She Isn't Worth It

Disclaimer: Don't own it, not even the idea; I got it from something going on between something my friend told me about a guy she knows and his girlfriend.

Summary: Taylor is tired of Sirius being so upset over Leah, and decides to take things into her own hands, SBOC

Taylor Cummings opened her eyes wearily; she glanced around the Common Room and from her vantage point from the couch, she saw that it was empty. She sat up and wiped at her eyes, annoyed that she had fallen asleep on the couch reading again, it was the third time this week. She propped her elbows on her knees and put her head in her hands, watching the embers smolder in the fireplace. She knew she should go up to bed, but she didn't feel like it. Something was telling her to wait by the fire for a little while longer, and she wasn't about to argue with it, because for the first time all day, she finally felt calm.

She had been stressed ever since getting out of bed this morning when Lily had rushed in, shook her awake, and informed her that Transfiguration was starting in ten minutes. Taylor bolted out of bed, and managed to get her uniform on properly, minus the shoes, the outer layer of robes and her hat, but she scooped them all together and grabbed her bag and as she ran she attempted to finish getting dressed. She had just managed to put her last shoe on when Lily opened the door, the bell had rung right before they got to the corridor, and she tumbled in tripping over her robes and tried to steady herself on the door, but it was in the middle of swinging open and she missed and ended up knocking Lily over and pulling things off of desks, as they both landed on the floor. The snickering and scolding that followed was not something that Taylor wished to relive.

She didn't have any breaks that day, so she went through one stressful class after another, and was taunted all day by Sirius and James, Remus tried not to laugh, but he really couldn't help it. By the time Defense Against the Dark Arts, one of the classes Taylor had the most trouble with, was over, she was ready to take a long walk off of the Astronomy Tower just for five minutes of peace. In her last class of the day, Potions, she realized that she had put everything in her bag except for her potions materials, and text, and was forced to share with Severus Snape.

At dinner, James wouldn't stop pestering her about her show-stopping entrance in Transfiguration or about why she didn't prank Snape in potions when she had such a perfect opportunity. That combined with Sirius sucking face with Leah right across from her for the entire meal, made her lose her appetite so she missed all three meals that day. At lunch Leah was completely ignoring Sirius and any attempt of his to talk to her, because as she was flirting shamelessly with any boy in the Great Hall above fifth year. So Taylor ended up dragging him out of the hall for a walk around the lake to boost his spirits.

Just as she was about to get up to go down to the kitchens to get something to eat, she heard a creak on the loose floor board behind her. She whirled around and saw a sheepish looking Sirius.

"I didn't mean to disrupt you." He said looking down at the floor.

Taylor raised an eyebrow; he must still be upset over Leah, not that she deserved it. She was only going out with Sirius to make herself more popular, everyone knew it, except for Sirius really, but no one would mention it to him as long as Leah was still making him happy. "Its fine, how long were you standing there?" Taylor asked after a while, motioning for Sirius to come and sit with her.

"Only about five minutes." He said, shrugging as he sat down, "You looked calm and peaceful, and I didn't want to disturb you."

"You're disturbing enough as it is," Taylor joked. When Sirius didn't laugh she sighed and said, "You were supposed to laugh at that. It was a joke, you know, a laughter inducing sentence." When she still got no response to this but a shrug of the shoulders, she sighed and added, "This is about Leah isn't it."

Sirius whipped his head around sharply in order to face her, and then went back to staring into the flames.

"I'll take that as a yes." Taylor mumbled before raising her voice and saying, "Why do you even like her! She's no good for you Sirius; you deserve so much better then her!" Taylor paused and waited for a response and the only one she got was for Sirius to hunch even more over the before. She decided that was good enough and continued on.

"Sirius look at me." She waited for him to turn his head but he didn't, so she decided to get his attention, "Sirius!" when he finally turned his head, she said, "You deserve better, you deserve someone who makes you laugh, who understands you, who knows you practically inside and out, who you know inside and out. Leah doesn't deserve you, and you don't deserve what she's doing to you. Anyone who puts you through that much pain shouldn't be worth it." Taylor realized that she was saying that last part to him as much as she was to herself, it had always killed her to see Sirius with other girls, but especially Leah, but she had never known why, but she finally figured it out.

"How would you know?" Sirius said somewhat bitterly.

"Because there's a person that I care about very much who probably doesn't know I'm anything other then a good mate. And it kills me every time I'm forced to realize this." Taylor said in all honesty as she stared down at her hands.

"Do you still like this bloke?" Sirius asked, seemingly glad that the conversation had been pointed towards her love life, instead of his.

"Yea. I haven't seemed to master the art of walking away, yet." Taylor added the yet on, sadly and hesitantly, she wasn't sure if she really wanted to walk away from Sirius.

"So who is he?" Sirius asked after a long pause.

"Why?" Taylor asked quickly, half from shock, half from fear that she gave away too much.

"So that I can go beat him up and tell him to treat you right."

"You can't beat him up." Taylor said quietly, "Although that would be funny to watch."

