Sorry its taken me this long to update...I wonder if there is anyone out there who still wants to read this? I hope there is, as always I'd love a comment or a follower of this story! Share you views please and do enjoy :)- Bee 3
Head pounding with a headache, induced from lack of sleep, his cheek sore from the graze Remus had given him, and two unwritten essays James, gave up the following morning and simply rested his head on the table in The Great Hall over breakfast. Remus touched James's shoulder lightly and muttered quietly "I'm sorry about the graze Prongs."
James looked up slightly, resting his head on his folded arms. "Its fine," he said quietly. "I'm just tired Moony."
Remus nodded, "Have you done the essay for Potions?" He asked.
James shook his head and muttered "Pass the juice." with a gesture at the jug of juice. Remus passed the jug over and James forced himself to sit up and pour a glass of juice. He took a sip. "Hand over some parchment." Remus said hurriedly waving a hand at him.
"What?" James frowned, drinking more juice. "No, it's fine."
"I feel bad," Remus said pouting.
James shot him an annoyed glance. "I've told you a hundred times before, its fine. It's part and parcel."
"Part and parcel of what?" Remus frowned.
"Of being your friend Moony, silly boy." Sirius said with a laugh, ruffling his hair and taking a seat beside Remus. He grinned sheepishly. "You look a bit rough this morning Prongs." He commented.
"Thanks."James said sharply, Sirius decided to ignore the sarcasm and started piling sausage and eggs onto James's plate.
"What are you doing Sirius?" James asked, "I'm not even hungry Padfoot."
"Sure you are." Sirius grinned now filling his own plate with bacon, sausages, eggs- every food visible on the table.
"Why are you so happy this morning?" James asked annoyed at Sirius's hyper mood. "You only got as much sleep as the rest of us yet you seem extremely awake this morning."
Sirius laughed, "That is, my friend, because I have a date with a girl this Saturday night."
"So?" Remus shrugged. "What's new? You always have a date."
"Yeah Padfoot? What's the big deal?" James asked intrigued, he glanced at his plate and decided that maybe he was hungry; he grabbed a fork and dug in. Sirius noticed this and smiled.
"Because it's with..." He looked at his best friends and lowered his voice. "You know...her." He smiled.
"Oo," Remus said understanding at the same time as James grinned and said "Ah! Yes! Well done!"
"Who?" Asked Peter quietly from beside James.
"Oh Merlin!" James said surprised. "I forgot you were there for a moment, Wormtail."
Peter smiled slightly and asked again. "Who?"
Sirius shot a glance at James, shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'tell him' so James leaned down and whispered the girls name in his ear: "Katie Owens."
"Oh," Peter smiled cheekily. "She's pretty."
"Pretty hot alright-," Sirius grinned. "She's Ravenclaw, sixth year. Took me long enough to get her to agree-,"
"Which-," Lily said cutting in as she approached them. "is the only reason you really like her." She said lightly, her hand on James's shoulder, she smiled across at Sirius. "because she denied your first offer."
Sirius glared then looked at James. "Deal with your girlfriend will you?"
Lily made a noise to show her annoyance at this comment but James didn't reply or even act as though he'd heard this comment at all. He looked up at Lily. "You ready?" He asked, taking one last swig of his juice and standing up, dragging his fingers through his hair in a routine sort of way.
Lily glared at Sirius then looked back at James. "Sure." She said then shot a look at Sirius again. "I think I'll pass my condolences to Katie when I next see her, poor girl, going out with you." She said briskly and started walking towards the doors. James grabbed his bag, grinned at his friends, shrugged then ran to catch up with her.
Sirius sat dumbfounded staring after his best friend. "He just sided with her didn't he? Without even speaking?" Sirius checked.
Remus nodded. "Did you expect anything less?" He chuckled. "If you did, you're mad, he'd do anything for her. And I can't blame him."
By the Christmas Holidays, things were noticeable worse. It was no longer just sickening rumours or Slytherin's grouping together and calling themselves Death Eaters; the newspapers were now filling with head lines of disappearances and murders and the problems were getting more widespread not just in Britain but beginning to spread through Europe.
"Not again," Lily sighed opening the newspaper and reading the headline.
"What?" James sighed. Lily handed the paper over to him and he sighed again. "So another disappearance." He grimaced; Lily shuffled closer to him, he pulled her ever more closer and they curled up together. They were sitting on a rug beside the fire; it was late almost midnight on Christmas Eve.
James threw the paper out the way attempting to rid the moment of any dark thoughts or news. "Come here beautiful." James murmured stretching out on the rug, Lily lay beside him and rested her head on his chest, and he wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "This is our first Christmas together." He whispered.
Lily frowned and looked up at him. "We were together last Christmas." She said confused and also slightly annoyed.
"Yeah I know we were going out last Christmas. But we're actually spending Christmas together this year." James explained with a smile.
Later, when the clock chimed midnight, James realised Lily had fallen asleep; her chest rose and fell regularly, her face softer and more carefree in sleep, James snuggled closer to her loving the familiar feel of her in his arms. "Merry Christmas," He whispered as he looked into the fire, at the rich deep colours: red, orange and yellow. The flames flickered and soon James felt his eye lids get heavy, before he knew it he'd fallen asleep, warmed by the fire and by the heat of Lily asleep in his arms...
The New Year began bitter and icy cold; dark news continued to circulate throughout the castle putting a damper on everyone's spirits; everyone that was except the Slytherin's, who seemed to thrive in the midst of the gloom. Whilst the general moral in the castle was low James had noticed that Sirius seemed particularly morose; he had lost that witty edge, was excluding himself more and more and was falling behind on his work more than usual.
