October 21, 1973.
Deli was enjoying the afternoon after first period spells class, sitting at the Gryffindor table with Marlene and the blonde's roommates. The main hall was fully decorated as Halloween was in a week. Delilah took two pancakes from her plate, eating while reading the Daily Prophet when someone sat on the bench opposite her, next to Lily.
"Lily, do you want to go out with me? It's going to be our first time in Hogsmeade, I thought we could go together", James asked with a flirtatious smile, though he was as nervous as when McGonagall found out he and his friends had dyed Filch's hair red.
"And what makes you think I'd go with you?" the redhead replied and rolled her eyes. Lily didn't hate James, but his insistence was stressing her out, and she was already stressed trying to get through all of her subjects even though it was still the beginning of the semester.
"Because we're soulmates?" James guessed and the girl snorted.
"Get off, Potter" was all she said and he got up quickly, his expression not one of the nicest. Deli noticed that despite smiling at Lily, James' eyes didn't reflect that much contentment. Marlene and Mary managed to contain their laughter until the boy was away from the table, heading towards his friends as if nothing had happened.
"He looks sad", Deli nudged Marlene. "Why doesn't she agree to go out with him?"
Despite having known Lily since first year, Deli and the redhead weren't big fans of each other. They met occasionally when Marlene was around. Delilah had no problem with the redhead, but she didn't find anything in common with Evans and so didn't try to force a friendship. Sometimes Lily would help her with some lessons, but that was all. Lily was all studious and Deli wasn't the most dedicated to her education. Mary, on the other hand, was sweet and kind until someone talked about Quidditch. Delilah remembered a time in second year when she'd punched a Slytherin boy in the arm who had dared to speak ill of Gryffindor. Deli used to exchange a few words with her when Marlene purposely left them alone.
Besides being a pain in the ass at times, Marlene was the best person Deli had ever met at Hogwarts. She talked about boys, music, art and never bothered her when Delilah was late for a lesson, even borrowing some for Deli to copy. Marlene looked at her friend, giving James a strange look and then back to Deli.
"He looked fine to me" the blonde pointed out, whispering "I don't know, I mean... I think she likes him, but Potter is always around her." Delilah had a little idea, as every day James found himself coming and going after Lily. "It's kind of scary."
"I think it's very cute. I'd trade Gipsy for someone who talks to me or looks at me the way James looks at her", she replied without hesitation, soon realizing that perhaps she had said too much.
"But your owl is so cute," Marlene said laughing.
"Only when you're around" the girl retorted.
"Anyway, you're a hopeless romantic, Delilah. I bet there's someone out there crazy to get your attention and you don't see it" Marlene said more to comfort her friend. She had never seen anyone show interest in Delilah, at least not at Hogwarts. "And besides, your uncle is famous, I bet a lot of Muggle teenagers wanted to be you."
"I love your optimism, McKinnon." Deli smiled, grateful for her friend's comments, even though she knew the other was trying to please her. Until then, she couldn't remember being invited on the tour by anyone. Not even Marlene and the girls. "And you, going to Hogsmead?"
"Yeah, I think I have a date." Marlene said a little louder in order to bring her other friends to the subject. Lily and Mary, curious as usual. Deli was a little sad to hear that she wouldn't have McKinnon's company on her first visit to the village.
"Who is it?" the other two almost screamed together at the same time. Marlene choked on her pumpkin juice, but quickly composed herself, frowned, and then asked her friends not to make a fuss, gesturing for them to come over.
"A third-year Ravenclaw, he came to invite me and I thought it was cute," she said before taking another sip of the pumpkin juice.
The others smiled, Delilah was happy for her friend. There were signs of war and the McKinnon family was hurting. They were constantly moving to other cities, as the followers of the hitherto known as Lord Voldemort were tasked with recruiting Marlene's father and brother.
It was nice to see that her friend wasn't giving up on something she wasn't at fault for. Just to think that someone thought they had the right to kill innocent people because they were considered inferior made Deli shudder. She went back to eating, taking the last bite of a sandwich and said goodbye to Marlene with a slap on the shoulder, just waving to the other two. Walking quickly to the second period of spell class, with Professor Flitwick.
It was early, she knew. Not even Lily - who was known for being punctual - had arrived as early as she had. The redhead was just enjoying her breakfast while Deli walked quickly through the halls towards the south tower, where the spell class took place. Anyone who passed her might think the girl was just late. However, Deli was hellbent on finding an empty spot to do her drawings and would still be able to sit anywhere away from the Marauders - with the exception of Remus, who was known to enjoy studying. Despite being in love with James, she knew he didn't take his studies as seriously as the others, and drooling over him in class wouldn't be a good thing for her grades.
A few minutes later, Professor Flitwick arrived, along with the other students. Like Delilah, Lily also wanted to sit next to the teacher and make sure she listened to the entire class, they both really enjoyed the spell class.
When she saw the empty seat next to Delilah, the redhead walked quickly to sit down. It was either that or sit down with someone from Slytherin.
As she made her way to the empty seat, she noticed two familiar faces at the back table and hesitated. Lily stopped where she was and looked around, only to see that everyone was already properly in their seats.
