animagus / s.b.

chapter one

five years later

"Witches and wizards, welcome to the first match of the quidditch season! Today's game will be Gryffindor against Hufflepuff! There are great players on both teams, but the star players..." I stopped listening to the commentator and turned to Lily.

She rolled her eyes. "I can't believe they consider James Potter a star player."

"Lily, I'm not even in your house and I can see that he has skills. Maybe not a good personality, but he is talented."

She looked at me with an incredulous look on her face and laughed. "Ella Iovanni, you hypocrite," she said while playfully hitting my arm. "At least I'm not constantly trying to annoy, distract, and hurt him. Even if it means interrupting class."

"My situation with Sirius is nothing like yours with James. James is in love with you, while Sirius loathes me."

Lily pointed to where both teams were entering the field. "Whatever. Look it's starting!"

We watched as the teams got on their brooms and waited for Madame Hooch to begin. "I want a clean match." She announced, and seemed to be looking right at Sirius and James. Then, she blew the whistle.

The game went on for about forty-five minutes, before the Gryffindor seeker captured the snitch. Lily jumped out of her seat while clapping and cheering. She was beaming until James swept up in front of her, immediately changing her expression. I watched as she rolled her eyes and scoffed at him as he winked at her.

But, as he flew away, I couldn't help but notice the flush of red that appeared on her cheeks.

It had become somewhat of a tradition for Lily and I to go to Hogsmeade on the Saturdays after Quidditch matches, whether our teams won or lost. Today we were sitting at The Three Broomsticks, enjoying the day with a few of our classmates. 

"Seriously, Lily, why don't you like James? He's a total catch. The body, the popularity, the personality." 

"Gross, Mary. James is completely repulsive and ill-mannered." 

I had to laugh at that. "Lily don't be ridiculous, anyone with two eyes and half a brain can see that you and James are perfect for one another." 

She glared at me. "Well I would like to think that I might be able to get someone more attractive than James Potter. Maybe like that seventh year Finn Montgomery." 

We all looked over at him, sitting at the bar. "Go talk to him!" I encouraged. 

"No, no. But, Ella, how about we change the conversation over to your love life." Lily inclined. 

The other girls leaned towards me. "Yeah, how's Sirius doing?" Sophia asked.

I rolled my eyes. For a reason completely unknown to me, all of my friends believe that there is, as they put it, chemistry between Sirius and I. "For the last time, I don't know or care about him."

"Oh please, if there's 'something' between James and I then there is definitely something between you and Sirius." Lily said, nudging me with her elbow. 

I ignored her and stood up to get another round of butterbeer for the table. "Wait, what time is it?" Mary asked.

"Um, four thirty, why?"

My three Gryffindor friends looked at each other. "Sorry, Ella, but we have to get back to the common room before the celebratory party starts." They stood up and grabbed their coats. "See you tomorrow." I hugged each of Lily and watched the three of them leave. 

Now bored, I went and sat at the bar. "Want another?" The bartender asked. 

"No thanks, but here's for the round." I handed him two galleons. 

I sat thinking about all of the homework I had to do before I heard, "Hello, love, how's your day going?" I turned to see the Finn Montgomery talking to me. I had to look around a few times to make sure he was, in fact, talking to me.

I gave him my best flirty smile. "Pretty good. Oh, and great game today by the way. Shouldn't you be celebrating with the rest of Gryffindor?"

"I'll let Potter bask in the glory tonight, given that he was the reason we won."

I tilted my head and smirked. "How noble of you." 

He laughed. "Shouldn't you be celebrating?"

"I'm not in Gryffindor."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "But I saw you sitting with Lily Evans." 

Well she'll be happy to know that he knows who she is, I thought. "I'm in Ravenclaw."

"Good, I like an intelligent girl." I bit my lip and smiled at him again. 

"Well, Finn, as wonderful as this has been, I have to go. Let's do this again." I stood up and put my coat and scarf on. 

"Wait, I didn't catch your name." He said, also standing up. I noticed a twinkle in his eye.

"Ella Iovanni." I replied, running my fingers through my hair- my nervous habit.

"I'll see you soon, Ella. It was nice talking to you."

It was a quiet night in the Ravenclaw common room. Quite the opposite, I'm sure, of what the Gryffindor common room was like at this moment.

I sat at one of the plush blue velvet chairs around the fireplace, finishing my History of Magic essay that was due on Monday. I had just written the last sentence, when I noticed that the words at the top of the page were beginning to disappear. I was confused for a moment before my mind reached the only plausible conclusion: Sirius. 

I sat up and left the common room, most likely looking so angry that I had steam coming out of my ears. 

I knew exactly where Sirius would be; he was never one to join in on the winning celebrations with his house. Instead, he preferred to sit in the Great Hall, stuffing his face full of food. 

When I got to that part of the school, my prediction was proved right. 

"What is this, you git," I whispered, not wanting the few teachers that were lingering to hear me.

At my voice, he looked up and smirked. His eyes watched the ink fade away on the parchment I was holding. "Well, Ella, it seems you've got yourself a predicament there."

I wanted to punch the smug look off his face. "I'm going to make you regret this, you know. Maybe at the end of this year when we're taking our OWLs, I'll make the words on your essays vanish. That would be quite fun, wouldn't it, Sirius."

He laughed at my attempt to threaten him. "Please, you're too much of a goody-goody to do anything bad to me regarding school."

"You just wait, Sirius." I said, turning away to leave, knowing that I had to spend the rest of my evening rewriting my essay.

"Wait, Ella." I turned around, surprised to see a sincere look on his undeniably handsome face. "I need your help."