SEREIN || Sirius Black

Chapter 16

"Come on Marlene! We don't want to make James mad." Clara sighed grabbing her friend by the arm.

"It's so early! The match doesn't start until noon. Why do we have to be down there now?" She cried looking at the clock the read half past seven.

"I don't know! We have thirty minutes before we need to be dressed and ready though. Come on now, get up you lazy ass!" Clara pulled her from the couch earning a glare from her friend.

"No wonder Sirius likes you. So feisty." She stood up in protest.

"Marlene not now!"

Marlene smirked following Clara out of the common room, brooms in hand. "It's just so easy though."

"Shush would you." Clara rolled her eyes walking quickly towards the pitch. She always had to be early. Her mother had always made her late to everything growing up causing Clara to always show up early if she could.

"When are you going to ask him out?" Marlene asked nonchalantly trying to keep up with a very fast paced Clara.

"I am not asking him out!" She yelled back to her making sure to show Marlene that she was flipping her off.

The two girls continued going back and forth over Sirius until they finally made it to the pitch by 7:55 AM. Much too close to the meeting time for Clara's comfort. They quickly changed into their match day uniforms and walked back out onto the pitch. As she was looking over everyone her eyes stopped briefly on Sirius. She had to admit that he looked very good in the red and gold uniform. He caught her eye shooting her a wink before she continued looking around. She could feel her cheeks heating up ever so slightly.

"Alright!" James shouted gathering everyone's attention. "Match day against Slytherin."

Clara felt the air around the group shift as the tension started to rise. Clara knew there was some pretty bad blood between the Gryffindor's and the Slytherin's just in the way the two houses had interacted. But this tension was something different, it was personal.

"As you all are well aware, they destroyed us last year and won the bloody House Cup." James spoke bitterly. "That's not happening today."

Everyone started cheering including Clara. Smiling he continued. "I know I've run you ragged over the last three months. Thank you for sticking with it, with the team. It's all going to pay off when we obliterate those snakes."

An even louder round of cheers and claps came from the team getting amped up through James' speech. "I know it's quite early. I've asked you all to come so we can run through everything a few more times at half speed. Don't wear yourself out!" He signaled for everyone to get in their places.

-

Before she knew it the match was about to begin. Clara peeked outside the door seeing the pitch come to life with students from all houses cramming themselves in the stands for the first match of the season.

"You excited?" Clara jumped hearing Sirius' voice close to her ear.

She turned around to his smirking face. "Don't do that!" She laughed. "I'm beyond excited."

"You're going to do great."

Clara grinned. "I know."

Sirius laughed with her. "Confident little thing."

"I'm hardly little Sirius." She retorted quickly looking up at him slightly. Her entire life she was always the awkwardly tall girl. She hadn't learned to appreciate her height until it started benefitting her with quidditch.

"Shorter than me so yes, little." He patted her on top of the head.

Clara rolled her eyes biting her cheek trying to prevent the smile that wanted to form on her face. She turned her attention back to James who started speaking again. "This is it." He grinned. "Go kick some snake arse." He led the team out onto the pitch.