James Potter was a very warm person, he had, as it turned out, incredibly soft skin and by Merlin did he smell amazing. I knew this because I was being crushed into his chest while Sirius attempted to break my spine from behind me. In fact, James smelled so good that I really thought I was going to start drooling on him at any moment, either that or faint from how nice it felt to be pressed up against him.
Even in the occasional daydream that I'd had about James never did I ever imagine myself as being in a position where I would be pressed up against his shirtless torso.
"LILY. LILY. LILY. LILY," they both chanted as they bobbed up and down with their arms still caging me in against James's chest. Absolutely lovely, not only did my sister hate wizards, but now she probably thought we were all Satanists as well.
Mrs. Potter clapped her hands twice, loud enough that it completely drowned out James and Sirius. The effect of her clap left me speechless, not only did James and Sirius shut up but they let go of me and gave me room to breathe. Although, if I was being honest, suffocation by being pressed up against James for too long was a death I would accept without protest.
"Let the poor girl breathe, boys," Euphemia said scoldingly. She wasn't fooling me though, I spent enough time with James to be able to spot the twitch at the corners of her mouth as she attempted to prevent herself from laughing. I seriously doubted the woman had ever given a proper scolding to either James or Sirius in their entire lives.
"Yes mum," they replied in unison, matching grins spread across their faces. My own parents seemed to be torn somewhere between concern, and amusement at the flamboyant display of affection towards me. Petunia looked absolutely disgusted and I was willing to bet she was ready to hurl all over the Potters' lovely floor.
"Mum, dad, this is James and Sirius," I said, pointing to each of them in turn. James kept lunging at Sirius over my head as he tried to snatch back his shirt. Sirius kept darting back, a smile spread across his face in glee. James thrust out an arm in front of me in an attempt to grab at Sirius. Sirius thrust his right arm as far away from his body as possible and actually giggled. My own response to the shenanigans of those was what truly concerned me. I bent around all of James's actions without batting an eyelash. I was beginning to think I spent maybe a little bit too much time around those two if I could anticipate all of their movements.
I could practically hear Dorcas smugly telling me, "I told you so," in my head. The urge to lightly punch her in the face increased.
"They're, uh, they're …." I trailed off as I tried to think of an appropriate term to use to describe the boys. Were we close enough to be considered friends? Did they even consider me their friend?
"We're Lily's bestest friends," Sirius interrupted as he flung the shirt he was holding at James's head. Without missing a beat, he took a couple of large strides towards my parents and grasped my dad's hand firmly in his own, a parent-friendly grin pasted on his face. Dad seemed charmed although I could see it in his face that he was trying his damndest to be suspicious of Sirius, especially because Sirius looked like the type of man that parents typically didn't want their daughters around. I could see one of Sirius's many tattoos poking out of the sleeve of his shirt, his long hair, framing his face stylishly.
The man could have been a model for a shampoo commercial and it absolutely pissed me off every single time I was hit with this realization. How dare he be this beautiful without even trying.
Mum completely ignored the outstretched hand that Sirius held towards her and gathered him into one of her special hugs that she saved only for those that she approved of. Had this immediate approval come from anyone else, I would've seriously questioned their judgement, but mum was a disturbingly good judge of character.
She knew Snape was a piece of shit before I did.
James had finally managed to get his shirt on and sent a wink my way when we made eye contact after I managed to tear my gaze away from Sirius and my mum. I could feel my face heating up and was hoping that James wouldn't notice even though on the rare occasion that I did blush I turned a shade of sunburnt red.
Unfortunately for me, James was a lot more observant than I gave him credit for and looked absolutely delighted at the unbecoming shade that I had turned.
James darted forward to introduce himself to my parents enthusiastically as Sirius attempted to grasp Petunia's hand for a handshake even though she had offered him only a finger and a half in greeting. James practically threw himself around my dad's neck and then threw himself at my mum before my dad could gather his wits to form a response.
