A/N: We see a little bit more of Sirius in this chappie (ALWAYS a good thing). It's quite a long chapter for me, so don't expect them this length regularly! Hope you like! Merry Christmas! And I hope you're all looking forward to July 16th! (The poem that Lily recieves, by the way, was written by William Blake. Not me.)
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"Lily? Can I borrow your sunglasses?"
"What?"
"Your sunglasses?" Scarlett repeated, "Can I borrow them?" She held them up in front of Lily's face.
"Oh, yeah. Sure." She looked back down at her book. "Ow!"
"Sorry!" Clem apologised, biting her lip. "I'm almost finished!" She tapped Lily's head once more. Blue and green beads appeared on the ends of the braids she had just finished charming. Lily would have called it a success, except it had taken half an hour, and Clementine had repeatedly burnt her scalp accidentally.
"Why do you even want to wear sunglasses?" Gwen asked from her bed. "It's not that sunny, and you have beautiful eyes."
Lily smirked at Scarlett's scowl. She did have the most beautiful baby blue eyes, but she hated them. Lily knew this was because they were the only things she couldn't change. Despite being almost an adult metamorphmagus, her powers were still developing, and her eye colour would probably remain permanently blue for a long time to come. She also tended to get stuck with a certain appearance from time to time, especially when she was stressed.
Lily hid a smile as she remembered the time Scarlett's ex-boyfriend Matthew had broken up with her, and she'd spent the week as an eighty-year-old woman. And during their OWLs, she'd been so frazzled, she became almost a carbon copy of Lily (with blue eyes), and the pair had kept being confused. In fact, Scarlett had nearly been forced to take Lily's Arithmancy OWL, because no one would believe her when she said she was really Scarlett Wood.
"I hate my eyes," Scarlett complained through gritted teeth.
"Why?" asked Gwen, bewildered.
"Because I can't change them and they're weird."
"That's not precisely true," said Clementine, "You can change them a little bit."
"You can?" Lily asked.
Scarlett rolled her eyes, and as she did so, blue turned to gold, and her pupils became elliptical, like cat's eyes.
"Whoa!" said Gwen, grinning and come over to get a better look. "Cool!"
"When'd you learn to do that?" asked Lily, feeling slightly put out that her best friend hadn't told her about this. Even since first year, the girls had been in 'pairs'; Scarlett and Lily, Gwenog and Clementine. Growing older, these ties had become less infinite, but Lily still felt closer to Scarlett than the others.
"Sometime on Friday evening," Scarlett answered matter-of-factly. "I was just stroking Moxie and thinking how cool it would be to have eyes like hers, then I looked up at Clem, who screamed and told me to look in the mirror." She looked over at her tabby cat, Moxie, who was resting lazily on her bed. Lily felt better, Scarlett wasn't hiding anything; Lily just hadn't been around when it had happened. No, she was too busy being rescued from a werewolf, she thought sarcastically.
"She tried changing them other colours too," Clem added, "But it didn't work. Just that kind."
"I'm not going to deny that this has been an extremely interesting conversation," Scarlett announced sardonically, putting on the sunglasses (over eyes that were now back to their normal blue) and checking herself in the mirror, "But I'm afraid I have to leave, places to go, people to see."
"Where are you going this time on a Sunday morning?" Lily asked, flicking a stray braid back over her shoulder.
Scarlett said nothing, only tapped her nose in a knowing fashion, before walking out of the room.
"I worry about her sometimes," Clem commented dryly as they all stared unflinchingly at the spot Scarlett had occupied moments earlier. Lily smiled and looked out the window, only to see a tawny owl stood on the window ledge, clucking impatiently.
"Hey!" Gwen exclaimed, noticing the owl as well. She took the letter from its beak, glanced at the name briefly, and then handed it to Lily. "For you." The owl took off from the windowsill with a loud flurry.
Lily frowned and turned it over, breaking the seal before pulling the letter out. "Who would be sending me post now?" she wondered aloud. She unfolded the letter and read out the cursive, flowing script, penned in red ink.
The modest rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat'ning horn,
While the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.
"It's a poem," Clementine remarked, looking unusually impressed
"It's a love letter!" squeaked Gwen, goggling at it and clapping her hands to her cheeks.
Lily stared at it in shock. Who on earth was going to send her something like this?
"It must be a joke," she concluded loudly.
Gwen yanked her eyes away from the letter and goggled at her instead. "Are you having a giggle?" she asked incredulously, "It's beautiful! People don't write stuff like that for a joke, it must have taken hours to get it so perfect!"
