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Sirius could admit that he did plenty of stupid things since his arrival on Earth, but he knew that he wasn't stupid. He could clearly tell that Elspeth was avoiding him since she had approached the four boys in detention and while she was either trying to play it off as studying in the library or hanging out with her friend, Penelope, he could tell that she had been bothered by the discussion she had walked in on. During their detention, they had only been curious as to how she avoided being seen on the map and they wondered if she was the only one missing, however, judging by her reaction, the boys had grown even more suspicious.
It had also left them extremely nervous if they were being honest. No one knew about the recently completed map, but Elspeth had witnessed it. They didn't believe that she would go to any of the professors over it but it didn't stop them from being paranoid. James was left to cradle it like a newborn to protect it from any suspicious glances. The four boys had worked too long and too hard on the map to lose it suddenly and it certainly wouldn't help their situation with Remus. The map was the most useful item on nights of the full moon as they could navigate the grounds and castle without getting caught.
James encouraged Sirius to talk to Elspeth to get her to confess how much she saw and what was going to be needed to keep her quiet. But Sirius wasn't sure how to talk to the girl that didn't want to listen. He had thrown notes to her during class but she simply ignored them and left them behind without even reading them.
"I don't know what you want me to do," Sirius huffed in frustration after Potions class. It had been one of the worst Slughorn classes to date as he had spilt cat spleen on his robes and despite using magic to clean it up, he swore he could still smell the awful stench. With that disaster on top of Elspeth ignoring him, Sirius was not in the best of moods as the four boys left the Potions classroom. Elspeth was long gone by then, collecting her things as the bell sounded for the change of classes and hurried off.
The boys had been pestering him to talk to Elspeth every chance that they saw her but they didn't understand how difficult it was unless he jinxed her to stay in place. He was sure if he put a full-body bind curse on Elspeth that he would not expect any affection from her anytime soon or ever again.
"She won't even look in my direction!" Sirius told the boys as they walked along. "How am I supposed to get a word in if he keeps avoiding me?"
"Fluff your hair?" Peter suggested bringing the other three to look at him. "Well, she's always messing with your hair, might as well use it to your advantage, right?"
"Peter's right," James nodded.
"I am?" Peter squeaked in delight until he heard his voice crack. He quickly cleared his throat and nodded as well. "I mean, yes, I am right...but how am I right?"
"Sirius," James wrapped his arm around his friend's shoulder and led Sirius ahead. "You have to talk to her, if she's angry about the map, he could very well expose it and then we'll have nothing. But you're going to have to step it up here, don't let her get away from you. Fluff your hair, pull out all your moves but get her to talk to you again. We need this....for Moony."
"Oooh no!" Remus interjected. "Don't try to make this all about me! We technically don't need the map if you have your cloak, Prongs. This is you not wanting the professors to figure out how we get away with such things. "
"It doesn't matter," Sirius sighed, " no matter what, the map is still important to all of us. We worked too hard on it for it to be taken away. I really don't think Elspeth would say anything, but I'll once again, try my hardest to talk to her. But if she comes after me, I'm taking you three down with me."
With his little warning, he walked away from the three of them, in hopes of catching up with the girl.
It didn't take him long though as he rounded a corner and caught sight of her sitting with Penelope in one of the window seats. Her back was facing him but Penelope saw him first before whispering something to Elspeth. However, Elspeth didn't even bother to look but he could certainly sense her irritation as she folded her arms over her chest. He approached slowly and when he reached Elspeth's side, he looked to her friend, silently asking for a moment of privacy. Penelope seemed wary at the idea of leaving Elspeth alone with him but obliged to the request as she pushed herself up and left.
Sirius took the girl's spot as he sat across from Elspeth, who was purposely looking out the window to avoid eye contact with him.
"You know, when you ran your hands through my hair that day, I thought we were on good terms. But I can see that certainly changed rather quickly," Sirius began, watching as she glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes. "I would have liked your company at the quidditch game but I couldn't find you."
"Did you look at your map?" Elspeth asked him hotly.
"Even if I did, you don't show up on it, but why look at the map for you when I can see you in person?" he questioned her before seeing the slight hint of pink tint her cheeks.
She was fighting with all her might not to smile or blush at his words of flattery.
"Come on, Elspeth," he continued leaning across the way and grabbing her hands to somewhat force her to face him. "You've been avoiding me as if I were the Black plague here."
It was too late, she didn't want to laugh but she couldn't stop herself. She quickly tried to cover it up with a cough but it was all over, he had won by making her laugh.