The highlight of his greeting was when James yanked Petunia into a hug before she had time to react and gave her a good squeeze as Sirius shot my sister a dirty look from the side. And as dead inside as Petunia was, even I could tell that she had trouble resisting James, especially when he smelled as nice as he did and radiated as much heat as he did.
Fleamont and Euphemia had both leaned down and were talking quietly to Willa, who nodded solemnly at everything they said before disappearing with a light pop.
"Do take off your coats and come in for some tea," Euphemia said graciously as Fleamont made his way into what I assumed was one of their guest rooms. Their house was big enough to have at least seven. My parents looked around for a coat tree expectantly and shot Euphemia looks of confusion at a lack of place of them to leave their belongings.
Euphemia seemed to realize this and let out a chuckle, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I forgot," she said and snapped her fingers. The large oval mirror that had been hung up next to the door removed itself from the wall and elongated itself until it was the same height as my dad and turned to wood.
While my parents stared open mouthed at the newly transfigured coat tree, I couldn't take my eyes off of Euphemia who acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened even though she had just performed wandless and wordless magic right before my very fucking eyes.
James's mother was so cool. I barely even noticed myself taking off my scarf and coat while I ogled Euphemia. My belongings floated away from me and hung themselves on the coat tree.
"You okay there, Lils?" James asked quietly in my ear. I jumped a foot in the air at the sound of his voice. I hadn't seen him take his spot next to me again. There was also the fact that the sound of James's deep voice right next to my ear did things to me that I would rather not feel with my parents and my snitch of a sister around.
"Your mom just did wandless and silent magic,"I hissed at him as my parents and Petunia shuffled after Euphemia, her loud graceful voice drifting towards as she entertained my parents with a story. Sirius had hung back to walk with James and I. He threw his arm around my shoulders and pulled me right under his armpit and tugged me forward. I looked up into Sirius's face and caught the fleeting smug look that he threw at James.
Why couldn't I have the good luck of being near James's armpit right now instead of Sirius. God I wished that smug look Sirius sent was to rub it in James's face that he was the one with his arm around me.
Maybe I needed to calm down.
"I'll give you a hint, she's charmed that tree to respond to her finger snapping to transfigure all so she can impress the guests. It's just part of being a Potter," Sirius said grandly. "Amass a large fortune through hair gel, pay their house-elves, you name it."
I tried to turn my head towards my left to look at James who looked a bit sheepish at the mention of hair gel.
"What hair gel?" I managed to choke out as Sirius's arm dug into my throat, effectively choking me as I walked.
"My dad's the one who invented Sleekeazy's," James replied, shoving a hand into his messy, black hair.
"Wow, your dad invents a whole new kind of hair gel and it still can't tame your hair," I replied and gave into Sirius's iron grip on me. I threw my right arm around his waist for a firm grip and laid my head against his side. There were worst positions to be in than clamped to Sirius Black's side I supposed.
The room we entered was bigger than the entrance and I was delighted to see that every corner of this room had been fitted with bookshelves and filled to the brim with books. My mouth dropped open as I saw shelf upon shelf of books. There were different sizes across different ages, some looked as if they were ready to crumble apart at the slightest breeze and others looked as if they weighed more than I did.
Some were laid open on stands and I caught glimpses of the intricate drawings that were on the pages as they reflected light from the candles that were lit around the room floating in various corners. I could feel my hands itching to go over and flip through them. Maybe it shouldn't have surprised me that the Potters had so many books in their house. Just because I had gone through the years under the impression that James and Sirius couldn't read didn't mean their parents didn't know how.
There was a large window immediately to my left that looked out on the front of the house with large, squishy armchairs set next to it. Ahead of me there was a giant fireplace that was crackling away and several couches and armchairs set up around the roaring fire.
