Year of the Wolf

17. Epilogue

It was the last day of term, and for the first time in her five years at Hogwarts, Lily Evans was bored. The fifth years had finished exams and so were no longer required to attend classes. If only Marlene and Mary had listened to her and packed days ago, perhaps she would not have been wandering alone by the lake.

It was another strikingly beautiful day and most of the fifth and seventh years seemed to have had the same idea - already there were students in the lake, some sunbathing, others lying in the shadows of the trees. The water was always a nice temperature this time of year, she thought. It would be nice to slip off her shoes and dangle her feet in the lake, and try not to think too much about the fact that she was going home to a Petunia-less house. While she had more or less come to terms with her sister's attitude by now, after the attack in Wales she just wanted to spend more time with those close to her. And whatever Petunia thought, they were still sisters.

She was halfway to the lake when she stepped on someone lounging in the grass and gave a little yelp of surprise. Sirius Black was laying spread-eagled in the grass, wearing nothing but a pair of black swim shorts and looking slightly pink about the shoulders.

'What on Earth are you doing?' she asked, backing off a step. Sirius, who seemed not to have noticed that he had just been trodden on, opened one eye to observe her then closed it again to resume his apparent relaxation.

'Drying off,' he said. 'You're in my sun, Evans.'

Lily frowned down at him.

'I'm thinking that's a good thing about now - you're starting to burn.'

Sirius opened both his eyes this time, even raised his head a little to look down at his chest.

'You're right,' he sighed, then withdrew his wand from a pocket and waved it lazily. A faint shimmer appeared in the air around him. 'Sunblock charm,' he explained. 'Fair skin, yet another Black family curse.'

Lily was rather impressed, but refrained from asking for the spell. Instead, she sat in the grass by his shoulder.

'So what brings you here this fine day?'

She shrugged before she realised that he couldn't see her, and pulled absent-mindedly at the grass around her. Part of her still wanted to roll her eyes and turn the other way every time she saw him, but so much had changed in the past few weeks.

'Nothing better to do with my time, I suppose.'

Sirius let out a rather sharp, bark-like laugh.

'James is by the lake,' he said.

She tried to ignore this, just like she tried to ignore James. But the harder she tried, the more she realised that she wasn't really angry at him. Truth be told, it had become increasingly harder for her to stay mad at him over the years, and especially as her friendship with Snape began to sour. Marlene joked that it had to do with his sudden gain in height. Lily just thought it looked like he'd been put on a rack and stretched - he was still skinny, still looked like he just didn't give a damn about his appearance with his un-tucked shirts and lopsided glasses. It was irritating. Marlene had said her constant going on about him was irritating.

'You shouldn't be so hard on him,' Sirius said. When she looked down at him, she saw that he was staring at her. 'He's a good guy.'

'You know, Remus once said something similar,' Lily told him with a smile. 'About both of you. I don't know what you did for him - or to him - but he has an incredibly high opinion of you.'

Sirius smirked in a rather smug way. The air continued to shimmer around him, loaning him somewhat of an ethereal glow.

'Remus has a low opinion of himself,' Sirius said. 'We could bring him coffee in the morning and he'd think we'd given him a pile of gold.'

And there it was, the shrugging off of something honourable. It was something James did too, something she had only noticed in the last few days. It didn't mesh with the picture her mind had painted of him; arrogant Quidditch superstar and career show-off, downplaying aspects of himself that were honourable and respectable. They just did these good things and never expected or even thought they deserved praise.

It was annoying because it was one of the many things she was finding difficult to hold contemptuous feelings for.

'Half the stupid stuff he does, he does because of me,' Sirius said. 'Yeah, he likes an audience and he's a big show-off, but he'd do anything for friends. If that involves dangling Severus Snape upside down in mid-air because his best mate is bored, so be it.'

She was slightly perturbed by the casual nature with which he had said this.

'And that's the kind of thing you find funny?'

'When we're talking about someone who messed with my best friend's potions ingredients and put him in the hospital wing for a week? The same kid who cursed half the skin off his hands the day before a Quidditch match? You know, the boy who is up to his eyes in the Dark Arts and probably sleeps with a picture of Voldemort under his pillow. Yes, I do find that mildly amusing.'

She wanted to chastise him, to tell him that it wasn't funny in the least, but something stopped her. Because he had a point; if someone had done that to her friends, she doubted she would have stopped at dangling them upside down. Then again, she and her friends would never have provoked someone into anything like that. And she had told herself so many times that she was done defending Severus.