"Oh, my baby's all grown up and receiving love letters from secret admirers!" said Clem, clutching her heart and wiping away a mock tear of happiness dramatically.
"Oh shut up!" Lily moaned loudly, rolling her eyes, "It's nothing!" Clem and Gwen looked at each other calculatingly, then started screaming and jumping up and down with glee.
"Girls, please!" Lily shouted above the commotion. They both stopped mid-jump.
"Come on Lils!" Gwen squealed, jumping onto Scarlett's bed. "I'm excited and the letter wasn't even for me!"
"Okay, someone enlighten me," Lily said, scowling, "What exactly am I supposed to be getting all worked up about?"
"Lily, Lily, Lily," Clem said, putting her hands on Lily's shoulders, talking to her as though she were a very small child that didn't know any better. "There comes a time in every girls life, and it differs with everyone, when you find you feel incomplete, alone, wanting…"
"Wanting what?"
Clem paused. "Companionship? I have no idea," she confessed, "I'm racking my brains trying to remember exactly how my mother finished that sentence." She was interrupted but a tapping noise on the window.
"It's another one!" Gwen cried, covering her mouth with a hand. "Go on Lils!"
Lily sighed and reached forward, taking the letter from the owl, this time white in colouring. Sure enough, the name Lily Evans had been written on the front.
Lily,
Meeting in Prefects common room in fifteen minutes.
James.
"Well?" asked Gwen eagerly.
"Hole in the ground you get water out of," Lily answered, smirking as she remember Sirius saying the same thing the previous day. Gwen raised her eyebrows. "It's from James," Lily told her with a roll of the eyes, "We have a meeting in fifteen minutes."
"On a Sunday?!" asked Clem, laughing at Lily's misfortune, "Phew, glad I'm not Head Girl."
"Dumbledore would lose his mind before making you Head Girl," Gwen told her, shaking her head.
"No, I think he lost his mind when he made Potter Head Boy!" Clem laughed.
"Oh, I don't know," said Lily, a thoughtful look flickering across her face, "James seems to be doing a pretty good job of it so far."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" said Clem, holding her hands up, "Stop and rewind! Did you just compliment Potter? And did you just call him James?"
"Yeah? So what?" Lily replied, blushing furiously.
"So what?!" Clem echoed, "Last year you couldn't say a civil thing towards him, and now you're-"
"Oh my God!" interrupted Gwenog, "I knew it!"
"Knew what?"
"You, Miss Evans, are in love with him!"
"I have never heard a more ridiculous thing in my entire life."
"Denial!" Gwen yelled, pointing a finger at Lily. She looked at Clem. "Isn't she completely denying the whole situation because she knows it's perfectly true?"
"Hey, don't ask me!" Clem answered, shrinking back, "You're the so-called 'romance expert'."
"As much as I enjoy the pair of you picking apart my love life and analysing the pieces," Lily said, backing away from Gwen's outstretched finger, "If you'll excuse me, I have a prefects meeting I'm supposed to be at."
"With Potter," Gwen added.
"Yes," said Lily, backing slowly out of the door. "And also with the prefects." She added, emphasising the syllables. Before anyone could stop her, she ran down the steps, slamming the door as she went.
"We are so onto her," said Gwen smugly, folding her arms.
"Oh yeah," Clem agreed.
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Lily sighed and shook her head as she climbed down from the common room to the corridor outside. Those two could do your head in if you weren't careful. She heard footsteps coming down a staircase to her left, but walked past them thinking nothing of it.
"Hey Lily!" someone called, jogging up alongside her.
"Hi James," she replied, spotting his hair.
"Anything wrong?"
"No. Why would there be?"
"I dunno, you just looked a little…" he paused, searching for the right word, "Flustered, I guess."
"It was just Gwen and Clementine. Teasing me," Lily told him with a laugh.
"About what, may I ask?"
She rolled her eyes and held out one of the pieces of parchment still in her hand.
"About this?" James asked, puzzled, "Why are they teasing you about 'Meeting in Prefects common room in fifteen minutes'?"
"Oops, wrong one," Lily said, taking it off him and handing him the other letter.
"Oh, okay, this makes more sense," he said, reading the poem with a bemused smirk on his face. "It's kinda… sappy, don't you think?"
"I think it's sweet," Lily answered, admitting to him what she hadn't to her friends. In fact, she had been rather surprised with herself when she'd actually let him see the letter in the first place; maybe their relationship really had changed.
"You do?" James asked, looking shocked.
