Chapter 21 Unexpected
"Hey…." Sirius whispered inaudibly as he stood in the doorway of Lily's bedroom, shifting uncomfortably while half-trying to smile.
"Padfoot! You came," Lily jumped up as she saw him and running the several feet to the door, threw herself into his arms. "I didn't really think you would… You know after everything... I am so happy to see you." She let go of his strong stocky frame and took a step backwards. Biting her lip and sporting a goofy half smile on her round-skinny face, she looked up into his eyes. He wasn't saying anything.
He just stood there, arms hanging awkwardly at his sides.
Frowning at such a demeanor, she moved another step back. "Are you alright? Has something happened?"
He could tell that he was making Lily visibly uncomfortable, so he tried to speak up at last. It wasn't easy. Finally he sighed and said in a rather shaky voice, -
"Why didn't you tell me that James was seeing Narcissa?"
"What?" Lily looked surprised.
"You didn't tell me that the other girl was Narcissa. I had to hear it from her."
"I… I thought you knew. You didn't know? You're joking! How could you not know?" She was genuinely surprised to hear that.
"Oh, Lily, I understand everything so much better now. I feel so terrible for you. You're still in love with him. And the other girl is Cissa Black." He let out a loud laugh, which they both found inappropriate, but Sirius couldn't help it. He found the situation highly amusing. Not for Lily, of course, but for James.
Sirius had thought about it long and hard, and he really was happy for his cousin, especially since it left his path to Lily open. He really thought they James and Narcissa could work as a couple. A weird, different, lovely kind of couple.
But how could he convince Lily of the brilliance of it all? He had to try. Her beautiful face was staring up at him expectantly and all he wanted to do was grab her hands in his and press his own face against it.
"Lily, I know I
shouldn't bring this up…" he stopped himself for a second,
suddenly remembering that she was the one who instigated this
meeting, and changed his inquiry mid-sentence,
"Well, actually,
let me ask you first – why did you invite me over?"
Her smile faltered for a second, but only for a second. Less than a minute later he found himself being pulled by the hand out of the room and down the stairs into the kitchen. Lily's parents were sitting at the dinner table, talking quietly amongst themselves. Petunia was not there.
"Mum, dad, you remember Sirius," Lily said excitedly, and without waiting for an answer pulled him farther down the hall through the hallway and into the living room. It was empty and dimly lit. Only the fire was sparkling and cracking softly in the hearth. The scene was very cozy and romantic. She finally stopped in front of the fireplace and Sirius began to look around. There were two burgundy armchairs, he remembered from the last time that he visited, but they were now pushed back against the wall, and a soft bearskin rug was spread out in front of the fireplace instead. There were two candles and two wine glasses, as long as a strangely shaped cake, and a plate with an apple-stuffed chicken on it. He stared, mouth hanging slightly open. Had she done all this for me? But what did it mean?
She pinched him slightly on the hand and giggled. "I wanted to thank you for being such an amazing… friend. So I made you a special Christmas dinner. It's a little cheesy, but I wanted it to be unusual and figured no girl has ever done something like that for you. Am I right?" Her cute little dimple appeared as her face turned all hopeful.
Sirius didn't want to tell her about the picnics he used to take with a Hufflepuff witch back in their fourth year, so he bit his lip and shook his head – "No, you are right. This is so special!" He turned slightly to the left so that he could see her clearly and wrapping his arms around her, gave her a kiss on the forehead, "Thank you, Lily."
She seemed relieved to hear that and immediately motioned to the rug, "Sit down. I hope you are hungry, because I made a lot… there is still a ton of food in the kitchen. Mum and dad were gracious enough to let me cook everything for the New Years. Even though I'm a lousy cook. Petunia fled the house as soon as heard I was cooking." She giggled again and lowering herself down, handed him a knife to cut the chicken. "If you don't mind."
He took the knife from her absentmindedly but kept looking straight into those green, sad eyes, that have mesmerized him for so long. Why was she doing this? She wasn't over James, that much was clear. And yet there they were, in her parents' house, on New Years, alone on a bearskin rug… – there was hope.
"I don't know what to say. When I was coming over here, I did not expect anything like this. You really didn't have to go to all this trouble-"
She cut him off - "But I wanted to! You mean so much to me. I want you know that. I know you don't think I feel… well, you know what I mean. But that's not completely true." She turned bright red at saying this, and getting flustered, couldn't get any other words out. She grabbed the glass and choked down a gulp of the wine. Coughing, she apologized to Sirius and clumsily pulled the knife back toward herself, because he still hasn't cut into the chicken. He was looking at her with great amusement in his eyes, enjoying her flustered babbling, having forgotten all about the food.
Finally he laughed and reached across the rug to touch her hand. A shock of electricity ran through it as the touch connected. Lily jumped slightly but didn't take away her hand. She finished serving the meat and no longer needed to use it. Blinking rapidly, heart beating wildly, she sat very still, waiting for his next move.
Ten seconds later, he pulled away his hand and picked up the fork. "Mm, this meat is good. You did excellently." Confused, she stared, but only for a second.
Then making up her mind, she got on all fours, pushed away the candle and crawled straight at him. Sirius was anticipating this, so he grabbed the second candle and in a bold, firm move, tossed it into the fire. That didn't startle Lily though, and she kept moving toward him. With a smirk and a head nod, he was ready to meet her. Moments later their lips met in a slightly less-than-passionate lip-lock.