"Why would it be funny, you don't think I can do it?"

"No I do, it's just that, well you would be too evenly matched."

"I could still beat him up."

Taylor shook her head at Sirius' macho-ness, and said, "I'm going to bed, g'night Sirius."

"'Night Taylor." He responded staring into the flames once again, with a very reflective look on his face.

Taylor hoped that he would take her advice and just dump Leah. She knew that might sound selfish, but it really was for his own good, he'd stop being in such pain, and not be so moody all of the time. Those thoughts occupied her as she got ready for bed. Lily and Elizabeth groaned as she opened the door and turned on the light long enough to find her pajamas, but they simply rolled over and ignored her after that. After lying down she had barely shut her eyes before drifting off to sleep.

Lunch was so nice the next day that Lily, Elizabeth, and Taylor decided to go sit outside by the lake to eat. The Marauders agreed with the idea and followed after them quickly. Taylor had groaned almost audibly because she had wanted to use the time to talk to Lily and Liz about her newly admitted feelings for Sirius, now though with Sirius so nearby, there was no way that could happen.

Liz had shot me a weird look when she saw Taylor's expression and mouthed to her, 'We'll talk later.'

Taylor gave a half smile and mouthed back, 'looking forward to it.'

James plopped down next to Taylor and put an arm around her shoulder. Taylor's eyebrows shot up into her hairline, and she looked at him with an expression of blended amusement, shock, and confusion.

"What on God's green earth do you think you're doing Potter?" Taylor asked, a little more amused then usual seeing as how Lily was currently glaring at James and sending looks towards her that clearly stated; 'Get him off you! He's mine!'

"My arm was tired, so I decided to rest it on your shoulders of course."

Taylor blinked a couple of times and then said; "Rest it on Remus' shoulders, his shoulders look cold," After pushing him off of her.

"My shoulders are actually quite warm thanks." Remus said as he threw a napkin at Taylor.

James pouted playfully and whined, "But Remus, my arm is tired!"

Taylor noticed how quiet Sirius was being and then she looked over to where he was staring, Leah was pushed up against the tree making out with some bloke from Hufflepuff. Taylor grimaced and stared at Sirius' stony expression, if you didn't know Sirius, you wouldn't know that if you looked in his eyes and you could see any emotion he was currently feeling, and his eyes held a look of immense pain.

She couldn't take seeing that, so she got up, walked deliberately over to Leah, and once she attained the girl's attention, she hit her.

Looking back hours later, Taylor isn't going to be able to pin-point the one reason that made her get up off the ground and storm over there immediately and attack her. It could have been the fact that Leah and Taylor never got along, or the fact that Leah happened to be kissing her ex-boyfriend. But she thought the biggest factor could be the way that Leah had been treating Sirius, and all of the pain that Sirius was going through.

Sitting there in the Headmasters office, she felt no regrets, only relief. She finally took care of a problem that had been bugging her more then she realized it had been. She felt more at ease and free then she had in a very long time. She felt a bit of embarrassment for getting into a total catfight with Sirius' girlfriend, although she knew Leah was his ex now. Sirius had said time and again when she had gone through the same thing that he would never stand for being cheated on and he would never cheat on anyone. And Sirius was always a man of his word, unless he had his fingers crossed.

When the headmaster asked her why she had attacked Leah Summers, all she could do was shrug and say, "She was breaking him emotionally, and I wasn't going to sit around and watch it anymore. I couldn't." and then almost as if it were an afterthought she added, "I love him."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled a little brighter if possible and said, "Well you'll have to have a week's detention where you'll clean the trophy room and I think that you should take the rest of the day off to think about your actions. I recommend hiding in the kitchens, that way Professor McGonagall will think that I'm still reprimanding you. Your detention starts at the same time supper does." Dumbledore said this with a wink and shooed me out the door before classes got out.

Taylor hid in the back of the kitchens all day and avoided everyone but the house elves. Sometimes she could swear that Dumbledore was more amused by most of the things the students did in Hogwarts. And she was also pretty sure that he sent her down to the kitchens on purpose, knowing that she didn't feel like having a run in with anybody. The man had her respect forever.

Detention had been horrible for her as all detentions usually were, so she wasn't surprised there. And then finally at midnight Filch finally allowed her to drag herself up to Gryffindor tower to go to bed.

Taylor had just pulled herself through the portrait hole, and was halfway to the steps of the girls' dormitory when she heard him speak.

"Why did you do it?"

Taylor jumped and put her hand to her heart and said, "God you scared me Sirius. I thought everyone would be asleep, its midnight and a Wednesday!"

"Just answer the question Taylor; I've been trying to figure it out all day, so just answer the question."

Taylor sighed and looked straight into his piercing gaze and said, "Because I couldn't stand around and watch what she was doing to you anymore. Because it kills me to see her put you in that much pain and although I know that anyone who puts you through that much pain isn't worth it, I just can't seem to make myself move on. Maybe today was just another attempt in that, I don't know. But I do know that when love enters the mix all the rules go out the window." And with that Taylor went to bed. It wasn't until she woke up in the morning that she realized she had admitted that she loved him.

