Peter let out a contented sigh and snaked his arm around Heather’s shoulders. In response she nestled her head into the crook of his elbow.
This is contentment, Peter realised. He and Heather had been going out for a month now and he honestly couldn’t have asked for a better girlfriend. She was pretty, intelligent, creative, kind and was with him for him and not because of who he was friends with.
Heather had even told him of some jealous remarks that she had received upon telling people who her boyfriend was. ‘Peter, as in Peter Pettigrew? As in the Marauder? Wow, you’re so lucky!’
Peter had glowed with pride as Heather informed him of this. He was not one of the most popular Marauders, he knew that, but he was known and admired and that was as much as he could have asked for.
Heather yawned from beside him and turned so that she could rest her cheek against his chest. He and Heather were growing more intimate by the day and soon Peter would be faced with doing the very thing that he was most apprehensive about: having his first kiss.
Heather had already hinted that she was ready for this to happen, but so far Peter had always avoided the event. So far they had parted with a soft caress of the cheek, an affectionate squeeze on the arm, a hug and kisses on the nose and the cheek, but never on the lips. Unfortunately, though, he was fast running out of excuses.
He wasn’t sure how much longer he would be able to put it off before Heather got fed up of waiting. The truth was that he was frightened of disappointing her, and he also didn’t really like the idea of embarrassing himself either.
“Hey, Pete, I think I’m going to get going to bed, okay?” Heather announced, yawning profusely.
Peter nodded and Heather led him by the hand over to the bottom of the staircase to say goodnight.
This was it. The time had come again. Peter could feel his heart in his throat. She gazed up at him expectantly, but for what felt like the hundredth time, Peter’s courage failed him yet again and Heather had to make do with a goodnight peck on the cheek. Tonight, however, Heather found it hard to mask her disappointment and she disappeared up the stairs shortly afterwards.
Sighing heavily, Peter made his way morosely over to his friends by the fire.
Upon seeing his defeated stance, Sirius blurted out, “You’ve still not kissed her yet, have you?”
“Sirius!” Lily scolded, obviously appalled by his blatant insensitivity.
“What?” asked Sirius, feigning innocence. “I was simply making a polite enquiry.”
“Well, your polite enquiry has probably just made Peter feel about this big,” explained Lily, holding her thumb and forefinger and leaving the smallest of gaps between the two.
“More like this embarrassed,” added Peter, stretching out his arms as far as they would go.
Sirius grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, mate.” Peter shrugged his shoulders.
“So, come on then,” instructed James. “Tell us what’s going on; we might be able to help after all.”
“I’m not sure how to… I’m worried that I’ll… what if I’m”” Peter stammered, becoming flustered and anxiously wringing his hands.
“You’re nervous,” supplied Remus with a kind smile.
“Hey, don’t worry about it, Pete, we’ve all been there,” said Sam supportively.
“The thing is, Wormtail,” began Sirius, acting like he was the centre of all knowledge. “You won’t ever have a chance of being a good kisser if you don’t practice. So, if you want my advice, I think you should give it a shot with Heather. And if the kiss doesn’t go so well then you could always use a memory modifying charm and keep practicing until you get it right. That way Heather will only ever remember your best kiss.”
Peter grinned; he actually quite liked the sound of that idea.
“Sirius, the fact that you say that so matter-of-factly worries me,” admitted Kirsty.
“Why?” asked Sirius, flashing her a devilish smile.
“Because it implies that you speak from experience,” she said, smirking a little.
Sirius winked at the group in response to this and laughter filled the common room.
“Go on, Wormtail, just go for it!” exclaimed James encouragingly.
His heart beating frantically inside his chest, Peter knew that it was time for his Marauder courage to make an appearance. With a tense smile of gratitude to his group of friends, Peter headed over to the bottom of the girls’ staircase before he got the chance to change his mind.
He called up the stairs for Heather and impatiently tapped his foot against the wall, hoping that she had heard him. Peter felt his heart skip a beat, however, when he heard footsteps on the stairs.
Peter broke into an uncontrollable grin when Heather appeared in front of him. Her hair was ever so slightly tousled and she wore a pair of flannel pyjamas.
She yawned. “Pete, what’s going on?” she asked, looking curious despite her sleepy nature.
