Marauders - Always - Part One

Superman and Wonder Woman

In the living room, James and Remus's debate had taken on a new level and Lily could hear Peter yelling over the din of the other two going on still about super hero sex lives, so Lily opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of gillywater and followed after Sirius.

Sirius was sitting on the wall of the garden like he might sit on a horse, his boots hooked onto stones that stuck out a way, his face upturned to the sky. He looked up when he heard the back door open and smiled, "Lilith, doth thou choose to join me on this dark night in the garden?"

"You're so strange," Lily laughed.

Sirius grinned, "You'd have it no other way."

"I'd have it no other way," she agreed. She walked across to where he sat and pushed herself up onto the wall. She took a sip of her water and looked over at him as he blew a lung-full of smoke into the air. "Why do you like smoking those things? They smell dreadful."

Sirius looked over at her, "They calm the nerves, Lilith, and when your nerves are as shot-to-shit as mine are, you take pretty much anything you can get by way of calming them down."

"You don't feel nerved up right now," she answered.

"It's an addiction, really," he said.

"Mmhm," Lily nodded. "They're terrible for you."

Sirius took a long drag, then grinned, "And?"

"You should take better care of yourself."

Sirius shrugged.

Lily looked up at the sky. "I barely remember any of what we learned in astronomy."

"It feels like ages ago we took it," Sirius agreed. He paused, then said, "A ridiculous amount of my family was named after stars and constellations and such."

"I know you were," Lily nodded.

"Well Regulus is a star cluster - four stars in a Regulus. Like a hotel rating," Sirius murmured, "And me, I'm a one-star. Seems about right. He was classy as fuck and I'm -- not." He grinned. "Besides that, Regulus's first name is a cluster and his middle was Arcturus, which is that bright little thing up there -" Sirius pointed, "In the constellation Boötes." 

Lily stared up at it.

"Then there's Orion, Cygnus, Bellatrix, Andromeda, Alphard..."

Sirius paused. Something about the way he'd landed on Alphard caught Lily's attention and she looked over at him.

He felt her stare and he looked over, lowering the smoldering cigarette from his mouth.

"Can I tell you something? But you can't tell the other lads?"

"Seems I'm the go-to for secrets these days," Lily said.

"Why who else told you one?"

Lily shrugged.

Sirius eyed her a moment, then decided to let it go -- for now -- and continued on, "I had a coin in my pocket that I've carried so long as I can remember. I was very small and my Uncle Alphard gave it to me."

"That's lovely," Lily said.

He shook his head, "I found out just the other day that it wasn't a coin."

"No? What was it?"

"A cog," he said.

"A cog?"

"Like machinery. A key, really, at that."

"A key? To what?"

"A Gringott's vault." Sirius stared at Lily and his eyes sparkled.

Lily's eyes dawned with understanding, "That's why you were able to get the Wolfsbane. He left you money."

"He left me money," Sirius nodded. "A whole load of money."

"I'm very happy for you," Lily said, "You and Remus must be so relieved."

Sirius shook his head, "I haven't told Remus, exactly. I mean, I paid all our bills and such, I was responsible with it, and I'm sure I'll tell him - soon or later - but I - I don't know. Something about it feels rather private and I'm not sure why."

"Even from your husband?" Lily raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not sure why," Sirius repeated. He leaned back, laying across the stone so he was staring up at the stars and he took a drag off his cigarette. Then he looked over at her. He squinted his eyes at her, then he sat up again. "I think Remus rather likes being independent, at least a little bit, you know? And I think it already hurts his feelings that we borrow money from James and I think as weird as it sounds, though, that James at least... like, he gave James something. He gave James's family his old house, you know, so it's sort of like he's given something in exchange for James's help on some level. But if I have money and he's taking it from me --"

"You're married, that's how things like that work," Lily said.

"Yeah, perhaps," Sirius blew out the smoke he'd inhaled, turning his face so it would go the opposite direction from Lily. When he turned back again, he said, "See, though, I think it's a part of Remus's masculinity or something."

"Boys and your masculinity."

"Hey I try rather hard to challenge mine most of the time, thank you," Sirius grinned.

Lily laughed.

"But I think it means more to Remus."

"It's silly. He should be happy for you."

"He would be. But he'd feel lesser himself. And Remus already feels small enough most of the time. One day, he's going to be making loads of money - he's so smart and he's so good at everything he does and he'll be brilliant at anything he puts his mind to, I know it. So when that day comes, then I'll tell him the whole truth. 'Til then..." Sirius shrugged.

"What are you going to tell him when you're running amok buying things like a year's worth of wolfsbane?" Lily asked, "Don't you think he'll catch on eventually that you're getting it somewhere?"

"I work at Spillers."

Lily snorted and shook her head. "I understand why you think you need to keep it a secret but I think you'll end up in trouble for it, and I think you ought to tell him. Sooner, rather than later, and deal with the other bit when it comes, rather than assuming. You oughtn't keep anything from your husband. Particularly when it's something so good as an inheritance that should be celebrated by you both!"

Sirius nodded, taking in that information thoughtfully. "I suppose." He breathed out a stream of smoke and forgot to turn away so that the wind caught his breath and brought it her way and Lily gagged. "Sorry," he said and he put the cigarette out.

"It's just so nasty."

"It never bothered you so much before?"

"Well it is now," she complained. "Did you get a new brand?"

"No," Sirius shook his head. He held up the pack. "Players Black. Same old same old." He shook it, then shoved it back in his pocket.

"Well they're nasty."

"Yes and so am I, but like I tell my Moony --" Sirius shrugged, "The heart wants what the heart wants, Lilith."

"You ought to quit."

"Quit?" Sirius raised an eyebrow, he snorted, "I'm not a quitter, darling."

Lily got up and slid off the stone wall. "Once James and I have a baby 'round here I don't want a single one of these bleeding things anywhere near him."

Sirius solemnly raised his palm, "Lilith Jupiter Potter I swear unto thee that I, Sirius Orion Black, shalt put down my pack the moment you pop out a Prongslet and that doth shalt be the day upon which mine lips shannot taste the nectar of sweet nicotine again..."

Lily laughed and pushed his shoulder gently, but he pretended it was quite hard and threw himself over the stone wall, disappearing into the taller grass of the field. "You're such an idiot," she said, laughing as she walked for the back door of the house. "Come inside when you're finished smoking your tar sticks, arsehole."

Sirius's head popped up over the stone wall, "Yes Lilith."