It took Giselle almost a week to read every letter, she couldn't function like a normal human being until she knew what had been kept from her. She spent the first day on the floor, drowning in paper. On day two she summoned the courage to sneak out and find something to eat as her stomach was wailing for sustenance but she found an enormous plate of leftovers outside her door and her heart whined, touched by the boys' gesture but too shy to go down and thank them. By day three, she finally took off her dishevelled dress and wrapped herself up in whatever she found first, her eyes still glued to the sea of letters littering the dorm floor. She got used to reading with one eye extremely quickly, her injury didn't matter right now - all she could do was read.

It was a gut-wrenching rollercoaster, the range of emotions Sirius went through when she left was worse than she imagined and it tore her heart apart, she felt his anguish when he wrote about how it felt as though his body had been chopped in two, he told her that he wasn't sleeping because he kept picturing her every time he closed his eyes and that she was the first thought in his head when he woke up. Even the dirtier, suggestive love letters hurt more than she expected. She tried to laugh at his crude descriptions of what he wanted to do to her but each sentence was a sharp jab in the stomach, reminding how much she pined for him back then - now she knew how much he wanted her too.

But the flow of tears got worse when she reached the letter that contained his declaration of love.

...I tried to hold back but my hand started writing this letter, I don't even know if the other letters have arrived yet… I should have told you before you left… I've fallen in love with you and I don't know what to do now you're gone...

Giselle read those words over and over again, imagining what they would sound like rolling from his tongue. He loves her… well, he loved her. She was going crazy, she was stirring herself up into a hot, festering frenzy and she knew she couldn't stop until every letter was torn open. She found more sentences of pure gold, undiscovered gems that came straight from his heart and she fell for them as though he had only written the letters moments ago.

…You're the only light in my dark little life, the sun went down the day you left and I will spend the rest of my dark days fighting to bring my sun back…

…I didn't know what homesickness felt like until now, you always felt like home to me, Princess…

…Did I mention that you've got the fattest arse I've ever seen? Well, felt is more accurate now. Ugh, and your tits!

That last one finally made Giselle giggle, she could hear his words as though he was whispering into her ear, but the letters started to take a dramatic turn and his hatred started to grow. He was confused, exasperated, resentful, betrayed, sickened, and worst of all, heartbroken. He told her how much her silence ripped his heart into pieces, he couldn't believe she broke every promise that she made to him and he ended up explaining in full detail how he burned everything she ever gave him. The similarities between his letters and hers were rather terrifying, she could see herself in his words like they were written by her own hand. She didn't know what to do anymore.

Giselle read the final line of one of Remus' letters and slumped down onto the piano, her elbow jabbing into the keys and a cluster of mismatched notes hung in the air. Remus had sent her countless letters explaining what had gone down with Sirius and his family, he told her about his brief relationship with him, their adventures, their highs, their lows, - he told her everything, he didn't care what Sirius said about her. His loyalty hurt more than she thought it would, she felt like she let him down too.

"Illegal Animagus? I can't believe…?!" Giselle croaked and shook her head, lightly smacking it on the keys and three jaunty chords himed repeatedly. She knew about their plan before she left but it never occurred to her that they could have succeeded without her knowing, but a huge part of her was insanely comforted that Remus wasn't left to his own devices when he was in his wolf form.

Before she could start to link the boys' nicknames to their animal counterpart, the door creaked open and Giselle whipped her head up, feeling profoundly vulnerable in her pit of depression and she started to panic. She hadn't seen anyone in days and she was definitely not in the position to talk.

Lily poked her head around the door and her eyes bulged, astounded by the state of the dorm. In her fit of hysteria, Giselle pushed her roommates' beds to the side of the room, wanting to make more room for the huge mass of parchment. The room was bathed in deep crimson light from the curtains blocking out the bright gleam of the snow outside and the piano Giselle stole from her bedroom sat amidst the letters; she tried to distract herself with when the letters' topics got aggressive but now it served as her desk.

"...you ok, Elle?" murmured Lily tentatively, dragging her trunk into the room behind her. Giselle blinked and flushed, cradling her sore face to hide her shame.

