Chapter Twelve
August the Thirty-First, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven
"Have you seen how many books are on this list, it's ludicrous!" Davie murmured, staring at her Hogwarts letter instead of watching where she was walking as she and Lily entered Diagon Ally; Lily had to occasionally yank her friend out of the way before she ran into something - particularly a very young red-haired boy by the name of Charlie Weasley who was zipping around the cobblestone streets on the mini-broomstick his mother and father had bought for him - for which Davie would only murmur half-focused thanks before going back to glancing over the list of books and supplies she would need for their final year at school. "You know, even though I'm taking fewer classes -"
"You're preparing for NEWTs and you'll be completely exhausted, you've said it a million times now," Lily laughed. "I'm starting to think I've been a little too good of an example on you, honestly. Hold on a second!" Lily interjected when she noticed that Davie was starting to walk towards the entrance of Flourish and Blotts' bookshop. "I, ah - didn't I tell you about Florean Fortescue's? We're meeting the boys."
"Oh, right!" Davie said brightly, folding her letter and tucking it away back onto the traveling bag she had slung over her shoulder. "Let's - hold on!" she said, realizing what Lily had just said. "The boys?"
"We were planning to meet up the entire summer, I just - well, I forgot to tell you." Lily explained bashfully. "I never really wanted to show you any of James' letter because they all mentioned Sirius and I didn't want you to be angry."
Davie sighed and looked up towards Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, particularly at the quaint little round tables situated outside; she gave a slight huff when she caught sight of the back of a familiar head of wavy black hair.
"Could you go on ahead, Lils?" she asked hesitantly, creasing her supplies list out of nervous habit. "I - I'll only be a moment, I'll catch up."
Sighing in defeat, Lily nodded and went over to join the boys seated at the table - Sirius, for one, looked surprised to see Lily (apparently, James had not informed him either) and a strange jerking motion he made with his neck made it obvious that it took conscious effort to look around and see whether or not anyone else had come with her.
"Hullo," Lily greeted them all in a slightly glum tone as she took a seat between James and Remus; Sirius sat at the other side of the table, and evidently, Peter had not arrived - he had spent the summer feeling ill with a mild case of Dragonpox and had been out of touch for nearly the entire time. "Davie's - well, I suspect she's somewhere nearby. I'm not sure where she went."
"Don't tell me she's still upset with Padfoot," James groaned, shaking his head and ruffling his hair out of habit. Lily rolled her eyes at the action, though a trace of a smile still on her face was a sign that she didn't find it nearly as irksome as she had in years past. "You'd think an entire summer would be more than enough time to mull things over a bit -"
"If she doesn't want to come over here, I don't really care," Sirius grumbled, his hand twitching reflexively into a fist. "She can do whatever she likes. Good riddance." Everyone else at the table exchanged wary glances.
"He's only saying that," Remus muttered to Lily. "He was only just asking about her, right before you arrived -"
"Surprise!"
They all looked up at the sound of a familiar voice to find Davie walking from inside the ice cream shoppe, with five tiny bowls of ice cream trailing along in the air behind her. Using her wand, she shooed them all to the table where the others were sitting, and they landed with high-pitched clinks. She then quite hesitantly sat down in the only seat that had been left available, situated between Remus and Sirius.
"Hullo," she said carefully, giving Sirius a brief sidelong glance.
"Hm," Sirius responded, not looking at her or the ice cream on the table. Davie glanced at Lily with an expression of discouragement, but Lily simply jolted her eyebrows and nodded insistently towards Sirius, suggesting that she keep trying.
"'S your favorite," Davie said, reaching over and grabbing one of the tiny sundaes and placing it directly in front of Sirius with a small clatter. "Strawberry caramel."
"I never told you that was my favorite," he said, trying not to be obvious as he glanced very briefly at the ice cream in front of him - Sirius Black quite possibly loved food more than anything in the world. Except Quidditch. And Filibuster's Fireworks. And -
"It's what you always get for me when we're in Hogsmeade and I know it's not my favorite -"
"Well," he scoffed sarcastically. "You just know everything, don't you?"
"More or less, I would say."
The tension was thick and torturous as at Davie's last comment, Sirius' face twitched somewhat unreadably. An eyebrow, his nose, the corner of his mouth … and thankfully, he began to laugh.
"Chocolate, hazelnut, and banana," he said matter-of-factly, picking up another bowl and placing it down in front of Davie. "You thought you could get one up on me, you're wrong, Davie. I know it's your favorite." He finally managed to look at Davie, and he grinned charmingly as he noted that she looked rather pleased to see him.
"Thank Merlin," James said, shooting his hand out and grabbing an ice cream for himself; Remus and Lily soon followed suit. "If you two weren't going to make up already we were about to shove these sundaes in your faces."
After finishing, the five of them finally set of to Flourish and Blott's - Sirius shot James and Remus a smug grin when Davie immediately looped her arm through his, and James, not to be bested, placed his arms around Lily's shoulders in a moment of brazen gall. Today, she surprisingly did not shirk away. Indeed, all of this seemed quite normal as the lot of them strolled into the bookshop.
"This section again?" Sirius chuckled as he followed Davie into the Runes section. She hadn't signed up for the class, but it was really the only thing she studied for pure enjoyment - and it seemed she was quite alone in this hobby, seeing as no one else even seemed to be browsing the section, which itself looked a bit dusty. "You know, I don't see what's so interesting about a bunch of ruined buildings."