'Or, you know, it could just be me,' Sirius said with a deep sigh. 'You know, my family chop off house-elves' heads and burn relatives off the family tree like it's this completely normal thing. My mother's cousin actually tried to legalise Muggle-hunting, that's the kind of thing my family finds fun. So, you know, complain about me all you want, but I could have turned out much worse.'

'They can't chop off house-elves' heads?' she asked in astonishment, as though that was the part of his speech that had gotten to her. The more she found out about the Blacks, the less she liked them.

'Oh yes,' he said casually. 'They have the heads stuffed and displayed in the entrance hall. Really adds to the mood of the establishment.' Lily laughed. 'I offered to chop Kreacher's head off a time or two but Mother always shouted at me and sent me to my room. Can't begin to imagine why.'

'But you're a Potter now, anyway,' she said. He was still looking at her, with those fathomless eyes.

'He'd been trying to get me out of there for years, you know,' he said. His jaw was set, like he was physically trying to stop the words from coming out. 'My parents...the Blacks, that is...they weren't nice people. My mother has a foul temper, and I ended up on the wrong end of it more times than I care to remember. That's the kind of family James saved me from. I'd have had nowhere to go if it weren't for him, and his parents.'

Lily felt her chest tighten. She didn't want to hear this. She had only just begun to think of Sirius Black as more than James Potter's equally arrogant sidekick, this was all just too much.

'Why are you telling me this?' she demanded. He had never struck her as the emotional type, never seemed to be anything but happy and cheerful. And he seemed to be fighting himself to get all this out. Why fight at all?

Sirius sighed and pressed his hands to his face.

'I really hope you figure that out one day,' he said, his voice muffled. 'It's not my place to say. Now please, get lost. You're in my sun and wasting my afternoon. Go swim or something.'

His eyes were very slightly pink when he removed his hands, and she reeled from the harshness of his words. Why was he mad at her? She hadn't forced this out of him; she'd have rather not heard it at all, given the choice.

Lily rose to her feet in indignation and brushed herself off.

'You know, you're actually tolerable when you're not pretending to be an arsehole,' she said. Because as mad as she was, maybe he was too used to being yelled at, maybe remonstrations had absolutely no effect on him. The ones the staff doled out hardly seemed to. 'Don't think I don't see through you, Sirius, because I do. You lash out at the world, the only one who's going to end up hurt is you.'

He looked at her one last time as she folded her arms across her chest, and he laughed softly as he closed his eyes again.

'You're so like him,' he said.

That was quite enough of that conversation. She left, careful to step on him again as she made her way to the lake itself, wishing that she hadn't packed her swimsuit; it could easily have dried before tomorrow.

Sirius had not been lying; James was there, splashing about in the water like a drowning bowtruckle. He laughed at someone nearby then pulled himself up and out of the lake, shaking the water from his hair.

Perhaps she had been wrong about the "scrawny" thing.

She scanned the nearby students as she approached, hoping that there was someone else she knew there. Truthfully, she didn't know why she had wandered over at all. Perhaps it was something Sirius had said?

'Evans!' he said in mock-surprise when he saw her, raising a towel to cover himself.

'Oh, like you've got anything to hide, Potter,' she said. The fact that he had was completely beside the point. 'Have you seen Remus?'

'Packing, I think,' he said. 'Why? Am I not good enough company?'

She wanted to think of a witty comeback, but had nothing, and he seemed to catch on to this. Why must he smirk like that? With his hair flat against his head for once and his hazel eyes seeming to catch the light, it just really did neither of them any favours. And he really had gotten quite tall - this time last year she could stare straight ahead and meet his eyes; now, all she saw was his clavicle and the droplets of water that lingered in the curve.

'You look like a drowned rat,' she said. He immediately raised a hand to his hair and ruffled it, and while it did fix it a little, it also splashed her with flying droplets of water. 'How's the water?'

'Wonderful,' he said. 'Care to join me?'

'I packed my bather already,' she said, feigning inconvenience. 'Such a shame...'

'It really is,' James conceded. 'I was just chatting with the squid, seems he has a bit of a thing for you too. I offered to set the two of you up, but if you don't have the proper attire...'

'You speak squid?'

'Sure I do.' And then he made a horrendous noise, something between a mermish shrieking and the bellow of a gorilla. It was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard and the hilarity of it caught her completely off-guard. Perhaps if she wasn't so aware of herself in that moment, she would have doubled over in laughter.

'No?' he asked, smiling as she continued to laugh. 'Well, I guess you're just going to settle for me, then. I mean, if it's a choice between us both.'

