Disclaimer: Anything that rings a bell belongs to J.K Rowling

Chapter 34: To be everything

The compartment burst into laughter and Jude gave the boy a sympathetic look as butterbeer dripped from his light eyebrows. Instead of summoning the bottle like he must have intended, Peter managed to explode it, soaking himself with the drink.

Jude didn't know the siphoning spell, so conjured a towel and passed it to the smallest Marauder with a smile, and he took it cautiously, his watery blue eyes wary despite the fact that James had updated him on their situation when they met him at King's Cross earlier that day.

She glanced out the window next to her, and met Sirius' eyes, whose face was frozen in laughter, but slowly fell to an almost frown as he looked at her, and then Peter. She gave him a wide smile as they made eye contact, but he didn't return it, and she wondered just what was wrong with the boy? They had been good friends the last few days in France, but he had been acting odd all morning. She had been relieved that the kiss they shared all those months ago had never been brought up, her instincts told her that James wouldn't like this, and perhaps it was why Sirius was also keeping mum about things.

"How are you feeling?" James whispered from his seat next to her, a concerned timbre in his voice.

"Happy." She smiled widely back at him, no longer in discomfort from the headache she had been plagued with the last few days, and feeling more normal than she had in years.

She was sat in a carriage on the way to school with James and his friends. James had introduced her to Peter as, 'my sister, for all intents and purposes'. She knew he was just being kind, that it was because Dorea and Charlus were in the process of formally adopting her, but it still made her beam with pride at being claimed by him.

"And your head?" She glanced across at Sirius, whose charcoal grey orbs were fixed on her.

"Decidedly less achey." She stood, catching the time on Sirius' pocket watch, "I should go change."

Jude left the three boys, Remus leaving France earlier due to some family emergency. She remembered seeing an empty compartment a few doors down and made for it.

"Oh, sorry." She said softly, as she entered the space that was actually occupied. She should leave, but she was entirely distracted by the boy's features, she had never realised how much like Sirius he looked. "Hello." She added with a smile as the boy continued staring at her in return.

"Devon?" Regulus Black muttered, rising to his feet, a slightly confused look in his blue-grey eyes, "You…you…can speak?"

"Only English." She teased, knowing the boy was fluent in four languages. "Sorry I've yet to respond to your letter, it's been a busy few days."

"That's quite alright." Regulus nodded to the seat across from him, and she took it, perhaps there was time for a quick chat before they reached the castle. "I thought you'd find Vedic Arithmancy intriguing since I recall you had an interest in Sanskrit."

Jude nodded eagerly, she had met Regulus in the library earlier in the year, reaching for the same runic book on Sanskrit, but she had insisted he take the book first. Instead of returning it to the library, when he was done with the tome, he sought her out and gave it to her. Jude found that he had scribbled comments in the margins for her, which had inspired an exchange of many books on Runes between the two of them, and eventually letters. He had initially just signed his name as RAB, and Jude had only realised that he was Sirius' relative when he had penned his first letter to her over Easter break and used his full name in correspondence.

"I did! I didn't quite follow all the arithmancy, but I thought Tirtha wrote beautifully about the Sutras influence on runic magic."

"I thought you might." He didn't quite smile, Jude never saw the boy do so before, but he had a pleasantly neutral face that she quite enjoyed. "Did you have a good Easter vacation?"

The question surprised her, he had never asked her anything personal before, there's being a purely academic friendship.

She nodded, "Very. Did you?"

He nodded slightly.

They fell into a silence, that Jude understood was her queue to leave, he had been reading alone before her entry, and he was only being polite in asking her to sit for a bit.

"I best get dressed."

He nodded, and she crossed the room.

"Devon." She turned before she could make her exit, and Regulus held out a book for her, "I was going to post it to your dorm, but figured since you're here. It was my birthday over the break and I received two copies of this, thought you'd like the spare."

"Oh." Jude took the book, The Rise of the Phoenician Alphabet, "This is very kind Regulus, thank you."

He nodded and she made to turn again but stopped, "Oh, and a very happy belated birthday."

He nodded thanks to her and she left the compartment, and immediately gasped as someone had walked right into her.

"Sorry! Oh! Jude!" Marlene Dawson had let go of her, having preventing her from falling over with a steady hand as she smacked right into her. "Hello! Come with me, we're just getting dressed in here."

Marlene dragged Jude along for a few compartments and burst into one, never doing anything subtly and Jude smiled at her dormmate in amusement. Lily and Mary were already half-dressed.

Jude glanced out the window, just realising the time and quickly began undressing. She had just started pulling her socks up when Lily and Mary realised she was there.

"Jude!" Lily smiled, "Hello! I hope you enjoyed France! I've only been there once with my family, back when I was eight and we barely visited Paris because my sister was obsessed with seeing some art gallery in Nice, so we spent most of our time down south. Mostly just driving, my father insisted on driving everywhere. Have you been to France, Mary?"

