'It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who hasprospered.' - Aeschylus
A Change in the Winds
Sirius frowned as he surveyed the charred and dripping curtains in front of him before turning back to the parchment he was holding which contained Andromeda's instructions for cleaning curtains.
'Swish, flick, 'scourgio', twirl and point,' he muttered to himself. 'I did that! That's what I've been doing for the past bloody half an hour,' he said indignantly to the curtains.
They stared back at him; as burnt and as waterlogged as ever.
'Damn curtains… look at what's become of me! I'm talking to myself over stupid curtains… I really need to get out more,' he said to himself, feeling very sorry for himself and his isolated situation.
Just as he was about to attempt Andromeda's spell for the last time, he was saved by the doorbell.
'Those fucking kids. Don't they have anything better to do?' he said angrily. 'You and I have unfinished business,' he added to the curtains before sweeping his hair, which had grown rather long since his school had finished, out of his face and going to the door. 'I swear, if they do that one more time and I'm going to hex their sorry arses from here to… Helen!'
Helen blinked.
'Who are you going to hex?' she managed to ask.
'Oh, I've just had this group of kids pranking me all morning… it's bloody annoying I tell you- and yes, I know what you're going to say about karma and all that- but us Marauders never relished in doing things as mindless as ringing someone's doorbell,' he said.
Helen stared at Sirius and it suddenly hit him that she was in England and standing on his front porch.
'So you ran away then!' he said happily, sending her trunk up the stairs and letting her in.
He did not look closely enough to see that her eyes were slightly red.
Helen shrugged and followed him inside the house; her eyes widening at how expensively it was furnished.
Alphard obviously had good taste.
'Okay… how about I give you the 'grand tour?'' Sirius said, walking through the house, feeling very happy now that he wasn't condemned to spending the rest of his holidays alone in his huge house.
'Now… we're currently in the hallway- not that I needed to tell you that-… here is the study… library… bathroom…dining room…kitchen…back yard (it's big, I know. James keep on hinting to play qudditch)… and the living room,' he said, sitting down on the couch and summoning two butterbeers. 'I'll show you upstairs later,' he added.
Helen nodded quietly and took a sip of butterbeer.
'What happened to your curtains?' she asked, taking in their burnt and tattered remains.
Sirius groaned.
'They have been giving me absolute hell… maybe you can figure out how to clean them,' he said hopefully, handing her Andromeda's instructions.
Helen looked at them before taking out her wand; repairing them and leaving them looking very clean.
Sirius pursed his lips.
'What on earth did you do that was so different to what I did?' he said heatedly. 'I did the same thing but no! For me they have to bloody catch fire and…'
He stopped babbling as he noticed that Helen was staring blankly into the fireplace.
'So,' he said, turning to her and grinning. 'We have three options, the way I see it.'
Helen looked at him.
'Option 1: You tell me your gripping 'escape story' and then we have sex.'
Helen said nothing.
'Okay, I agree… I would much prefer this option of having the sex first and then following it with your story,' he nodded.
Helen raised her eyebrows slightly.
'Or… option 3, which is slightly unusual (but worth a try anyway)- you tell me your story during sex,' he said finally.
He had only said this to try and coax her into speaking; to lighten the somber mood which she was in.
Helen glanced at him before running a hand tiredly through her hair. Sirius caught her arm and pushed back her to reveal scratches on her neck.
'Did they beat you?' he asked quietly, tracing a finger over the fresh cuts.
'What? Oh no…' Helen said distractedly. 'No… not this time… no, those were my fault, actually. It seems that I need a bit more practise in apparition- I apparated in your rosebush,' she said, her lips twitching slightly.
Sirius looked at her, not entirely sure that she was telling the truth.
'Do you want me to get you something for them?'
She shrugged.
'No, it's okay. They're only light scratches- they'll heal,' she sighed.
A small pause ensued.
Helen cleared her throat quickly.
'Would you mind terribly if I didn't decide on an option just yet? It's just that I've spent the past twenty-four hours traveling and I feel tired and dirty,' she said, sounding exhausted.
