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Two Sides Against the Middle by Rose of the West [Reviews - 3]

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Emily Smith was a sixth year Hogwarts student and a sixteen-year-old pureblood witch. She got good grades, as any proper Ravenclaw would, and had never once gotten a detention. In fact it was true, she thought as she wandered down to the Quidditch pitch on a warm October afternoon to watch her house team practice, there had been no adventure, no spice, and no romance in her life at all.

The Gryffindors were just finishing their practice. She could see James Potter way overhead. He was swirling and swooping and waving at a girl sitting way over on the other side, who had her head buried in a text book. Looked like the sixth years' Charms text. The red hair showed that it must be Lily Evans. Emily sat in the stands, a bit apart from the other students, and sighed deeply.

“Why be so serious on such a beautiful day?”

Emily jumped and looked over toward the voice. She suddenly realized that Sirius Black had been lying on the footrest between some of the bleachers and she hadn't seen him. She got up immediately.

“Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I'll go.” She stood and started walking toward a different section.

“Don't leave on my account. Why would a girl as pretty as you want to be by yourself? Surely a girl like you should be having some sort of excitement... or romance?”

He was following her to a different section of bleachers, so she set off for a third section. He followed her there as well. It seemed he would follow her all around the bleachers, now. Suddenly she stopped. Excitement and romance—wasn't she just wishing for those very things? How could he know? She sat down exactly where she was standing.

“What did you have in mind, Mr. Black?”

“Well, for starters, I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Sirius Black, as you've apparently figured out. You are...?”

“Emily Smith.”

He held out his hand and when she didn't immediately offer hers, reached and took, it shaking it between both of his. “I'm pleased to meet you, Emily Smith, very pleased indeed.”

He proceeded to narrate the end of the Gryffindor practice and then the entire Ravenclaw Quidditch practice for her. By the time ten minutes were up, a dozen or so students were sitting near them and Emily found herself caught up in several conversations while her house mates streaked by in blue and bronze. Every so often Sirius would look at her and she would smile and blush and look away.

As the practice ended, the crowd dispersed and Emily walked back toward the castle alone.

“Hey, Smith! Wait up!”

She stopped and turned. Sirius was running toward her. She smiled and looked at him.

“You can call me Emily, you know. I should thank you for making me the center of such an interesting group of people. Does that always happen where you go?”

“Often enough, Emily. I was wondering if you were going to Hogsmeade this weekend and if we might have a butterbeer together.”

“Me? You're asking me?” Emily looked up in surprise.

“Why not?”

“I'm so average-looking.”

“Not so very average, and quite fun to talk to. So will you?”

She smiled shyly. “Sure. I'd like that.”

He gave her a knowing look. “I'll see you Saturday, then.”

He watched her as she walked toward the castle entrance. She had soft, shoulder length brown hair, pale blue eyes, and a kissable smile. When she had sat down in the bleachers the first thing he had seen was how she filled out her robes. Watching her from the side, he decided that her figure was every bit as curvy as it had seemed when looking from below. She was not so very average at all.




Emily was going over Arithmancy when her study partner arrived in the library. They usually went over all of their schoolwork with each other, but she helped him with Ancient Runes, not that he needed much help, while he helped her with Potions. She didn't need very much help either, but she wanted to bump her high E up to a solid O. Plus, you couldn't get a better study partner than Severus Snape.

That is except when Lily Evans was in the library. When that happened, it was a mercy if Severus managed to get his books on the table without dumping them on the floor first. They had been good friends at some point before Black and Potter pranked on Snape last spring. Then Severus and Lily had a huge row and had barely spoken since. Evans appeared to be over it, based on the way she tossed her hair when she glimpsed Severus just a minute ago. Thump went Severus's Potion book. He was definitely not over it.

“Are you going to be able to concentrate, here? Do you want to go to an empty classroom to study instead?” Emily asked.

“She hates me now.” This was at least the tenth or twelfth time he'd brought it up in the three weeks since school had started. Emily had the response down pat.

“You said something horrible to her. You apologized and she didn't forgive you. It's really her loss, Severus. Anyway, can you look over this essay and tell me what you think? I feel like I'm missing an important point, here.”

Severus took her essay. Emily didn't know how he read it, since he was watching the back of Lily Evans's head the whole time, but he noted the corrections she should make and handed it back. She read through it so she could ask any questions she might have. As always, his notes were perfect and he identified the point she was missing. She would re-copy it later.

She went back to her Arithmancy book while he watched Lily Evans over the top of his Charms book. After a while, Evans piled up her books and left. Emily looked over at Severus. He was crestfallen. He looked at Emily, who tried to look sympathetic, and straightened up in his chair. “Here, can you look over this translation for me?”

Emily took it and read through it. “I think this would be better if you inverted these phrases, here, but the rest of it is just as it should be,” she said.

“I see what you mean. That is a better way to put it.”

“So how are you special lessons going with Dumbledore?”

“He says I have a knack for it, but so far I think he's just using it as an excuse to find out everything about me. Yesterday I was able to keep him from seeing anything that was important, for once.”

He started tapping his fingers on the table. “Look, Emily, do you mind if I cut it short and skip out of doing Arithmancy and Charms with you tonight? I have this meeting I want to go to with some of the guys.”

“You're going to hang out with those boys who do nothing but talk about the dark arts, aren't you? Do you have to?”

“It's like it's my destiny, Emily. Since my other destiny appears trashed, I'd better stick with this one.”

“A destiny you trashed by being too interested in the dark arts. Be careful, Severus.”

“Thanks, mother hen. I will.”




Emily was dawdling over her eggs the next morning and looking over some Transfiguration notes when Severus sat next to her.

“It's all over school now.”

What is all over school now?”

“About you and Black. How he chased you all over the bleachers until you sat next to him and then how he ran after you from the Quidditch stadium. Have you picked the names of your children, yet?”

Emily turned red. “Hardly. We sort of ran into each other in the stands and he was being nice.”

“He asked you out.”

“How did you know that?”

“You just told me.”

She buried her head in her book.

“Look, Emily. It's nothing really, to me, except that Black and Potter and their gang would just as soon hex me as look at me, and frequently do. I don't know if we'll be able to study together as much with Black in the picture.”

“Severus, he's hardly 'in the picture'. Butterbeers at the Three Broomsticks is not a life commitment. Plus, give me the chance to prove I have at least some brains. I am a Ravenclaw, you know.”

“Oh, I know you have brains. It's just that girls seem to lose them when those gits are around.”

“You really think I'm going to be like that?”

“Lily is.”

Emily stood and started stuffing her books into her school bag. “I'm not a fan of the way Lily treated you, but I think you're selling Lily short. I know you're selling me short. I expect to see you at the regular time and place in the Library. If there is a problem, we will deal with it when it comes up and not before. Trust me.” She walked off, leaving Severus sitting at her house table.

He stood and went on his way, too. I will never trust Black.

Two Sides Against the Middle by Rose of the West [Reviews - 3]

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