For a Pessimist I'm Pretty Optimistic (OPEN)

[CAELIE NAOMI MEADOWS]

Caelie Meadows may have been an active child and a far more adventurous one than some of her fellow Ravenclaws, but since she didn't have any specific plans that particular afternoon, she could be found sitting on the lawns under a tree with a good book. It was an old book, the pages were yellow with age and the spine was well worn from many readings. It was laced strategically between the nimble, soft, mocha colored fingers of Caelie's hands. She was curled up beneath a solitary tree at the edge of the lawns.

Her muscles were beginning to cramp, though, and despite the autumn season, it was pretty warm outside. Setting her book down for a moment, she took off her outer black robes and removed the gray house sweater she had put on habitually that morning, assuming wit would be colder outside or the stone walls of the castle would chill the halls. She folded the sweater, placed it on top of the discarded robe and arched her back, stretching her arms up and to the either side of her head. Her body trembled a little as she stretched her muscles hard, feeling the bittersweet pull. Relaxing them, she rotated her neck once or twice before cracking it from side to side and rotating her shoulders back and then forth. Yes, that all felt much better. She couldn’t let her muscles get too stiff, it wasn’t good for her. She decided it would be better to take a break from reading for a while, stretching her legs out in front of her. She made sure to keep her legs together, though, to keep any onlookers from seeing up her skirt. That was the last thing she needed.

Caelie let out a loud yawn and too a break to look around the lawns. It was more than pleasant outside. The sun was shining behind thin clouds so it wasn't obnoxious or harsh. There was a light, comfortable breeze blowing gently over the lawns and the air was clear. It was definitely nice, more than nice, really and it was probably going to be the nicest day until spring came around. She would have to go for a flying session later before it got too late. But there were probably a ton of Quidditch players out there at this peak hour. She was patient, though. She could wait. She might even pull together some other players and have a friendly match without the restrictions or separations of Houses to get in the way. Merlin, they might even play without keeping score. It would be fun, though. Caelie wondered how many of her fellow athletes were free at the moment or would be free later.

[• SIRIUS ORION BLACK]

Sirius was up a tree and, no; it was not because he had chased a cat up it. Believe it or not, as much as he enjoyed the company of his three best friends, at times he liked to have a bit of solo mischief making. Besides, he was mad at two of them for not making an effort to contact him over the summer. They knew how horrible Sirius' family was and yet, James was the only one who bother to write. Of course, Sirius could never voice his resentful feelings towards the other two because that just wasn't his style. Sirius Black expressing any sort of emotion other than lust or insidiousness was simply out of the question.

So, up the tree he was, hoping that maybe an unfortunate Slytherin would pop a squat beneath him and be left to his mercy for he had a number of things in mind that could be dropped on someone's head. The person who sat beneath Sirius was not, in fact, a Slytherin. It was a Ravenclaw and it also was a girl. From a view from above, Sirius could only see so much of the girl; mostly hair, skin color, and shoes but not much of a face. All the branches in the way were helping either, but he could tell that she was a babe. Definitetly fourth year or older. With the hair, skin, age, and house in mind, he went through his mental inventory of hot girls at Hogwarts to figure out who this chick was.

Black hair, dark skin, older student, Ravenclaw. Only one girl in Sirius' mental inventory matched all of these characteristics; Caelie Meadows. Not to be confused with Dorcas Meadows, Caelie's twin sister who was in Hufflepuff and who also had a very unfortunate name. Caelie was on the Ravenclaw quidditch team, a seeker if he remembered correctly. He expected that her and James had to be rivals since they were seekers on opposing teams. Sirius, however, had no issue with this as he was not the one who had to face her in quidditch matches.

Sirius allowed Caelie some time to get comfortable before making his move, then, without warning, he hopped out of the tree and landed right in front of the Ravenclaw with a loud thud.

"Hello there!" he said loudly to enhance the shock that the girl would, no doubt, have.

