𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗜 ━━ 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗧
022. well-thought investigation
𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗧𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗗𝗘 𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗪𝗔𝗬 𝗧𝗢 𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗗𝗢𝗥𝗠 𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗠 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗥, he immediately found Peter, Remus, and James standing in a line with the biggest grins on their faces. "What?" He asked, confused.
The three exchanged a look. "James wants some tips." Peter blurted out.
James took a step forward to Sirius. "You were obsessed with her a few years ago and now you have her! How'd you do it?" He pleaded for an answer.
Sirius rolled his eyes, not having the time for this. "It just happened."
"Moony, do you smell that?" The Potter asked. "Oh! That's Sirius' pants on fire!"
The Black turned around, not looking impressed. "I've somewhere to be, can we do this later?"
Remus furrowed his brows. "You're not actually going to the Slytherin dungeon, are you?"
"What do you mean?"
James looked at Remus and elaborated, "Pads, the only time you leave us is to shag a girl... and I don't think any Slytherins will be impressed to see you there, not even your own brother."
Sirius shook his head. "It's a good thing that I'm not going to see Scarlet, Prongs," he explained, "I've to attend something, I'll see you later," before he exited, he turned over his shoulder. "And don't go around stalking me."
The door slammed and James turned to his two friends. "What are we gonna do?"
"It'd be really bad to defy him and go stalk him anyway..." Remus nodded a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"We're definitely not doing that." Peter nodded, pursing his lips into a thin line.
SIRIUS BLACK MADE HIS WAY DOWN THE ASTRONOMY TOWER, looking like an imposter as he escaped his friends and approached his secret fling in the corridor. What was he meant to do? He needed a distraction, and he couldn't possibly allow himself to be smitten with Scarlet again. It's a fool's game.
Sirius Black is not a fool.
Besides, it's not like he's dating the Bridget girl for real, this is all an attempt to piss off his mother. The look of horror on her face when she realises that she has been fooled? Not only by her own son but also the girl Walburga practically considered a role model for the wizarding community? Sirius could not wait.
At the moment though, he was more focused on matters at hand.
"You're late," A Hufflepuff girl named Nefeli James turned around with a grin on her face.
"I never made any promises," he threw his hands up in mock surrender.
The girl crossed her arms. "How do you suppose you'll make up for it?"
"I don't make up for anything," he winked, grabbing the back of the girl's neck and smashing his lips onto hers with a lustful kiss.
The girl let out a satisfied smile into the kiss, locking her arms around his neck.
"Your girlfriend won't cause a problem, will she?" She gasped, pulling away for an inhale.
Sirius looked down at her, smirking, "Not if we keep quiet about it."
"Hm," she nodded, grinning. "Wouldn't want to mess with a storm like her."
Sirius laughed a little, pulling her into another long kiss.
And much to his lack of luck and dismay, his other three friends were witnessing the event as though they had witnessed a bloody crime.
The three of them walked away as quickly as they could—not exactly wanting to watch their friend shove his tongue down someone's throat.
"That was wrong on so many levels," Remus was the first to talk. "Why would he do that?"
"He has a girlfriend," Peter spoke, feeling downhearted about the whole situation. "She'll be so upset."
"This is gonna break her non-existent heart!" James worried in his own way, "We have to tell her."
"Are you sure—?"
"YES!" He frantically replied, defending his case, "This is like an unspoken rule."
"Wouldn't it be awkward? I don't really want to be in a position like that." Peter whispered.
James felt sympathetic for the boy, "How about me and Moony do this when we find Scarlet—"
"I don't think we need to find her," Remus said, pointing to a lone Scarlet who walked down the corridor, possibly making her way to the Slytherin dungeon.
"Yeah, I'm gonna go," Peter slyly said, turning around and leaving the two boys, they didn't protest.
Remus and James set off to follow the girl down the corridor.
Scarlet didn't want much for the night. Since the common room seemed to be occupied, she made her way to the Astronomy Tower for some quiet time. Wrapped up in her own thoughts, she absentmindedly runs into James Potter and Remus Lupin.
She collides with James' chest, feeling his taller frame look down at her. His hands make their way to her shoulders, steadying her, "Woah, easy there, Blondie," he mocked the nickname with a teasing smile. Remus elbowed him in the ribs to remind him why they were here in the first place.
"What's a girl got to do to get some quiet time," she mumbled under her breath, shooting the boys a look of annoyance.
All of the sudden, Scarlet was being cornered by Remus to the end of the stairs along with James behind him, scratching his neck awkwardly.