"...No," she croaked, her voice hoarse from lack of use. Lily abandoned her belongings and ran over, scooping Giselle up from the piano stool into a spine-cracking hug. Giselle inhaled her flowery warm scent and pressed her face into her chest, not bothered by her throbbing eye.

"I heard what happened, Remus wrote to us," said Lily softly, and Giselle welcomed the calming vibrations through her chest, "I want to say that I'm shocked, but in all honesty I'm really not."

"I'm so embarrassed," whispered Giselle, "I can't believe I didn't suspect that Dickhead would be stopping my letters, and now him getting rid of Eris makes complete sense."

"How could you have known? Expecting your father to confiscate your post isn't in the realm of normality! You can't beat yourself up because of his actions!" exclaimed Lily, fighting hard to make her friend see.

"But we both know what he's like, I should have known… I feel terrible, Lils," groaned Giselle and she finally emerged from her glossy red hair to look her in the eye. "Sirius suffered so much because of me."

"No, because of Barty," corrected Lily but as she smoothed Giselle's limp mop of matted hair out of her face, she gasped. "Giselle?! Your eye?!"

Giselle rolled her working one and slumped, dropping her arms down by her side. "Ugh, is it still bad?"

"How…?! Right, bathroom - now!" Lily demanded fiercely, not caring for her friend's protests. She forced Giselle to sit on the edge of one of the bath tubs and summoned her basket of treasures, a small wicker chest full of Lily's delectable potions she had brewed in cases of emergencies. She rolled up the sleeves of her striped mauve jumper and threw her scarf across the room, needing as much space as possible to work. Giselle sat in silence and watched her work, mesmerised by her prowess with healing charms. Lily was considering a career at St Mungo's working under the Head Healer as their apprentice (at the Slug Club party Slughorn boasted loudly that it was an incredibly rare opportunity) so she knew she was in the best hands, she didn't need to see Pomfrey after she was done with her.

"Your orbital bone is fractured," tutted Lily after she tenderly prodded her face, pursing her lips as she found the root of the swelling, "but your eye hasn't been punctured so that's good news."

"Are you sure? Because I can't see shit," scoffed Giselle, trying to blink her bad eye but the shooting sears of pain made her freeze up. Lily gently smeared something ice cold on her face and she felt her swollen skin tingle, almost sighing out in relief as it finally received the treatment it needed.

"That's because your eyelid looks like an ogre's vagina," said Lily seriously and Giselle laughed, appreciating her efforts to cheer her up.

"Cheers Lils, that's just the look I was going for," she sighed, enjoying the sensation of her soft, cold fingers on her face. "Can you fix it?"

"With my eyes closed," she assured her and Giselle scoffed.

"Too soon," she teased.

After a few minutes of silence, Lily braved the question that had been festering inside her.

"Who did this to you?" she asked quietly, tapping her wand against her fractured bone. Giselle winced but she didn't want to hide anymore, she didn't care.

"Father," she said bluntly, "he tried to stop me from coming back here."

"What spell did he use?"

"A little well-known charm called his fist," snorted Giselle, amused by her own humour, but Lily didn't share her dark outlook. Her worried expression contorted into rage and she slammed her wand down on the sink, immediately irked.

"You're not going back there ever again," said Lily sternly, acting more mature than ever, "I won't let you."

Giselle smiled, blinking back the tears from the sudden rush of affection. "Don't worry I'm not, I've taken everything with me so I don't have to go back."

"That explains the piano…" mused Lily, looking back at the bedroom with a faint smirk, "I did wonder how that got there."

"What do you mean? There's always been a piano right in the middle of the room?" joked Giselle, coming back into herself. She let Lily continue her healing charms and waited until she was finished to start her own questions.

"How come you've come back early?" asked Giselle casually, examining her face in the mirror with a small smile. Her eye looked more human, the swelling had gone down, her cheekbone reappeared and her eye socket was in one piece again but the dark bruising remained. Her eyeball was bloodshot and blurred, it took her a few minutes of firm blinking to gain her sight back and she thanked Lily for her wondrous handiwork with a kiss on the cheek.

Lily accepted her peck, trying to hide her frown but she crumbled in her arms. Tears welled in her bright eyes and Giselle froze, taken aback at her change in demeanor.

