Golden || Sirius Black

P R O L O G U E

Hazel Evans doesn't like Sirius Black. She doesn't like him. In fact, last year after Mary had drunkenly snogged him, she'd said to Hazel, and all of the girls in her dormitory, you hate him, so why does it matter?
That was when Marlene had gotten angry at her, of course. Marlene is still angry at Mary for that.

Marlene is still angry at Mary, Mary thinks that Hazel hates Sirius Black, and Hazel doesn't like him.

She doesn't like Sirius Black.

So why is she lying awake at night, thinking about him, worrying about him, wanting to throw up at the memories of the bruises on his cheeks? And his short hair, when his mum shaved it all off or however they did it.
Hazel doesn't like Sirius Black, she really doesn't, but she likes his hair. Everyone likes his hair though. It doesn't necessarily mean they like Sirius Black. Though a lot of people do like him. They like him a lot and Hazel still doesn't know how that makes her feel. But she knows that they like his hair, and so does she. She likes the way it's as dark as the night sky, and the way it falls over his eyes when he laughs. She likes the way it curls at the top of his neck and around his ears.

But Hazel Evans doesn't like Sirius Black. She just doesn't.
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Sirius Black is in love with Hazel Evans. He knows he's in love with her because he wants to stick pictures up of her smile over the rude pictures on his bedroom wall at Grimmauld Place. He knows he's in love with her because he wants to buy a record of her laugh and play it over and over again like Remus does with David Bowie. Not that he doesn't like David Bowie, he loves David Bowie. But impossibly, he likes Hazel's laugh more than he likes David Bowie.

That's how he knows he's in love with her.

He's in love with her because thinking about her keeps him going at Grimmauld Place. Keeps him going when he's staggering up the stairs, blood dripping from his nose, his ears. Black eyes forming. He thinks about her when he can hear Bellatrix's laugh behind him, and he can feel his parent's grey eyes cutting holes in the back of his head. They never do anything, but in his mind Hazel does.
She takes him by the hand and leads him to his bed where she holds him tighter than anyone has before, even James.
She looks at him with sadness in her honey brown eyes as she curls into his chest and they fall asleep together. When Sirius wakes up he's alone, with his pillow and his bedsheets stained with dried blood.
But he likes to pretend, even though the last words she spoke to him were rejecting his invitation to Euphemia's party, that she's worried for him. That she wants to go to Hogsmeade with him and sneak up the astronomy tower to watch the sunset and sit by the Black lake.
He likes to pretend that she's there with him whenever something bad happens.

Because Sirius Black is in love with Hazel Evans. He just is and nothing can change that.
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