Sirius nodded.
'Well, of course… I want you to consider which option you choose very carefully,' he said, kissing her lingeringly. 'How about I show you upstairs and you can clean up and all that?' he said, standing up.
Somehow, he couldn't help but wonder that Helen hadn't told him about her leaving home on purpose.
He faintly wondered if she even would.
When Helen woke up the next morning she knew that she had overslept. The sun was now streaming in through the window, making her squint from its glare as she opened her eyes.
She was glad that she had apparated into a nearby forest instead of coming directly to Sirius' house from the airport; it gave her the chance to get all of her tears and screams out of her system. After all, she didn't want to turn up as a mess.
Sirius didn't need to deal with that.
She was so exhausted still; it had been such an emotionally draining day. Despite her many hours of sleep- yesterday she had gone straight to bed after her shower- she could not get up.
After a while, there was a knock at her door and it opened. Sirius hovered at the entrance for a short while before walking in and climbing onto her bed; lying next to her.
'What time is it?' she asked eventually.
'Noon,' Sirius replied, staring at the ceiling.
Helen sighed and turned so that she was lying on her back and also staring at the ceiling.
'I didn't run away. They kicked me out,' she said after a prolonged silence.
Sirius found her hand next to his on the bed and interlocked fingers.
Helen shrugged.
'Someone sent him a photo of us-kissing. Naturally, he was angry… he has a very traditional view on how girls should behave around boys, my father does.'
She paused and gave a small, bitter laugh.
'He called me a slut, said that I was no daughter of his, and told me to get out of his house and to never bother his family again… who would send that photo? Why would they send the photo?' she asked; frustration in her tone.
Sirius frowned.
'Maybe someone wants us to break up?'
Helen snorted angrily.
'It was a nasty thing to do, whoever did it,' she said flatly, not willing to yield to tears now.
Sirius turned to face her.
'We don't need them, you know that? I thought about it a lot when I was alone for this past week. We can be each other's family… you'll always have Mark, and I'll always have Andy, we both have James who is like a brother to us… and the same goes for Remus and Peter too, I suppose.
And you were right,' he continued. 'Mr and Mrs Potter really are like parents to us,' he finished.
Helen turned to look at Sirius.
'It doesn't sound so bad when you put it that way,' she whispered.
Sirius smiled.
'That's because it isn't that bad… I mean, we're both finally free, now, from them and their fucked up worlds. It's a good thing,' he said reassuringly.
Helen gave a small smile and leaned in so their foreheads were touching.
'… and who knows. I mean, we're nearly finished school. Maybe in a couple of years we can have our own family,' he said offhandishly.
Helen opened her eyes and thought immediately of the curse she was under. It was reassuring to know that Sirius wasn't completely opposed to the idea of children.
She smiled and kissed him.
'We can have a daughter who looks just like you…' he continued, grinning at the idea.
Helen pursed her lips, thinking that Sirius may very well get his wish if she were to die soon.
And that was not unlikely, given the war which they were in.
'… but she should have your eyes and hair,' Helen finished, running her fingers through his smooth hair. 'It's grown quite a bit in a week,' she commented.
'It always grows quickly when I'm depressed. I think I might cut it now, though,' he shrugged.
Helen laughed softly.
'Yes, but not too short. I like it when it's a bit on the long side,' she said.
She suddenly thought of something.
'You want daughters?'
Sirius grinned mischievously.
'Well, I would love to have a son- all of us Marauders should have sons who are the same age so we can create a new generation of Marauders…'
Helen groaned and buried her head in his chest.
'No… I won't. I won't be responsible for creating someone who shall defile the reputation of countless girls…'
'Oh trust me, ma cherie. None of them have ever minded having their reputations 'defiled'- as you so eloquently put it… you included,' he added, giving her a knowing look.
Helen hit him lightly and lay back again.