"Yeah."
"Care to elaborate?"
"Not really."
"Oh. Okay then."
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Sirius leant his back onto the trunk of the tree, looking out over the lake. It was a hot day and he was glad of the shade. It wasn't often he was alone like this, but today James had a prefects meeting, and Peter and Remus were doing their potions homework. Nevertheless, when he had informed his friends that he would be spending the day by the lake, working on his tan, Moony had gone of on a tangent about skin care.
"Don't spend more than half and hour in the sun!" he had warned. Although Sirius had acted like he wasn't bothered about Remus' advice, he was taking it to heart now. A melanoma wasn't high on his list of things to get.
He closed his eyes, but felt this strange, tingling feeling in the back of his head; like someone was watching him from behind.
"Get a grip, Sirius," he muttered aloud. But the feeling wouldn't go away. Slowly, he turned his head, and saw a girl with glossy black hair streaked with purple and green, pale skin and eyes hidden behind designer shades. She was tall, with an athletic build and square shoulders, and she held herself as straight backed as a ballerina.
A hush fell. There was no lake, no school, no students; just Sirius, and the girl, and the stillness.
She was wearing a black jogging suit, and her feet were bare, toenails varnished jade green. Sirius had never considered feet as being elegant before, but hers were; long and slender with evenly spaced toes. Her face was strong: high cheekbones and full lips.
The lips parted in a smile. Her teeth seemed rather pointed, which ought to have spoiled the smile, but made it all the more charming.
"Hello," she said.
"Hello."
The girl stepped up to him, bending down and offering out a hand. "Aurelia Moon."
Sirius took her hand, shook it, and was surprised by the power of her grip.
"Sirius Black."
"Cool name."
"It's a family thing. My grandfather was called Sirius."
"You inherited it from him?"
"Yes, but the name was all I inherited. A country estate would have been nice, but there you go."
"You can inherit worse things than a name," she said.
It seemed like an exit line, but Aurelia sat on the ground beside him.
"Do you dance?" Sirius asked admiringly.
"No, why?"
"You move like a dancer."
"My parents would hasten to disagree with you. They think I'm clumsy. I was unpacking a china bowl at Christmas and I dropped it."
"How long have you been at Hogwarts? I've never seen you before."
"Never seen or never noticed?" Sirius blushed. "It's okay, I like to keep my head down, disappear into the background. I only moved here at the beginning of the year."
"That explains it," Sirius commented, more to himself than her. "Where did you live before?"
"Romania."
"You don't sound Romanian." She didn't sound anything: her voice was low and husky, and had no accent.
"I wasn't there for very long," she told him, "This is the seventh country I've lived in. My father has to go where his work takes him."
"What does he do?"
"Something to do with international co-operation I think. Unfortunately, because I keep moving schools, I'm really far behind. I have lessons with the fifth years! But anyway, what do your parents do?"
"I don't know and I don't really care. I left them last year, went to live with my friend James and his parents." It came out clipped and defensive.
"And you still have issues, so you're not comfortable with talking about it," Aurelia said. "That's fine. I don't mind if you change the subject."
"I'm that easy to see through?"
"If you know where to look."
Sirius couldn't decide whether Aurelia was being sympathetic or a smart aleck; so he gave her the benefit of the doubt.
"What d'you think of Hogsmeade?" he asked.
"Actually, I've not seen much of it yet. I've been so busy, but I was planning to go sometime soon."
"Need a guide?"
"You offering?"
"Uh huh."
Aurelia smiled her pointy-toothed smile again. "Careful, I might take you up on that!"
"Feel free. When?"
"Saturday afternoon?"
"Suits me. I'll meet you here at two o'clock."
"I can't promise, something might turn up," she told him in an offhand way. "If I'm not here by half past I'm not coming."
"Understood."
She looked at her watch. "I have to go," she announced, flicking her hair off her shoulder and clenching her toes.
"I'll see you Saturday then?" Sirius asked, wondering if he sounded as eager as he felt.
"Perhaps. If not, I hope it's soon." She smiled.
"Me too. Bye!"
Since nothing better could possibly happen to him, Sirius went in soon after Aurelia left. He was ecstatic; he'd actually talked to a girl without acting like a moron. It was like – instant friendship, except that it wasn't a friendship yet, just an intriguing acquaintance.
Later on, as he walked with Moony and Wormtail down to lunch, Sirius said, "I met a girl today."
"Oh really?" asked Remus, sitting down at the table, "Which girl?"