James's parents had already taken their seats and had cups of tea in their hands. My parents had made themselves at home on the couch as they looked around them, eyebrows raised in delight. Petunia, being the easygoing, adaptable person that she was, was sitting on the edge of a comfortable looking armchair, hands clasped in her lap, her back ramrod straight.
Of course, Petunia zeroed in on me and Sirius and narrowed her eyes at us. But before I could think too hard about how this could come across to my parents and remove myself from Sirius's side, they had already turned around and seen us. But if I thought my parents were going to become annoyingly overprotective and nosy, I was very wrong when all they did upon catching sight of me was blink and then turn back to James's parents.
Nevertheless James took this opportunity to throw his other arm around me and tugged me towards him. My free arm immediately came up and wrapped itself around his waist and held him to me as tightly as possible. It would surprise no one to know that my grip on James was considerably tighter than my grip on Sirius.
Then again, Sirius wasn't the one with the arse that I wrote poetry about.
The three of us carefully arranged ourselves in front of one of the couches and fell back into it at the same time, arms still locked around each other.
"It's so good to finally meet you, Lily," Euphemia said as she looked between me and James. Fleamont kept looking at his wife, a knowing look on his face which made me nervous because if that look meant the same thing it meant on James then I'd have to be prepared for whatever came my way.
"Gosh, that makes it sound like James has already told you all about me," I said, grinning in return. I couldn't help myself, the muscles in my face absolutely refused to stop smiling no matter how hard I tried.
"Oh he has, in fact, he can't seem to stop talking about you, dear," Euphemia said. James let out a loud cough next to me.
"Really now," I replied and I'd be lying if I said her words didn't make my stomach clench in excitement.
"Oh yes, I don't think we've had a single letter that hasn't mentioned you or how pretty you are or how smart you are," Euphemia went, completely ignoring her son, who I knew was probably red in the face without even looking at him. I could hear Sirius snorting next to me, his whole body shaking as he tried to keep in his laughter.
Even my parents couldn't keep the looks of amusement off of their faces. I caught the sound of Petunia's annoyed scoff from somewhere around me and ignored her. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't say I had said equally nice things about James to my parents throughout the years.
"And don't even get me started on the painstaking detail he put into describing the ways you've doled out punishment to him as a Prefect," Euphemia added with an airy laugh. I couldn't help but wince at the mention of my previous encounters with James. My interactions with him in fifth year had admittedly been rather aggressive.
"Mum, please, I beg of you, stop," James groaned out and it didn't escape my notice that he chose me to hide behind. There wasn't anywhere else for him to hide his face, but a victory for me nonetheless.
"Just wait until she brings out your baby photos," Fleamont chipped in, biting the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing.
"What a brilliant idea dear," Euphemia said as she clapped her hands together in excitement. "I think we'll save that for our second visit though."
"I think I'm going to give Lily and Petunia a grand tour of the house," James barked out loudly and jumped to his feet. I couldn't stop the grimace that came onto my face as James tugged me up after him and I desperately lunged for Sirius. There was no way I was going to suffer through a house tour with Petunia with only James as a buffer between us.
Petunia looked similarly displeased, her face wrinkling up into an expression that suggested something foul had passed right under her nose. This didn't go unnoticed by Sirius but went completely over James's head. He darted towards Petunia and tugged her towards me and Sirius and then quickly ushered all of us out of the room before my parents or his parents could say anything.
I looked to Sirius and found him reflecting back at me the same look that I had on my face, he wasn't very pleased about this turn of events either. Without mum and dad around to make sure she behaved, I wasn't entirely certain that Petunia was even going to pretend to be civilized, let alone indifferent.
James took the stairs two at a time to the second floor and waited for the rest of us to join him as he bounced on the balls of his feet.
"This should take at the very least one hour," James went on as he disappeared down the hallway to his left. I looked at Sirius to make sure that I had heard right but he seemed as nonplussed as James about this statement, as if people regularly took one hour to give a house tour.
"Good God, one hour," Petunia muttered to herself in horror.
