You guys, I'm so sorry. Things have been... complicated? Yes, I'll go for complicated. Besides complications, I also hit a bad block where this story was concerned.
And, OMG, siriuslover867 totally recognized the Jane Austen reference! I love you man! Us classical nerds ought to stick together. Did you notice the Wordsworth reference as well? SOMEONE has to have noticed it way back in chapter seventeen (incidentally, where the Jane Austen reference was as well) I literally took the title out of one of Wordsworth's poems and used it in sentence! Siriuslover867 I dedicate this chapter to you!
My Dear Fellow
It was entirely unprecedented. It was completely gob smacking. It was utterly shocking. It was absolutely hilarious.
Never before had James felt the urge to laugh more than now. It was a case of complete laughability. It was so funny, that he had to remind himself that his best mate was going through a reevaluation of his life.
Obviously, the source of his untamed laughter was one June Leto. He would really have to give the girl a gift of gratitude, what with all the amusement she was providing. He was literally chewing his fist to stop the laughter. Maybe she liked chocolates. He could get her some chocolates. Some props were in order here.
"I'm sorry, but is it still to early to laugh at the situation?" James asked Remus in a hushed tone, while Sirius gripped his hair.
Remus only returned the remark with a wholehearted glare. James sighed and resorted to watch his best mate as he bent over himself trying to puzzle out the complexities of his life.
It had happened so strangely, and so utterly suddenly that even James had no idea when the hilarity began to become obvious. Why had no one noticed the comic turn of events? Why had no one warned him of it? A picture of the case would have been priceless.
The Christmas had gone wonderfully for June. Far too wonderfully, in fact. She was suspicious of everything that came around her, fearing that something was definitely going to go wrong around the corner. Her suspicion, in fact, was well thought out. Never did she expect Lily Evans and her pack of she-wolves to descend on her with the violence of the typhoon in Kansas.
"June!" Lily had called from the platform.
And June rose to the occasion, greeting Lily with an unusual gusto. However, things began to get stranger when the rest of Lily's friends arrived.
You see, Lily Evans and her friends were the most popular girls in Hogwarts. If not popular, the most happening girls in Hogwarts anyways. They were considered to be the set of girls all girls aimed to be, and all guys wanted to be with. Being friends with them, was equivalent to being friends with Sirius, or celebrities.
Mind you, June still had no idea if she was friends with Sirius.
"Hello Leto," said the beautiful Marlene McKinnon, "This weird old bird has been going on and on about you."
"She has?" asked June in part fear and part bemusement.
"Oh, yes," said Mary sweetly, "We've heard a lot about you."
"You have?" asked June again, for that was all her brain seemed to be able to say.
"Never mind all that," said Lily quickly, "Train's leaving."
All of them jumped to their feet, and hurriedly boarded the train. June was stunned at this turn of events. People were looking at her, for god's sake. They were acknowledging her existence. This was so weird.
June couldn't wait to get a compartment. She wanted to get away from these prying eyes. God, was this what it was like to have your presence acknowledged? She preferred the silence of her terrace.
"So how was your Christmas?" asked Lily as they settled down in a compartment.
"It was blitheringly boring. The idiot Toby decided to bombard me for some godforsaken reason," said Marlene at once, flouncing herself on the seats. "Yours?"
"Who's Toby?" asked June shyly.
She wished she hadn't – everyone turned to look at her.
"Bless her, she talks!" said Mary fondly.
"June, are you feeling alright?" asked Lily.
June nodded, her throat constricting.
"You aren't stammering," Lily pointed out.
"Um -" began June, unsure of what to say, "I had a – er – strange Christmas – I'm sort of... um, you know, better. More... happy?"
That was practically a speech from June. June shifted uncomfortably.
"Toby," said Marlene suddenly, as if it was the most normal conversation ever, "Is this fellow I know from America. He's been after me for simply ages. You won't believe what the idiot has done in his pursuit of my love. Honestly, it is the most annoying thing ever."
June heard her loud and clear.
"What does he do?"
June would learn, of course, that people are always ready to talk. Her isolation from society had taught her to observe, not to talk. She was at a loss on what to do where this exercise was concerned. However, one thing she could credit to talking – it gave her more information on the people she was observing.
"I think I might just break his neck the next time he quotes that muggle poet at me," finished Marlene.
"Shakespeare?" questioned June gently.
"Who?" asked Marlene, distracted.
