Brightest ✯ Sirius Black

✯ two ✯

"Since you've been around, I smile a lot more than I used to."

She walked the little way through the train, squeezing between crowds of people, until she was stopped by a force of something, walking out of a compartment without seeing her. She let out an involuntary shriek and almost fell over backwards, had the person not caught her by the arm before she could go down.

    "I'm so sorry, are you alright? I didn't even see you," the boy smiled, looking down at Cleo as she stumbled backwards. He held onto her arm tightly, and managed to pull her upright again. Cleo was somewhat of an awkward soul, and so when she met eyes with the stranger she had bumped into, she could hardly force any words to come out of her mouth.

    "Oh, um-yes I'm alright. Sorry," she breathed out with a smile and unconsciously tucked her hair behind her ear. "I didn't see you either."

    "I suppose we should both be more careful then," the boy chuckled. He was tall, with dark brown tousled hair that reminded Cleo of James. He had warm brown eyes, and a splattering of freckles across his pale cheeks. Cleo would have to be under a curse of some kind to admit he wasn't handsome.

    He put his hand out hesitantly, motioning for her to shake as he said, "I'm Skander."

    "That's an interesting name," Cleo said as she took his large hand in hers to shake.

    "Well what's yours?"

    "Cleo," she said. He laughed. "And mine is interesting?" he joked, and Cleo laughed. Only after a short time had they both realized that they were still shaking their hands. Both of them, flustered, let go of one another and chuckled with red cheeks.

    "So, Cleo," Skander started, not exactly wanting to leave this girl yet, "what house are you in? I haven't seen you before," he looked puzzled.

    "Gryffindor proud," she grinned, her blue eyes shining. "And I would ask you, but from the color of your tie, I think I can take a guess," she said, pointing to the boy's emerald green necktie.

    "You're right," he nodded thoughtfully. "Hufflepuff proud," he hummed.

    "Wait what-" Cleo stammered, but Skander cut her off with a melodious laugh.

    "I'm only joking, of course. I'm a Slytherin," he said, finding Cleo's reaction hilarious.

    "Ha-ha, yes very funny," she rolled her eyes, but grinned. "It wouldn't have mattered anyway," she shrugged. "One of my best friends is Slytherin."

    "Really? Who?"

    "Indiana Bloomsbury."

    "Ah yes, Indiana," Skander nodded. "Bit of a spitfire, isn't she?"

    Cleo laughed. "She really is, but she hates being called that," and her and Skander laughed again. "Must be a Slytherin thing," he joked, and winked at Cleo, who blushed.

    "Cleo?" a boy's voice asked. She turned to find James and Sirius walking towards her. "We knew you were taking far too long in the loo, we came to find you," James said.

    "Yes well, I never actually made it. I bumped into a friend," she said, grinning at Skander.

    "Yes, literally bumped into," he laughed, before kindly smiling at both James and Sirius. "Skander Blishwick, pleasure to meet you both," and held out his hand.

    James looked somewhat shocked, but took his hand anyway. "Um, yeah, James Potter," he mumbled. Sirius looked at Skander's hand and then back at his face with a raised brow, as if questioning why in the world Skander had put his hand out to him. Cleo rolled her eyes.

    "This is Sirius Black," Cleo said, motioning towards her moody friend.

    "Yes, we're acquainted," Skander said. "My ancestors are related to the Blacks, somehow," he shrugged.

    Sirius merely hummed in response, appearing to not care very much. It was Cleo and James that were two of the only ones that could tell he was lying.

    "That's intere-" she started.

"How's Regulus?" Sirius asked Skander quickly.

"He's fine, yeah," Skander said, slightly taken aback at the question. "Seems fine, anyway. He told me you had run away from home this summer, but he didn't go into detail." Sirius hummed, looking awkward and slightly distraught.

    "Well, we best be going, Cleo," James said clearing his throat, as Sirius gently grabbed Cleo's elbow and pulled her away.

    "I hope I'll see you again, Cleo!" Skander called after her. She turned around in the arms of the boy dragging her away.

    "Same here!" she yelled back, and waved as best she could. His chuckle could be heard until they turned down a corridor.

    "Why." Cleo only stated as they finally let go of her. "I was just making friends," she groaned.

    "We are your friends," James said.

    "Yeah, what more could you possibly want?" Sirius grinned cheekily, throwing an arm around Cleo's shoulder and bringing her into his body tightly. She tried to ignore the intoxicating scent of burning wood and some kind of muggle cologne on his shirt, but that was practically impossible.

    "Yeaf mut-" her voice was muffled by Sirius shushing her and pushing her head deeper into the material of his shirt. She flailed slightly and punched him in the stomach as kindly as she could, and it obviously worked, because he let go of her quickly.

    "Ow," he mumbled, rubbing his stomach lightly.

    "You deserved that, and you know it," she glared. He stuck his tongue out at her, and she reciprocated.

    "Get a room, you two," Remus said, hardly having to look up as they entered the compartment to know what Sirius and Cleo were doing.

    "Cleo, is your sister still, you know..." Luna trailed off, her head snapping up from her book to ask abruptly as Cleo sat down in front of her.

    "Yeah, why?" Cleo mumbled, not feeling like speaking about her sister.

    "Well, I'm just wondering, because both you and Ren are muggle borns, and isn't that Voldemort's biggest abomination?" Luna inquired, her dark eyebrows furrowing against her clear grey eyes.

    Cleo had never thought about it before. At first, she had laughed at the idea of a "dark lord", as Ren had so devotionally called him. But when the killings began, she stopped laughing, and when Ren came home with a large snake tattoo on her arm as she began packing up her things, she knew all at once that nothing would ever be the same.

    Cleo worried now. Was her sister even safe following a wizard that claims to hate her kind? She didn't know why she suddenly cared for her sister so much. Perhaps it was the simple fact that they were blood, death eater or no.

    "I," Cleo muttered, looking out the window as the trees passed by in a blur. The friends in the compartment all watched her. "I never thought about that," she whispered. Luna and the rest of them decided to leave things as they were, and silence took the train compartment.

ooh this one is a bit darker

don't worry, Skander will reappear oooooooooooh

and for those of you who have seen Narnia and catch onto my future references, all i can say is *points* ayyyyy

i'm so sick, like i haven't been to school in 5 days WOOP SENIOR YEAR guess who's hella behind now

that's all for now folks! vote and comment!

mwah

em