James stopped at the first door that we came across and thrust it open grandly, his arm stretched in front of him as he stepped to the side and let us see what was on the inside. It looked like a regular run of the mill guest room with a big bed, a closet, big windows that looked out onto some area of the grounds and a bathroom attached.
"You see it, yes?" James asked and me and Petunia nodded in answer. "Great, you've seen all sixty-two guest rooms, moving on."
I couldn't stop my mouth from dropping open as I followed after James in shock. "Sixty-two guest rooms? Who even needs that many? Why would you possibly have that many people in the house?"
"James's parents throw a New Year's Party every year, a bunch of people show up and they need somewhere to crash after they've had a few too many drinks," Sirius replied as he walked backwards facing me.
"And of course, foreign dignitaries visit, foreign affairs meetings, auror department gatherings," James went on, his arm waving through the air as we moved down the hallway. "The usual things."
"Of course, because we always have foreign dignitaries visiting our house don't we Lily?" Petunia replied drily and I flinched so aggressively at actually being acknowledged that I almost forgot to respond.
"But of course, just last week, you told me the president of Greece was visiting for tea," I deadpanned.
I was momentarily distracted by two girls in a painting, moving from frame to frame as they ran to keep up with the brisk pace we were taking down the hallway. They were waving their parasols, their voices high-pitched as they tried to gain our attention. But James turned a sharp right corner and they disappeared from view.
"And here I thought you didn't have any personality," Sirius remarked towards Petunia. I almost choked on my spit and looked at Petunia with wide eyes.
"Oh how you wound me, I have failed at my sole purpose in life," Petunia replied without missing a beat. The fact that Petunia was even responding with more than a monosyllabic word was a miracle on its own. And the fact that they weren't degrading remarks on top of it? Absolutely mindblowing.
James came to an abrupt stop in front of yet another door and with a light tap of his wand it silently swung open to reveal painting upon painting hanging on the walls. We followed James inside, Petunia and I turning our heads in every direction as we took in the paintings around the room that had people who look very similar to James.
"What is this place?" I asked quietly, my voice echoing back to me. The people in the paintings all stared down at us with interest.
"We're his ancestors of course," barked down one woman who was hung near the ceiling.
"So I take it not every Potter is quite the same breed as you," I said to James.
"No, some of them are bit sharper than others," James said grinning at me. "But same morals and all that."
"They can say some pretty snippy things about my hair whenever I visit them," Sirius replied from where he was making faces at one of the paintings that was making disapproving tsking noises at him. "But they're still nicer than any of the paintings my hag of mother has hanging in her house."
I shot an uneasy look at James. I didn't know much about Sirius's family, he didn't talk about them and I didn't ask. All anyone outside of the Marauders really knew was that Sirius and Regulus didn't talk anymore and Sirius no longer went home to the Blacks. I wasn't entirely sure whether or not I was allowed to comment on anything related to his family.
James mouthed "it's fine" to me and nodded his head, an encouraging smile on his face. Petunia didn't have any similar internal struggle about propriety however.
"What do the portraits say at your house?" she asked as she cautiously approached one painting in a gold frame containing a wizard with long burnt orange robes and the signature Potter hair who had his arm wrapped around a witch with blinding white hair wearing deep blue robes. She lifted a hand and touched the canvas of the painting and watched as the witch and wizard attempted to touch her fingers.
"Well for one thing, there's an absolutely atrocious life-size portrait of dear Walburga, that's her name you see," Sirius said as he moved on to yet another painting that contained a young woman who began to shamelessly flirt with him. "And if that wasn't bad enough, the thing starts screaming absolute murder and filth the minute anyone enters the house."
"Sounds like coming home during the holidays," I muttered as I scowled at one painting with the inhabitants that were laughing at my red hair.
"Just one Walburga wasn't enough for the house, we had to make another one while she was still living," Sirius said airily as he wandered out of the room and disappeared down the corridor. The rest of us quickly followed behind him and James continued leading down the hallway.
