"Are you sure about this?" Astrid eyed Kelsey nervously as they stood in their dorm getting ready for the first day of their seventh year.

The other girls in their dorm ignored them as always. In the last six years, Kelsey and Astrid, and the other three girls had come to an unspoken understanding of staying out of each other's way. It was either that or the fact that they were low-key scared of Kelsey, as Astrid suspected.

"Yes," Kelsey sounded determined as she fixed her tie and put on her robes.

"That you want to take on the Marauders?" Astrid clarified.

"Just the one," Kelsey smoothed down her skirt and grabbed her bag.

"They're kind of a packaged deal you know? You can't still be mad about the-"

"He threw a snowball at my bare knicker covered butt!"

"That's not exactly bare-"

"Benji didn't speak to me for a week!"

"You said the kiss didn't feel right-"

"He stunned me! During night patrol. That mother beeper then had the audacity to run away!" Kelsey huffed as the girls walked down the dorm stairs.

"He got a week's detention and twenty points docked."

"He DYED my hair Red and Gold!"

"It's only one colour away from Hufflepuff. Golden is basically yellow. Anyway, it washed off.."

"After two weeks!"

"I guess."

"I can feel it Tatty! This is going to be our year."

"Could you not call me that. Also, don't include me in this. I don't want to fall on the wrong end of their pranks when yours go wrong," her best friend insisted.

"Oh ho ho. Sirius Black is going to rue the day he met me," Kelsey proclaimed as they entered the Hufflepuff common room. That loud, bold statement earned them a few wary looks from their fellow students just like it had on her first day, six years ago.

"Oh, dear. He created a monster," mused Astrid. "Please try and set a good example for the younger students?"

They left the common room and walked towards the Great Hall for breakfast and to pick up their timetables. They discussed their classes, with Kelsey wondering which ones they'd share with the Gryffindors.

"What if something goes wrong and you find yourself on the receiving end of even more embarrassing pranks?" Astrid asked as they sat at the table.

She shrugged, thinking over the six years of teasing she had put up with. Well not put up with exactly, she almost always managed to get herself in trouble when trying to retaliate. But not this year. Even if she did get in trouble this year, it was still worth the effort. Someone had to give them a taste of their own medicine. Kelsey looked around to make sure the four boys weren't around before continuing.

"This Hufflepuff doesn't give a Hufflefuc-"

"Language! Jones! There are virgin ears here." On cue, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin walked up to the two girls at the Hufflepuff table. It's as if they magically popped up out of nowhere.

Kelsey snorted, "Yeah. You."

A few students at the table choked on their pumpkin juice.

"She got you there mate," Remus patted him on the shoulders in solidarity.

"Well, don't tell them that!" Sirius shrugged Remus' hand off him. "Anyway, it would take a special lady to be my first. Position's open," He sent a wink at the girls around them making them giggle into their plates.

"Ew! You perv! They're fifth-years!" Kelsey exclaimed, making Sirius pale.

"What?! I thought they were sixth-years at least! I mean look at the tits on-" Sirius started and almost instantly earned himself a slap from one of the girls. Said random Hufflepuff got up and stormed away.

As always, Kelsey and Sirius started bantering, ignoring everyone and everything around them. Astrid and Remus sighed and rolled their eyes at each other, silently communicating how thick their best friends were.

"You think they know?" Astrid whispered to him.

"Doubt it."

"Should we tell them?"

"They'll figure it out. Sirius is almost there. He spent all summer thanking Merlin that Macdonald was gone for good. He couldn't fathom why though," Remus shook his head.

"She has a plan," Astrid sounded bored.

"So does he," Remus mentioned. He twiddled his thumbs, and a distant look came upon him as if considering something.

"Merlin's beard! Between James' master plan for Lily and whatever these two got going, this year's going to be a doozy!"

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"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," Kelsey winked at Astrid.

"Gross," Astrid scrunched up her nose but handed her the timetable anyway. She looked over the NEWTs her best friend was taking.

Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies, Transfiguration, Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Everything Kelsey needed to qualify to work in the Muggle Relationships department at the Ministry. Still close to her muggle roots, Kelsey couldn't imagine a better-suited position for her. She wanted to be a liaison or ambassador of sorts.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday:

Potions, Muggle Studies, Lunch, Double Defence Against the Dark Art, Study Hour

Tuesday, Thursday:

Double Transfiguration, Study Hour, Lunch, Double Care of Magical Creatures, Double Charms

Kelsey had Potions, Transfiguration, and DADA with the Gryffindors. Because these were NEWT level classes, not everyone in their seventh year took the subjects they started out with. She had dropped Herbology. She had Charms with the Ravenclaws and Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies with a mix of students from other houses because of the low numbers.