"It's so stupid, I don't even know why I'm so upset," sobbed Lily, messily wiping her wet cheeks.

"Tell me now," said Giselle tenderly, rubbing her friend's back, "do I need to murder James?"

"No, gosh no, it's not that bad," Lily rushed to explain with a watery chuckle, "but he does owe me big time."

"What did he do?" wondered Giselle, intrigued. She knew James promised to be on his best behaviour when he met Lily's family for the first time but by the sour grimace on her face, she guessed he broke his promise.

"Everything was going so wonderfully until we met up with my sister. I found out that her boyfriend Vernon proposed to her last month, Tuney neglected to tell this herself I might add, so I thought I'd be the bigger person and invite them out to dinner to celebrate," she explained, wiping away her tears, "but it was probably the worst idea I've ever had, James got into a massive row with Petunia's fiancé in the middle of the restaurant over who was paying the bill and it ended with them outright insulting us and storming out."

"Oh no," murmured Giselle, shaking her head in disappointment. She knew how stubbornly proud James could be.

"Yup," sighed Lily, "it was mortifying, Elle, I can't begin to describe how embarrassed I was. Vernon was the worst, though, he was the one who started the argument but as you already know, James never backs down when he's insulted."

"Well, if your sister's fiancé threw the first insult then I don't blame James for sticking up for himself," decided Giselle, adding her own opinion in the hopes of seeing her friend smile again.

Lily rolled her pink lips together in thought and nodded, softening ever so slightly. "I suppose… but that was most likely my one and only chance of getting Petunia to talk to me again but he and Vernon destroyed it."

"I don't think they ruined it, it sounds to me like it was already broken beyond repair before the men started to swing their dicks around," said Giselle in her softest tone. The things Lily told her in the past about her sister never sat right with her, she didn't need that negativity in her life anymore - just like she didn't need her own family.

"Take it from me, sometimes you have to cut your siblings out of your life," stated Giselle simply and she patted Lily on the shoulder for extra reassurance. "It sounds like you've done everything you can to fix your relationship with Petunia but if she's not putting in the effort then you should waste your time or energy on her."

Lily sighed and hung her head, exasperated. "You're right. I don't know what else I can do to get her to talk to me, after the restaurant fiasco James and I went back to my parents house in the hopes of seeing her there but she wasn't home. She stayed at Vernon's house - she never stays at his house," she eluded with a deep, shoulder-sagging huff. "All of this happened yesterday so James and I both decided to come back early instead of waiting around to see if Petunia would come home. I don't think I'm ever going to see her again."

"Maybe you will, maybe you won't, it's up to her to make that decision - she needs to come to you," assured Giselle and she tried to change the subject to cheer her soppy friend up, "but enough about your silly sister, how was it at Casa de Potter? How are his parents?"

Lily brightened and her pretty smile lit up her face again, all tears vanishing. "It was great, his parents are amazing! I didn't expect his mum to be the crazy one, I always assumed it was Fleamont he got his exuberant confidence from," said Lily thoughtfully, laughing at a distant memory.

"Yeah, they're something else," giggled Giselle, thinking about James' eccentric parents who used to gift her with sugary treats whenever she saw them at King's Cross, "I would avoid Euphemia's fudge if you want to keep your teeth, though."

"Mmhm," tutted Lily, walking over to her trunk and pulling out an extravagantly large pink parcel, "don't I already know it. She gave me some to give to you."

"Aw! Yes!" cheered Giselle, snatching the box up immediately and ripping the lid off, smitten with the excessive amounts of caramel blocks inside.

"You know," continued Lily, watching Giselle devour the fudge without a moment's hesitation, "his parents suggested that I move in with them once we graduate…"

Giselle widened her eyes and yanked her jaw open as the fudge started to glue her teeth together. "They must have really liked you! Way to impress the parents, Lils!" she commented, proud of her friend.

"…and I said yes," finished Lily, waiting with bated breath for Giselle's reaction with a bitten lip and large, innocent eyes. "I'm not stupid for saying yes, am I?"

"Merlin no! That's incredible! I didn't realise that you two were that serious," replied Giselle with her biggest grin yet.

