It was probable that Lily would have been able to cope with the sleepless nights if Hayley had been the only culprit. However, much to Lily’s dismay, Kirsty had decided that she wanted to be in on the act too.
Therefore, every night, Lily was forced to listen to Hayley’s continuously changing opinions of Remus, and Kirsty’s incessant rants about Debbie and Sirius. Lily would then respond with any counselling she deemed fit as well as expertly avoiding giving any damning opinion of the Marauders in question.
It was the nights that she spent sitting up with Hayley that gave Lily the severest of her headaches. Hayley’s rapid mood swings and emotional surges where Remus was concerned were dizzying. At least Kirsty’s topic of conversation remained consistent: death to Debbie Swain.
If it hadn’t been for Emma’s support over the last few weeks, Lily was sure that she would have cracked long before now. She and Emma took turns to council their two friends, so that they could each catch a substantial amount of sleep.
Thankfully, as the end of March drew nearer Kirsty and Hayley’s nighttime tirades came to an end and the dark bags under Lily and Emma’s eyes were given the opportunity to heal at last.
Crazy. That was how she felt and that was how she was acting. Crazy. Why couldn’t she move past this? In the past, two weeks had always been a sufficient amount of time for Kirsty to get over the steeling away of a crush by another girl, but not this time.
Maybe it was the insult of Debbie being the one who had lured Sirius away. If it were a more deserving girl then Kirsty probably would have been over it long ago. Why did Sirius have to fall for such an infuriating bitch? she asked herself. Couldn’t he see what she was like? Kirsty was positively certain that she had never met anybody whom she detested so much, apart from a Slytherin or two.
It wasn’t merely the arrival of Debbie as Sirius’ girlfriend that plagued Kirsty’s mind day and night, however, but rather the unfortunate timing of the entire affair. Kirsty couldn’t escape the possibility that if she had acted sooner or if Debbie had acted slower then it could have been Kirsty who was draped possessively over Sirius’ arm.
The latter, however, was too painful a notion to consider at length. The idea of losing a guy through another girl snatching him away was always to be preferred over the realisation that it was by fault of your own ineffectualness to act in time.
Therefore, Kirsty went back to occupying her mind with less harmful thoughts. Scrambling around the dormitory, she eventually found the items she required. She pulled the parchment and quill towards her and started furiously to scribble away.
When Emma arrived in the dormitory twenty minutes later, Kirsty hastily swept everything off her bed to hide the evidence. As Emma threw back the hangings around Kirsty’s four-poster bed it was to find Kirsty innocently perusing a book.
“What on Earth have you been doing up here for the last half an hour?” Emma’s voice tailed off as she frowned at something over Kirsty’s head.
Bugger, thought Kirsty, knowing full well what it was that had occupied Emma’s attention and realising that in her haste she had forgotten to get rid of the most incriminating piece of evidence.
“Well, haven’t you been productive?” observed Emma, looking to Kirsty like she was finding it hard to fight off a smirk.
Emma walked over to where Kirsty had stuck the parchment up on the wall and picked up a dart that was stuck in it. She examined it in wonder before carefully discarding it and took to examining the piece of parchment in depth. “It’s not a very good likeness,” she noted with a teasing smile.
Kirsty scowled. In her opinion, the picture captured Debbie perfectly. Kirsty had given the drawing the heading of ‘The Girl Fiend’. In the drawing, Debbie’s hair was full of snakes forcing Kirsty to give it a caption of ‘Slytherin in disguise’. Debbie’s nails had been transfigured into claws, which Kirsty described as being ‘ideal for boyfriend snatching’. Debbie’s freckles had been cruelly exaggerated and Kirsty had drawn a picture of a Snitch right before Debbie’s apparently flailing arms with the caption beside it being: ‘Where is the Snitch? I can’t see it. I can’t see it. Lastly, in dress, Kirsty had made her caricature wear a skirt that was too short and a top that was very low cut, and no caption was needed here to know what it was that she was insinuating.
“Kirst, I’m getting worried about you,” declared Emma, turning back to gaze at Kirsty in pity.
“Well, you needn’t be, it’s very therapeutic,” quipped Kirsty in response.