“Come on,” he instructed, grabbing a hold of her hand and leading her out of the common room, ignoring the kissing faces that Sirius and James were pulling at them as they departed.
It was a lot chillier outside in the corridor than in the common room and Peter saw Heather shiver. Taking full responsibility for the fact that he had dragged her out there, Peter took of his cloak and draped it around her shoulders.
She smiled gratefully at him and Peter found himself acting on impulse and sweeping her overhanging fringe away from her eyes. “Listen,” he began, his throat hoarse, “I’m sorry about earlier and all those other times come to that.” He let out a calming breath. “It’s just that I was nervous about, you know, kissing you.”
“You are so unbelievably sweet, Peter Pettigrew,” Heather informed him, smiling her sweet smile and gently stroking his cheek with her thumb. “You needn’t be worried,” she soothed, “after all, practice makes perfect, right?” A mischievous glint glistened in her eyes.
Peter laughed. “You sounded scarily like Padfoot then.”
Heather chuckled too. “You know, one day you’re going to have to tell me the story behind those cutesy nicknames of yours.”
The palpitations of Peter’s heart grew more intense as he stood on the precipice of the very thing that had been troubling him for weeks. He gave Heather a little half smile and replied, “Not right now though. I’m afraid that I have more pressing matters to attend to.”
With a courage that was only akin to when he was pulling pranks with the Marauders, Peter’s lips were on hers before Heather even had a chance to prepare herself. It was a sensation that Peter was unable to compare to anything else. His mouth moved softly against Heather’s and her lips willingly complied with the slow dance.
He pulled away a broad grin plastered on his face. Peter’s glee was elevated by the fact that Heather looked equally euphoric.
“Now, let’s get on with some practicing, shall we?” she asked, jovially.
She leaned in towards him once again and Peter was only too happy to oblige.
With the Easter break came the first tantalising rays of sunlight and the dawning of Spring. Warmth began to spread around the castle and grounds, and the sunshine had put everyone in a much better mood.
Making the most of both the sunshine and a break from their gruelling schoolwork the seventh year Gryffindors along with Hayley, Heather and Debbie could be found on the first Saturday of the holidays out by the lake, basking in the sun’s rays.
James, never one to pass up an opportunity, was using the fine weather as an ideal excuse to gain some much-needed Quidditch practice. However, he hadn’t quite banked on the rival Seekers for both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw joining them.
As a result of this (much to Kirsty’s delight), the training exercise was instead postponed and Kirsty, James and Sam merely took to leisurely flying their brooms over the lake.
It was a day of high spirits, so much so that Hayley and Remus even deigned to say hello to each other and Kirsty managed to exchange a few pleasant words with Debbie and didn’t become overwhelmed with all consuming jealousy when she and Sirius sat kissing under the oak tree.
Currently, all of the Quidditch players were flying high above the ground (the non-Gryffindors included) and they were engaging in a friendly game of throw and catch. Lily, Hayley, Peter and Heather sat on the bank dipping their feet into the cool lapping water, screaming a few seconds later when their feet became ice-cold. From what Kirsty could see, it seemed as if they were having a competition in who could keep their feet in the longest. Emma and Sirius, however, were simply stood at the lakeside with their arms crossed and their heads together chatting away. Kirsty highly suspected that they were coming up with some new material for their Quidditch commentary.
Kirsty had only had her feet placed firmly on the ground for a few minutes when Sirius came running up to her.
“Kirst, can I have a go on your broom?” he begged.
Kirsty opened her mouth to reply, but James cut her off as he touched down beside her. “Sorry, Padfoot, but only the Quidditch players are allowed on the brooms.”
“Killjoy,” muttered Sirius, scowling over at James.
“This was initially supposed to be a Quidditch practice if you remember rightly, Padfoot, that was until your beloved gate crashed it,” grumbled James, throwing a dark look over at Debbie.
Kirsty had to mask a triumphant grin; it was nice to know that James was on her side when it came to Debbie.
“All right then,” argued Sirius, turning his challenging gaze away from James and pinning his eyes on Kirsty with a devilish smirk. “How about you give me a ride instead?” He raised his eyebrows suggestively at Kirsty, and Kirsty was not so naïve as to miss the deliberate innuendo.
“Fine,” she relented haughtily, taking a deliberate swipe at Sirius with her broom as she swung it round off her shoulder.
