Little Red |Sirius Black|

Astronomical Opportunities- Sirius

"Ugh, this is impossible!" Sirius heard Arianna exclaim. He looked up from his chess game with James.

Arianna was sitting on the common room floor, various astronomy charts spread in front of her. She rubbed her forehead in frustration glaring at the charts, even as her friends tried to help her. Sirius smiled slightly to himself.

He was still lost in thought when he felt the small table in front of him dig into his knees. When he looked back up, James was grinning at him.

"You're staring, mate." he said.

Sirius' smile faltered.

"You don't have to be so happy about it, you absolute wanker." Sirius replied, as he tried to glare at his best friend. That made James laugh.

"Whatever." he said, moving his knight forward on the board. Over time, Sirius felt his eyes drift back to a certain brunette, whose nose was now buried in the astronomy textbook. This time James pushed the table into his knees more forcefully.

"What?" Sirius asked, irritated. And it seemed like he wasn't the only one who was annoyed by James' actions, because the chess pieces were also complaining rather loudly about the constant quaking. James silenced them with a lazy flick of his wand.

"Well, are you just going to sit here and stare at her like a creep, or are you going to do something?" James asked, leaning over the small table.

"What do you expect me to do, Prongs?" Sirius asked in frustration. "It's not like I'm currently her favorite person, or anything!"

"When had that ever stopped you?" James asked in disbelief. "And besides there's a temporary ceasefire in place now. You've been complaining to me about not being able to talk to her all week. This is your shot! Go help her!"

Sirius looked at him uncertainly, but got up all the same. He made his way towards the girls, his mind racing with all the things he could say. But before he could decide on something, Arianna looked up at him. Sirius braced himself for sour looks and sarcastic remarks.

"Whats up?" Arianna asked him, throwing him off completely. Sirius tried to shake it off.

"I could hear you whining all the way across the room." he said, as he sat down next to her. Arianna's jaw dropped.

"I do not whine!" she said, looking at him in outrage. Sirius had to laugh.

"Yes, you do!" he said, bumping her shoulder with his. "And so I've come to help."

"You know astronomy?" Arianna asked, looking at him with uncertainty. It was Sirius' turn to be outraged.

He had to remind himself that she was new.

"Sweetheart, my name is Sirius Orion Black. There are two different constellations in just my name. Astronomy was one of the first things taught to me as a child." he told her.

"I thought Sirius was a star!" She said, and Sirius sighed.

"Yes, but it's a part of Canis Major, which is in fact a different constellation, and you are ruining my brag!"

"Okay, sorry, jeez!" Said Arianna, hands held up in surrender. Then she blinked, and looked towards the ground. "Wait a minute, Sirius Orion Black?" She whispered. Before Sirius could ask her what on earth her problem was, she whipped around to look at her friends.

"I knew his middle name couldn't be Lee!" Arianna exclaimed, pointing a finger at Dorcas accusingly. Dorcas, Lily and Alice laughed.

"Wait a minute, you've spent all these weeks thinking that my name is Sirius Lee Black?" Sirius asked, barely able to hold in a laugh himself. He turned to look at Dorcas, who was shaking with silent laughter. "I can't even be mad." he said, as he gave her a high five. Arianna groaned.

"Aren't you supposed to be helping me?" She asked, shoving him playfully. "So help!"

"Yes, ma'am." He replied with a smile and a wink. Arianna's smile widened.

"Lord, here we go." Lily mumbled.

"Excuse me?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow. The redhead ignored him completely.

"Be careful with this one, love." she said to Arianna, as she got up to leave. "We'd hate to have another Marlene on our hands."

"What do you mean?" Arianna asked in confusion, and Sirius almost felt his heart stop.

No, not this. Please not this.

"Ask lover boy." was all Lily said before walking to the girls wing.

"We have to go too." Dorcas said, as she and Alice got up. "Arithmancy homework."

Once they were left alone, Arianna turned to look at Sirius questioningly.

"Isn't Marlene the girl who used to live with them before me?" She asked him. Sirius swallowed hard and nodded. He really didn't want to know what she'd think about him if she knew. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

"Not really, no." He admitted.

"Then you don't have to." She said with a shrug, silently going back to her work.

"Really?" Sirius asked her, the relief palpable on his face. Arianna shrugged.

"You didn't push me to tell you about me and the girls back in the astronomy classroom that night. It's only fair that I extend the same courtesy to you." She said. Sirius had forgotten all about that. He smiled at her in thanks. "Besides, given the context, I can more or less tell how that story goes."

"I'd be surprised if you didn't." Sirius said with a sad smile. He really did regret everything that happened with Marlene. "What I am surprised about, though," he said, as he glimpsed at the chart she was working on. "is the fact that you seem to have labelled Canis Major as Orion."

"I have?" Arianna's eyebrows shot up as she examined her chart. When she seemed to have a hard time finding it, Sirius pointed it out to her. "Well then, now there really is only one constellation in your name." She said, her hands spread in comic resignation, and Sirius barked out a laugh so loud that half the common room turned to look at them.

Get your head in the game, Padfoot! He scolded himself.

"Orion is one of the most easily recognised constellations in the sky. See, he looks like he's holding a bow in front of him." he told her as they bent over the chart together, his fingers tracing the pattern for her to see.

"Oh yeah." The girl said, shooting him a grin, her face inches from his. Looking at her, an idea struck him.

"You know the best thing about astronomy?" He asked her, a small smile playing on his lips. Arianna shook her head. "It's a practical subject. You can see the skies and learn about it, instead of just connecting some dots on paper. If you like, we could go up to the astronomy tower tonight and I could point them out to you." He offered, trying hard for nonchalance as he waited for her answer. If truth be told, he had really enjoyed his time with her in the astronomy tower, and he had hoped that they could do it again.

Almost as if she read his thoughts, Arianna's smile widened.

"Sounds good." She said, and Sirius couldn't help the wide grin that spread on his face.

"Meet me here after curfew." he said to her, getting up from his place next to her, eager to tell James of this new development. "And you can even tell me your plan to prank the Slytherins, before the meeting tomorrow!"

Arianna nodded with a smile as she watched him walk back to James.

***********

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It's the first day of 2017, and I decided to write this as a huge thank you to all my lovely readers! (I think they call this holiday fluff?) I love each and every one of you, and I hope you guys get everything you wish for this year!! 2016 was a weird ass year, ngl- not Lady Gaga weird, American Horror Story weird. Let's hope this one's better.

Thank you for everything....

Love,

RJ.