Sugar & Spice

*Sirius's Point of View

I felt horrible for making her cry like that. I could hear her gasping for air all the way up the stairs. And I suddenly couldn't stand it.

I followed to the bottom of the staircase she'd disappeared up and hollered up to her dormitory.

"Tammie? Come back! I want to talk to you!" I called, trying to make it loud enough for her to hear but not loud enough that she wouldn't come down. I heard the door slam, so either she'd ignored me or she hadn't heard me.

I breathed in deeply and collapsed in the spot Tammie had just vacated, lost in my thoughts.

*Rosie's Point of View

The next evening I skipped down to dinner, feeling much better than I had the night before. I honestly couldn't figure out what exactly had gotten into me.

I frowned at my feet, thinking over the incident in my head. It was very true that I had problems (definitely more than most people), but to show those kinds of emotions in front of Black? I had a feeling that it had been a big mistake.

I'd tried to avoid him all day, but for reasons I couldn't fathom he always seemed to be right there.

"Tammie!" I heard a voice shout somewhere behind me.

I groaned loudly. Think of the devil... I grudgingly turned around to greet him... and jumped, startled. He was standing right behind me, but his voice had seemed so much farther away. Or maybe it was just because I always felt a little bit jumpy around him.

From the corner of my eye I caught a tiny movement; one of the tapestries nearby was swaying slightly, as if it had just been moved aside.

I raised my left eyebrow, looking back to Black and noticing that he was tucking a large piece of parchment into his back trouser pocket, the glint of mischief in his grey eyes.

His crooked grin caught me off guard and I suddenly felt a bit disorientated. I leaned against the stone wall and crossed my arms, lifting my chin up and looking him in the eye. I swallowed, and my dry throat clicked.

"What is it, Black?" I snapped, irritated that I was feeling this way.

His grin turned positively rogiush, his eyes glinting. My brain functions slowed right down, and though the corridor was frigid, my body seemed curiously overheated under his gaze.

I quickly stopped looking into his eyes and stared at my feet, frowning. I mentally slapped myself. Stop blushing! My God, what's wrong with you, Tamsworth?

I cleared my throat.

"Black," I growled, still avoiding his eye. He ducked his head and I tilted mine down a bit more, mortification now my main inward emotion. Why couldn't I just act normally? The answer was, at that moment, quite beyond me.

"Yes, my darling?" I didn't have to look up at him to hear the huge grin in his voice. Oh yes, he was definitely enjoying himself now. He was absolutely fully aware of what he was doing to me - the effect he had on me.

"Don't call me that. What do you want from me?" I said quietly, addressing my shoes seriously.

"Just a little kiss, Tammie." My head snapped up and my eyes met his. I burst out laughing, so hard I had to brace my hands on my knees to stop from falling over.

"Very - funny -" I gasped as he chuckled from somewhere high above me. Finally I straightened up and leaned against the wall again, dredging up the confidence to look him in the eye, though my stomach was still doing the tango.

"Seriously. Places to go, people to see - you know the deal," I said nonchalantly, sending a mental reminder to kick myself later. He let out a short, bark-like laugh.

"Okay, I just wanted to let you know that we have to have another tutoring session tonight. I want to catch you up before the Christmas Holidays so you can grow some kind of social life, Tammie. I mean really, it's pathetic. You can't go on like this for the rest of the school year." My head snapped up, and I fixed him with a glare.

"I do to have a social life, Black," I muttered, stung by his accusation. I knew it was true though. I actually didn't have any friends other than Black (but you couldn't really call him a friend, to be honest), James and Remus... not so much Peter. And that was it.

I sent myself another mental note to make more friends.

"Whatever you say Tammie. Right after dinner, we're going to get down to some serious work," He said and moved to stand next to me. He swept his arm graciously in a motion that indicated the end of the corridor, which led to the Great Hall. "After you m' lady," He smirked, bowing his head in a gentlemanly manner.

I grudgingly lead the way, feeling his eyes on the back of my head the whole way. Or I was hoping it was my head, at any rate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"For Fuck's sake!" I bellowed angrily while Black tried and failed to stifle his laughter by stuffing his knuckles in his mouth.

It was eleven o' clock at night and I felt like my brain had been extracted, royally bashed about and then stuck back into my skull. I just couldn't wrap my mind around this object-to-animal concept we were working on and it was driving me absolutely insane.

"Look. Just concentrate Tammie..." I gritted my teeth. Yeah, like I could concentrate with him leaning against the desk right next to me, watching me. I lobbed the book I'd held open in front of me against the wall and sat down hard on the desk opposite Black.

I was suddenly excruciatingly aware of exactly how close we were to each other. My knees were a mere few inches from his.

I scooted away just a little bit, wanting to get some distance. I'd hoped Black wouldn't notice, but judging by the small smile playing around his lips, I was pretty sure he had.

"Are you going to Hogsmeade tomorrow?" He asked suddenly, startling me out of my thoughts.

"Nope." He frowned.

"Why not?"

"Don't have permission," I replied shortly, not wanting to get into it. His eyes narrowed and darted all over my face, as if trying to catch a piece of it lying. I didn't quite understand why he would be suspicious of me because of that, but he finally shrugged.

"Alright, Tammie. One more time."

"What? Why - I'm fucking knackered!" I said, flaring up immediately. He covered his smile with his hand and I huffed in a couple of deep breaths and blinked hard a few times to wake myself up before walking to other side of the room where the book lay open, the cover bent. I sighed, picking it up and smoothing the wayward pages.

Back to work, I thought sarcastically.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We finished 3 hours later and that night I decided to wait for Black, the memory of the last time I'd walked back to the common room alone at night still fresh in my mind.

Surprisingly enough, the silence between us was completely comfortable as we walked down the moonlit corridor, not a single awkward thought or feeling between us. I glanced at him and did a double-take.

I'd never really looked at him before. I mean, I knew he was handsome, but I never really saw it.

I sighed. Well, I certainly saw it now.

He was tall - nearly as tall as Remus who was almost six foot four. I'd never really realised before, but looking at him now, I realised he towered over me, and I wasn't short either.

I noticed his fringe had a certain grace to it that nobody else's did - just the way it fell (even if it was haphazard) over his forehead was actually very elegant-looking.

I also noticed that he was pretty well-muscled. And he had big hands. And big feet. And the way he walked was so easy and very, well, manly. I looked up at his face and saw he was watching me out of the corner of his eye and smiling crookedly.

I let out an inaudible 'oh!' and started guility, then pointedly watched where I was walking with an intensity that should've burned holes right through the floor.

My face was on fire, and my breathing had sped up slightly.

I licked my lips nervously. This isn't happening, I thought. I hate Black. He's an annoying, self-centered, infuriatingly handsome - I slapped myself mentally.

At that moment we came up to the portrait hole. I nearly walked into it, still busy berating myself, but a warm hand encircled my upper arm and pulled me to a short stop.

My eyes widened when I felt this electric feeling pass through my body. I jerked my arm out of his hand and glared at the Fat Lady who was smirking down at me; her smile was much too knowing for my liking.

"Aramantula," I spat and then scrambled through the portrait hole.

"Night." I flung over my shoulder before taking the steps up to my dorm two at a time.

Oh man...get over it. It's just a crush, it's just a crush, it's just a -

Ah, shut up. I'm so sick of your denial, Tamsworth.