A/N: And here is Chapter 12! You find out much of what happened over summer in this chapter, and much more! This chapter is definitely dedicated to CrescentMoon12 for being my most faithful reviewer! Thanks so much!
Forever Young
Chapter 12: Secrets of a Brooklyn Terrence
Sirius tossed and turned in his bed for a good, long month after coming back to school. Brooklyn's face, shocked and hurt, kept coming back to him. His mother's words at that party, harsh and clipped, rang like church bells in his ears. He didn't know why he was so upset, but somehow, he felt that it was his fault. Several times, he tried to write his mother a letter about the incident, blaming her, accusing her, but Sirius could never quite put the words down on paper. He wanted his mother to tell him she was wrong. Or even tell him she was right and explain how. That would at least put a rest to his troubles. He wanted to understand. He wanted it to be his fault, so he could then apologize to Brooklyn for something he'd done. Most of all, he wanted to know that Brooklyn was all right.
Finally, he decided he couldn't hold it in any longer. One Friday evening, when the common room was packed, Sirius found James in their corner by the window. The bespectacled boy was chewing the top of his quill and staring fixatedly at the blank paper before him.
"What's that?" asked Sirius, gesturing at the parchment.
"Bloody Charms paper. No idea how to do it. Give me an excuse to stop," James groaned.
"I've got one. I can't bloody talk to her," Sirius muttered, wringing his hands. "I have no idea why." He sat down on the arm of the chair James occupied, and glared at the red and gold floor.
"Brooklyn?" James asked.
With a scoff, Sirius rolled his eyes and looked back at his clueless friend. "Obviously! After my wonderful mum said that stuff to her at Charlie's party, I dunno if she hates me or wants to talk about it or just wants to never talk to me again! And I can't talk to her!"
James sighed and clapped his friend on the back. "It's probably 'cause it's just too awkward or something. I mean, it was really a show-stopper there at the party."
"Why does my mum have to do that?" he wondered miserably. "I mean, she's all about appearances. Couldn't she see that it was embarrassing for us? I still feel weird about it! It's like it's my fault!"
"It's not your fault," James said immediately. "You didn't do anything at all."
"Exactly!" Sirius cried. "Maybe I should've, I dunno, stood up for her or something. I just-just couldn't. Not to my mother."
"It's all right," reassured James. "I'm sure Brooklyn doesn't blame you. It was a while ago. She's probably over it now, anyway."
Sirius gave a heavy sigh.
"Oh!" James exclaimed suddenly. "You should talk to Charlie!"
"Charlie?" he replied, baffled. "What good would that do?"
"Well, you know, it's…a girl thing. Something about, if you wanna get to the girl, you talk to the best friend. Only that's like, dating advice…but I'm sure it works for this sort of thing too!"
"Did Harley tell you that?" Sirius asked, amused.
Looking away, James replied, "Er…no."
"Yeah. Sure he didn't. Anyway, that actually sounds like it makes sense. Maybe I should talk to Charlie."
"About what?" asked Charlie from behind him. Both Sirius and James jumped a mile into the air.
"Bloody hell!" James yelped, clutching his chest dramatically. "Why would you do that to us?"
She glanced at him and sniffed, and then turned to Sirius. "What did you wanna talk to me about?" Abruptly, James stood up and walked out of the common room. Uninterestedly, she watched him go.
"Er…well…I dunno," Sirius muttered. "It's kind of awkward."
"Well," said Charlie slyly, "maybe it'll be less awkward fifty feet in the air."
"Charlie Benedict," said Sirius, emphasizing every syllable, "are you suggesting that we go for a fly on the Pitch after hours?" His eyes twinkled with mischief and a hint of surprise.
"You'd be right to assume so, yes." Her voice shook with laughter.
The wind sounded stormy blowing through the depths of Charlie's oversized robes as they climbed higher and higher on their broomsticks. It was exhilaration like nothing he'd ever felt before; it reminded him of watching faraway fireworks with Regulus.
"I can't hear anything up here with the wind like this!" Sirius shouted.
"That makes it better!" Charlie yelled back.
"How the hell do you figure that one?"
"You can say what you need to say without me really hearing it!" she hollered.
Surprised at her understanding, Sirius accepted her idea. "It's about Brooklyn!" he cried. "After my mum called her dirty-blooded at your party and I did nothing, I just need to know that she's okay!"
Charlie swerved her broomstick around to face Sirius. They were still except for the wind gently pushing them back and forth. "Do you like her?" she asked seriously.
