Chapter Seven - Forgiveness and Stuff

"Sure, what's up?"

"Not here. Let's go to our room."

Lily frowned at her with a somewhat concerned expression on her face. "Mare, are you alright?"

She smiled and nodded, reassuring it had nothing to do with her. "Of course, I'm fine. I just want to discuss something with you. But not here."

Lily nodded, still looking a bit puzzled as they crawled up from the floor. They told the guys and Brice they were calling it a night and going to bed. Everybody told them goodnight except James, who merely raised a hand and waved absent-mindedly while continuing his passionate monologue on his latest Headboy-plan to throw the biggest Christmas party Hogwarts had ever seen.

Sirius on the other hand did not seem be there at all. He was also no longer trying to listen to James, but stared into the fire with a gloomy look on his face. Lily, who was still watching James with a (surprisingly) amused look on her face, did not notice any of this. But it was Sirius's sour expression that convinced Mary she was going to do the right thing by confiding in Lily and telling her what had happened to him over the Summer.

She pulled her best friend by the arm and the two girls walked up the stairs to their dormitory in silence, passing a group of chatting fourth years on their way. Their dormitory was near the very top of the tower and when they walked inside, they noticed the elves had already put their trunks in front of their beds; ready to be unpacked.

Mary's cat Coco was snoozing on her pillow. Mary walked over to her four-poster bed, flopped down on the edge and started scratching the cat behind the ears, which made her roll over and start to purr contently. Lily decided to sit down on her own bed, which was right next to Mary's one. "So what did you want to talk about?"

Mary sighed and gave Coco a tiny peck on the head before looking up at her friend. "Tonight at dinner, after you and James had left with McGonagall, something happened."

Lily looked intrigued. "What?"

"Well, basically we continued talking about why Death Eaters are so keen on attacking Muggle-borns. Brice blamed the old pureblood crazy families and said they were the ones responsible for Voldemort's rise in popularity. But then... Did you not notice Sirius was awfully quiet tonight?"

She shrugged. "Now that you mention, yeah, I guess he was. Why?"

Mary shifted back on her bed and crossed her legs while leaning backwards against one of the poles. "He did mention something disturbing about his family later on."

Lily arched an eyebrow. "About the Blacks being fond of their pureblood status? That's no news to anyone, rather a well-known fact."

"I know, but then Peter blurted out something stupid and Sirius got all... Well… Lil, exactly how often have you been writing him this past Summer?"

"Three or four times, I don't really remember."

"And he was with the Potters the entire time?"

"Yes, he usually spends his Summers with James. Why d'you ask?"

Mary frowned while thoughtfully stroking Coco's back. "And he never mentioned anything about his parents to you...Nothing at all?"

"No. Look," she said, getting impatient, "are you going to tell me what this is about or not?"

Mary hardly noticed the impatience in Lily's voice as she continued stroking Coco for a moment. Her mind could have been miles away. So Sirius had not said anything to Lily about walking out on his family, which did not really surprise her all that much. Sirius just was not one of those guys who had no trouble sharing their thoughts and inner musings with their friends. However, Mary knew what she saw in that one moment they had looked at each other at dinner: Sirius was in pain even though he rather not say anything about it.

But Mary still firmly believed he would feel better if he talked to someone. For obvious reasons that person could not be her and she did not think Brice would be up for offering that much support either. And of the three of them, he was obviously closest to Lily. "Sirius's parents disowned him," she said as she was lifting Coco and putting the cat down on her lap. "They basically made it impossible for him to stay there any longer."

"Oh." Lily was silent for a moment and rubbed her nose. "Well, no surprises there. We all knew it would come to something like this in the end. Sirius always hated being at Grimmauld Place."

"That may be, but he just looked so depressed. Of course he was trying to hide it and did a tremendous job at playing cool, but there was had one weak moment and that's when I figured it out. He's in pain, Lil, I really think you should talk to him."

Lily was thoughtfully playing with her necklace when she said: "As far as I know Sirius doesn't exactly enjoy talking about his relatives and we're not that close. I think all he needs is some time and space."

