Black and Gold

Lily led the way across the Great Hall to the Gryffindor table and sat down she gestured to Roxie, ‘Sit with us!’ Roxie frowned, ‘I would but I promised Remus that I would sit with him! Why don’t you come up there too?’ She pointed at the group of four boys sitting further up the table.

Lily grimaced, ‘Me? Sit with James Potter and Sirius Black? I don’t think so!’ Roxie smiled, ‘I know Black is a bit of an arrogant twit, but James is really polite! Remus is really nice too. By the way what is the weir quiet one called? You know the plump one...’ Lily grinned, ‘Oh, that’s Peter Pettigrew. He completely dotes on James and Sirius- he follows them around and mimics everything that they do.’ She smiled, ‘The boys got no personality- he just follows popular people!’

Roxie grinned, ‘Black is popular? Figures!’

Lily grinned again. ‘Alright, I will sit with them just for today- and just for you!’

James gawped. ‘Is it me? Or is Lily Evans walking towards me?’

Sirius glanced up, ‘Yep she is. But I wouldn’t flatter yourself, I think she just wants to sit with Roxie, who wants to sit with Remus.’

‘Yeah, I guess.’ James sighed, ‘So, Remus, you fancy Roxie, right?’

Remus crinkled his nose, ‘No, I don’t think so. She is absolutely gorgeous but I get the feeling that she just wants to be friends- she probably doesn’t trust boys- I’d imagine she’s been played by plenty, looking like that!’

James nodded, ‘True. Some boys are real scum. I mean, they treat pretty girls badly and then when one of us actually likes a pretty girl for her personality, she doesn’t trust us because those scummy boys have damaged our reputation. It’s so unfair!’

Roxie slid onto the seat next to him. ‘What’s unfair?’

James glanced first at her then at Lily and launched into his explanation. ‘Well, we were just saying that some boys are real scum. Know why they are scum. Well, its because they mistreat pretty girls- they cheat on them and play them and lead them on and hurt them, just because they seem to think that pretty girls can’t be clever at the same time. Then when a nice well-meaning boy with perfectly harmless intentions falls for a really pretty girl, they get rejected and hurt because the pretty girl doesn’t trust them. And they don’ t trust them because of the reputation that scummy boys make for all boys.’

He took a deep breath as he finally came to the end of his rushed little rant. Even Lily looked quite impressed. She leaned over to Carla and whispered, ‘I didn’t even know he could think, let alone be sensitive!’

Roxie had frozen next to James. She felt as though someone had just read out her thoughts to the whole world. She shook her head and replaced the smile that had slipped from her face in shock as Dumbledore called for attention and made a brief speech. As the food began appearing in front of them she tapped Remus on the shoulder.

‘So, Remus, can I borrow that book? It looked quite good.’

He nodded, ‘Course! So do you like reading then?’

She grinned, ‘I used to read all the time, but I sort of slipped out of that habit recently- maybe you can recommend some good ones to get me back on track?’

Sirius rolled his eyes as Roxie and Remus began discussing all the books they had read, hadn’t read, did recommend, didn’t recommend, had heard of and hadn’t heard of. James was talking to Lily and Carla and the look on his face was priceless- it was one of pure elation. Mina was sitting across from him but she was staring at Remus with a faraway expression on her face- why was Remus suddenly so popular?

Sirius was sulking. She had completely ignored him! And he had heard her say to Lily as they got off the train ‘Urgh, that Sirius Black- up himself much?’

He didn’t understand- all the girls at Hogwarts had fallen for him at some point- even Lily, though admittedly that was when she hadn’t heard him talk and he hadn’t started playing tricks yet. He crossed his arms and looked over at Roxie again. She really was pretty- annoying and a typical stuck up girl; she was being as mean to him as Lily was to James- but beautiful. He sighed as she flicked her long shimmering hair over her shoulder.
Her hair was long straight and shiny- it looked so soft that he just wanted to reach out and touch it. It was the colour of the sun and was naturally streaked with light brown and red. Her skin was perfect, the colour of porcelain and she had high cheek bones and a bone structure any girl would die for. Her pale skin made her eyes and lips stand out. She had lined her eyes with black kohl, but he didn’t think she needed it- her eyes were striking enough already. They were light hazel but the iris was sort of outlined with a very dark brown, making her eyes really stand out. He had ever seen eyes like them. There were depths to her eyes that he just couldn’t fathom. Her lips were full and covered in a glittery lip gloss that made her lips catch your eye every time her head turned. It reminded him of the kids lipstick that a childhood friend of his used to wear to parties when they were about five. He smiled- somehow it looked so much more attractive on Roxie.

