Coming Together ༄ Sirius Black

Chapter Thirty One

Asteria clutched the tattered broomstick under her arm as she watched, unamused at the sight of Sirius twirling his own expensive broom around between his fingers.

They stood out on the quidditch pitch, early one morning. It had been two days since James had first confronted Sirius and the two hadn't spoken since.

"This is meant to be fun, what's up with you?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder to look over at her.

"You haven't spoken to James yet." Asteria replied bluntly.
"I so have." Sirius nodded, despite Asteria not buying his lies for a second.
"No you haven't. Otherwise I'm almost certain he'd be down here with us." She pointed out, "Third wheeling."

Sirius sighed and put his broomstick down, "Okay... I did tell him but he wasn't listening so technically I wasn't lying."
"Did you tell him though?" Asteria raised an eyebrow sceptically.

"So... I might have forgotten to tell him." Sirius shrugged.
"Forgot?"

"Dear god woman do you read minds?" Sirius exclaimed exasperatedly.

"You didn't tell him?"
"No. We haven't spoken to each other since the argument." He admitted.

Asteria grumbled under her breath, "Why are you so stubborn? What's the matter with just telling him the truth about us?"

"It's nothing to do with you, don't worry." Sirius ran his hands up and down Asteria's arms.
"Well I didn't think it was anything to do with me until now!" Asteria widened her eyes.
"Well good, it's not. Just, he should have asked. If he had such a problem he should have just asked, it's not my fault he didn't. Why should I have to chase round after him?" Sirius mumbled, holding her hands.

Asteria sighed, "I really don't want to get involved but Lily is really pushing this whole idea that-"
"Well let's drop it then? Yeah? We came here to fly about so let's do that. I promise, I'll deal with it later and get Lily off your back." Sirius untucked his broom from under his arm and gestures towards the empty pitch.

"Okay, if you're that desperate to lose to a girl. And a girl that's not even on a quidditch team." Asteria smirked smugly, mounting her broom as Sirius copied her actions.

"First one to catch it wins?" Sirius threw the snitch up into the air and and caught it with his other hand whilst hovering in the air.
"Alright, no need to show off." Asteria scoffed, "Stop wasting time."

Sirius flashed her his signature smirk before tossing the snitch up into the air and allowing it to zip off into the sky. He sure had a way of wiggling out of uncomfortable situations and challenging conversations.

Asteria pursed her lips, watching as Sirius remained hovering just above the ground. She watched as his hair flew about his face and the way his eyes followed the small golden ball darting about above their heads.

"You're on." She laughed before leaning forwards on the broom and darted up into the sky.

Truth was, Sirius was in dire need of a distraction. Sirius and James had fallen out twice before and it each time it just got harder to deal with. He could barely think without his head feeling like it was going to explode. Even though Asteria didn't know what to do, he was thankful she was there. Remus and Peter were useless, both preferring to avoid the two of them until the conflict was resolved rather than attempt to talk some sense into them.

Asteria didn't want to intervene, but she also couldn't stand aside and let Sirius' stubbornness be the root of their fall out. She didn't want to be the one to blame and didn't know how to go about fixing it. For the time being Asteria was thankful to keep Sirius happy for a few hours, even if he was tearing himself up underneath.

"I've got it! I got it!" Asteria shrieked with joy, curling her fingers around the snitch. She dug her nails into the palm of her hand to check that is was actually real and happening.

"Well that's just unfair. Firstly, you got a head start. Secondly, I'm a Beater. Thirdly, I wasn't even anywhere near." Sirius grumbled as they returned to the ground.

The two of them had been flying about for several hours and lunch back up in the castle was coming to an end.

"I don't think the third one is actually an excuse." Asteria pointed out, holding the snitch between her forefinger and thumb to show it to Sirius.
"Well done anyway... I guess." He shrugged, snatching the ball from her grasp.

"Sirius!" She complained, trying to grab it from him, but he held it high above his head and out of her reach.

"Maybe if you say the magic word?" He chuckled, watching her jump up to try and get at the snitch.

Suddenly Asteria stopped jumping and stared right past Sirius, towards the changing rooms.

"Ria?" He asked, Asteria gripped his jumper in her hand as Sirius turned his head to see who was waking out onto the pitch.

James Potter strode out onto the grass with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team behind him. He had originally been wearing a rather smug expression, but upon seeing Sirius instantly frowned.

It was like betrayal, for James. His best friend, his brother, had practically abandoned him for some girl that had only been in their lives for the past few months. Asteria had never cast Sirius a second look before this school year and now she was stealing Sirius away from him. Honestly, he wasn't actually angry at Asteria. It's just a lot easier to be mad at a Slytherin than one of the few people you trust everything with.

"James." Asteria greeted with a warm smile.
"James." Sirius nodded curtly.

"Oh, so he speaks." James rolled his eyes.

He knew he was being petty but he couldn't help it.

"Listen, mate, I do actually..." Sirius trailed off awkwardly.
Asteria elbowed him in the side and this urged him to continue, "I do actually need to talk to you about something." Sirius finished.

"Well I have quidditch practice." James explained, gesturing to the rest of the team that stood behind him.
"Why didn't I know? I am on the team." Sirius replied slowly.
"Guess you missed the message." James shrugged.

"Mate, come on. Let me explain everything... In private. Just us? Yeah?" Sirius stepped forward, towards James.
James cast a look over his shoulder at the other Gryffindors, before sighing and turning back to face Sirius.

"Alright, fine."

Asteria bit on her bottom lip nervously as Sirius and James walked under the stands to talk privately. The rest of the quidditch team stood in silence, each member glaring at Asteria. She knew Slytherins were the enemy but surely they didn't expect her to relay their tactics back to Emma Vanity, did they?

"Guess you guys don't want to race me to catch the snitch?" Asteria joked awkwardly.