Little Red |Sirius Black|

A Good Day to Rhyme Hard- Sirius

It was during lunch a week after the Christmas holidays that Sirius first had the idea.

He had been sitting at the Gryffindor table with the Marauders, playing with his food as he listened to everyone at the table prattle on and on about their vacations.

"And you should have seen Gwenog's face when she thought I'd given her Celestina Warbeck's new Christmas album as a present!" Exclaimed a laughing Hestia to an increasingly giggly Mary MacDonald and Emmeline Vance. The three of them were sitting at a far corner of the table and yet their incessant giggling was attracting a lot of attention from the others- Sirius included.

Sirius suppressed a snort at Hestia's words. Celestina Warbeck was a rising singer in the wizarding world who had garnered quite a fanbase, consisting almost entirely of teenaged girls, thanks to her cheesy romantic songs. To give Gwenog Jones anything vaguely related to Celestina Warbeck would be like giving your gold-loving pet niffler a potato on his birthday- it could only result in disappointed grumbling and a flying potato to the head.

Sirius was contenting himself with picturing an irate Gwenog hurling potatoes at people, when half the table burst into laughter.

Sirius turned to find Hestia in the middle of her best imitation of her sister, much to the crowd's entertainment. Among the sounds of amusement from the table, Sirius was aware of an all too familiar laugh ringing through the Great Hall.

It was amazing to Sirius how even through all the noise, her voice stood out, clear as day to him, distinctive in a way he had never experienced before.

It's bloody inconvenient is what it is, thought Sirius grumpily. Given that I'm doing my best to ignore her.

Ever since that day in Dufftown, Arianna had been doing her best to try and talk to him, but he had stubbornly resisted, though Merlin only knew how hard it had been getting towards the end. Finally the Christmas holidays had come to his rescue, and he didn't have to be anywhere around her for weeks, providing him with some much needed space.

He had spent the holidays thinking.

He knew he didn't want to end up like James- caring so much about some bird who didn't in the least bit seem interested in him. In fact, Sirius had been so hellbent on avoiding James' mistake that he had spent his entire time at Hogwarts going out of his way to make sure he was never hung up on anyone.

And he had been doing a marvelous job at that, until this girl waltzed into his life with her shiny, red streaked, sweet smelling hair and her mesmeric laughter and her pretty brown eyes that sparkle with mischief, her snarky attitude, and her-

Stop that, you miserable bampot! Sirius admonished himself.

One thing was certain. If he had a hope of keeping his sanity, he had to make sure that he never got too close to the girl. Over the holidays, he had realised that if he pretended to hate her, maybe he'd start hating her for real.

And maybe if she thinks you hate her, she'll start keeping her distance, and take the choice out of your hands, a small voice at the back of his head had pointed out.

And so he had decided to be as rude to her as he could be, once school started again. But she hadn't given him a chance.

After the holidays, Arianna had stopped approaching him, keeping mostly to herself and only ever talking to her friends and Frank. Even her interaction with Richard was minimal. All in all, she seemed rather sullen and irritable.

Sirius had considered going out of his way to let her know that he hated her now, but had wisely decided against it after he witnessed her hitting Amycus Carrow with a Sardine Hex just because he had bumped into her in the hallway and been rude about it. So strong was her Hex that the poor bloke had sardines coming out of his nose for two whole days, despite Madame Pomfrey's best efforts.