written in the stars | s. black | r. lupin

13

Charlotte purposely dragged her feet to charms, watching the halls empty out before her, finally reaching the classroom and slipping in silently, scanning through the room and sighing as she met Sirius's eyes, which had been trained on the doorway. His leg was bouncing nervously beneath the desk, though his face lit up a bit as he saw her, nodding her towards the empty desk beside him.

Lily and Mary were sitting in the row ahead of him, Remus and Peter at the table beside them, James and a slightly amused looking Marlene across from Sirius's half empty desk. The classrooms were thankfully emptier than previous years, due to a good amount of students dropping subjects that they didn't think would help them in their future careers after O.W.L's.

She stepped over to an open table across the room from her house-mates, sliding into the seat and plunging her hand into her book bag, gathering the materials onto her desk as an excuse to avoid looking at her friends.

"Blondie?" Sirius's voice came from above her, though she didn't look up to him, flipping through the pages of their charms book and squinting towards the front of the room for the page number. "Charlotte." He spoke softer, leaning against the table, cocking his head to meet her eyes.

"Mr. Black, if you'd kindly pick a seat, we'll get started!" Flitwick announced from the front and Sirius scurried into the spot beside Charlotte, ignoring her sigh as she tucked her leg over her knee, leaning towards the edge of the desk. "We're going to continue our work on our confundus charms from last week. Your essays will be due in four days, so I encourage anyone who has any questions to get them out today!"

"Blondie, please talk to me." Sirius hissed, leaning his head down on the table and looking up to Charlotte's blue eyes, which were trying very hard not to meet his. "I've been looking everywhere for you. How are you feeling?"

"Fine, Sirius." She replied under her breath, glancing down to the paragraph Flitwick was referring to, ignoring the feeling of his gaze locked on her.

"Are you really? Because James said he thought your head was still hurting at lunch, because you-"

"Sirius." Her eyes shot to his at last, though it didn't make him feel any better. "I'm trying to listen."

"Right..." He nodded, bringing his book to his desk as well, glancing at the page number from hers. "Can we talk after class? Or at dinner?"

"I don't want to talk to you." She answered at once, not looking towards the dark haired boy anymore, his stomach sinking.

"Blondie, come on, please..." He begged, "I'm so sorry, you know I'm sorry." He paused, waiting for her response. For any response. Even if it stung like the last one had. "How come you'll talk to James?" He asked, bitterly, nearly regretting it when her eyes rolled back at him.

"I'm talking to you now." Charlotte bit back. "I just wish I wasn't."

"It was an accident!" Neither of them were listening to Flitwick's lesson anymore, though Charlotte assumed Sirius didn't care.

"You're lucky it was me that wandered into it." She snapped, "If you'd left it for a Slytherin this morning, they'd have drowned. Who knows if there would have been anyone around to save them-"

"I... Charlotte, it wasn't... lucky..." Sirius's face fell into a mixture of guilt and remorse, eyes still glued to hers as she scribbled some attempt at notes from a lecture she was hardly listening to. "I would never have wanted-"

"You take it too far, Sirius. All of you." She corrected.

"I know. I know. It was stupid, we all regret it. I regret it, Charlotte, I would never do anything to hurt you-"