Sixth year, for lack of a better term, was absolutely kicking the Slytherin girl's arses. Their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was an absolute demon and made it very known that she couldn't stand the five girls, which made their work very difficult indeed, and their hopes for achieving an Outstanding in the subject were slipping away a little bit more with every lesson. Beatrice saw less and less of Regulus, and more and more of the Gryffindor's, although trying to ignore the rift between the two friends became more and more difficult.
As Halloween approached, Beatrice approached a lonely Regulus in the common room to ask if he wanted to spend the upcoming Hogsmeade trip together, the way they used to. Unfortunately, it was a resounding no, with the boy claiming he needed to do some work and wouldn't be able to make it.
The two best friends remained partners in most of their classes and the ate in the Great Hall together daily, but the rift between them was getting almost impossible to ignore. The rift reached critical mass on the night of Halloween when Regulus promised to attend the Gryffindor party and didn't turn up. Beatrice, regrettably, made a promise with herself to confront him and demand an explanation, and not let him go until she had one, but even the thought caused a funny feeling in her stomach.
She knew it would be easier to ignore it, and maybe in this case that would be the best thing too.
"He's not coming." Grace sighed as Beatrice looked around the Gryffindor common room.
"I don't know-" She tried but Grace interrupted her, not having any of it.
"Regulus. He won't come."
"I wasn't looking for him."
"Don't hurt yourself, Bea." Grace leaned her head on Beatrice's shoulder, taking a dainty sip from her straw. "I know he's your best friend and I know you think he's different, but all blokes are the same at the end of day. They just can't connect their minds to their mouths."
"What's made you so wise all of a sudden?" Beatrice smiled, changing the subject, and pushing her tipsy friend's head off her shoulder.
"And what's made you so daft?" Beatrice dropped her jaw in false hurt, but Grace continued. "You're letting him get in your head, which you don't do with any boys, not even ones you fancy."
Beatrice wasn't sure about that. She let Sirius get in her head. In fact, it seemed he had taken permanent residence. And she would be lying to herself to say that she hadn't been stealing frequent glances at him to see if he was dancing with any of the girls giving him hopeful looks. 'Jealousy' was a word she had been refusing to acknowledge. "Whatever." Unfortunately, it was the best she could come up with.
Grace left her alone. Beatrice sucked contently on her straw, watching the merriment unfold. She saw a fifth year that she recognised from her common room saunter up to Sirius and start a conversation. For the briefest of moments, Sirius' eye caught her own, barely giving her time to react. He was very interested in this girl, laughing at everything she said and leaning back against the wall, letting her get a little bit closer. Beatrice gulped and looked away. It was fine. He was almost 18 now, and single. He was at perfect liberty to do whatever he wanted without scrutiny from her. She flicked her hair over her shoulder.
"Taking it all in?" A voice to her right asked. She turned to see a Hufflepuff from her Herbology class nursing a can of something she didn't recognise. He was good looking, though she had never really noticed before now. (Maybe it was the alcohol). His hair was a dull brown, long and cut like one of The Beach Boys, as though he had done it himself. In fact, he looked a bit like Dennis Wilson, she thought, though with more of a Roman nose. He wore an orange collared shirt with the top few buttons undone, and it suited him very well.
Beatrice smirked and shuffled a little closer. "I think my friends found some more exciting company." She raised her eyebrows suggestively and he laughed. "I'm Beatrice. You can call me Bea, though. If you want."
"I know. I think we have a couple classes together." He nodded, not taking his eyes off her. "I'm Scout."
"Scout?" Beatrice clarified, without trying to be rude.
He rolled his eyes. "Bad, isn't it?"
"No no no, not bad." She amended quickly, giggling a bit. "Just different."
He smiled a charming smile. "Have you ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?" Beatrice shook her head. "It's a muggle book, came out when my mum was pregnant with me. I'm named after a character in that."
"Well, I think it's cute." Beatrice took a flirty step towards her conversational partner. She felt a pair of eyes burning into the side of her scalp, and, turning to look, she saw Sirius still locked in conversation with his chosen entertainment. His eyes flickered away after only a second before he reached his hand out and grabbed the girl's hip, rubbing his thumb up and down.
Beatrice snapped her head back to the boy that she was supposed to be concentrating on. "Scout?" She asked slowly.
"Yes, Beatrice." He matched her tone. Beatrice didn't respond, just reached for his neck.
Their lips connected in what Beatrice could only describe as a very drunk kiss. It wasn't unpleasant, to his credit, and she felt far more in the way of connection than she ever did with Edgar but not quite as much as she did with Remus. No, Beatrice, she told herself, we really don't need to be thinking about that. Regulus slipped from her mind as Scout reached his hands around her back, his cold touch reaching under her blouse to gently touch the strip of skin above the band of her jeans. She brought both hands to his shoulders as he threaded his fingers through the belt loops of her jeans, pulling her towards him.
***
To everyone's regret, Halloween had fallen on a Sunday, which meant that everyone's Monday morning classes became what could only be described as a messy affair. Evie had to run from Defence to the toilet to be sick, whereas Ruth hadn't shown up to any lessons until after lunch, and even then, she wasn't looking her best.
Beatrice felt that she had got off fairly easy, with little more than nausea, although she couldn't eat any breakfast and struggled with lunch. She had agreed to eat lunch with the marauders, which turned out to be a nightmare, as they refused to take anyone's hook-ups lightly.
James got off scot free, having once again refused to look at anyone except Lily, although he had gotten a dance out of her, something he reminded them of incessantly. Peter had snogged a Ravenclaw that he had seen a few times and Remus had snogged one of the seventh year Hufflepuff boys, and though he was wary around the way the others would react, he received the same teasing as everyone else.
It was no fun to tease Sirius about the girl that he had pulled, because he only smiled and joked back, which pissed Beatrice off (of course) but she found that she was very good at keeping a straight face.
They had the most fun with Beatrice, as they were now at the stage where they felt comfortable taking the micky.
"Scout Conrad?" Remus mused.
"Don't start. I was drunk." She held a hand up, running a hand through her messy hair.
James snorted. "Barely an excuse."
"Oh please, like you lot are any better." She raised her eyebrows, pointing an accusing finger at Sirius. "Peter told me that you hooked up with Jenny Lesnicki last year."
Sirius' head snapped towards Peter. "You total snitch, Wormtail." Peter hid behind his hand.
James smiled. "When are we gonna learn that Peter can't keep a secret."
Beatrice chewed thoughtfully on her meal, happy to have the focus of the conversation taken from her. The euphoria, however, was short lived.
"So, how was it?" Sirius was looking straight at her, with none of the humour that his face previously held when talking to the boys.
"I beg your pardon?" She responded, her tone similarly matching his.
"Scout Conrad. Was it a good kiss?" The others had fallen silent, in more of an amused way than an awkward one, although the tension was thick in the air.
She shrugged, trying to remain calm. "It was fine."
"Just fine?"
"Wonderful. Is that what you were looking for?" She raised her eyebrows and Sirius took a satisfied sip of water.
"Just curious."
"Fancy him, do you?" She teased, but, infuriatingly, he said nothing, that satisfied smirk still plastered firmly on his face.
(A/N: Am in isolation with covid. Expect updates)