The Ghosts of the Past (The Marauders' Story)

VALENTINE'S DAY

Unfortunately, on Valentine's Day, Onodera chose to spoil it all.

It so happened that for the first time at Hogwarts, Sirius and Regulus were talking amiably outside the Great Hall, after breakfast. Regulus who, like Sirius, was very fond of Andromeda, had come to ask Sirius if he had heard about Ted Tonks, and for some minutes they collectively berated Uncle Cygnus and Aunt Druella for creating pressure on Andy.

Then suddenly a female voice said, "Hi, Sirius!" Sirius turned and saw Onodera smiling up at him.

"Hi," he said slightly unenthusiastically, as he did not want to be interrupted.

"I have got something for you," said the second year girl brightly.

"What?"

Onodera bought out her hands from behind her back and gave Sirius a box with a red bow. Sirius opened it curiously. A bunch of pink and white balloons flew out and showered them with flowers. Everyone in the corridor stopped to watch. All the while, a high female voice sang some dumb love song, or so it seemed to Sirius.

As the popping noises of the balloons and the songs finished simultaneously after a minute, Onodera declared, "I love you, Sirius!"

Sirius stepped back in confusion. Ordinarily he would never had reacted so dumbly, but well...his little brother was standing beside him.

Sirius glanced at Regulus, expecting to see him looking scandalized or maybe teasing. But what he saw was something he hadn't expected at all.

Regulus' face was extremely white and he looked too furious and hurt to speak. Sirius was about to ask him what was wrong, but before he could, Regulus turned on his heel and stormed off.

Sirius was so confused by now that he had almost forgotten about Onodera. He remembered when she waved her hand in front of his face.

"Hey, Sirius?" she said.

"Can we talk about it later?" said Sirius, not knowing what else to say.

Then he saw a familiar untidy black head coming through the crowd. "C'mon, don't keep her hanging, mate," said James. "You don't want to go out with her, is that right?"

James was grinning wickedly from ear to ear. Relieved to see that someone was reacting the way they were expected to, Sirius nodded. "Yeah, I don't. Sorry, Onodera."

Onodera looked like she would start creating a scene. But thankfully Remus rushed up to them and dragged Sirius and James away, saying, "We'll be late for Transfiguration!"

Sirius wondered all day about what had bitten Regulus. Finally Marlene threw light on the subject.

"Don't suppose you guys have heard the rumour, being busy planning pranks all day, but everyone knows that Regulus Black is obsessed with Onodera Kirisaki. I reckon that's why he was so angry."

"Regulus likes Onodera?" Sirius was incredulous—his little brother involved in something like this was quite unbelievable.

"What's wrong with that?" asked Marlene.

"It's ridiculous! I'll go and tell him that I don't like Onodera—not one bit."

Sirius did look for Regulus the next day. Every time he saw him, Regulus was surrounded by Slytherins.

"Reg?" said Sirius, approaching him. Regulus turned away and wouldn't speak to him.

As a dejected Sirius was walking away, he heard Rosier, a boy in Reg's class, saying, "We told you not to trust that blood traitor."

"Come on, Sirius, we are going to start brewing the Animagus potion," said James, coming up and taking his arm.

"Yeah, let's..."

Together, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter walked away to the Gryffindor Tower.