"The muggle poet," June clarified.
"Oh – is that who it is?" asked Marlene, in surprise.
"Yeah. Shakespeare is a very old – um – trick in the book," said June, suddenly aware of how she was no longer the one listening.
"And what are the better tricks?" asked Lily.
June blushed. "I like Keats a lot. And Blake. Um – if anyone quoted Blake to me, I would – er – definitely... how do you say? Go for him."
It was almost blasphemous to be talking like that. There was a stunned silence at hearing June talk like that. June went completely and utterly red. The she grinned. She really was enjoying herself!
"Keats girl?" asked Lily finally, "What about Wordsworth?"
"Yeah," said June, nodding, "He's good, but I simply adore Coleridge. And Tennyson. Yes, Tennyson is wonderful."
"She's smart!" said Mary in surprise.
Lily nodded with a smile, a prick of pride in her, "I told you!"
"What else do you know?" asked Marlene, "Besides poets?"
And for the first time, June Leto had an audience.
She talked in spurts and in stutters, supplied with the others just as much as she wanted. An actual conversation was being held by June Leto. An intelligent conversation. They talked about tests and studies, boys and dates (her input was low in this case), concepts and theories, sports and games, music and melody, theatre and art.
At some point, all four of them exclaimed the exact same thing at the same time, and the trolley lady entered the compartment. Geniunely shaken, she asked them timidly what they would like from the trolley.
Finally, just when they got ready, and Hogwarts neared, Marlene said:
"You know," she began, when June had finished talking about the mythology she had studied, "She's extremely smart, she's definitely got a propensity to say sarcastic things occasionaly, and she's not bad looking. Ten galleons says we can get her noticed in a week."
June blanched.
"No," she said quickly, "Not required."
"Ooooh, yes!" said Mary immediately, "Let's!"
"What should we do to get her noticed, though?" asked Lily questioningly.
"Doll her up." Marlene said it as if it was an ultimatum.
"No," said June at once, trying to inject firmness in her shyness, "No! Not in this life!"
"Hello?" Sirius' voice echoed across the terrace.
June turned to look at him, a weird sort of smile on her face.
"June?" asked Sirius, wondering if he was seeing correctly. June smiled rarely, even when she did.
"It's me!" she said gleefully.
"Okay..." said Sirius, unsure on how to respond. "How are you?" he asked.
"I'm absolutely spiffing, thank you," she said with a grin. She stood up in a dis-balanced sort of way, climbing onto the stone railing.
"What happened to you?" asked Sirius, surprised.
"I'm happy, Sirius," she said earnestly, her voice slightly childlike.
"Are you sure you're not confusing happy with drunk?" he asked.
She pondered. "No, I'm fairly certain I'm not."
"Wait – how would you know? You've never been drunk before."
She grinned mischievously. "How little you know, Sirius Black!" she cackled as she swayed dangerously on the railing.
"You've been drunk before?" asked Sirius, shocked.
"Maria and I were thirteen years old," she began with the same grin plastered on her face, "We stole a bottle of vodka the night before she was leaving, and downed the entire thing together. It was fun."
"You did that?" asked Sirius.
"I've done a lot of things!" she said with the same grin. She danced a jig on the railing, stumbled, almost fell off, but was grabbed by Sirius.
"Thanks!" she hiccuped.
"What have you done?" asked Sirius curiously.
June giggled – what on earth was the matter with the girl? She steadied herself with Sirius' hand, and said: "I once exchanged my father's toothpaste with chilly paste. Only once. It was the best day ever. I got hell for it for a week. And that's after both mother and Maria had left. I had no idea what got into me."
"That's perhaps a small thing in the long list of things I would do to that man," said Sirius, struggling to keep the tone of vehemence out.
"The chilly paste was just sitting in the shop," said June dreamily, "And I thought: 'it doesn't matter what happens to me, everything is going to remain a mess anyway. Might as well have some fun.' I did it as if I was dreaming. It just happened. Like someone else was controlling me. I got hell for it after, though. He broke my arm for that. And forced my head into the sink. I never did it again."
Sirius was watching June thoughtfully.
"That's me – a quiet rebel."
"What about a loud one?" asked Sirius.
"What about a loud one?" asked June.
"What do you think of the loudly rebellious?"