'Tell the squid maybe another time. No! Don't make that awful noise again!'

She slapped him on the arm as he turned towards the lake, hands cupped around his mouth. He hopped a little on the spot, laughing, and almost fell back into the lake.

'Admit it, Evans,' he said. 'You find me funny.'

'Yes, I find a lot of things about you funny,' she said, smiling.

She always had found him funny, even if he sometimes did go too far. And really, take away the arrogance and he was a likeable boy - it seemed that she had been the only one to not realise this. Or maybe she had realised, maybe she just didn't allow herself to like him because of the things he did.

It was a mystery, the thing that made her do it. And it was a childish, silly thing. But he was standing there, so unsuspecting, with his back to the lake. And he was already wet, so what did it really matter? He even held his breath as she placed a hand against his chest - it was entirely possible that he realised what she was about to do, and in that case he should have stopped her if it was so out of line. But he didn't. And a look of genuine surprise flashed in his eyes as he fell backward. It was surprise that bled into her as she felt a tug at the front of her shirt and suddenly she was falling too.

She screamed as they fell, getting a mouth full of fresh water as a reward, and she felt James's arm wrap around her waist as they both went under. She was reluctantly grateful for this, though it meant that she was essentially lying on top of him until he kicked and brought them both to the surface.

'You...idiot!' she spluttered, gasping for breath. 'You absolute fiend, what did you do that for?'

'Hey, you pushed me!' he half-shouted. 'It was instinct to grab the nearest thing.'

'My clothes! My- Grindylows! There are Grindylows in this lake, you idiot!' She had never cared about Grindylows before.

James was laughing now, treading water as she continued to splash about in a fever of annoyance.

'Students have been swimming in this lake for years,' he said. 'Besides, it's too shallow for Grindylows here. They're all the way in the centre with the Merpeople, who, I'm willing to bet, would keep their pets from attacking Dumbledore's students. Honestly, Evans, do you pay any attention in Defence?'

She glared at him, finally steadying herself. Her wet clothes weighed her down. James looked far too amused - this prank had gone horribly wrong.

'Oh, come on,' he laughed. 'This is a good look for you.'

With a cry of frustration, she dunked his head under the water and pulled herself out. It was a good thing that it was so warm today; she would have to walk up to the castle like this. But moments later, a towel found its way around her shoulders. It was already slightly damp, but James still gripped her shoulder through it and squeezed some of the water from her hair. She was in half a mind to tell him to bugger off and stop touching her, but she was rather surprised to find that she was smiling. And so was he.

If only he wouldn't look at her like that.

'What are you going to do if I have your towel?' she asked.

James shrugged and began to walk away, turning round so that he took backwards steps.

'I hardly think anyone is going to protest if I walk back into school like this,' he said, so self-confidently.

A smart comment lingered on her lips, but it was stolen by the sound of raging war cry, before a pink and black blur slammed into James and he flew several feet into the water with a tremendous splash.

'Vengeance!' cried Sirius Black, raising a fist towards her as he broke through the surface of the lake. So much for drying off.

'Padfoot, I'm going to kill you!' James roared.

But Sirius had other plans, and the fact that James had emerged facing the opposite direction seemed to play happily into said plans because a moment later, Sirius was climbing onto James's back and yelling 'Onward, trusty vessel!'.

Lily laughed. She laughed like she hadn't laughed in weeks. And it was as though every worry, every fear and sense of trepidation just left her. Clutching the towel tightly around her shoulders, she sat down on the grass, a smile on her face as she watched two boys she realised that she would rather miss over the coming summer holiday.

Sirius had never experienced a journey quite like the one that took them back to London. While Remus and Lily patrolled the corridors, he sat with James, Peter, Mary and Marlene in the compartment they had claimed, playing Exploding Snap and eating their way through the remainder of their Honeydukes supplies. When the other two had returned, he and Mary had excused themselves under the pretence of "making room" and spent a comfortable amount of time snogging in the toilets until a Slytherin prefect discovered them and they were forced to hit him with an Impediment Jinx in order to escape. When they returned, they had expected the girls to have gone their separate way, but they were all still squashed into the same compartment.

It was rather strange, to be experiencing such joy on a return trip. Such times often came with a horrible sense of foreboding, and the regret that another school year was over. But with the knowledge that he was returning to the Potters and not the Blacks made all the difference. It was nice, too, to see Lily talking to James without her usual walls thrown up.

