Not Him | Jily

Chapter Four

Almost finished with her Transfiguration essay, Lily sighed and peered around at the other faces in the common room. Amongst those who she barely recognised, despite spending the last six years surrounded by some of them, she spotted James, Remus, and Peter huddled in their usual corner by an open window. She rolled her eyes - it was freezing - did they have to have the window open? A shiver ran down her spine, and just as she made the decision to get up and tell them to close it, Sirius, seemingly appearing from thin air, slid into the chair beside her.

The shaggy haired boy glanced over his shoulder at the rest of his friends, smirked, tilted his chair onto its back legs, and wrapped an arm around Lily's shoulders. Lily spared her own eyes toward the other three boys for a couple seconds, only to find none looking back. Was Sirius smirking at himself? His own thoughts?

Now that was nerve-racking.

After failing to shrug him off, she playfully snapped, 'Do you mind, Black?'

'Not at all, my sweet Lily,' he winked, and again glanced back towards his boys, in particular James, who was now openly gawking at them.

Lily roughly shoved him off while he was momentarily distracted. His chair fell back onto
four legs with a loud clatter, and he faked offense, 'Lily!' he pouted.

'Black!' Lily exclaimed back, matching his tone, pushing back a laugh.

'Aw, come on,' Sirius said, a small frown falling onto his face that he quickly masked with a small, short humourless laugh, 'You can call me Sirius.'

Lily shook her head slightly, 'Pass.' She refocused her eyes on the essay still laid out in front of her, and when Sirius, unmoving, continued staring at her, 'Shouldn't you be over there?' Lily gestured lazily with her hand towards where she was pretty sure James was still staring at them.

However, Sirius ignored her question, instead leaning in closer, and Lily noted he faintly smelt like rain. Did James put him up to this? Was that why he was still staring? Or maybe James was jealous that she hadn't loudly told Sirius to piss off yet, as she would do to him. Or would've done, because she didn't know if she still would. He definitely seemed different, especially after their earlier interaction in Potions.

Lily turned her head to face Sirius, her dark hair smacking him because of how close he was.

'What?' she really snapped this time, slightly frustrated at his strange, unexplained close proximity.

Sirius squinted at her, inhaled deeply, then sat back, 'Nevermind.'

Getting up and dramatically strutting over to his friends, leaving Lily confused, he bumped James' shoulder with his own, and whispered something in his ear. They both stupidly turned their heads back at Lily, who was already engrossed with her essay. At least that's what it seemed like.

'You could've been a little more subtle,' Remus commented, picking at a loose thread on his sweater and looking anxiously towards the open window that allowed a strong ray of moonlight into the common room.

'Alright, Moomy,' Sirius laughed at his own pun - typical.

Peter sniggered, and after a slightly worrisome glimpse at Remus, 'How about a game of truth or dare?' It was his attempt at lightening the sour mood: with a full moon fast approaching, the mood would ordinarily be a little duller, but it wasn't just that. James had been uncharacteristically quiet recently, and Peter had no idea why - he was sure if anyone knew anything it would be Sirius or Remus. Though he did have a place in the group, sometimes he felt like he didn't really belong. Not only were the other boys much more academically gifted, they were also much more confident, much more daring, and much more everything. There was no amount of inclusion in their shenanigans or encouragement that he was their equal from them that would convince him otherwise. He wished he could be someone more.

Sirius' happy demeanor only grew, 'Lilykinsss-' he began to obnoxiously sing-song, but was cut short by a hard thump on the arm from James.

'Don't,' he harshly warned.

Peter squinted in James' direction, 'I never thought you'd pass up this sort of opportunity.'

'Lily's not an opportunity. Don't talk about her like that.'

Sighing, Remus shut his textbook and untidily dumped it back into his bag, 'Come on, you've been acting strange all week.'

'It's clearly because he didn't smell Lily in the Amortentia,' Sirius concluded.

'You utter twat, Padfoot. That's not how it works. You can't smell a person - you smell what attracts you. It can be influenced by somebody you like, but you can't actually smell a person. And anyway, he started acting weird before that even happened.'

Sirius scoffed, 'What did you smell then?'
Remus blushed, and didn't respond.

Across from them, Lily stood and collected her belongings. Her eyes fell on the boys and the open window, now feeling it was easier to go to her dorm than to fight them to close it. She was not surprised at all to make direct eye contact with James, and she made a point of frowning at him, before heading towards the girls domortries, but before she could make it there, the portrait opened and Marlene entered the common room, looking giddy.

'Lils!' she called, at the same time that Sirius shouted, McKinnon!'

Lily stopped, clutching her books to her chest, waiting for the blonde to catch up to her, assuming she would ignore Sirius.

But she assumed wrong.

'Up for a game of truth or dare, Mckinnon?' he asked as she approached their table.

Marlene grinned, and looked at Lily as she responded, gesturing for her to come back, 'Always.'

a/n GUYS I'M BACK!! I'M SO SORRY I KEEP DISAPPEARING!!!

this is short for my chapters, but i just felt the need to end it here. please bear with me for a little, but eventually i'll be updating every other day again (og readers will know how good i was at updating last summer)

and if you haven't seen, i have private snap and insta stories!! read the update about that if you'd like to join :)