Finding Her Way | Sirius Black

15. New Developments

"Watcha Ellie." Sirius said coolly. "What do you want?"

"Lessons, from you. Beater lessons."

"Oh but of course! You want the best teacher, so you naturally came straight to me." Sirius said smugly.

"No, I didn't!" Ellie retorted, her cheeks reddening. "Your head is bigger than a quaffle, I didn't mean to make it any bigger!"

"Well you did. And I charge per lesson." Sirius said, still maddeningly calm.

"Well I'm not going to pay!"

"Well then you'd better find another teacher! Good luck topping Beater Black."

"Fine!" Ellie said, grabbing her potions essay, "Fine!" She said again, stuffing it into her bag rather violently. "Fine!" She said a final time, striding out of the portrait hole. She stumbled through it blindly and fell, but not onto the hard marble. She fell into a pair of large, soft hands, and looked up into a pair of blue eyes.

"Hello." The boy said. As Ellie stood up, she got a better view of him. He was tall, with blonde hair and Ellie noticed that he only had one blue eye. The other was a light shade of lavender.

"Hi." Ellie said, "I'm Ellie Green."

The boy laughed. His laugh was soft and made Ellie feel comfortable. "I'm Spencer White."

"Hi." Ellie said again, not knowing what else to say. The boy chuckled again.

"What house are you in?" He asked. "I'm guessing Gryffindor, fifth year maybe?"

"Yes," Ellie said. "What house are you in?"

"Same as you, only I'm a sixth year."

"I haven't seen you around much," Ellie said, and he chuckled again.

"Yeah, I tend to spend most of my time in the library, I'm trying to finish the entirety of My Life Turned-"

"-Quicker than a Broomstick?" Ellie finished, and Spencer nodded, "I love that book!" She said, and they began to walk down the hall together. "Kraser does such a good job of illuminating the-"

"Eternal struggle between mind and body?" He picked up, and this time it was her turn to laugh.

"Exactly!" She said and smiled at him shyly. They continued talking and suddenly they were out by the lake, neither of them quite understanding how two complete strangers had been able to talk so comfortably for this long. It was like Ellie had known him her whole life.

"Hey," Spencer asked, suddenly quieting, "Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?"

"Sure!" Ellie said, and she grinned at him. "Thanks for catching me, by the way."

"Thanks for being such a catch." Spencer replied, and winking awkwardly, he grinned back at her and walked in the other direction, hailing some of his friends from by the greenhouses. Ellie had forgotten why she had gone out of the portrait hole, that is, until she wandered back, thinking only of Spencer, and saw Sirius.

"Came crawling back, did you?" He questioned smugly.

"In your dreams." Ellie replied, still smiling slightly from her conversation with Spencer, walking right past him and going up to the dormitory.

She saw Lily facing the window and decided to lean down, right next to her ear, "Lily!" Ellie shouted.

Lily jumped like a chocolate frog escaping its box and slid off of her bed and onto the ground with a loud thump. "Ellie, why'd you scare me like that?" Lily asked, her hand clutched to her heart.