▆ ·  ·  ·  · ♡ ୭ ̥◌ .
▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆
˚ · • ꗃ 𓈈 " chapter 𝒕𝒘𝒐 " 𓂃 ! ⊹˚˖⁺

𝐕𝐎𝐋. 𝐎𝐍𝐄 ━ 𝕽𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝕻𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 °. ୭̥❁.*
━━ ❪ 𝙷𝙰𝚁𝚁𝚈 𝙿𝙾𝚃𝚃𝙴𝚁  ❫ . ˚ ⚘ ▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆

AS EVERYONE GOT SEATED, SIRIUS' EYES WEREN'T ON DUMBLEDORE—NO, THEY WERE ON ESME WHO SAT A FEW SEATS IN FRONT OF HIM. For some reason, he felt completely entranced by this girl, this girl who he didn't even know. All he knew was that she was beautiful, like really beautiful. And that she was an Ollivander, so his parents couldn't say shit when—or if he tried to get with her.

Who knows? She could be smart and reject his advances.

      But probably not. Because who could resist the Sirius Black?

      Junia could feel eyes on her, but she didn't know who or
what it was who was watching her. She was too highly strung to turn around to see who was looking at her. But then again, she was also equally as perplexed. Who would be looking at her? Usually everyone looked at Esme, so why her?

      And of course, that person looking at her was none other than James Potter.

      As Professor Dumbledore finished his announcements about the Triwizard Tournament, the feast began. Food and goblets appeared on the golden chrome tables. But again, Sirius nor James weren't focused on the food like they usually would be. They were more focused on Esme and Junia than anything else.

      Esme and Junia were conversing with Tatum, Anaya, Sage, and Veya about the most randomness of things. And that's Junia noticed a dark-haired boy looking in their direction—more specifically looking at Esme.

      She smiled to herself as she looked over at boy who was sitting beside Sirius—James, and her face immediately flushed as she turned and looked away from them, not wanting to seem like the creep Sirius Black was being.

      Speaking of which, Peter, and Remus both noticed where Sirius and James' eyes were and decided to tease them about it.

      "Oi, mates," said Remus to Sirius and James, gently nudging their shins underneath the table with his foot teasingly. "You may want to take your eyes off of them, you're both beginning to look like a bunch of creeps."

       "We're not being creepy, you idiot," Sirius responded, not taking his eyes off Esme, watching her laugh with her friends and family.

       "You do realize that's an Ollivander you're staring at, right?" said Remus as he raised his eyebrows. "And that's Junia Song, for your information, Prongs."

       James' mouth contorted into a subtle smirk now that they were talking about Junia, "I know," he said almost boastfully.

       Sirius' heart began to beat even faster at the fact that they were talking about Esme now. "So?"

       "So..?" said Peter, "She's an Ollivander, dude. They're like ancient. And she's way out of your league."

      Sirius rolled his eyes at his friends and said, "How would you guys know if she's out of my league? You don't even know her."

They all were quiet for a moment before James said, "She just seems like it. She hasn't even glanced in your direction."

Sirius scowled at his friends, "How would you know that? You don't even—" And as if on cue, Esme turned around and looked at them. Sirius froze as he watched her brown eyes look at him and his friends. His heart felt like it was on the verge of exploding.

And then, she smiled. She smiled at him.

Sirius felt like he could've absolutely melted right then and there. He looked away quickly, trying to play it cool, but his friends were clearly noticing his reaction, because he heard them chuckle. But he didn't care. Because the girl that he found himself absolutely fascinated by, had just smiled at him. Sirius decided, right then and there, that he wanted her. She would be his.

       Esme was chatting with Tatum about possibly transferring to Hogwarts as he had agreed with whatever his sister wanted to do, but he was slightly skeptical about switching schools as he had gotten so attached to his friends at Ilvermorny.

       "Oh, come on, Tate," said Esme as she took a bite of her food. "It'll be great! We'll get a change of scenery, new friends, new uniforms, new classes, new relationships..." she trailed off with a suggestive tone in her voice as she wiggled her eyebrows knowing that her older brother had been searching for a significant other for some time now.

