Chapter ten: Love thine Enemy...Ha!
Sirius Black had poked his head in the doorway before walking into the room in his usual cocky I’m-sexy-and-I-know-it manner.
“Hullo Padfoot. So what wreck downstairs managed to chase you up here?”
James moved from Emily’s bed to his own trunk and carelessly threw Lily’s diary back into it.
No matter what he said he still acted like an arrogant prat in the presence of his best friend. She would have to change that.
“Peter tried to do and incendio spell on the common room fire and ended up lighting the curtains. It’s absolute chaos down there.”
“He’s allright isn’t he?” Emily asked.
Poor Peter. He always seemed to get the wrong end of things.
“Who?” Sirius asked unconcernedly
“Peter.”
“Oh. Yeah he’ll be fine. He’s always doing stuff like this.”
Emily gave him another one of her death glares and turned away. She’d tried lecturing. It was no use. Besides she’d promised Remus that she would lay off.
“So what? You usually like a little chaos,” James commented
“Yeah but then Mcgonagel came in.” Sirius threw himself into the chair.
“She hasn’t exactly been pleased with me since the whole distraught houself kitchen episode. So I thought it best not to get in her way for a while.”
James closed his trunk.
“Well, I suppose I should go down to...er...help,” James said with a strangely mischievous smile. Emily had a strange feeling that James’s version of ‘help’ might just involve a few incendio spells (whatever they were. Something having to do with fire no doubt. How unoriginal!), of his own.
“Have fun,” Sirius said, putting his feet lazily up on the bed as James headed toward the door.
Emily looked to James silently begging him not to leave. The last thing she needed was to be left alone in a room with Sirius Black. James caught her gaze and simply gave her another mischievous grin accompanied by a wink.
“Same time tomorrow Emily?” he said, putting on his deep voice. Emily’s face flushed. She could see Sirius smirking as he stared between them. But, she wouldn’t let him get to her. Why should she care what he thought any way?
“Yes. See you then James,” she said defiantly.
And with another wink, James left the room.
“Oh...wait until I tell Remus. He’ll be absolutely heart broken.” Sirius said casually as he picked up a string from the floor and began twirling it between his fingers.
For heaven sake! Simply because she was a girl! Still, she remembered what she told James, she had to be civil.
“You’re an insufferable git. I hope you know that.” She said simply with a smile. That was civil wasn’t it?
“I’ve know that for quite some time now thanks very much.” He said attempting to appear unphased. Still Emily could see his eyes flash with a momentary sullenness.
Now it was her turn to smirk.
Gardner:1 Black:0
“What I can’t work out, is how you can act so prim and proper yet still have at least two of us coming in and out of this room at all hours of the day and night,” Sirius said as a cynical, yet attractive smile once again reached his face. (Why did he have to be so bloody handsome?)
Emily’s face flushed. Civil, she had to be civil.
“Just as it amazes me that you can be so arrogant, piggish and uncouth, yet still manage to be oddly attractive.”
Damn it.
She hadn’t meant to say that. It was as if her private thoughts had somehow slipped from her head down to her mouth. She was in for it now.
Sirius stopped twirling the string and stared at her, his grin broadening.
“So now you find me attractive eh?”
Emily felt her face heat up again. She tried hard to keep looking him in the eyes.
“That’s not what I said.” She told him in her most dignified voice. Though she was finding it rather hard to be dignified when Sirius Black was walking over to her bed in his signature seductive manner.
“No, but you meant it didn’t you?” he was now leaning against her bed post, a grin still playing on his lips.
“Mr. Black,” Emily said again making an attempt at a dignified sounding voice. “I will thank you to not take every word that comes out of my mouth out of context.”
Somehow the color rising in her cheeks and her nervous manner had given her away.
“Oh don’t try and pull that on me Gardner,” Sirius said with a small, almost bark-like, laugh.
“You like me admit it.” He moved away from the bedpost and walked closer to her. For the second time in three days, the color rising in her cheeks seemed to have rendered Emily void of articulate speech.
When she didn’t answer Sirius smiled and leaned, ever so slightly, closer to her.
“See? Behind that oh-so-proper exterior, there’s a side of you that would like nothing better than to shag me right now.”
How dare he? A gentleman never suggests that a lady could think such a thing. Emily would have told him so if his face had not been barely six inches away from her own. It was all she could do to keep herself breathing properly.
“Admit it,” he nearly whispered as he leaned closer.
Oh god he was going to kiss her. She didn’t want him to. Did she?...
Of course not! He was unmannerly, sardonic, arrogant and...oh so handsome when his hair fell into his face like that. But that didn’t matter. Did it?...
He was leaning in closer to her. She could feel his breath now... closer...closer...
“What’s going on?” came the squeaky and somewhat panicked voice of Peter Pettigrew.
Salvation. Or was it?
Emily found herself thinking that if the interuption had come only two seconds later she would have found herself in a very different situation.
“’nother conquest Padfoot?” James's voice asked from the door way.
As Emily propped herself up on her pillows she could see him supporting a slightly wobbly Peter, who’s face and hands had both been a bit singed.
“Just saying goodnight,” Sirius said not moving from his position above her. He suddenly reached down and gave her a rather hard pinch on the cheek.
“’night Love,” he said, laughing as he pulled himself back up and began to walk to his own bed.
Emily opened her mouth several times to say something very sharp to him but found that words were not enough to express her outrage. Just when she thought he could sink no lower!
In the end she settled for and indignant “humph” as she grasped the curtains around her bed and pulled them closed.
Well, she was glad of one thing; Remus hadn’t seen that little episode. She still fancied him after all. Nothing Sirius could do would change that. Would it?
No, Emily told herself firmly.
As she laid her head down to sleep she considered removing rule number three from James’s required list.
Obviously civility toward one’s enemies did not always give desired results.