"Er, well, I-I like her. She's cool." Sirius tried to stare at the ground, but he found it gave his stomach heavy flutters.
"No, Sirius," she tutted impatiently. "I mean do you like her like her?"
"Oh!" He thanked the stars above that it was dark, because the flush in his cheeks would have probably caused Charlie to fall off her broom laughing. "No, no, no, no, no! Not like that! I'm just—I just feel bad! My mum was horrible to her at that party."
Charlie scoffed. "Damn right she was. But Brooklyn's over it. Don't worry about it anymore."
"She's-she's talked to you about it?" he questioned, slightly shocked.
"Of course," she laughed. "We're girls. We talk about everything."
"Blimey. James was right," he murmured.
"What?" she shouted.
"Nothing!" he shouted back. "Let's go inside! It's getting cold."
"Anyway," Charlie continued after they had touched back down on the ground, "Brooklyn's family isn't dirty blooded, in your mother's terms."
"That kinda crossed my mind, but I didn't wanna question my mum," Sirius admitted.
"You better shut up about this," warned Charlie, stopping in her tracks and swerving around to face Sirius as they entered the hallway. Her face had grown stony and Sirius suddenly found himself trying to melt into the stone wall behind him. "I'm serious, don't tell anyone. Brooklyn doesn't know, but she's adopted. The Terrences are pureblood wizards, and her mum decided to adopt a Muggle-born girl. I asked my mum about it after the party, and that's all she told me. And that Brooklyn has no idea, and not to say anything to her. She hasn't brought it up, so I assume her mum found some way to cover it up. And I have no clue how in Merlin's name your mum knew about it."
Sirius felt his stomach turn. "Wh-what…why the bloody hell would you—what the hell, Charlie!? Why would you tell me a secret like that? What the—what—why?" he spluttered.
Robes billowing around her, Charlie simply shrugged. "Just better not tell anyone."
Absolutely dreading surviving the rest of his life with this heavy weight, Sirius groaned and hurried after her.
Meanwhile, after being bluntly ignored one too many times and having come up with a brilliant idea, James was stalking the corridors for a certain blonde. He walked with conviction, positive that she would know exactly why Charlie was ignoring him, and she would help him solve this problem that ate at his mind day and night. When he thought back to what might have happened in Charlie's home moments after he'd stepped out, utterly confused, James quailed and begged his mind to revisit happy thoughts of Quidditch and treacle tart.
James let the door slam behind him and stomped angrily back to his own manor, wondering in frustrated confusion what had just happened.
"That Potter is a horrible creature! I totally understand why you hate him so much, Lily. I'm going to hate him too," Charlie cried.
"That's more like it, Charlie!" approved Lily, smiling evilly. "He's such a stupid toerag."
"Yeah! Let's all ignore him at school and put fire ants in his trousers!" cackled Brooklyn.
Or something more like…
James let the door slam behind him and stomped angrily back to his own manor, wondering in frustrated confusion what had just happened.
"Who even wants that horrible person around anymore?" scoffed Charlie.
"You're totally right," agreed Lily, flipping her wavy red hair over her shoulder and rolling her brilliant green eyes back in her head. "He's just a worthless, old toerag."
"That, he certainly is. I'll be sure to tell Mum never ever to let him come back here again!" Charlie cackled.
Or even worse…
James let the door slam behind him and stomped angrily back to his own manor, wondering in frustrated confusion what had just happened.
"Who even wants that Potter character in this world anymore?" Charlie fumed.
"We should get rid of him!" screeched Lily.
"Annihilate him!" screamed Brooklyn.
"Destroy him!" howled Charlie.
"I know a Potion we can brew," cackled Lily. "I learned it because I'm so much better than James Potter!"
These thoughts tormented him until finally he absolutely could not take it. Multiple times, James had considered speaking to Harley, but always shot that idea down because he knew Harley's girl advice would be more about things he really didn't need at the moment. Briefly, he had entertained the idea of conferring with his mother, but the awkwardness nearly caused him to pee his pants. At last, at long last, it was his own advice James decided to take, the advice that he had so brilliantly bestowed upon Sirius: If you want to get to the girl, you talk to the best friend.
So James found himself in front of the door to the library, the last place he could think of looking, and with a cringe, stepped inside. The vibe struck him like cold air in front of the Black Lake in December, and he fought the urge to run. By Merlin, he hated this place. Lowering his face to the ground in hopes that no one would notice him, James slowly moved around the library in search of Brooklyn. Just as the smell of books was becoming a little too overwhelming for him, he heard a familiar voice.