"We go every year, my mother's big on vineyards." She rolled her eyes at that and then turned to Marlene, "How was Easter with Andy's family?"

"Lovely as always!" Marlene smiled wide with a nostalgic look in her eye, "They have that cottage all the way down south in Cornwall, so it was nice to be out of Scotland for a change! How was yours, Lils?"

Lily shrugged, "It was alright, nothing special."

Jude noticed a distinctly sad look fall upon Lily's face, and her heart went out to her. It was the look she would often get when she stared at that picture beside her bed of her and her sister, and Jude would hazard a guess that Lily's sadness had something to do with that.

Just then the steam engine gave a loud squeal as it pulled into Hogsmeade station, and Jude hastened in getting dressed. The girls spilled out, making a beeline for the carriages.

"Ugh." Lily groaned, as James, Peter and Sirius were milling about outside one of the last carriages. "I suppose they're waiting for Remus."

"I heard he's already back at the castle." Mary chipped in before Jude could get a word out.

"Babe!" Andy called over from a few carriages down, and Marlene gave Lily a torn look.

The redhead rolled her eyes, "Go ahead."

Marlene left with a mumbled apology, as Lily made for a carriage but a bunch of Hufflepuffs got in there first.

"Oh come on Evans, we don't bite." Sirius said with a grin on his face, "Pixie." He nodded at Mary whose face flushed red at that.

Hmmm, Pixie? Jude wondered what that was about but her thoughts were disrupted by Lily's voice.

"The last time I checked Jude wasn't invisible, Black." Lily chided, clearly assuming that Sirius was being rude by not acknowledging her.

Sirius was about to respond but Jude caught the sharp look that James had given him, technically they were still meant to keep their relationship a secret.

"It will be a tight squeeze, but we should manage." James nodded his head to the carriage, letting Lily and Mary climb on, Jude followed, squeezing into a corner.

She stared at the large black creatures that pulled the carriages, she had researched them after her arrival in Hogwarts, finding the beasts hauntingly beautiful. For the life of her, she couldn't remember who she had seen die to be privvy of their sight.

She didn't know if that was a good or bad thing, really.

"How was your holiday?" James asked the girls sat across from him, clearly focusing his attention on Lily, who had been pointedly staring outside the moving carriage.

"Good. Well, okay." Mary changed her answer, "My gran died. She was really old. But. You know."

"That sucks, Pixie." Sirius shuffled into his seat, his knees nudging Jude's as he tried to find some comfort on the hard bench. Jude couldn't help the smile on her face, Sirius couldn't be uncomfortable for five seconds, he was a real life Princess and the Pea. "What?"

Jude just realised that Sirius had been looking at her curiously and she shook her head, knowing that he wouldn't like the analogy one bit.

"So you boys went to France?" Mary was loud, she was sat on the other side of Lily, eyeing Sirius in particular.

"Just us." Sirius nodded to James, "Petey's mum forbade him from joining."

Peter blushed at the floor at this and Jude gave him a sympathetic look, sometimes Sirius worded things in the worst possible way.

"Were you in France too?" Lily asked in surprise, glancing between Sirius and James, "Were you in Paris? That whole Arc de Triomphe thing was awful. Did you read about it?"

The boys glanced at each other, their faces falling and Jude had to fight the urge to pat James' knee in comfort.

"We actually were there when it happened." James muttered and the other girls gasped.

"You both snuck into that party!" Lily snapped.

"We didn't sneak in!" James countered, "We're off age. And it wasn't some underground illegal thing."

"Well given the climate of everything, people shouldn't be throwing caution to the wind, your father's an auror, you should know better James! I heard a wizard died!"

"Oh just shut up Evans." Sirius snapped and Lily gasped. He glanced at James whose face was now very red, and had been pointedly staring out at the front steps of the Castle as it loomed closer.

James didn't wait for the carriage to come to a complete stop and he bolted off it, and Jude rushed after him.

"Judalia!" Sirius shouted but it was too late, she was much smaller than James, and nowhere near as dexterous so jumping out of even a slowly moving carriage was a terrible idea. She had fallen harshly onto the ground, her shoulder taking most of the fall.

"Are you okay!" Sirius was already at her side, she winced as he touched her shoulder and he swore, lifting her into his arms easily in one swift movement. "I'll take her to the hospital wing."

They began moving quite fast, and Jude glanced at the unsteady ground as Sirius seemed to be running up to the castle.

"Sirius." She muttered, "I can walk."

He didn't seem to hear her though, rushing up the Great hall steps. Jude looked up at him, nestled in his arms, at the tightness in his chin, and the rapidity in his heartbeat. He had been using a blue sweater, which made his hair look darker somehow, and he smelled really nice.

"Madam Pomfrey, she fell from the carriage!"

"Oh dear, lay her down there. That's it, thank you." Sirius' warmth disappeared to be replaced by the cool sheet of the Hospital Wing bed.

