𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗜 ━━ 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗧
013. the girl with no choice

          𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗘𝗧 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗬 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥 𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗜𝗗𝗔𝗬. And being stuck at home was infuriating. Most of the time, she spent her time speaking to Regulus, sometimes accompanied by Sirius who grew an even bigger attitude over the past few days.

Currently, Scarlet was sitting with Regulus in the Black Manor's living room, the two of them discussing a book.

"Where's Sirius?" She asked suddenly, remembering she hadn't seen him for quite some time.

"He's pissed off," Regulus smirked lightly at him, causing the girl to glare at him knowingly. "Mother refused to let him go out because he keeps conversing with inappropriate people."

Scarlet knew that, but she could not exactly tell him that they have snuck out to meet by a lakeside without permission and spent hours there. Regulus couldn't keep a secret to save his life.

"That is unjust," Scarlet muttered. "Resenting him due to simply the company he keeps."

Regulus looks back into her concerned eyes. "I'm sure this is how it works, with both of our families." Scarlet could not argue, she knew the truth.

"He has limited options, he cannot exactly hang out with us, he is in a whole different house," she shared.

"Are you two that obsessed with me?" The annoyed voice of Sirius came as he came down the stairs, slouching over the brown-leather sofa a few meters away from the two Slytherins. "The only way I will gain her approval is if I marry one of your lots."

There was a particular grimace in his tone, the overbearing bitterness he grew for Slytherins, the kind his parents' only wished Sirius was. Regulus leaned forward in his seat, as though a lightbulb lit on his head as he spoke. "Maybe you should."

Sirius and Scarlet simultaneously locked eyes with the younger Black.

"Pretend to be in love or something whilst you are here," He shrugged. "Remember when mother yelled at you because you picked a fight with her and she was the only reasonable friend you had,"

Scarlet snickered.

"If you two pretend to be together, she'll find it adorable, I'm sure all her worries would be gone, she'd leave you alone," Regulus said, eyes glinting underneath the bright light of the chandelier. He was quite confident with his idea.

Sirius's face remained puzzled. "That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say."

Scarlet scoffs. "Give the kid some credit, it's not a bad idea."

Before Regulus could express his offense for being called a kid, Sirius beat him with his insight. "And how do you suppose we carry it forward? Slytherin house is practically swarmed with my mother's acquaintances, she'll find out soon enough."

"Then let's pretend at school too, people at Hogwarts are not that smart," Scarlet argued, a sudden need to provide assistance to make Sirius more likable coming to her mind.

Sirius was not having any of it. He stood, ready to leave the scene. "I'd rather drown and die."

"As if I would ever help an ass like you!" The girl shouted back annoyedly, snatching off her purse from the tea table and swinging it angrily over her shoulder, approaching the front door.

Regulus shuttered over the escalation. "Scar—Scarlet! Sirius, come back!" As the older teens made their way to their respectable places, Regulus was left alone with the train of his thoughts about the outburst he just caused.

Sirius almost knocked into her mother on his way up at his furious pace. "Apologies." He was about to pass by her, only for Walburga to block his way.

"Stand," She said through gritted teeth. "Have you lost all your manners?"

"I apologised—"

"With a scowl on your face!" She exclaimed and Sirius flinched lightly. "Can't you do one, just one thing that does not make you a complete disgrace?"

Sirius was gritting his teeth in anger, leaving her rhetorical question unanswered. "Sirius, do not walk away from me!" Her loud voice boomed as he walked right back into his room, slamming the door shut.

His hands were trembling unexpectedly, perhaps from the unbearing frustration.

Suddenly, he flinched as something hit his window. Then Another. Cautiously, he walked closer to see Scarlet in her bedroom, curtains aside, staring directly at his room and about to throw another rock through his opened window.

He threw his arms up in the air in a manner to ask what the hell she was doing.

Scarlet turned around, shuffling through her things in her drawers and taking out her wand, raising it and writing in the air in a silver, glittery colour.

'WHY ARE YOU PACING?'

Sirius shrugged a little, mouthing, 'My mother... again'.

Scarlet nodded sadly.

And that single, small moment was all it took for an idea to spark in his mind, like a light bulb clicking atop his head.

He started to move around frantically, grabbing his coat and putting it on, and then moving into his closet to search for something.

Scarlet raised her wand again to write in the air.

'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?'

Sirius threw open his window, "Open your window wider," He whisper-yelled.

"Have you lost your mind?" She snapped back, opening her window wide open.

Without any warning whatsoever, he jumped over his bloom and flew right into her bedroom, knocking over one of her vases in the process.

Sirius let out a breathy peal of laughter, finding himself hilarious. "What in Merlin's pants is wrong with you?" Scarlet hissed, picking up her flowers and flower vase.

He was panting from the short run-up. "Regulus was right."

"When is he not right? The boy should totally be in Ravenclaw." She said, fixing her hair in the mirror.

"I think we should be together."

"What are you on about?" She turned around with a confused look on her face.

Sirius corrected his words. "I think we should pretend to be together," He sat down on her bed. "Look, we could mess around with her feelings, make her feel like I am good for something, and then a few months later, I can break it to her and she would be so angry! Imagine the look on her face."