[CAELIE NAOMI MEADOWS]

Caelie was lost in her thoughts, eyes wandering over the lawns and observing nature. She'd let her guard down, which was never a good idea in the best of circumstances. Now was, more than likely, a perfect example. As she sat there, relaxed, leaning back against the tree trunk behind her, a blur of black and gray appeared in her vision with a loud "Hello there!" and a thud.

The sudden appearance of Sirius Black caused a series of reactions. All at once her muscles tensed up, her legs pulled upward, her back arched forward, her arms lifted, a somewhat high pitched shout emitted from her throat and she lost her balance a little. All of these muscular spasms cause her to fall to the side. With a disgruntled look on her face, Caelie scowled at the pretty boy Gryffindor through strands of loose black hair.

“Thank you,” she said sarcastically. “I was beginning to worry that this was going to be a peaceful afternoon on the lawns with a book and a breeze. I appreciate you rescuing me from that.” Her displeasure at being surprised was genuine but the idea that she was not happy to see the rebellious Black boy was a façade. To be truthful, it was pretty exhilarating. She had a secret thing for him from afar. She was pretty sure it was all physical attraction, of course, so she didn’t want to get too close or attached. This particular display of childishness reinforced this idea but it didn’t cause the flutters in her stomach associated with attraction to subside. Mentally, she sighed. She must not let him see the affect he had on her. He had a pretty big head as it was. He obviously considered himself irresistible and she absolutely refused to feed into his inflated ego. If anything, she should bring him down a few notches. That should hide her affection as well as hopefully put the idea of pursuing her out of his mind. Of course, she secretly hoped she was wrong but…No! Stop it, Caelie. That’s a bad train of thought.

As all of these thoughts were racing through her mind, she kept an annoyed look on her face as she collected herself and smoothed out her uniform, hoping her skirt hadn’t moved in such a way as to leave the underside exposed during her surprised set of spasms. That would just be embarrassing.

[• SIRIUS ORION BLACK]

Upon Caelie's reaction to his sudden appearance, Sirius tilted his head back and burst into loud, bark life laughter. Her reactions had been perfect! Textbook even! It had every attribute of the reaction he had been looking for; the yelp, the arms, the falling over, everything! Part of him did feel a little bad for giving her such a shock, but it's not like he hurt her or anything! She'll get over it; he was far too pretty to stay mad at.

"Sorry!" he said breathlessly as he wiped a tear of laughter away from his eye, "I was just afraid that you were falling asleep; what if you slept through a class? It would really be a shame if someone with a perfect record, like you, got a tardy for being late for a lesson. I really had your best interests in mind here. And so what if I got a little chuckle out of it? It's a win win situation." Caelie seemed rather cross at him, but that was nothing one of his girl-melting smiles couldn't fix. He flashed the girl his famous toothy grin to make up for his offense. He knew the Ravenclaw would see his excuse as bullshit, but at least it had charm. Most girls, as hard as they try, could not resist his charm. They may hide their attraction for him, but they all fell for him eventually.

Caelie was one of those girls that was a bit difficult to read, but that only made her all the more appealing to Sirius. That and the fact that she was smoking hot! If he were to rank her amoung the other girls in the school, Caelie was easily in the top five, which was difficult for a non-blond to get into. Sirius did have a thing for blonds, but Caelie was just hot enough for him to over look the dark hair, in fact, she actually made him really like dark hair.

Sirius took a seat against the tree, next to Caelie. She smelled good; it was an unusually floral scent for a young woman, but it some how suited her. Most of the time, Sirius found that young girls either had a sweet, candy like smell or a fruity smell. Usually, the heavy floral scents were for older woman, but Caelie's floral smelled a bit more. . .tropical. He liked it. Sirius sort of had a thing for how a girl smelled, partially because learning to turn into a dog had increase his sense of smell so if a girl even had the slightest trace of body order, he was immediately turned off.

"So, did you miss seeing my face over the summer?" he asked jokingly as he made himself comfortable by half laying on the ground with only his upper back and head resting against the tree, "or perhaps it was a welcome break?" he smirked to himself.