James made his way over to the back of the giant room, where windows lined the wall and a long bench with fluffy cushions was pushed up against it. Brooklyn was sitting with a girl whose back was to him, but when he saw the signature dark red hair, his eyes widened in shock and he turned his back, pretending to search for a book while he waited for Lily to leave.
"I seriously can't believe his mother actually said that to you," she whispered to Brooklyn.
Brooklyn shrugged, trying to hide the hurt from her face. "She didn't really know what she was talking about. My family's all pureblood, so yeah."
"Then why would she call you dirty-blooded?" Lily asked, confused.
"Mum said she probably had me confused with someone else, or was just having a bad day and needed to blow off steam at someone."
"Well…why you? I mean you've never met her before, right?" the redhead inquired.
Looking just as baffled, Brooklyn shook her head. "No, I never have. I heard stories and stuff though. Like, from my gran and from Charlie's family."
"What kind of stories?" Lily's tone became more hushed, more secretive. James growled under his breath. He knew people always gossiped about the Black family because they were becoming more and more prominent in the Wizarding world as pureblood supremacists. A lot of Hogwarts students gave Sirius odd or fearful or even dirty looks in the corridors, and James hated it. And now Lily Evans was one of them. He knew he hated that girl.
"I dunno, Lily. Just like…I dunno…just that they've always tried to use their money and stuff to get the Ministry to do their, like, bidding or something. I heard that someone in their family tried to pass, like, a Muggle-hunting law…" Brooklyn stopped short when she saw Lily wince. "Oh, Lily, sorry about that. Yeah, I know it's-it's stupid and nasty. We can stop talking about it."
"Yeah." Lily shuddered again. "Anyway, you called me to talk about something to do with Sirius right? Not just his mum…"
Out of the corner of his eye, James saw Brooklyn turn pink.
"Er…yeah," she muttered. "Well…it's kinda something I'm, like, confused about. I wanted to ask you about it, since you're all reasonable and stuff."
"What is it?" Lily prompted her.
"Well…er…when we came back on the Hogwarts Express, I-I saw him in the compartment while you were with that Sniv—er, sorry—Severus Snape. Well, you know, I saw all of them, not just Sirius…"
"You're rambling, Brooklyn," said Lily, slightly amused.
"It's just, like, his hair, you know? You know his hair? It looks…good. And his, like, eyes and stuff. They're black, but still warm, you know? And his…smile and…and yeah. And stuff. Do you-do you see what I'm saying, here?"
"Oh my God," breathed Lily. James was now very openly watching Brooklyn, hoping that he was just being stupid and interpreting her rant about Sirius's features completely incorrectly.
"Er, we say Merlin here, Lils. We've been over this." Her eyebrows were furrowed together, worried. "Do you get—yeah?"
Lily nodded slowly. "I…get…it."
"Do you think I'm weird?" Brooklyn whispered.
"Er…what do you think?" Lily asked, avoiding the question.
"I dunno!" she cried helplessly. "He's…you know how he is! I can't…I just…Julian! Julian blames him!"
"Your brother?" questioned Lily, confused. "He blames him for making you like him?"
"No, no! He blames him for the thingy at Charlie's party! Well, he blames all of them. I don't, you know I don't. It was totally his mother, and even that it probably wasn't. I mean, she obviously got it all wrong. Like, seriously. But back to the point. I don't blame Sirius, but Julian does. If Julian knew about it…Merlin, I dunno what he'd do to him!" Brooklyn was panting at this point.
"Do to him?" Lily repeated. "But you're the one who likes him."
James had had enough. Faking loud steps, he made himself visible. "Oh, you're here?" he cried in phony surprise. "Great! Brooklyn, I've got to talk to you."
While the blonde girl looked petrified, the redhead turned the same color as her hair, snatched up her books and stalked away, making sure to jostle James on her way out.
"James," squeaked Brooklyn. "Did you hear what I was talking about?"
"Er…no?" He tried desperately to fake an expression of mixed confusion and curiosity, and must have succeeded for Brooklyn relaxed very slightly.
"All right," she sighed.
"What was it about?" he asked with more fake curiosity, impressed with himself for lying so well.
"Nothing!" she cried. "What did you want?"
"Oh," he groaned. "Well, you were there at Charlie's birthday party."
