Flirting with Mischief

Morning dawned without much of a ceremony; it was quite possibly the most routine sunrise anyone could ask for. Only a few people were up and about at that time of six o'clock, all of them bearing the same dismal, half-asleep look on their faces, and only a few of them shivering in their thick woolen coats.
The sound of tiny wheels on cobblestone dragged behind Daphne as she tugged along her luggage bag, heading for the outskirts of town where she could safely summon the Knight Bus. Her breath came in thick clouds of steam as she huffed up a tiny hill, seeing country up ahead, and dubbing it a perfect place to perform magic. Her wand, Dragon heartstring and willow, kept tapping onto her side from the inside pocket of her coat, and she faintly believed that it was about to burn her...
Then again, after last night she probably deserved it.
Upon returning to her hotel room, she had changed her clothes, so she wouldn't catch a cold from her slightly damp clothing, and sat down on her bed, ready to think the day through. But it probably didn't help her mood any, since she just felt more like someone who should immediately confess sins to a priest. How could she be stringing along two of the most notorious troublemakers of the school, without even a second thought why she was doing so? Briefly she had tried to shrug it off as if it was really nothing, and that in the end she could look back and laugh at her worrisome state...But that was when she began to remember the way Sirius gazed at her while she laughed, and the complete forwardness of James when he just reached up to brush her cheek...She convinced herself it was just confidence, confidence that they both had an endless stock of, and she should just expect it. It still didn't help how she was feeling, however, because then she took the time to look at herself, and the behavior she was adopting.
It had been so ever since the summer before fourth year. Her mother had convinced her that the new personality she was acquiring was only being influenced by her becoming a woman. It was only minor, then, with the way she would flirt with the neighborhood boys, and then act as if she were never interested. But it only worsened as she went, going as far as telling her boyfriend straight out that she loved him, and then broke it off a week later, claiming that she didn't know what she had been talking about in the process.
She had been this way since then, but now when it really mattered, she didn't want her "new" personality to get in the way of things. On one hand, she had Sirius, someone who could be completely charming and funny, and extremely easy to talk to, but the downside was infidelity. On the other hand, there was James, handsome, trustworthy, and intimate James...when she tried to find a turn off about him, she couldn't find any...at least not until she remembered Lily. She knew Lily, of course, and fairly closely...enough to share a couple secrets now and then. Daphne wondered if she'd ever have the courage to get on her bad side and date James.
Well, it was either that or risk herself to an endless self-confidence issue if Sirius ever cheated on her.
Her feet had led her to a fence behind which was a field of cabbage, and she turned around. There was a car heading her way, and she waited as it passed, sending up a wind as it did, before she finally took out her wand. Her eyes followed the retreating blue sedan, waiting for a good safe distance, and then held out her wand arm.
BANG!
A violently purple triple-decker bus appeared seemingly out of nowhere, crawling to a stop just in front of her. The doors opened with a released of air, and a tall lanky man stood on the steps, coming down to the first, reading from a card in his hand.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, transportation for wizards and witches in-"
"Yes, yes, I know already, could I just get on then?"
The man eyed her with the dark beedy eyes he had, and then nodded gruffly.
"Where're you headin'?"
"Hogsmeade please."
He nodded gruffly and said, "That'll be six Sickles then."
Daphne shoved her hand into her pocket, withdrew the right amount, and deposited it into his hand.
"My name is Steve Shunpike, if you need any help at all just holler me name." He nodded again to her, and returned to the front.
"Fire it up, Ern," he ordered, and the shrunken head copied him with its strong accent, followed by a cackling laugh.
Daphne turned to face the first floor of the bus, where there were beds everywhere. A couple beds were occupied, one with a wizard in a bowler hat, the other with a witch so covered in shawls it was almost impossible to distinguish her from a turtle. She took a place in the back somewhere, catching herself on a pole when the bus jerked forward, driving at lightning speed. As she sat down on the bed, she took the time to glance out the window, watching everything fly past. She had to admit, the driver wasn't that bad. He was able to maneuver his way between traffic and light posts without a problem; they didn't even jump out of his way as he passed.
Another loud bang came and went as they hopped along a country road, zipping past fields and forest, and an occasional cottage every now and then.
A bigger bang resounded around the bus, and all the beds slid forward about a foot or two as they were winding down a street, with snow falling, and a lake on the left. Her arm reached out and grasped the pole next to her bed, ready to catch herself should she fall. Just as she knew, the bus banged to a stop, and she almost flew all the way to the front.