"Neither did we, but our time away together felt so right. I'm worried though, what if we break up before we graduate? What if moving in with him straight away ruins our relationship? But I don't want to move back home if Petunia is going to be there, I need space from that part of my life right now," rambled Lily suddenly, working herself up as she paced around the room, kicking the discarded letters as she walked. Running her tongue across her teeth to check for extra fudge, Giselle considered her problems and batted them away with a simple comment.

"I highly doubt you two are going to break up before the end of the year, you should see the way he looks at you. He loooves you," she said simply and she cooed as Lily blushed brighter than her hair.

"I'm holding your words against you if something happens," murmured Lily suspiciously, smoothing her hair out of her face in an attempt to hide her flushing cheeks but Giselle smirked.

"Oh you're so on," she laughed, happy for her best friends, "it sounds like you had a good Christmas then."

"I had the best Christmas," corrected Lily cheekily and her smile grew ten times in size, "I rode more than his broom if you know what I mean-,"

"LILY?!" gasped Giselle, throwing the pink box into the air from sheer shock and they ignored the shower of fudge raining down on them. "I-?! I DIDN'T-?! WHEN?! TELL ME EVERYTHING!"

Lily almost changed before Giselle's eyes, her smirk grew devilish and she perched delicately on the end of her bed, her green eyes glistening as she thought back to her holidays. She dove headfirst into the tale of how she lost her virginity and Giselle couldn't stop squealing as the details got juicier; she was gobsmacked by Lily's darker side and she had to cover her open mouth when she reached the climax of the story.

"You are filthy, Evans!" scoffed Giselle, her cheeks were cramping from her constant smiling. "Swallowing on your first go? I didn't know you were that kind of girl!"

Lily pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a guttural sigh, silently scolding herself for forgetting how crass Giselle could be. "Honestly neither did I…" she mumbled under her breath, keeping her voice down in case someone happened to be listening.

"How many times did you actually do it?" wondered Giselle, glad to be out of her own head for the first time in days. Talking about Lily's life was healing, she felt more human than she had all week.

"Every day, sometimes twice," she admitted, grinning bashfully. Giselle gave her a high-five.

"Nice!"

"While we're on the topic of boys…?" said Lily gently, nudging the sea of letters with her foot. Giselle's stomach erupted in butterflies and she dropped her gaze, humiliated by her own emotions.

"Please don't," she grumbled but Lily scoffed doubtfully, pursing her pink lips.

"No!"

"Please?"

"Forget about it!"

"But Lils-,"

"But Elle! Don't bother trying to play dumb, I know for a cold, hard fact that you still like him and we all know that he still likes you too! This is huge!" exclaimed Lily, throwing her hands up in the air but Giselle combated her absorb statement with a sour pout.

"I don't still like him," lied Giselle but the wriggling eels in her stomach squirmed uncomfortably and her subconscious snickered, amused by her fibs.

Lily looked equally as unconvinced.

"I don't!" insisted Giselle, stomping her foot like a stubborn toddler but Lily only had to glance down at the sweater she was wearing.

"Then why are you wearing Sirius' jumper?"

Giselle gulped and deflated, gazing down at the navy knitted jumper she found in one of the brown paper packages that fell from the chest. The second she ripped the paper off she smelt his musky body spray and comforting scents of the conditioner he uses, her heart lurched and she slipped it on instantly, she needed to feel him on her skin and it was the closest thing to him. A soft blush rushed to her freckled cheeks and she groaned, disappointed with how easily she crumbled. She couldn't hide her heartache from her.

"Alright, alright… yes, I," Giselle chose her words incredibly carefully, "I still care about him a lot."

"That's a funny way of phrasing it but it's a start!" celebrated Lily cheerfully, rubbing her shoulders for added reassurance.

"Lily, he has a girlfriend," reminded Giselle exasperatedly, half-heartedly gesturing at what she guessed was Marlene's bed, "it's never going to work."

Giselle was dreading the return of the rest of the school. Not only because another run-in with Junior was bound to happen, but because she would have to face Marlene. She was going to have to look her straight in the eye and pretend that she didn't have feelings for her boyfriend - it was going to be torture.

"This coming from the girl wearing his clothes," Lily arched her brow and scrutinised Giselle's bitter expression, "I think you need to have a little more faith."

