Taste of Youth

It took a while to explain to Lily why Chase and I were back together. There were a lot of complicated nights where she tried to understand and couldn’t and argued with me over him. I never held court with either of them around the other. Peace in the group was a difficult fragile thing now most due to the distaste my friends had for the boy I chose to date. I didn’t begrudge them their dislike, I understood it even but it didn’t change the way my hand fit into his.

Between Chase, school, and work my communication with the crew had dropped down to hurried good mornings and the occasional note left on my bed at night. I saw Frank and Alice in the Hufflepuff dorms every now and then. It occurred to me late one night in Chases bed that I hadn’t seen in the boys in weeks. I couldn’t tell how much of that was me, or them, or Chase. Chase’s dislike of Sirius kept me from talking about my Christmas vacation and Sirius’ dislike of Chase kept me from talking to him at all. My heart gave a soft ache and I rolled away from Chase’s side and out of his bed.

“Hey, everything alright, Luce?” Brian whispered from around his bed curtain.

“Yeah, just need something to drink.”

He bobbed his head and let the curtain fall back into place as I slipped out the door. The stone floor was cold on my bare feet as I wandered out into the school hallway. I listened to the softly snoring paintings and the gentle creaks of the metal knights and wondered how one place could hold so much magic. I kept walking not really interested in sleeping or lounging against my boyfriend or anything else really.

“You shouldn’t be walking around at night like that.”

I turned part of the way around and smiled, “You shouldn’t be either.”

Sirius shrugged the broom on his shoulder bumping awkwardly with his motion, “I came to fly.”

“Can I watch?”

He made another motion of his shoulders and walked toward the long opening that lead out to the Quidditch pitch. It was a crisp night the kind that come after winter just before spring really settles in. Wind blew softly through the grass loping its way through our hair. I folded myself into the center of the field and watched Sirius take off into the sky.

Watching him fly was like watching a ballet dancer stretch or a painter gather supplies. It was the promise of a performance, of getting better and better, of hard work and sweat and calluses. It was beautiful. I watched him circle and dip and feint and swoop. I watched and watched until I fell asleep comparing the way the moonlight shone off of his edges to the way stars breathe.