“Sorry,” he apologised, watching as she swung her leg over the handle. “Just couldn’t resist.”
“You’re a downright rogue, Sirius Black,” she reprimanded.
“Ah, but you love me for it! Now, hurry up I want to feel the wind in my hair.” Sirius leapt onto the back of the broom and shuffled up its length to press himself deliberately up against Kirsty’s back. Not that Kirsty was complaining of course, it had been a while since she’d been in such close proximity to Sirius and she hadn’t realised just quite how much she’d missed it.
Kirsty kicked off hard from the ground but almost swerved into the tree when Sirius’ hands came up to hold onto her waist.
They spent a pleasant few minutes drifting high above the lake, chatting away just as easily as they’d always done. In such a scenario, it was almost possible for Kirsty to forget that Sirius had a girlfriend.
Kirsty, however, soon grew bored of the sereneness and decided to liven things up a bit. Gripping hard onto the broom handle with both her hands and knees, she prepared for performing the move that she had now become renowned for.
Tilting all of her weight to one side, she flipped the broom over onto its back in a highly successful sloth grip roll. Sirius was powerless to resist the pull of gravity and within moments, he went tumbling down into the lake with an almighty splash.
As Kirsty swung herself back upright, Sirius’ head broke the surface of the water and he came up spluttering and cursing her name. Kirsty was laughing so hard that she was in danger of losing her grip and joining Sirius herself.
Distracted by her mirth, Kirsty had allowed her broom to drift downwards. Sirius, seeking his revenge, took advantage of Kirsty’s incapacitation, wrapped his hand around her ankle and yanked it down… hard.
Before Kirsty had time to register what had just happened she was plummeting head first down into the lake’s icy depths.
The air was wiped from her lungs as the freezing water crashed into her chest. With one powerful and frantic kick of her legs Kirsty propelled herself up to the surface, relief flooding over her as her lungs were inflated with oxygen.
The laughter that had resounded around the grounds upon Sirius’ meeting with the lake was doubled when Kirsty’s sodden form appeared, with her hair plastered to her face.
As Kirsty treaded water trying to sort out her hair, Sirius looked at her with a stupid grin lighting up the whole of his face. Annoyed beyond belief, Kirsty shoved him backwards back into the water and started to swim to shore.
Her clothes felt like a deadweight as she scrambled up the bank, and Sirius, who was performing lengthy strokes through the water behind her, seemed to be tiring from the sheer weight of his waterlogged clothes.
Emma grabbed Kirsty’s hand and helped pulled her to her feet, all the while tears of laughter were streaming down her face. As soon as Kirsty joined them all back on dry land and Sirius was dragged out of the water by James, Remus kindly and thoughtfully threw Kirsty his cloak to cover herself up with.
Sirius stripped off his shirt and proceeded to wring it out, causing a small puddle to form by his feet. Kirsty had embarrassedly to avert her eyes from Sirius’ naked torso, and she could feel her cheeks start to burn. She made the mistake of catching Emma’s teasing eye and the glowing of her cheeks intensified. Debbie, however, looked positively delighted at the sight of a half-naked Sirius. Kirsty judged by Debbie’s wide-eyed expression that she had never seen Sirius topless before, and Kirsty allowed herself a little glow of triumph at the fact that she had, numerous times.
When his shirt had been wrung out, Sirius draped it back over himself, not bothering to button it up. Kirsty swore that if he then went on to wring out his trousers then she would then spontaneously combust with embarrassment and lust.
Thankfully, though, Kirsty was saved from a fiery end and Sirius instead began to shake himself dry rather like a dog. The only problem with such a method was that it succeeded in showering all those in the close vicinity with small spots of water.
Debbie in particular did not look amused by the fact that Sirius had proceeded to shake himself dry when he knew full well that she would be in the firing line.
“You’re an arse, do you know that?” Kirsty shot at Sirius, feigning anger and having to try immensely hard to keep her smile in check.
“Hey! You started it, White!” he shot back, grinning broadly.
“Don’t like the taste of your own potion eh, Kirst?” asked Peter, bending over with giggles once again.
“Maybe you two should go and get changed?” suggested Lily, biting her lip to contain her smirk.
