Coming Together ༄ Sirius Black

Chapter Forty Five

The strawberries positioned immaculately in the centre of her plate almost appeared too perfect. So far, Asteria hadn't encountered a single problem that morning and it was only making her feel more nervous. If something didn't go wrong now, something was more than likely to go wrong later.

Asteria poked at her food. Despite her stomach rumbling she couldn't eat - if she ate she would most likely just be sick due to nerves.
She had been sat down at breakfast for half an hour now and it was still so early that there were only about ten other students actually in the hall.

Knowing Sirius would want to come down and see her before the morning, Asteria gathered her things and finally made her way outside. She had been avoiding all of the other Slytherins since the first day back at school as the news finally did the runs around all of the students.

Asteria Halloway was the new Slytherin Quidditch captain.

Sure, she was eternally grateful to Lily for persuading Slughorn into giving her a shot. However, she was starting to wonder whether or not it was actually the best decision. Walking down towards the quidditch pitch, Asteria was growing increasingly nervous. She didn't want to bump into any Slytherins and have them confront her about whether or not she'd used the Imperius Curse on Slughorn.

She stood before the quidditch pitch, simply staring up at the stands and the goal posts. Mentally preparing herself would take some time but she was interrupted by the noise of somebody approaching from behind.
"How come you're down here so early?" Asteria turned to see Sirius jogging towards her.
"I woke up early just to see you at breakfast but you weren't there." He replied, adjusting the broom he held under his arm.

Asteria eyed the boy up and down, "Why have you brought your broom?" She asked slowly.

Sirius grinned as though he'd been waiting all day for her to ask that question. "Originally I was going to buy you a broom over summer to celebrate you becoming captain and all but I'm kind of scraped for money at the moment. Then, I was going to surprise you at breakfast by letting you use my broom but you weren't there. Anyway, my broom is better than the school ones so I figured you could borrow it for the tryouts so you can impress everyone." He held it out towards her, keeping his gaze fixated on the broom itself, nervous of Asteria's reaction.

Asteria opened her mouth in shock, completely dumbfounded as to what to say or do. "Sirius..." Was all she could get out before she decided she could only really express herself through the form of an embrace.

Sirius was knocked back, almost dropping his broom and toppling to the floor as Asteria wrapped her arms around his neck and burying her face in his hair.
"A 'thanks' would have sufficed too." He muttered.

Asteria giggled as she leant in and kissed him.
"I changed my mind, you can do that any time." Sirius smirked happily.

"Sirius, you're not going to watch the practice are you?" She asked tentatively, taking a step backwards, Sirius' broom now firmly in her hands.
Sirius flashed yet another grin, "And this is why I'm the single smartest person on the planet - apart from when you wiped the floor with me in the O.W.L.s." He trailed off for a second, "I have this." He unbuttoned the top of his cloak and pulled out a Slytherin scarf.

She nearly choked on her own breath upon seeing Sirius Black sporting anything other than red and gold. "Where on earth did you get that? Why? Has hell frozen over?"

Sirius laughed, "I got it from a first year."
Asteria raised her eyebrows skeptically, "I swear, if you hexed anyone-"
"No!" Sirius interjected, "I just asked him for it and he handed it over. I mean, he did look a little like he was going to wet himself but that wasn't really my fault."

"So you'll give it back after?"
"You know, I think I look good in green."
"Sirius."
"Yes, I'll give it back."

Asteria peered past Sirius to see a few students walking down from the castle towards the quidditch grounds. "Why are you wearing it though? Don't you hate everything Slytherin?"
"Technicalities." He shrugged, "I don't hate everything Slytherin. You've taught me that much. I'm wearing it to support you and nobody will recognise I'm a Gryffindor when I'm all the way down in the seats wearing green and silver."

She caught on now, "So no trouble will be cashed for either of us."
"Exactly."

"You really are the best. You know that?" Asteria grinned at him.
"I did know that." He nodded.

"You sure know how to spoil a moment too. Did you know that?" Asteria swatted his nose playfully.
Sirius caught her hand, "You love it."

Before they could continue their conversation, or at least formally part ways, they were interrupted by a loud yell.

"Halloway! Fancy seeing you here!"

Asteria pulled her hand back to her side and looked past Sirius to see Avery strutting towards her, followed by Mulciber, and Regulus Black.

"I'll say-"
"Just go and take a seat." Asteria hushed Sirius, moving so he could pass her without being identified by the other Slytherins.

"It's almost like I was meant to be here." Asteria replied to Avery, "Almost like I'm the captain and I'm in charge of practice..."

Avery stood before Asteria, smirking smugly, "You know I heard about what happened to your precious book last year. Karma's a bitch. Wouldn't want to make someone miss out on the team and cause yourself more bad luck, would you?"

Asteria was all too aware of what Avery was implying. Whilst he wasn't truthfully terrible at quidditch, there were a lot of players that were an awful lot better than him. Although, this encounter with Avery did mean Asteria didn't have to face Regulus. Not yet, anyway. The boy stood a little distance away, staring so coldly at the girl she felt like she might freeze if she held his gaze for too long. There was no denying Regulus would make it on the team, his seeker skills outmatched anyone else's in the school, which only meant he'd be spending more time than ever around Asteria that year at school.

"Why don't you just focus on not falling off your broom and let me decide who makes the team." Asteria spun around on her heels and pushed through the doors to enter the quidditch pitch.

Avery grunted, muttering disapprovingly to Mulciber as the three boys followed her out into the centre of the pitch. More Slytherin students slowly started to arrive and quite a few were sat in the stands. Asteria spied Sirius sat a fair distance from any other student as he watched the events unfold on the ground.

"So what's the plan?" Regulus folded his arms as it appeared all of the students looking to try out had finally arrived.

Asteria kept her gaze focused on the other students, all clutching their brooms and shaking somewhat in the cold, "You're going to split into two teams and play a match. If you're on the winning team, you're more likely to be picked for the actual team. Although if you're not pulling your weight, I'll notice. Got it?" She glanced around at everyone.

Although non of the students looked too pleased to be listening to and obeying a muggle born, they had no choice. In Slytherin, there was simply no other option than winning the season, and the House Cup at the end of the year.

Regulus strode past her, "See you've got a new broom. Same as mine. Maybe you won't be so terrible this year." He spoke quietly, looking elsewhere.

"It's your brother's broom." Asteria explained simply before mounting the broom and kicking off from the ground in quick succession.

Regulus froze on the ground, taking in Asteria's words as they shocked him. He was still fuming over the occurrences of the summer and that there still seemed to be no sign of hope for his brother returning home. However, Regulus was beginning to see that perhaps Asteria wasn't the root of the problem after all.