"That they're really brave, and really stupid," said June somberly, "I had to live in a cage with nowhere to run, you know. I couldn't have escaped and run off like you had, there was nowhere for me to go. I would have survived for a couple of weeks at best. I couldn't have gone to the police, I think that he has some inside man over there. Maria was too poor to house me. We pooled all our resources to get that one picture clicked, you know. And my father wasn't the best person ever. I think he cared for me in some moments, like when he got me that one doll. But he mostly was taking out frustrated rage."
"Don't you want to hurt him?" Sirius asked.
June shrugged. "How does it matter? Hitting him in the face isn't going to help me at all. I prefer to think about the moments I actually got through by doing tiny things he didn't notice – taking out a couple of buttons for myself. Using his perfume which was forbidden." There was a small silence at this.
"I didn't have the most fun family life, either, you know?" said Sirius.
"No?"
"Not at all. Mother dearest hated me."
"I know that."
"You know a lot of things about people."
"No," said June, shaking her head, "I cannot figure you out."
"I know nothing about you."
"What do you know?"
"You're a keeper of stories."
"That's a nice definition. I think I will oblige by telling you something beyond my horrible family life and my long lost friend Maria. After all, one's likes and dislikes are what forms a person, right?"
"One question?"
"Yes?" asked June.
"What got you into your pleasant state of happiness?"
"Oh, that?" said June, jumping on the railing again, "Lily, Marlene and Mary talked to me. And listened to me. I have friends."
"And here I was, thinking you were anti-social."
There happened to be a penchant of rumors going around, and a wildly illegal market of betting had taken root in the halls of Hogwarts. Sirius Black was single for the entirety of January.
You can see how some people nearly died of the news. His fangirls, those teeming wilder beast of craziness were going ballistic. There seemed to be no order to this chaos, no solution to this madness. Sirius Black, single? It even sounded stupid.
An array of bets were being placed, most of them against James, on what the matter with Sirius was anyway.
"He has a terminal illness, I tell you!" said John Hurst.
"Then he'd won't be moping around like this!" said Carla Ulrich, "He must be failing or something!"
"Hah, that's a good one!" said Felicia Bloom scornfully, "Sirius Black can't fail if he tried."
Was James going to make money out of this venture.
Because he knew one thing all of them hadn't noticed: Sirius was spending time with June.
When she revealed her love for ice cream, James had noticed the two of them sneak to the kitchens. When she told Sirius of her liking for balloons, James couldn't help but notice the large bunch of baloons that had magically appeared in the sky one day. Honestly, they could at least try to be more subtle!
June was watching the sunrise.
The last month had been blissful. She was enjoying herself far too much. There was still that odd grip of fear in her, that everything wasn't going to last, and she ought to try not to get used to it, but she had subdued that feeling. Mainly because she was tired of being sad, and she was tired of being scared.
Mary and June had formed a nice friendship. Mary, often the third wheel among her friends had taken it upon herself to take care of June. June wasn't that threatened by Mary either: Marlene and her outgoingness made June nervous, and Lily, although sweet, was also popular enough to worry June. Mary, with her gentle tongue and soft spoken humor was much more of June's type.
Mary didn't really mind being the third wheel most of the times, and in partner projects almost always found someone cheerful to work with. Now, though, June was there. She liked June, too. June was bright and smart. Like Sirius, she dicovered that June had a wicked sense of humor. June could be unduly sarcastic and had a hidden talent for doing small bits of daredevilery.
Besides, June wanted to live. She wanted a life worth living and telling. She knew that happiness didn't last, and she was going to grab it right here, right now. She had said goodbye to many characters from books, and she knew she could say goodbye tomorrow. She was going to be happy today.
"Up and about, Leto!" came the boisterous voice of Marlene, "Stuff to do and people to see!"
"What?" asked June, only just getting rid of the sleepiness.
But Marlene refused to say anything beyond that, and June was dragged unceremoniously to somewhere or the other, while June kept repeating, "Marlene, what's going on?" in varying decible levels of worry.
"Here we are!" said Marlene finally.
"Where?" asked June, confused.
"Applefresh," Marlene said with flourish.
The portrait in front of her opened to reveal one of the most beautifully spectacular bathrooms she had ever seen. Two people, namely Lily Evans and Mary McDonald were inside, armed with cosmetics.
Everything made sense.
"No!" proclaimed June, "No!"
"It's not much of an option at this point, dearest," said Marlene sweetly.
"Has anyone seen June?" asked Sirius.
"No, we haven't seen your girlfriend," muttered James.