“Genius idea,” said Kirsty sarcastically. She then set off, leaving all of her friends to laugh to their hearts content upon her departure.
The sound of squelching footsteps coming up behind her suggested that Sirius was following her lead and going in search of something dryer to wear.
He caught up to her and draped his dripping arm around her sodden shoulder. “Well, that was fun!” he exclaimed, wiping a droplet of water from his eyebrow. Kirsty narrowed her eyes at him. “Well, it was for me at least. I just can’t believe that not only do I get to boast that Kirsty White took me for a ride but also that I got her wet!”
Kirsty whipped her head round to stare at him. Sirius was already laughing uncontrollably to himself and Kirsty tried and failed to contain her own gurgle of laughter. Even though he knew she had found it funny, Kirsty couldn’t grace him with a reply and so instead she shoved him hard once again, and this time she had enough force to knock him sideways to the ground.
Kirsty ran away from him, shrieking with laughter and Sirius jumped to his feet and chased after her, their squelching footsteps echoing around the grounds.
Sirius still found himself emitting random gurgles of laughter as he stood in his dormitory getting out of his sodden clothes. He couldn’t believe how much fun he’d had that afternoon, and he knew that it was all down to Kirsty. That was the difference he found between Kirsty and Debbie. Debbie had the appearance of being more fun, but it was Kirsty who actually did the deeds. He loved the banter that he and Kirsty shared and knew that she secretly loved receiving innuendos from him, as much as he liked giving them at least.
It took Sirius a while and several hops around the room but he eventually managed to pull of his sopping jeans. With this task now finally achieved Sirius stripped himself of all clothes and dried himself off. When he was dry, he tied the towel around his waist and rummaged through his trunk for some clothes.
A creaking on the stairs made Sirius jump and he hastily grabbed the first pair of boxer shorts that he could find and dived behind his bed hangings to put them on.
By the time Sirius had emerged with them on, the footsteps on the stairs had become more prominent and he had just gone back to his trunk when Kirsty appeared in the doorway.
The steady heat of embarrassment appeared on Sirius’ neck at being caught in such a clothing disadvantage. It was nothing, however, compared to the embarrassed hue that spread rapidly up his neck upon taking in Kirsty’s appearance.
There she stood in the doorway to his dormitory, towel drying her hair, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans and her bra. Sirius gulped and his hand flew to his neck and he rubbed it along his skin as if trying to erase his embarrassment.
Kirsty also looked a little out of sorts when she took in Sirius’ indecent apparel. She coughed, clearing her throat. “Erm, I thought my purple t-shirt might be up here somewhere, have you seen it?” she asked, her eyes boring into Sirius’, in what Sirius guessed was an attempt to refrain from looking at his almost completely naked body.
Sirius was finding it incredibly hard to form a response, he knew that his eyes must be blatantly scrutinising Kirsty’s body and yet he couldn’t stop himself from staring. His eyes fixated on her cleavage and slim waist and his hand itched to go and run along her curves. He knew that seeing Kirsty normally sent his body into a frenzy, but who knew that seeing her in just a bra could facilitate such a physical yearning in him.
“Sirius?” Kirsty prompted.
“Oh, right, no, sorry, Kirst. I don’t think I’ve seen it,” he replied, having to take extra care not to stumble over his words.
“Sirius,” Kirsty repeated again, this time her voice sounding like a mixture between amusement, annoyance and offence. “I’m up here.”
“What?” asked Sirius, looking rather gormless as he forced his head to snap up and look at Kirsty’s face rather than her breasts.
Kirsty let out a small, embarrassed chuckle. “What’s wrong with you?” she inquired. “You’re acting like you’ve never seen me in my bra before.”
“I haven’t,” Sirius admitted with a puzzled frown.
“You’ve seen me in a bikini top quite often, which is practically the same thing,” she argued.
“Obviously not often enough,” claimed Sirius, flashing Kirsty his most seductive grin.
Kirsty gave him a small smile back and the redness in her cheeks peeked again for a moment. As Kirsty continued to gaze at him, however, a frown formed on her face and she looked at him with utmost concern.
Throwing her towel distractedly onto Sam’s bed, Kirsty made her way over to Sirius with slow, cautious strides. She stopped before him and gazed up at him with worry in her eyes. “What happened?” she asked him quietly, staring at his chest.