James showed us Fleamont's potions room, where Petunia almost blew herself up before I stopped her hand from stirring one of the cauldrons. There were several potions brewing all at once with the cauldrons placed on various surfaces across the room. Some floated near the ceiling, while others rested on bookshelves. When I caught sight of Mr. Potter's potion stores, I could feel my hands itching to just reach out and start mixing ingredients.
James must've seen the look in my eyes or noticed that I was slowly inching towards the shelves because he locked the doors and steered us out of the room. He locked the door and cut me off the cheerful burbling from the cauldrons. Sirius and Petunia had started down the hallway, James and I following behind them at a safe distance.
"If you come back later, maybe you'll get to play around with some of the stuff," James leaned and breathed next to my ear. I barely managed to control the shiver that went down my spine.
"Is that supposed to be a euphemism for something dirty?" I whispered back to him, trying to stop a grin from spreading across my face.
"I'm frankly offended that you would think so lowly of me, Lils. Who do I look like to you, Sirius?" James asked, pressing a hand to his chest as his face twisted into an expression of mock outrage, his mouth hanging open in an O. I couldn't stop myself from smiling at him.
"I'll make sure to be here first thing tomorrow morning," I told him as if my heart wasn't pounding in my chest from the adrenaline pumping through me. When did it suddenly become so hard to remain cool and collected.
Some of the rooms had strange noises coming from behind the closed doors. Some of them sounded disturbingly like screams of agony but I tried not to think about them too much and James made sure to usher us past them as quickly as possible without giving much of an explanation. We went up floors and around corners as James showed us what he could. A few of the rooms that we weren't allowed in was mostly for government purposes, especially since his parents were such important officials in the Auror department.
There was the room of family heirlooms that Petunia looked about ready to lose her mind over. I don't think she even breathed much while she was in the room. She kept her arms firmly crossed and I could see the strain that it was taking on her to keep her hands to herself. It didn't help that Sirius made a joke about some of the objects being cursed if anyone other than the owners touched it.
I myself hadn't found that to be much of a deterrent. With Voldemort running around trying to kill people like me, things couldn't really get any worse than they were. Whatever curse befell me couldn't be any worse than some of the more … enthusiastic Slytherins I had to dodge at Hogwarts. I couldn't help but gravitate towards the tiaras and diadems that were sitting on shelves.
I was drawn to one ring in particular made of gold that had little rubies clustered together. I hadn't even noticed that I'd picked it up and was holding it close to my face until James's shadow fell over me.
"This is lovely," I said to him quietly. I didn't know why I was being quiet, but something about holding that ring and talking to James about it felt oddly intimate.
"I'm glad you like it, it's a probably one of the most important ones here if you ask me," James said, smiling down at me, hands shoved in his pockets.
"What's so special about it, you know, besides the fact that it's old?" I asked, I wasn't even thinking when I slipped it onto the middle finger of my left hand and watched as it sparkled when I twisted my hand. I looked up at James and found him looking back at me with a strange look on his face. It was the same look he got when he was confused and desperately trying to solve a problem.
It's been passed down from generation to generation through the Potter women. My mum got it when she married dad," James replied, strange look still on his face. I slid the ring off my finger and handed it to him, with something that was passed down through generations, it suddenly felt wrong of me to just be trying it on as if I was shopping.
"So it'll go to whoever you marry then, whoever gets this is gonna be one lucky girl," I added without thinking. I barely remembered that Sirius and Petunia were also in the room and probably watching. I just couldn't seem to look away from James.
"I sure hope she feels the same way," James whispered and something about the way he said it and the way he was looking at me made me feel warm inside.
"Oh for Godric's sake, I was joking about the curse you big ninny!" Sirius yelled and I couldn't help but flinch at the loudness of his voice.
"Joke or not, I'm not trying on a bloody breastplate," Petunia's shrill voice responded.
