Chapter Forty One
People can be very judgmental at times. That was something Arianna was starting to realize. For the past couple of days, she had been receiving death glares from random girls and hearing some things about these random girls’ opinions about her relationship with Sirius Black.
“They’re just jealous.” Lily would tell her whenever they walked together; Arianna would just nod in agreement. She was used to it by now, it wasn’t really something new. The only new thing they were doing was trying to hex her when she wasn’t looking. Arianna was always quick of course.
“I have to admire you Riddle,” James said one day; as Arianna brushed some dust off of her shoulder as she pocketed her wand once more “You’re pretty good. You can manage without any help.” Arianna smirked
“That’s not something new, now isn’t it?” Arianna said; Sirius smiled and messed up her hair
“Someone’s getting bigheaded.” He teased; Arianna rolled her eyes “Number three.”
“I get it from you.” She said, ignoring Sirius’ counting as usual. Arianna was getting busier and busier, and the teachers weren’t helping. She was practically camping out at the library every night now, along with Lily and her roommates, and aside from that she was busy worrying about her brother too, the Daily Prophet’s death reports have been growing and growing each day.
And it hurt her to admit it but, she wasn’t spending time with Sirius much anymore.
“It’s fine, I understand.” Sirius would tell her whenever they had their evening walks on the grounds, after Arianna’s study sessions.
“But it isn’t fair.” Arianna would reply sleepily, as Sirius carried her on his back. Sirius would just laugh and try and argue with her until she fell asleep. The thought of it made Arianna smile somehow, she never knew Sirius could actually that understanding. He even stayed up in the library with her sometimes.
“I never knew you could actually last in a library Black.” Lily commented one night, Sirius just rolled his eyes and continued watching Arianna do her homework and study. “I personally thought being surrounded by quietness and books would be the death of you.”
“Yeah, well you’re wrong.” Sirius said, sticking his tongue out like a five year old “I am here for a reason. I am waiting for Arianna to finish studying.”
“What if Arianna wasn’t studying?”
“Then only some kind of miracle can bring me to this place.”
Those were the only times she spent time with alone Sirius nowadays: at the grounds at night after she studies and at the library while she’s studying. Rumors were also starting to fly, like she and Sirius’ relationship was starting to get rocky, Sirius was cheating on her and vice versa; there were no truths to any of them of course, and both Arianna and Sirius knew that.
“Aren’t you worried?” Marlene asked one afternoon, with a yawn as she Lily, Arianna and Alice were doing three essays for three different subjects. Arianna shrugged
“No.” she replied simply “I trust him.” Marlene smiled
“That’s good.” She said, Alice who was beside her shook her head
“But you never be too careful...” Alice said Arianna raised her eyebrows; Alice then cocked her head to her side, pointing towards a direction. From the corner of her eye, Arianna looked and saw Jessica, the girl who spilled a potion gone wrong on her once, Jessica seemed to be staring at her but hastily looked away when Arianna looked at her.
“I’m not worried about her.” Arianna said, rolling her eyes
“Number four.” Lily counted, Arianna gaped at her “What?” she asked; laughing a bit at Arianna’s face
“Why did you just call out a number?” Arianna asked, crossing her arms
“Well, someone has to count how many times you roll your eyes while Black is gone.”
“Whatever Lils,” Arianna said with a laugh.
“You have to admit, that eye roll counting thing is kinda cute.” Marlene commented “Not to mention, funny.” Lily nodded and laughed in agreement; Arianna couldn’t help but laugh too. Alice on the other hand, cleared her throat,
“Could we get back to the point?” Alice said
“Sorry.” Lily, Marlene and Arianna muttered.
“Good.” Alice said, “Now, back to what I was saying. Aren’t you worried about her?” And by “her” all of them knew she meant Jessica. Arianna rolled her eyes once more, making Lily hold five fingers up in the air,
“No.” Arianna said “Like I said, I trust him. Besides, why should I worry about her?”
“Because,” Alice started “I’ve been hearing things.”
“I thought, I was the one who caught all the latest gossip?” Marlene asked indignantly; “This is impossible! – I always get the latest stuff first – who did –“ Alice rolled her eyes and whacked Marlene upside the head to make her shut up,
“Oww…” Marlene muttered as she rubbed the spot Alice whacked with her book.