Shit. Sirius inwardly cursed. He knew without following Kirsty’s eye line what it was that had captivated his attention. Falling in the lake had washed off his glamour charm and he hadn’t yet had chance to redo it.
“Sirius?” she cautiously prompted.
Sirius let out a sigh. He supposed that Kirsty was bound to find out about his scars at some point. “They’re from Snape’s Sectumsempra spell.”
Kirsty looked up at him horrified and Sirius winced at the expression on her face. She dipped her head once again to stare transfixed at the scars that ran down from just beneath his left shoulder to the ride side of his sternum. Kirsty bit her lip and Sirius noticed her eyes mist over slightly.
“I’m so sorry, Sirius,” she whispered, her bottom lip giving a slight tremble.
“Hey,” he soothed, grabbing a hold of both her hands and clasping them within his. “It’s not your fault.”
“Of course it is!” she argued. “Snape was aiming for me.”
“Kirsty,” he began in earnest. “You have no idea how glad I am that I jumped in the way of that darn spell. That day changed my life. That day changed me. I can’t imagine what would have happened if we’d never become friends on that day. I quite like my life with you around and if I have to put up with a few scars to have that then I am more than willing. Besides, it’d take a lot more to turn me into an ugly brute.”
Kirsty gave a half smile, but she still looked concerned. Seeming to act on impulse, she reached her hand out towards his chest, and the next thing Sirius knew her finger was tracing a faint, unwavering line along his longest scar, which ended just underneath his boxer shorts. The tingling sensation made desire pool in the pit of Sirius’ stomach and he gave an involuntary shiver.
Kirsty pulled back as if she’d been burned and gave Sirius an apologetic look. “Sorry, did that hurt?”
Sirius’ eyes had glazed over with a sudden, uncontrollable lust for the infuriating young woman before him. He became overwhelmingly aware of the small distance that lay between them and the air was as clammy and as difficult to breathe as that in an inferno. Trust Kirsty to be so naïve as to mistake Sirius’ shiver of desire for one of pain.
As her hands were still clasped firmly within his, Sirius drew Kirsty even closer towards him, she was so close now that the tips of her damp hair were expelling droplets onto his shoulder. Mimicking the line that Kirsty had said to him at the beginning of the year when his feelings for her had begun to make themselves known, Sirius murmured, “Scars don’t hurt, you idiot, they tell stories.”
Kirsty gave a small giggle and Sirius was sure that his feelings of unbearable desire were being reflected in her eyes. God how he wanted to kiss her. However, there was Debbie to consider. Of course things weren’t serious between them, but he still didn’t like the idea of being a cheat. Despite how much his blood was screaming at him to snog Kirsty’s face off.
Although, he argued as he watched a droplet of water escape from Kirsty’s hair and make its way down her chest. Debbie and me never stated that we were being monogamous.
Throwing caution to the wind, Sirius went in for the kill. He was momentarily distracted, however, when small snuffles of laughter emanated from Kirsty. He blinked, taking a moment to overthrow the tyrannous control of his desire. Gritting his teeth to hide his disappointment, he forced himself to ask her, “What’s up with you?”
Kirsty stopped laughing and Sirius guessed by the shifty and uncomfortable look in her eye that she was well aware of the situation that she had just carelessly disrupted. “I’m sorry,” she said, sounding as if she was trying hard to keep her giggles under wraps. “It’s just that… do you perhaps care to tell me why it is that you’re wearing pink boxer shorts?”
Sirius furrowed his brow, still annoyed with her beyond words for causing another missed kiss, and stared at Kirsty uncomprehendingly for a good few minutes until realisation finally dawned. Outraged, Sirius argued, “They’re not pink! They’re purple!”
Kirsty let out another bark of laughter. “I’m sorry, Sirius, but they’re most definitely and most unarguably pink, and you know it.”
A smile spread across Sirius’ face, but it had nothing to do with their argument, but rather how he could manipulate it to his advantage. He was fed up with he and Kirsty dancing around each other and settling for missed opportunities, he would show her how opportunities were meant to be taken advantage of.
“I’ll give you bloody pink, White!” he growled dangerously. The next minute, before his conscience and sense had the chance to force him to reconsider, he pounced at her, knocking her clean to the floor.
