A/N: Here's chapter 33! Hopefully, I'll have a quicker update next week since it's Thanksgiving weekend (no promises).
Rachel was leaning on the arm of the large sofa in the living room, her eyes following the words on the book in her hand. Sirius, sitting opposite from her, was writing a letter to someone (most likely James). When he finished the letter, he set it down on the coffee table and nudged Rachel's feet with his own.
"Mm?" she managed to get out. Why is he bothering me while I'm reading?
Rachel felt her feet being pushed back. Without looking up, she kicked Sirius's feet away and stretched her legs out on the sofa. Sirius kicked back. Rachel scowled and looked up.
"You are exactly like a little kid, you know that?" she said angrily.
Sirius smirked and shrugged. "I was getting the impression that you weren't giving me enough attention," he admitted jokingly.
Rachel rolled her eyes but couldn't help but smile. "You know, we could be doing better things right now," she said. "It's kind of annoying to just be sitting around."
"It is," Sirius agreed. "And it's pathetic that we can't even celebrate a small holiday like Halloween."
"Tell me about it," Rachel muttered. She adjusted herself so she could sit next to Sirius. He wrapped his arm around her. "We'd all be getting together right now, piss drunk."
"Mooney would dress up as a muggle, because he thinks that's creative," Sirius said.
Rachel laughed. "Dorcas would be a pumpkin," she said. "She actually was one year."
"Frank would probably be a vampire," Sirius added.
"I don't even want to think about what outfit Marlene would go for," Rachel said.
They laughed. "We sure miss them," Sirius said.
"A lot more than I thought I would," Rachel admitted. "And it's those small annoying things that I miss especially. What on earth are we going to do when this is all over?" She sighed as Sirius hugged her closer to him.
"I have an idea," Sirius said.
"Hm?"
"I have an idea of what we could do when this is over," Sirius clarified.
"Oh?" Rachel said. "And what's this idea of yours?"
"We could get married."
For a moment, Rachel thought she was hearing wrong. "What?" she managed to breathe out.
"Yeah, why not?" Sirius said. "The only reason we didn't do it was because we didn't see the point of doing it during a war. But when it's over, there's plenty of reason to get married."
"You want to get married?" Rachel asked slowly.
"You know, I don't quite like what you're implying there," Sirius said sarcastically.
Rachel began laughing. "It's just unbelievable," she said.
"So? Are you up for it then?" Sirius asked.
"Is that even a question?" Rachel retorted.
Sirius leaned forward and closed the small amount of space between the two of them to softly kiss Rachel. Rachel couldn't help but melt into the kiss. It was gentle and slow and pretty much everything Rachel needed in that moment. She almost regretted pulling away from him.
"But you do realize that this means you'll be stuck with me forever, right?" Sirius suddenly said.
"Oh, I would've been stuck with you forever anyways," Rachel replied with a smile.
Rachel wasn't sure if it was the storm or the loud knock on the door that woke her up.
In any case, she felt the covers moving and Sirius getting out of the bed. "Wait, hold up," she managed to mumble out. Quickly, she got out of bed and pulled on a dressing rob. She grabbed her wand off of her nightstand. "We are way to tired for this," she muttered as she walked over to Sirius.
"Maybe we'll get lucky," Sirius said. "Maybe it's not someone trying to kill us."
"Five galleons," Rachel betted.
Sirius laughed lightly. "You're on."
Sirius took the lead, Rachel following closely behind him. He approached the door and Rachel hid just out of the peripheral vision of the person that would be standing on the doorstep. Wand up, Sirius looked through the peephole. He frowned.
"When was the first time I covered for you?" Sirius asked the person on the other side of the door.
"Third year," the voice replied. It was muffled, but Rachel could tell it was Remus. "I paid you ten galleons to keep your mouth shut about me being the one to dye Malfoy's hair pink."
Sirius opened the door, a bit to reluctant for Rachel's liking. Why would he be so hesitant with one of his closest friends? Rachel walked up next to him and smiled at Remus.
"Evening Remus," Rachel greeted.
"Evening," he returned. "Do you two mind if I come in?"
