based on their career choices. It made her sick to her stomach firstly: what would happen if you didn't get the N.E.W.T.S needed? Then everyone would know when you didn't have the career you paraded around Hogwarts. Secondly: It was nobody's damn business what someone decided to do with their life. To some people Muggle Liaison would be a perfectly fine job. Others, like Sirius, wanted to get themselves blown up as Hit Wizards.
"Well if you really wanted to do it, you wouldn't have qualified the statement with 'I want to be a cursebreaker but..." Sirius said making air quotations. "Plus, I find it interesting that Peter wants to go into Muggle Liason, did you tell him about it?"
Charlotte shook her head as she looked curiously at Sirius, he always seemed irritated with Peter and annoyed with his presence. They were supposed to be the best of friends. Anybody in Gryffindor, who was in their year, knew Peter and Sirius didn't get along. James kept Peter around like he was a kid brother, Remus got along with Peter - well because Remus was Remus, but since Sirius and Peter were 11 they had gotten into petty arguments between each other.
It was a different kind of fighting then what the rest of the group would have with each other. In their fifth year Sirius had done something that had him outcasted from the entire group, but once the problem was resolved - they had never spoken about it again. Sirius and Peter however, would constantly bring up the last time the other one had wronged them to justify why they had done what they did.
Charlotte stared at Sirius, his black hair was loose today and he had a shadow on his face letting Charlotte know he hadn't shaved the night before. Charlotte watched his fingers tracing random shapes on her arm and moved her eyes up his fingers to his firm hands, to his muscular arms. This time Charlotte didn't shake the dirty thought out of her mind, she leaned in for a kiss thinking I might as well take advantage of Sirius's willingness.
They were in the back of the library, his mouth was on hers, her hand was in his hair the other one was pulling at his shirt. Sirius groaned as he felt Charlotte's hand touch his chest. He had her pressed against a bookshelf in the restricted area and he could feel her body molding into his. Sirius had a fleeting thought of Peter coming in and finding the two of them in this position. Sirius hiked Charlotte up so her legs were wrapped around his waist and her skirt was pushed up.
There, Peter is going to have a fucking field day if he comes in
Charlotte moaned softly as he bit her lower lip, he didn't know why but it set him off. He pulled away from her and started to memorize her face. "So" Sirius said huskily wondering what it would be like right now to unzip his pants, push her underwear aside and thrust into her. He shook the image out of his head as he stared at her. "Where do we want to go from here?"
"Excuse me?" Charlotte said, she must have registered the compromising position she was in as she unhooked her legs from around Sirius and stood on her own accord trying to fix her shirt, hair, and skirt.
"What do you want this to be?" Sirius asked again. He hadn't realized how far he had pushed down the feeling that he was completely smitten with her. If he was being honest with himself he had noticed her last year, she had punched Mulciber in the nose after a nasty Quidditch match. For some reason that had drawn him in, but he hadn't said or done anything. Charlotte was a good girl, she was dating Davos and Marlene had told him that she wasn't looking for a hookup - Charlotte was looking for a relationship. Sirius Black did not do relationships.
But, on the train to Hogwarts when Peter had brought up that he liked Charlotte and wanted to date her, Sirius had seethed. James had been all in; discussing numerous crazy and more than likely unsuccessful ways to get Charlotte to go out with him. Remus had tried to rationalize the whole situation, reminding Peter that he should probably see if the feeling was mutual. That had caused an argument between Remus and James about whether or not you should wait for a girl to have feelings for you before asking her out or should you just ask her out and then try to win her over.
Sirius, if he was being completely honest with himself, had spent the rest of the ride trying to control the green eyed monster inside him.
"I don't know Black" Charlotte chirped as she tried to straighten out her skirt.
"I'm not into relationships" Sirius mused as he watched her straighten her skirt. Maybe I would be, she's pretty hot
"Okay?" Charlotte asked looking back up at him confused.
"Why did you say okay?" Sirius asked, this was the first time in 3 years that he had had to work for a girls attention.
"I don't know" Charlotte whispered staring back at Sirius "I guess I decided what the fuck? Might as well give it a shot - and with Sirius Black to boot" Charlotte said smirking. Sirius didn't know if she was joking or if she wa serious. But, in that moment he could hear that small voice in his head just do it. Peter would kill him if he found out that Charlotte and Sirius were running around together like they were secretly in a relationship.
"Well tell you what Lottie" Sirius started leaning in towards her "Let's just see where this goes day by day, secretly, and just see where this takes us."
"Fine" Charlotte said staring at Sirius determinedly. Sirius was taken aback, here he was willing to lock himself in and Charlotte was acting like he had asked her to go out for some extra Quidditch practice.
"Fine?" Sirius asked again, he could hear the annoyance sliding into his voice.
"Yeah?" Charlotte said walking back over to the table she had left her books on.
Sirius decided not to press his luck, pulling on the back of his neck he watched her grab her bag and turn to leave. She paused and turned around walking back to Sirius and planted a kiss on his lips "Thanks for the coffee and remember, you said secret. If you tell anyone I will deny it." Charlotte said firmly, Sirius nodded his head as he watched her pull back and walk out to the front of the library.