What the Heart Wants (Sirius Black Love Story)

Chapter 4

After their first Care of Magical Creatures lesson, Lily beckoned for Sadie to join her and the other girls as they walked up to the castle ahead of the boys. Sadie cheerfully waved goodbye to her brother and the other boys and hurried to catch up with the girls. They were excitedly discussing the project they had just been given.

"Where were you and Sirius?" Alice asked Sadie. Sadie shrugged casually.

"Kettleburn assigned us one that he keeps apart from the others. She's blind, so she startles easily. He's trying to keep her protected from a lot of noise, at least until she's a little stronger." She deliberately left out any other details, not wanting word to get out about the baby. They last thing the poor creature needed was a bunch of Hogwarts students barging into her clearing to try and get a look at her. "How did everything go for you guys?"

Mary sighed. "Oh it was wonderful! Remus is such a sweetheart, you know? And his smile just melts my heart! Sadie, do you think there's any way you could get him to ask me to Hogsmeade sometime this year?"

Sadie bit back a smile. "I'll do my best, Mary."

Marlene rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "I'm pretty sure Sadie was actually asking about our unicorns." Mary blushed. "Archer's and mine doesn't seem to be in too terrible of shape. He's an adult, and he definitely took to me better than Archer, but Archer is being pretty patient about it." She shook her head with a slight laugh. "He named him Albatross of all things. But, I mean, he's hot, and I figured it won't hurt my chances with him to just go along with it. So, well, Albatross it is, I suppose," she shrugged.

The other girls giggled. Alice spoke up next. "Peter and I got assigned the one you were checking out at the beginning of class. Poor Peter seems pretty terrified of the whole project, but Charlie is such a sweetheart. That's what we named the unicorn," she added at their blank looks.

"Bertram actually seems to have kind of a gift," Lily smiled. "Our unicorn, Amaryllis, liked him as much as me right off the bat. She's in a bit of a bad way; looking really skinny, and Kettleburn says she's having a hard time keeping food down, but we're hopeful. Did you and Sirius name yours?"

Sadie nodded. "We named her Rhea."

Mary laughed. "Well, that's a good one! James insisted to poor Eliza that they were naming theirs Elvendork because 'it's unisex.'" Everyone giggled except Lily, who just rolled her eyes.

"Well, I guess I lucked out with Albatross then, didn't I?" Marlene joked.

"Hey, Sadie!"

The girls stopped and turned around to see Gideon hurrying toward them. With a chorus of "See you in class, Sadie" and some suggestive winks, Sadie was left on her own with the redhead, who grinned down at her. 'Merlin, has he always been so tall?' Sadie thought weakly.

"I just booked the pitch for tryouts this Saturday at 8am," he told her happily. "You'll be there, right?"

Sadie smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Not wasting any time, are you?" He chuckled and shrugged sheepishly. "Of course I'll be there."

"Great!" He beamed at her. "That's great!" There was an awkward pause as they looked at each other. Then, Gideon cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Hey, listen, Sadie, I've been thinking...that is...I was wondering..."

"Hey, Gideon!" They both jumped as the sound of Fabian shouting at him from down the corridor. "You coming, or what?"

Gideon hesitated before giving Sadie an apologetic look. "I'll, uh, see you around, yeah?" She nodded, feeling a little baffled, and watched him jog back to meet up with his twin. With a start, she realized that she'd been staring off into space for several seconds, and so she hurried the rest of the way to the Transfiguration classroom.