Rachel shook her head and looked over at Sirius. His expression was unchanging and when he met Rachel's eyes, he shrugged, a sort of icy look passing over his face. As Rachel gestured Remus inside, she grabbed Sirius's arm.
"What's up with you?" she whispered to him.
"Just haven't been getting along particularly well with Mooney recently," Sirius muttered.
"No fucking joke," Rachel muttered back sarcastically. She glared at Sirius. "He's your friend."
Sirius sighed. "You're right."
The two of them made their way to Remus who was standing in the living room. "Why'd you come here so late in the evening?" Rachel asked.
Remus gave them sad looks. "I have some bad news," he said.
"What's it about?" Sirius asked.
Remus winced slightly. "Uh, look, you two better sit down," he said. As Rachel looked more closely at him, she noted his eyes looked a bit bloodshot.
"What's happened?" Sirius asked more urgently.
"Please don't get angry, Padfoot," Remus said.
"Just get on with it!" Sirius suddenly exclaimed.
Remus sighed. "It's Lily and James," he whispered. "You-Know-Who…" He trailed off.
"Mooney," Sirius started. "Are they dead?"
Remus gave Sirius a pained look. "It's You-Know-Who…"
Suddenly, Sirius left the room and grabbed his coat. Rachel heard the door slam shut.
Shakily, Rachel grabbed the arm of the armchair and sat down slowly. She tried to take even and slow breaths, but all that was coming out were rapid and nervous breaths. She couldn't calm herself, no matter what she tried.
"Is… is Harry dead?" Rachel managed to ask in her state.
"I didn't hear anything about him," Remus replied quietly. "You think he's going to do something rash?"
"He always does something rash," Rachel answered. She was beginning to calm down a bit. "I've started to ignore it. Did they suffer?"
Remus hesitated. "It was the Killing Curse," he answered, deciding that answering Rachel's questions was probably what she needed then.
"What'll happen to Harry, if he's alive?" Rachel asked.
"He goes to Sirius," Remus replied.
Rachel looked up at him, shocked. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"Sirius is marked down as Harry's next of kin," Remus answered.
"So… he doesn't go to Lily's sister?"
Remus shook his head. "He shouldn't."
Rachel didn't know why she was torturing herself with the album. Pictures of her and Sirius. The only way she would ever see Sirius again.
She flipped the last page of the old album. The last picture was of the two of them in Hogsmeade in seventh year. Rachel was just about to throw the album across the room, like she had the others, when an envelop caught her eye.
She took it out and pulled out the parchment inside. Her eyes skimmed over the words quickly.
Dear Rachel,
I'm sorry. I am an idiot.
I feel like I let go of something huge by not telling you a lot of things. I let go of you, to be more specific, and I never told you how I felt. Maybe if I did, I wouldn't have lost you.
The first thing you should know is that you weren't just another girl to check off of my list. Well, you might've been at first, but I got hooked on just getting your approval after awhile. And when I did get it, I acted like a complete arse. I don't really think these things through apparently.
And I didn't tell you how wonderful I think you are. You are the one person I have ever had any amount of feelings for. Because you're absolutely perfect. You're beautiful and funny and, well, you didn't chase me around all the time so that was rather attractive.
And I don't really know the point of this letter. I just needed to let you know, I guess. I know it won't matter now.
Sincerely,
Sirius
This letter… she remembered the evening. Rachel had absolutely hated Sirius then, running off like the idiot he was. But she'd never bothered to open the letter.
It honestly didn't help. Not now that Sirius was gone. His soul was being tortured in Azkaban, where he didn't belong. Serving time for crimes he didn't commit.
Rachel felt the knot in her stomach that came every time she thought about the past week's events. They were supposed to celebrate Sirius's twenty-second birthday the day before. They were going to go out for something Italian.
Instead, Rachel had been living on coffee for the past week.
But in that moment, a plan suddenly formed in her head. Somehow, she knew what she had to do.
Well, that's it for now!
-Grammar/spelling?
-Sorry if it seemed a bit rush :|
-Constructive criticism?
Thanks for reading! :)