“Anyways,” Alice said in a low voice, the four of them then huddled together so no one could hear, that and so Alice didn’t need to make her voice louder, they were receiving enough death glared from Madam Pince for the day “I heard some rumor going around that Jessica isn’t fully over Black –“
“That’s not new.” Marlene said with a snort, strand of her blonde hair falling onto her face “Merlin, Alice! And I thought you heard something exciting or juicy.”
“Shut up Marlene.” Alice said impatiently “Just because you aren’t the first one to hear this rumor doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it.”
“Fine, fine go on.” Marlene said
“Thank you.” Alice said “Now where was I?”
“You heard some rumor Jessica isn’t over Black.” Lily reminded, Alice nodded
“Ah yes,” she said “well according to the rumor, she’s going to try and win him back; and according to the rumor Jessica says it would be easy because you’re too busy to spend time with him.”
“She is seriously the thickest person I have ever met on this planet.” Lily concluded “If Black ever does trade you for her Arianna; I will personally curse him for you.” Arianna smiled
“Thanks Lils,” she said “But don’t you think James would get a bit upset if you killed his best friend?”
“That’s what makes it even better.” Lily said grinning wickedly, the four of them then started laughing; they stopped immediately though after Madam Pince had personally walked over to their table to tell them to keep quiet.
“What time is it?” Sirius asked with a yawn as he watched Remus defeat Peter at Wizard chess for what seemed to be the tenth time
“A few minutes to nine.” James replied in a bored tone “Our life has officially turned boring. We never get to do anything fun anymore.”
“The last time we sneaked out was just a night ago Prongs.” Remus said, doing a face palm. “Yeah, well we didn’t sneak out last night. Our life is boooooriiing.” James said
“Well we have to start studying for our O.W.L.s” Remus said dismissively, he then glanced at Sirius who looked bored like James “you’re surprisingly not whining about how boring it is.”
“That’s because he’s going off somewhere.” James said, rolling his eyes
“Where?” Peter asked a bit sadly as he watched his bishop get killed by Reus’ knight.
“Library.” James answered for Sirius who had now got up from his bed and started fixing himself up, Remus and Peter stared at him in shock
“Since when did you start going to the library?” Remus asked, looking a bit horrified. Sirius rolled his eyes
“Since Arianna started camping out there,” he said simply; the look on Remus’ and Peter’s faces then both faded
“Ohh.” They said in unison.
“Gonna pick her up?” Remus asked, Sirius nodded
“Yep,” he said
“Are you taking the map with you?” Peter asked
“Yep,”
“Where are you two going after you pick her up?” James asked with a grin on his face, Sirius whacked him on the head; James just laughed.
“Your mind is so corrupted mate.” Sirius said; James grinned
“Ah it isn’t my mind that’s corrupted my friend,” he said “it is yours. You misinterpreted my question, thus making me look like some kind of perverted person.”
“But you are a perverted person Prongs.” Remus said, Peter and Sirius laughed
“Whatever.” Said James “I just realized something…”
“What did you realize Prongs?” Sirius asked with a yawn as he rummaged their trunk full of their “Marauder secrets” for the map.
“That you’re the only one with a social life!” James cried indignantly “It’s unfair mate! It’s simply unfair! How could it be that you have gotten yourself a girlfriend while the three of us just sit back and watch? Why can’t we get our own women?”
“Because the whole female population finds Peter weird, I’m too busy and well the girl you like doesn’t like you.” Remus answered simply,
“Thank you Moony.” Sirius said “This is why you’re the smart one. You can answer all kinds of questions. Hard or easy.”
“Wait,” Peter said “If Moony’s the smart one, Prongs is the funny one, Padfoot is the rebel…. Then who am I?” the four of them then fell silent, James, Sirius and Remus exchanged looks. They never really had a tag-line for Peter.
“Well, I best be going.” Sirius said breaking the awkward silence “Bye!”
“Have fun Padfoot.” James called,
“Yeah, have fun.” Remus said
“Seriously guys.” Peter said “Who am I?!”
“Well that was awkward.” Sirius muttered as he got down to the common room, he looked around and saw nobody there; most of them must be already asleep or at the library, Sirius thought. He was about to head towards the portrait hole when somebody called him from behind,
“Hey Sirius,” Sirius turned around and to his annoyance saw the figure of Jessica by the girls’ staircase.
