Coming Together ༄ Sirius Black

Chapter Twelve

So things were not happening as had been previously planned.

Sirius couldn't bring himself to ask Asteria out. He couldn't bring himself to lie to her and pretend to date her for a couple of months. It would just be cruel. Sirius Black was not cruel. Little did he know though, Asteria was going through a similar thing. She didn't want to lie to Sirius and was certain he was going to see right through her scheme.
Needless to say, both were backing out of their plans.

"Maybe... Maybe I can just be honest?" Sirius asked as he walked beside James into the Great Hall.
"Honesty is key in a relationship." James nodded.
"There is no relationship!"
"Not yet."

Sirius punched James in the arm.
"Should I just ask her to pretend to be my girlfriend for one day? I mean, it's only really one meal; not even a full day." Sirius rambled as they sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"Do whatever solves the problem and then we can get back to planning out these pranks because I think I'm having withdrawals from creating chaos." James grumbled, still rubbing his arm where he'd been punched.

"Hey..." Remus greeted tiredly, rubbing his hands over his face.
"You alright? Not still hurting or anything?" James asked. They were all aware the full moon had only just passed.
"It's fine... I'm fine."

"So about Asteria." Sirius began, returning the attention to himself.
"Merlin... You're starting to sound like James, always going on about a girl." Remus grumbled, letting his head fall into his hands.
"I do not sound as pathetic as him!" Sirius exclaimed.
"I don't sound pathetic at all!" James exclaimed.
"You're both equally pathetic." Peter countered, earning a muffled laugh from Remus.

"Okay... Before either of you do something stupid to annoy those girls and embarrass yourselves, I'm going to leave." Remus stood up, gathering his possessions into his bag and swiftly departing before James and Sirius could start bickering again.

Asteria stirred slightly as a bag slammed down onto her table in the library. The peace of the library had allowed her to drift off into an uncomfortable sleep which was now being utterly destroyed at a chair was hurriedly pulled out and someone joined her at the table. Asteria had been struggling to sleep as she worried so much about going home for Christmas, and this particular event in the library was not helping.

"Can you not see I'm slee-oh... Hi Remus?" Asteria looked up, furrowing her eyebrows in an almost quizzical manor.

"Asteria, we have a problem." Remus stated before looking over his shoulder and glancing towards the door.
"We? What problem?" Asteria was half hoping Sirius hadn't told him she knew about his monthly predicament as that would make for one awkward conversation.

Remus sighed and ran a hand through his hair whilst turning back to face her, "Sirius is gong to do something quite possibly stupid, definitely weird and maybe annoying."
"Sounds like him in a nutshell really." Asteria's attempt at lightening the mood had not worked.

"At some point he's going to ask you something... I don't know if I should tell you what exactly it is but... Just know that he really doesn't want to offend you or anything. I also don't think he's ever really liked someo-never mind. I just mean that it might be weird but there's a good reason behind why he's asking you and maybe he'll tell you if you ask but..." Remus stopped rambling, "Am I making sense?"

Asteria frowned, "I... Think so?"
"Normally Sirius wouldn't really care about hurting someone's feelings but... Because it's you, he's trying to be nice about it but I don't think he understands that whatever he does isn't exactly nice - it's odd. Just, when he asks know he really doesn't want to make you uncomfortable."
"Because it's me? Why would I be uncomfortable? I feel like you're the one making this all weird." She shook her head at him.

"Okay, ignore me; you're probably right I shouldn't mess with this." Remus stood up as quickly as he'd sat down.

Before Asteria could open her mouth to question him further, Sirius burst through the doors of the library and spotted them in an instant.

"What are you doing?" Sirius almost shouted, running towards them at breakneck speed.
"Just... Looking for a book." Remus shrugged, "Somebody's already taken it out though."

Sirius glanced between the two of them suspiciously, "Well... Alright then..."
"I should... Should go." Remus nodded quickly and dashed from the room as quickly as Sirius had arrived.

"Asteria, I need to-I should... I don't really... I need to ask you something." Sirius rambled, feeling speechless for one of the first times in his life.
"Seems like a lot of people do today." She smiled at him.

Sirius opened his mouth to question her but found himself still speechless. It was an unusual phenomenon for the boy who never failed to have an insult or joke on the tip of his tongue at all times. Yet here he stood in front of Asteria, completely speechless and unsure of what to do about it.

"Sirius? That question?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Right... Yeah, sorry." He shook his head.

Asteria was in a completely different boat to Sirius. Upon his arrival she had felt a sudden wave of confidence flood over her. For once in her life, she felt truly comfortable and safe in just his company. Therefore there wasn't a doubt in her mind as the words finally fell from her lips.

"Would you like to come to my house over Christmas?"

Sirius once again found himself speechless. After a moment, however, his ability to form coherent words had returned although somewhat shaken.

"W-what?"
"Well, my parents are inviting over this other family for a meal so they can introduce me to this boy. They really want me to go back into the muggle world after school ends and I think they want to set me up with him and then send me to a muggle university. I kind of need a charming friend to show them that wizards can be nice." Asteria admitted finally, feeling the weight get lifted off her shoulders was a huge relief.

Sirius started laughing, allowing his head to fall forwards and he continued to chuckle.

"What's so funny?"
"I was coming to ask you almost the exact same thing." He shrugged, finally sitting down at the table.
"What really?"

"My family is having this huge formal Christmas meal and they want me to take a girl to present to everyone. They're obsessed with everything pureblood and have hated me since I was sorted into Gryffindor and not Slytherin. I mean you're in Slytherin, which they'll like, but are a muggle born, which will show them up. It'd just be really great to get revenge on them for all the horrible things they say and do. So... I kind of need a fake girlfriend." Sirius explained truthfully.

Suddenly, everything Remus had said made perfect sense to Asteria.

"Okay, we both do each other a favour." She nodded.
"Deal?" Sirius held out his hand.
"Deal." The two shook on it.