Emma rolled her eyes and came to sit down on the bed beside her. “I wanted you to end up with Sirius too, you know, but he’s with her now, you have to accept that. Plus, she’s not as bad as you think she is.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” admitted Kirsty. “She’s much, much worse!”
“Kirsty,” said Emma sternly. Kirsty shot her a mischievous grin. “You really need to take your mind off Debbie,” Emma informed her. “I’ll tell you what, why don’t you come down to the common room for a bit? There’s only me, Sam and Remus down there and I know they’d be happy to see you.”
“And what will you and Sam be doing?” asked Kirsty suspiciously.
“Keeping at least five feet apart,” replied Emma dryly.
Kirsty laughed. “Okay, I might grace them with my presence.”
“Glad to hear it,” said Emma, getting up and making to go.
“You know, you still haven’t told me how it is that Remus knows about me liking Sirius.”
“Haven’t I?” asked Emma, continuing to be evasive where this particular question was concerned.
Emma descended the stairs leaving Kirsty to holler after her, “Or who else knows about it for that matter!”
But Emma either didn’t hear her or didn’t deign to give her a reply, and from experience Kirsty suspected it was the latter.
With a resigned shrug of her shoulders, Kirsty got up off the bed and followed her friend down to the common room.
Kirsty spent an enjoyable evening in the company of Remus, Emma and Sam. For the most part, they just engaged in idle chatter, and not once was the subject of Sirius and Debbie (nor Remus and Hayley for that matter) breached. Later on, Peter and Heather even came over to join them, giving the small group ample opportunity to get to know Peter’s girlfriend better.
Kirsty had to admit that she was extremely impressed with Heather, and she had already started to like her a great deal (which is a lot more than could be said for the girlfriend of a certain other Marauder). Heather was very petite and just came short of Peter’s height of five foot, five inches. Her dirty blonde hair was cut into smart bob and framed a face with rosy cheeks and a small chin dimple. However, as soon as Kirsty first heard her speak she was disposed to like her because of her mild Scottish accent.
Towards the end of the night, the proceedings became significantly more subdued. Emma and Sam were engaged in a game of Gobstones, eagerly egged on by both Peter and Heather, and Remus was finishing his Charms homework. This left Kirsty, alone and thoughtful, sitting on the sofa, curled up in a foetal position and distractedly chewing her nails.
Remus, no doubt growing distracted by such mouse-like nibbling, set his parchment down and addressed Kirsty, “Kirst, if you want to do something productive then I suggest you suggest that you go to the library and take a book out for me.”
It was not a request, Kirsty realised; it was a direct order. And Kirsty, still acting a little wary in Remus’ presence since their argument, happily obliged.
After taking note of the book he required she headed out of the common room, glad of having a task to occupy herself with.
Kirsty tapped her fingers impatiently on the desk as she waited for Madame Pince to retrieve the Charms textbook. Seriously, how long did it take to fetch a simple book?
While she was huffing and puffing with boredom, Kirsty heard a loud bang from amongst the rows of bookshelves behind her. She swivelled around to see that the bookshelf at the far end of the row shuddered as if suffering from the aftermath of an impact.
Deciding that she had nothing better to do, and feeling just a tad curious, Kirsty went to investigate. As soon as she set eyes upon the cause of the bang, however, Kirsty wished with all her heart that she had stayed put.
There they were, the two people than ran through her mind more than most just lately, Sirius and Debbie, and at present Debbie had Sirius pushed up against the bookshelf.
Debbie’s tongue had slipped inside Sirius’ mouth and his had done likewise because a ravenous wrestle for domination was now taking place. Debbie’s hands roamed over Sirius’ chest and followed a meandering trail up to his shaggy, dark hair. Her hand cupped the back of his neck and brought him closer to her. Sirius’ hands were likewise as busy. One hand tightly gripped her waist and the other repeatedly ran teasingly up and down the length of Debbie’s thigh.
It was like watching a train wreck “ blurry, intense, horrifying and morbidly fascinating “ and Kirsty couldn’t tear herself away.
“Miss White!” shouted the screeching voice of Madame Pince, and Kirsty started guiltily.