Brooklyn winced and then laughed. "You made an outright fool of yourself, there, Potter."
"I know, Brooklyn, I know." He hadn't stopped beating himself up inside for being such a moron with Lily.
"I mean, really," she laughed. "First you were nasty about her friendship with Snivellus, then about Snivellus himself, then about her, and then about her schoolwork. Just make a pathetic pureblood joke next and you'll have gone all the way!"
James flinched. "Bloody hell, Brooklyn. I didn't mean to be so horrible. It's just that Evans pushes my buttons all the time! I just snapped, I guess."
"Sure, sure," she dismissed him, still laughing slightly and shaking her head. "What did you want from me? 'Cause no way in hell I'm telling you everything's okay, mate."
"No, no." James shook his head. "That's not what I want. I mean, okay, I know Evans is mad at me, and I should probably try to fix that, but fact is she and I were never friends."
"Your point?" inquired Brooklyn with a raised eyebrow.
"Charlie and I were—and hopefully still are—friends."
"Ah." She nodded slowly in her understanding. "You want me to make Charlie not mad at you anymore."
"So she is mad about that?"
"Don't be bloody daft, Potter. Of course she is. You insulted her best friend."
"I'm her best friend!" James cried indignantly. "We've known each other since we were born!"
Brooklyn shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm her best friend, too. I've known her almost as long. Sort of. I mean I was gone for, like, seven years. But still. Lily's one of Charlie's best friends, and you know Charlie. She takes friendship and loyalty very seriously. As far as she's concerned, you were in the wrong, and Lily deserves her support."
"Ugh," groaned James. "You're right. How can I fix this? I mean, I want Charlie to…to stop being mad at me."
"Of course you do, James. Charlie's the coolest person ever. Besides me. I hope you figure it out," she encouraged, patting him on the shoulder before moving to get up.
"Wait!" he cried, seizing her arm.
"What? Merlin, what do you want now?"
"What? What—Brooklyn, I was asking you for advice on what I should do!" he exclaimed.
"You, Potter, are a moron," Brooklyn grumbled. "Just apologize. Damn."
"Really? You think that's all it'll take?" James asked hopefully.
Brooklyn smacked her palm to her forehead in frustration. "Are you serious, James? If all you want is for her to forgive you just so that you'll feel better, then I'm not helping you."
With a huff, she stood up to storm away angrily, but James grabbed her arm to stop her.
"No, wait, I'm sorry!" he pleaded. "I'll listen. I'm sorry."
"It's not about listening, dolt," she said, shaking her head. "Charlie isn't just angry, she's hurt and like, torn and stuff. Obviously, she'd rather just not be mad at you because, you know, you've known each other forever and all. She misses you. And you don't care about that."
"No! No, Brooklyn, I do. Sorry, I-I get it now. I'm sorry. Look, you could please help me out? It's been driving me insane." He gave her his best puppy-dog look, and finally she succumbed with a reluctant groan.
"Ugh, fine. What the hell. Just go and apologize to her, and mean it. And then she's probably gonna ask you if you're sorry about what you said to Lily, too, 'cause that's just how Charlie is. And then you're gonna say yes, 'cause if you don't I'm gonna have to hear about what a prat you are for the next month." Brooklyn pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows at him, prompting him to consent.
"All right," James replied, nodding. "Er…how will she know I mean it?"
"If you mean it, she'll know, mate," said Brooklyn, patting him on the shoulder, and then turning around to leave. "Oh, and she might ask you to apologize to Lily, too," she called over her shoulder as she left the library.
"Wait, what?" James cried after her. "How am I supposed to do that?"
In the corner of the common room by his favorite window, James sat at his chair wringing his hands. He had spent two days contemplating his conversation with Brooklyn, while shiftily ignoring her urging looks at him and nods in Charlie's direction every so often. Though Brooklyn had briefed him quite extensively and with great detail on the apology, he still had no idea what to expect. Would Charlie be incredibly angry and refuse to listen? Would she listen, and then throw the apology back in his face? Would she grow smug and demand impossible tasks from him? With these thoughts, his breath became shallow and increasingly rapid. As he waited, he watched the sun go down through the window and the sky turn a dusty blue. The night sky always looked beautiful from this particular window, better than it did from any other, James had noticed. Somehow, it always calmed him no matter how tense he was feeling, especially when the moon glowed through the window. It was near full, and with a slight jolt of joy James realized it would be a full moon in a few days; he had always thought full moons possessed a distinct, unique kind of beauty, though never in those exact words.