'No… but I have this terrible feeling that I'm only going to get girls as God's punishment for my actions towards girls- thus condemning me to a lifetime of worry that my daughters would be getting too friendly with boys like me,' he said tragically.
Helen rolled her eyes but a grin soon came to her lips.
'You know… I believe that I chose option one,' she said.
'What?' Sirius asked, confused.
She leaned forward and kissed his neck, slowly unbuttoning his shirt.
'You see, mon cheri,' she continued, 'I've fulfilled the first part of the option by telling you about my 'escape' she said, now kissing his chest.
Sirius found it hard to speak now.
'Oh?' he managed to get out in a strangled voice.
'Yes… but there was that last part which I still need to complete…'
She stopped kissing him and looked up at him seriously.
'And as you know, I never leave anything unfinished,' she told him gravely.
'So what was this last part then?' Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
Helen paused, sitting on top of him.
'Hmm,' she whispered in his ear. 'I believe…'
Now she found it hard to speak as Sirius' hands slid under her pyjama top.
'Yes?' he whispered.
'Damn,' Helen thought, 'he always gets the upper hand when it comes to this.'
'S…something about getting…'
She took a sharp intake of breath.
'F…friendly with boys like… boys like you,' she finished, abandoning any further attempts to speak and forgetting about everyone and everything in the world except for Sirius.
Peter saw her waiting for him, sitting in the dark corner of the small café on the cusp between Diagon and Knockturn Alley in which they had decided to meet. She looked sophisticated as always, clad in expensive tailored black robes; her black bob immaculately styled so that not a hair was out of place whilst she sat at the table, sipping her espresso- her blood red nails contrasting to the white china of her cup on which the red imprint of her lipstick remained as she placed it down to sort through her official Ministry documents.
She did not acknowledge Peter's presence until he sat down at the table and said 'hi' in a breathy voice.
Slowly, she lifted her dark-rimmed eyes to meet his own.
'Hello Peter. You're a bit late,' she said in her deep voice.
'I..er… my… friends,' he stammered.
'Never mind now,' she interrupted. 'Though you should take care to note that a woman never likes to be kept waiting. You should remember that for when you start going out with that girl,' she said.
Peter blushed.
'She'll never go out with me. She really does love Sirius- they're living together now! That photo I sent didn't work. I thought she might have suspected him…' he said bitterly. 'It's just so typical that he should always get the best of everything…'
She shot Peter a disapproving look.
'Now, Peter, we must never wallow in self-pity, for that gets us nowhere. What you must do, however, is act. You have been downtrodden by these so-called 'friends' of yours your entire life. Am I not correct in assuming this?'
Peter nodded sullenly.
'Of course I am,' she replied quickly. 'Now, Peter, how would you like to get back at them- to show them how great you can be…'
She paused and lowered her voice to a barely audible whisper.
'To be far superior to them.'
Peter was on the edge of his seat and hung on her every word.
'I have…dreamed of such things…all these years; being called stupid; having them laughing at me…'
She smiled conspiratorially.
'Peter,' she interrupted.
Peter stopped speaking abruptly and looked at her, giving her his rapt attention.
She looked him in the eye before she cleared her throat and took a cigarette from her silver case, putting it in a holder.
'Can you give me a light?'
With shaking hands, Peter lifted up his wand and lit the cigarette. She closed her eyes and drew from it, exhaling the smoke onto Peter's face.
Peter coughed whilst she surveyed him with a calculating expression.
'What I offer you, Peter, is what many people only dream of. It requires much courage… but most importantly it requires cunning and cleverness. You possess these traits, I know- I have developed an eye for such things.'
She paused.
'If you choose to undertake this difficult task, you shall be the one to laugh at your friends- they will not even be able to compete with you… you could even have a free path to that girl whom you desire so… imagine! But I do not lie; it is both difficult and dangerous- a job fitting for only the best. That is why I am asking you, Peter, because I believe you are more than capable…'
She stopped again and looked into Peter's eyes.
'So tell me, Peter: Are you brave enough? Are you?' she whispered.