As she turned to flee the envy inducing scene, Kirsty heard a sound that was not too unlike a plunger being removed from a sink, and she hurriedly scuttled over to the librarian’s desk.
She had to get out of there. She had to go before she saw anything else, or worse, before Sirius decided to investigate her presence in the library. Signing out the book, she gripped it tightly to her chest and practically ran out into the corridor.
When Kirsty arrived back in the safe confines of her common room, she threw the Charms book down onto the coffee table and collapsed in a depressed heap on the sofa.
“What’s wrong now?” asked Remus exasperatedly, reaching over for the book.
“Sirius and Debbie were in there,” she grumbled.
“You’re going to have to get used to seeing them together, you know,” Remus informed her.
“I know, but they were doing stuff,” she said, unable to erase the image from her memory.
“Oh,” replied Remus, looking stunned. “I’m sorry, Kirst,” he eventually declared in earnest.
“Not half as sorry as I am,” admitted Kirsty, pulling a cushion on top of her chest and hugging it tightly to her.
Over the following week, Kirsty was unable to lay eyes on Sirius without reliving the scene in the library, and she certainly couldn’t lay eyes on Sirius and Debbie together without thinking about it.
Everywhere she turned, they seemed to be there, taunting her. Whoever it was that said that time healed all had obviously never been in love with Sirius Black.
Kirsty pelted down the corridors, her denim bag hanging precariously off her shoulder, a piece of toast rammed between her teeth, her tie hanging loose around her neck and her arms flailing madly as she attempted to shove her arm through her cloak sleeve. It was Tuesday morning and she was late. All of the seventh year Gryffindor girls had somehow managed to oversleep that morning and chaos had ensued.
Kirsty’s morning in particular had been disastrous. She had been the last one to wake up, her shower had been cold, her wand hid from her for several agonising minutes and when she dived passed Dumbledore into the Great Hall to grab a piece of toast she was pretty sure he thought her a woman possessed.
Slowing down into a fast-paced walk, Kirsty took the time to address her appearance. Finally, taking a few much needed deep breaths she pushed open the door into the Ancient Runes classroom.
“Sorry I’m late, professor,” she exclaimed as she swung into the classroom.
Professor Typicus looked up and acknowledged her with a curt nod; he was still rummaging through some papers on his desk so it didn’t look like she’d missed too much.
Automatically, Kirsty walked down the aisle between the desks to take up her seat beside Sirius. She stopped dead as she approached, however, because someone else was in her seat. Debbie. Kirsty was silently fuming; she looked around the room for Debbie’s unoccupied seat and made eye contact with a very sympathetic looking Emma. Trying hard to be the bigger person in all this, Kirsty walked passed her usual seat and sat down in Debbie’s seat at the very front of the class.
As she threw down all of her stuff, not caring very much where it landed, she cast a disapproving look Sirius’ way. Sirius, however, was too involved in canoodling with Debbie to notice. Gritting her teeth, Kirsty started to pull her stuff out of her bag.
“It looks like we’ve been cast aside for the sake of a much better offer,” observed someone dryly from beside her. Kirsty turned, startled and distracted, to find herself face to face with Ravenclaw Quidditch captain Matt Higgins.
Kirsty grinned bashfully, all thoughts of dragging Debbie out of her seat by her hair suddenly subsiding. She could feel herself blushing underneath his friendly gaze.
Matt Higgins was the Ravenclaw dream date. Every house seemed to have one (Sirius being Gryffindors of course), and Kirsty, in less than a few seconds, had been thrown from the side of one into the path of the other. She certainly did well when it came to Ancient Runes partners.
Matt was tall and muscular, and James had taken to nicknaming him as ‘The Wall’ in all of his Quidditch tactic talks. He had thick, jet black hair, bright blue eyes and a lopsided grin that suited him well.
In order to repay him for making the effort to strike up a conversation with her, Kirsty captured him in easy conversation. Lucky for her, that day’s lesson consisted of textbook work so she and Matt were able to talk more than they would be able to in a normal lesson.
Kirsty found herself thoroughly enjoying his company. With Quidditch as a common interest between them, they never ran dry of conversation. He even went as far to say how much he admired her Quidditch skills (which definitely got him into Kirsty’s good books, considering the terrible outcome of Gryffindor’s last match).
