The next morning was a Saturday, it was also a Hogsmeade day, which meant that today, Lily and James were going on a secret date, the only problem was, Sirius, Aafiya and I all knew which meant that it wasn't so secret any more. Another thing that I knew was that I had to avoid Sirius like a disease, I had to do it so that I couldn't embarrass myself any more than I had. I instigated the kiss and after a minute, rushed off before he could do anything.
"You have to talk to him today, in fact, for today, we aren't your friends and you can't come with us to Hogsmeade. Now go with the boys, and talk to him," Marlene announced at breakfast. That was the start of me having to walk over to Peter and tell him that I was going to be joining them for Hogsmeade, and as soon as he started talking about where James had gone, I couldn't help but share a glance with Sirius.
"Nice day isn't it? A bit cloudy but the weather is okay," Remus said, him and Peter were acting overly casual and were indeed carrying the conversation. It was unusual for Sirius to ever be this silent and the two boys had noticed this but, knowing there must be a reason, and I was stood next to them, they said nothing. It was only when they were walking in front I heard them muttering about us, Peter wasn't very quiet.
Entering Hogsmeade, Remus and Peter were still walking in front of the two of us, and as we all turned a corner to see the plethora of shops and people walking around the street, I felt a hand grab my elbow and turned sharply to see Sirius' eyes staring into mine and a small smile back on his face, indicating that he had a plan. As I stopped and turned to him, it was then when he shared his idea.
"Why don't we ditch them two on their little date and go to find James and Lily," seeing my face he continued, "oh no we won't interrupt them, just, watch them from afar and observe their actions. It's not stalking, don't worry." I didn't like his idea very much but Peter and Remus were now long gone into a shop or down an alleyway and I needed Sirius to think that we were normal friends again.
Following him as he tried to find the secret date, I almost bumped into him when he stopped in his tracks. "There they are, come behind here," Sirius whispered. We both sat behind a large decorated bush, the different flowers smelling nice, but also very strongly of pollen. Then, we both rose a little, it was like my knees moved on their own as I saw James go in to kiss Lily and as he pulled away, he asked her a question I already knew.
"Did James fucking Potter just ask out the love of his life? And kiss her? And she said yes?" Sirius whisper yelled. I tried to quieten him down, they would probably hear him from over here and I definitely didn't want them hearing, I didn't want to ruin their date with Sirius' loud mouth and his annoying ideas. "Yes he did, now be quiet or they'll hear you," I told him, pulled on his sleeve to sit him down.
Sirius took a deep breath in and caught my eyes with his, before I could say anything he said quietly, "If James can do it then I should be able to as well. Athena Cynthia Pattinson, I remember the first time that we met and it was totally chaotic and I knew as soon as I spoke to you that I would grow up with you and learn to really appreciate you, learn to like someone, finally."
"I gained many things from that day and one of them was you, you were perfect in my eyes, then and now. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I like you, a lot." Once Sirius had finished, he turned his head away from me and I knew he thought I couldn't see his crossed fingers behind his back, a sign of hope. I snickered, "Is that what you say to all the girls?", but seeing his face I said, "I'm joking, took you long enough Sirius Orion Black.. the third. I like you too, a lot."
I could have captured that moment, if I could have frozen it, I would have, everything about it was perfect. The weather, the confession, the flower from the bush we were hidden behind that he presented to me, his smile, the butterfly feeling in my chest. I loved every moment of it and I was quite shocked that it had happened to me. I was amazed Sirius Black liked me back, out of every other girl, he liked me. That was priceless.
Sirius popped his head over the flower bush and seeing that Lily and James were gone, he grabbed my hand and we both made our way back to the main centre of Hogsmeade, casually strolling into Honeydukes and buying some chocolate to eat on the way into the Three Broomsticks. I did have one issue to tell him and that was the whole ordeal with Lily and James.
"Hey Siri," I did not expect a confident 'yes love' for my answer and ignored the sparkling feeling, I told him, "Lily, but definitely James, are going to tell everyone that they're now dating, I wondered if.." he caught on quickly. He was smarter than people gave him credit for, he nodded and smiled comfortingly, "Obviously, I love to upstage someone but James is my best mate, I'll let him have five minutes of fame before I tell everyone about us. Besides, I like the secret thing."
After meeting with a confused Peter and Remus asking where we had disappeared off to in the Three Broomsticks, and then having a butterbeer together, we made our way up to the castle. As expected, I heard someone whisper the words 'Lily and James' and as we walked through the portrait hole, I saw Lily and James sat together by the fire, Lily reading, both of them holding one another's hand.
Peter and Remus faces were a sight to be seen, as were the girls when they walked in, Aafiya should have been given an award for her surprised reaction performance. As they all gathered around, asking when it happened and all the other details they were eager to know, Sirius and I gave each other a smirk and as he squeezed my shoulder without anyone noticing, he went over to James and congratulated him with their handshake.
Dinner later was an interesting experience, the news spread like wildfire between the students of Hogwarts, as it was right, secrets don't stay secrets for long in this castle. Even Dumbledore gave them a small glance as he finished his speech with a 'good luck'. It was nice, being able to sit and talk to Sirius without a random Slytherin jeering at your relationship or a Hufflepuff asking you why you were with that certain person.
All of which James and Lily had unfortunately experienced after only fifteen minutes of dinner had gone by. It was also nice holding someone's hand secretly under the table, the secret aspect gave it an exciting factor, it was nice showing and telling but it was also just as good hiding and sharing quiet conversations and small laughs between one another. "Never mind them two, you look like a couple, what're you whispering about?"
I looked up to see Alice, resting her head one of her hands, fork in the other hand, eating some chicken. I knew that the word relationship or couple made her think of Frank and it must hurt not seeing him for a long time, but I knew that she had written to him almost every day, asking if he was okay after apparently secretive and exhausting auror training. There was less than a year left, but it felt like a long time for Alice.
"We look like a couple? That's interesting, I wasn't sure that anyone could top Lily and James, they're holding hands and James even poured a drink for her," Sirius noticed. He was playing it safely, not insulting or denying what we had going on but distracting Alice so that she reconsidered and focused on the obvious couple in front of her.
Going up to the common room for bed, I walked with Sirius and Aafiya, all three of us whispering about what we had witnessed at their date earlier, as all of us knew it was going to happen this Hogsmeade, the culprits of our whispers leading everyone as Head Boy and Girl. We had talked for a while, lagging behind everyone so much that we needed to say the password ourselves. Sirius however, slipped up.
"I've forgotten the password love, Remus or James usually say it for me," he said casually, turning towards me. Aafiya froze mid sentence, her mouth hanging open, as she looked between the two of us, confused. Sirius had also froze at his mistake so it was up to me to save it and pick up the pieces, "I've told you to stop calling me that Sirius, you're being weird, but the password is Flobberworm."
Hopefully Aafiya would put it up to Sirius just being flirty.