November 26th ⭒ 1977
SLIDING INTO THE common room, what he thought was quite soundlessly, Sirius exhaled. James and Remus had been insistent on personally escorting him everywhere. He'd essentially been coerced into speaking to Josephine as normally as he could without freaking out. Thankfully, the girl had slunk away and stuck to Lily for most of the day, which was a weight off his back.
Everytime her hand brushed against his, or her eyes even flickered a tad too bright, Sirius's brain went into overdrive.
It was supposed to be normal. They were just two teenagers who happened to be best friends with a werewolf: that was the only thing out of place — well, yes, they were magic but they weren't supposed to be flat-out muggles either. Jo wasn't supposed to be having visions: whatever he'd experienced. It was just so messed up. Seventh year, he'd gotten kicked out, all he wanted to do was have a good last year with his friends before they all got jobs and became middle-aged. How horrific.
Especially the fact that Josephine didn't seem to notice anything strange other than him.
Speak of the devil herself: Jo was sitting cross-legged on the couch, fiddling with that Magic 8 Ball that she'd been mucking around with all year. James's eyes caught his with a moment of recognition, before hastily getting up. "Pads, where have you been?"
His tone was jovial, but the crease between his eyebrows suggested that James was something more than just pleased to see his best friend right now. With an almost exaggerated air, the Potter boy led him out of the common room and into the dorms. Frantically, he gestured. "Sirius, answer me. We're not stupid, you've gone completely nuts in the span of a few hours."
Sirius stuck his hands in his pockets, letting out a low whistle. "Just busy, James. You know how it is."
"I don't, Sirius. I don't. And don't give me that bullshit about hooking up, Pads, why're you so afraid of us all of a sudden?"
"I'm not afraid of you—" Sirius fumbled through the sentence, "I . . . just need some time."
"Why?" James, for once, seemed uncertain. Worry was etched across his face as he repeated the question, at a loss for other words while his tone softened from the harsh questioning before, "Sirius, why? You act all weird every time Jo tries to speak to you and maybe she doesn't act like she notices but she does."
"It's not Jo, honestly," Sirius lied through his teeth, "it's just me."
And something clicked in James, at that moment. Just not what Sirius had wanted it to be.
James sat down on his bed, elbows resting on his thighs as he pulled at his hair in frustration. "Fuck, I knew it. Even mum used to say it."
"Say what?" Now Sirius was intrigued. "Did she know?"
The boy groaned, "Of course she did. She did give birth to Jo, you know. Mothers have this inexplicable way of knowing just about everything."
Sirius, despite himself, breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh lord, I thought I'd have to keep it to myself forever."
Grimacing, James slung an arm around the boy, "When did you even start to notice?"
"I mean, Jo was just Jo, until we were up on the Astronomy tower a few nights back. Then, well, she grabbed my hand and it happened all so fast," Sirius trailed off lamely.
"That fast?" James looked bewildered. "I thought love was a slow process."
Sirius snorted. "You proposed marriage to Lily by the second week of first year, I wouldn't say you know much about that. Besides, what's love to do with this?"
James eyed him warily. "You are in love with my sister, right? You literally just confirmed it."
Apparently, Sirius's gaping was enough of a 'yes' for James, because the brunette continued almost instantaneously, "Of course, I have no idea why you fancy Jo, of all people, so suddenly, but I won't judge. Mum did always say you two were a match in heaven."
"What?"
"Oh, she did," James laughed, completely misunderstanding his shock, "Dad as well. When you first moved in, he kept telling me to keep an eye on you two in case you were doing anything shifty. Was positively convinced he'd accidentally walk in on you two shagging."
"Prongs, no! You've got it all wrong, listen to me," Sirius stammered.
James turned to look at him. "Then what happened with Jo?"
Sirius, right there, remembered a muggle story about two doors that Remus had once told them. Two brothers standing in front of two doors, and you could only ask one question. James was asking that question, and Sirius was standing in front of two very shitty doors right there.
Tell James a secret that wasn't his, or make James think he was hiding something else.
Part of him was considering coming clean to James, but the entire thing seemed so unbelievable, and even worse, he didn't want to know what it meant. He had an inkling of an idea of what exactly Jo had foresaw, but it wasn't exactly something that he thought either him or James would like to know about. And to tell Josephine would only make matters worse, he decided.
With a hearty clap on Sirius's back, he got up, "I have a meeting in a bit, see you at dinner, Pads!"