Things went so well between them that by the end of the lesson they were still immersed in deep conversation. As they left the classroom together, Kirsty became aware of Sirius’ intense gaze pinned upon them. Debbie was even trying to immerse him in conversation, but Sirius didn’t seem to notice. As Kirsty strutted past him with Matt by her side, she couldn’t help but feel a little glow of triumph.
Kirsty leant against the wall outside the classroom as Matt finished telling her about his experiences during the Quidditch World Cup four years ago.
“Eh hem,” the sound of someone clearing their throat emanated from behind Matt. Kirsty and Matt both looked around to see Sirius standing nearby with his arms folded, looking pointedly in Kirsty’s direction.
Sirius acknowledged Matt with a clipped greeting and a small, jerking nod of his head. Matt’s greeting also followed a similar pattern.
“May I have a word with you?” Sirius enquired of Kirsty.
Frowning at him, and still angry with him for sitting with Debbie instead of her, Kirsty replied shortly, “Not at this minute, no.”
Matt’s gaze flitted between the two of them, looking increasingly more uncomfortable. Kirsty had a feeling that it was the scowl that Sirius was aiming his way that finally prompted Matt to say, “No, Kirsty. It’s okay. I’ve got to get going now anyway. It was great talking to you; I’ll see you again sometime.” And with that he swiftly departed, leaving Kirsty feeling extremely wrong footed and even more annoyed with Sirius.
Sirius now stood before her, triumph plastered all over his smug face.
“Come on then,” she demanded angrily. “Out with it.”
Taking a more subservient stance, Sirius beseeched her, “Listen, I’m sorry about not sitting with you in there today.”
“No, you’re not,” snapped Kirsty. “If you were sorry then you wouldn’t have done it in the first place.”
“Debbie was already sitting in your seat when I got in there,” he began to explain. “She thought it would be nice as she hardly ever gets to see me during lesson time. What was I supposed to do? Manhandle her back into her own seat?”
“You could have told her to move,” argued Kirsty, pushing herself away from the wall and coming to stand before Sirius with her arms crossed. “Plus, from what I’ve seen you have no qualms about manhandling Debbie anywhere.”
Sirius’ brow furrowed, and he tilted his head to the side as if putting Kirsty under scrutiny. “Do you not like Debbie?” he suddenly blurted out.
Frustrated that Sirius had somehow hit the nail straight on the head, but being unable and unwilling to confess as much, Kirsty hastily dodged the question. “I don’t like her stealing my seat,” she grumbled.
“Well, you didn’t seem all that bothered to me,” sniped Sirius. “You rallied pretty well. Tell me,” he demanded of her, “is it true that Matt gurgles like a clogged up drain when he laughs?”
“Oh, for Merlin’s sake!” exclaimed Kirsty in exasperation as Sirius allowed himself a small grin of satisfaction. “You’re so immature! If you didn’t like me talking with Matt then you only have yourself to blame.”
“I can’t imagine he had anything interesting to talk about,” said Sirius, continuing with his tirade of obscene insults.
“Actually,” announced Kirsty, challenging Sirius with a profound wish of wiping the smile off his face, “he’s very easy and fun to talk to, and I think he’s a really nice guy, which is more than can be said for the present company I keep.”
Sirius’ mouth transformed into a small sneer and he adopted a defensive hand on hip stance. “I just don’t trust him, that’s all.”
“Well, thanks for the input, but what business is it of yours who I do or do not speak to? You are not my brother and you’re certainly not my boyfriend so it’s not your job to protect me!”
“Fine,” growled Sirius, his eyes narrowed as he stared with uncharacteristic coolness into Kirsty’s blazing brown eyes.
A stalemate ensued, with both of them feeling just as angry and as jealous as the other did. They were standing, inches apart, simply staring defiantly into the other’s eyes when Debbie arrived.
Sneaking up behind Sirius, Debbie draped herself lavishly around Sirius’ shoulders and planted a swift kiss behind his earlobe. “Hey,” she greeted him breathily, after having been away from him for a grand total of five minutes.
