Love & Scars

Another Excuse

"I am, actually." She said looking back to her homework.

"Oh, so you're already going with someone?" Sirius had waited too long, and someone had swooped in before him.

"Lily made me promise to go with her because Ja-" She snapped her mouth shut. But Sirius didn't care what she was going to say after that, all he knew was that she wasn't going on a date with some bloke. "You can come with us, but I think Potter will claim your time."

"Evans said no again, didn't she?" Sirius smirked.

"Is that even a question." She quirked an eyebrow as she wrote on her parchment, but he saw the secret smile on her lips. He didn't even know he was staring again until she suddenly rolled her parchment up and tucked it away. She was standing in front of him with an outstretched hand.

"Huh?" He looked up at her in confusion and that lopsided smile she gave him, nearly send him over the edge.

"I said I was starving." She chuckled. "I'm going to raid the kitchens, care to join?" She wiggled her fingers.

Hell yes! "Yeah, sounds good." He managed to say and took her hand in his as he stood up.

"Petey, let's go!" She called over to Pettigrew, who had woken up at some point, but you could still see the creaks of the parchment on the side of his cheek.

"Oh, Peter's coming." Sirius mumbled a little deflated.

"You don't mind, do you?" She asked squeezing his hand as they walked to the portrait hole.

"No." He said honestly because she was holding his hand, not Peter's, only his. And she kept holding it until she tickled the pear on the portrait.

"I was really joking about the party." Lily mumbled as she zipped up her dress. It was the evening after the Hogsmeade trip and they were getting ready, the music already rising up from downstairs.

"No, you weren't." Izzie laughed. "You were really bumped out you couldn't come."

"Well, yeah but I didn't mean they have to throw another New Years' party in the common room, in the middle of February." She scoffed.

"I think James just want to celebrate New Years' with you, one way or another. I won't be surprised if he started to count down at midnight." Izzie laughed loudly.

"Oh, Merlin! You are right. He would totally do that." Lily gasped, sitting down with her hand on her mouth, a blush on her cheeks. "If so, I'm kissing you." She pointed at Izzie.

"I think someone else wants to kiss Izzie, Lily." Mary snickered from her place before the vanity.

"Oh, do you mean Mister Black, Sirius Black?" Lily was smirking now.

"Oh, hush you two." Izzie tossed pillows at their heads. "I already told you; he just wants to snog me because he hasn't."

"Why don't you just kiss him? Get it over with." Marlene suggested from her place from her bed.

"I don't kiss people just for the fun of it."

"You're just like Lily." Mary said, not accusatory but admirably.

"Besides, I think she has too much fun to see him squirm." Lily added.

"That may be another reason." Izzie said with a smirk. "But to be honest, I just like where I am with him. Friends. Who would have thought after all these years."

"Certainly not me." Mary said pulling Marlene from the bed. "But if you decided you wanted to kiss him, let me know, I can give you some pointers."

"Gross, Mary!" Lily sent her a little stinging hex. When the two disappeared down the stairs, Lily turned to her. "How do you feel about him? I mean he doesn't know, does he?"