Roses All The Way Down【Sirius Black】

ⅩⅩⅩⅤⅠⅠⅠ. 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬

It didn't take long for Alaric to corner Virginia. She had known it would happen within a few hours of her return to Hogwarts. She hadn't exactly been dreading it but she wasn't exactly excited. Since curfew had already passed, the two of them sat in the corner of the Common Room.

He stared at her as she fiddled with her hands. "Everyone is telling me you're right," she spoke first, "My grandmother, Johanna Shacklebolt... okay I guess that's it."

"Okay," Alaric shifted in his seat, not taking his eyes off of her.

She took a deep breath, partially slumping in her seat, "they're not right. I don't like him. But I don't think I like you either. I'm really sorry. This is so lame but there's so much going on for me right now. I'm trying to skip some years in some classes and a bunch of family stuff. Also apparently this whole self-discovery mission is happening now. What does it mean to be Virginia Waters?" she dragged her hand through the air as if the words would appear there.

A smile quirked up one side of his month, "I did you see that you have your hair down Virginia." Even though she was the one breaking things off, it still stung a bit when he used her full name.

She grinned and twirled the ends of it, "I wore a really slutty dress and my hair down to shove it to my parents. I mean, did I have a panic attack back in my room? Yes. But then I went to an arcade so I'd say it's all fine. Uh- but the point is I haven't put it back up since."

Alaric processed her words a few moments after she had finished speaking and nodded. He extended his hand towards her, "friends?"

A smile dusted across her face, "friends."

She made to stand up but Alaric caught her forearm, she looked back down at him. He looked annoyingly attractive, as was his nature, his soft brown eyes boring into hers. "And just so you know, I forgive you."

Lily was proud of Virginia. They sat around for their Weekly Woes session and they all expressed her mature way of handling the situation. Eyes were turned to Mary, who jovially announced she and Peter were still doing great. Marlene and Dorcas stayed oddly silent during the conversation about relationships. Meanwhile a red faced Alice twiddled her thumbs until she couldn't take it anymore and exploded.

"Frank and I are dating!"

The room fell oddly silent after her declaration.

"Since when?" Lily asked, leaning forwards.

"How?" Dorcas, Marlene and Mary asked as one.

"Aw he's such a nice guy," Virginia gushed with a small smile, "I'm happy for you Al."

Alice grinned at Virginia, pleased with her reaction, "since the Christmas Party at Fortescue Manor. We invited the Longbottoms of course. And it just sort of happened..."

"Have you kissed?" Marlene squeaked.

"Well... there was mistletoe..." she winked, which didn't suit her very well but nobody commented on it.

Weekly Woes quickly turned into a session of excited shrieking. All confusion had faded away to pure girlish giggles and acting like idiots. About twenty minutes later, when they had all calmed down, they retreated to their beds. Virginia picked up her eyeshadow pallet, twisting one of the brushes in her hand. "Anyone game to let me practice my eyeshadow techniques on them?" She omitted what had happened at her last attempt.

"I've got to shower," Mary said, her nose scrunching with a pile of her clothes in her arms.

"I'm sleeping so please don't do it in here, Marls needs her beauty rest," Marlene flopped onto her bed and snored dramatically.

"You can do my eyes," Dorcas said, "you can go down to the Common Room, I'll be down after I finish this chapter."

Lily narrowed her eyes at Dorcas who promptly closed the curtains to hide the fact that she was doing homework from before break. Leaving Lily to deal with the procrastination of Dorcas and the idiocy of Marlene who was still snoring, she headed down to the common room.

Sirius was stretched out on the couch in front of the fireplace. Fourth years rarely ever got such good seating but then again there was no one else around.

She stood above him, kneeing him playfully. He jolted and looked up at her with an annoyed groan. There was a pause in which he flipped himself onto his back before he noticed who she was. A grin split across his face. "Hey Sweetheart," his eyes flicked down to the thing in her hands, "eyeshade right?"

"Shadow," she corrected with a chuckle, sitting down next to him when he sat up normally on the couch, leaning against the arm. "Oh, oh, oh while we wait for Dorcas, can I practice on you? There's a really easy spell to take it off!" She didn't know what it was but that felt less important - Sirius probably did.

He raised his dark eyebrows, "absolutely not."

"Please," she returned, looking up at him with an attempt at innocent eyes.

He snickered, "you suck at that, you just look like a dying cow."

"Take pity on me then," she said with a grin. He stared at her for a few seconds, his expression shifting to something unreadable.

"You're not sinking into the couch and saying 'oh okay.' I feel like that's what you would have done a few months ago. You, Virginia Waters, are being pushy. I like it."

"And you, Sirius Black, are being stubborn. I don't."

Sirius let out a bark of laughter in reply, "alright Ginny, just for that comment - you can put eyeshade on me." She almost corrected him again but stopped herself.

Without really thinking much of it, she flipped her leg over his lap, shoving it into the space between himself and the arm of the sofa. She sat up above him on her knees, wielding her brush in her left hand. His eyes widened, she felt his body stiffen underneath and she turned bright red.

"Um sorry," she began to clamber off of him, "I - uh - I should have asked before doing that. It was just like the position I knew would work so I just kind of... acted." He grabbed her right arm.

"No, no you're good. You're the artist, position yourself however you like." He wasn't wearing his usual cocky grin and she could have seen his ears tinted red. She said nothing about it and instead got to work.

She failed of course.

"If you open your eyes a little more - it looks perfect."

"So... so wide that you can't even see it," he confirmed, a smirk playing across his lips.

She shrugged before looking past him, muttering to herself, "where the hell is Dorcas." She shrugged, assuming not as much time had passed as she had thought, "okay again. Clean it off please."

He chuckled but did so. They accidentally stayed up until around 1 AM. They thought Dorcas had never come down. She had of course, but as soon as she saw the two of them positioned on the couch with smiles on their faces, she had returned to her room.

A/N...

if I didn't describe it in a way that makes sense, here is a photo reference of her position lol