'Yes!' Peter gasped, entranced by the woman in front of him. 'Help me! I'll do anything!'
A satisfied smile came to Janis' lips.
The Dark Lord would be very pleased with her tonight.
Sirius was very frustrated to wake up in an empty bed. Furthermore, he was downright annoyed that Helen had woken him up at this ridiculous hour in the morning with her loud Liszt song, which she was banging on the piano downstairs.
After lying in bed for five more minutes, wishing that she would stop practising and turn into a normal person who actually stayed in bed until a decent hour, he got up and began to look around the floor for his clothes. He pursed his lips when he saw that Helen had folded them and put them on his dressing table; they had been strewn across the floor last night.
Why couldn't she just leave them alone?
Feeling very sorry for himself indeed, he went downstairs to find that Helen had stopped practicing. He found this even more annoying and made him wonder if her sole purpose in doing it was to wake him up. She was now writing on a piece of parchment at the kitchen table.
'Morning,' he said stiffly, sitting down and making a lot of noise as he opened his Daily Prophet.
Helen looked up and frowned at this tone.
'Something wrong?'
'Oh no… nothing…' he said through clenched teeth.
Helen raised her eyebrows and Sirius put his newspaper down in the table.
'Do you have to practice piano from six in the morning? Is it that impossible for you to just stay in bed like a normal person?' he snapped.
Helen blinked.
'You heard me practising?' she frowned.
'Oh, I heard every glorious dischord of you wonderful Liszt,' he said sarcastically.
Helen's eyes widened.
'Sorry! I forgot to put a silencing charm on the door… I thought I had,' she said sheepishly.
Sirius pursed his lips.
'But why do you even have to practise so early anyway?' he said.
Helen shrugged.
'If I don't do it then, I won't do it at all. I know I won't practise once you're up,' she replied.
A silence ensued.
'So… I've been thinking. We need to talk about a few things now that we're living together,' Helen said, putting down her parchment and looking up at Sirius.
Sirius groaned- he knew this would come at some stage.
He raised his eyebrows and looked at Helen.
'Well?' he asked brusquely.
Helen shot him an annoyed look.
'There's no need to take that tone,' she snapped.
Sirius rolled his eyes and forced a smile.
Helen stared at him levelly before clearing her throat.
'Well, we need to decide who's cleaning or cooking and when, first of all,' she said, looking at her list.
'I don't cook,' Sirius said flatly, inwardly cringing as an image of himself wearing a frilly apron came to mind.
Helen pursed her lips.
'Fine, I'll cook, but you'll have to do more cleaning in that case,' she said.
Sirius shrugged.
'Laundry and I don't work either… the same thing goes for curtains,' he added.
Helen was beginning to find that her temper was running short with his insolent attitude.
'In that case, I'll clean the curtains, do the laundry and clean the kitchen as I'm cooking there. You, however, can do everything else- and I mean everything else. I'm not here to be your maid. You can hire someone if that's what you want,' she snapped.
Sirius looked at the ceiling determinedly and leaned back on the back to legs of his chair.
Helen flicked her wand, forcing the chair to come down.
'These are antique and expensive chairs. You might not understand what value they have, but you should have more respect for what your uncle left you,' she said in response to his glare.
'I've been raised on antique. It sickens me,' Sirius said resolutely.
Helen sighed exasperatedly and looked down at the list.
'There's a big front garden and a huge lot of land out the back. What do you plan on doing with it?' she asked.
'Burying someone in it,' Sirius muttered under his breath.
Helen crossed her arms and glared at Sirius.
'You know, Sirius, you have to take some responsibility now that you have your own house. You can't just let it all fall apart. Things don't just take care of themselves,' she said angrily.
'I'm fucking seventeen!'
'So am I,' Helen replied.
They glared at each other before Sirius rolled his eyes.
'What about the garden?' he said impatiently. 'I don't do flowers.'
'…and I can tell you something else you won't be 'doing' for a long time,' Helen muttered. 'I'll do the flowers then, but you'll have to mow the grass and take care of the gnomes,' she said.