Sirius swatted James at the back of his head.
"You spend ages together, have to give each other the tiniest details about your lives and have some 'alone' moments. She is already your girlfriend," said James.
Sirius gave an annoyed noise, "No, she isn't."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night."
"Oh, shut up."
Lily and her friends had just entered the Entrance Hall, and James looked up expectantly. Sirius gave him an amused look. "And you tease me," he huffed.
James elbowed Sirius.
With them was a pretty blonde girl wearing a green sweater and jeans. Sirius' eyes passed over the similarly dressed Mary, Marlene and Lily, searching for June.
"Is that... Leto?" came the curious voice of Remus.
Sirius immediately whipped his head to follow Remus' line of site. However, Remus was looking at the pretty girl in the green sweater.
Sirius had to withhold a gasp.
It was June.
Except she didn't look like June at all. She looked lovely.
And he remembered: It was a Hogsmede day.
Sirius' blood was burning.
Yes, his blood was positively boiling. Who did these upstarts think they were, taking his June away from him? He saw all the idiots positively fawning around June while she was trying to get a drink at The Three Broomsticks.
Remus kept a hand on his shoulder to steady him. Sirius shrugged it away with a glare. He saw June laugh for a second, and he could feel his anger rise like a lava.
All the trouble he had gone through to make her talk, and laugh, and smile, and here these idiots were taking advantage of all his work. He would like to burn them all. He didn't even want to use magic. He would take them physically, beat them to a pulp. Each and every one of them.
Good god, she looked lovely.
Her normally straggly hair with bits of this and that in them were so perfect right now, it hurt to see them. Her eyes had something in them, besides the molten gold he saw everyday. Darkened perfectly, with just the right amount of blush on her cheeks. She looked godly. She looked... just right.
"You can just walk up to her, you know?" said James from behind.
Sirius glared again.
He had kissed her twice, if he remembered rightly. He could easily sweep her away and out of here. But he had come to terms with his liking of her. He had convinced himself that it was nothing more than a passing fad, much like what Grace, and Anna, and Evangeline and all those others.
He didn't need to see her looking even prettier than she normally did.
No! She didn't look lovely normally. She had a plain face, with a curveless, skinny body.
He hated this girl, he really did.
"Oh – Hello," said June as she opened the terrace door.
"Took your time, didn't you?" said Sirius scathingly.
"I suppose so," said June with a shrug, "Robert Berret was keeping me out," she added, by way of explanation.
"Oh, is it Robert Berret? Or was it John Hurst? Or was it Carter Francis?" asked Sirius venemously, getting up from the railing and advancing menacingly.
"No, just Robert," said June, regarding him curiously, "What's the matter with you?"
"No matter at all, I ensure you. Whatever could be the matter?" asked Sirius, still advancing.
"Well, there seems to be one," said June cautiously, "What is it?"
"You were supposed to spend the day with me!" he spat.
"I was supposed to spend the day with friends," June shot back, "Lily and the others were there. All you had to do was come as well."
"Excuse me for not interrupting you while you had a lovely rambling talk with your friends, and all those bloody suitors!"
"Good god, what is wrong with you?" asked June angrily.
"And, the shy June Leto can get angry as well!" Sirius declared jauntily, stepping in front of her and pushing her into the wall. A thrill of excitement went through June.
"I would be, if you act so bloody unreasonable!" she said, trying to push him away.
He remained steadfastly by, leaning forward with his hands, trapping her between his arms.
"Why don't you just go, then?" asked Sirius angrily, "Leave the monsterous Black behind. That's what you are always afraid of, aren't you? When big horrible Sirius would bite you?"
June slapped him. Sirius let her go.
"How dare you!" she whispered, "I don't need this now. I'm happy."
She left.
"What on earth was I thinking?" proclaimed Sirius as he gripped his hair in anger.
"It has to be okay to laugh now!" pleaded James. Remus shook his head somberly.
"What happened to me?"
James started laughing when no one stopped him.
"One minute I was fine, next second I could throw mountains at those idiots!"
James was on all fours now, unable to contain laughter. Peter looked confused, and Remus mildly amused.
"What was that?!"
James was positively harking now, with great echoes of laughter. Even Remus cracked a smile and a small chuckle.
"Why are you laughing?" asked Sirius in anger.
"My dear fellow," said James, wiping a tear from his eye, "You were jealous."
Revies are nice :)