The Last Gryffindor (Sirius Black)

Chapter X: The Attitude We Adopt Towards People We Dislike

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Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.
-OSCAR WILDE

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The way these past few weeks had been going, Aeliana was going to need something a lot stronger than pumpkin juice to make it through the day. That is, if she even went to breakfast at all. More and more frequently, she found herself skipping meals to find peace and quiet far from Sirius's persistent pestering.

That boy was many things, but a quitter, he was not.

Lia swore to herself the moment she got ahold of that troublesome map of his it would find itself up in flames with its ashes spread across the bottom of the Atlantic for good measure. It made him simply impossible to avoid, despite her best efforts. Every time she looked over her shoulder he was there, feigning ignorance as though he'd only happened to be walking by.

Meal times, of course, were the worst. What could she do? Duck under the table as he strolled by? Classy. Real dignified. Way to make her ancestors proud.

To counter that little problem, Lia kept as far away from the Great Hall as possible, even if it meant skipping more meals than strictly recommended. On the plus side, those times were the only ones she didn't have to worry about anyone breathing down her neck, so Lia actually get quite a lot of work done.

She supposed she could put on an invisibility charm to go pilfer food incognito, but it would lead to awkward questions when she inevitably walked into someone. She'd even mulled over the idea of using a summoning charm to get food from the table without having to actually go inside, but something told her that flying toast would leave a literal trail of breadcrumbs to her location anyway.

After several days of this, Remus took to ferrying Lia food whenever he could slip away. It was a bit tricky to do it regularly, though, because they weren't supposed to be speaking to each other. If Sirius noticed them together, things would become... problematic.

That's how she came to to be huddled against a tree on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Lia was no fool. She knew Sirius could definitely still find her with that infernal map, but she counted on him being a.) too busy stuffing his snout at breakfast and b.) too lazy to stalk all the way out there. Anyway, even if he did, Lia would see him coming from a mile away.

That is, if she paid any attention.

"Er... What are you doing all the way out here?"

Lia groaned internally, squeezing her closed eyes even tighter in hope that he'd go away.

"So— what's my brother done this time?"

Lia furrowed her brows in confusion. Brother?

"Regulus?" Her eyes shot open in surprise.

"I have it on good authority that is my name," he confirmed pragmatically. Regulus surveyed her, assessing the leaves in her hair and yesterdays wrinkled robes. Arching a brow, he asked, "Are you hiding?"

"You could say that," she mumbled, squinting up at him.

Over his shoulder, someone hollered something indistinguishable, but Regulus waved the person off. "You guys go on ahead."

Attention back on her, he leaned down, situating himself so that he was sitting on his ankles.

"Rumor has it you're actively avoiding my brother," he stated matter-of-factly.