"Damn you," she muttered under her breath, " you're not supposed to make me laugh. I'm trying to be angry with you."
"But why?"
"Because you were just using me to figure out that stupid little map of yours with your little friends."
Sirius immediately could detect the hurt that laced her voice before she turned away from him. The smile and laughter faded as she pulled her hands away from his.
"I...I thought you liked me," she said quietly, certainly not the strong voiced Elspeth he had come to know a bit better since the term started. "But if you and your friends think that you could just mess with my emotions to get information out of me for that map then you were wrong! I should have known better that you suddenly had an interest in me after all this time. You never paid much mind to be beforehand and all of a sudden I became good enough-"
She stood up preparing to walk away from her again but Sirius reacted fast grabbing her hand and holding her in place.
"Now just a second there, El," Sirius said, standing up himself and walking to stand in front of her. "I'm all for taking part in nonsense, but not to this extent. I would never use you, in fact, I have been doing everything to not give you that impression. I can see where you would think that, but you're wrong. I've had an interest in you before the map and after it was finished. That hasn't changed, but you've always been confusing."
"Me? How have I been confusing?"
"Because I could never tell if you had an interest in me or if you were just being overly friendly. You would say something and then I was would see you talking up other boys like Michael Carpenter, how was I supposed to take that?"
"Right, if you were so interested why were you talking to Yasmin Harper around the same time that I was talking to Michael?" She countered. The two were silent as they stared at each other in the middle of the corridor.
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The game that the two had been playing over time was becoming clear the longer they stood there and stared at each other. Two people sharing an interest, known for the confidence, but never having enough confidence until that year to actually approach the other and just let their feelings take over. It had left them both slightly paranoid at the other's intentions but as they let everything, it all sounded extremely silly. Elspeth had thought that Sirius was just attempting to bring her closer in order for them to figure out how to get her on the map.
"You were always good enough," Sirius said in a soft voice, "you still are. I just didn't think I was if that makes any sense. I figured whatever you were looking for, you didn't find in me and you were still looking for it in other people. But I wouldn't use you for the map, El. James might because that map has become his child, but I wouldn't. If I had any intentions of using you, I would have ever confessed my personal troubles to you."
Elspeth thought back to their first date and how easily he had opened up about his family and how they had treated him since his sorting into Gryffindor. Now she felt incredibly stupid for letting her thoughts take over and create a map. However, it had been ingrained in her mind from a young age that the Hayes family secret was to remain that, a family secret. Even Penelope wasn't aware of it and she had been friends with Elspeth since they were little girls. Unfortunately, even if she wanted to share it, she couldn't. It was only to be shared with blood and those married into the family.
She bit the inside of her cheek for a moment. "So the boys didn't send you here to talk to me about keeping their precious map safe?"
He flinched at her exact wording of the question before frowning. "They did, well, mostly James did, but that's not the only reason why I'm here. I've been trying to talk to you for quite some time and you were just ignoring me. I understand why but I wish you would have let me explain."
"Sirius, I'm not going to tell anyone about the bloody map," she said with a small laugh, " you can tell James that his precious baby is safe. But...I'm not going to show up on there and I'll have to ask you and the others to just leave it at that. Can you respect that or should we just end it here and I'll go back to outsmarting James and his attempts?"
"I don't want this to end at all," Sirius said honestly, "I think we've got something good going on here, El, don't you think so?"
"Of course I do, but you said it yourself, James is one of your brothers, just like Remus and Peter. If it came down to it, I would wholeheartedly expect you to take the side of your brothers rather than mine. So if James wants to figure out my secret-"
"Whatever it is, it doesn't matter," Sirius cut her off, " we can respect that, El. You've vowed to keep quiet about the map and that's all that matters. We all have our secrets and if you want to keep yours that's fine. We have no right to talk anyway."
She raised a brow at his words but decided to let it end there. The smile returned to the teens' faces as their eyes met before they both looked away with a blush. However, Elspeth had a small idea in mind to patch things up between.
"Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?" She asked him. Sirius was sure that the boys would be waiting on for him to return and tell them what had occurred between him and Elspeth.
"No," he grinned, " why do you ask?"
"Well, there's a broom cupboard by the Entrance Hall," Elspeth began in a cheeky tone, " and it's been awhile since I ran my hands through your hair..."
She began walking away from him down the corridor leaving Sirius in a slight daze at her suggestion. He finally snapped out of his small trance before he began to follow her until she broke into a laugh and a run with him close behind.