Celeste || Sirius Black

Chapter 16: The Practice of Jealousy

The Quidditch season was nearing. Gryffindors had defeated Ravenclaws under James' new flying positions but their next match with Hufflepuffs would take more practice from the players, seeing how the professors were not allowing more than two hours to go outside the castle. Studies were taking everything from the students.

So when Sirius threw the quaffle into the tallest hoop, James wasn't as happy as he should have been. "Come on everyone! We should have gotten that in the first half."

"We're all trying here. It's not our fault that practice is not enough."

"I will tell you what we have to do, Grayson. It's not every time that we will get to go to finals. If we have to be the strongest team, it means we have to-"

But his voice trailed out for Sirius as he caught sight of Remus walking down the hill, clutching his bag like it was the most important possession for him. But what really caught his attention was the fact that his friend wasn't alone.

"I can't believe I was able to convince you to come," Remus said as he and Celeste walked past some of the other students having a free period to sit in the middle of the stands. He had suggested that she get some time away from the library so that she wouldn't have to be invisible to the naked world all the time. She would need this more than he needed it.

Perhaps Remus was right! Celeste really did need time away. She hadn't known what it felt like to have someone to rely on for what felt like centuries. She did not trust herself to trust Remus but she wanted to, and that was a great start.

And after what had happened during Potions, a time-out was exactly what she needed.

She looked up at the players and caught sight of Sirius watching the two of them, who looked away at the exact time her eyes fell on him. She was glad for that because she averted her eyes too. She couldn't believe her fate.

James had passed the quaffle back to Sirius and the next gaming trial had started.

Sirius did not know what came over him that he alone scored the next twenty points. James seemed proud now, seeing how aggressiveness would be the key to winning in the next match without any fallback, but that was not what Sirius was thinking. What was he thinking about being affected by Celeste's presence there? Why was he feeling her gaze on him more than his friend's, whom he had known all his life?

He heard a mild laugh and couldn't help himself turning his head to look at the stands once again. His knuckles went white as he clutched the end of the broom tightly. Celeste was laughing at something Remus had said. She looked like another girl, laughing freely and being confident about who she was. So why was Sirius feeling his face heat up?

During the next game, he noticed the way she was tying her hair up, exposing her bare neck, something she never did before. She playfully punched Remus' arm at one point that made Sirius make another five points. They were playing with the numbers in his book and she was calculating, which made her look at equations in the thin air before her. And whenever she was thinking, she had a charm on her face.

But why was Sirius Black noticing Celeste Rajput?

As the practice session came to an end, the students that were gathered first started to leave, but Remus and Celeste were waiting at the end of the pitch, probably for James and Sirius himself to have a small chat. But why was Celeste not meeting his eyes?

James greeted Remus with a high-five and gave Celeste a small nod, which she returned with a small smile. But when her hazel brown eyes fell on his oak brown ones, he could swear that his breath was leaving him.

"You tied your hair up."

Sirius mentally smacked the back of his head for those words having been the first to leave his mouth. He could feel Remus and James' ice gaze on him, who were definitely wondering what he was going with this.

"Yeah...." Celeste let her voice trail out. This was a mistake. "I'll see you tomorrow," she told Remus and turned her back on the three out of four. She hurried up the hill and tried to make it look as if she wasn't running away from them.

And then came his voice.

"What did Remus tell you?" She looked at Sirius on her left and then straight ahead. "You laughed at him."

She scoffed. She was definitely not having this conversation. "Why does it matter to you?"

"Look."

He stopped walking and so did she. It was as if she was the opposite magnet to his energy, which was a thought she despised having. Potions had definitely messed with her thoughts.

"Believe it or not, ever since....that happened, I'm scared for you."

Celeste gulped as she looked back and forth between Sirius' eyes. She noticed small freckles on his nose that she never noticed before. But this wasn't time to encourage the amortentia.

"I've grown to care for you...." Sirius continued. "And I want to look out for you."

Look out for her. This was a joke but Sirius did not know who said those exact words to her before. "You don't know me," she said, clutching her books to support that this was reality. She couldn't run away like she could in a dream. "You don't know me and you don't know what you are talking about."

"Celeste-"

"Believe me on this. It is best for you that I keep my distance. What I go through is for my thoughts alone. I don't need to drag you into it just as you don't need me getting involved in your life."

And yet, as Sirius saw her tied up hair swaying on either side as she walked up the hill, he felt regret and shame pass over him, only one thought bothering him.

He shouldn't have let her go.

*****

hello hello and welcome back (for me)
If you're still here, I thank you truly from the bottom of my heart
who wants to take a bet with me that I'll finish this story today?