S E P T E M B E R 1 9 7 6
.・。.・゜✭・.・✧・゜・。.
THE END OF SUMMER APPROACHED much faster than Clara wished. Of course it was exciting to be heading towards her final year at Hogwarts, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't want another week or two of relaxation before worrying about assignments and exams once more. Not to mention all the preparation separate from her coursework that she needed to do if she wanted any hope of becoming a healer at St. Mungo's after finishing school.
The Potters along with Sirius made their way through King's Cross Station on that early September morning. It seemed that Clara was alone in worrying about the prospect of seeing Sirius' family on the platform. To her shock, he seemed rather indifferent to the idea. No one else in her family seemed concerned about the possibility, either. At least not outwardly.
She had no idea what would even happen if they came across the Black family, but her overactive imagination created quite the dramatic scenario in her head. It involved Orion Black bellowing angrily across the platform at his eldest son the second he laid his dark, hollow eyes upon him.
Regardless of he fears, she wasn't about to ask Sirius how he was feeling. Despite the fact that the two seemed to be able to spend more than five minutes around each other without incident recently – but not much more – they certainly weren't best friends by any means. Discussions about feelings and fears were off the table.
Clara trailed behind her family, pushing the luggage cart through the crowded platform. All the while, she was trying to catch any glimpse of Lily or Marlene through the herd of students and their families. As luck would have it, instead of the kind honey brown eyes of her best friend, Marlene, Clara's gaze met with Walburga Black's. The woman's already thin lips were pressed into a stern line as she witnessed her eldest son walking with the Potter family. Clara quickly diverted her gaze away and focused on Sirius who seemed much too enthralled with whatever James had said to make him laugh to notice his family looming not too far from them.
Before Clara could push the thoughts of Sirius' family out of her mind, she felt a hand rest on her shoulder causing her to gasp and spin around. For some reason, she was half expecting to be confronted by Regulus when she turned around, but instead she was met with the sight of a frizzy haired blonde girl who couldn't contain her laughter at the reaction she had gotten from her friend.
"Marlene! Bloody hell. You scared me half to death!"
"Better than all the way to death, isn't it? I have to keep you on your toes." she winked.
Clara rolled her eyes and turned around to keep pushing the luggage cart forward with Marlene closely tailing behind.
"How's Sirius?" The blonde asked as the two weaved through the crowd towards the porter who was helping students load their bags onto the train.
"Why?"
"Well I saw Regulus a bit ago, aren't things going to be a bit awkward?"
Clara shrugged, "I don't know, I think he's just been ignoring them."
At that exact moment, Sirius's eyes fell on the blonde and he came sauntering over with a charming smile on his face as if she had somehow telepathically summoned his presence.
"Ah, Marlene. Got any more records for me?" he asked before glancing over at Clara who had begun unloading all of their bags to hand to the porter.
"I just sent you a copy of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road a week ago. Is Elton John not good enough for you?" Marlene rolled her eyes with a smile, also ignoring Clara's struggle to handle all the luggage.
"It's James that's the problem. He's still playing Abbey Road on repeat as if it isn't a six year old album. I can't suffer through 'Octopus' Garden' anymore."
The whole exchange was quite annoying to Clara. Though perhaps it wouldn't have been half as irritating to listen to if she wasn't stuck loading everyone's things on her own. As she stood up straight and blew a stray strand of dark hair away from her face, she glanced over the sea of students looking for her brother or anyone who would actually be willing to help her. Marlene and Sirius were clearly much too focused on their budding new friendship to offer their assistance.
Before she was able to find James, Clara's eyes fell on Remus, who towered over most of the students on the platform. She waved her arm at him frantically and beckoned for him to come over in her direction when he finally made eye contact with her. She watched as he turned to a boy with wild dark hair she recognized to be her younger brother. The taller of the two gestured his head in Clara's direction and the boys soon made their way over, followed closely behind by Peter.
