Roses All The Way Down【Sirius Black】

ⅩⅤ. 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞

She looked down at Sirius with confusion, "uh what's up?"

"I just expected you to..."

"Be flat chested and have no-" Virginia raised her eyebrows with annoyance.

"Ass?" Sirius asked, "kind of." He shrugged awkwardly as she glared down at him. "But you're... really fucking hot."

She felt her face go bright red, "excuse me?!"

He bounced his eyebrows and winked, his usual confident personality coming back to him, "I said what I said sweetheart. Although personally... I think you'd look even hotter without it."

Her eyes widened and she made the choice to ignore the comment, "I'm going to go find Frank Longbottom."

"Why?" Sirius asked, getting half out of his seat the moment she said those words.

"Because he's a mutual friend and the only other person I know and well... like..." She didn't know why she needed to explain herself.

"So it's not a date?" he confirmed.

"Again mutual, I've maybe had one conversation with him and that was just in a group," her brows furrowed.

"Cool," he said, his voice sounding odd as he fell back into his seat.

Virginia ran up to Frank in the hallway outside of the Slug Club. He was a a jovial looking boy with curly brown hair and a smile that seemed permanently etched onto his face. She stuck out her hand, "hi, I'm Virginia. I'm a fi-fourth year?" she said slowly.

"Oh you're that girl," he grinned down at her, his tone not sounding judgmental in the slightest. Which was a bit of a first, "Gryffindor right? Hence the red?"

She looked down at herself, "hence my sister, actually. She packed this for me, took out all my others."

Frank's nose twitched, "well that's no fun. Well, I'm Frank," he seemed to finally notice her hand and shake it lightly. "Do you mind if I call you Ginny?"

Virginia fought the urge to grind her teeth, "sure!"

"So Ginny, I have your sister to thank for this?" said another voice from behind her. Until Virginia turned around she assumed it was Sirius but she was taken aback to see someone she didn't at all recognize. "My name is Clifford Solle, but you can call me Cliff. Everyone does." He bounced his eyebrows to punctuate the sentence. His eyes were drifting up and down her body, drinking it all in with an almost fiendish smile on his face.

"Dude," Frank cut in, his expression sour and stone-cold, "her eyes aren't down there." He stepped in front of her, half of his wide body blocking hers from Cliff's sight. Virginia looked up at him with surprise and smiled softly to herself.

Cliff scoffed before looking past him and winking at Virginia, "I'll see you inside Ginny."

When he entered the room, Frank stopped glowering in his direction. His expression turned back to one of innocence like a flick of a switch. "Shall we go in, Lady Waters?" he asked, offering her his arm with a joking smile.

She took his arm, "I would like nothing more, Lord Longbottom."

The room was small and stuffy. It must have been Slughorn's own private quarters, or at least a section of them. The table was decorated nicely, with a dark green tablecloth and a selection of candles. The plates looked like truly fine china and water goblets made out of real silver sat next to them. Her hand slipped off of Frank's arm as she stared at it.

It was then that she looked down at her dress, for the first time wondering how the hell Ophelia had afforded it. It had been a long time since she'd thought about her old situation as the wonder of the new one had faded away. But this was too much. Too fancy, too posh, too not right. She felt all her senses go on high alert. She was only here because of some special talent that wasn't even that cool.

She saw the group of students assembled, however small it may have been. Cliff, Pandora, Johanna and Regulus. She and Frank took their seats, next to each other. Virginia had Pandora on her other side. She could have sworn she heard her laughing under her breath when she sat down.

"Hey," she leaned over, her blonde hair curled up ever so slightly in a rather flattering way, "I just wanted to remind you about Sirius. Oh and I did some research on the Water's family. I found several but I'm sure I ended up finding yours. You don't belong here little girl. Run." She chuckled, leaning back into seat.

Virginia looked at the table and then down at her dress again. In comparison it wasn't nice at all. Pandora had a beautiful dress made of green velvet, Johanna wore a silver silk dress and all the boys had tailored suits. And if she hadn't gotten this from Ophelia - she'd be wearing a potato sack cut dress covered in old lady flowers. She stood up quickly, her chair scraping against the floor.

You're right Pandora, Virginia thought, trying to keep her emotions in check. Although she had been bullied before, it had never been so direct. Her mother had always told her that the girls who bullied her were jealous. Jealous of her how committed she was to her faith, jealous of how she could recite the Bible, jealous of how all the church boys wanted to hold her hand. Those things felt so pathetic now that she could barely stand to think of them. Pandora wasn't jealous, she was trying to scare her away from Sirius. And maybe it had worked.

Everyone stared up at her, "thank you Professor Slughorn but I feel sick." Without a second thought, she sprinted from the room. She heard steps coming after her when she slowed to a walk. She turned around, expecting to see Frank or even Regulus but instead it was that Cliff boy.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry about how I acted. My brain wasn't thinking straight and I was just so comfortable with you from the start that I thought you would be comfortable with me. You see, all my friends in Ravenclaw and I have like this running objectification joke. It doesn't excuse my actions and I wanted you to know how sorry I am," Cliff said softly, "honestly. We should be friends." He grinned without a hint of malice, "and... well- Ginny... would you consider going on a date with me tomorrow? Just a walk around the castle."

Virginia felt her heart beating in her throat, "sure I guess so." She accepted slowly. She knew she could take the opportunity to explain a bit about her situation and why they didn't work. Things she couldn't bring herself to explain now.

"Meet you at 3, after the Gryffindor Quidditch Tryouts?" Cliff offered. Virginia nodded mutely. She stared at his back as he stalked away, returning to the Slug Club. She felt hot tears rise in her eyes and she scrambled back to her dormitory.