"It's not so much the buildings, it's the people that used to be in them. You know, a lot of the things they used to do and believe aren't all that far off from today," Davie laughed, pulling a book off of the shelf and rifling through the pages until she found a particular chapter, flipping the open book towards Sirius and showing him the page. "You know - like the ancient Jews and Romans used wedding veils to symbolize -"
"A bit soon to be talking about weddings, isn't it?" Sirius chuckled, reaching over and shutting the book, tucking it back on the shelf. He leaned across the aisle in front of Davie, resting his elbow lazily on the shelf. "So," he began nonchalantly, brushing an imaginary bit of dust from his sleeve. "How's Dingbat doing nowadays?"
"Dingbat?"
"Digby! That's right, sorry - my memory must be going." Sirius chuckled. "How's that old bloke been over the summer?"
"I - I don't know. I'm sure he's been busy. I haven't had contact with him at all," Davie said honestly, reddening slightly and turning her face away as she pretended to be distracted by another book. "Not all summer."
"Would it be terribly inappropriate if I told you I was glad to hear that?" Sirius chuckled, amused at her reaction.
"Well, I can't very well stop you if that's how you feel."
"So it's alright that I'm glad you're not speaking to him?"
"Of course it is."
"So you won't speak with him?"
Davie turned back to Sirius, raising an eyebrow at him and drumming her fingers on the nearest shelf. "Don't push it, Padfoot," she said with a slight smirk. "All I said is that I can't stop you from being glad that I'm not close to Romnic anymore."
"And I can't stop you from being so enthralled by my roguish good looks. We're even," Sirius beamed, preparedly ducking as Davie playfully took a swing at his head. "Oy! I thought we were getting along again!" he laughed as they emerged from the bookcases, going back to Lily, James, and Remus, all carrying their books and grinning at the pair knowingly.
September the Fifteenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven
"What's a one-word way of saying 'can-kill-you-with-one-drop'?" Sirius asked, sticking the end of his quill into the wood table he was sitting at while he wrote his essay for Potions. Remus, sitting across from him, looked in amusement towards Davie, who was in a nearby plush chaise in the Gryffindor common room. Lily and James were both in Arithmancy class, and Peter was sitting at the table working on his Transfiguration assignment.
"Why are you trying to make your essay shorter?" Davie laughed, chucking a small throw pillow at his head but missing by a few inches without him even having to duck. "Slughorn said at least five hundred words on that essay and you've barely got three."
"Well, you know me, Davie," Sirius chuckled, plucking his quill from the table. "I've just got so much more to say, and not enough room to say it. Gifted, I guess -"
Remus gave a snort, and Sirius pulled out his wand, sending a jet of water flying at his friend.
"Boys," Davie chided playfully. "You look awfully busy, but do you think you three could help me with something?"
"Homework?" Remus asked, still laughing as he wiped the water off of his face with the sleeve of his robes. "I thought you finished your essay about an hour ago -"
"No," Davie said, a mischievous grin spreading onto her youthful face. "Something even better. And I have a very special job for you, Peter."
"Prongs, come quick!" Remus yelled from down the hall just as Lily and James were stepping out of their classroom, chatting quite amiably. They both turned, looking surprised to see Remus, usually, the most composed of all of them, looking so frantic. "It's Worm tail -"
"We were bored, we were just playing around!" Davie said, running up alongside Sirius to catch up with Remus - she crouched a bit over her knees to catch her breath. She glanced around to make sure the crowd exiting the classroom had scattered before she spoke again. "We were just trying to see which one of us could make the Room of Requirement come up first -"
"I thought Davie would be the one to come up with it!" Sirius interrupted, bumping Davie slightly. "But then -"
"-but then Sirius decided he wanted a room that only opened from the outside, and Wormy thought he'd been the one to make the room appear, so he went in! The door shut behind him!"
"Now we can't find him," Remus said, looking convincingly exasperated at Sirius and Davie. "We've been going up the same corridor for about twenty minutes now -"
"Well, it's because you're all looking - you're confusing it!" Lily pointed out before glancing at James.
"Let's go - you all stay behind a bit, it'll be better if we're spread out a little," James said, grabbing Lily by the hand and dashing off before the others, who waited until the pair had passed a bit; Davie gave them a Remus and Sirius a wink before gesturing for them to follow.
"What was it you asked for, Padfoot?" James said, glancing around the hallway. "Just - ask for it again. No one else think anything."
"A room that only opens from the outside," Sirius repeated. They all wheeled around and saw a door that had not been there moments earlier.
"Right - this one?" Lily said, pulling the unfamiliar-looking door open with James standing directly next to her. Suddenly, before they were able to even get a good look at what was inside the room, Sirius and Remus bumped them inside and shut the door behind them, while Davie walked over to a nearby suit of armor.
"Alright, Peter, you can come out from behind there now," she laughed as the pudgier boy peered out curiously.
"D'you think of it, Wormtail?" Sirius asked eagerly. "The whole entire time?"
He nodded fervently, surprised he had actually been of some sort of help. "A - a room that won't let James and Lily out until they're a c-couple."
A/N's
Phew! I'm so glad I haven't been disowned for the brief Snape/Davie bit last chapter. Rest assured, Davie's heart belongs to Padfoot. The mishaps with Snape are - let's call them 'plot complications'. Tee-hee! Anyway, just minor things going on in this chapter as well, but we finally cornered Lily and James! I wonder who will make it official next. (*innocent whistle*)
To Padfoot'sPixie - Sirius and Davie's stubbornness will subside soon enough. A little bit, anyway. Thank you for reviewing so faithfully, it always makes my day!
In any case, it might be a slightly longer time until my next update - it may not be until the weekend or late, because I have an upcoming medical anatomy practical and quite a few papers to do, in case any of you are interested in my mundane college-student life. Wish me luck! Cheers!