"You know.." she whispered, softly, her hands toying with his Gryffindor tie. Sirius gulped at their closeness. Since when did he get breathless by her mere presence? "..I could pop your cherry.." She pulled him by the tie. Her mouth was next to his ear and he fought the urge to lean in.

This was Kelpie Jones for the love of Godric! He wondered if she could feel his thumping heartbeat. "..it's only fair since you stole my first kiss.."

"Okay," Sirius didn't recognize his own voice. It was raspy and riddled with craving. A small part of him realised that he had perhaps been waiting for this moment since winter almost two years ago: a craving to taste her lips again. Their eyes met and he saw her smirk.

Determined, she pulled him even closer and slipped out a tongue to wet her lips. Sirius mimicked the action subconsciously. She closed her eyes and brought her lips within inches of his. He brought a hand up, brushing a strand of hair from her face, and cupped it. He tilted his head forward..

"Padfoot!" a voice hissed. Suddenly, Sirius Black felt something hard hit the back of his head and he jerked up. His eyes shot open. He was sitting on the grass next to Moony who held the Monster Book of Monsters Volume 4 in his hand. Probably what he had hit him with based on his pain.

Remus silently signaled him to pay attention to Professor Kettleburn who was sending them displeased looks from a distance. Catching the young student's eye, the Professor let out a huff and continued lecturing.

"What was that about?" Moony whispered when the Professor was no longer paying attention to them.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean why were you making kissy faces in the air?" Sirius was happy that he wasn't someone who blushed easily. "It was disturbing, really."

"I was not!" Sirius shot back, returning his attention to the class.

"With our review of Ghouls out of the way. We shall now do a quick session on Kelpies.." The professor animatedly pointed to the Black Lake behind him.

Sirius groaned. Great just what he needed. More reminders of her.

As if remembering that Jones too was in the class as well, he looked around to see her sitting a few feet ahead of him next to Marlene and Astrid with her back to him. She leaned over to whisper something to Marlene who giggled, bringing a hand up to her face to muffle the sound. The two of them looked to the right to see Frank and Alice inconspicuously holding hands where they sat.

While the professor went on about Kelpies, Sirius found his gaze falling on the namesake's back.

My spidey senses are tingling, Kelsey thought. Feeling the hair on the back of her neck rise, she slowly swiveled to see Sirius Black staring at her vacantly. When she caught his eye, he wagged his eyebrows and then at the Lake ahead of them mouthing 'Missing home?'

She flipped him off and stuck her tongue out at him much like she had on their first day at Hogwarts, and turned back. His gaze remained transfixed on her tongue. The same tongue that he had seen wet her lips a few minutes ago in his dream.

That was the first time since their detention that he had acknowledged her presence.

Remus let out a heavy sigh next to him.

"What now?" Sirius asked annoyed. He knew that the werewolf probably had something to comment on. He had been vocal about how Sirius had been avoiding her for a few days now.

"Nothing," his friend smiled secretively as if he knew something.

ϟ

"Potter."

Prongs jumped at the sudden intrusion into the Marauders' early morning breakfast that Friday.

"Evans," he welcomed her, his lips quirking a little to the right. If Sirius didn't know any better, he would have thought he saw Evans hold back a smile herself.

"Tonight at 8," Evans said crisply.

"What?" Their mate looked confused.

"The patrol reports Potter. Weren't you listening?" she sounded annoyed.

"Can't we just do it tomorrow morning?" Prongs protested.

"No. I'll be in Hogsmeade," she stated.

"Right," he muttered to himself, a dark look passing over him.

"Sorry, did you say something?" she asked.

"N-nothing Lilypad," he fumbled a bit. "I just said Right! See you there. At 8 that is. Library?" he rambled on.

Lily Evans had to bite her lip to painfully keep herself from smiling. Potter looked sort of hilarious when he was stammering. Before he could embarrass himself further, she walked away. Wormtail offered him a sympathetic smile.

"Err- so talking about Hogsmeade, are we still on for tomorrow?" Sirius asked, confirming their mission to figure out who this bloke was that had Lily agreeing to a date.

"Heck yeah!" James said watching Lily walk away. "You know I've been really good this year," he sighed.