Kirsty consciously had to tighten her facial muscles to prevent herself from pulling an ugly face at Debbie.
“We only have a few minute left before we have to get to next lesson,” whinged Debbie. “And I’m in desperate need of a broom cupboard session.” She nibbled Sirius’ neck. Instead of swatting her away like an irritating mosquito, however, Sirius revelled in a small smile of ecstasy. “You don’t mind if I steal him away do you, Kirsty?” asked Debbie, trying to look at Kirsty in what would have been an innocent gaze if it hadn’t been for the vindictive sneer on Debbie’s face.
“Not in the slightest,” replied Kirsty, pretending to be all sweetness and light, but in reality gritting her teeth and trying to swallow down her bubbling jealousy.
Sirius leant his head back and whispered something in Debbie’s ear. Looking slightly disappointed, but nodding anyway, Debbie removed herself from Sirius and walked off down the corridor.
Kirsty swallowed hard at the thought of what Sirius could have just asked Debbie to go and do. Go and get the broom cupboard ready perhaps with a few upturned buckets. Trapped by her own thoughts, Kirsty was unable to mask her hurt sufficiently enough by the time Sirius had turned back to face her.
Sirius gazed at her in earnest, puzzlement, intrigue and something else present in his intense gaze as he stared down at her. Feeling herself growing hot and flustered, Kirsty tried to refrain from meeting his eye.
“Kirst,” he began, his voice a soft croon that she could never remember hearing before. And for that she was sorry because the delicate thrum of his voice was awakening the strangest of sensations within her.
Taking a deep breath, she cut him off. She didn’t exactly know why she stopped him, but a deep fear of what he was about to say developed within her. “You better go,” she informed him. “Debbie won’t like you keeping her waiting.” And before he could say anything else, Kirsty turned her back to him and headed off to Potions.
She hadn’t got far, however, when Emma caught up with her.
“What the hell was all that?” she demanded, sounding awe inspired.
“All what?” replied Kirsty, feeling downtrodden.
“You and Sirius. I seriously didn’t know whether you were going to duel or rip each other’s clothes off!”
“Excuse me?” asked Kirsty, feeling genuinely perplexed.
Emma halted in her tracks and grabbed hold of Kirsty’s arm to make her stop too. “Are you serious? You really didn’t notice? There was so much heat between you two back there that it was like an inferno.” Kirsty raised her eyebrows at Emma, convinced that she was jesting. “I’m serious!” laughed Emma. “It was amazing to watch.”
“Well, it didn’t feel amazing,” grumbled Kirsty. “Sirius was being a complete arse and he was unbelievably rude to Matt.”
“Hmm, I wonder what he could possibly have against Matt,” speculated Emma, her voice teasing.
“What are you trying to suggest?” asked Kirsty, pretty sure she knew where Emma was going with this.
“That there’s a slight possibility that Sirius is jealous,” announced Emma, acting rather coy.
Kirsty scoffed. “Yeah, right! Thanks for the effort of trying to make me feel better, Em, but there’s only one jealous person around here and that’s me. Plus, even if it were true, Sirius can’t care that much because he’s gone off with Debbie now.”
“Off where?” demanded Emma, setting off at a slow gait yet again.
“Broom cupboard,” said Kirsty.
“Classy,” observed Emma dryly. “Anyway,” began Emma, hitting Kirsty playfully in the arm. “What was all that between you and Matt? Don’t tell me you’re falling for him now after all the anguish you’ve given me over Sirius.”
Kirsty sighed. “I wish I was falling for him, but unfortunately and annoyingly Sirius is still refusing to relinquish the occupation within my head. Matt was just a nice distraction.”
However, Matt was a distraction that Kirsty would never have the good luck of encountering again. A couple of days later in their next Ancient Runes lesson, Debbie was to be found back in her usual place beside Matt, and Sirius invitingly pulled Kirsty’s chair out for her as soon as she arrived in the classroom.
After that, things once again wet back to normal between them. Their heated discussion was forgotten and business resumed as normal. However, for Kirsty normality meant danger because the soft, caressing tone Sirius had used to address her still haunted her and meant for some very confusing thoughts.