"Do you need help, Miss Evans?" Flitwick said and the girl denied it, walking slowly over to Delilah's table, ignoring James' stupid grin at her. As soon as she sat down, she smiled shyly at Deli and put everything else aside, focusing only on the teacher's explanation.
Although they were able to hear most of the class, it didn't take long for Sirius and James to disrupt the class every couple of minutes. James tried to get Lily's attention for the thousandth time that day, tugging at a lock of that red hair. Sirius controlled himself not to laugh.
Potter was his best friend, more than that, he was his brother. However, his expression after Evans' rejections was priceless. Obviously there were times when James was really upset, and in those times Sirius, Remus and Peter were responsible for planning countless pranks against Slytherins in order to make James happy again. And despite always hearing Lily say she would never go out with James, every time she tried not to smile at Potter's wooing, he was sure they would be together in the end.
"Lily…" Deli heard James whisper. She tried very hard not to look back at the redhead, knowing it was just Potter trying to get Evan's attention.
"I can't focus," Lily whispered to Delilah, who didn't know what to do as the two weren't such good friends. "Can you ask him to stop, please, Deli?"
If Delilah was already unaccustomed to talking to Lily, the situation only became more confusing to hear the redhead calling her by her nickname and staring at her like a puppy. Her despair was real.
Deli smiled at the redhead and nodded, then turned around and placed a hand on the back of the chair. Flitwick was dictating some skills needed to cast a banishing spell correctly. She hesitated and glanced at Lily, who was thankfully writing it all down, and looked at the back table, where James was no longer pestering Lily and taking down Flitwick's lines. But Sirius was unoccupied and was looking at her curiously.
"Hi, Deli" he said and she arched her eyebrows, a little surprised that he remembered her name. After all, only Remus used to meet her in the library during first and second year to help with lessons and whenever the others were around, Lupin was so busy that he didn't see her. She brushed off the random thoughts and got right to the point.
"Hi Sirius, do you mind stopping James from getting in Evans' way? She needs to focus," Deli asked gently and James dropped what he was doing as soon as he heard his name.
Contrary to what Deli expected, James just smiled and leaned to Lily's chair.
"So... You mean I make you nervous?" he said and Lily snorted.
Seeing Deli rolling her eyes, Sirius laughed almost loud enough to attract Flitwick's attention, and approached her.
"Don't worry, beautiful. I'll keep little Potter here very busy." He pulled away and took the moment to wrap his arm around James' neck and ruffle his hair. Black was still smiling gently and Deli suspected he was in a great mood. She smiled gratefully and went back to watching the class, hoping Flitwick would finish soon.
[...]
Astronomy classes were simply the worst. Delilah loved the stars in the sky, not in books. Despite being terrible at her subject, she and Professor Sinistra were good friends. In the second year, Deli discovered that the woman was fascinated by Muggles as well their clothes. Being the niece of a famous stylist, Deli couldn't contain herself and both were always discussing the fashion shows that took place in Paris.
Aurora was a kind woman, and seeing Delilah getting bad at her subject wasn't exactly what she'd expected. She could see the effort the girl was making, but she knew that Deli alone could not improve.
So when she saw the young woman shoving a bunch of parchments into her bag before leaving the class, Aurora asked her to stay a little longer.
Deli didn't even care, it was the last class of the day. Marlene offered to stay with her friend, but abandoned her as soon as she saw Lily and Mary strolling nearby.
"Mr. Black, it would be great if you could stay too."
Delilah looked back at the last few seats to find Sirius packing his things too, ready to leave. After a few seconds, there was no one in the room other than the three of them. Deli was holding one of her books, the strap of her bag almost slipping off her shoulders. Sirius stopped beside her, waiting for Aurora to finish packing her things and start talking.
"Okay…" she looked at the two of them and wished she was doing the right thing. "Deli, I see you're having some problems with astronomy. I know you're not very fond of asking for help, so I'm doing it for you."
Delilah bit her bottom lip, she wanted to stick her head in a hole. She wanted to cry, but I wouldn't do it around a boy, much less around Sirius, who was James' best friend. The girl remained silent.
"Sirius, you are my best student despite always disrupting classes, I want you to help Deli achieve better grades. If you do, I can try to get you out of some detention."
Black didn't need to think twice. It was clear he was top of the class, everything he knew about astronomy he had learned at home. And if there was a chance to escape a few detentions, he would help anyone.
"You two, make yourself comfortable, I need to speak with Minerva" she said and left the place.
"You don't need to help," Deli said. He was surprised to find that she was doing poorly in astronomy even though he didn't know much about her, never thought she was bad at that subject. Even though they have known each other since freshman year, Deli has never been much of a talker about each other, and since then, that day has been the strangest for both of them. "I'm sure I'm going to fail anyway."
Sirius couldn't even think of Delilah giving up so easily. She was one of the best at potions and transfiguration, how could she give up like that on astronomy?
"I will help you," he said and she looked at him as if he had spoken the most absurd. "If you want, obviously."
"Are you sure? Marlene says I'm a lost cause" she warned him and he smiled. His parents always said he was a lost cause, having different values than his family. From his point of view, he was doing very well. So the boy rolled his eyes and she laughed.
"We start tomorrow night, meet me in the common room. Bring your book and a blanket too, it gets really cold at night."