REPUTATION • [j.p.] ✔️

[.50]

Prologue
First Year

•••

WHEN JESSICA BLACK was sorted into Gryffindor, the Black's were in uproar. Their perfect Jessie, perfect pureblood Jessie, not in Slytherin?

Jessie actually had been hoping for Slytherin, following her families ideals. She thought her dear cousin Sirius would be as disappointed as she was. So she decided to console in him. She sat next to him that night at the Gryffindor table.

"This is absurd," she said as she sat next to him. A group of people sitting near him laughed softly in response. She blinked at them in momentary confusion. "What? I'm being serious! I'm supposed to be Slytherin! We should be over there!" she said the last part to Sirius, pointing over her shoulder to the other table.

Sirius just laughed. "Trust me, I'm thankful I'm not. Your dear sister, Bellatrix, keeps you too sheltered little Jessie."

"I'm taller than you, Sirius."

"Not the point," he pointed out, grabbing some food.

"What is your point?"

"That your family had really screwed up ideals, Jessie," said a boy with messy black hair and glasses across the table.

"That's Jessica to you!" she snapped, grabbing an apple. She pushed to her feet, stepping over the bench and storming toward the exit.

"Oi! Don't be mad at James just because he's honest!" Sirius called out.

It was too late. Jessica Black was already out of the Great Hall, asking the portraits how to get to the Gryffindor Common Room. Of course, she didn't know the password so she was forced to wait for the other students to come along.

•••

"That wasn't the brightest idea now was it, Jessica?" a voice mused on the other end of the couch.

Jessica had taken to sulking that night, sitting in the common room with her arms crossed over her chest. She stared intently at the fire until James spoke next to her.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when he spoke. It was well after curfew, nearly midnight. What was he doing awake?

"What are you talking about?" She demands.

James grinned. "Trying to come back to the common room earlier."

"You're a git, you know that?" she snarled.

James's grin was an arrogant one as he sat back on the couch. Jessie narrowed her eyes, studying the boys messy hair and crooked glasses. She tilted her head at his pajamas.

"Are those trains on your pajamas, James?" She asked, snickering.

"Go to bed, Black!" He shouted at her, jumping to his feet.

She was laughing as she made her way to the girls dorms. "It's Jessie by the way," she called over her shoulder before going to bed.

•••

[published 01/17/18]