crowned jewel ~ sirius black

Prologue

Gemma-Leigh King only hates one person more than James Potter, and that's Sirius Black. Sirius is a stuck up, privileged, rich-boy, who thinks all too highly of himself. And Gemma hates him. She hates his gorgeous silky hair, those dark and mysterious eyes, and that sickeningly charming smile that makes her insides burn hot with hatred.

But is it really hatred?

Because along with the boiling of her blood, and the flames that flick within her eyes, Gemma feels another burning sensation across her cheeks whenever she's with Sirius. She can't help but let her eyes flicker to his stupid lips whenever he smiles, and she can't help but feel intense butterflies whenever she hears his stupid laugh. But that's not what it sounds like.

Is it?

Unfortunately, along with that hair, and those eyes, and that smile, Gemma-Leigh King eventually finds herself hating one thing even more than she hates Sirius Black, and that would be her unintentional feelings for him.

THE HOUSE OF KING, SUMMER 1972

"Oh, Mummy, please tell me I don't have to go!" Gemma pleaded, planting herself in the middle of the foyer of her home. "I can't stand Jamie!"

"You can't?" Kurtis King, Gemma's older brother, said. "Strange, I've always thought you loved our visits with the Potter's...."

"Is that sarcasm I detect?" Gemma's mother, Mary-Anne King, asked her son teasingly.

"Indeed it is, Mum," Kurtis replied, grinning.

"Unfortunately for you, Gemma-Leigh, yes. Yes you are coming," Jonathan King said to his daughter. Gemma stamped her foot, and groaned loudly.

"But Dad-" she started to whine, but her father scooped her up in his arms, causing her to stop.

"Calm down, temper," Jonathan said. "It's not all bad."

"Not all bad?" Gemma repeated in disbelief. "Jamie wrote to me, Dad, and he told me that he's bringing his friend to stay, and that he and his friend are gonna torment me!"

"Well, I'm sure you can figure out a way to evade it.  You're smarter than the lot of us put together," Jonathan said, kissing his daughter on the temple, then setting her back down on the ground. "Alright King's, in the car we get."

Gemma begrudgingly followed her father out to the car, and buckled up with a very audible groan of resentment. The King's were an old pure blooded wizarding family, the most famous of them all in England, as it was the only line that was not interrelated with the others. However, through the bonds that pure bloodedness brings, the King's found themselves becoming very close friends with the Potter's.

Euphemia and Fleamont Potter met Mary-Anne and Jonathan King many years ago when the Potter's were still working in the hair-care business. Jonathan was twenty-one, and needed a job, and Fleamont was fifty-three, and needed some new staff.

And thus, the friendship began.

Euphemia and Fleamont had one son, James Potter, very late in their lives, while Mary-Anne and Jonathan had two children, Kurtis King and Gemma-Leigh King. Kurtis was the same age as James, and Gemma was only a year and a bit younger than the two.  The families had been very close ever since they met, and while Kurtis and James grew up to be brothers, Gemma found her relationship with James to be a very one-sided teasing battle.

James was very keen on pissing Gemma off to no end, and he was quite good at it at that.  Gemma was thrilled when he and Kurtis were off at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the entirety of the last year, but she couldn't be shot of him forever. She saw him at Christmas, and she was to see him this summer, and soon, when she was old enough to attend Hogwarts herself, she would be seeing him year round.