Lollipops ↬ Sirius Black

Lollipops - Chapter 43

Her father gasped. "What? Can that happen?"

She nodded, and he scratched the back of his head, clueless. "Why, that's brilliant."

She slightly slumped her shoulders. She expected a slightly more enthusiastic reaction, but then again, this was the same guy who practically ignored his daughter's existence for over half of her life.

"Well, I guess you better get going," Naomi suggested, not quite knowing what else to say.

"Right," and he hesitated before saying, "I'll write you."

Naomi's eyebrows lifted up in surprise.

"Oh—Okay." She said, trying not to show that she was so surprised.

Her father grabbed some floo powder left in a sack on Professor Dumbledore's desk, before stepping into the fireplace, shouting out his address, and disappearing with a single poof. The moment he left, Naomi let out a breath that she didn't even know she was holding.

She heard the door behind her click open, and she swivelled around, met with the sight of Professor Dumbledore.

"Sir," she said when he walked in. "How did you know that my father wanted to see me?"

There was a twinkle in his eye as he peered at her above his half-moon shaped glasses. "He reached out to me through a letter."

Naomi nodded thoughtfully. "Oh,"

"Don't assume that something is already broken, without trying to mend it first," he said knowingly.

She was slightly confused by what he said, but nonetheless she nodded and bid him farewell, before leaving the office.

She began to ponder on what Professor Dumbledore had said to her. Was he saying that in reference to her relationship with her dad? Was he giving her advice? If he was, then why did he have to speak in riddles?

She shook her head, and speedily walked through the halls until she finally made it outside. James was still at the Great Lake just as she had left him, but he was now with the rest of their friends, as lunch was already over.

"There she is!" James roared the moment he sighted Naomi approaching their group.

She shook her head at his rowdy behaviour but still smiled, joining them on the grass. She turned to face Sirius, and she was surprised to find that he looked slightly flustered, a warm tint to his cheeks.

"Why do you look so... bashful?" Naomi asked Sirius curiously.

She had no clue why, but her friends went off into a fit of laughter at her obliviousness. She had the feeling that she was missing out on something.

James laughed. "It's because Sirius—"

Lily elbowed him sharply. She chimed in, "It's nothing."

"Right," she murmured suspiciously, but otherwise let it go.

The group fell into separate conversations, and at one point, Sirius moved to sit beside her and draped his arm around her shoulders.