One evening Sirius returned to the Common Room looking sombre, he threw James the invisibility cloak without a word and sat down. It was the third time this week he'd borrowed the cloak without explanation and although James never minded lending it to him, he couldn't help but worry about his friend.
"Been with Katie?" James asked in a cheery voice, attempting to subtlety find out what he had been up to.
"No." Sirius gritted his teeth and stared at his hands.
"But you're still seeing her aren't you?" James checked.
"Yes." Sirius answered, without looking up.
"Anything, you er...want to talk about?" James asked quietly, he was desperate for Sirius to confine in him and now was the perfect time, with both Remus and Peter not around; they had the time to talk.
"No." He said abruptly.
"Right that's it." James said annoyed. He stood up and grabbed Sirius by the arm dragging him to his feet; he pulled him out of the Common Room and into the corridor. "What's going on Sirius?" James said angrily pushing him against the wall.
Sirius pushed him away. "Nothing." He said roughly, detached. "It's nothing"
"More than two words Padfoot!" James said furiously, glaring at Sirius, "Answer me!" He yelled gripping Sirius by the front of his robes desperate to catch his attention. He shook him, almost roughly. "Sirius! Just talk to me!" Sirius just stared at him, he didn't try to push him off, he didn't speak. "Come on! It's me! It's James! You can tell me!" James urged.
Sirius shook his head and looked away from James, looked at his feet, looked up the corridor- anything to avoid James's pleading gaze. "Padfoot please!" James urged him, his hands dropped from the front of Sirius's robes and he dug them deep into his pockets. He looked at his friend in the half light of the corridor and spoke very quietly incase anyone were to walk past and overhear. "I won't judge you Sirius. But you have to tell me, have you gone and done what we talked about this summer?" James's heart thudded as the words came out, this was his worst fear. Sirius's expression was unreadable. James waited.
Silence hung the air, James stared desperately at Sirius, waiting, hoping he'd answer. "Right that is it." James said his voice filled with anger and passion once more. Before Sirius could move James had him pinned up against the wall again, this time forcefully, his wand drawn directed at his chest. James's hand was shaking as he gripped his wand, he wasn't going to curse him, but he was desperate and he had to know now.
"What the hell are you doing?" Sirius roared.
James laughed sarcastically. "Oh! Lucky me! A full sentence!"
With his free hand; his heart hammering against his chest, a lump in his throat, James grabbed the hem of Sirius left sleeve and tugged it upwards. He expected to see the dark skull of the death eaters burned into his friends forearm, but to his relief Sirius skin was untarnished.
"Oh thank merlin!" James sighed with relief both of his hands falling to his sides.
Sirius looked between his arm and James. "You're kidding me right?" He sneered. "You actually thought-,"
"Well you were acting really odd!" James said angrily defending himself, thrusting his wand back into his cloak pocket. "You don't talk anymore! You don't laugh or joke! It's like you're gone! Like the life has been sucked out of you! I just don't get it!" James was angry and upset and stressed, worried, desperate to know what was making Sirius act so strange. He dragged his fingers through his hair in frustration.
Sirius gave a hollow laugh. "It has." He spoke softly, his eyes drifting from his shoes to James's face, but still not quite meeting his eyes. "Last summer, when I left," He breathed heavily and pushed his hair out of his face. "Reg was still only talking of joining them-," He paused, James didn't move, just waited for him to continue. "But I've been, erm, watching him since we started back at school. He's refused to talk to me. So I had to keep an eye on him without him knowing, Things got serious last term." He gulped and looked away. "I watched him talking with a few others, bad things happened, he went missing for a couple of days. He definitely wasn't at school. I had the map. I checked it ALL" He emphasised the word "all the time!"
"Oh, Sirius." James said sadly.
"Yeah." Sirius said crossing his arms. "He's officially become one of them." He stated, emotion seeping through the barrier of pretence he had put up. "After everything I tried to do to protect him. I couldn't, he took the mark." He said dully.
James was lost for words, Sirius was broken, emotionally, "Sirius-," He whispered pulling him close, crushing him in a hug. For a moment Sirius was stunned and didn't respond to the hug and then slowly he returned the pressure, wrapping his arms around James. "You should have told me." James whispered, gripping him close. "I could have- we could have done- I don't know, but at least you could have had someone to talk to,"
"Yeah," Sirius exhaled deeply.
After a long moment, Sirius released him and the two boys stepped apart, James gripped Sirius by the shoulder. "I'm sorry I doubted you Padfoot."
"Yeah," he sighed.
"So you've been keeping this all to yourself?" James asked.
"Yeah," Sirius shrugged.
"And its where you've been sneaking off to with my cloak?"
"Yeah, I would hang around the Slytherin common room under it, follow Reg around the castle, listen to his conversations, see who he talked to. But there was nothing I could do, bar a full body bind curse and locking him a broom cupboard!" Sirius laughed.
"We could of done that!" James said with a laugh.
"You know-,"James said, deciding his words carefully. "You've always got us."
"Yeah I do. Thanks." Sirius padded James's arm then gave a little laugh. "Thanks Jamie, it means the world to me."
"I know. I love you Sirius." James said simply, looking at his best friend.
"I love you too James." Sirius said in one breath.
There was silence for a moment then Sirius laughed. "Well that was a little gay." He stated.
James laughed too. "No sorry Padfoot, I don't like you that way. I'm taken and so are you even if you try to deny that you and Katie are actually getting serious."
Sirius laughed and threw his arm around James's shoulder and together, laughing and joking, they headed back into the Common Room.