"Okay, look, I know we're not friends or anything," James started only to receive a glare from the Lupin boy. The girl looked between the two with squinted eyes.
"We caught Sirius snogging James."
"What?!" She shrieked, jaw-dropping halfway to the ground. She pointed towards James, accusatory. "I knew it!"
"WHAT?" James exclaimed similarly, a look of grimace on his face. "Not me, we're talking about Nefeli James."
"The Hufflepuff Quidditch captain?"
Remus frowned. "We thought it would be best to tell you, I know you don't like us, but no one deserves to be cheated on like that."
"If you want," James chimes in, "We'll knock some sense into him, who the hell does he think he is?"
Scarlet didn't know how exactly to break it to them. What was she supposed to do? Cry over her non-existent relationship? Nonetheless, her chest started to feel heavy. "Oh."
Knowing what Sirius was going around doing with other girls, made her wonder why she was so hesitant when she almost kissed Evan Rosier. She felt a little stupid.
"If that's your sad face, I'm sorry to say, it just looks like you're grimacing."
Scarlet scoffed. "Not sad, idiot." She snapped at Remus who winced slightly.
"But—but he's your boyfriend." James frowned. Then, as though a light bulb appeared on his head, a sense of realisation caused him to gasp. "Unless he's not!"
"Cracked the case, genius." She muttered under her breath.
Remus was the only one to look confused. "I'm sorry, Bridget, what is going on?"
"These two were messing with us!" James exaggerated, feeling betrayed.
The girl glared at him. "You better clear this up with Sirius, I don't have time to explain the matter to you."
She turned on her heel, mentally cursing herself and Sirius for not being able to keep on the game for more than at least a week. How stupid could he have to be to appear so painfully obvious? Such an idiot.
James and Remus were determined to get the truth out of Sirius. So determined, as soon as the two of them entered their dorm room, James screamed. "What is wrong with you!"
Sirius almost jumped in fright. "Merlin! I am trying to sleep!"
"I'll make your life a nightmare if you don't tell me the truth, Padfoot!"
"Calm down, will you?" He rolled his eyes, sitting up in his bed. "What's the matter?"
"Let's start with how we caught you snogging Nefeli James." Remus folded his arms, trying to appear interrogative.
Sirius' face went pale. He started to stammer. "I—it was a mistake, guys! It won't happen again, I'll tell Scarlet it didn't mean anything!"
James was not impressed. "Hey, Moony, do you smell that?"
"Smell what?"
"Sirius' pants on fire!" James exclaimed so loudly, Peter sat straight up with a gasp, instantly awake from his deep sleep so rapidly, he almost fell off his bunk bed.
Sirius squeezed his eyes shut. "I can explain."
SCARLET, THE NEXT DAY, CORNERED SIRIUS. As he was about to enter the hall for breakfast, she grabbed onto his wrist and pulled him away into an empty corridor. "A bit too eager, are we, Blondie?"
"Shut up," She hissed. "Why are you messing around with Nefeli James?"
Sirius smirked. "You sound almost as jealous as a real girlfriend."
The girl stared at him as though he had grown three heads, a puzzled look on her face at his stupidity. "You're just gonna end up hurting her feelings in the long term because you're not leaving me,"
Sirius didn't pick up on the hint. "You have my word, I'll never leave—"
"Black," She groaned. "I don't care if you can't keep it in your pants," She reminded vividly. "Look, if you want to fool around with Nefeli James, you might want to tone it down a little before the entire school thinks you're cheating on me."
The boy was chewing on his bottom lips. "You don't... you don't care one bit?"
"Should I?"
He shoved his hands in his pockets out of frustration. "No, you shouldn't," He smiled sarcastically. "I don't know why you're worried about me hurting her feelings, she literally—"
"You have yourself quite the reputation!"
"She didn't care we were supposedly in a relationship, she took the first chance she got."
He had a point. Scarlet hated when he had a point.
"I'm not gonna stop you from living your life," She said, softly which caused him to be taken aback. "I'll leave that job to your real girlfriend," She smiled.
She smiled!
Sirius felt his lips curled up, grinning, almost as if her smile was contagious. "Did you just crack a joke?" He said, almost too excitedly. With his hands in his pockets, he took a step towards her, a teasing smile on his face and a wide-eyed gaze on hers.
Scarlet brought her hand up and used her index finger to push his chest away, the stupid grin never leaving his face. What was even more stupid is that she was still smiling.
