scars || sirius black

37 - summer of '76

They travelled north over the next couple of weeks, driving some more during the morning then finding beaches and clifftops to explore in the afternoon. It was truly heaven.

They cooked their food over bonfires and took midnight dips in the sea, went for runs through golden wheat fields and leapt off piers.

Some nights they took their sleeping bags and huddled together on the beach, holding each other close, remembering the all people they had lost and the bloodshed they'd seen. Those nights were when they felt closest.

When they reached Wales they travelled west along the coast. The stars were bright and plentiful in the sky, a thousand galaxies shining before their eyes.

Most nights Emmy and Sirius would sleep outside together in one of the hammocks gazing at them, counting them till their eyes fell heavy with sleep.

On one particularly hot day near the end of their holiday, Emmy sat by the picnic basket, bathing in the late afternoon sun.

She'd been sketching almost every day of their trip and had hundreds of pages worth of drawings stashed in her notebooks.

She'd drawn multiple sketches of everyone and all their surroundings, but at that moment she was just finishing off one of Sirius's sleeping face on the rug next to her.

There was something so addictive about the curve of his jaw and the way his hair fell across his face that she'd ended up just gazing at him for a while. Wanting to get a better view of his eyes she carefully leant forward and moved a strand of sea-soaked hair.

"I thought that bit of hair looked good there," he drawled, a gleaming smirk danced across his face. Emmy jumped and hit his shoulder jokingly.

"It was getting in the way," she mumbled, trying to hide the blush that fell across her cheeks.

She looked down at him again and almost laughed at the smug look on his face. She leant down and kissed him, savouring the way she felt whenever she was near him.

With a quick tug, he'd pulled her on top of him and kissed her again. Her drawing had gone flying, twirling off down the beach, but she didn't care one bit.

"I love you so much," he murmured, as she brought her hands to his face pulling him closer.

Mercifully the others didn't bother them for a while, but soon enough they all got hungry and wandered over for some lunch.

"God, I'm starving," moaned James, as they quickly pulled apart. "Lily said I couldn't interrupt, I had to wait for ages."

Lily smacked him on the back of the head as she winked at the two of them,

"You ate half the picnic on the way here, Potter, how on earth are you hungry?"

He grumbled under his breath as the others began pulling various foods out the wicker basket.

Sirius however, ran to catch the couple of Emmy's drawings that had blown halfway down the beach but walked back slowly to have a look at them before she whisked them out of sight.

Making sure she was distracted, he quickly slipped one into his pocket. She'd drawn it days ago as they'd dozed on the beach, of their hands entwined loosely across the picnic rug.

When he arrived back, they were tucking into the only food that James hadn't eaten already, which was only just enough for them all. They'd bought pasties in the last town they'd visited, as well as a huge basket of strawberries and raspberries that Lily and Emmy had picked that morning, some crisps and the last of the fruit cake from Agnes.

After lunch, Marlene and Emmy got the surfboards off the top of the van and splashed off into the sea.

Sirius, James and the twins soon followed, reaching the water as Emmy caught her first wave.