King Of My Heart | R. BLACK

1 | cynical naivity

"Out of curiosity, how is the whole Lily thing coming along?" Angela inquired passively, not bothering to look up from her book. It was falling apart at the seams and was filled with her scratchy handwriting in the margins.

She had it since she was thirteen and had found out that her neighbor had broken up with her boyfriend and was beyond devastated. Her mother had given it to her as a cautionary tale that not everything ended how you wished it would and that her whole life should not revolve around something as minuscule as a boy.

Reading Romeo and Juliet a million times over would cause even the dumbest person to question whether love was worth it.

James tossed a chocolate frog at her, "That was cruel, even for you, Ang."

"Hey, next time don't go telling mom that I have no love life and you're worried about me," she suggested with a pointed look. She looked up, holding the page she was on between her forefinger and her thumb, "Besides, I choose not to go on a date. I've been asked but I'm not interested. It's a waste of time when all love is doomed."

"That's very cynical," Sirius announced as he re-entered the compartment, his arms full of candies from the trolley. He grinned at the girl, "I love it."

Angela rolled her eyes as she stood up. She turned to face her brother, "You have fun with your unrequited love. And you-" she began as she turned to look at her other brother, "You have fun with your never ending revolving door of women. Try not to break too many hearts this year, alright?"

He shrugged as he plopped down where she had previously sat, "It's not my fault the ladies can't resist me."

She snorted at this but merely shook her head, "I'll see you lot after the Prefect meeting."

"Have fun being a loser!" Sirius called out and Angela flashed him a not so kind finger before disappearing.

She focused her attention back on her book as she navigated her way through the train, turning the page every so often when necessary. She had gotten quite the hand of walking and reading. It was a skill easily mastered with time and practice.

"Oi, Angela!" someone called out and she turned to find a somewhat tired looking Remus jogging to catch up to her. She sent him a friendly smile as he cleared the distance between them. "I was worried I was late."

"Nope," she shook her head as she started back through the train. "We have fifteen minutes before we have to be there."

"Er, Ang?" he inquired and she stopped walking as she turned to face him again. He nodded his head to the side, "This is the compartment."

Her mouth formed into that of an 'o' before she started back to him. She closed her book, marking the page with an old chocolate frog collectible card and entered the compartment with the boy.

They both settled down, Lily on the other side of Remus. She leaned forward so she could look at Angela, "It's nice to see at least one Potter has a regard for the rules. I'm glad you're here, Angie."

Angela smiled in response, "Thanks, Lily. I'm glad to be here."

The pair had a rather complicated relationship depending how you looked at it. On one hand, Angela was James's sister who was, as Lily put it, 'an arrogant toe-rag with a blatant disregard for the rules and the safety of the students.' On the other hand, Angela was merely a Gryffindor in the year below Lily who was kind hearted, studious and well behaved.

After all, you can't pick your family.

"Angie," Trevor greated the girl with a grin, happily taking the unoccupied seat next to her. "I was worried the other Perfect would be America or someone. She hates me."

"Oh, she doesn't hate you, Trev," Angela assured him. "She's just got a bit of a cold exterior. Once you get past that, she's a great person."

He snorted, "She'd fit in real well with the Slytherin's."

"I'm sure she would," Angela replied with a shrug. Where her brother despised every single Slytherin and everything they allegedly stood for, Angela tended to see them in a different light. "She's very sociable."

Trevor looked over at Remus as though trying to decipher whether she was being serious and the sixth year merely shrugged in response. "Is everyone here?" the Head Girl asked as the compartment door closed behind them. Trevor shrunk down in his seat and all the Prefects who weren't wearing green exchanged wary looks, sans Angela.

The Prefects all flooded from the compartment as soon as they had been dismissed. Remus and Angela said a quick goodbye to Trevor and Lily before they all went their separate ways.

"Admittedly, they're assholes," Angela huffed as they made their way toward where her brother and his friends were. "But maybe we should give them a chance?"

Remus rolled his eyes, "Yeah, alright. If you want to get hexed, go on and give them a chance. Maybe even give them a chocolate frog and hope they warm up to you."

"I'm not naive, Lupin," she reprimanded him and he frowned. "And I'm not saying that they're going to suddenly be the best people in the world. What I'm saying is - Gryffindor bias aside - they are still our Head Boy and Girl and we still have to be respectful toward them. Why make it more difficult than we have to?"

He frowned slightly as he took in the girls words, "You may have a point there."

She nodded, "Thank you." She opened the door to the compartment to find her brother's and Peter playing a game of exploding snaps and the small area littered with garbage. She pulled out her wand and waved it, muttering a simple spell that vanished the garbage. "You could at least clean up after yourself."

"Why would we do that when we have you?" Sirius inquired and Angela raised an eyebrow.

"Misogynistic viewpoint aside-" she began, taking a seat next to Peter. Sirius's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he mouthed the word to himself, "-You lot are going to have to find a way to resist your primal urges. Less pranks, more study or something."

"Why on earth would we do that?" James asked.

"The Head's are both Slytherin's this year," Remus explained.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius exclaimed, seemingly forgetting about the word that he didn't know the meaning to. "How could Dumbledore select two snakes?"

Angela rolled her eyes, "It doesn't matter. Maybe this is what you need to finally behave yourselves."

"Like we're going to let a little thing like the Slytherin's get in the way," James snorted as he placed a card down. Peter placed a card down as well but it exploded. James pumped his fist in victory and Peter groaned. He looked up at his sister, "Besides, we won't get caught."

"It's impossible for you to win every game," Peter huffed. "Are you cheating?"

James rolled his eyes, "Ever consider that you just suck?

"Get your robes on," she suggested as she stood up, "We'll be at the school soon."

"Hey, Ang," Sirius said and the girl turned to look at him before exiting the compartment, "What's a masochist?" Remus kicked the boy in the shin causing him to groan in pain. "What in the bloody hell was that for, Moony?"

"It's misogynistic not masochist, dumbass."