long way to heaven || marauder ff

29- new beginnings

"And you think your grandparents are actually going to let you come?", the marauder pressed, an incredulous expression covering his features. Elaine shrugged, still slightly curled into herself, before raising her head to focus her gaze on the far mountains at the horizon.

"There is no pain in trying", she shrugged, finally turning to meet Sirius' eyes, her smile relaxing just the slightest as she took in his attire, the maroon quidditch sweater of their team peeking out under the black leather jacket that everybody knew was the boy's most prized possession, his first piece of muggle clothing that he had acquired for himself, as per Remus' words.

The Black rose his eyebrows in surprise, not having expected the girl to not react defensively. "Well, it would certainly be a pleasure to have you there. We have always been unbalanced during the traditional quidditch game to ring in the new year"

Elaine scrunched up her nose slightly, a clear picture of the four idiotic boys that called themselves the marauders, plus the odd other student in their year, drunkenly swinging around bats as they flew over a shadowy meadow, surely knocking more than one person out during said activity.

"And here I was supposing we should maybe try to refrain from meeting each other while under the influence of alcohol, given our track record", Elaine joked, though she quickly froze as she realized that she had spoken her silent thoughts out loud.

Almost expecting Sirius to answer with a sharp or even nasty comeback, the French practically jumped up in surprise as the boy to her left let out a throaty laugh, nearly starting to cough as he barked, fishing for air. "Are you trying to say we may have done some dumb shit while being wasted?", he asked finally, the soft smile not leaving his lips as he took out a new cigarette from behind his ear, sticking it between his teeth while scouting his leather jacket for a lighter.

Elaine mirrored his amused expression, thoughts whirring back to the parties that had been thrown during her brief time in Hogwarts, each more chaotic than the least. "I suppose I don't even want to know what kind of things you did in the years before I came here", she added wistfully, having heard enough to be sure that she was better off left in the dark.

Sirius had apparently not even really heard what the girl said, still emptying out his pockets, amassing two chocolate frogs, a tattered notebook, two more packs of cigs, three muggle-pens, and a lighter that was quite obviously broken.

"Shit", he cursed under his breath, patting down his pockets. "I'm pretty sure I left my wand in our dorm"

Elaine furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to make sense of the way Sirius had lit his last cigarette, though she couldn't exactly escape the puppy eyes he was giving her. "You don't need to look at me like that, my wand is lying safely on my nightstand", she shrugged, though slightly uncomfortable as Sirius' eyes weren't wavering in their begging look.

"Sauveur", he drew out languidly, changing his look to something that resembled 'Are-you-kidding-me'. "I saw you light up that letter with your bare hands"

Elaine froze up. A rush of anxiety cascaded down her back as she shifted around uncomfortable, turning her entire body away from the boy. "I have no idea what you're talking about", she defended herself weakly, a wonderful assortment of curses flying through her head.

"When I was still living at home, my father-", he spit that word out, as if it left a sour taste on his tongue, "-would sometimes talk about your family. Most often about, and I quote, 'The fact that they got all this power, and it is being transferred to a girl'. And then you stopped coming to Britain as soon as people started pointing out that maybe an eleven-year-old girl shouldn't be able to do magic that well without the help of a wand"