"Oh come on, what do you think is gonna happen?" Sirius replied and I could just hear the eyeroll in his voice. I leaned to the side and peaked around James's shoulder and watched as Sirius thrust the breastplate towards Petunia again. "The only thing that could possibly happen is you get cursed with a sense of humour."
I couldn't stop the snort that escaped me and quickly averted my gaze when Petunia shot me a glare.
"I think it's time to go," James said, shooting a wink at me before herding us all out of the room and locking it behind him. "There's plenty more to see but I don't think we'll have enough time to show you all of it. Sirius, why don't you take Petunia back downstairs, I have to give Lily something."
Sirius planted his hands on the shoulders of a sputtering Petunia and led her away from James and I with a grin.
"Let's get you back to your parents safe and sound before something in the house gets you," Sirius said cheerfully.
"What do you mean 'gets me?'" Petunia shrieked in a high pitched voice.
"Not to alarm you but some rather aggressive plants were set loose from the greenhouse and we still haven't found them," Sirius replied as he steered Petunia around a corner and the two of them disappeared from sight.
"You guys don't have a greenhouse, do you?" I asked James with a grin. He took my arm and looped it through his and tugged me down the corridor in the opposite direction of Sirius and Petunia.
"Oh we do, but don't worry," James said, giving the hand in the crook of his elbow a pat, "none of the human-eating plants have gotten loose in a very long time."
My feet felt glued to the floor as I gaped at James and almost fell over when he kept walking. I looked into his face to see if he was joking or not but found no indication that he was just messing around with me.
"You're joking right?
"I don't know, am I?"
I tightened my grip on James's arm and stuck myself to his side for the rest of the walk. Joking or not, I wasn't taking any chances. If some plant did suddenly come out of the woodwork to try and eat me I had every intention of sacrificing James so I could escape. This had the added benefit of being able to soak in more of James's body heat, not to mention he smelled a lot better when I was this close.
We went down several flights of stairs and took more turns before James finally stopped in front of a wall made entirely of frosted glass. He took out his wand and tapped it on the handle of the door to the room and gently pushed it open, tugging me in after him.
The door closed gently behind me and I couldn't stop myself from staring around open-mouthed. There were plants and trees everywhere in the room, both magical and non-magical. The room was incredibly warm and I could already feel sweat forming underneath my thick winter sweater. A sweet scent filled the air and I couldn't put my finger on what the exact smell was, I was pretty sure it was all of the plants in the room combined.
I wandered away from James and looked around at everything that spilled onto the stone pathway that I was on. It felt as if all of the plants were reaching out towards me. A lovely haunting sound was a constant background noise as I made my way throughout the room. I hadn't bothered looking back for James but I was fairly certain that he was following me around. Hopefully.
When I followed the stone path around a bend I found the source of the haunting music to be coming from a pair of lovely red and white roses that swayed to a breeze that I couldn't feel.
A few more steps and I finally saw what I assumed James had brought me here for. Facing the large windows that looked out into the empty woods, the Potters had set up seats made of straw with large comfy cushions placed over them. A small table in the middle of all the seats was set up with a teapot and mugs ready for drinking and the entire area had smile piles of books set up around it.
It looked like something straight out of my dreams. I never wanted to leave this place. I just wanted to sit here and drink some hot tea and read some books.
"Wow," I said quietly as I looked around me.
"I thought you might like this," James said. I spun around to face him, my mouth open, eyes wide. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his pants as he swayed backwards and forwards, a satisfied look on his face as he gazed back at me.
"Am I allowed to come back here?" I blurted out.
"Of course, you can come back tomorrow," James replied hopefully. "But for now, I think it's best that we get you back to the rest of your family."
A groan slipped out of me before I could stop myself. It was an unfortunate habit I had developed whenever anything connected to Petunia was mentioned. James couldn't stop grinning as he dragged me out of the solarium and locked it behind him.
