Written in the Stars | Sirius Black

VIII. Midnight Blue

Eventually, the warmth faded and when Sirius glanced back down, his wound immediately started to close. The pink irritated skin surrounding it returned to its regular pale complexion. The only remaining evidence that he had hurt himself at all was a thin white scar over the centre of his palm.

Clara set her wand aside and ran her fingers lightly over Sirius' skin, inspecting her work. A shiver ran down his spine at her gentle nurturing touch and all he could think about was that she was a lot like Euphemia in that way. Stern and stoic as a statue carved from obsidian and just as difficult to break through. But beneath the surface hid a warm, kind heart.

Growing up without affection from his family was one thing, but having someone truly care about something as minor as a cut on his hand was uncharted waters. But he did his absolute best to not let Clara notice how much this moment meant to him.

Clara released his hand and allowed him to check it for himself, "Usually when I heal James, there isn't a scar left." she muttered, defeated.

Running the thumb of his opposite hand over his skin, he seemed satisfied with her work but found her chewing on her bottom lip when he glanced up at her.

"I think you did great."

But she shook her head, "I'll have to do some more reading on scarring. I must've gotten lazy with my wand placement or something."

Even with magical intervention, the true reason any remnants of his injury had lingered was well known to Sirius. But refused to unleash that knowledge to Clara. Instead, he laid his hand over hers – the one that had found itself picking at her cuticles in her sudden stress over the matter. Silently, her eyes locked on to where their hands met, yet the moment had gone as quickly as it came.

"How can I ever repay you, Madam Potter?" Sirius asked sarcastically as he pulled away without so much as acknowledging the fleeting moment.

Clara relaxed into her seat, forgetting all about her damaged cuticles, "Well, if you're offering, maybe don't declare your love for me in front of the entire school."

A smirk immediately formed on his lips as he raised an eyebrow, "I had to make my true feelings known before Fabian got any funny ideas."

Clara rolled her eyes, "With or without your nonsense, Fabian and I are not going to happen. I don't need everyone thinking I'm some kind of–"

The girl cut her sentence short, but Sirius wasn't letting it go that easily.

"Some kind of what?"

For a moment, she chewed the inside of her cheek, "A girl who two-times the Quidditch King and her brother's best friend."

Though that was the long way of saying she was afraid of everyone calling her a slut, Sirius seemed to catch on.

"Well, what if we make a deal?" he suggested, leaning back on the couch as he crossed his arms.

"The deal was I healed your hand, now you leave me alone. You don't get to ask for extra." she shook her head.

"Well I think you'll find my offer very tempting."

"What are you on about?"

"I'll make sure everyone knows how much you hate me, but only if you leave Fabian alone."

Clara's brows knit into a frown. Being so adamant about her staying away from Fabian was an odd request. Perhaps there was unknown animosity between them. Or a horrible rumour about the redhead that Clara had no clue about. Though she'd never even witnessed them crossing paths, nor had she heard anything from James that would lead her to believe that Fabian and Sirius were anything other than housemates – let alone enemies.

Surely if Fabian was really bad news, her brother would have been the one to try to warn her, rather than the boy sitting before her.

"Sirius, I'm not even interested in him." she insisted.

"Not according to what I told the entire school this morning." he smirked.

"Why would you even care if I wanted to date him?" she asked before quickly clarifying, "Which I don't."

"It's not that I care," he shrugged as stood from the couch and made his way to the stairs. Once he reached the archway leading up to the dorms, he paused and spun back around to face her, "I just think Gideon's the better looking twin is all. Good night, Clara."