Barking Mad (Sirius/OC)

Wanna give your heart a break

I looked away from him, only to see that the others were eyeing me worriedly. I grabbed my book, that I had dropped beside me to steal Sirius's, let go of his Care of Magical Creatures book and took my bag off the ground as well. I jumped on my feet and mumbled an excuse, before I hastily made my way back to the castle.

I was quite sure that I had just told the Marauders that I was going to the dungeons to pee, but I couldn't really care right now. All I knew was that I needed to visit Gideon Greene and listen to him slowly dissecting my life until it made sense.

"Nika!" I heard Sirius call, which only made me speed up.

He caught up with me though - damn him and his tall legs - and grabbed my arm, something he quite liked to do.

"Nika, love, what happened back there?"

He sounded contrite, worried and even insecure all at the same time. I had never heard him express those three emotions in only one sentence and it made my heart skip a beat. There was no doubt in my heart that Sirius cared for me. He wouldn't have shared his story about his uncle Alphard otherwise, something I knew he had only told James about two days ago. He wouldn't have let me come so close if he hadn't cared, I told myself gently.

It calmed me down a little, it warmed my soul a lot. It was like his own whirlwind of emotions chased mine away and gave me something that had a strong resemblance to serenity.

"Nika," he whispered, pulling me into his embrace. He rested his chin on the top of my head and I felt my arms circle around him and I pulled him even closer. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it," I muttered and I really didn't. If I told Sirius to back off, he might as well take that a little bit too literally and go back to our cold war from the last few months.

Sirius didn't speak for several moments and I felt more than saw other students walking by and giving us speculative looks. I finally pulled back to look at him. I gave him a smile, I didn't wholly feel and leaned into his hand when he cupped my cheek.

"If I do something wrong, you will tell me, right?" he asked me softly, his eyes pleading with me. I didn't really understand where this insecurity was coming from all of a sudden, but I nodded nonetheless.

"If you do anything majorly wrong, I'll tell you."

"No more running," he prodded as his thumb caressed my cheek gently.

My smile became more genuine and I closed my eyes for a quick second. "No more running," I promised.

He gave me a beautiful, big smile, before he let his hand drop. "Good, because from now on I will give chase."

That sounded like a promise, I thought. My heart beat twice as fast and I couldn't help the wide smile that broke through. "Good," I said.

He winked and without another word, he walked back to the other Marauders watching us by the lake. I am not ashamed to say that I watched him go and that his ass was glorious, indeed.

 ~*~

"Do you want to tell me why Dumbledore had to call an emergency meeting?" Dr. Greene asked me with a raised eyebrow. "Because contrary to popular believe I do have a life."

I grinned sheepishly. "How is Katya?" I asked him.

He gave me a sour look that told me exactly what he thought about that question. "Katya is pregnant," he replied curtly.

I bit my lip and looked away. It must be hard, I thought, to see the woman you loved married to another, but it must be twice as hard to see her pregnant. "I'm sorry."