good things fall apart • sirius black

Those four letters

Yet here she was. Standing beside him with unsure eyes and fidgety hands, as she shifted her weight from foot to foot. Now she'd wished him well, Ellie didn't know what else to say, and she was desperately trying to avoid the stormy grey eyes she could feel burning a hole in the side of her head.

    "Thank you so much Cubby. You didn't have to get me anything." It had been too long since she'd last been called that, and none of the boys missed the way a grin tugged at the corners of her lips.

    "Yes, I did." Ellie replied simply, pulling at the sleeves of her jumper.

She couldn't remember a time she'd felt this uncomfortable about being in the presence of the boys, for they'd always felt like home. A part of her wanted to leap over the table and take her old seat between James and Sirius as if nothing ever happened, and the other part of her wanted to run away as fast as her legs could carry her. For the first time, Ellie allowed herself to look up at the other boys, all their eyes trained on her, and she gave them a small smile before deciding it was probably time she left. Although, when her eyes fell on a certain handsome boy, she felt her heart leap into her throat. Cheeks flushing red, she averted her gaze to the floor almost immediately as his lips started to form a small smile.

James was nudging his best friend repeatedly in the ribs, and Sirius grabbed his hand irritably, widening his eyes. Ellie was too busy making the cracks in the stone floor look interesting to notice the black haired boys have a silent argument over whether this was the right time for Sirius to confess his feelings or not.

She's right there! James said with his eyes, to which Sirius just replied, stop making it so obvious.

    "Coward." The messy haired boy covered the word with a cough, but not very successfully, and suddenly Ellie's eyes were on him.

All colour drained from her face as James' eyes met hers, the word echoing in her mind on repeat. The beautiful girl was completely unaware of his and Sirius' unspoken conversation, and so the only explanation was that he'd said it about her. James Potter, her best friend, her brother - he'd called her a coward.

The messy haired boy had no knowledge of what he'd done, watching dread fill the girl's face as fast as turning on a light switch. But before anyone could tell him the misunderstanding that had occurred in the matter of seconds, Ellie had turned on her heel, and was already rushing away from them.

They could argue and disagree all they like, but Ellie never thought they'd stoop to that level. Petty name calling and flippant comments was something they did together about the people they didn't like, and now he was doing it to her. The beautiful girl could admit that it didn't feel good to be on the receiving end of the harsh words, and maybe they'd been really cruel to people in the past. But she never had thought their relationship would be so broken it'd result in him having to call her names. A sick feeling rose in Ellie's stomach as she hurried back down the table, completely unaware of the person hot on her heels.

Leaping over the table to grab Ellie's arm quickly, just as he'd done the first time that he'd seen her in the hall after they'd argued, Sirius attempted to stop her running away. After giving James a swift hit to the back of the head, he'd jumped out of his seat to go after the fleeing girl, having noticed she thought that the comment intended for him, was directed at her. He had to admit it was a very poor choice of word on his best friend's part, considering the circumstances.

Ellie had ripped her arm from his grip as if he were looking to kidnap her, stopping so fast Sirius nearly collided with her back.

As much as she didn't want to admit it, she'd know that touch anywhere, and the waft of old leather and bonfires that floated in the air momentarily, confirmed her thoughts. The beautiful girl wanted to, but couldn't turn around, for that that meant meeting his eyes. Stormy grey she'd missed so much, yet would always be her downfall.