"Yes, Clara?" Remus asked as they approached her.
"These two are useless," she huffed as she gestured to Marlene and Sirius, "Help me out would you?"
"Why don't you use magic? You're seventeen." James complained as he dragged a heavy trunk off of the luggage cart.
"Because you're here now." she smiled at her younger brother before dropping her face back into a scowl, "Plus half of these are yours anyway, you git. I shouldn't be doing this on my own, even with magic."
Ignoring the Potter siblings' quarrel, a soft spoken blonde boy, who typically wasn't the most observant in the group couldn't help but notice the new friendship blooming between the bold and sassy Ravenclaw girl and the Gryffindor mischief-maker.
"When did that happen?" Peter asked quietly.
Clara tore her eyes away from James to see what Peter was talking about and let out an annoyed sigh, "When she visited a few weeks ago. I honestly hope it doesn't last. He annoys me enough as it is, I don't need him trying to steal my best friend as well."
Remus shot Clara a sceptical look, biting back a smirk as he handed the porter the last of the bags from the cart. Though she was much too preoccupied with watching the couple to notice him. It wasn't so much that it was Sirius that was stealing Marlene's attention. Clara already had a hard enough time fitting in at school, her friendship with the blonde felt like a security blanket of sorts. Surely she couldn't be faulted for feeling somewhat possessive.
That's not to say that Sirius, of all people, being the one whose charm and similar interests to the witch was potentially pulling her away from Clara wasn't a bad thing. That fact was simply the cherry on top of a rubbish cake.
"James, let's go say goodbye to mum and dad." Clara suggested suddenly, using it as an excuse to get away from the source of her growing insecurity.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah sure." James responded, not fully aware of what his sister had said.
Clara's eyes followed his gaze to see Lily Evans making her way towards the group, smiling brightly and waving to Clara as their eyes met, which she returned happily. But the redhead's expression fell once she glanced over to James.
"How do you not get discouraged?" Clara asked James as they made their way to their mum and dad who had just finished catching up with Remus' parents.
"Because I know she'll fall for me eventually." he replied confidently with a shrug.
She couldn't understand how he could be so self-assured when it came to Lily, but who was she to destroy his dreams? Although, James giving up on Lily would definitely help her win the bet she had made with Remus in her fifth year. Two years ago, the tallest Marauder told her he was certain the two would get together by the end of their seventh year. Clara, however, was adamant it would simply never happen. They made a 15 Sickle bet that she was still completely sure she would win.
It wasn't that she didn't want her brother to be happy, mind you. In her eyes, it just seemed like a losing game for James to pine for Lily Evans. If they all found themselves in some crazy timeline where the two ever did get married, Clara would be the first to admit with a toast at their wedding reception that she was completely wrong.
When the Potter siblings reached their parents, there were several hugs and kisses exchanged as well as a few thinly veiled threats from Euphemia to James, begging him to behave so they wouldn't receive any more letters from his professors.
Soon the train let out a loud whistle and they realized as they scanned the dwindling crowd of students that their friends must have already made their way onboard. The two of them quickly walked through the train, glancing into different compartments looking for any signs of their separate group of friends only to be shocked to see Marlene, Sirius, Remus, Lily, and Peter all sitting together. Already, the feeling of being slowly replaced by Sirius in Marlene's world had become an expedited process. The well defined lines between James's friends and Clara's friends were blurring – the lines that Clara wanted nothing more than to keep separated, thank you very much.
"Uh, what's going on?" Clara started, before being pushed out of the way by James who excitedly made his way to sit right beside Lily. Seizing the opportunity to be near the girl, as if it were a fleeting opportunity he'd never get again.
"Who cares? I get to sit with Lily-flower on the way to school. My birthday must have come early."
Lily scooted away from James and closer to Remus with a frown, "I'm only here until Remus and I need to go to the prefect carriage."