"I have faith that his feelings have changed, he sent me this years ago, it doesn't mean anything. We sent each other loads of-," but Giselle cut herself off with a suffocating scream. Her heart plummeted down to her toes and a paralysing numbness rolled through her entire body when an old thought burst through the walls of her brain and made itself known.

"FUCK!" yelled Giselle, panicked. "Fucking son of a fuck!" She sent Sirius gifts too - extremely pornographic photographs of herself, to be exact.

"What?!" gasped Lily, matching her friend's worry.

Tearing at her hair, Giselle shook her head and whined, mortified at her past mistakes. She couldn't believe she had been so stupid! How could she forget she sent him those?! Her heart was pounding harder than ever, humiliated at the idea of Sirius finding them and passing them around like they were a bag of sweets, laughing at her younger self.

"I sent him pictures of myself… in some very scandalous poses… possibly just in my underwear…" Giselle groaned, "or naked-,"

"ELLE?!" gasped Lily, trying not to laugh as she forced her face into a frown. "Oh my God!"

"I was young and dumb! Never make decisions while you're horny, Lils," she tutted, totally disappointed in herself. She glanced up at her friend beneath her lashes and tried to summon a charming smile. "Lily…?"

"Do you want me to go and get them back?" she sighed, gussying up in the mirror nearby to hide all traces of her tears before she left. Giselle nodded and dazzled her with her biggest smile.

"Pretty please?"

"Only if you take a shower and come down too," compromised Lily, arching her bold brow.

Giselle hesitated, her thumping heart grew faster but when she shuffled on the spot she received another whiff of Sirius's scent from the jumper. She had to face him eventually, she couldn't draw this out forever.

"Deal," said Giselle with a weak sigh and Lily beamed.

The shower was just as healing as Lily's hugs, her depression trickled down the drain along with her perspiration and she took her time massaging the creamy peach lotions into her dark locks, mulling over her intense thoughts in the hot water. She swapped Sirius' sweater for another baggy jumper and slipped into the first pieces of clothing she could find; a short checkered skirt and her fluffy slippers. She managed to brush all of the knots out of her hair and even dared to dab some concealer on the purple mark on her face; she looked much more presentable, her bloodshot eye nearly complimented her tired look.

Taking a few deep, calming breaths, Giselle headed downstairs to face them all, she needed to get it over and done with. She kept her eyes on the ground as she walked, she could hear voices in the room beyond and the eels in her stomach were erratic, churning her nerves and it made her feel rather nauseous. She could pick his voice out with so much ease it almost made her laugh, and a shot of energy burst through her, ordering her to push the door open.

"-just for one minute, talk to her," said Lily desperately, looking up at Sirius with wide eyes. She was sitting on the sofa, her legs tucked up underneath her as she snuggled into James who looked awfully relieved that she was talking to him again. Peter was pouring himself a large mug of tea whilst struggling to keep a straight face as James kept catching his eye with a knowing smirk, and Remus was curled up in a ball on the other sofa, resembling a pile of fluffy blankets as he ignored the group. Tonight was a full moon and she knew he was suffering in silence, her dread for him hit her hard in the pit of her stomach but she tried not to linger on his pain.

Giselle froze in the shadows of the doorway and stared at Sirius, looking at him properly for the first time in what felt like years. The letters had given him a whole new dimension, she felt remarkably shy to be in his presence after being fully consumed by his soul and spirit for the past week. He was perched on the arm of Remus' sofa, his leg bouncing excessively, betraying the persistent chills of anxiety riddling his body. He was wearing a caramel leather jacket with a plush fleece collar, a dark pair of jeans, and quite intimidating black boots that thudded against the floor with every nervous foot tap. His hair was loosely tied in a knot, giving her a clear view of his face - her heart skipped. He hadn't noticed her yet.

"Your tone seems very pointed right now Evans," huffed Sirius, pressing his fingers into his eyelids as though trying to relieve a pressure point in his skull, "how does one simply talk about this?!"

"Easy," shrugged James, clearly smug that he had been right all along, "just open your mouth, and talk."