Maybe it was the events of yesterday, or the fact that she hadn't been sleeping well for the past few days, or the fact that she was so exhausted she had been walking with her eyes closed for the last ten minutes of her trip to the Gryffindor tower, close to the wall though so that she could know when she reached the end of the corridor, or it could be that she finally stopped caring, but whatever the reason, she knew that she hadn't meant to admit in some way that she loved him, and that something had loosened her tongue.

Taylor groaned and Lily looked over from where she was brushing her hair at her vanity.

"Rough night with Filch Tay?" Liz asked, towel drying her hair as she walked out of the bathroom.

Taylor shuddered knowing that Liz said that exactly how she wanted it to sound. "Eww, that's not why I'm groaning, I'm groaning because I'm a huge idiot."

"Well we already knew that. So why this time?" Lily asked laughing as she got up from her vanity and bounced onto Taylor's bed; they both got up extremely early for absolutely no reason, probably so that they could obsess over James and Remus in quiet or something.

"'Cause somehow Sirius got me to admit to him that I loved him last night." Taylor said as she groaned and flopped back down onto her bed and pulled her pillow over her face and Lily and Elizabeth heard a muffled, "Tell McGonagall I died from excessive trophy rubbing or something."

Lily and Elizabeth exchanged looks and said "We'll bring you something from breakfast. Get dressed now in case it doesn't work."

They left and Taylor got up knowing that they were probably right and got ready, by the time that they came back up, it was time for her to go to breakfast anyway, which meant that she would probably run into Sirius if she left now. The knowledge of this fact cemented her butt firmly to her bed.

The girls ate in silence on her bed and while they were all getting their books together Liz decided now was the time to question her.

"So why have you never told us you fancied Sirius? I mean, we knew you hung out with him a lot when you weren't with us, but we figured that was because u didn't feel like hanging out around me and Remus, or deal with James and Lily fighting."

"Because I just figured it out two days ago." Taylor said simply, and then added, "I was going to tell you at lunch yesterday, but, well you know how well that went."

Liz snorted and said, "That punch was amazing, I didn't know you had such a good right hook in you. You're always spouting out crap about how violence is not the answer."

"That's our dearest prefect Lily. Although I don't punch people, I prefer to throw heavy weights at their heads." Taylor said smiling as we walked out the door.

Lily laughed and said, "I shouldn't be condoning this, but I actually agree."

"HAH I KNEW YOU WEREN'T SUCH A PERFECT PREFECT!" Liz yelled and somehow managed to do a victory dance down the steps.

Lily smacked her upside the head and said, "I never said I was that's just the crap I tell Potter so he'll think I don't like him."

Liz sighed and said, "I will never understand your logic."

"That's because she has none." Taylor said as the walked through the common room.

Lily smacked them both upside the head and kept walking.

"So, what are you going to do about Sirius?" Liz asked as they climbed through the portrait hole.

"Avoid him." Taylor said simply. Liz and Lily exchanged glances, but left it at that.

About three weeks later Taylor and Sirius were still avoiding each other like one would avoid a trip to the dentist to get their teeth drilled without Novocain. After three weeks though, Sirius seemed to think that enough was enough and try to talk to Taylor, but she always managed to avoid him. But finally it was raining outside and he managed to corner her.

Taylor was spinning around in the middle of the grounds in the rain when she heard someone screaming her name. She knew it was him, and she was tired of running, he'd catch here anyway, he was faster then her.

She stopped spinning when he got closer to her and he let her stand there, regaining her balance.

"Yes Sirius?"

"Did you mean it?"

"Did I mean what?"

"What you said, that night after you got back from detention, did you mean it?"

"I knew what you're talking about, but what part?"

"All of it, any of it, did you mean it?"

Taylor drew in a breath and then sighed as she let it out, "Yes. Every word."

"Do you still mean it?"

"Yea, I do." Taylor whispered and then suddenly her whole demeanor changed back to defensive and she said, "What's your point Sirius? Why are you here?"

Sirius brought his hand up to her chin and tilted her head up to look at him and leaned down and kissed her, and then murmured against her lips, "I love you, and if you'll have me, I'd like to be your boyfriend."

Taylor almost laughed it sounded so corny but she whispered back, "I think you already know the answer to that, but yes, I will 'have you' as you put it." And with that Sirius kissed her soundly.

When they were walking back to the school, hand in hand Sirius said to her, "Now that you're my girlfriend I think you should know that you probably deserve better but at least I make you laugh so hard you cry, I understand you, and I'd like to think I know you practically inside and out. I know you know me inside and out."

Taylor laughed and said, "Even though I probably do deserve better, all I want is you." And with that the two of them walked into Hogwarts.

A/N: I don't know where I'm going with this this will probably stay a one shot, but if you wantI could write different one shots about different points in this couples relationship. Review and tell me what you want, and leave an idea for a oneshot if you want to.