"I think she hurt her shoulder." Jude nodded at his words and the nurse quickly started her examination. Jude winced as Madam Pomfrey touched her right shoulder, and frowned as she used her recitator, a magical healing aid, on the area.

The nurse sighed, "Fractured. Poor dear, I'll get the Skele-gro, she won't need much, and it will only take an hour to heal. But." The nurse hesitated, clearly familiar with some of Jude's medical history, "Maybe staying overnight would do the trick."

"Please, no." Jude interjected, and the nurse gasped.

"Oh, I received a letter saying that you can talk now but my my! What a voice!" Jude couldn't help smiling at the beam on the nurse's face.

"Thank you, Madam Pomfrey. But if I can just wait the hour." She wanted to check on James, he wasn't very happy when they last saw him.

"Alright, but," She turned to Sirius, "She'll need monitoring tonight. Not taking any chances."

Sirius nodded, "Of course, I won't take my eye off her."

The matron shook her head amused at the boy, and made for the potions cabinet.

"You don't have to do that."

"I know." Sirius pulled the chair closer and fell into it, "You're lucky you just hurt your shoulder. You could have hit your head. You can't do as James' does, the boy's part monkey."

Jude laughed, but then stopped, "Could you go and look for him. He was so upset."

"I saw him running for the changing rooms, he is probably up in the sky by now. And, I know if he knew you were hurt, he'll want me to be here."

"Here you go darling." Madam Pomfrey gave Jude a spoon of the green liquid, it didn't taste as bad as it looked. "I'll be in my office if you need anything."

They both nodded, and remained silent as the Matron left them.

"Thank you." Jude smiled down at Sirius, "I haven't hurt my legs, but I appreciate the knight in shining armour of it all."

He laughed silently, "I prefer Prince Charming, much less duelling involved."

Jude chuckled, "And there's the pretty hair."

He gasped, "My hair is very manly, not pretty." He ran a hand through it in demonstration, "See."

"Oh, forgive me, I can smell the testosterone no-ow." Jude grit her teeth as her shoulder ached.

"You alright?"

She nodded, "I've had this before, hurts a bit when it's being healed."

Sirius' face fell at her words.

"I'm okay." She reiterated and he looked up, a faraway expression.

"When were you…well…hurt before, like this?" He cleared his throat, shaking his head, "I hate that I have to specify. I hate that you've been hurt so much that I have to specify!"

Jude reached forward with her left hand and patted his knee, like she wanted to do back in the carriage and wasn't able to, "I don't want you to hate anything on my behalf." She watched as he stared at her hand on his knee, and she realised this may be too intimate and she made to move it off but he covered her hand with his own.

He didn't say anything, just caressed the back of her hand with his soft fingers.

"A few years back there was an accident at the institute I was living in. My magic, I struggle to control it sometimes. And, I broke a few ribs. I can assure you, a fractured shoulder is much nicer." She chuckled, hoping to lighten the mood.

"What was the institute like?"

Jude hadn't expected the question. She glanced out the window, "It was nice. Everyone was very lovely, and Dorea visited often. She'd sometimes stay in Switzerland, just to be near. There was this Healer, Alken, who really liked being outdoors, and he'd take me on these long hikes just outside the institute, let me just wander around by myself for a bit. I liked that."

"You like being alone?" His grey eyes were bright in the moonlight that was filtering in.

"Sometimes. Don't you?"

"Not one bit." He answered quickly, "Being alone is like my worst nightmare."

Jude tilted her head down at Sirius at that, reflecting on his words. "Why?"

He ran a finger over her hand, "It would mean Walburga was right. My mother. She thinks I deserve loneliness, that I'm like some kind of contagion that needs to be sequestered away. When I'm alone, she's winning."

Jude flipped her hand up, so that her palm met his, "She'll never win." She shook her head, holding his hand tighter, ignoring the pain in her shoulder, "You deserve a better mother."

"Dorea more than makes up for it now." He smiled, glancing up at Jude and gasping, "Oh, are you okay?"

Jude wiped her eyes quickly, "Sorry, I'm just being very silly." Jude didn't even realised she had begun tearing, "I just, don't even know who my mother is. If she's bad, good, or…alive. And it's silly because I have Dorea and she's everything."

Sirius nodded, not saying anything but staring down at her with a soft expression. He wiped the tears off her face and cupped her cheeks, "You deserve everything."

Jude didn't know what to say to that, and couldn't understand the look Sirius had on his face. It was so like the look he had the day they had kissed, and she couldn't help fantasizing that would happen again.

Sirius dropped his hands as he heard footsteps, and the matron walked over, checking Jude's shoulder and announcing that she could leave but she should have someone keep an eye on her tonight. Sirius volunteered, and wouldn't hear a word otherwise, and Jude found that she was happily silent on that matter.

A/N: Thank you for reading! And sorry for taking sometime to update this story - feedback is always appreciated.

Have a lovely day,

Kalina