"Sighing over the moon are we?"
James nearly jumped a mile out of his chair and whirled around to face his brother Harley. "Merlin, are you trying to kill me?"
"Wizards don't die of heart attacks," he replied obnoxiously.
"Ugh, shut up, I don't even know what that is. Go spew your Muggle Studies stuff somewhere else. Go away. Just go and graduate the school already," James groaned, turning away.
"My, my, young James seems frustrated and anxious. Why would Little Brother be so jittery? Could it be a girl?" Harley gasped in mock astonishment.
"Shut up," he muttered, much less aggressively. Harley looked genuinely concerned for a moment.
"Is something up? Is it really a girl?" he asked again, really surprised this time.
"It's-it's Charlie," admitted James. "I need to apologize to her about—something."
"Ah," said Harley in an understanding tone. "Mum kept telling me something was off, and I could sort of see it, but it didn't seem to really bother you, so I let it go."
"Yeah, well, I'm a good liar, then, I suppose," James mumbled.
Harley bellowed a laugh. "Yeah. Keep telling yourself that, Little Brother."
"Don't call me that!" he yelled after his brother as he strolled away leisurely. Suddenly, he froze. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a girl with a loose brown ponytail and oversized robes. "Oh bloody hell," he whispered to himself, and then got up to approach Charlie Benedict.
"Ahem. Hey Charlie," he greeted her awkwardly.
She looked at him in mild surprise. "So you're addressing me directly now? Good, it's been about two months since my birthday party—enough time for your guts to develop?"
James cringed. "Look, Charlie, I-I wanted to talk to you about that. Please?"
With a disdainful scoff, Charlie crossed her arms across her chest and waited for him to continue.
"Right. Er…well, I'm, erm, sorry. I'm sorry about what happened—what I did at your birthday party," he forced out.
She didn't respond, still staring at him with the same expecting expression. "Oh. Right, yeah. I, er, I shouldn't have said all that crap to Evans. I'm sorry I made you mad at me, and that I messed with our-our friendship. Yeah," he finished lamely.
He breathed a concealed sigh of relief as her expression softened. "James," she murmured. "I accept your apology."
James sighed much more conspicuously. "Oh, thank Merlin. It's been driving me crazy knowing you were angry. And that I made you so angry."
Smiling slightly, Charlie nodded. "Thanks. It means something that you said that."
"Great!" he said enthusiastically, still in a woozy state of pure relief. "Great."
They moved together to the chairs by the window and settled into them and into the familiar ease of being friends. "Sorry I took two months to apologize," James admitted sheepishly.
Charlie let out a laugh, a laugh he had sorely missed. "Don't worry about that. You're a boy."
"What's that supposed to mean?" he cried indignantly.
"It means you're pretty useless when it comes to—well, when it comes to knowing how to do things in general," she giggled.
"I know how to do things!" he insisted, crossing his arms stubbornly over his chest.
"Nuh-uh!" Charlie argued, still laughing. "I bet you couldn't even think to apologize on your own!"
"Er…er…no! No, no! I totally apologized on my own!" James bluffed.
Charlie raised her eyebrows at him in disbelief. "Really?"
"No," James confessed, hanging his head. "I went to Brooklyn for help. Well, first Sirius, then Brooklyn."
At this, Charlie burst out in uncontrollable laughter. "You are really pathetic. You needed to ask Sirius for help about how to apologize to me, your best friend?"
"Well, no," asserted James. "See, Sirius came to me for help about Brooklyn first, and then I told him to ask you. Then, I got the idea to ask her about you. Like…like reverse…something."
"Good phrasing," she said sarcastically. Then, more seriously, "He came to me because of you?"
"Yeah," he affirmed, nodding slightly. "He was pretty bugged about it, I've got to say. It was weird."
"Why was it weird?" Charlie wondered curiously.
"Well…I dunno. I've just never seen Sirius all bugged out like that."
She nodded absently, contemplating his words. When Sirius had approached her, he had seemed a little unlike himself. The night and their tendency toward a less emotionally intense conversation style had certainly hid his feelings, but Charlie couldn't deny that there were some feelings there. Briefly, she wondered whether he might like Brooklyn, but she shook off the thought. She was way jumping to conclusions, and absolutely didn't want to think something that wasn't true.
"So, anyway," she said, her eyes twinkling mischievously, "what are you willing to do to prove that you're sorry?"