Suddenly as if he had called her name out loud rather than in his head, she glanced up at him curiously, ‘Looking at me, Black?’

He blushed. ‘No! I was just thinking. Sorry.’

He glanced away. After a few seconds the idle chat began again and he thought it would be safe to bring his gaze back up to the table. He was wrong. James’ was staring at him with an absolutely dumbfounded expression on his face.

‘Sirius?’

Sirius cursed under his breath, ‘Yes James?’

‘Did... well was I imagining it... or ... well, did... did... umm... did Roxie just make you...’ He paused still in awe, ‘Blush?’ He pronounced it like it was a dirty word.

Sirius dropped his gaze and stared at his hands. ‘I think so, mate.’ He murmured bashfully.
James gaped at him, ’Wooh.’

He glanced at Roxie and back to Sirius and after a second he smiled. ‘You’d make a cute couple, mate. Go for it.’

Sirius grunted. ‘She doesn’t like me.’

James shook his head, ‘You never know with girls, Sirius. Honestly, leave it for a bit, get to know her, make sure she doesn’t have any annoying habits and then make a move.’
Sirius smiled half-heartedly, ‘I don’t really think I’m her type to be honest. And she so wouldn’t appreciate the expression “make a move” ’

Roxie turned to him and shot him a filthy look, ‘Thinking of “making a move” are you? Why anyone would want to date an ignorant misogynist like you, I have no idea!’ She shook her head and turned back to Remus.

James fought to keep back a smile, ‘You’ve met your match mate! I think she secretly likes you.’

Sirius groaned, ‘Yeah, in my dreams. How can she hate me already?’

James shrugged, ‘Dunno, ask her.’

Sirius shook his head looking apprehensive. ‘Not gonna happen.’

James smiled. ‘Then I will.’

Sirius shook his head frantically, ‘No, no bad idea!’

But it was too late, James had already leant over and tapped her on the shoulder. Roxie turned away from her conversation. Sirius groaned. She had been talking to Lily, Carla and Remus, so now absolutely everyone’s attention was on him, James and Roxie.

Remus was grinning manically, ‘Are you blushing Sirius?’

He groaned- again with the implying that it’s a dirty word!

He stared pointedly at the table.

James smiled at Roxie and blurted out, ‘Well, Sirius asked me to find out why and how you can hate him so much after only a few hours.’

Sirius looked up at that, ‘That’s a lie! I asked you but I didn’t ask you to ask her!’ He hissed angrily at James, his pale skin flooding with unwanted colour.

Roxie grinned, ‘Don’t fret Sirius. I don’t hate you. I hate your attitude. You are one of those people that James was talking about earlier on. I can tell. You had never seen me before and yet you thought you had a right to whistle at me. I think you knew that that was why I was angry really didn’t you. See there’s a difference between me being angry and me hating you. I get very angry very easily and I do hold grudges. But if I hate someone I hurt them. That’s why I got expelled from Beauxbatons.’

Sirius gaped in disbelief, ‘You got expelled? Why?’

She shrugged, ‘No real reason. Just a long build up of little pranks and because I got into a fight.’

‘With another girl?’

She laughed- it sounded like a thousand wind chimes, ‘No! With a teacher!’ She glanced around at their faces and began to laugh hysterically. ‘Don’t worry. I’m getting anger management here.’

Lily frowned, ‘so why did they let you in here?’

Roxie frowned. ‘Sorry, can’t tell you that.’

As the remains of dessert disappeared from their plates and Dumbledore dismissed them, Lily and Carla were already thinking up more and more elaborate ideas of why she couldn’t tell them how she got in.