𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑 ❧ sirius black

XXVII - You're Cordially Invited

A smile began to rise to Hermione's face. She had totally forgotten about what she would do over the holiday break. And it's not like she had a family to return home to. This was absolutely perfect.

"As if I need an invitation!" Sirius joked while Remus and Lily thanked James for his gracious offering and accepted their invitations.

Peter looked down at the ground, as if he were hiding something, and proceeded to sigh in James' direction.

"Prongs, I don't think I can make it this year," he sighed repeatedly. Hermione could smell his insincerity from a mile away.

"Why not?" Lily questioned.

"Emma's invited me to her home for the holidays. And I've told her yes."

"You know she's always welcome to tag along with us, Pete."

"It's just, she's so excited for me to meet them, to introduce me to her family. I couldn't say no even if I wanted to."

"Yeah, I totally get it Wormtail. I mean, Lily's--"

The ginger tugged on his robes and flashed him a face that read, "shut it."

Hermione looked right at Sirius, who had his something-is-up-and-I'm-going-to-figure-it-out face on. "Lily's... what? Prongs?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Prongs..?" Sirius smirked.

With cheeks as red as roses, James and Lily looked at each other nervously, then back at the rest of the eager teenagers in the room, and then back at each other.

Lily broke the silence. "We're together, alright. Stop fussing about it, I'm sure over half of you have had it figured out already. Especially you, Remus," she said, pointing at him as he was smiling, "I knew you'd be the one to let it slip," she laughed at James.

"Hey!" he gasped in response.

Meanwhile, Sirius stared as if he had just found out the meaning of life, and proceeded to run over to the happy couple with his arms around each of them. "My best friends, so happy!" he exclaimed and he aggressively hugged the both of them, keeping his partially sarcastic attitude intact.

"I see my advice worked," added Hermione, arms crossed.

James chuckled. "It sure did," he said.

"What advice?" questioned Lily.

Hermione snicked as she spoke, "I was basically James' wing-man, knocking some sense into him so that you would notice how awesome he is."

"Epic," added Sirius.

"Yes," she laughed, "how epic he is."

In the midst of this incredibly awkward discovery, Remus blurted out, "so, when do we leave for your house, Prongs?"

"Probably Friday afternoon, after--"

"Our Astronomy final," interrupted Sirius.

"Yeah," added Hermione.

The rest of the night faded away just like the others, and Sirius spent most of it thinking about how James had succeeded with Lily. And how he wanted the same with Harper. Sirius had never really seen himself as the relationship type, but then again, did anyone really see James as the relationship type either?

He wanted Harper to be a bigger part of his life and wanted to be a bigger part of her's. He wanted to be the first person that she goes to when she gets good news or bad news. He wanted her to feel safe with him. He wanted to know how she had grown into the person she is today and what made her good.