"Are we counting the Jones magazine fiasco?" Remus brought up.

"Nah. She cornered me after class a few days later and demanded I buy her this new comic about some bloke called Superman. That or she'd tell Lily I helped Padfoot with that Adult-themed prank," James shuddered.

"I wonder what Dear Lily would say about Potter looking at topless photographs of witches. And to think you were supposed to have been in love with her," Prongs said, mimicking his best Kelpie Jones voice as he recounted the rest of her threat. The others couldn't help themselves from snickering.

"IS THAT A LOVE LETTER?!" Marlene's cry was loud enough for half the Gryffindor table to hear. All four boys snapped their attention to where it was needed immediately.

Sirius observed Marlene and Mary hovering over a letter in Jones' hand and his instant gut feeling was one of annoyance. Who the hell was writing Jones a love letter?

"Our Kelsey has a lover!" Mary clapped her hands.

"Stop it!" Jones tried to keep the letter out of reach. "If you must know," Jones started. "It's just Benji."

"Ugh. Please no. My virgin ears. Keep it in the bedroom!" Mary dramatically covered them, attempting to them block out.

Was she still in touch with him? Sirius eyed the parchment in Jones' hand.

"Oh my god!" Kelsey shrieked, embarrassed. "Can you like not! I had just written to him about some NEWT advice. You know, to help me study?" she drawled. "Something you two should be doing too."

As if Jones didn't spend her free time brainstorming prank ideas. Thankfully, her latest one didn't need much preparation. Just her wits and womanly er- charms.

"So that's what you kids call it nowadays," Marlene winked at Jones who rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I bet he'd love to study something else a little more," Sirius grumbled under his breath as Jones now started blushing against her will.

"I didn't even know you still liked him," Mary thought out loud.

"I don't!" she denied. "We just keep in touch."

"'Course. That pedo probably wants to touch-" Sirius' disapproval was cut short by James.

"That's it, let's go. Padfoot, you either need to make a move or stop bitching!" He grabbed him by the collar and dragged him off. The other two boys followed.

"Make a move on what?" The three boys just shook their heads silently. "On what?!" Sirius' voice echoed down the hall.

ϟ

"Moony," Sirius said while tossing a Snitch replica up in the air as he lay on his bed in the dorm. It was the night before the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. His mood had improved considerably throughout the day when he had managed to coyly entice a seventh-year for a quick snog session. Despite his recent closet shenanigans, he found his thoughts coming back to his confusing reaction to Jones.

"Yes, Pads," Remus replied, already preparing himself for the question that was about to come.

This was it. Sirius Black had finally realised it. If it were up to Prongs, they would have told him two years ago. But Remus insisted that their friend needed to figure it out on his own. Remus had watched him for the last two days sighing in deep thought. All he had to do was be the supportive best friend as Padfoot divulged his true feelings.

"What's a V-Card?"

"A what?" That was not what Remus had expected.

"A V-card," Sirius stated.

"Sounds American," he started carefully. "Is this about Jones?" he asked, trying to sound disinterested.

"She said something about taking my V-Card and popping a cherry?"

"It sounds metaphorical. I could ask Astrid if you want?" he offered.

"Nevermind. I'll figure it out eventually," he tried to play it off coolly.

"Did something happen? You've been avoiding her.."

Sirius paused, catching the Snitch. His mind wandered back to the feel of her hands tugging his red and gold tie.

Feelings, he decided could be treacherous. One day you were on your merry way to hating someone and the next, you felt all giddy. One day your little brother looked up to you as if you were his whole world and the next, he hated your guts for existing.

Jones was just the latest addition to his growing pile of turmoil. Since Day One, he had watched her avidly, pranking her, teasing her. Her ability to almost get back at him every time was what kept drawing him back. He didn't know why he felt this tug to demand her attention. He felt a stupid smile threatening to make its way onto his face as he thought of the time he had managed to throw a snowball at her cute teddy bear covered butt and the satisfaction of stopping her from snogging the stupid Macdonald git.

Feelings he decided, as he found a small part of himself wanting to recreate his kiss with her, could be treacherous indeed.

ϟ

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