[CAELIE NAOMI MEADOWS]

Caelie rolled her eyes at his laughter and adjust herself a little more before sighing. When she looked back at him she was met with what was becoming an infamously charming smile. A small knot formed somewhere in her stomach and she inwardly raged at herself. Outwardly, She looked at him unimpressed, adjusting her legs into a more comfortable sitting position. Once she was adjusted, listening to how he “had her best interests in mind,” she sighed pseudo-patiently and gave him a look. She allowed him to sit next to her (inwardly fighting the growing knot in her stomach.) and shook her head a little. He was so full of himself sometimes. Thank Merlin for his bad qualities or she’d be reduced to one of those empty-headed babbling harpies she hated so much.

“Why no,” she said mostly for her own amusement. “No more than reason. I took no more pains in not seeing you than you take pains in not seeing me.” She smiled a little both about the fact that he would probably be confused and how she could so easily adjust the works of William Shakespeare to suit her needs. Of course, she didn’t hold Sirius’ ignorance of the Bard against him. He had no access to things of that nature and as much as she assumed that he wouldn’t bother even if he did, one couldn’t hold assumptions against a person.

She wondered to herself how that statement was reflected upon. Did he miss her face over the summer? Did he think about her at all? Surely not, with all the busty blonds at his disposal over the school year and who knows what during the summer. He must have had tons of distractions and her face couldn’t possibly stand out in his memory among what must be hundreds of doting bimbos and shy smiles, giggles, winks, blown kisses, passed notes and whispered confessions. No, Caelie’s dark complexion and less-than shiny, flowing hair probably only came to his mind when he saw it in front of him, if then. Her humble looks must dwindle in comparison to the beauties he’d seen. She consoled herself with the thought that it probably wouldn’t end well if he did feel about her the way she did about him. He was far too proud and boastful. She’d never be secure in the relationship and to him it would be purely physical. She’d be a toy and she couldn’t take that. It wasn’t in her to settle for half of the equation. She wanted it all and Sirius Black was the last person she knew likely to give her that.

[• SIRIUS ORION BLACK]

"Oh,but you're wrong," said Sirius, shaking his head with a sly smirk. "Over the summer months, I have to admit, that my mind does begin to wander over to what I'm missing at school. And, I'm not talking about the old relics and getting yelled at; I get plenty of it at home. I'm talking about some of the more. . . enchanting women we have around here. Would it be too bold to say that I count you among them?" For once, Sirius Black was being perfectly honest; he had thought about Caelie over break, but it wasn't in the fashion that she would like him to. He wasn't the type of guy to constantly pine over one girl, like his good friend James with that Evans chick. Sirius' mind was almost always tuned to women and there were a few around the castle that Sirius liked to keep his eye on. Over the summer, he missed scouting his select few. Christ, the only women he got to see over break were his bloody cousins! Could you blame him for fantasizing about what he missed.

Contrary to what Caelie believed, Sirius didn't always go for the blond-haired, big-boobed bimbos, though, that's what the many posters in his room may suggest. He only had that particular persona to agitate his parents. Sirius always got a kick out of the disgusted looks his parents would give the muggle posters of bikini models he had plastered all over his walls. He also too a leaf out of his parents book and took a permanent sticking charm on the pictures. Another, less permanent method of annoyance he used was that he loved to leave the muggle magazine, Playboy laying in the bathroom. His brother was usually the one to discover those which always provided him was great entertainment. But, those woman were actually a little too garish for him. Sirius preferred a more, realistic woman, not plain or ordinary, just less manufactured. Sometimes having the photos around did get to him and make him think that that's what he wanted. It would only take a few days at school to set him straight again. Besides, like he was going to run into a Playboy bunny at hogwarts! It was best to simply be realistic with his desires.

One thing Caelie was complete spot on with was Sirius view on relationships. The boy absolutely avoided them like the plague. Sirius was more of a strictly physical being, partially because he was young and just wanted to have fun and a very small part of it was due to the fact that he was scared. He was scared that he actually may show some vulnerability when he was with a girl he really liked. Sirius Black was not the type to show weakness and he wasn't about to start. In a way, he was protecting himself and the girls that fawned over him. It was better sleep with a girl and have her be angry at him for not 'calling' that to risk breaking both their hearts.