Chapter 5.
Lou is sitting alone in the Gryffindor common room, curled up in front of the fire, sticking photographs into a book.
Sirius walks into the room, yawning.
Lou glances up. "Alright?"
"Yeah, I had a sleep, I'm okay now."
"I'm sorry. About the Quidditch. And the, you know…violence."
"It's okay," says Sirius good-naturedly, sitting down in the armchair next to hers. "Where is everyone?"
"Doing Prefecty things. And Peter's in detention for blowing up that cauldron."
Sirius smiles. "What are you doing?"
"Scrapbook. I think I'm going to make copies of it, and make them Christmas presents." She hands what she's done over to him. He flicks through it.
"I like it."
"It's just about all I can afford, to be honest."
"I thought your dad was high-up at the Ministry? Isn't he loaded?"
"Probably. I won't see any of it, though. He hates me these days."
Sirius' glance is questioning, as he looks at the pictures piled on the table.
"I remind him of my mum. He can't bear to have me around."
"She died, didn't she? Death Eaters?"
"Yeah. New Year's Eve. She was alone and she was a Muggle, she didn't stand a chance." The forced calm of Lou's voice speaks of more grief than tears ever could.
"I like this one," says Sirius, softly, holding out a picture for her to see. It's a photograph of Lou and James, at around fourteen. They're pulling faces and pushing each other out of the way, each trying to be the main focus of the picture.
Lou smiles. "We were idiots in those days, weren't we?"
"Still are."
They're both glad to have something to laugh at. "You've changed," says Sirius, looking at the photo more carefully. The Lou in the picture is happy and cheerful and laughing - Lou is the same these days, but there's something else there, too. The surfaces of her eyes are so often sparkling with humour, interest or confrontation, that only people who look closely can see that there is something underneath those surfaces - seriousness and grief, mostly, but also an intelligence that she rarely advertises.
She takes the picture from him. "I'm taller, obviously."
"That's not what I -"
"I know."
Silence. Lou continues to stick pictures into the book, occasionally smiling softly. Sirius stares into the fireplace.
"We don't speak much, do we?" he says.
"Now or always?"
"Both."
"Probably because we'd both rather be talking to James."
"We don't only have to speak to him, though. We could sometimes talk to each other. Like friends."
"Well, we've never been enemies."
"Un-enemies isn't the same as friends."
"True."
More silence. Lou seems to be content with her scrapbook, and Sirius feels awkward. He's not sure why, but this feels important to him.
"Do you think we - your friends, and my friends - could be friends?"
"We mostly are."
"Well then, more so."
She looks up, somewhat impatiently. "What do you want, Sirius? Day-trips? Hand-holding? One big happy family?"
"No, it's not that, it's just…I like you - Mary, and Lily and you. And if you like us too, then maybe we should all hang around together more."
"We do like you, we always have."
Sirius raises an eyebrow.
"Well, apart from Lily. And she only really didn't like James, and that was his own fault, he got it into his head that the only way to make her like him was to annoy her."
Sirius grins. "If something happens between them, we should be prepared. We should all be friendly - we don't want arguments when they get together."
Lou looks confused. "We're not Montagues and Capulets. Mary and I are hardly going to want to kill him for going out with her."
"What?"
"Never mind. Look, Sirius, if you want to hang around with us, that's fine. Consider us friends, it's no big deal." She grins. "This picture is definitely going in the book!"
He looks. It's a picture of himself and Remus, playing wizard's chess. He's clearly losing. He looks like he's considering throwing the board across the room.
Sirius laughs.
They sit, mostly silent, sifting through Lou's photographs. He hands the ones he likes to her, occasionally with a few words, or a laugh, and she looks at them, and decides where they should go in her book. It's a comfortable way to spend an evening, and Sirius is surprised to find himself feeling almost disappointed when James walks through the portrait-hole.
Lou slips all of the pictures inside her book, and the book into her bag - she doesn't want James to see his Christmas present.
James walks over to where they're sat, and sits down, smiling. "Lou, are you free next Wednesday evening?"
"No plans as yet."
"Shall we hold Beater trials then?"
"Sure."
"Sirius, do you want to try out?"
"But I won't -"
"Slughorn's having a gathering."
"In that case, I will definitely try out."
"You never know," says Lou, "If everyone else is rubbish, you might get on the team."
