Cursive Conundrums

li

"James!"

His eyes shot open as his curtains were pulled open.

"Bloody hell." James grumbled, feeling for his glasses, "Sirius?"

"Yeah." Sirius crawled onto his bed, his eyes were wide with a panic.

It immediately woke James up and he sat up, "what's wrong?"

Sirius shoved a paper into his hands.

"It just came." Sirius said.

James looked down at the cover.

Lord Orion Black; Dead

James choked on his breath. "Holy fuck. Are you okay?"

Sirius nodded with a frown. "Yeah."

"Your dad just died, Mate," James said, "I know you hated him, but you can still be upset."

"They're saying it was suicide." Sirius said, "the day after my brother's birthday."

It hit James like a bag of bricks.

"Oh."

It was all he could manage to say. It wasn't fair. He should've said more to Sirius. Explained that maybe just once his father chose to do an honorable thing; putting his son before himself. Maybe, if James would've said anything, Sirius could've understood.

But Sirius didn't need to understand. Sirius was not Regulus.

"We're going to bloody celebrate!" Sirius boomed, a manic smile spreading on his lips. "Moons went to go find us some alcohol. Up for it?"

James grinned.

Sirius was not Regulus.

Sirius didn't need an explanation, he needed a friend to pretend with.

"'Course."

"Brilliant, I told him to see if he could get any flour from the Hufflepuffs too, shite, I want to be crossed right now, sounds like a hella good time."

"Sounds great, Mate." James said.

"Alright!" Sirius's she twitched and fingers thrummed anxiously against his thigh. "Alright! Today we celebrate."

"Why don't you take a shower?" James said, "or drink a glass of water?"

"No, no." Sirius shook his head, "I'm going to go help Moony, wanna come?"

"Nah," James shook his head, "I'm going to change, I'll meet you guys back up here."

Sirius nodded, standing to leave.

James frowned, watching him.

Sirius was starting to spiral.

With a sigh, James pushed himself up out of bed and over to his desk.

Just heard. You okay? Miss you.
All my Love,
James

He scrawled the message onto a scrap of paper and tied it to the leg of his owl.

Sirius wasn't joking about celebrating, and James was not about to let his best friend spiral by himself.

If Sirius was going down, so was James, if he was going to get so utterly pissed that he would be vomiting in the toilet, James would be at the sink next to him and Remus would be at the tub.

If one of them was going down, they'd all fall together.

"How much has he had?" Lily frowned, watching James peculiarly.