Tickling her ruthlessly and pinning her legs down with his own to prevent her escape, Sirius demanded of her through his bellows of mirth, “Do you concede yet? Tell me they’re purple and all this stops!”
Kirsty’s breaths were coming out in wheezy gasps and still Sirius tickled her sides relentlessly. “Pink!” Kirsty managed to shriek.
In response, Sirius collapsed his upper body and pinned Kirsty’s arms over her head with his own; resistance was now completely futile. With his upper body now only being held inches above Kirsty’s own Sirius would guess that if he stuck out his tongue it would have no trouble making contact with Kirsty’s lips, and the urge to confirm this hypothesis was overwhelming.
“Okay, okay,” surrendered Kirsty, after her many attempts to free her hands from Sirius’ vice-like grip had failed. “Let’s just agree to disagree, shall we? In my opinion they’re pink and in yours they’re purple, therefore, there is no right or wrong answer, only interpretations.” Sirius was just about to let her get away with all this until she added with a shriek of laughter, “Although only an idiot would believe they’re purple, which by the way is not all that much better than pink!”
For her insolence, Sirius released the grip one of his hands had on Kirsty’s wrists and jabbed her in her side, causing her to wriggle with ticklish giggles once again.
“Kidding!” she cried, finally succumbing to Sirius’ superior bargaining techniques.
Sirius slid his hand back up so that it once again joined his other one at Kirsty’s wrists. They lay there for some time in complete silence, occasionally offering each other a sneaky smirk.
Sirius could tell from the way that Kirsty’s eyes refused to quite meet his and the ever present embarrassed tinge on her cheeks that she knew as well as he did what was to happen next. With the charged chemistry between them reaching unthinkable levels there could be only one possible outcome to their current predicament.
“You can let go of my wrists now, you know,” Kirsty informed Sirius, a small croak in her voice.
“I know,” Sirius responded softly, curving his lips up devilishly.
“We should probably be getting back down to the lake, otherwise the others will be thinking that we’re up to some more shenanigans,” Kirsty argued, although somewhat feebly.
It was evident that Kirsty was trying to worm her way out of their current situation, but Sirius hoped that it was a wish to do the right and sensible thing rather than a true desire to get away from him.
But Sirius Black no longer cared for what was right and sensible. He cared for what was wrong, reckless and pleasurable.
“Well,” he began, lowering his head a fraction so that his lips really were now only millimetres from Kirsty’s, “we are getting up to some more shenanigans, although admittedly they will be significantly different and significantly… better.”
His body was flat on top of hers now and he could feel Kirsty’s heart doing a skittish little dance against his chest. He parted his lips and prepared to let all his hesitance and self-control over the last few months finally reap their reward.
“Sirius,” Kirsty whispered, her tone one of warning, before Sirius had managed to snatch her lips within his.
Her small murmur of protest, shocked Sirius and he pulled back a little. “Look, Kirst,” he reasoned, bringing his hand down and tracing it slowly down the side of her face. “This is pointless. We can no longer pretend that we don’t””
“Sirius!” screeched a voice from over in the doorway.
Both Sirius and Kirsty tried to scramble up from their positions so fast that it resulted in them knocking their heads together.
As Sirius staggered to his feet and rushed over to placate Debbie, who looked positively murderous, Kirsty nursed her head. Just as Sirius had managed to spurt out the words ‘Debbie, it isn’t what it looks like…’ Kirsty hollered, “Ah, there’s my t-shirt!” And dived under Remus’ bed to retrieve it.
“What the hell is going on here?” demanded Debbie, her voice surprisingly booming for someone so small. It took Sirius a while to answer, however, as he became momentarily distracted by Kirsty yanking the t-shirt down over her head. “Well?” prompted Debbie.
Behind Debbie’s back, Kirsty drew her finger across her throat to mimic someone getting their throat slit. Sirius had to swallow his laughter as he attempted to address Debbie in all seriousness.
“I’m sorry, Debs, it really isn’t what you think. We were just fooling around, you know, wrestling.”
“Oh, I could see that,” she retorted with a sneer. “But I didn’t think that play wrestling involved the pair of you taking your clothes off.”
“What?” Sirius laughed, trying to fob this off as an absurdity. Although, admittedly he did see how bad the whole situation must have looked.