"Thanks." Sirius throws a cushion at her, and she returns it with considerably more force.
"Is there any way to use the trials to get the others out of Slughorn's torture night?"
James grins. "Already sorted. Lily, Mary and Remus are supervising, in their Prefectorial capacity - in case you all go wild and I can't handle you - and Peter's going to be in charge of the balls."
"Ball-boy," says Lou, mock-seriously. "Possibly the most important Quidditch position of the lot."
Laughter.
"Peter never gets invited, though, does he?" asks Sirius.
"No," says James. "But it would have been mean of me to point that out."
"True. We'll have to go to Slughorn's Hallowe'en thing, though, won't we?" Sirius asks.
"Yeah," says James. "He always lets us know well in advance so we can make ourselves free."
"It's more than a whole month away, though. And it's not that bad," says Lou. "It'll be like a party, rather than sitting around listening to him talk about all the brilliant people he knows. And I've got a bottle of Firewhiskey upstairs to numb the pain."
James looks at her uncertainly. "You're going to get drunk in a teacher's office?"
"You bet. Fancy joining me?"
"That depends."
"On whether or not Lily agrees to go as your date?"
James blushes, and changes the subject.
The following Wednesday evening, after the trials, Lily, Mary, Sirius, Peter and Remus are sitting in the common room. The trials ended a while ago, and the common room is almost empty. James and Lou come bursting into the room.
"- a complete waste of time," James is saying.
Lou looks furious. "It was not a waste of time, if you'd just accept what I'm saying!"
Many eyebrows are raised. James and Lou don't really do arguing - not seriously, anyway.
"But you're not making any sense! It's just wishful thinking."
"It's not. Shacklebolt could be good, really good, if you'd just give him a chance."
"Who's Shacklebolt?" asks Remus, politely.
"Second-year. Tried out just after Sirius," says James.
"Shacklebolt. Cool name," says Sirius.
"It doesn't matter what his name is!" shouts James. "He's a second-year, and she thinks he's good enough to be our new Beater."
"You were a second-year when you joined the team!" retorts Lou.
"It's not the same and you know it, Beating requires strength!"
"I was only a third year when I joined the team, and I managed fine. And I hate to mention this but the average boy is stronger than the average girl so he could easily be as strong as I was when I joined the team."
"You're different."
"How?"
"Lou, you're one of the best players Gryffindor's ever had, McGonagall says so."
Lou reddens. "Even if that is true, Kingsley could easily be as good as me, if we train him up now."
"Kingsley Shacklebolt?" Sirius is in name-based heaven, and is promptly ignored.
"We've only got a year left, Lou, what use is training him up going to be?"
"The Quidditch team won't just stop existing because we'll leave. We've got to think of the team that follows, and what Anna's going to do with them, and if we train him this year then he'll be really good by the time Anna's Captain, and that can only be good for her - she'll already be looking for a Chaser and one Beater, why not make it so she has one good Beater?"
James slumps into a chair. "I haven't got time to train him, what with being Captain and practicing my own position, and teaching Anna about Captaining, and being Head Boy, and trying to pass my NEWTs."
"I'll do it, then."
James looks doubtful.
"Put him on the team, James, and I swear he'll be brilliant by the end of the year."
James gives up.
"Fine. I'm going to bed."
She touches his hand as he walks past her, and they both smile, and suddenly it's as if they never argued.
Lou sits down in James' recently-vacated chair. "Sorry you didn't make the team, Sirius."
"That's alright," he grins. "I much prefer cheering you lot on."
"Are you going to spend the next few weeks trying to think of good things to rhyme with Shacklebolt?" asks Remus.
"You know me too well," replies Sirius.
The whole group laughs. "You know, next time Slughorn invites us all to his room, we'll just have a Quidditch practice, and you lot can say you're helping out, like tonight."
There are grateful smiles all round. "Thanks, Lou," says Mary. "He's not a bad man, I just don't like spending more time with him than I have to."
More laughter.
"This is…nice," says Remus.
"What is?"
"This. All of us, sitting together, like one big group. I like it."
Lou and Sirius catch each other's eyes and smile.
"I'm glad you approve," says Sirius.
"We're friends, now," says Lou.
"I thought we were before," says Lily, confused.
"No, we were un-enemies, before. It's not the same."