"I can't believe I have to go back to Dorcas's house and be around Petunia by myself," I groaned as I followed James down more unfamiliar corridors. The house was so big I had a feeling I could spend my entire life living here and still not have discovered every single nook and cranny.
"Can you believe this time last year you had the same reaction to me and look at us now, the best of buds," James said, one arm slung around my shoulder as the other waved in the air in front of us.
"For the record I didn't hate you, you could be a little bit much at times but I don't think I ever hated you the way that … certain other people hated you," I replied, unwilling to mention Snape's name. The air around us became awkward for a moment before James jumped in.
"That's a nice way of putting it, nah, I was a right piece of shite, don't worry, even I see it now," James said with a grin. "Not that I'm exactly a saint now-"
"Don't I know it," I muttered.
"But growth is all we can ever strive for," James went on as if I hadn't said anything.
"That is the smartest, most self-aware thing I've ever heard leave your mouth," I teased James as we came in view of my parents and Petunia standing at the door with their coats on, all of them waiting for me.
"That's just about the saddest thing I've ever heard about me," James said. My parents barely noticed that I had entered the room, both of them still in deep conversation with the Potters on some topic. James helped me into my coat and took the opportunity to wrap my scarf around my neck and step into my space while he was at it.
I couldn't bring myself to do anything but stare up into his hazel eyes as he wrapped me up. Finally he stepped back with a small sigh and patted me on the head of all things.
"It was lovely meeting you all, hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more of each other these holidays, I can't imagine we'll be able to spend all of our time alone over at the Meadowes mansion," mum said beaming at the Potters who looked equally excited at the prospect of spending time with my family.
"Sirius, darling, please escort the Evans back to their mansion. I'm sure Lily can defend herself just fine, but I wouldn't want to get you into trouble with the Ministry if anything did pop out at you," Euphemia said to Sirius as she threw a wink my way.
Sirius summoned his coat and within minutes we were out of the house and taking the walk back to Dorcas's home.
Sirius couldn't bring himself to behave and kept nudging me every five minutes as he messed with Petunia. He was either freezing the ground underneath her so she'd go slipping and sliding with a high-pitched shriek or moving big sticks in front of her path so that she'd trip over them.
Normally I would've scolded Sirius for his behaviour but because this was Petunia and she gave me constant shit all of the time for being a witch, all I did was grip his arm tightly as I tried to keep in my laughter. Mum and dad bless their souls didn't notice anything out of the ordinary other than to comment on the path becoming seemingly more tricky to navigate despite the fact that it was only Petunia who was suffering.
I think at some point she had probably caught on to what was going on but every time she spun around to glare at Sirius and I, she could never catch Sirius with his wand out.
"How did your alone time with James go?" Sirius asked waggling his eyebrows.
"Did you know the Potters have a solarium?" I asked breathlessly, completely missing what Sirius was hinting at like the dumbass I was.
"That is… exactly what I was getting at," Sirius said dryly.
"Nothing happened, if that's what you were wondering about," I replied with a roll of my eyes. My breath collected in a cloud in front of me when I exhaled and Sirius cast a heating charm on our little party when he noticed the shivering from my shoulders.
"Thank you," I added with a smile as I warmed up. "But James and I are just friends and nothing more."
The mansion came into view and grew closer as we kept walking.
"Uh huh, I'm sure you are Evans," Sirius replied with a roll of his eyes but said nothing more on the topic until the rest of my family was well inside the house before adding, "when are you two going to get your head out of your arses and just get on with it?"
"Good night, Sirius," I replied, leaning on the open front door.
"Love you, Evans," he said and with a wink, Sirius disappeared with a loud crack.
a/n: hello hello this ended up being extremely long and not much happens but i hope it was enteratining for you nonethless. reviews are always welcome. additionally i'd like to let everyone know that i have a busy semester ahead of me so don't expect much in terms of updates (and if you've stuck by me for a while now then this will come as no surprise) but yeah.