Blood Status || Marauders Era

Chapter 92|| Promise?

The week after Lily's wedding was quite hectic, of course with there being a whole war going on between the forces of good and evil, the two couldn't go abroad anywhere, and so instead, took a week away in Cornwall, where they were blessed with good weather and each other's company. They also had a whole week away from missions, which I viewed as extremely lucky as both myself and Alice were highly overworked in that week.

"I'm getting very tired if I do say so myself," Alice complained, flopping onto my couch and lifting up her feet to lay down. Alice was never one to complain, at any given time, so when she did, anyone knew that she had a problem with it, no matter how calm she came across as. "I agree, we both work in the Ministry, which anyone can see gives too much work out, but we also have all of these missions when we didn't even really want to join in the first place."

"I think that the only thing driving me from quitting the Order, is the feeling of not knowing how Frank would be coping or not being in on all of the secrets given around to everyone. I feel like it would just create a large gap in Frank and ours's relationship," Alice said. I didn't say it, but I felt that way too, not knowing what was happening in the world, to my friends, to Sirius, would kill me inside, and that was why I hadn't just told everyone I was fed up.

Alice had left an hour later, after drinking coffee and a lot of gossip, and now, I was on my own, waiting for something to happen. It was at times like these when I missed the Gryffindor common room, and I missed the dormitories that I had shared with the girls. Back at Hogwarts, nobody could ever get bored with the amounting homework and loud chatter constantly floating around, a very regular occurrence.

There was a key in the door, the sound rustling like leaves, and I figured that it could be either of ten people. Copies of our house keys went around a lot. I waited with bated breath, wondering who it would be opening the door, my mind turning this into a game, and when I heard a knock, I laughed to myself. It was Sirius, he could never get his mind around a Muggle door key.

We only used Muggle things outside of our home, when it came to being inside of the apartment, our wands were used to their full potential, however, when it came to the outside of our apartment, we never knew who was looking, so everyone that I knew resorted to non-magical ways. Which was harder for some than others, take James and Lily for an example, they were complete opposites when it came to Muggle technologies.

I opened the door for him and watched as he walked through the door, waving his arms in the air dramatically and protesting about the use of house keys. Grinning as he entered the room, I took his leather jacket from him, only half listening to his speech about keys when I placed it in its rightful place. "... and then they just don't seem to work - is that new?"

I looked down at my necklace and touched the sapphire pendant that was dangling from it. I had forgotten that I was wearing it today as it had become a normal thing to feel, the cold chain on my skin. I had received this necklace a few days ago, as a form of a gift, it wasn't my birthday, but it was for saving his life during a recent encounter with some Death Eaters.

"It was a gift from Remus," I explained to Sirius, but he was already sat on the couch, panicking. I could hear him muttering things to himself about how he was stupid for not giving me attention and how he hated that he had been away so much, so much so that I must have found someone else that liked me. He was sat on the sofa, deep into his own thoughts about his self-sorrow.

"It was from Remus, for helping him against Carrow," I said louder, and this time, the man snapped himself from his reverie and sighed, whether in relief or not, I wasn't sure. Sirius stared as I repeated myself again, and as he finally seemed to understand in his mind, he stood up and asked, "So there is no one else?" I shook my head and he questioned, "Am I not getting boring? Shall we spend more time together?" 

I placed my hand on his shoulder, hoping to give him some solace, and when Sirius finally stopped his muttering again, I said, "There is no one else and there never will be. You're perfect the way you are." The grey eyed man finally smiled, and I hoped that it was genuine, there had been so much forgery and charlatan's nowadays that there seemed to be no trusting anyone, anymore.

"That's good then because I have something to give you," Sirius smiled. It was fascinating how fast he could change, it brought me back to sixth and seventh year again when we would have disagreements, but it was so hard to be annoyed as Sirius that I ended up forgiving him. And now, here I was, stood opening a present from the same man, in our home, happy to be together. 

As I opened the small box, I saw something inside that I did not expect. It was a ring, a silver ring with an emerald in the centre, and on it were the words engraved, Toujours Pur, which I knew to mean: Always Pure. I wondered why these words were engraved on the ring but understood, with a daunting realisation, that this wasn't just any ring. It was very uncommon to find something like this in the current era.

"The Black ring," I breathed out in shock, it was extremely unexpected that he would gift me such a family heirloom so casually, without a hint of wanting it back to keep for future children or generations. Sirius took in my expression and my words and said quietly, "I'm not asking to marry you." I laughed, I hadn't expected him to, his multiple girls' days may be over, but I would never expect him to settle down.

He continued, "It's just a small promise, that wherever I may be, you have a piece of me with you. And I don't mean I've put my soul in there, it's just a metaphor." I inspected the ring closely, it looked expensive, and very well made, which of course would be the first things to notice in a Black heirloom. The second thing I noticed was the colour green, it was obviously a symbolism for Slytherin, and so I was surprised that Sirius had kept it for so long.

I placed the ring on my second finger, so that I would always be able to see it and told my boyfriend to wait and not move an inch. I was looking for something under my bed, I was unsure as to why I kept it, maybe because it was from a time where everything meant so much to me, and I was untainted as of yet from the world's cruel scars.

I pulled out my own box and checked inside to see if I hadn't 'accidentally' thrown it away, it was still there. Walking back into the living room, I shook my head to see a big dog lying calmly on the couch. "What did I say about the dog, it gets hairs all over my sofa Pads." The dog shifted back at the nickname 'Pads'; nobody had called him it in so long, so it was a surprise when I used it.

"Here," I held out the box for Sirius to open and when he did, he saw another ring, but this time it was silver, no diamond, no pearl, just a plain, silver ring with the words: Pour Toujours. This time, the words meant, For Forever. "This is also a family ring, it was given to me by my mother, when she had high hopes that I would marry a Malfoy and be a Slytherin forever," I laughed at this, but Sirius kept a straight face, focusing on the ring.

"Is this a promise?" he asked, I could see a hint of hopefulness in his voice, almost as though he would need the words to make sure. I was aware of why he needed reassurance, after his family and brother had turned against him, he must always be on edge of who would leave him next. I nodded to him, "This is a promise Black, and you don't have to worry, I'll be here."

"I know you will," he said confidently, placing the ring on the same finger I had mine on and pulling me into a hug. If this was anyone else, I would have separated from them as soon as I could, but a lot of words were put into the hug, and a lot of unspoken worries were settled between us in this exchange.