Roses All The Way Down【Sirius Black】

Ⅸ. 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐖𝐨𝐞𝐬

Virginia pulled on the pajamas in the bathroom. There were gray and white checkered plaid. She admired herself in the mirror, her hair was pulled back in two French braids. She admittedly did like the style but she looked a bit too pretty. She wasn't made to show off and be an object of male lust.

Alice had gotten snacks and had since separated them into piles on top of the different trunks. Mary was finishing Dorcas's hair while Marlene and Lily stood excitedly outside of the bathroom waiting for Virginia.

"I heard you have a muggle music box?" Marlene grinned, nudging Lily with her elbow.

Virginia's brows furrowed, "you mean Click? My record player?"

They both nodded enthusiastically.

"Do you want to listen to something?"

More nodding.

Virginia crossed the room, "Dorcas, records?" she called out.

"Drawer beneath the player," she called out in reply before letting out a little yelp of pain as Mary turned sharply. "We can look later Mare, please finish and don't make me bald." Mary cringed and apologized, turning back to her.

"So what have you got?" Marlene asked, rubbing her hands together, "Weird Sister? Prostelli Twins? Accio?"

Virginia looked at Lily for help. Lily chuckled a bit to herself, making to pull a hand through her hair before remembering it was braided. "It's a muggle player - with muggle bands. Like," she turned, "well I'm not sure."

"Whatever the store had on the weekends we went... so a rather odd assortment, but I have the best ones. Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the Monkees."

"Ah the Monkees," Lily grinned, her eyes brightening, "Daydream Believer will always be my favorite."

"I'm a Last Train to Clarksville kind of girl myself."

"Who cares," Marlene interrupted, "just play something good."

Virginia grabbed a random Beatles album and placed Click into the system. Lily performed a spell to give it the power to run and then they both sat down. Everyone quickly formed a circle around nothing in particular. Virginia looked around awkwardly, unsure about what she was supposed to do.

"Well I suppose it's time for Weekly Woes," Alice said, with a look of solemness that looked odd on her face. She pulled off a tray of sweets and placed it in the middle. "Dorcas, please get Lady. Pursella." Dorcas obliged, standing and coming back with a large cat stuffed animal. "Who is going first?"

"I have a big one," Mary said, but the little smile in her eyes said otherwise. Dorcas passed Lady Pursella over to her. She squeezed it. "I- I have a crush on Peter."

There was massive upheaval in the room. Virginia leaned backwards as Alice practically leapt across her lap to get at Mary. Questions seemed to bounce off the walls as they shouted them at the girl. She had turned quite red and stayed silent while she waited for them to calm down.

"It started over the summer. We sent letters back and forth and he's just so adorable," she smiled to herself, "shy and awkward and everything about him is just endearing."

"If you say so," Marlene chuckled, "personally I find men... to have lately fallen short of my expectations. Do we remember first year girls?" The other girls chuckled, "well you may remember that was the last - well third to last big obsession." 

"Can I actually use the woe time," Lily asked with a little chuckle, her voice sounded perturbed but her face betrayed her. She got passed the cat. "I'm very... stressed. Do you ever feel like this seems like too much? I mean I have my boy troubles but- oh Virginia if you didn't know James is in love with me."

"Are you two dating?" Virginia asked, looking over at her curiously. They certainly didn't act like a couple.

"No!" she exclaimed, her face turning beat red, "we are not dating, he's an annoying and arrogant toe rag. All of those marauders are in my opinion."

"To be fair," Marlene cut in, "Peter has gotten less spineless, Remus has always been well Remus but Sirius and James just get worse. They're of bad sort - the both of them."

Marauders, she thought, must be some name for the four boys. She chuckled a bit at it in her head.

"Anyway sorry Lily, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Oh it's okay. I just... feel like constantly spiraling. Caught between knowing I need to relax because my work won't be good and just needing to get it done."

"Have you tried a schedule," Virginia suggested randomly, "planning times to relax. And then if you're struggling to do that you can look at the schedule and remind yourself of all the other study times you have planned, you know?"

Lily stared at her, "that's smart. I'll try it."

When Lily finished her rant, the rest of the girls crawled towards her and gave her a hug. Virginia stayed in her seat.

Virginia's head twisted to the side when the cat flew and hit her face.

"C'mon Virginia," Lily instructed, "tell us your woes."

Virginia paused, swallowing a bit. She hugged Lady Pursella to her chest, "I don't have a lot really. I'm just nervous about this bet I made with my sister. I need to kiss someone by the next time I go home or she won't help me convince my parents to come back."

"Your parents don't want you here?" Alice asked.

"Of course not nitwit or she would have come in when she was 11," Marlene said, rolling her eyes.

"That won't be until the summer but who am I supposed to kiss? And she wants details and I don't want to make out so I'll need to have some romantic details but I don't know how. It seems easier to pick a friend and act it all out that way I won't be lying just... withholding some information from her," Virginia didn't realize until the words had spilled out of her how much she'd thought about this. "I was thinking Remus."

"No," Marlene interjected, her voice uncharacteristically hard.

"What she means is," Mary said in a much gentler voice, kicking Marlene a bit, "Alice and Remus used to date and she- well."

"Is still hung up on him," Alice supplied with her usual grin, " but sure you can kiss him if it would help."

The rest of the girls shook their heads discreetly at Virginia and she nodded back with understanding.

"Or there's Sirius."

"Speaking of the first year obsession," Marlene said with a little smirk, "anyway who wants to take this one?"

Dorcas leaned forward, "Marlene was head over heels for Sirius all of our first year. However, at the beginning of second - right before they started to date - she broke it off with him. The reason? Pandora Sailstream made her life hell."

Virginia's eyes grew wide.

"Not only has Sirius become a little heartbreaker, if he actually ever really likes a girl enough to not break her heart - Dora will come in and do it for him," Dorcas spoke slowly.

"So all Marauders off the table then," Virginia surmised, deciding to keep her interaction with the girl a secret for the time being. She still needed to figure some things out before that became known.

Two more hours were spent gossiping and eating and generally being dumb teenage girls. It was around 1 in the morning when Virginia was able to crawl into bed. After she said decade of the rosary, her head finally hit the pillow. Her brain was swarming with thoughts.

"See you in my dreams Sweetheart."

It was late now, Virginia couldn't help but wonder if he actually was dreaming about her. She couldn't help wondering if Pandora had only approached her because she saw her as competition. For the ten minutes before she drifted off, Virginia thought of Sirius Black a little more than she perhaps should have.