What Sirius never said

Chapter 47

We had had a successful and restful week of revision and were due to get the Hogwarts express back to school in two days time. Sirius and I were sat in his room chatting about Lord of the Rings when dad called up the stairs "Trudy, Sirius, can you come down here a minute. Family meeting".
Sirius looked down at me quizzically. "Family meeting?"
"No idea" I replied.
We made our way downstairs and into the dining room where we heard voices.
Mum and dad were sat at either end of the table while two strangers sat on the far side.
"Mr and Mrs Potter!" Sirius exclaimed, moving round the table to hug them.
As he said that it suddenly became completely obvious who they were. James' father had the very same messy hair, still dark but flecked liberally with grey. And his mother had the same wide eyes, glasses and cheek bones. Their genes were strong.
"What are you doing here?" Sirius was asking them. I took a seat opposite and Sirius came back round to my side of the table and sat in the chair next to me.
I looked up at dad. "What's going on Dad?" I asked, but dad address Sirius in return.
"Well son. As we all know, you've left your family home and you never plan on going back. That's admirable. But you've now got some big decisions to make and we thought, Delphine and I, that you might like some advice. Now, obviously you're your own man, you can do what you please, but you're still underage so we thought we'd get together with the Potters and help you work out what you wanted to do. We're all here to help you. If you don't want any advice that's fine, but we've got a lot to give if you do."
I studied Sirius as dad talked. He seemed to be struggling a bit, tears sparkled in his eyes. I gave his leg a squeeze.
Mum could evidently read Sirius' face too. "Cup of tea anyone?" She asked the room at large to take the collective gaze off of Sirius and give him a moment to compose himself. Everyone made noises of ascent and she started pouring the tea from the pot in front of her and passing them round the table.
After a moment of two, Sirius cleared his throat.
"Thank you" he said, clasping his new cup of tea in his hands. He looked up at Dad. "I would like your advice" he looked at me for reassurance then continued. "My uncle sent me some money. He's opened a Gringots vault in my name and put in quite a bit. At least, it's enough for me to live off for a while. My plan was to get a flat, somewhere of my own, with that money, and then... I guess... live there" he peetered off towards the end and looked up at dad nervously.
Dad nodded, studying Sirius.
"You're still planning on going to school I take it?" Mrs Potter asked him.
"Of course" he nodded.
Dad took a sip of tea then sighed. "Can I offer you some advice son?" He asked Sirius in his booming Yorkshire voice.
"Of course" Sirius said, almost nervously.
"I think that's a good plan and if that's what you want to do then you should do it. But I don't think you should do that just yet. Like you say, you've been given some money, but just because you have it, doesn't mean you have to spend it. You're still underage lad. I'd wait a year. Save your money. Then you can get a place when you've finished school. There's no point renting out a flat if you're only going to be there for 2 months of the year".
"But where will I live?" Sirius asked, a little bit of panic in his voice.
"Lad, there's several people around this table who would love to have you live with them." James's parents nodded in agreement, their eyes trained on Sirius.
Even my mum piped up "it is true. You are always welcome to come and live with us Sirius".
"There's only one thing I'd say" Dad chimed in again. "I would recommend you stay with the Potters over the summer. You're always welcome here of course, and we'll have you for a week or two, but while this relationship" he gestured between Sirius and I "is still quite new, it might take the pressure off a bit if you don't have to live together too". We both nodded although I noticed Sirius's shoulders slump a little.
"Can I still stay here until Sunday? Until we get the train back to school?" He asked in a quiet voice.
"Of course" mum replied. "You're always welcome here Sirius. And of course you're invited on our holiday to Devon in the summer as well".
"And you're always welcome at ours" Mr Potter added.
"Yes, James will be pleased." Mrs Potter spoke up. "He's been begging us to let you move in for years".
We all laughed and just like that the tension was broken. Sirius leaned back in his chair and took a big swig of tea. "Thank you all. I know it was my choice to leave my parents, but.... it's good to know that I've got people looking out for me all the same". There it was again, he seemed like such a grown up. So mature for 16.

The Potters stayed for dinner so it wasn't until a couple of hours later that I could talk to Sirius about everything. We had helped with the washing up and were now sat back on Sirius's bed, his arms around my shoulders.
"So that's what a family meeting is like?" He sighed, relaxing against the headboard.
"You never had family meetings with your parents?"
He scoffed. "No chance. They didn't care what I thought". He paused then, as if trying to work out how to phrase something. "I was so scared for a minute, that your parents were going to kick me out".
"You know they wouldn't do that right? They really care for you."
"I know" he smiled. "This is what it's like to have a proper family isn't it?"
I nodded. "They just want the best for you. But that being said, I do agree with them. I mean, I know we live together at Hogwarts but we've got boundaries there. What if you lived here with us and then we didn't work out? What would we do then? I would hate for either of us to be in that position".
"Here you go again, with your what ifs" Sirius rolled his eyes. "Can we just appreciate what's going on now and not worry about what may not happen?"
"Fine!" I feigned frustration.
"Good" he grinned. And then he kissed me.