She Said What?

Chapter 44: I Come to a Crossroad

A/N: This took a while, I know, I know, but I've got it here now, shined up and ready for your scrutiny after its third rewrite. I'm still positive it's not good enough for you, but it's as good as I can get it and that's all you have.

And by the way – just because L/J are about to get together, doesn't mean their story is over. I don't want to make either character boring because they're in a relationship. I'm not into Foreteen-type writing (a metaphor that only makes sense if you're a fellow House fan).

You know this drill – read, enjoy, review, preferably in that order.

And a special thanks to my epic winner Niki, for looking this over for me once to make sure I didn't present you with complete and utter shit, like usual.

Cheers.

February 23

8:00 PM
Status: ...

I'm not going to lead into it. I'm not going to even attempt to properly explain how I'm feeling – out-of-breath, exhilarated, panicking, my heartbeat off the charts, adrenaline coursing through my veins. I'm just going to write everything down, with every single excruciating detail, and see how I feel when I've relived the experience one more time. It's one of those things where you kind of need to go through it again, just to make sure that yes, it really happened, and no, I'm not going completely mad, although the idea is debatable.

So...how it happened. Uncensored, unrated. Just the story for everything it was.

It all went down nearer to the end of our patrol. James and I were walking through the corridors together, as usual, and we were talking, also as usual. On this particular night, the subject had turned to my two favorite things – love and appearances.

Thankfully, I hadn't chosen/initiated this topic. James brought it on himself.

We had originally been talking been talking about Quidditch, and how the team was shaping up extremely well for their upcoming match on the twelfth of March. However, the conversation was quickly diminished because I had a very dim knowledge of Quidditch that couldn't stand up to someone like James, who lived and breathed it.

So of course we fell into our thoughtful silence, pondering what to say next, and James was the one to remark, "Sirius broke up with Gabrielle today."

"Really?" I asked politely. But, in all honesty, I didn't know who Gabrielle was and had no idea Sirius was dating her.

He picked up on that. "Yeah," he said. "You know, Gabrielle – the girl Sirius took out on Valentine's Day?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I said, suddenly remembering her name, face, and status. "Sorry...I always forget who's going out with whom. It changes all the time and I'm too busy to keep track of it anyway."

"Well, I mean, normally I don't get too involved with it, but in this case, as it directly refers to my best friend, I kind of know about it," said James, grinning. "And it's probably the only interesting thing going on in my life, besides homework and Quidditch."

"I know what you mean," I said, referring to the latter half of his dialogue. "So tell me. Why did Sirius break up with Gabrielle? I thought they were really into each other."

"That's what I thought too," he said, "but apparently not. They had a bit of a row this morning, because they were going to go for breakfast and Gabrielle just wanted to snog. Sirius said no and she told him she didn't feel close enough to him. She said he ignored her."

"Was the claim justified?" I asked.

"Kind of," said James, "but you have to understand, right from the get go, that you're dealing with a force of nature when you deal with Sirius. He's a great guy, really passionate, but he has his own way of doing things, and he won't want to bend too far for you if you can't handle it. Gabrielle was pushing those boundaries. She favored clingy romance over practical affection. Sirius just isn't into that."