The next morning, the Great Hall was filled with the usual flock of owls delivering parcels and letters from parents. Sirius couldn't care less. He figured that it would be a miracle if Walburga didn't send him a Howler, and even if an owl from the House of Black did show up, it would only be heading toward Regulus.
As it turned out, that was precisely the case. Amidst the fluttering owls, the arrival of a pure white snowy owl caused a stir of novelty among the students in the Great Hall. It was carrying neither letter nor package, but a single blue-and-white rose. It flew straight toward the Slytherin table, landing right in front of Gloria, who gently took the cracked-ice blue rose from its beak.
"Thank you, Rose."
Rose was the owl her mother had sent her. Knowing that Gloria shared her love for roses, her mother always had Rose deliver a blue rose after the start of term. But this time, it seemed her mother hadn't managed to pick the most perfect blue rose in her mind, Gloria thought with a small smile.
Her mother was always like this. Knowing her daughter loved blue roses, she had specially cultivated a large patch of them. Whenever term started or Gloria had a birthday, her mother would pick the finest one to send. If she couldn't find one that satisfied her, she would choose a white one and dye it blue with magic—just like the one Gloria held in her hand now.
Whichever it was, Gloria would always keep it carefully, using magic to preserve it from withering, and place it in the most prominent spot in her dormitory.
Chewing on his food, Sirius let his mind drift back to the garden he had seen during the summer—that patch of empty ground where nothing bloomed. No doubt those were all roses, he realized. Sirius had also seen the sea of blue inside the drawing room. It was quite lovely, a shade deeper than Gloria's eyes. If it were just a bit lighter, it would be the exact color of her eyes.
An interesting idea popped into Sirius's head.
During Herbology class that afternoon, Sirius stared blankly at the plants. "James, do you think a blue rose could be a little lighter?" Like her eyes.
"?"
"Do you... want to grow flowers?" James asked hesitatingly, looking at his best friend. Forgive him, but he simply couldn't picture Sirius loosening soil and tending plants. Just imagining it made him shudder all over.
Sirius didn't bring it up again for the rest of the day, but later, when they went to the library to borrow books and he found a book on Herbology tucked among a massive stack of Transfiguration texts, James realized that this guy hadn't given up at all.
Gryffindor and Slytherin only shared two classes: Potions and Flying. Yes, at this very moment, the students of both houses were having their second-year flying class.
With Slytherin and Gryffindor together, mutual loathing was only natural. Sirius and James had tried giving Snape a hard time during their first class, but finding it pointless, they had since taken to just flying on their own. Madam Hooch evidently figured that since they were now second-years and of an age to join the Quidditch team, she no longer bothered policing how well they flew.
This allowed Sirius to be much more relaxed.
At the same time, however, he noticed Gloria frowning at her broomstick. Seizing the moment when no one was paying attention, he quietly drifted up behind her.
Gloria loved the feeling of flying freely, yet she was the only one who couldn't seem to master a broomstick. She always found it absurd; she yearned for freedom, yet was bound by chains, which was why she had rarely ridden a broom in all her life. In a fit of stubborn frustration, she dropped her broom, thinking she might as well just learn flight magic instead.
"Well, well, what's wrong, genius girl? Can't ride a broom?"
"!" Startled by the sudden voice, Gloria glared angrily at the person who had frightened her, rolled her eyes, and turned to walk away.
Sirius raised an eyebrow with a smirk. Such lively expressions were rare on her face—or perhaps, deep down in his subconscious, Sirius felt she ought to be this spirited all the time.
Still, he admitted to himself that he was greedy; he wanted to see more expressions from the girl before him, and of course, only for him.
After a brief thought, he rode his broom forward, grabbed her by the arm, and with a swift pull hoisted her up onto his broom, shooting straight up into the air.
Startled by the maneuver, Gloria reacted with a mix of panic and annoyance, glaring at the culprit with her striking eyes.
"Black!"
Wrapping an arm around Gloria's waist, Sirius found her struggle mixed with the fear of falling utterly adorable—she looked just like a cat with its fur on end. He deliberately decided to tease her.
"Don't be like that. Brooms are easy to learn. Don't you want to see this kind of scenery from the sky? Don't be scared."
His tone carried a hint of coaxing and reassurance, but Gloria was clearly in no mood to listen. She certainly wanted to see the view, but not so abruptly, without an ounce of mental preparation.
"I don't want to! Let me go!"
Sirius's eyes twinkled. "Are you sure? All right then."
With that, he loosened his grip around her waist, acting as if he were letting go of the protective railing beside her. Suddenly deprived of any support, Gloria's body tilted. Seeing she was about to lose her balance, she let out a shriek and instinctively wrapped her arms around Sirius, burying her face in his chest with her eyes tightly shut.
Feeling the young girl's embrace, Sirius grinned even wider, letting out an irrepressible laugh.
Hearing him, Gloria instantly realized she had been played. She raised a hand and pinched his waist hard, finally venting her anger when she heard him grimace in pain.
By now her mood had settled somewhat. She peeked her head out from Sirius's embrace and looked around. Actually, Sirius wasn't flying very high, but she could see the lawn and the Black Lake, and the other students darting about below. The wind blowing against her face felt wonderfully free. As she embraced the sensation of the wind, she couldn't hide the smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
Watching her smile, Sirius's gaze lingered in her blue eyes.
Later on, he could take her to see the Muggle ocean; she would probably like it. Time seemed to slow down. Sirius loved this moment.
They possessed matching souls, and of course, he looked forward to an equal measure of love growing between them as well.
Pristine white and purest black.
Blazing red and deep, profound green.
Silently proclaiming that they were a match made in heaven.
Yet time would not pause like a painting.
In the end, Sirius rubbed the waist that Gloria had viciously pinched a second time, watching her retreating figure with a look of utter satisfaction—something that repeatedly made James suspect that his best friend must have had his brains scrambled by a single flying class.
Despite the fright she had received, Gloria certainly wasn't going to tell Sirius how thoroughly exhilarated she had actually felt.
For a period after that, those notorious point-deductors seemed to have turned over a new leaf. Gloria frequently spotted them in the library. Merlin's beard, while their grades were far from terrible, seeing these habitual rule-breakers sitting properly and reading books was nothing short of surreal.
"Since we're going to do something this cool, coupled with our past adventures, shouldn't we have a resounding name?"
Passing by them one day, Gloria overheard James dropping his voice so as not to incur Madam Pince's wrath.
Gloria wanted to take back her thought about it being surreal; they clearly weren't studying properly at all. Her gaze drifted past Sirius to land on Remus Lupin's pale face and his strange scars, a thoughtful look crossing her eyes. But naturally, Gloria never poked her nose into other people's business.
Not long after that, the grand name of the Marauders swept through the entire school.
Holding her books as she walked past, Gloria thought to herself, "What Marauders? They're clearly just a bunch of scoundrels."
Of course, that description applied specifically to Sirius Black.