INSTEAD, james potter [1]

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Lyra didn't want Christmas to end, because it had truly been such a great time. None of her usual gang of friends were there, so she found herself free to be with whoever she wanted and to do whatever she wanted. 

A surprising amount of that time had been spent with James Potter. Not doing anything in particular, especially as he spent most of his time with Sirius. After the Christmas party, Lyra wasn't sure where her and her cousin stood, and she was afraid she had ruined it by waiting too long to find out. 

But now the holidays were over and people were returning to the school. By people, Lyra mostly cared about Remus Lupin. In the weeks after they had made up, they did their best to get back to normal. It wasn't perfect yet, but she knew they would get there. Especially as she had asked Dumbledore to restore their prefect duties together. 

And the Slytherin girl had a plan. Because she had missed Sirius, even if what he had done wasn't far from unforgivable. But it had been over two months, and she didn't want to lose him forever. Nothing could make her want to lose him forever.

Remus and Sirius still hadn't spoken since that fateful October night, other than a few casual and necessary words. Wanting to prove herself, Lyra had decided that she wanted to bring the best friends back together. For both of their sakes, and her own. 

Lyra sat at the Slytherin table during the first day of classes. As she glanced at the Gryffindor table, she saw that James and Peter both sat with Remus, happy to be reunited. The one left out was still Sirius, who looked like he was quite sick of this.

Suddenly, the Black boy slammed his utensils on the table. He drew the attention of several of his housemates, but most others didn't bother to notice. Well, other than a concerned Lyra, of course.

To make sure, the blonde glanced around her, but was thankful that no Slytherins had paid attention to anybody but themselves. "I'm going to go to Madam Pomfrey for a quick second. I think I need a pepper-up potion."

Rabastan, who had just returned from his own eventful holiday, frowned. "You said you've taken two others already this week. You can't take three in a week. I don't think that's very good for you."

She sent him a blank look. "Come on, I've been having trouble sleeping for a month or so. If I don't take another pepper-up potion, I'm not going to be able to keep up with school work, and then I'll fail my exams. You don't want that, do you?"

She didn't stick around long enough for him to respond. Truthfully, she had been avoiding him since he returned. The last thing she wanted to do was hear about his meeting with the Dark Lord and how exciting it was to be on the path to becoming a Death Eater. 

The blonde hurried out of the Great Hall. Once she reached the hallway outside, she quickly saw her cousin walking in the direction of Gryffindor tower. She sighed sadly. "Hey, Sirius! Come on, wait up!"

The black-haired boy quickly turned around, furrowing his brows in confusion when he realized who it was who wanted to talk to him. "Lyra? Does this mean you can finally talk to me without having to drink spiked punch first?"

"Stop being so dramatic, Sirius," Lyra rolled her eyes, although she understood why he was a bit bitter. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something. I don't know if you've heard, but Remus and I are talking again. Have been for about a month now."

"That's great. I'm happy for the two of you." The strange part was that he didn't even have to fake his joy. One could say a lot about Sirius Black, but he truly cared about the people he loved, and he put them first at all times. 

But while she enjoyed how genuine his joy was, she couldn't help but hope she could bring some of that joy his way, as well. "It's been over two months now, Sirius. Have you talked to him yet?"