James froze with sudden fear. She was going to make him do something ridiculous and embarrassing. She would make him dance around in women's clothing. She would make him serenade Marina Davis, the largest, most violent second year girl. Or worse, she would make him apologize to Lily Evans. She was still waggling her eyebrows at him, waiting for him to respond.
"Er…" His face contorted with anxiety.
Charlie let out a booming laugh. "Shut up. I already said I know you're useless. I was just joking."
"Oh," he sighed in relief. Again, Charlie raised her eyebrows at him. "Oh!" he cried. "Oh, er, oh no! No, I could definitely, er…do something to prove it. Yeah. I could."
Shaking her head, Charlie laughed again, and then wore a more serious look. Hesitantly, she said, "Lily doesn't like you."
"Erm, yeah. I know that, and so does everyone else." James gave her a look. Why would she tell him that? It was old news.
"I was gonna have you apologize to her, but she'd probably just hex you in some wild way. Her magic has gotten really intense, you know," she said with a dry smile.
"Okay?" responded James, confused. "I guess if you'd have asked me to, I'd have probably done it. Pissed my pants in the process but I'd have done it."
"I know you would," she said, nodding. "But I'm not. Because she doesn't like you."
"I'm kinda not getting your point here, Charles."
"Don't call me Charles."
"Sorry."
"The point," Charlie sighed heavily, "is that she doesn't like you. But you like her."
"I…what? What?! What?!" he shrieked. He could not believe her, the girl who supposedly knew him better than anyone else. What he felt for Lily Evans was quite the opposite of like. He would rather drown in a pool of bogeys before liking that redheaded creature. He would rather dive from the top of a cliff into a pit of fiery hot lava and sharp knives before even thinking about having positive feelings toward her. He would rather—
"Merlin, James, stop blabbering!" she cried, interrupting his thoughts.
"I'm not blabbering!" he insisted. "I was just thinking about how much I don't like Evans."
"You were making a bunch of weird sounds," she said, looking concerned for his mental stability. "Don't try to deny it, James. You like Lily. You like that she's…crazy. That she gets so angry with you. I mean, I get why you don't want to admit it, probably your first crush or whatever—"
"Evans is NOT my first crush. In fact, I have a crush on that girl over there," he said stubbornly, gesturing across the room at a throng of giggling girls.
Incredulously, Charlie turned back to him. "Are you serious? Those girls? Which one?"
"Er…you know. That one. The one in the middle. The blonde one." James fidgeted slightly, avoiding her eyes.
Looking back at the girls, Charlie replied, "Savannah Hodges? Again, are you serious? She's so…so vapid!"
"Yeah, Savannah. Hey, don't say that about her! She's, er, amazing, she is! I'm gonna go ask her out now!" With that, James stood up and made his way over to the group of girls, gritting his teeth and glaring. Charlie stared after him, shocked.
The girls stopped giggling and began whispering as he approached. "Savannah," he began, maintaining his angry and determined expression. "I'd like to go out with you." Again, the girls erupted into giggles.
"James Potter," Savannah squeaked. "I'd LOVE to!"
"Good," he mumbled. "Good."
"That boy is seriously a moron," Charlie muttered to herself.
That night, James and Sirius went to bed anxious and exhausted. Sirius was indisputably itching to reveal what he had learned about Brooklyn to James, and James wanted to do the same with Sirius. But they couldn't. James had spent the rest of the evening awkwardly holding the hand of Savannah Hodges and listening to her friends' tasteless chatter that she so enthusiastically joined. He liked Savannah. He did. Just because he had only learned her name that day didn't make his feelings any less valuable. Sirius had rolled around on his bed in hysterical, teary-eyed laughter when James told him. He didn't ask why, and he didn't particularly care why. He just couldn't wait to tell the whole House and the whole school about James Potter and giggly Savannah Hodges.
"This is so hilarious," he had crowed as he desperately tried to catch his breath.
Flustered, James had replied, "She's-she's pretty and stuff," while running his fingers through his hair.
Humorous though it was, both boys still slept in an uneasy state. Handling this new information about Brooklyn would prove to be the most difficult thing for two twelve-year-old boys to do. Little did they know much more was on its way.
A/N: I realize that this chapter was mostly about James, Sirius, and Brooklyn, and a little bit of Charlie, and didn't feature Remus or Peter at all. But don't worry, the next chapter will centralize Remus completely! Look forward to it, I know I am!
~Maya