Title: There You Are

Characters: Sirius Black, Penny Singh, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

AN: There is a part of this that I used as a drabble in this fic. I decided to develop it into a somewhat longer one-shot.

Word Count: 1, 630

Some greetings are more welcoming than others. That is a fact that cannot be argued against. Greeting someone by saying hello is by no means rude or mean but it's not as nice as other types of greetings. The three simple words 'there you are', for example, is a lot nicer than a simple hello. Because if you greet someone by saying 'there you are' then you are somehow assuming that they would arrive at some point. Hence, the greeting is a lot nicer than some other greetings that one could choose to use. The type of greeting one uses depends on what type of friendship you have with the person in question.

Some friendships build up slowly over time while other friendships just appear. One day you wake up and you realise that you have gotten used to, no you have come to expect someone to just be there like a constant presence in your life. It just hits you that this person that you knew nothing about before a few months previously had become such a regular part of your life that you could no longer imagine what life would be without them. Some people just appear in your life one day and nothing has to grow. You merely take on look at that person and you decide in your mind that this person is your new friend.

For Sirius that – being hit by the realisation that someone was his friends – happened two times. The first time was when he met James, Remus and Peter. One day when he opened his eyes he realised that these three boys had become his best friends.

"He's not up yet?" Sirius could hear the voice of Remus Lupin vaguely through his deep sleep.

He was exhausted. There was no other way of describing it. The exhaustion was the worst kind too. It felt like it came from the core of his very being and he was sure that something was very wrong with him. But he wasn't about to tell them that.

Sirius felt someone put a hand on his forehead and that was all it took for him to force his eyes open to see that he was surrounded by the three boys. James Potter was at the front. His hazel eyes shone with worry and there were wrinkles on his forehead. His glasses were sliding down and almost as if he enjoyed the adrenaline rush he didn't try to stop them until they were just at the tip of his nose. Remus Lupin were sniffling. The young boy had been in a terrible shape a week before. So bad that he had to go home to his mother. Sirius didn't have the heart to tell the sandy-blond haired boy that no one bought his excuse. No one being James, Sirius and Peter. Peter Pettigrew looked at him as if he was dying. As if Sirius was dying that is. His brown hair had been cut in different lengths and his eyes looked huge due to the fact that he was so skinny. But what caught Sirius attention was the one thing they all had in common. They looked worried and it felt like it was him that they were worried about.

"How are you feeling?" James asked slowly and almost in a whispering tone of voice.

Sirius hadn't realised that his throat was aching until he told James that he was fine and he sounded as if he had swallowed a crow. His normally smooth voice, bordering on the bright side of the spectrum, was horse and every time he said something it felt as if his throat was about to burst. But that didn't stop him from making an attempt at flat out lying to the boys.

"I'm fine," he said and shrugged. But the more he woke up the more he felt that he wasn't fine. That was really far from the truth. His head felt as if it was going to explode and at some point, during the night, their dormitory had gotten a lot colder. A lot colder!

Sirius tried to get out of bed but soon felt a hand on his chest. James were pushing him back. Maybe it was his exhaustion, maybe it was the look of pure determination on James face but Sirius didn't try to get up again.

"You are not going to class," the raven-haired boy said in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "You're sick, you're staying here and so am I."

"Me too." Remus said and nodded.

Peter raised his hand. "Me three."

"Good," James pointed at Remus. "You go to the kitchen and get something to drink and something to eat. He needs juice and tea with honey. Improvise the rest." – James pointed at Peter – "You go get some painkillers from Madame Pomfrey."

He turned to face Sirius. "And you stay still. Don't you dare get out of bed. That is an order."

Sirius laughed and winked at him. Normally he would have told James that he was older than him. Sirius was supposed to be ordering people around not James. But he didn't feel like it this time. "Okay dad."

Sirius didn't know at the age of twelve that the term friends wouldn't be strong enough for describe the relationship he had with the boys.

The second time that happened was when he met Penny. One day it just hit him that she was one of the most important people in his life. It was that one time when James were whining about Lily hating him for something that he hadn't done. By the time Penny entered the room Sirius had already heard the entire story. James had paced the room while telling him about the injustice that had taken place earlier that day.

The Marauders were not the kind of people who didn't take credit for their own work. When they had performed a prank, they owned up to it. To the right people naturally, they didn't want to get attention too many times. Sometimes they even took credit for pranks they hadn't executed. But those were few and far between. This prank, the one that James had been accused of, was not something he or any of the other three would have taken credit for or even come up with in the first place.

By the time Penny arrived Sirius had understood that two things annoyed James. The first thing was that he didn't particularly enjoy being held responsible for a crime that he had not committed. Not that it mattered to McGonagall when Lily told the professor about what James supposedly had done. It was her words against him and she had been on less detentions than he had. The second thing that he didn't particularly enjoy was the fact that Lily was pissed at him. There was no other way of describing it.

Sirius sighed deeply as he listened to the story again. Penny sat next to him and since Sirius had already heard everything once he decided to look at her instead.

"… and now she thinks that I was the one who pulled that prank although it wasn't and I really need someone to find Lily and explain that I had nothing to do with it and she should give me a chance."

Penny sat on the couch in the common room with Sirius on one side and James on the other. Her hands rested against her thighs as she attentively listened to James rant in circles about an event which led to Lily yelling at him. Sirius had tuned in and out of the monologue but it looked like Penny had listened to it all because when James asked her a question she answered.

"No."

"No?" James looked at her as if she had kicked him in the stomach. "But why not Penny?"

"Because she doesn't deserve you." Penny replied in a stern voice. James was about to open his mouth again when she put her hand up as a signal for him to stop before he had started. "You have a huge crush on her James. I get that. But she's trying to get you to change and you shouldn't be forced to change for someone to date you. Eventually someone is going to come along who will love you for who you are and not for who they want you to be. Right Sirius?"

Sirius nodded. There was no missing the serenity in her voice. After two years of knowing each other Sirius could hear it as clearly as if it was an object standing in the middle of the room. Every word she said hit James right where they needed to and for a moment Sirius almost thought that she had managed to convince him.

"Yeah," he eventually said and squeezed James' shoulder. "She's right Prongs."

It wasn't the advice that made Sirius realise what a natural part of his life Penny had become. He thought his life but in reality, that meant that she had become a regular presence in all Marauders lives. It wasn't about the way she gave James real attention. She was kind that way and wanted to help people if she could. No, the thing that made Sirius realise how important she was to them was the way James greeted her. It told him that Penny was not just their friend anymore. The friendship had grown, it had become more powerful over the years and now no one could remember what their lives had been like without her. All of that Sirius hit Sirius like a ton of bricks before Penny gave her advice, before she had even heard the story, when James greeted Penny with three simple words.

"There you are."

The end