"And that's when? Thirty minutes after we leave? Plenty of time to make you fall in love with me." he replied with a grin.
Clara rolled her eyes at her brother's pathetic attempt at flirting before she glanced around the full compartment.
"I can sit on the floor if you like." Peter suddenly suggested.
"What? No, Peter." Clara responded, shaking her head, "I'll probably just go find Fabian and Gideon. They'll talk my ear off about Quidditch, but it could be worse."
"Or you could sit on my lap." Sirius suggested with a smirk.
"I think I'd rather walk to Hogwarts than do that." Clara said as her lip curled up in disgust.
As her eyes roamed the crowded compartment, Clara questioned whether or not to follow through with her plan to hunt down the twins. Her hesitation was simply for the fact that Clara knew Fabian had fancied her since their third year. He wouldn't turn her away if she told him she wanted to sit with them, but she didn't want to give him the wrong idea. Having a back up plan was never a bad thing, but she knew sitting with the Prewett twins was opening a door with Fabian that she wasn't interested in exploring at all.
With a groan, Clara made her way to sit between the new fast friends and Peter, deliberately scooting closer to the Pettigrew boy to make a point. A scowl formed on her face as she made eye contact with Remus who was sitting directly across from her. He had a curious look in his eyes as he raised an eyebrow at her, but she tore her eyes away from him as she glanced out the window. Whatever Remus was thinking, she wasn't interested in hearing.
The train lurched as they finally left the station and Clara was practically counting down the seconds until Remus and Lily left so she could finally have some space to herself. In the meantime, Clara had pulled a book from her bag and attempted to read but the constant giggling coming from her best friend beside her was distracting her from retaining any of the words on the page.
"Boring book?" Peter asked after a while, causing Clara to glance up at him.
"I'm sorry?"
"You've been on the same page for quite a bit." he stated matter-of-factly, causing a faint blush of embarrassment to grow on her cheeks as she closed the book.
"Just having a hard time focusing, that's all."
But her poor attempt at distracting herself had killed enough time for Remus and Lily to need to leave for their Prefect meeting. Once the two left, Clara wasted no time in taking their place next to her brother instead. Clara hadn't even noticed the look of disdain that had formed on her face, having fully formed some time after they left the station.
"What's wrong with your face, Potter? Or were you just born like that?" Sirius asked, only causing the scowl on her face to deepen.
"You two are just acting like the rest of us aren't here. It's a bit annoying."
"Is that a tone of jealousy I hear?" he asked with a smirk.
Clara opened her lips to object, but quickly decided against it. If there was one thing she wouldn't do, it was give him the satisfaction of knowing she'd rather Marlene become friends with anyone else. Surely it would only egg him on further, causing him to try and interrupt whatever time she would get with Marlene this term.
"Stop it, Sirius," the blonde hit Sirius's shoulder before turning to her friend, "I'm sorry, Clara."
Whether Marlene could sense Clara's insecurity, she wasn't quite sure. Regardless, the girl stood from her seat and gave the blonde a reassuring smile, "It's fine. I'm just going to go find the snack trolley."
"I'll come with you!" Peter said, hopping up beside her.
Although Clara really was just looking for an excuse to have some alone time to walk around the train, she didn't mind Peter's company. While he was an accomplice in many pranks the boys played on her over the years, he never directly targeted her. So she didn't hold a grudge against him, there was no reason to object to him tagging along.
"Alright, come on then." Clara sighed.
The two of them walked mindlessly down the train for a while. Clara obviously wasn't really looking for the elderly witch pushing the trolley of snacks and sweets and Peter seemed to eventually realize that.
"We're not getting snacks, are we?" Peter mumbled a few paces behind her.
"No Peter, I just needed to get away from Sirius."
"Why is it you two don't get along?"
"Does everyone just forget about all the pranks you four play on me? Or am I just making them up in my head?" Clara asked impatiently.
"Good point..." Peter said quietly.