'Anything else?' he asked, making to get up.
'Money,' Helen said, sighing as she came up to the sensitive topic.
'What about it?'
'Do you want me to pay you rent for staying here?' she asked quietly.
Sirius stared at her before getting up and stalking out of the room.
'Well?' Helen demanded, following him into the living room.
Sirius rounded on her.
'You really are mad, you know that?' he said angrily, incredulous that she had even suggested that.
Helen looked away.
'Well sorry for asking,' she said muttered sarcastically.
'Are you done?' he said.
'No.'
'What, then?'
Helen stared at him.
'Do you have anywhere you're meant to be?' she asked flatly.
'No…'
'Well you can sit here and discuss this in a civilised manner, here, for a few more minutes. It won't kill you,' she said.
'Well?' he asked.
'How are we going to share expenses then?'
'Look. I have the gold here. I know you have these twisted little power issues which I'll never understand about you, but I don't care…'
'I have gold too!' Helen said indignantly.
Sirius shot her a knowing look.
'I do!'
'Okay… whatever…' he shrugged.
'So we'll share living expenses then?'
'Do whatever you want. I don't care,' he said in a harsher tone than he had intended, going back to the kitchen and looking through the fridge.
Helen stared after him, feeling very angry.
--
The novelty of living together seemed to have disappeared very quickly.
They did not speak to each other for the rest of the day. Dinner was a stifled affair with the only sound made being the chink of their cutlery on their plates. After this, they went to separate rooms in the house and, needless to say, slept in their separate rooms that night.
'HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO ME?' Helen screamed.
James flinched as he heard the sound of something smashing from the room next to him.
'YOU JUST THREW THAT AT ME!'
'NO, I THREW IT AT THE BIRD ON THE WINDOWSILL,' Helen retorted sarcastically.
The screaming and smashing continued as James stood next to the fireplace in the living room. He thought that now was perhaps not the best time to announce his presence.
After all, he really did not want to intrude in Helen and Sirius' very obvious domestic issues…
'GET BACK HERE… DON'T YOU LEAVE! WE'RE NOT FINISHED…'
'OH, WE'RE FINISHED ALL RIGHT,' Helen shouted back sarcastically, storming into the living room, her face looking very flushed.
'What are you doing here?' she snapped at James.
'I…er… I'll leave…' he nodded, making his way quickly to the fireplace.
'YOU…'
Sirius paused as his eye fell on James.
'No,' Helen responded to James. 'You stay. I'm leaving,' she said, shooting Sirius a filthy look, which he returned with equal hatred, and storming up the stairs, muttering very angrily under her breath in Greek and slamming her bedroom door.
James and Sirius flinched at this.
James looked hesitantly to Sirius who looked rather murderous at the present moment.
'So…er… I gather living with Helen's been a blast?' he asked lightly.
Sirius shot James an annoyed look.
'Oh, it's been a blast alright,' he said, through clenched teeth, walking back to the kitchen. 'She nearly blasted me through the wall.'
James' eyes widened as he surveyed the broken plates and considerably destroyed kitchen.
'Did she do… all of this?' he asked in a horrified whisper.
'Oh, we both contributed in some way,' Sirius said dismissively, flicking his wand and repairing the broken plates.
Once the kitchen was returned to its normal state, James looked at Sirius apologetically.
'I can't st…'
--
'…and living with him,' Helen concluded darkly to Lily.
Lily patted Helen reassuringly on the shoulder.
'It's okay. You don't have to anymore. You can stay with me,' she smiled.
Helen pursed her lips.
'I won't… not for the whole holidays, but if I could just stay for tonight…'
'Please stay the whole time! It's really lonely here,' Lily said, a slight note of pleading in this tone.
Helen smiled and hugged Lily.
'I mean, I don't understand him! We needed to discuss how we were going to run the house!'
