Sin With a Grin Chapter 1
Author: alassante
Characters: Sirius, OFC, Remus, James,
Pairing: Sirius/OFC, James/Lily
Rating: R (for now but it might go up - this chapter is PG)
Warnings: none for this chapter
Disclaimer: I know nothing - JK Rowling owns it all.
Before Lord Voldomort ruined his life, Sirius Black enjoyed his best years at Hogwarts. In his final year, a fellow student manages to turn things up side down for him but he has no complaints.
Chapter 1
I Never Noticed, Until I Focused
A/N Thanks sooo much to Eira for beta'ing this for me and offering support and advice since this is my first Harry Potter fic. Please be kind. I tried not to break any canon but I don't know my HP canon as well as I do LOTR canon.
The name of this fic as well as the chapter titles are courtesy of Shinedown's song Sin with a Grin which always reminded me of Sirius.
~*~
Sirius had thought she was perfect from the first time he saw her-a perfect hag that is. It was Alexia’s first year at Hogwarts and she looked remarkably like a boy: short black hair self-cut raggedly hanging in her face, tall and lanky with no curves to speak of, hand-me-down robes. Sirius barely thought twice about her when she was sorted into his house. He was a second year and settled in quite well with his crowd not to mention the fact he was a Black, one of the wizard purebloods. By her third year, she had made chaser on Gryffindor’s quidditch team. James, his best friend and the other chaser for the team, told Sirius she was brilliant but Sirius was still unimpressed. Not that she cared what he thought. Alexia was well known for not giving a damn what anyone thought.
When they returned during Sirius’ seventh year, he, and practically every other bloke, was flabbergasted when an exotically beautiful girl got on the train. Her long, dark hair and green eyes seemed vaguely familiar to him.
“Hi James,” she said with a smile. “Ready for another winning year?”
James stared at her for a moment before answering. “Alexia? Bloody hell! You changed over the summer.” Lily cut her eyes at him before smiling at Alexia, who had turned a subtle shade of pink.
Raising an eyebrow, Sirius’ eyes drifted from her face down and he bit back a whistle. Someone had filled out their figure finally and had curves in all the right places now. When he returned to look at her face he realized she had caught his appraisal and didn’t appear to appreciate it.
“Can I help you?” Alexia snapped.
“Depends…” Sirius grinned. “What are you offering?”
“I’m surprised you’d even consider it. My mother’s a blood traitor. The high and mighty Black family looks down on my family or hasn’t your mother told you?” Turning her back, Alexia moved to exit the cabin when she heard Sirius’ comment.
“Don’t feel bad. She’s called me worse since she disowned me.”
Alexia paused in the doorway, looking down the hall. Some boys from Slytherin were in the walkway and she had two choices, going back into the cabin and sitting down or squeezing past the hated Slytherins. Choosing the least repulsive option, Alexia quickly moved to sit by Remus rather than the vacant seat beside Sirius.
“How did you do on your OWLs?” Remus asked her and she smiled at him gratefully for rescuing her from having to talk to Sirius, who now was smirking at her triumphantly.
~*~
For the first time in six years, Alexia was beginning to hate being back at Hogwarts. Where before she was able to blend into the background and just do her own thing, now everyone seemed to notice her. Apparently, having breasts entitled all of the males she encountered to be mentally deficient. Some of the guys on the team even started taking the piss out of her and asking if she could still play with those two quaffles on her chest. She had already gotten detention for performing langlock on Samuel and his brother Alex, the two beaters. James had really been upset when she performed the furnunculus jinx on three guys from Slytherin house and could not play in their first Quidditch game of the year.
All the while, she had to endure those looks from Sirirus: you know, those looks; partially mocking, partially flirting, totally enjoying the fact she was uncomfortable by all of the attention she was getting. So needless to say, she was less than thrilled when Professor McGonagall insisted she work with Sirius for Transfiguration. Lily was already helping him in Potions. Why couldn’t one of his friends help him? Remus was better at Transfiguration than she was but Professor McGonagall had told her in a manner that did not allow questioning.
Thanks to Professor McGonagall, Alexia was sitting up in the empty common room long past the time she normally went to bed to help one of the biggest gits in the entire school.
“Are you really that thick or are you being the prat I always knew you were?” she snapped when once again Sirius transformed a book into a frying pan instead of transforming the text in the book from English to French. It was a simple enough spell but he had tried throughout the hour with no success.
“Why do you hate me so much?” Sirius set down his wand and leaned back on the two back legs of his chair.
Wishing he would fall flat on his back and mentally restraining herself from pushing him, Alexia sighed. “Sirius, it’s late and I’m knackered. Will you stop being such a wanker and do the spell right?”
Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned back further, his dark eyes studying her. “You know…some women disguise their fancy for a bloke with hostility?”
Alexia laughed out loud for a few minutes before glancing over at him and replying, “Are you serious? You honestly think I secretly fancy you?”