Steve had stumbled his way to the back, taking her bags, and escorting her out of the bus. "Thank you for riding the Knight Bus, miss. Do not hesitate to call for us again, good day," he said tersely, and the doors shut tight, leaving her in the snow on a side street of Hogsmeade. Up ahead she could see the swinging wooden sign of a severed boar's head on white tablecloth, with the name "The Hog's Head" on the placard.
She took a deep breath inward and began trudging her way through some snow to get onto the main road, and heard a loud bang behind her which signaled the departure of the Knight Bus.
Now it was just a matter of getting to the common room and settling back down. After the vacation that she had, she quite frankly just wanted to sleep everything away and wake up in June.
||+||+||+||+||+||+||+||+||+||+||+||
It was around noon, according to the wall clock, and sunlight was pouring in through the windows with no mercy. In front of each bunk was a wooden trunk, all of which were already filled. By this time of day, almost everyone was back from their holidays and unpacking their things. The trunk in front of Daphne's bed was only half full, however, the magical spell she had cast on it fading out as she hit the covers and fell asleep.
Now, no thanks to the sunlight, she was woken up, already sitting up in bed and fixing the sweater that she hadn't bothered to take off earlier. It had some light cream fur inside, a white sweater on the outside. Her ex-boyfriend had given it to her the Christmas before, and she had kept it ever since, regardless of the messy separation.
She flipped her hair out of her face, lifting up her hand to fix it carefully, before she grabbed her wand off the nightstand and flicked it with emphasis at the luggage still half full of clothes, and they instantly flew out, beginning to fold themselves neatly, and organizing themselves into piles of shirts, pants, and undergarments. With a small smile of satisfaction that she always got, she lifted herself off the bed and pocketed her wand. She had always been able to put away her clothes neatly, while her mother was always very messy. After her second year at Hogwarts, Daphne had to teach her mother how to properly wave the wand while putting away the clothes. Daphne was the prize jewel of the family, being the only child of two parents who never tried for two, and the most talented and intelligent; nobody else had managed to learn so many spells at once, whether useful or not, and no one, not even her father, who was incredibly deft with a wand, could beat her reflexes in a
duel.
Finally, her clothes were all packed away, and she lifted herself off the bed, crossing the room to the door, and flung it open. Her feet found their way across the walkway, and she leaned her forearms onto the balcony's side, peering over the edge into the common room, gazing at the few crowds of people leaving and entering the room, and some who had already started chatting about holiday. Off in the corner she recognized the mousy head of Peter Pettigrew, who seemed completely nervous and fidgety, standing next to Remus Lupin, who was already poring over a book whose title she couldn't even read, it was far too damaged from overuse. Over by the fire were a couple of first-years, all so impossibly tiny, conversing about something called "skis", whatever those were. An owl flew into the window, a commonly brown one, and landed on the arm of a fourth-year boy, who was showing off a shiny new wand to his mates. The owl dropped a soaked-through letter onto the table, and took off in a hurry; it had apparently come from somewhere where it was raining, and wasn't too keen on returning.
The common room door opened wide, and two people entered who instantly got the attention of the majority of the girls in the room. Well, at least one of them was earning their attention. She rolled her eyes without much subtlety.
"James Potter and Sirius Black, ladies and gentlemen," she mumbled, mostly to herself, and she wouldn't have regretted it if anyone had overheard her.
She tossed her head over to the side, allowing all of her hair to rest on one shoulder, and just glanced in Peter and Remus's direction to see that they had disappeared already to James and Sirius's sides, demanding to know where they had been all holiday. While simultaneously keeping the girls at bay and answering their best mates' questions, they didn't notice who had begun walking down the spiral staircase. And finally her feet found the common room floor, glancing up to look at James and Sirius from a distance. It was interesting, how she could spend time with the two of them separately, and already see them in a different light.
It was Sirius's eyes who found her first, just that look causing her heart to jump up into her throat and fall back down with a thud. He stood there for a moment, chaos erupting around him, and just gazed across the room at her, before a smile cracked across his face. She returned the smile with her own small one, and she nodded in greeting to him. Within seconds, he disappeared from view as one of the girls attacked him in a fierce hug, one which sucked him into the crowd, and in those few seconds, she caught sight of James's hazel eyes staring right at her. She melted underneath that gaze, and knew that if she hadn't been leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, she would have fallen to the floor, weak in the knees. He found his way over to her, not having an immense crowd following in his wake, and stopped in front of her.
"Good God, woman," he exclaimed softly. "Is it just me, or did you drop some Amortentia in my drink last night?"