"Aurelia." Seeing the confused look on his friend's face, he continued. "She moved here from Romania. I might be showing her around Hogsmeade on Saturday."
"And?"
"She's nice. Friendly."
"And?"
"That's all."
"No it isn't!" Peter chipped in.
"If that was all," Remus said, helping himself to a bread roll, "You wouldn't have bothered to mention her."
Sirius sighed. He hated it when Moony was right.
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It was official. Prefect meetings were obviously a scheme made up by Hogwarts Headmasters to inflict as much pain as possible on the Head pupils. Sighing as Davey Gudgeon put up his hand for the fifth time in the last hour, Lily gave James a look that clearly said 'You're taking this one!' James grinned and took the hint.
"Yes Gudgeon?" he asked in a bored tone. The rest of the prefects rolled the eyes in unison.
"What do you think the Headmaster would think to the idea of allotting each house a private part of the grounds?" Davey asked, reading shorthand notes from a two-foot roll of parchment (although he had to read them with his head tilted, he'd had a blind spot in his right eye every since the accident with the Whomping Willow), "The Hufflepuffs could have round the greenhouses, the Ravenclaws beneath the Astronomy tower, the Gryffin-"
"I think the Headmaster would agree with me when I say it's the most ridiculous idea you've come up with yet, Gudgeon," James interrupted, leafing through some pieces of parchment from Professor Dumbledore. "And I think that's everything we're supposed to be discussing this time. Oh no, it's not."
The other occupants of the room groaned audibly, knowing whatever it was, Davey would have a lot to say on the matter.
"Dumbledore wants us to come up with some ideas for a sort of… ball… thing," he finished lamely. "Dance, disco, whatever you want to call it."
Everyone sighed as Davey began scribbling away furiously, hand halfway in the air.
"Tell you what," Lily declared quickly, "We'll all meet back here same time on Saturday. See what you can come up with by then."
Slowly, the prefects filed out the room, until only Lily and James were left.
"I swear Lils," James hissed venomously, "If someone doesn't cut out that kid's tongue soon, I shall not be held responsible for my actions."
"That's not very nice James," Lily answered mildly, jotting something down on the back of Dumbledore's notes. "And you didn't need to insult him every time he suggested something. Poor boy's going to end up with low self-esteem."
"So you'd rather me have left him to babble on an hour about banning ghosts from the fifth floor? Or allowing day-trips into the Forbidden Forest?" James asked disbelievingly. "Need I say more?"
"No, I think you've proved your point," Lily murmured placidly. "Shall we go to lunch?" James let out a deep sigh.
"Yeah, all right then." And it wasn't until they reached the hall and sat down at the table, that James realised he'd called her Lils, and she hadn't said a thing. A rush of joy filled his heart, but he felt it ebb away as he remembered how distracted she'd been that morning.
"No," he thought to himself, "You've been there before, and it sucks. No fantasies, no moping, no big build-up. Take what comes and don't expect anything else. Wait and see."
Top advice – if he was sensible enough to take it.
He put it to one side and sat down between Lily and Remus at the Gryffindor table, noticing Sirius buttering a bread roll calmly, not saying a word and looking quite pleased with himself.
"Padfoot met a girl today," Remus told Lily, when she asked why Sirius had an unusually dreamy look on his face. He went on to explain the potted version of Sirius's meeting with Aurelia he had been given. This wasn't enough for James.
"Sirius," James said, hitting him on the arm, "You're going on a date with a girl you've only met once?"
"It's not a date," said Sirius crossly, "She's never been to Hogsmeade, so I'm going to do the friendly thing and take her round."
"How friendly would friendly be, exactly?"
"Just friendly."
"Is she a babe?"
Sirius had to think about it. "She's not like any of the other girls I've been out with."
"She's not a babe?"
"Yes… no… I don't know! She's different."
"From?"
"Anybody I've ever met."
James narrowed his eyes. "Is that a Cupid's arrow I spy in your chest, Padfoot?"
"James, get over yourself will you?" Sirius requested good-naturedly.
Lily grinned. "It worked Sirius!" she said. "I told you it would. When you stop looking, what you're looking for finds you."
True, she had had Scarlett in mind to be what he was looking for, but this Aurelia girl seemed nice enough. And maybe if it got serious, Scarlett would let go of the childlike infatuation she had with Sirius and chase after some other heartthrob. Preferably not James, she thought, before blushing profoundly and praying there were no telepaths in the room. 'You did not just think that!' She pleaded silently, 'You and James are hardly even friends yet, and you do not like him in that way.'