𝐀𝐋𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 - 𝐒𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐔𝐒 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊

ELEVEN

━ BACK TO NORMAL
( eleven. )

━ ❁ ━

JAMES AND REMUS SHARED an angsty look as they watched Sirius enter the common room. The bespectacled boy had filled Remus in on Sirius's 'plan' so the two were slightly worried when he returned less than twenty minutes after he left.

"Should we talk to him?" Remus whispered to James, watching as Sirius plopped down on a chair opposite the two.

James shook his head 'no' immediately. He assessed his best friend's body for any noticeable bruises or new injuries, but the only odd thing visible on Sirius's face was the remnants of a frown.

Sirius Black had this wild belief that emotions should be kept on the inside, hidden away from the world to see. That's how he was raised and, despite letting go of most of his parents' crazy teachings, this one stuck.

Because why let the whole world know that you're sad, when you can just lie to them instead?

James got up from the couch (which was a little more difficult than he cared to admit) and sat on the middle decorative table that separated the couches from the loveseats. Sirius looked up when he felt someone staring holes into his forehead.

"Limp?" James automatically asked when his best friend's grey eyes met his hazel ones. Sirius shook his head. "Abdominal bruises?" another head shake. "A sharp, public jab to your dignity?"

"Nope," was all Sirius said.

James leaned back on the table and stroked his imaginary beard (that he was trying very hard to grow). "Huh, have they started to get more creative?" he finally asked after a few more minutes of thinking. "Guess they can't stick to their favorites forever," he thought more to himself. But Sirius shook his head again.

"Nothing like that at all," he denied. Sirius wanted to tell his best friend what had happened in the courtyard; James would be supportive as hell. He knew that. But Sirius's pride levels were higher than the average person, so he kept his mouth shut.

"Oh," James mumbled in disappointment. Then he perked up, as if all his troubles suddenly floated away. "Guess what," he said excitedly, his leg bouncing up and down. Sirius raised an eyebrow at his best friend but still made a motion for him to continue. "So I was stalking Lily today, right," (Remus looked up from his homework to shake his head in sadness for his redheaded friend) "and she saw me as she walked out of class, but she only rolled her eyes! She didn't yell at me or tell the professor or anything!" James seemed extremely happy at the news, which brought an amused smile on Sirius's face.

"That's great, Prongs. You're warming up to her," he said encouragingly.

James' eyes widened at the information. He crossed his arms over his chest cooly and muttered to himself, "I'm warming up to her," in pride with a hint of a blush forming on his cheeks.

Sirius rolled his eyes in fake-annoyance. But in reality, he was over the moon for his best friend.

Speaking of-

"Moony, tonight's the first... you know... right?" Sirius said, trying to word his sentence strategically so that prying ears wouldn't get suspicious.

Remus rolled his eyes and placed his quill down. But he nodded anyways, and Sirius almost missed it, but a twinge of fear flashed behind his eyes for a second. "I've got to speak with Lily about her taking my Prefect shift, but other than that, things should run smoothly," he said, rubbing his sweaty palms on his pants.

James and Sirius nodded, all traces of humor and joking around washing off their faces. "Everything's going to fine. Like always," James promised, getting up to sit next to Remus on the couch again. "I'm thinking that we should bring coffee down with us, though. We barely have time in the mornings to get changed, much less get breakfast, you know."

Sirius and Remus nodded their heads in agreement, the latter looking to be deep in thought. Unfortunately, however, Sirius Black had the attention span of a walnut, so not even two minutes into the group's silence, he stood up in his chair and claimed he had something to do.

He didn't actually have anything to do. But Andrea and Aaron had just walked into the common room and Sirius couldn't bear to look at her and not feel sad about her words earlier.

So he left. Walked right past her and may have unintentionally ignored her greeting toward him. Dinner was going to start soon, which meant that the halls were currently packed with students trying to get places. There was no way he'd be able to sneak into the Astronomy tower right now, so Sirius stuck to wandering the halls for a while, trying to make sense of the past few days that seemed to be more interesting than his whole summer combined.

His feet, for some unexplainable reason, brought him to the library. Sirius stared up at the old, wooden doors, and he started to feel a little reminiscing. The last time he stepped foot into the large, dusty room, he was helping Andrea study for her Astrology exam.

Merlin, that girl sucked at Astrology.

A small smile creeped its way onto Sirius's face. Andrea would always get frustrated when it came to naming the stars. She could only remember five, which, for her, wasn't helpful because she had to memorize seventy more for the final.

She used to throw muggle pencils at him whenever he told her that whatever she said wasn't a star name. Sometimes they weren't even a word.

Sirius shook his head out of those thoughts and sighed. There's no bloody way you're going to be as whipped as Prongs is, okay, he told himself. He ran his hand through his long hair quickly, before decided that he probably looked creepy just standing in front of the library. So, he walked away. Passed by a couple of giggling girls from Hufflepuff, sent them a sly smirk plus a wink. His usual.

But as he walked past them, Sirius realized he was being stupid. Andrea was taken and it didn't seem like she was going to end things with Aaron any time soon.

Sirius wasn't going to wait around for a girl who may or may not break up with her boyfriend. That's not who he was. And Sirius rather walk in on Dumbledore changing than have his reputation ruined.

So he turned back around to talk to those girls.

━ ❁ ━

(note!)

oof another shorter one i'm sorry

but like

gotta pace ourselves ya know

hope you liked

check out my JJ Maybank story called "Castaways" if you're loving the Outer Banks rn