A smile tugged at her lips, and she shook her head.
"I don't know what you're talking about, James."
A grin was her reward, and he reached up, lifting her chin up to look at him.
"I think you do, Daph, and it's a game you're playing with me." His other hand came to rest against the wall by her head, and he leaned against it, gazing intensely into her eyes.
"Oooh, are you scared of my games?"
He shook his head. "Not at all...but keep playing them and I might feel obligated to join in..."
She opened her mouth to say something but quickly shut it, hearing a loud cry of surprise from Sirius. She smiled for a moment and then cleared her throat.
"Erm, I think you should go save Sirius now, don't you?"
James blinked for a moment, and then nodded.
"Yeah, you're right. I can't just let him get fed to the lions here...hang on." And he turned away from her, walking toward the large group of girls who were still trying to talk with Sirius as if he were a rock star who would later make millions, and instantly created a large Shield Charm.
"OI! YOU LOT GET AWAY FROM HIM, HE HAS SYPHILIS!"
His voice boomed over the chatter of the girls, and they instantly shrieked in mingled disgust and surprise, before they instantly dispersed. Daphne, bearing a smile as she walked over to them, overheard the conversation.
"Thanks, mate, but you didn't have to ruin my reputation with Syphilis."
James shook his head at Sirius.
"Wouldn't have been the first time I'd done it...remember Kathy Wright?"
Sirius shuddered in disgust.
"Ergh, yeah, but you at least had my permission then...there were a few lovely ladies in that group there." He cast a regretful sidelong glance in their direction, only catching a glare from Daphne.
"Oh, hullo, Daph." He left it at that, nodding to her as he passed her, trying to chase after the girls that had dispersed.
Daphne glanced over her shoulder to watch Sirius, her brows furrowed closely together in confusion and anger. Her mouth opened, ready to retort, when she had a hand come down on her shoulder, spinning her back around. It was James.
"Don't worry about Sirius, he'll come around soon," he assured her.
A grin appeared on his face as he looked over her head toward his best mate.
"He just has to heal his ego with some reassurance," he said.
A smile had appeared on Daphne's face, and she laughed a little.
"That's cute, James, he has to heal his ego? Never heard that one before..."
James looked back down at her, and then pulled her aside toward a corner, where they could talk easily without being overheard. A low rumble of indistinct chatter was the only noise in the room. Daphne lowered herself gracefully into a comfy chair, crossing her legs and leaning back. For a moment, silence was the only thing they shared, in which James took his time to look her over, and Daphne to analyze him with her penetrating eyes. Finally, after a few moments of that, he spoke up.
"Daphne..."
But that was all.
"What is it?"
James opened his mouth for a moment, ready to speak, but then closed it and shook his head.
"What, James? You can tell me," she said, and leaned forward in her seat, placing her hands gently on her top knee.
He gazed over at her, before he finally walked over to her, kneeling down in front of her, and lifted her chin up with his hand, forcing her to look at him. His eyes flickered down from her eyes to her lips, and she suddenly realized what he was going to do, and she watched him lean forward toward her...
"What the bloody hell are you doing, James?!"
A female shriek could be heard, and instantly, Daphne turned her head toward the voice. Her face turned from complete readiness to kiss to surprise. She took in the beautiful green sweater and black skinny jeans that Lily Evans was wearing, and suddenly felt her self-esteem plummet. There was no way she could compare with Lily Evans at this point, not with her ideal boyfriend kneeling in front of her, and now gawking at Lily in amazement.
But he finally seemed to come to.
"Lily? Wow, you look amazing!" James straightened up, facing Lily, and apparently completely ignoring Daphne. But a slight movement caught Daphne's eyes, and she glanced down to his hand by his side, a little behind him. It was motioning for her to get away, and she did exactly what it showed. She found her way to her feet and walked passed Lily, who muttered, "I'll deal with you later," and continued her argument with James.
A little ungracefully, she stumbled through the portrait hole, only to fall right into the arms of Sirius, who was standing outside.
"Whoa! Easy, geez, Daphne, a little quick to leave, aren't you?" he said, and helped her stand up. Just over his shoulders she could see one of the girls who had been in the crowd walking swiftly in the other direction, a smug look on her face. Daphne's eyes, now cold with anger, flickered back to Sirius.
"Quick to leave you? With pleasure," she said angrily, and violently pulled her arms out of his grasp, walking in the opposite direction towards the Great Hall.
"What? Wait -- what're you talking about, Daphne? Wait!" And he ran to catch up with her. "You're not making any sense, Daph, what are you talking about? Answer me!" He wheeled her around, stopping her from walking away, and forcing her to face him.