       "Come off it, Es," Tatum chuckled at his sister's suggestion. "I could have anyone I wanted really. I just... choose not to."

       "Oh, really?" said all the girls and Esme in unison as they all laughed loudly at each other, tilting their heads backwards.

All the girls knew that Tatum preferred boys over girls, which is why every time a girl pursued him, he would politely turn them down. But he just hadn't found the right person, first off, and second off, he probably just simply wasn't interested in pursuing a relationship at the time. Which Esme knew was bullshit.

Soon, the feast was over. Esme got up along with Junia and Tatum as Veya hung back with Sage, Anaya, and Reed. The students began to head to their respective house common rooms with the foreign students heading out to their own dorms which were outside of the castle in their ships/carriages.

She felt a light tap on her arm which caused her to turn around and see the Sirius Black standing in front of her, Tatum, and Junia. She could practically feel the confidence radiating off of him—and neither Tatum nor Junia liked it. It wasn't his confidence, it was just him.

They didn't like him. They knew Sirius' reputation at Hogwarts and they knew his character and how he was with girls, how he would have a new girl almost everyday. They don't want their friend, Tatum's sister to be one of his call girls.

"Hi," said Sirius as smoothly as he could.

Esme nodded in greeting, her chocolate-brown eyes roaming over him before she spoke, "Hi," her voice was soft and gentle, and it made Sirius feel things as a shiver ran down his back.

"I-I, uhm, I just wanted to introduce myself," he said. "I'm—"

"I know who you are," said Esme with a slight smirk, her voice now slightly more smoother than before as she gained some of her confidence back. "Everybody knows who you are."

The way she said that, made Sirius feel like he was floating on air. He smirked at her, trying to play it cool, "Is that so?" he asked her, "Well, what do people say about me?"

Esme smiled at him, as Tatum spoke up, "They say you're a rich spoiled brat."

      "Tate!" Esme exclaimed as she looked next to her, facing her brother with a surprised look on her face who simply shrugged, glaring hard at Black. It was obvious he was protective of his sister—twin sister. "Don't say shit like that," she muttered to the dirty-blonde.

"What? It's true," he mumbled back to his sister.

Sirius decided to poke the bear a little bit as he asked, "So..." he said to them, "you two are twins?"

Tatum spoke up before Esme could, "Yes," he said firmly with a tinge of annoyance in his tone, and Esme shot him a look telling him to calm down, but Tatum did nothing of the sort.

"Identical?"

Esme smiled slightly at his interest as Tatum crossed his arms, not looking very pleased, "Fraternal," she replied. "Thank god for that."

Sirius chuckled, "Good, I was a little scared for a second." he said while grinning. Tatum rolled his eyes, and Junia laughed lightly to herself as she watched the exchange.

When Esme spoke, it was directed at Sirius, "So, you were saying?"

     "Oh," said Sirius as he looked into her eyes, "Well, I just wanted to introduce myself. Like I said." He noticed Junia and Tatum look at each other and whisper something, but he ignored it. He looked back into Esme's brown eyes and said a little more quietly, "I'm Sirius Black."

"Yeah, I know," she said to him, nodding slightly as she held her hand out towards Sirius, "I'm Esme. Esme Ollivander... most people just call me Es, or Ivy, or Ollie. Whatever fits you."

Sirius reached out and took her hand in his, and shook it. The instant their skin came in contact, Sirius almost shivered. It was such a simple touch, and yet it sent chills over his whole body. What was this? He had never felt something like this before.

        He pulled his hand away and shoved both his hands into his pockets. He couldn't show her how much her touch affected him. He needed to remain cool. But he couldn't stop looking at her. "I like Es," he said to her. "Mind if I call you that?"

Of course he does. Esme shook her head with a slight smile, "Not at all," she replied to him, sending both Tatum and Junia a look beside her; she could tell the two of them were becoming impatient. "I should really get going." But for some reason, she didn't want to go.