--
'She just wanted to discuss the house all the time,' Sirius drawled. 'It was a bloody headache I tell you… forgetting the fact that she's so weird. I mean, I never knew these things about her before because I never spent that much time with her… did you know, that she prays every night before she goes to bed? Prays! What the hell is with that? It's not as if she's 'little miss innocent'…'
--
'He gets so pissed off at my little habits but, honestly, he's just as bad! For example, he never, ever folds his clothes before he goes to bed. He just dumps them on the ground. I don't understand? Is it that hard to at least leave them on a chair?'
--
'… oh, and did I mention the studying? I say- let's go out, or do something in any case, and all she wants to do is study because she wants to get ahead for her NEWTs. I mean she's crazy…'
--
'… and he expects me to just drop whatever I'm doing just to go out. Just like that! I could be in the middle of cooking, and he says- let's go somewhere, because he's bored. Or- this really gets me- I might be nearly finished cooking and he says to just put it in the fridge for tomorrow because he feels like going out. I mean, honestly! If I have just spent so much time cooking, he should damn well have the decency to eat it.'
--
'She's impossible to live with,' Sirius concluded flatly.
James looked knowingly at Sirius.
'Come on, she's not that bad. I mean… there must be good things too,' he pointed out.
Sirius considered this.
He wasn't going to admit that he rather liked her cooking, or watching her getting caught up in the music whilst she was practising piano, or just sitting around talking and laughing about nothing in particular…
Or the other thing.
Especially not the other thing that was so good now that they finally had proper privacy…
'Nope. Nothing good,' he said brightly, now not entirely convinced.
As James had a wedding to attend that afternoon, Sirius found himself again launched into that loneliness which he had at the start of the holidays. It took a disastrous attempt at cooking, and a whole night spent in an empty house for Sirius to realise that he needed Helen to come back home and that he had not been very fair towards her. She had only been trying her best and he had blown his lid merely because of a few awkward, yet inoffensive, habits of hers.'Lily, dear, there are two boys in the living room,' Mrs Evans called from outside Lily's door the next evening. 'They say they're from your school.'
Helen and Lily exchanged a knowing look.
'Do you want me to tell them to go away?' Lily asked of her pale friend.
Helen shook her head. She didn't want things to have become so out-of-hand with Sirius.
'Mum, you can't just open to door for people like that, okay?' Lily called back. 'They could be Death Eaters!'
Lily turned to Helen.
'Are you sure that you want to see him?'
Helen nodded and the two girls got up and walked into the Evans' living room. James and Sirius stood up and stared at the two girls. Helen and Sirius exchanged a look and Helen walked out of the house, Sirius following her.
They sat on the front porch.
'You can't just run off each time we have an argument,' Sirius started.
Helen pursed her lips.
'If I didn't you wouldn't have much of a house left,' she responded.
Sirius laughed a little.
'I'm sorry. I was being a total prat. You were only trying to make it work, I know that,' he sighed.
Helen shrugged.
'I guess I overreacted about your habits too… I mean, we both have weird things we do which are strange to the other,' she said.
'So will you come home? Please?' he asked, taking her hand.
Helen leaned on his shoulder.
'Yeah… but we need to sort out a few things as soon as we get there because we can't continue like this,' she said.
Sirius nodded.
'We would've been kidding ourselves if we thought that living together was going to be easy,' he said.
'Ahem ahem,' came Lily's annoyed voice from behind them
They both turned around and looked at her expectantly.
'Now that James has accepted my mother's invitation to stay for dinner, you two are to stay as well,' she said, giving a pointed look at Helen who smiled back apologetically.
'Ah! How is my Lilykins today!' Mr Evans boomed, having just returned from a business trip to Scotland; striding into the dining room where Lily was setting the table and smacking a loud kiss on her forehead.
Lily's face turned as scarlet as her hair.
'Dad… I'm not Lilykins anymore. I'm seventeen,' she said through gritted teeth, not daring to look at Helen, James and Sirius who were watching on with bemused expressions.