“Seriously, Debbie,” piped up Kirsty. “We were just play fighting, and I came up here looking for my t-shirt.” Debbie scoffed and glared at Kirsty. Kirsty had the grace to look embarrassed and replied, “And, seeing as I’ve found it, I’ll be getting out of your way now. Sorry, for the confusion, Debbie.”
With that, Kirsty quickly dodged past the feuding couple and out of the room, leaving Sirius to shoot her a withering look of disbelief.
“Are you really telling me that there is nothing going on between the two of you,” challenged Debbie.
“That’s what I’m telling you,” answered Sirius, having to try immensely hard not to let out a sigh of regret.
Debbie didn’t look at him, just stared down at the floor and tapped her foot.
Sirius was of two minds what to do next. He yearned to walk out of there right at that moment and follow Kirsty back to her dormitory to finish what they’d just started. Nevertheless, guilt flooded over him. He was with Debbie and despite his feelings for Kirsty, Debbie didn’t deserve to be cheated on. He knew that the answer to all his problems would be just to break up with Debbie. He knew he would not miss her if she was gone, but he felt that it would be too harsh to break up with her this very second. Perhaps he could string Debbie along for a little while longer and give Kirsty time to think about what had yet again nearly occurred between them.
“Are you okay?” Sirius asked Debbie, feeling concerned at how subdued she was. She only nodded in response. “I’m sorry, you know that, right?”
“I know,” she admitted and raised her head to look at him. Sirius gave her a friendly smile, not liking the fact that he’d caused the hurt look in her eyes. “Promise me that nothing’s going to happen between you and Kirsty,” she begged of him.
Sirius gazed at her in shock; it was as if she had read his mind. How could he promise such a thing? He swallowed hard and looked Debbie straight in the eye. “I promise.”
“Thank you,” she said, in little above a whisper. She walked towards him, stood on the very tip of her toes, and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Against his better judgement, Sirius allowed her to bring him in for the kiss. Her mouth enveloped his and whilst it was a very good kiss, Sirius couldn’t help but feel that he had just received the conciliatory prize when fifty thousand galleons had been up for grabs.
“Kirsty!”
Kirsty stopped on her way out of the common room and whipped around at the sound of her name.
Debbie stood at the bottom of the boys’ staircase and she didn’t look like she was about to give Kirsty an Easter egg. Kirsty fought the urge to run and instead stood her ground, preparing herself for the berating that was no doubt about to come.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to,” Debbie told her, making her way across the common room.
“Well, I was just about to go back down to the””
“Don’t play stupid,” Debbie snapped. “You know full well that I was talking about you and Sirius.”
“Right,” said Kirsty slowly, determined not to show any signs of weakness. “Sorry about all that, it really was just a misunderstanding.”
“Do you really think that you can win my boyfriend by flaunting yourself in front of him and rolling around on the floor?” Debbie’s tone was low, dangerous and poisonous as she stalked towards her prey.
“I’ve no idea what you’re going on about,” said Kirsty simply, holding her head high with dignity.
“Do you think that out of all the girls at Hogwarts he’d fall for you?” Debbie spat, malice gleaming in her green eyes.
“Now, hang on a minute!” protested Kirsty, not liking the direction their conversation was taking.
Debbie stopped in front of her, and Kirsty found herself taking an involuntary step back. “Because, come on, let’s face, you’re really not anything special.”
“Well then, if that’s the case then you really shouldn’t worry about me stealing your boyfriend,” Kirsty retorted, feeling her inner bitch about to emerge.
Debbie laughed mirthlessly. “I suppose you’re right. I want you to stay away from him, White.”
“I will do no such thing,” argued Kirsty. “He’s one of my best friends.”
“Fine, then I want you to give me your word that you’re not falling in love with my boyfriend.”
Kirsty stared at Debbie with her mouth agape. Hmm. Could she promise such a thing? Was she falling in love with Sirius? Did what had just happened between them signify love or lust? Could she really ever see herself dating Sirius?
“Debbie, I can quite honestly promise you that I will never go out with Sirius Black. I’m not stupid. As far as I’m concerned you’re very welcome to him. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
And breathing heavily, Kirsty turned on her heel and left the common room, wishing that that was the one promise she had the power to break.
Sirius slumped against the wall of the boys’ staircase. Kirsty’s departing words ringing in his ears.