Daphne, without much choice, looked right up into his eyes, attempting a look of seriousness and anger, only achieving one of hurt.
"Daphne...answer the question." He said it with a little more softness this time, which brought her defensive walls down.
Silence passed through them as Daphne gazed up at Sirius. She brushed his hands off her shoulders, and heaved a sigh.
"Sirius...I don't like being played-"
"What do you mean?" he asked, cutting her off.
She stared at him, a little indignant from him interrupting her.
"Just...if you have any ideas of having a girl on the side, you can forget about having me. I don't play that game, Sirius, and if you do, well, enjoy it then."
Sirius looked at her a little incredulously and asked, a little indignantly, "Where do you get the idea that I'm going to have a girl on the side?"
Daphne pointed behind her, glancing back down the corridor. "Were you not just trying to get with Samantha?"
He shifted a bit uncomfortably, and Daphne felt a smug feeling rise up in her that she didn't want to feel.
"Er...sort of...alright, I was, but why does that change anything?" he asked, looking a bit as if he had been backed into a corner.
An eyebrow was instantly arched on her features, and she said, "Change anything? Sirius, I already told you, I'm not about to share the spotlight with someone else."
"But it doesn't mean I was successful!"
With extreme difficulty she resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"So I'm supposed to accept the fact that you're trying to get with other girls?" she asked. There was a strong tone of sarcasm in her voice, and it must've hit home, because Sirius suddenly looked indignant.
"Accept it? Of course, Daph! I'm the most eligible bachelor in Hogwarts, what do you think I'm going to do for you, just roll over and let you walk all over me?"
"NO! I want you to have some decent respect and date me and only me, not Cindy on Monday, Susie on Tuesday, Samantha on Wednesday, Trisha on Thursday, and Me on Friday, Saturday, and SUNDAY!" she yelled, and she stomped away from him a ways, facing the wall in frustration, before she rounded back around.
"I'm not asking for much, Sirius," she said a little more calmly after a deep breath. "I'm not going to walk all over you. A relationship, the way I see it, is a two-way deal. A relationship is not all about just one person's wants and needs; it's about the two of them. If you want to go and cheat, and I want you to stay true, then this ends here. I'm not about to spend the first two weeks of any relationship, with you or any other guy, arguing about contradicting views."
A moment passed between them when Sirius saw Daphne with a new light. Somehow, the way he felt for her changed. He didn't hate her, as some might think, but instead he just became more compassionate about her. He finally saw her as something other than a girl with an alluring figure; he saw her as a human being, and a woman that knows what she wants. In the few moments he had of gazing at her, in her moment of anger and frustration, he suddenly knew that she was different than any other girl he'd ever dated, inside and out. Not one single girl he'd ever dated, in his six plus years at Hogwarts, had ever had the courage to speak up against him, or try to change him. And not one, out of the few he cared about most, ever confronted him with an ultimatum.
"Arguments isn't what I want either," he said quietly, his eyes flickering down to the floor.
"I'm sorry?" she asked, straining to hear.
A sigh escaped Sirius and he forced himself to look up at her. "I don't want to argue either, Daph. I just want you to be my girlfriend, not anyone else's." For a moment she was flattered by this, but she held her ground.
Sirius continued, "I've never met anyone like you, Daphne. Ever. It scares me, but at the same time, it inspires me." He chuckled slightly. "Go figure, right?"
Daphne had finally calmed down by this time, and she shook her head. "I don't want to inspire you, Sirius. If you truly don't want to change, then go after Samantha and have fun with her and the six other different women you have in your life."
Sirius shook his head, stepping forward and brushing some of her hair away from her face. His gaze, gentle and calm, focused on his hand against her cheek, and he smiled softly and said, "No. I'll change, I'll be the man you want me to be. If you want me to be loyal and faithful, then I'll do it." He shook his head. "Merlin forbid I ever stray from you, or any other guy for that matter."
Daphne smiled gently, and Sirius lifted up his other hand, burying it in her hair as he leaned forward, brushing his lips against hers for a fleeting moment of a kiss, and when they pulled away Daphne wasn't even sure that they had even kissed. Sirius gazed down at her with his dark eyes, and she could feel the vibrations in his voice, deep and smooth, on her forehead.
"Daphne, will you, officially, be my girlfriend?"
Daphne lifted her head, catching his gaze, and smiled gently, her characteristic dimples appearing on her cheeks. Quietly, she replied, "Yes."