Sirius felt a little disappointed when she said that. He wanted her to stay. He wanted to keep talking to her. Even though he was trying to play it cool, he was definitely being drawn to her.

       Sirius nodded his head with a slight smile, "Yeah, of course." He replied and he tried to play it cool to hide his disappointment. "I guess I'll be seeing you around then, Es."

        "You will," she said, her voice holding an indefinite tone.

        She turned to walk away with Tatum and Junia and she noticed that neither Veya nor Reed were with them. She wondered where they were. She presumed that they were still at the dinner.

      As if on cue, Reed, Anaya, and Veya had come up to them, crossing the threshold of the Great Hall as they gave a small wave to Sirius Black who was with his friends; James, Peter, and Remus. The pair made their way to the trio of Esme, Tatum, and Junia. It seemed as though that Veya, Anaya, and Reed were all less hostile towards Sirius than Tatum was.

       Esme, being her observant self, was the first to notice her friends' presence. "You both have a good dinner?" she asked her friends.

         "Oh, yeah," Reed chuckled, his American accent prominent in his voice as he smirked slightly, his eyes scanning each of his friends amusedly. "Seems like we missed the show."

       "There was no show," Esme corrected with a small laugh. "Though Juni was looking at James with a lovey-dovey look in her eye," she added, attempting to redirect the conversation from her to Junia.

       Junia's eyes widened, "I was not!" she exclaimed, shaking her head. "I just... find him attractive is all. At least I don't have an overbearing, overprotective brother watching my every move," she joked as Tatum scoffed.

       "Come on, I'm not 'watching her every move'," he protested, his British accent prominent but weak as he used air quotes for the last part of his protest. "I'm just protecting my sister, is all. I don't want her to get hurt."

       "I can handle myself, thank you very much," Esme told him, crossing her arms over her chest. All of her friends and Tatum knew that, she'd proven it time and time again.

       "Oh, don't we know it," said Veya, shaking her head with a small laugh.

       There was a break of silence as the group walked out of the castle towards their carriage where they would be sleeping for the night. It was a fairly large carriage with maroon stripes on the sides and the horses that had been attached to the front were in stables that Hagrid—the Hogwarts Gamekeeper, had built for them.

        There was a trapdoor built in to the floor where all the beds and bunks were lined up for the students to sleep for the night. The beds were fairly comfortable, well, as comfortable as they could be inside of a carriage.

       As the group approached the carriage, Reed opened the door and stepped aside to allow everyone else in first. As Esme crossed the threshold of the carriage, she was surprised to see that only a few Ilvermorny students were inside, getting their things ready for the night.

      Reed shut the door behind him as he followed his friends deeper into the carriage where they all got their belongings from their seats.

       "Okay, but still," said Esme, picking up the conversation from where the group had left off. "I'm still coming up with a ship name for you two," she said to Junia who groaned.

       "Oh, come on!" exclaimed Junia as she rummaged through her bag. "I just said he's attractive, that doesn't mean I like him."

       "I call bullshit," said Veya almost instantly. "You blushed like a fucking schoolgirl when Es mentioned his name."

       "Stardust," said Esme and Tatum in unison as the two twins smirked at each other. Tatum crossed the room to give his sister a high-five. "That's it. Stardust," said Esme a matter of factly. Reed laughed. "It's cute, isn't it?"

       Reed nodded, still laughing, "I have to admit, it is."

      "God, you guys are the worst," mumbled Junia, her face burning a bright red.

        "We love you too, Juni," said the rest of the group in unison.

❪ ៸ 𝑨𝑼𝑻𝑯𝑶𝑹'𝑺 𝑵𝑶𝑻𝑬 ━━━━━ ! ﹆◞ ❫
ꔛ﹅ ۰ ۰ ۰ 一 ꗃ: stardust & seraphis are active and alive!

see you guys next chapter, love you pookies!