They said their goodbyes as they collected their trunks and owls at King's Cross, and Sirius arranged to meet Mary at the end of August during the obligatory Diagon Alley trip (and made plans for her to encourage Lily to go the same day too, but they wouldn't tell James that).

'You sure you don't want me to walk with you?' Mary asked with a devilish grin. 'Wouldn't it just kill your parents to see you holding hands with a Muggle-born?'

'Well if we're going down that road, why not go the whole hog?' he asked, feeling another sudden rush of attraction towards her. And he kissed her, softly, quickly, half hoping that Walburga and Orion were looking. 'Have fun in Canada.'

'I'll send owls if I can find one,' she promised. And then she was gone, and James was laughing softly at his side.

'What I wouldn't give to have Lily look at me like that,' he said wistfully.

Sirius raised his eyebrows and smirked as they made their way over to where the Potters stood waving.

'Speaking of Evans, did you see what she was wearing? Round her neck, I mean?' The necklace James had given her for her birthday. 'She's been wearing it a lot.'

James seemed much happier at this, was still beaming when they reached his parents.

'So good to see you, boys!' greeted Mrs. Potter, pulling them both into her arms. 'But my, how you've grown! We're going to need some new robes for you both. James, darling, you look so grown up! And Sirius, you get more and more handsome every time I see you!'

'Whereas I get more and more troll-like,' said James with a dramatic sigh. 'Thanks, mum.'

'Oh, shush,' she laughed. 'With a father like yours, how can you be anything but handsome? Oh, Andrea! Hello!'

She waved an arm in the air and blonde Mrs. Pettigrew made her way towards them, Peter heaving his case beside her.

Remus and his parents appeared moments later and the adults immediately burst into chatter.

'Well, we haven't received any owls to say he's been relieved of his badge, so we're happy with that,' Lyall laughed as Remus blushed. 'We're both incredibly proud of him.'

Remus shot the others a look and they all smirked.

'Did you tell them about the Quidditch Cup Final, Dad?' James asked. Mr. Potter looked at him and smiled.

'I was getting to that,' he chuckled, then turned back to the Lupins and Mrs. Pettigrew. 'I managed to get some tickets for the final again, and a few more for some other matches - the Harpies have a charity game the week after the Final. We'd be more than happy to have the boys over for a couple weeks. You'd be welcome to stay too - we've got more than enough room.'

Sirius found that excitement still rose within him at this, and he looked around for a moment as though Walburga and Orion would be there, ready to say no. Mrs. Potter seemed to have registered this because she placed a hand warmly on his back.

'I think that sounds wonderful,' said Hope. Then, she looked to Remus uncertainly. 'Of course, we'll have to check our diary first. Make sure nothing overlaps.'

'The weeks around the final will be fine, honey,' said Lyall. 'It's your friend's party that week, too, it would save dragging Remus along.'

Hope looked up at her husband in uncertainty.

'But Lyall,' she said in a quiet voice. 'What about the other-'

'That's next Sunday, Mum, it'll be fine,' Remus said in a strangled sort of voice. Hope seemed placated by this and breathed a sigh of relief. The benefit of studying Astronomy was knowing the moon phases in advance.

'In that case, it sounds like a wonderful idea,' she said.

'I agree,' said Mrs. Pettigrew. 'It will be a nice post-results celebration for the boys.'

'Don't remind me of that,' Peter groaned.

None of them seemed too willing to say goodbye. It wasn't until they had all promised to stay in touch and to meet up at any opportunity that presented itself that they took any notice of the thinning crowd around them. Peter and his mother were the first to leave, with Lyall and Hope taking Remus shortly after.

'We have to go shopping sometime this week,' Mrs. Potter said. 'The Abbotts are throwing a party next weekend and I very much doubt your old dress robes are still going to fit.' She looked them both up and down again with wide eyes as they moved towards the barrier. 'Oh, Sirius, I can't wait to introduce you to everyone.'

'She means, she can't wait to show you off,' James said in a stage whisper.

Mr. Potter laughed, and his wife didn't deny it.

As they passed through the busy train station, as they pushed their trunks into the boot of the car, Sirius felt the difference the last year had made. He looked forward to going home, faced the next two months with a sense of eager joy, not trepidation.

Whatever happened in the future, whatever became of them after school, they had the summer, they had their final two years, and they had each other. In the end, that was all that really mattered.

AN - So that's it, the end! Thank you so much to everyone who stuck with this story! One last time, please let me know what you think and leave a review :). I am planning another story, not sure when it will be up but do keep an eye on it!