Roses All The Way Down【Sirius Black】

ⅩⅧ. 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐅𝐚𝐫

Virginia rubbed her sleepy eyes when she woke up. She sat up in her bed and groaned a bit, she did not really feel like being awake. She dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom for a quick shower. After she had put on her athletic robes, she headed out into the dorm space to shake Mary awake.

The two girls walked to breakfast while the other, bar Lily who was studying, slept on.

"I hope there's toast and eggs," Mary said.

"The two most basic things?" a snarky voice spoke up from beside Virginia where Sirius had fallen into step, "no I'm there's a shortage of eggs and bread."

"You don't know," Mary said loftily, "there's been cuts on all kinds of random things."

Sirius scoffed. Although Remus who was walking a few paces behind them with James and Peter spoke up, "no she's right actually, my dad's told me all about it."

"He works in the Ministry," Peter added helpfully for Virginia.

"So I was thinking," Sirius clapped his hands together, "the lot of us could sneak down to the kitchen for a butterbeer after tryouts?" He looked over at the two girls and then back at James.

"Sure," Mary chuckled before nudging Virginia with her elbow, "but Ginny won't be able to make it. She's got a date," Mary practically sang the last part. The air immediately thickened with tension as all four boys stopped dead in their tracks.

"She has a what-now?" James asked, looking back and forth between Virginia, Mary and Sirius.

"A date," Virginia said, turning around. Both she and Mary had paused as well but both looked wildly confused, "you know the kind where someone is interested in you and they ask you. But the thing about it is-"

"How?" Sirius asked sharply.

"W-what?" Virginia asked, looking at him. His sharp tone surprised her a lot.

"You heard me," he said, his voice low and dangerous, "how did you get a date? What would be interesting about you?"

Virginia's small smile fell out of her face.

"Sirius," Remus said in a warning tone.

"No he's right," James said, drawing himself up and moving to stand next to Sirius, "after all, we only let her hang out with her because she's fun to, you know, play with. Poor little Catholic girl who looks plainer than the loaf of bread Mary apparently wants."

"You," Mary took a step towards them, shaking with rage.

"It's okay Mare," Virginia said, putting a hand on her shoulder to stop her, "seriously. You go on. I can handle this."

"I trust that," Mary nodded, sending one last murderous look at them, "Peter, Remus - do you want to leave her to deal with them?"

Peter shifted his feet.

"Peter," Sirius said in a low voice. James stared over at him. Peter shivered and slowly shuffled to stand next to the other two boys. He looked down and added no insults to the conversation but the one step had been enough for Mary. She shook her head, jaw shifting in anger before storming away.

"So is that all you want to say? I'm a toy?" Virginia asked.

"And I'm sure that's all you are to whoever was abnormal enough to ask you out, at least that's the only thing that makes sense. I mean you'd be fun to... well you remember our first conversation just the two of us," he bounced his eyebrows. His gray eyes bored into her. She was more confused than anything else. "You're the type of person who falls in love - but nobody ever actually loves her back. What was it you said - you did everything you could to make your parents love you and they just don't." He shrugged like he was saying 'you know what I mean'

She swallowed the frog in her throat and felt anger rising in her chest. Without really thinking she took three shaky steps towards him and slapped him clean across the face.

"You're a - a"

"shit head" Remus supplied.

"And you," she turned on James.

"Dirtbag," Remus added again. James gave him a sideways look but Remus merely shrugged in reply. She nodded sharply before at last looking down at Peter, "and you're a-"

"Fuckface."

"No, not quite that far."

"Dick?"

"Perfect- for following them around and pretending like I'm trash just because they do. The only respectable one among you lot is Remus." She drew herself up, "so I suppose Lily and the girls were right on their money. The three of you are just plain awful. Now if you'd excuse me, I have to eat some food before tryouts."

She knew it was pointless to ask Remus to come with her like Mary had. He wouldn't. She walked down the hall and then straight into the bathroom. She collapsed onto one of the toilets. She didn't cry - just stared at the green door like it would give her all the answers. She wished she could talk to Bathroom Girl but that wouldn't be until that upcoming Thursday. She needed to talk to someone like her, someone who had no idea who she was talking about. Someone who wouldn't stare at her with an 'I told you so' expression. She shrugged, things like this just made her life more interesting.

She felt like she should be more upset but a large, partially buried part of her knew that they had been lying. She didn't believe Sirius was capable of saying those things, not after last night. So the question remained, why had he? He must need space of some kind, that was the only thing that made sense in Virginia's brain. She took a deep breath in and out. She clicked open the door of the stall, washed her hands quickly and then headed down to the Great Hall. The four marauders sat in silence and Mary was stabbing her eggs harshly with her fork. She slid down into the bench next to Mary, she looked over at her, "c'mon we don't wanna be late."

Mary nodded, slamming down her fork which made everyone sitting close to her jump. She and Virginia walked out of the hall, arm in arm.