“What do you want Jessica?” Sirius asked in a bored tone,
“Ouch, not to happy to see me?” she asked, as she walked towards him
“Obviously.” Sirius said, rolling his eyes. Jessica narrowed her eyes at him but stopped immediately, she moved closer towards him and smiled
“Aww, you gonna pick up Riddle at the library?” she said in a mock baby voice “She is so dependent.”
“And so?”
“And so, she is a horrible girlfriend.” Jessica concluded “Don’t you find it annoying that she has more time for studying than she has time for you?”
“No.” Sirius said he was starting to get annoyed; he wanted to get out of the common room and away from Jessica “She’s smart and I like that.”
“Well you obviously aren’t.”
“What?”
“You obviously aren’t smart.” Jessica said, putting her hands on her hips “I mean, Riddle? You actually hit on Riddle? Are you blind or something? The girls a bitc –“
“Finish that sentence and I swear I’ll hex you with every single one I know.”
“Defensive much?”
“Yeah? Well you don’t care.” Sirius said, he was starting to get really annoyed now. He pushed past Jessica but she ran after him and blocked his way once more, they were nearing the portrait hole now,
“God, Jessica! What the hell do you want from me?” Sirius growled angrily
“Look,” Jessica started “I’m sorry for being such bitch when we were together; I just want you to know that I really like you and well I think the two of us should start over.”
“Oh yeah? Well I didn’t want to break it to you but I never really liked you. I only went out with you because of a dare.” Jessica’s eyes widened in anger
“You what?” she hissed, Sirius smirked
“The truth hurts Jessica,” he said “I didn’t want to tell you but you forced me to.”
Jessica narrowed her eyes at him, Sirius smirked; he was about to walk away but then Jessica blocked his way once more she smiled wickedly and put her arms around Sirius’ neck
“Well, I guess this would be the perfect payback then.” She said, Sirius tried pushing her away but she had a tight grip around his neck; pulling them closer together.
“Get off!” Sirius growled, pushing her off of him. Jessica just grinned
“Too late.” She said, she then wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him and to make things even worse, the portrait hole opened; Sirius hoped against hope that it wasn’t Arianna but even in the darkness he knew her figure, and that it was too late.
Jessica pulled away from him with a wicked grin on her face, Sirius just wanted to punch her or something but he decided he would do that later; he needed to tell Arianna what really happened.
“Hi Arianna.” Jessica greeted Arianna who looked like she wanted to cry and kill someone at the same time “How was your night? Mine’s going pretty well, if you know what I mean.” She glanced at Sirius and then back at Arianna “Well, bye!” at that she then skipped happily towards the girls’ staircase, leaving Sirius alone with Arianna,
“Arianna – look I can explain – it isn’t what it looks like –“ Sirius faltered for words, Arianna just glared at him; he moved closer towards her “Look, I’m sorry it’s not what you think –“
“I hate you.” Arianna said icily, Sirius was a bit taken a back. He had to admit, what she said stung. He tried pulling her back but it was too late, she ran towards the girls’ staircase not even bothering to look back.
Sirius did his best not to scream in anger, he wanted to punch something and cry at the same time, his emotions were getting messed up. He tried walking back up to his room but he knew James and the other would just ask what was wrong and he didn’t really feel like talking.
He leaned against the wall and tried calming himself down, but of course he knew he wasn’t capable of that; instead he punched the wall really hard. He didn’t even care how much it hurt and punched it again, still with the same hand. It didn’t take long before a tear escaped his eye, not because of the pain coming from his hand, but the pain coming from his heart.
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A/N:
Hello my wonderful and awesome readers! Hihi. So yeah, what di you guys think?? Sorry for the late upload, I had my exams and well I was kinda busy >.< Anyways, who among you have a thing for drawing, or at least great editing skills? I'm putting up a friendly competition: best drawing/editted manip of Sirius and Arianna.:D Why am I asking you guys to do this? Well firstly because I suck at drawing and secondly I don't have time to edit pictures anymore :| (so if your manip is really good make it to the cover, if not it shall be feautured in one of the chapters)
I shall pick maybe two to three winners. I shall announce the prize maybe on the later chapters because I know most of you don't really read my A/Ns and if no one reads this a/n then no one would join then there would be no one would join the competition :|
Anyways, I hope you guys took time to read this and well I hope you guys join the competition!
H.I.A.:)