"Potter, give it back!" The two girls turned to see Lily jumping to grab her timetable from Potter's hands, who kept tugging it out of reach, in the middle of the corridor.

"NEWT level Potions? Bloody brilliant! Me too Lilypad!" James shouted.

"I'm not taking it to be with you, Potter! I need it to become an apprentice at a Potions Apothecary in Diagon Alley," she announced crossing her arms, having given up attempts to grab it back. Students rushed around them trying to get to class.

James, Lily, Kelsey and some Prefects were standing in the corridor outside the Great Hall to help guide lost first years.

"That's if you're still alive in a year, mudblood," spat a Slytherin, shoving roughly into Lily's shoulder, making her frown. Kelsey turned to look at the scene. James stood there with her timetable still in his hand, fisting his other tightly.

"That includes you too." snickered another, bringing his attention to Kelsey. "You're my traitor of a brother's little girlfriend, aren't you? He's always sniffing around you," Kelsey recognised him as Regulus. He looked at Kelsey, a few feet away, with cold eyes. A younger-looking Sirius with more pronounced hatred in his eyes. Her stomach dropped a little.

"That little shit," she heard a familiar voice mumble behind her. She turned to see Sirius pulling his wand out of his robes and marching over to his younger brother.

SMACK!

Before Sirius had made it, James had sucker-punched the other seventh year in the face, Avery something, with his bare fists.

"James! You're Head Boy!" Lily was horrified yet grateful on the inside. Although she would never admit it for fear of inflating his already giant ego.

"Yeah! Did you see how I got his head good?"

"You can't hit people!"

"Wait a minute- You called me James!"

"Let's just go!" Lily grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away in the direction of their first class. They were gone before the two Slytherins could retaliate.

"Us too," mumbled Sirius gripping Kelsey's robes and dragged her in the opposite direction. She tried to protest and stop him because their class was in the other direction with James and Lily. But he held her hand tightly in his, she looked at him stoic and lips pressed thinly into a line.

Kelsey figured they could take the long way to Potions for once.

ϟ

"He wasn't always like this," Sirius said sometime later. The pair had almost reached the Potions classroom.

"No?" Kelsey asked.

"When we were nine and eight, we held Quidditch matches with our cousins- Andromeda, Cissy and Bella," he said. "They'd tease him for being short- well Cissy and Bella would. He'd come crying to me, scared to complain to mum. Then I'd 'accidentally' slip some pustule potions in their cereal," Sirius smiled to himself wistfully.

"Sounds like them," Kelsey gave him a sad smile. She briefly remembered the older Black cousins.

"But now he's right under their wing. And I couldn't stop it," he muttered angrily.

"It's not your fault," she told him. He clearly still cared about Regulus on some level. He still had hope for him. How could he not?

"This stuff is so ingrained in our upbringing it's revolting," he said with a dark look.

"But you're not like them. Wait- you don't still live at home do you?" she wondered in horror. What if that had just given his family ammunition to hurt him at home. She didn't know that for the last six years, it almost had.

"Nah," he said looking at her. "I ran away to James' place a while back," he said nonchalantly.

She let out a sigh of relief.

"Were you worried about me Jones?" he asked with a small grin. They turned into the corridor, leading up to the classroom.

"No..I was just thinking of how ball-sy that was," she admitted.

"Why thank you, Jones. I do quite have the nicest pair of-"

"Aaand the moment's gone," she said right as they arrived at the classroom. They were late and also the last ones there. That detour had cost them five minutes. Professor Slughorn gave them a disgruntled look and beckoned them over to their respective tables.

"Don't worry. I'll make time for more of these heart to hearts," Sirius said, giving her one last wink before joining James, Remus, and Dorcas at one of the Gryffindor tables. Like one time in that winter of their fifth year, Kelsey's stomach fluttered.

Sirius Black was an enigma.

"You left me!" Astrid complained.

"Sorry! Sirius kinda dragged me away. Probably to stop himself from punching his dick of a brother," Kelsey explained putting her books down. Taking her textbook out, she paused and frowned. Would he have fought his own brother for her? Even Snape abandoned Lily, and they had been best friends. Regulus was his flesh and blood.

"So it's Sirius now is it? Whatever happened to staunchly calling him Black," Astrid gave her a sly grin.

"Shut up," Kelsey said, glancing at their table across the room.

Sirius seemed to be sitting lazily sprawled across the table. He leaned over to Dorcas to whisper something in her ear. She blushed and got up to fetch ingredients.

A small pang of annoyance flickered through Kelsey.

Sirius Black was incorrigible.

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