"But-"

"-Besides," she continued stubbornly while narrowing her eyes at Mary, "you don't even like him. Why do you care so much?"

That was a good question. She had been wondering why the fact Sirius walking out on his family was affecting her so much. The only reason Mary could think of was that she had grown up in a really close family. Both her parents had always been very supportive of her being a witch or anything else she did or wanted to do. She could not imagine them kicking her out of their house. And Mary was very proud of Jenna, her younger sister. The little girl was also a witch and would be coming to Hogwarts next year. But if she was being truly honest with herself, Mary realized she was mostly just feeling bad for Sirius. No matter the womanizing prat he used to be, no one – not even someone as arrogant as Sirius Black - deserved to be treated like this by his own parents. She shrugged. "Because even though he can be a total ass, he didn't deserve any of this. No one does."

Lily shot her a shrewd look. "You sure, Mare? Because if you ask me, you're about to fall for him after all."

"Me? Never!" Mary cried, who quickly picked up her pillow and chucked it straight at her friend's face to distract her from noticing that Mary's cheeks were beet red. The sudden movement caused Coco to slide off the bed. The cat flicked her tail in an annoyed manner, jumped right on top of the window-sill and flopped down there instead.

In the meantime Lily had grabbed her wand. She was charming the pillow so it would chase its owner around the room. A grinning Mary had to duck several times and eventually hide behind her trunk in order to not be hit by her own pillow. She watched Lily change into her pyjamas before deciding that, now she was in a good hiding place, it would be safe to change the subject. "And that was coming from you, miss "Potter, I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it!"

Now it was Lily's turn to blush. After she carefully straightened her pillow and had crawled into bed, she said: "I suppose you're right. Today I realized James freaking Potter can actually be a nice and charming guy, without acting like an arrogant prat who curses anyone who bores him or has the annoying habit of asking me out by shouting the invitation throughout the Great Hall."

"And today I found out that beyond Sirius Back's infamous arrogant personality, there might be a real person hiding in there with actual feelings," Mary replied as she finished changing into her pyjamas and climbed into her bed while trying to wrestle down her pillow. And with the most incredible smile I've ever seen.

"You know what," Lily said as she lazily flicked her wand to lift the charm on the pillow. 'Maybe those guys aren't so bad after all. Maybe we should give them a break."

Mary shrugged before bursting out laughing.

"What?" Lily asked curiously.

"I just realized we have been calling them by their first names the entire time."

Lily snorted. "How odd. It could be a sign. Clearwater (their Divination professor at Hogwarts) would probably think it is."

Mary, who did not think much of professor Clearwater or Divination, huffed. "She's just an old hag with a good judge of character. But... Okay, here's the deal. From now on, I'll try really hard to be nicer Sirius, as long as you promise to not snap at James, no matter what happens."

"Deal!" Lily replied grinning and she held out her hand to seal their agreement. Mary reached out her arm too so she could shake her friend's hand, but the distance between their beds was so big that their fingertips only touched each other briefly.

They both laughed. At that very moment, the door opened and a sniggering Brice walked in. Lily sat up straight and asked their what was so funny. "Oh, you're gonna kill James, Lily. He is now convinced this year's Christmas Ball should be a costume party. But that's not it: he's boasting the two of you will be named the "Royal Couple". The King and Queen of house-elves, that is."

Lily frowned. "Why in the name of Merlin-"

"No wait, you didn't hear the best part yet. Since you'll be house-elf royalty, you should be wearing exactly the same clothes as your noble subjects. Everyone down in the Common Room are up for it. Most of them guys, come to think of it," she said thoughtfully while flopping down on her bed. "Heh, I bet they just cannot wait to see you wearing nothing more than a tablecloth!"

She burst out laughing again when she noticed the horrorstruck look on Lily's face. Mary on the other hand was just remembering the pact they had made mere moments ago and started to laugh hysterically. Because no matter how Lily really felt about James's latest stupid move, she could never really give him a piece of her mind.