･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. .**.☽ .*
Caroline Rutherford and Sirius Black rarely left each other's sides after that day. They found a certain comfort in each other's company that they hadn't found with anyone else before. Her eighteenth birthday came and went, she didn't want to acknowledge it. Sirius had understood, and had been with her through it all.
Caroline was struggling now more than she had ever done, but she was determined to stay at Hogwarts and continue her classes, she had to get good grades.
"Blueberry?"
She looked up tiredly from her book at Sirius who held out a bowl of blueberries to her, a hopeful smile on his face.
"Thanks, love," she said quietly taking a couple blueberries from the bowl and popping them in her mouth.
"How are they?"
"Mm," she nodded her head, "tasty."
He took a few in his own hand and looked at them thoughtfully for a moment before sprinkling them experimentally into his bowl of cereal. This caught Caroline's attention and she put down her book, watching him delicately preparing it as if it was a potion.
After a moment he spooned a small bit into his mouth.
"How is it?"
He looked at her, his nose scrunched up, "I don't know...not as good as I thought it would be."
"Lemme try."
Caroline took the spoon from him and had a small mouthful, before smiling knowingly at him.
"Here," she searched the table for a moment before spotting the small jar of honey and handing it to him, "drizzle a little bit of this on it."
He frowned curiously, taking the small teaspoon and drizzling the honey on top of the cereal and blueberries.
Tyler came bouncing up to them, taking a seat opposite them, "Hey guys wha-"
"Shhh," Sirius put a finger up as he stared focusedly at his work.
"This is a very serious cereal experiment," Caroline murmured to Tyler who just raised a brow and slowly nodded.
Sirius had another spoonful of the newly honey flavoured cereal and blueberry mixture and shut his eyes blissfully.
"Success?" Tyler asked quietly.
Sirius swallowed and looked at Caroline, "you're an angel."
She just smiled softly, "so it's good?"
"It's beautiful," he said, getting another spoonful, "how did you know honey would fix it?"
She averted her eyes and looked at the cereal, "my Mum had honey on her cereal, said it made anything better."
"Oh..."
Caroline looked up at him, smiling bravely, "it's fine. We just have to remember her cereal wisdom."
He smiled and held her hand under the table, "too right."
"Morning," Lily came to sit beside Carrie.
"Hey, Lils."
"How you feeling?" Lily asked her as she reached for a slice of toast.
"I'm okay...we've got Astronomy today," she said, exchanging a look with Sirius, "I'm looking forward to that."
"Best part of the week," Sirius agreed, grinning at her as he squeezed her hand under the table.
"You guys are so cute," Lily smiled, leaning her chin on her hand.
"Oh stop," Caroline muttered, opening her book again.
"Whatcha reading?" Lily asked.
"The chapter we have to read for Charms."
They all groaned.
"I knew I'd forgotten to do that," Lily said.
Sirius sighed, "I'm gonna get my eighth detention of the year."
"I really need to start writing this stuff down," Tyler said.
"I mean I already read it when he set it, I'm just rereading it now," Caroline said innocently, "you want me to do a lil recap before we go to the class?"
"Oh please."
Sirius just kissed her on the cheek gratefully, "have I already told you this morning that you're an angel?"
She just smiled, "yes."
"So what's the chapter about again?" Tyler asked.
"It's about the spell theory behind Ascendio."
"Well we have ten minutes until class," Lily said.
Caroline just grinned, "more than enough time."
· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
Sirius and Caroline sat, quite contently, beside each other in Astronomy. Both of them were busy completing their star chart analysis's, but enjoyed certain distractions like Caroline gently tapping her shoe on top of Sirius' and Sirius resting his hand on her thigh and giving it the occasional affectionate squeeze.
Their Professor was called out by Professor MgGonagall for some reason, but Caroline took it as her opportunity to talk to Sirius.
"Sirius," she whispered, making him look at her.
"Yes, darling?"
"Tell me more about your thing next year," she said quietly in French, "I'm curious."
He smiled, "what do you want to know?"
"Who are you actually going to work for?"
He looked up at the stars, "Right now, Professor Dumbledore...he calls us 'The Order of the Phoenix'."
Caroline raised her eyebrows and said in English, "sounds very fancy."
"I asked him why he hadn't considered you for it."
Her eyes widened, "you did? Why?"
"You're the smartest and most talented witch in the whole school, like, why wouldn't he consider you, you know?" Sirius shrugged.
"So what did he say?"
"He knew you had gotten into Koldo-Koldost...that Russian school."
"Koldovstoretz."
"Right that," he nodded, "he just said he knew how impossible it was to get into that school, and he wants you to accept the offer...says it would be good for Hogwarts as well as good for you."
"Fair enough..."
"Would you want to join?" Sirius asked.
"Yes," she said without hesitation, before switching to French, "probably good that he didn't ask me then...I'd never go to Koldovstoretz."
"I wish we could fight the fight together." Sirius murmured, lifting her hand up and kissing her knuckles.
She smiled at this, "I'll still be here every step of the way, if you'll have me."
"Oui, s'il te plaît, merci," he breathed, scanning her brown eyes fondly, "hey, how are you feeling? For real."
She looked away back at her star chart for a moment. It seemed she was contemplating what to say, or even how she felt in the first place. How was she actually feeling? Should she just be honest?
"I'm sad," she said, before shaking her head, "it's getting easier every day but...it will take time."
"Okay - don't rush yourself, it's okay to feel how you feel and take your time...I'll be here for you through it all, okay?"
She leaned into him, smiling tearfully up at him before whispering, "thank you."
He kissed her forehead, obviously not caring about any other students around then. It was like they were in their own little bubble, just them.
"I-"
"Alright everyone, back to work!" The professor came back into the room.
Sirius and Caroline darted apart, going back to their work as if that was what they were doing the whole time.
"I want these analysis sheets done and back to me by the end of the lesson," the Professor said, causing everyone to internally groan.
Caroline shook her head and began to write faster, concentrating fully on the chart again, her quill dancing across the parchment. Sirius just glanced at her lingeringly for a moment, the moonlight bouncing against her hair...she really was beautiful.
･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. .**.☽ .*
A/N:
Hey guys,
So if you haven't already seen it, the next book in the series of 'Unfortunate' and also this book 'Sweet Caroline' has now been published. It's called 'Lucky'!
I would reeeally appreciate it if you guys checked it out! It has all the characters in this book and more!
My publishing schedule right now is 'Lucky' on Mondays and 'Sweet Caroline' on Wednesdays - and then the occasional spontaneous weekend update too.
Lots of love,
Amber xx