'You'll always be my darling little Lilykins to me,' he smiled, nipping his daughter affectionately on the cheek before starting as he noticed three strange teenagers staring at him and his daughter- he vaguely remembered the girl from the last summer holidays.
'I never knew that we were having guests,' he said to Lily.
Lily looked accusingly at Helen.
'Neither did I,' she said through gritted teeth.
'Friends of yours?'
'Ah…er… well… sort of,' Lily stammered, glaring at Sirius for snorting at this comment.
'Ah! I was wondering when I was going to meet some more of your friends! I've met Severus… are you all friends with him too?' Mr Evans asked of Helen, Sirius and James.
Sirius and James looked as though they were about to have a stroke at the suggestion of being friends with Snape.
'Oh sure… He's a good mate of ours,' Helen grinned, exchanging an amused glance with Lily.
'Hm,' Mr Evans said, eyeing Sirius and James warily.
'Uh, dad, this is Sirius Black and his friend James Potter… and you already know Helen from last holidays,' Lily said, pursing her lips as James suddenly transformed into the model gentleman in shaking Mr Evans' hand.
'Lily! Can I have some help here!' Mrs Evans called from the kitchen.
Lily hesitated, not wishing to leave Sirius and James alone with her father.
'I'll go,' Helen nodded, walking off to the kitchen.
Mr Evans settled into his chair at the head of the table and eyed Sirius shrewdly.
'Now… Mr Black, is it?' he asked as Sirius and James took their seats.
'Sirius is fine, sir,' Sirius nodded.
'Hm, yes… well, you seem like a fairly decent boy, but I am just telling you now that my Lily is the most precious girl there is and if you even so much as think of…'
'DAD!' Lily shrieked, blushing furiously.
Sirius was finding it hard not to laugh at both James' mutinous expression and the whole situation itself.
At that moment, Helen and Mrs Evans emerged from the kitchen with the roast lamb and vegetables.
'No, Lily. If Mr Black is to go out with you…'
Helen shot an accusing look at Sirius who shrugged before turning his attention quickly back to Mr Evans who had cleared his throat in an austere manner.
'I never knew you liked Sirius, Lily,' Mrs Evans frowned. 'I thought that you liked…'
'MUM!' Lily cut in, her worried glance flitting over to James who looked up hopefully.
Sirius could not help it. He started laughing.
'I'm sorry, Mr Black, but do you find this funny? I was under the impression that I was being very serious,' Mr Evans said sternly.
Sirius had to refrain from using a serious/Sirius joke here.
Helen paused and went over and sat next to Sirius.
'You like Lily?' she demanded in a mock-hurt voice. 'And here I was… thinking that you… loved me,' she said, pretending to wipe away a tear.
Lily, James, and Sirius laughed at this.
Mr and Mrs Evans seemed very confused.
'What's going on?' Mr Evans asked sharply.
Sirius turned to him politely.
'I will concede, sir, that although she and I rarely ever see eye-to-eye on any matter, that you do indeed have a very special daughter. Fortunately, or unfortunately as is often the case, I am in love with her friend- not your daughter. I am sorry if you had been entertaining the hope of having me as a son-in-law, but I feel compelled to inform you that Lily and I will never be,' Sirius said gravely.
Mr Evans blinked, not sure whether Sirius was being serious or whether he was making fun of him.
An awkward silence ensued during which Lily cleared her throat quickly.
'Let's eat, shall we? This looks wonderful, mum…'
--
The rest of dinner was rather uneventful with Lily and Helen making small talk and trying to encourage the others to contribute. James complimented Mrs Evans many times on the magnificence of her cooking, yet seemed much too afraid to seek a conversation with Mr Evans following his harrowing display with Sirius.
After dinner, however, he seemed to muster up some of his Gryffindor courage.
'Mr Evans, might I be able to have a word with you?' he asked, biting his lip.
Mr Evans frowned and Lily grew extremely pale as she watched her father and James leave the living room for Mr Evans' study.