However, despite everything Scarlet Bridget was, she would be lying if she said her heart did not skip a beat whenever she thought about Sirius with another girl. She had enough worries on her mind, and Sirius Black was the least of her worries. However, what concerned her was that he definitely was claiming up quite quickly on that list.
NOW THAT SIRIUS' FRIENDS HAVE FOUND OUT about their little devious lie, James has made it his life mission to annoy the hell out of both Sirius and Scarlet. The girl was following her usual suit and took a seat next to Sirius at the Gryffindor table for lunch after her potions class, just to greet him and avoid suspicions from others.
That was when Remus joined them, sending James a wink who gave him a nod of confirmation. "So, Bridget." He came around Scarlet, placing one elbow on the table and the other arm over her shoulder. "How are you on this fine afternoon?"
Sirius was shooting him daggers with his eyes. "Lovely now that I've seen you." She followed suit and the other boys' jaws dropped to the floor as they stared at the two of them looking at each other with a light smirk.
Remus almost laughed but contained himself.
"I might steal this one from you, Padfoot."
Peter snorted on the drink he was taking, slamming his forehead onto the table as he busted out into a peal of laughter, James following his actions. This alerted Lily, Marlene, and Alice who sat a few seats away, snapping their heads toward the little commotion.
"Now that I think about it, you are quite my type." Scarlet had a playful smirk dancing on her crimson lips. She looked at Sirius who was glaring at the two of them, not finding it amusing at all.
"Our children would be both smart and beautiful," he hummed with a nod, "Both traits from you, of course."
"Well," Scarlet was dying of laughter inside, but the playful grin on her lips told another story. "Why thank you, darling."
Remus moved to tap his finger on her snake-shaped silver ring and then placed his hand there, on hers. "You're my favourite lady, you know that?"
"That is quite enough!" Sirius slapped his hand off, grabbing hold of Scarlet's wrist and pulling it more toward him.
At the force of his action, Scarlet bumped into him, almost falling over his lap, feeling his soft fingers burning on her hand. She was not going to let herself get lost in random hazes again, but the proximity of her body to his, feeling him speaking with his lips right next to her ear, she thought she might melt right there.
Sirius put an arm around her shoulder, allowing his fingers to softly brush against her ear. Unintentionally, his forefinger grazed her jawline. Her appearance became flustered within a second, whispers and assumptions being passed along the Gryffindor table like a disease about their intimacy.
He used his other hand to point an index toward his friends. "None of you are funny, you know that?" He scoffed, rolling his eyes when James practically wheezed and slumped back in his seat. Sirius then looked at Scarlet. "And you, you're with them too?"
"Why so sensitive, Padfoot," Scarlet pouted mockingly, turning to look at him and his face visibly changed when he realised her face was mere inches away from hers. One move and his nose would be touching hers. "I thought we're all having fun."
"Yeah, Pads, who's to say only you can mess with people's beliefs and minds and lives?" James said with an attitude.
Scarlet grabbed her books, ready to move to her table. "You guys are all over-dramatic." She pointed before chuckling and leaving the group.
Remus was still smiling about their interaction, finding it utterly funny. His smile dropped when he felt Sirius' squinting eyes on him, he coughed it off.
"Are you jealous, Padfoot?" Peter wiggled his brows.
"I—no!" He laughed in response. "I didn't know she could flirt."
"Oh, so she doesn't flirt with you, but she did with me," Remus pointed to himself and then gasped dramatically and teasingly. "Do you think she has feelings for me!"
"She totally could!" James clicked his index with his thumb, a large grin on his face. "Since she's not actually seeing anyone, you should totally—"
"Enough!" Sirius shut them off. "Why are you doing this to me?" He slammed his forehead against the table, hearing the laughter from his face and truly wishing he did not exist at the moment.
Scarlet took her usual seat next to Everest. "I never knew Lupin was such a fun company."
Everest's gaze snapped to hers at the speed of light. "Come on now, S, you don't want to be known as a homie hopper."
Scarlet's jaw almost dropped down to the table. "Why would you insinuate that?" she grimaced, "I'm just saying he's fun."
"Salazar is probably turning in his grave right now, seeing you go after two Gryffindors back-to-back." The brunette pointed out with a smirk.
"You overreact," she shook her head.
𝑪𝑨𝑹𝑨 𝑺𝑷𝑬𝑨𝑲𝑺
well, well, the marauders found out.
u guys r gonna LOVEEE the next
chapter <3