"You say this like it's the easiest thing in the world?" questioned Sirius, deeply offended by his best friend's smile, "and wipe that grin off your face Prongs, it's worse than Moony's 'I-told-you-so's."

"Um," piped up Remus weakly, peering from under his blanket to frown at Sirius , "I only said it once!"

"And that one time really hurt!" sniffed Sirius dramatically.

"Giselle will be receptive, I promise you," assured Lily, still determined to break his tough albeit annoying exterior, "you're not the only one who's had a change of heart."

"Would you call it a change of heart if his feelings never went away in the first place, though?" asked James aloud to the room, dropping his best friend into the deep end and Sirius gasped, a hand on his chest.

"You really woke up and chose to be violent today, didn't you?" he scoffed, disappointed in the direction of the conversation.

"...He's right though," mumbled Lily under her breath and Sirius leapt to his feet, accidentally rocking the sofa and disturbing Remus again.

"You've changed, Evans," said Sirius sourly, "ever since you started dating him you're turned into a very rude person. I don't know why I ever thought you two would make a good couple."

The clown inside of Giselle woke up with a yawn and lightly nudged her to join in as though it were the good old days and she braved the jump, diving head first into the moment. She strolled into the common room and mustered her best sigh, trembling slightly as the group turned to acknowledge her but she automatically locked eyes with Sirius. He froze.

"Oh no," she scoffed, summoning a cheeky smirk, "you can't break them up now. You can't ruin all these years of hard work."

"Yeah… well…" Sirius stumbled over his words and put his hands on his hips, clearly flustered and needing to do something with his hands, "pffft… I mean...h-how long have you been standing there, out of interest?"

"Not long enough, I didn't hear anything particularly embarrassing which is annoying," she replied coolly, praying that the room couldn't hear her hammering heart as it bashed against her ribcage over the fact Sirius was speaking to her like a normal human being again. "I was hoping to hear some juicy gossip so I'm very disappointed."

"Mhmm, my condolences," he murmured, his teeth chewing at his bottom lip.

Those sat on the sofa gawked at the scene, gobsmacked that they were talking to each other in a neutral, almost positive, tone. The erratic beating of her heart was starting to ache her chest so she broke his intense eye contact and caught Lily's, hoping to get an answer to her dying question without having to say it out loud. She felt the cold draft on her searing freckled cheeks as she narrowed her eyes and wiggled her eyebrows, trying not to seem too twitchy.

"What is she doing?" asked James conspicuously, oblivious to the girls' mimed conversation and Lily jabbed her elbow into his ribs, indicating to him that he should bite his tongue.

"And?" Giselle mouthed at the redhead and she winked back, grinning.

"Are you having a secret conversation right in front of us? Wow, rude," guffawed Peter, sinking back into his armchair to sip his tea.

"I know, Wormtail, the level of disrespect in here this afternoon is staggering," spat James, teasingly pulling his girlfriend into him in an effort to work out what she was mouthing, "no fair!"

"He burnt them-," Lily mouthed back, laughing as she swatted James' hands away and Peter let out a bark of laughter, catching Lily's words perfectly.

"Ooh, you're talking about Elle's nudes-," he said casually, continuing to drink his tea to hide his smile and Giselle instinctively whined in defeat, covering her feverish face from their eyes and fighting the compulsion to run away. She could feel Sirius' gaze on her skin and she couldn't look at him now she knew he had seen her photographs. Peter's words were the confirmation she didn't want to hear but the rushed exclaims of assurance were certainly not what she expected.

"It's fine!" chirped Lily quickly.

"We didn't see them!" added James soberly, and Giselle peeled her fingers from her eyes to sneak a peek at them. Peter nodded furiously and Remus sat up to join in, not bothering to try and nap anymore.

"I destroyed them the second I realised what they were," Sirius rushed to explain, his voice low and gravelly, and Giselle shivered. "They're gone."

Her hands dropped to her sides and she didn't have any trouble matching his gaze that time. It was a very mature and respectful move and she was genuinely blindsided by it, the anxious snakes in her stomach vanished in a blink but the creature inside of her purred, endeared by his gesture.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

"You don't have to say thank you, you would have done the same," he said matter-of-factly, sliding into his usual charming facade, "although you would have struggled, my pictures would be pieces of art."