Five minutes later, the two emerged from the study talking animatedly; Mr Evans with his hand on James' shoulder. Mr Evans winked fleetingly at Lily, causing her to blush.
'Looks like your father's pleased with his future son-in-law,' Helen whispered to Lily who shot her a dirty look.
Helen felt rather proud of James, nonetheless. She knew he had probably asked Lily's father for 'permission' to date Lily and, although this did not guarantee that Lily herself would go out with him, she reckoned that his winning her father's approval was a very good step towards this.
'We'd better get going,' Helen said to Sirius at nine o'clock.
Sirius nodded and, slowly, they all got up.
After they had all thanked the Evans' for the evening, the four made their way out of the house slowly.
'Hey, Lily, sorry for causing all the trouble…' Helen said apologetically.
Lily shrugged.
'You and trouble are one and the same, so I'm used to it,' Lily grinned.
Sirius laughed at this and Lily and Sirius stared at each other for a fleeting moment; both very surprised that they had agreed with each other for once.
'Well, I'll see you on Tuesday, then,' Helen said, hugging Lily.
Lily nodded and held out a hesitant hand to Sirius who shook it, also looking rather wary.
Helen sighed.
'See you, James,' she said, hugging him.
'Yeah, and try not to murder my best friend when you go home. I know it's hard for you, but just try,' he said with a small smile.
Helen laughed and turned to Sirius.
'You ready?'
He took her hand and they apparated away with a crack.
Lily was grateful that the sky was black now and that James could not see exactly how red her cheeks were as she realized that they were alone together now at her front gate.
'Your er…' he faltered.
Lily raised her eyebrows.
'Your parents are nice,' he said lamely.
'Thanks,' Lily said, feeling her heart drop a little. 'Your mum is very nice too,' she added.
James nodded and they stared at each other.
'Well, I should probably…'
'Are you doing much these holidays?' Lily interrupted, not looking at him exactly.
'Not really,' James shrugged.
Lily nodded slowly.
James hesitated.
'I…'
He bit his lip and turned his gaze away from her.
'Look, I know you'll just turn me down if I ask, so how about we try it a different way? Helen took Sirius and I to see a movie once… do you know what that is?'
Lily tried not to laugh at this question.
'Er… yes,' she said, her heart beating hopefully.
'Right,' James nodded, trying not to lose his newfound courage. 'Well I realized the other day that I've been bugging you for a lot of our time at school, but we don't really know much about each other. Would you like to go out to see a movie just as… friends, maybe?' he asked hopefully.
Lily chewed her lip to prevent herself from smiling broadly.
After staring at him for a few seconds she nodded.
'I love movies.'
James let out a huge sigh of relief.
'When are you free?'
'I'm not doing much, so whenever… how about Friday night?' she suggested hopefully.
James had never been happier in his entire life.
'That's perfect! Say I pick you up at around seven and we'll go from there?'
Lily nodded.
They stared at each other until Mrs Evans called for Lily to come back inside the house.
'Okay, well goodbye until Friday at seven, then,' James said.
'Goodnight James,' Lily smiled.
He stared at her for a moment longer before disappearing with a crack.
'Six years of holding out and he's cracked me in my final year,' Lily mused to herself as she skipped back to her house happily.
Well. Long Chapter with many different things going on. I've decided that I should stop rambling in my A/N's because I usually just summarise what you've all just read...
Now, the reason this took so long to get this up is because my laptop wouldn't start up so I had to type this up again from memory and... in short, technology can be a real pain sometimes, as much as I love my laptop.
I have a little thing to say about Marina, though. Now, in the last chapter, she invited Sirius up BUT she meant this in suggestive way at all... all she was doing was being polite. It's just that we saw the comment from Sirius' pov and we all know that Sirius' mind usually jumps to suggestive conclusions.
But Marina really isn't that bad. I hope you're all starting to see that.
So, if you want me to continue to make a big effort in retyping my 'lost' next chapter asap, please be so kind as to drop me a review on your way out!
You know how much I love them ;)
Lots of love, Anya