"Sorry, Peter. I don't mean to be short with you. I just had to spend most of the summer with him and I'd like at least one moment of peace. Especially if he's going to start hanging around with Marlene more often."
"Don't worry, she'll probably get sick of him within a few weeks." Peter said under his breath.
Clara stopped in her tracks, causing Peter to bump into her. She whipped around with a grin on her face, "Peter Pettigrew, did you just say something snarky about Sirius?"
"Don't tell him I said that, but it's true. There's a reason we're his only mates..."
Clara laughed at the boy's remark, "You know what? I think you just passed Remus as my favorite of all my brother's friends."
A faint blush grew on Peter's cheeks at Clara's backhanded compliment before their attention was brought to another voice.
"Now this is an unlikely pairing."
"Hello, Fabian." Clara greeted abrasively, turning around to face the tall boy with auburn hair and a seemingly permanent smirk on his lips.
"And how is it you know which one I am?" he asked with an amused grin.
"You part your hair on the left." Clara stated as if it should have been obvious.
"Ah, you have a keen eye. Or maybe you've just been admiring me from afar?"
"When have you ever caught me admiring you? I thought you were the one that liked to stare at me in class instead of paying attention to Professor Slughorn?" she challenged with a raised eyebrow.
Peter cleared his throat, wanting to remind the two that he was still there as he felt himself slowly becoming a third wheel.
"Oh, Pettigrew. I almost forgot you were here. Where's the rest of your lot?"
Peter opened his mouth to respond but Clara jumped in before he had the chance, "Sirius is being an annoying git as usual, so we decided to go on a walk."
Fabian looked back towards Peter for confirmation and the boy merely nodded his head before locking eyes with the ground.
"Well you two are more than welcome to join Gideon and I, we're just sitting with a few people from the team. You know Scottie and Miranda, right?"
Clara only knew anyone from the Quidditch team thanks to her brother, not because she had any interest in the sport herself. The two names Fabian had listed she recognized as students in the year below her, so maybe Peter knew them from his classes. Of course that didn't really matter, Fabian could have told them he was sitting with someone from Slytherin and she'd be more willingly follow him than go back to sitting in a compartment with Sirius Black.
"What do you say, Pete?" Clara asked. As much as she wanted to just follow Fabian to his compartment, she didn't want to force Peter into anything.
A faint blush grew on the blonde boy's cheeks, but Clara couldn't exactly figure out why, "Erm, no I think I'll just go back to ours."
"Suit yourself," she said with a shrug before looking back up towards Fabian, "Lead the way."
Peter watched as the two of them made their way to the end of the carriage and into the compartment where his twin and teammates were sitting before turning over his shoulder to go back to where the Marauders were. When Peter entered the compartment alone, Remus and Lily had just returned from their Prefect meeting and everyone seemed to be chatting amongst themselves about mundane things like what would be served at the feast that evening or who they thought would be the first to have to write home for forgetting to pack something.
They all greeted Peter as he sat back down beside Marlene but surprisingly, it was Sirius who was the first one to notice that he had come back without Clara by his side.
"Did you lose Potter on your way back from the snack trolley?" he teased.
"No, she's sitting with the Prewett twins."
"Is she now?" Sirius asked with a roll of his eyes.
"What's wrong with her spending time with them, Padfoot?" Remus asked, his tone light and jovial.
Sirius raised a brow at the boy, "Nothing, they're just annoying. I'm surprised she picked them over us."
Lily scoffed, "I'm not."
"Something you'd like to say, Evans?"
"All you do is tease and prank her, she probably thinks you hate her. If I was her, I'd want to sit elsewhere as well." she replied matter-of-factly.
"Then maybe I just need to remind her how truly fond of her I am, don't I?" he replied to Lily with a devilish smile.
The redhead narrowed her eyes, "What are you planning in that evil mind of yours?"
Sirius only smiled, "Nothing, my dear sweet Lily. Nothing at all."