"Eh," she shook her hand as a sign of uncertainty, "I dunno, I probably would have kept them," she said deadpanned and Sirius swore, severely disappointed in himself.

"I guess I fucked up! Does anyone know if Reparo works on ashes?" he asked the room and the atmosphere melted for the first time all year, they laughed together at the same joke and Giselle finally felt like she was home.

"Now you've emerged from your hole, can we finally give out our presents?" sighed James, and Giselle brightened, remembering her small pile of presents lying in her trunk upstairs. With a quick summoning spell she slid into the spare seat beside Remus and joined the festivities, giddy at the thought of giving out the presents in her lap. Lily thanked her profusely for her new pair of elegantly delicate gold heels, James laughed heartily at his signed French National team Quidditch robes ("I wouldn't wear them around anyone from Beauxbatons, those robes are 'technically' still at the school," she added with an innocent smile and the boys howled in laughter) and Peter stared blankly at Giselle as he held up his new canvas.

"Are you kidding me?" he scoffed, thunderstruck at the image before him, "how did you know I was a rat?"

"Really? Wormtail? You guys need lessons in subtlety," she said with an eye roll, and Peter blushed even harder, wincing as he looked at the canvas like it was the sun.

"Did you have to be so… graphic?"

Giselle smoothed her fingers down her chin in thought, reconsidering her present for him.

"That was the second attempt, personally I liked the first one but I think it would have been bit too much for you," she said through her stifles and Peter looked crushed.

"You painted something worse than this?!" he gulped and spun the canvas around as though he were in class giving a presentation. "Look!" The group broke as they stared in disbelief at the scene of a cartoon-ish rat that looked eerily like Peter engaging in a very graphic sexual act with another rat with humongous breasts.

"Jesus Christ what the hell was that?" groaned Lily, laughing as she buried her head into James' chest to avoid the terrifying image.

"But...why?!" asked Peter, aghast.

"The question isn't why - it's why not?" corrected Giselle factually, basking in their glorious reactions.

"Now I really want to know what you painted first," said James, annoyed.

"I really like the cross-hatching on this penis," mumbled Remus seriously as though he was an art critic and Giselle thanked him sincerely with a pretty smile.

"Thank you! It's my favourite part," she replied cheerfully, ignoring Peter's head shakes.

"Personally I think using the white glitter as cum is a stroke of genius," commended Sirius, swaying his head as he examined the painting. "But I hate that his eyes follow you around the room. It's like he's looking into my soul…"

"Thanks Elle, I hate it," concluded Peter, quickly covering it up to stop them from ogling it all afternoon.

Giselle passed the final present to Remus and he blinked at the flower-filled jar, thoroughly confused. Lily perked up at the sight of the aconite and sat forwards, impressed at the vast quantity Giselle managed to obtain.

"Why are you giving him monkshood?" she wondered, eyes lit up in intrigue.

"I didn't just choose something at random, there's a story behind it," promised Giselle and she began to retell her run-in with the werewolf as a child, making sure she relayed her train of thought. The more she thought back, the clearer she could picture the dirty kitchen and she remembered seeing the roots of the flowers marinating in containers of all kinds, bathed in some sort of brown liquid.

"You think he was ingesting this? Elle, it's poisonous," interjected Remus, dubious of her thinking.

"But the roots are perfectly fine! He was chugging this shit! I was thinking we could try and figure out what he was using it for, he couldn't get enough of this stuff," she told him confidently and he looked up at Lily, the more sensible potioneer of the group.

"I mean, there's no harm in trying," she suggested with a shrug, "I'll certainly help, but only if we use my methods."

Giselle pouted at her, a tad miffed. Lily was a precise potioneer, she stuck to the textbook and could recreate any potion perfectly but her tactics weren't exactly ideal for this task - Giselle, on the other hand, was known for being very heavy handed with her measurements and she loved to experiment. Messy, unknown concoctions that could potentially kill you were her forte.

"Fine but I get the final say," she compromised and Lily shook her hand, satisfied with her deal.

"Or you could just smoke it and cross your fingers?" suggested James as though he were being helpful and Sirius agreed wholeheartedly.

