ivy | s. black ✓

46 | STRAY ANIMALS

HE'S SO BIG, VAL.

IT WAS MIDDAY before the trio made it back to Grimmauld Place, and Harry and Draco were none the wiser to what they'd spent their night doing. But much to Ivy's embarrassment, Val was there and eating lunch with the Weasleys. And of course, it was like Val could read Ivy's mind, able to tell something was weighing her down based on the concerned look on her face.

"What's wrong, Flufflepuff?" Val asked, dragging her up to her room. "Did Grandpa fuck it up?"

"Something, um, something happened," she said quietly, looking down at her hands. Ivy's eyes began to water. "And - and I understand if you don't want anything to do with me or you think I'm disgusting or wrong."

Val peered at Ivy in disbelief, knowing she was incapable of thinking those things about Ivy. "Merlin, Ivy, you're acting like you killed someone," she said, reaching for Ivy's hands to keep her from picking at her fingers. "I couldn't hate you and you know it, so, just tell me what's going on, yeah?"

Ivy took a deep breath, feeling more ashamed than embarrassed for once as she opened up about her sex life. "Me and Siri... well, we were with - with Remmy — I mean, Remus," she mumbled.

"With Remus when you what?" Val asked, her mind for once not going to the most inappropriate place.

"No, I mean," Ivy paused, her cheeks flushing. "We were with him."

Val's eyes went wide with disbelief. "Ivette Arora, did you have a threesome with Sirius and Remus?"

Ivy bit her lip and nodded, unable to look at Val to gauge her reaction. The pair sat in silence for a moment as Val processed the information, genuinely not sure how she felt about it.

And it wasn't because she still had feelings for Remus. She just couldn't imagine her best friend ever being comfortable doing something like that. Then again, she'd been having sex for a year and Sirius had opened her up to a lot of new experiences.

"Sirius didn't make you feel like you had to, did he?" Val asked, just needing to double check.

"No. No, of course not," Ivy quickly said. Then she sighed. "I... liked it. Loved it, actually. But I shouldn't have done it knowing how you used to feel for Remus. It was wrong."

"Oh, babe, no," she said, squeezing her hand. "You shouldn't feel bad about this. And it wasn't wrong of you. Remus and I — we're friends and there isn't any bad blood between us. I'm just more surprised than anything that he let loose enough to do that."

"Me too," she mumbled.

"One thing, though, and be honest with me."

"Anything," Ivy mumbled, feeling like she needed to make up for this in some way.

Val grabbed her shoulders and turned her body toward her so that Ivy could see the huge grin on Val's face. "Tell me fucking everything," she demanded. "I know you struggle with these things, but we will spend all day up here playing guessing games."