“Yes. Yes, I do,” he answered with a grin. “And who could blame you? Most women find it hard to resist my charm and…”
“I am neither most women or unable to resist your charm. If I wasn’t forced to spend time with you, I wouldn’t. You’re rude, arrogant, and quite daft. There isn’t much to be overly impressed with, I assure you.”
Flipping her long hair back over her shoulder, Alexia’s face was the picture of aloof detachment but she worried her eyes reflected feelings she couldn’t control. Passion? Anger? Such a fine line between the two and it did seem to her that he made her more angry than he should considering that he was no more arrogant than a lot of the boys at Hogwarts. He just made her so…so…ugh, she didn’t know what he made her feel but she did not like it and wished she could stop these tutoring sessions right now. They had a staring matching for a few minutes, with him smiling and her making no facial expression at all.
Falling forward, his chair legs hit the floor hard before Sirius stood up. Looking up at him, she sputtered, “You can’t leave. You’re not done and I didn’t stay up this late just for you to not learn the lesson so I have to explain myself to Professor McGonagall!”
With a quick flourish of his wand at the book, Sirius grinned as he took a few steps toward the doorway. Alexia looked at the book and found the text had been transformed perfectly to French. She growled and cut her eyes at him but before she could speak, he waved his wand again. The scroll in her hand changed to a blood red rose, the bud opening as she watched it.
“Goodnight Alexia. It was a pleasure, I assure you.”
Before she could answer him, he had run up the stairs to the boy’s dormitory. Alexia stared at the rose for a long time before picking up her things and going to bed. She tossed and turned for hours, troubled about their encounter. What if he was right? The thought of being one of the gaggle of Sirius’ admirers made her ill. Obviously he did not really need help in Transfiguration so she would just talk to Professor McGonagall and explain the situation.
~*~
The following day, as Sirius expected, Alexia went far out of her way to avoid him. He saw her talking to Professor McGonagall animatedly, no doubt trying to avoid any more tutoring sessions, apparently to no avail judging from the scathing look she gave him as she pushed past him to sit in the back of the class.
Sirius didn’t understand why she detested him but the challenge only pushed him more. He would continue to look like a git in Transfiguration for as long as it took to convince her that he was irresistible. Maybe then, he could get over this obsessive need to get her attention and win her affection. He ignored other girls now; too easy, no fun in the pursuit. Lily and James had told him that he might as well give up because Alexia would never be interested and Sirius highly suspected there was a bet between James, Remus, and Peter on whether or not he would succeed.
Stretching out his long legs, he tried not to fall asleep in class. He thought it amusing that he had a tutor for Transfiguration. Little did the professor know that it was a class he could excel in if he wanted to. Acting like a total pillock on the subject just made the truth seem less likely.
Alexia stared into space so he turned around and watched without her noticing him. When she began to lightly chew on her lower lip, he felt a surge of heat flood through him and he shifted uncomfortably. She caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and their gaze met. He wondered if she knew Legilimency because she soon blushed and looked away as if she could read his mind.
“Mr. Black, perhaps you can answer the question?” Professor McGonagall said sharply and he jerked around to look at her blankly. When he did not answer, his classmates giggled. “You might not need a tutor if you paid attention in class Mr. Black. Five points from Gryffindor!”
Groaning under his breath at the glares he was receiving from some of his housemates, Sirius tried to focus on the rest of the class. He could not get the image of Alexia chewing on her lip out of his head though. Until now he had not noticed how tempting her mouth could be.
~*~
“Alexia!” Sirius called her for the second time and she knew that she couldn’t pretend she hadn’t heard him since he was close behind her.
Stopping abruptly, she turned around just as he crashed into her, knocking them both to the floor and sending their books flying. Alexia had misjudged how close he was, apparently. Shooting contemptuous looks in his directions, she tried to gather up her books quickly.
“What do you want Sirius?” she asked, and tried to jerk her Runes book out of the hand he held out for her. When he wouldn’t release it, she pulled harder. “That’s mine!”
“Say please.”
“Keep it. I would rather go into the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night than say please to you,” she shot back, releasing the book.
“Is that an invitation?” he grinned, tossing the book on her pile. When she started to answer him, he held up his hand quickly. “Speaking of invitations, there’s a Hogsmeade trip this Saturday. I thought maybe you and I could practice there instead of the common room.”
Alexia was taken aback and said nothing as he stood up and held his hand out for her. “Well…I suppose we could…I mean to study and everything…but not…” she stammered.
“I’m not inviting you to snog in the corner so don’t act so panicked.” Sirius grinned. She was starting to hate his mocking grin.
“Good because that won’t be happening. Ever!” Turning on her heel, she stormed away. Over the crowd she heard him call out to her.
“I wouldn’t be so positive about that Alex. You’re starting to fancy me, I can tell.”
“Sod off!” she yelled back.
TBC....
Curses and jinxes:
furnunculus - causes boils to break out on victim
langlock - glues target's tongue to roof of their mouth