"Crack the jar open, Moony! Let's roll up! It is New Years Eve, after all!"

Once the bright winter sun disappeared from the windows of the tower, silver platters of food appeared on the tables in the common room and the Gryffindors indulged in a pleasant meal together, enjoying each others company with soft jokes and light topics, but Giselle kept catching herself naturally gravitating towards Sirius. They met each other's gaze a few times and she held onto it longer than she should have but she could see him struggling too, he was drawn to her as well. A heavy weight settled in her abdomen and she needed to get rid of it as soon as possible. She needed to clear the air between them and start afresh, she was proud that she could handle his presence and they were being cordial - now they could move forwards.

Or, she hoped they could. She needed to hear him say it too.

As James dished out another round of playing cards to the group, Remus' watch beeped loudly and the room froze, spooked by its shrillness. Giselle glanced at Remus beside her and he sighed, throwing the blanket from his shoulders and gazing sadly at the group. The scars on his face were growing darker by the minute and he looked extremely nauseous as he climbed to his feet but Sirius instinctively latched onto him.

"It's time, boys."

"Be careful," said Lily hurriedly, rushing to kiss James on the lips as the men prepared to leave for the night.

"We're always careful," scoffed Peter as though it were a fact. Giselle watched Remus carefully and he caught her nervous look with a bashful smile, genuinely amused at her concern.

"Chill out, Elle. I'll be right as rain in the morning," he promised her and she nodded, resisting the urge to ask to join them. She wanted to make sure that was true, she couldn't bear the thought of them getting hurt but her sensible side reminded her that they had done this countless times, this was just another full moon to them.

"What, I don't get to see you transform into your Animagi forms? Don't leave me with blue balls," she scoffed, distracting her dark thoughts with something entertaining as they headed towards the portrait hole and the three boys hesitated, sneaking a smile from each other before turning around. Lily groaned loudly.

"Why did you say that?!"

"Since you asked so nicely," sighed James, batting his eyelashes, and suddenly an enormous stag appeared in his place and one of his antlers immediately pierced one of the portraits. Thankfully it was empty, its inhabitant somewhere else in the castle celebrating the holiday. Holding her stomach as she laughed, Giselle watched James prance around the room, carelessly knocking over furniture as he showed off his gracefulness but Sirius soon grew jealous of his destruction and transformed too. As soon as she took in his black shaggy dog appearance something clicked in her head and she smiled to herself as she watched him leap up onto James' back and ride him as though he were a human - it suited him perfectly. The fun was short-lived, however, as Remus' grunts of pain grew worse and they sobered up quickly, cautious of their small gap of time.

"Have fun!" Giselle blurted out as they left but only Sirius snorted at her comment, his chuckle reverberated inside her and the butterflies were back in a flash, manic at his validation. He always did have a darker sense of humour.

The crackling of the fire soothed the silence in the common room and Lily let out a heaving sigh and smiled widely at Giselle as she stretched out, her toes curling from relief of having more space.

"That went better than expected," she surmised, relishing in the success of the evening, "and they didn't bring up your eye once. They actually listened to me!"

Giselle guffawed and sank back into the sofa cushions, rather touched at her sentiment. Talking to Sirius for the first time took a lot of her energy and she was beyond thankful that her family wasn't brought up - that would have been too much for her right now. She rolled onto her side and leant on her elbow, smirking back at her best friend.

"You really do love me, don't you?" she teased, wrinkling her nose affectionately and Lily rolled her eyes, matching her position.

"Of course I do, and I'm not the only one. We all love you very much, Elle," she said with certainty, pouting her lips playfully, "although one of us in particular loves you in a different way but that's just my opinion-," Lily grunted as a pillow smashed into her face and Giselle laughed away her wishful claims with a collection of huffs.

"Please keep that opinion to yourself," she pleaded and Lily merely smirked.

"Perhaps…" She trailed off devilishly and Giselle slumped into the sofa, burying her head in shame at the thought of Lily publicly declaring her thoughts on Sirius and Giselle's complicated relationship in front of the rest of their year and, more importantly, in front of Marlene. She'd rather be swallowed up by the Giant Squid.

"Maybe Sirius was right, you have changed," she grumbled bitterly.