In any other case, Sirius would have asked, "With who?" but his mind seemed to have stopped working completely. Even if he'd hated himself not for speaking up before James left, the choice soon became one he was glad he'd made. In the future. For now, Sirius was going to suffer.
⭒
AND SUFFER HE DID, for the moment he sat down at the table, Remus raised an eyebrow at him that only proved one thing: James definitely told them. Peter shifted around, darting glances at both him and Josephine. Conspiracially, James gave him a nudge and a wink.
Sirius slumped against the table, trying to look anywhere but at the blonde girl who's questioning gaze was burning holes into his head as she spoke to Lily.
From what he could tell, at least James hadn't told Josephine. That would have been a nightmare to deal with, along with the interrogation that he was certainly going to receive later back in the dorm. James's eyes bulged as he kicked Sirius under the table.
"What?" Sirius whispered, picking up his fork.
James jerked his head not-so-subtly. "Do something!"
Sirius's mouth dropped, "Prongs, I'm not going to make a move on her. One, it's crazy, two, she'll kill me, and three, just because you got it into your head that I'm in love with your sister doesn't mean I'm going to actually—"
"She won't! I'll stand in the way," James responded happily, taking a bite of his steak, "besides, I think it's good for her to finally find someone, aside from that absolute douchebag Rosier. He was all over her at last year's quidditch cup party, positively revolting. I don't get what the ladies see in him. You really need to do something, Pads."
"Rosier? Prongs, what?"
James continued, not having heard his question, "I mean, I could see her with one of the Ravenclaws, but she doesn't branch out that much, you know? People know her, of course, but she doesn't really try to expand beyond that. When you're dealing with Jo, you either know her all too well, or not well enough. Kind of hard to understand, but okay."
Sirius, who had given up on trying to get a word in edgewise, simply ate his food in peace as James continued his feverish rant on his sister's love life.
"Oh— Or even Moony, honestly. Remember that phase he went through in second year? Didn't Jo fancy him as well? Anyway, Pads, you are insane, but I think it's to be expected."
Remus pretended not to hear.
Lily, however, seemed to have noticed. She leant towards the other side of the table, tone almost accusatory. "Potter, who have you even been going on about for the past ten minutes? You seem to mind a lot."
"Jo?" he stammered, eyes flickering in the direction of the Slytherin table for a moment before they landed back on Lily.
"Jo what?" his sister interjected, looking very suspiciously at him. Sirius was glad her attention was off him, so glad that he narrowly missed spilling his drink onto James.
James tapped his foot impatiently. "I was talking about you and, uh, Evan Rosier!"
"I thought we had a mutual agreement to never bring him up again?" Josephine eyed her brother and was presumably attempting to break his foot with her heel under the table at that very moment. "Or have you happened to decide his good looks outweigh his personality — Merlin, it's about as appealing as a gallon of milk."
Lily whirled around immediately towards her, distaste and shock clear on her face. "You think Evan Rosier is good looking?"
"I didn't say I did? It's just a generally accepted fact," Jo defended, "personally don't like to bring him up in conversation, but my dear brother happened to. He is revolting."
Lily clearly didn't buy any of it.
"Okay, he's good looking. But he still has a shit personality, so there's no way I'm going for him, especially after fourth year."
Sirius finally addressed her, "What happened fourth year?"
Later, he reflected, that was probably the worst moment to start speaking to Jo, since it only suggested that he actually cared about who she dated. The girl tensed up, Remus and Lily essentially fighting to speak for her, resulting in them speaking over each other and confusing Sirius even more.
"That absolute man-whore tried to—" Lily began, just as Remus said, "—no decency at all, really. He didn't even ask."
Sirius blinked, and even though he hadn't got a single word aside from another dose of feverish ranting, he nodded. "Alright, then."
Josephine laughed, but it was a short and erratic one that only just emerged from the back of her throat, "It's not as bad as they make it out to be. He just tried to corner me a few years back, rather unsuccessfully."
"And why didn't I know about this?"
A wave of hesitance seemed to pass through all of them, save Peter and Marlene, who were happily eating away at the creme brulee that Josephine and James had finally left alone. Lily ran a hand through her hair, pondering the question. "I don't know, honestly."
Josephine, relieved that Sirius was speaking to her again, took a spoonful of Remus's ice cream as she spoke. "I don't think you ever asked, and it wasn't ever brought up. Siri, we weren't trying to leave you out or anything."
The boy relaxed, not noticing the strange, sideways look that James gave him.
lola's notes.
sorry for the long wait AHHH i kept forgetting, also tysm to the lovely & insanely talented ollytheelephant for making the gif at the start of the chapter <333
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