"I don't know," She was hesitant. "Won't we be going a bit too far? Your mother is an angry woman, she might..."

"She'll be furious!" Sirius said, a pleading look on his face. "We can do it, we just have to sort a few things out, I bet your mother wouldn't say anything, not unless she finds out the truth later on."

Scarlet looked down. "It doesn't sound that bad..." She shrugged. "At least, it will stop Silas from annoying me back at school," the girl groaned thinking about him.

Sirius' lips curled up in satisfaction. "I don't know what I'd do without you." He jumped forward, bringing his arms up before Scarlet pushed him away.

"No," She simply said, pointing with her index finger. "We need to set some ground rules."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Rules—are we animals?"

"No kissing, no intimacy when people aren't watching, you're not to annoy me during my study time, do not interrupt me when I'm with my friends, do not brag about me—"

"Uh-oh, drawing the line right there!" Sirius cut her off with a shout. "How can I not brag about my beautiful girlfriend?" He smirked to himself.

Scarlet mentally face-palmed herself. "What have I gotten myself into?" She faced him again. "No flirting."

"Oh, come on! I can't help it." He complained.

"Alright, don't expect me to flirt back though." She warned.

Sirius grunted suddenly, getting flashbacks to the events with his mother from earlier (as well as to the rest of his life), "I just don't get it."

"What?"

"I don't get what I was doing wrong," he falls down on her bed, laying on her back as Scarlet follows suit, feeling tired as the two of them lay side-by-side, legs dangling off the edge. "It's not like I got sorted into Gryffindor by choice, no one can control it... and she started hating me for it."

"And then Reggie started to avoid me too because of it, we barely acknowledge each other now, it's like... ever since that day, I don't mean anything to anyone."

You mean something to me. The blonde shook herself away from those thoughts.

"I'm so sorry," Scarlet whispered, her voice rasped. "You know... whenever you feel like that at home... or even at Hogwarts, I-I know you have a lot of friends but... you can always come to me." She had no idea why she was stumbling over her words, but she comforted him in a way she never thought she was capable of.

That's the thing about Sirius Black. He made her feel more human than she felt capable of.

Sirius turned to his left to face her side profile, watching as she stared up at the ceiling and gulped a little. Just for a moment, he kept absolutely consumed by the eccentric soul that was Scarlet Bridget—despite convincing himself he doesn't like 'people like her'.

Sirius went silent for a mere second, pursing his lips. "You have stars on your ceilings."

The girl's white ceiling was decorated with various, shining silver stars, some of them shining and dimming, casting shimmering starlight over the dark room. She forgot to turn the main lights on when he barged into her room uninvited and only the bedside lamp stayed lit, and that sheer fact started to make her feel more awkward.

Scarlet's eyes shot up as she saw him admiring her heavily decorated ceiling. "They make me feel better," she shrugged. "And as someone once reminded me, I need to think about good things before going to sleep."

Sirius looked back at her and a smile formed on his face. "You mean—"

"If you make another star joke because of your name, I will kick you out right now." She laughed under her breath, lightly. For a moment, she felt her heart throbbing due to the way Sirius was looking at her. She could feel his burning gaze on her and it made her feel as though she was on fire.

"Is that—is that constellation Carina?" Sirius gasped, his eyes locked on hers. His ego shot sky-high when her cheekbones turned to a pink-peony shade, a large smile on her lips.

"Don't flatter yourself." She sternly said, but the look on her face was playful.

Sirius laughed. He laughed and Scarlet's eyes shot to him as though hit by a magical force. The smile on her face dropped as she said her next words.

"And you can't fall in love with me." She whispered, careful and calculated.

"Don't worry," he said, quietly, "That wouldn't be a problem... besides, you're the epitome of everything I rebel against."

"And what is that?" Scarlet scoffed.

"Annoying Slytherin," he started and the girl rolled her eyes. "Arrogant, way too perfect at everything, don't even get me started on your beliefs."

"It's not like that," she shook her head, a little offended. "No one deserves to be hated on merely because they're muggles and muggle-borns... it's a foolish concept."

"But your mother still believes in them, and you're close with her," Sirius stated.

Scarlet shook her head. "But she's still my mother, she's not a good person but she's still my mother, Black."

Sirius didn't realise one was capable of thinking like that.

"I know my dad died quite a few years ago but sometimes I still feel like my house is haunted, his screams still echo down the hallway and I can't escape it... and the only reason I can tolerate it is because of my mother," she shared against her will, not being able to stop talking. 

      "She did everything in her power to make this house a little warmer for me, she didn't have a choice to raise me the way she wanted but she took every little opportunity to give me a choice."

"Did it work?" Sirius asked, voice sleek and sharp. "Was she able to give you a choice?"

"I'm the heiress of the Bridget family, I'll always be the girl with no choice, Black."

𝑪𝑨𝑹𝑨 𝑺𝑷𝑬𝑨𝑲𝑺

FINALLY! finally we get onto
the fun plot.