Chapter Text
“Sirius, you are such a wonderful chaser. I was so impressed by your plays today,” the little blonde Ravenclaw simpered as she tried to cling to his arm.
Sirius did love the growing attention the girls were giving him in this year, but he did not need nor want for them to hang all over him as if he was a closet rod or like they owned him.
He knew most of the attraction they had was for his family’s vaults, and while he loved to flirt with them when boredom set in, his prerogative wasn’t to prioritize them. He was only in his third year for Merlin’s sake; he didn’t have time to commit to a girl!
He shook the Ravenclaw off and tried to turn his attention towards where his friends were celebrating another Gryffindor win on the pitch.
“Wait, but Sirius!” The girl tried to regain his attention, but he wasn’t in the mood to humor her and jogged over to the other Marauders, leaving her where she stood.
“Girl troubles, Sirius?” James joked as Sirius reached the group.
“No troubles at all, Jamey,” Sirius smirked while throwing an arm over his shoulder. “Might help if they made it a bit more of a challenge though.”
Remus scoffed and rolled his eyes. Peter let out an awkward laugh.
“Party in the common room, yeah?” Sirius asked to change the subject, and the Marauders all agreed and pulled each other towards the tower, laughing about the trouble they could cause during their third year now that they were allowed into Hogsmeade.
Two hours later, Sirius held a glass of butterbeer as he listened to the Quidditch captain regaling their win against Slytherin. Sirius and James had made over 100 points for their team before their seeker had caught the snitch.
During the party, there had been no shortage of people coming up to congratulate them both on the win, but James had only been focused on Lily Evans, even if she was trying to avoid him at all costs. It was common knowledge that James had the biggest crush on Evans, but it was also common knowledge that Evans wanted nothing to do with him.
Sirius was fielding the congratulatory interruptions for James as the bespectacled flirt attempted to strike up a conversation with Evans, but even with his best work, Sirius wasn’t able to stop James from making a fool of himself.
Sirius didn’t envy James’ attempts at love, but he did envy that James was so sure of his affections for one witch. There were so many witches that flirted with Sirius, but he never felt a connection with any of them. He wished for someone who would strike a match in his soul like Lily had with James.
There had to be someone in this world made to be-
Before his thoughts could get any further, someone from behind bumped into him.
“Oh, sorry! Have you seen hairy?” A mass of curls and robes asked him as he turned around. Sirius laughed into the curls that reached his chin.
“Hairy what? I’ve got a hairy chest, would you be interested in that? But if you’re looking for hair, it seems like you have plenty of it,” Sirius replied with a smile while trying to find the face that belonged to the hair. He moved the curls out of her face to see the most beautiful amaretto eyes.
“So funny,” the girl snarked as she smacked his hand and gave him a huff and a glare. “Where is- who are you?”
She looked up at him with narrowed eyes, but her question made him look twice at her too. Did he know her? He didn’t recognize her at all, and he was sure he would remember her face. She was gorgeous, if one could get past the fur ball on top of her head- which he could.
It made her cute and unique. He liked cute and unique.
“Who are you?” Sirius parroted back.
Instead of answering, she just rolled her eyes and looked around the room.
“You’re not going to answer?” Sirius asked.
“You were the one who didn’t answer first. I’m not in the habit of making small talk with people who are too dumb to answer a simple question,” she snipped as she crossed her arms in front of her and continued to scan the crowd.
Sassy. He liked it.
“Well, for one, I am the most incredible, amazing, sensational chaser in all of the-” he noticed that she wasn’t listening to a single word he said, so he made his voice even louder, “greater Hogwarts years! I am the mystical, beautiful, and all around-”
His speech was cut off as her eyes locked on James in the crowd. “Hairy!”
Without listening to what he had to say, the girl directed her path straight towards James, and Sirius was confused at how he could possibly lose a bird to James. How had the guy who had no hair on his chest- so obviously not hairy- caught her attention? Besides, everyone already knew that James was spoken for.
The mystery girl embraced James like he was an old friend and started babbling to him before her actions started to become awkward. The girl started to slowly back away from him in confusion the longer she engaged.
As Sirius approached, he heard her stumble through her words, “Are you- Who are- Harry?” The words she said became stilted the more she looked at James. Then he saw the look on her face. Absolute horror.
“I’m not hairy! Did Sirius put you up to this?” James asked while glaring at Sirius. “I promise, I’m not a hairy person!” Sirius snorted as James’ voice increased as his eyes trailed to Lily across the room.
“James, how dare you think I would put someone up to this!” Sirius exclaimed as he approached the mystery girl and his best friend.
“Sirius, this has you written all over it!” James whispered when Sirius reached the girl’s side.
Her eyes continued to pinball between him and James with the same look of horror.
“No, no, no,” she repeated as she backed away from James and Sirius. “This can’t be happening.”
Sirius wanted to tell her to stop walking away from him, especially when all he wanted to do was to talk to her, but instead, he watched her run towards the common room door as she took a necklace chain out of her shirt.
“Wait! Stop. What is your-” Sirius tried to get out before she exited the door but didn’t succeed, so he followed her out.
However, when he entered the corridor, she was gone.