Finding Her Way | Sirius Black

17. O.W.L.'s

Ellie was more stressed than she'd been in her whole time at Hogwarts, even more so than beater tryouts, and her snitch necklace's inscription was almost completely faded.

On this Saturday morning, Ellie was curled up into Spencer on one of the common room sofa's, Spencer quizzing her.

"So Charity was the..." he prompted, looking down at her.

"1957 founder of the werewolf code of contact." Ellie replied. She opened her mouth to say more but someone from behind her answered, "Which states that a werwolf must be at least 10 miles away from any living human." Sirius winked and said, "You taught me that."
"Hey I had that!" Ellie exclaimed, punching Sirius playfully in the arm. She had finally accepted his behavior and she was over it. Spencer would never do anything like that, and she didn't want to hold a grudge, especially because she loved hanging out with James and Peter and Remus. Spencer looked from her to Sirius with a curious look.

"Hey- just showing how good of a teacher you are," he relied, throwing up his hands defensively, "Wanna go grab some food before I hit the pitch?" Ellie looked at him pointedly but he just stared back at her and rubbed his stomach

"Uh Sirius I'm kinda studying."

"Yeah- ok." Sirius said awkwardly, shuffling his feet and saying, "I'm gonna go grab some toast and head out. See ya guys." He left.

"Sorry about that- he has separation anxiety... And as James, Remus, and Peter are nowhere to be found, he tends to hatch himself on the first friend he sees..." she trailed off sheepishly, looking embarrassedly in Sirius' direction, as he was now trying to get Lily to stop doing homework and play with him.

"Is there anything going on between you two?" Spencer asked, looking with eyebrows furrowed, and Ellie detected a hint of envy and jealousy in his even, cold tone.

"No- no definitely not." Ellie said forcefully, stamping her foot lightly on the couch, "I mean yeah, we went out for a while, but then he cheated on me and then I was mad. But now I'm over it because I want to remain friends with his friends." Spencer nodded confusedly, looking down at his fingers.

"Got it." He said, not really getting it at all. Ellie sighed internally but smiled endearingly, "It's ok- you'll get used to it."

"OK." He agreed, smiling down at her. Ellie bit her lip and smiled back, rubbing her snitch necklace hard. "So, let's move on..." He continued to quiz her and they occasionally laughed and smiled at names like Uric the Oddball. They were having so much fun, and Spencer was really helpful. After they finished, they went out for a walk on the grounds. Ellie looked back at Sirius, having been completely oblivious to him for the whole time that Ellie was studying, and saw that he was staring hard at her, almost wistfully she saw. But he averted his eyes from her gaze, put on a playboy smile, and went over to another Gryffindor. Ellie chuckled despite herself.

"What's so funny?" Spencer asked, hearing Ellie's laugh and wanting to join in.

"It's just that Sirius will never learn." Ellie said, looking at him trying to grab the hand of the Gryffindor girl, and succeeding, "Apparently his ego wasn't damaged that much when I dumped his sorry butt." Spencer laughed, and Ellie smiled at him. As the portrait hole was closing behind them, Ellie heard Sirius laugh, and a small shiver went up her spine. She blinked confusedly, and grabbed ahold of Spencer's hand. He was the one she wanted to be with. Right?

Sirius laughed as he watched Ellie it the portrait hole. He then proceeded to escape the vice-like grip of Hannah Anderson, a sixth year obsessed with him. He looked at the door and sighed. He was too late. He started walking up the dormitory stairs but jumped up the last six like he always did. He slumped onto his four-poster and looked at the ceiling. He realized it would do him no good to mope around, so he looked for something to do on his bedside table. He saw a letter from Regulus, explaining why his life was so mixed up, and a half finished one back to that. He saw an empty piece of parchment and a self-filling quill lie over the letter. He picked them up, and also saw a glass vase full of lavender. He took one and carefully put it on the parchment, lifted up his quill, and began to write.

Ellie-

I wish I could say that you should dump Spencer to be with me. But I know you're really happy with him. So I need to let you know that your happiness is more important to me than you know. And that I didn't cheat on you. Sasha grabbed me after class and I couldn't stop her. She pulled me into that secret passage we always take, and she stupefied me. I would never hurt you. I like you a lot. And then, oh gosh Ellie, you looked drop dead gorgeous and I know that you'd moved on but I couldn't stop looking at you! I can't stop thinking about you, and when you started going out with Spencer, it just didn't feel right. You are not like any other girl, you have never fallen over me and I love that. But I know that you're happy. Please promise me that you'll remember this.

This lavender is for you. I know that you'll never go for me, after what I did, but I wanted to let you know that I like you.

<3 Sirius

Sirius read over the letter and, deciding it was good enough, putting the lavender in the letter, and walking back down the dormitory stairs. He went up to the owlery, saw Delta, and knew that Ellie would read a letter sent from her owl. He called he down and attached the letter to her leg, silently praying that Ellie got it. He sent Delta on her way and went back down to lunch. He saw Spencer exiting the Great Hall and went to sit down next to Ellie.

"Hey." He said.

"Hey back." She replied, taking a mouthful of Shepard's pie. He stared at her and her beautiful blonde hair.

Back upstairs, Spencer was sitting on the couch. He'd had to leave because he was finishing up a potions essay for Slughorn. He saw Delta at the window tapping her paw, and Spencer, quite curious, let the insistent owl in. He read the letter and had a moment to think. He took the lavender out and studied it. Holding it up to his lavender eye, he knew that Ellie and Sirius were meant to be. He sighed and did the only thing he could to save his relationship with Ellie. He threw the letter out of the window, and threw that lavender on top. He furrowed his brows and went up to his dormitory. Ellie would never be any the wiser.