Written in the Stars | Sirius Black

XIII. Sympathy for the Devil

"Lara, you have to skip Sluggy's party. Gid and I will sneak you into the kitchens, we'll have the house elves make you a cake."

"As lovely as that sounds, I can't skip. He's one of the professors writing me a recommendation letter to St. Mungo's, I have to stay on his good side."

Fabian pressed a quick kiss against her temple, "Saturday then, no options. Me, you, Gid, and all the house elves. Hell, bring Marlene and your brother as well."

A smile played at the corner of her lips, "Wouldn't that be breaking at least three different school rules?"

"Live a little, Lara. You only turn eighteen once."

"We'll see."

Fabian smiled at her and pulled her back along their path to dinner, "I hope you know I'm taking that as a yes."

"Of course you are." Clara replied with a grin as she rolled her eyes.

Once finally in the Great Hall, Clara spotted Lily surrounded by her brother and his friends. Even Marlene had decided to join the Gryffindor table and all Clara could hope for was that her best friend was doing her best to reign in the Marauder's antics in her absence. With a quick kiss to her temple and a wink that made Clara's stomach flip like a pancake, Fabian reluctantly left her side to sit at the other end of the table with his twin and Quidditch teammates.

"Move over, then." Clara ordered James so she could sit between him and Lily.

As the boy grumbled under his breath, Clara took a seat and looked over at Lily who mouthed a silent thank you. After giving a kind smile to Lily, Clara brought her attention to Fabian at the other end of the table. He was no doubt talking to his twin and half of the Quidditch team about strategies for their first game against Slytherin, set to take place just after the holidays. At least he was getting it all out of his system at dinner, she thought. Maybe it's because he knew the topic bored Clara to tears and didn't want to subject her to the torture.

"I assume you're going too, then?" Sirius asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

Clara turned to Sirius, but having been much too distracted by a particular auburn haired boy, Clara had no clue what on Earth he was talking about, "Going to what?"

"Lily turned down James here because she's apparently too busy this Friday. Something about Slughorn having a Christmas party, right Evans? I assume Teacher's Pet got an invite as well." he taunted.

Clara helped herself to a serving of shepherd's pie as she rolled her eyes, "Are you jealous you weren't invited?"

Sirius scoffed, "Not a chance. It sounds like a drag. Plus I heard Reg got invited, so I know it'll be a horrible time."

At this, Clara finally met Sirius's gaze. Well and truly looking into his eyes this time – studying them for any signs of pain. More than anyone besides the Mauraders, Clara understood how volatile his home life was. The boy had an incredible poker face, he always seemed so cool and collected no matter what was going on behind closed doors. He raised his eyebrow at her and she shook her head at him before returning her attention to her dinner. Even with all of his constant taunting, she still wanted to make sure Sirius was okay.

But why did she care so much?

.・。.・゜✭・.・✧・゜・。.