"I love you, Eloise."
Eloise gasped and Sirius looked scared, biting his lip and eyebrows furrowed in anxiety for her response. Eloise didn't say anything. She thought over the words in her head, 'he loves me?' she thought, 'do I love him?' she thought to how often he was on her mind...always, well that answers that question. She looked into his wide eyes, the grey swirling into the middle like a cyclone. She smiled slightly at his nervousness. She could feel the emotion seeping out of him, he had meant what he said obviously. She leant forward, capturing his lips in hers before pulling away, their foreheads still touching and their eyes still closed,
"I love you too." she opened her eyes to see his face break into the widest grin she had ever seen. He took his hands off of her cheeks and wrapped them around her waist, picking her up and spinning around. She laughed into his shoulder and they stopped spinning, Sirius putting her down and looking at her face, still beaming. Eloise put her arms around his neck, her fingers slipping into his soft hair, "I think it's safe to say," she murmured, "that this is the best Halloween Hogwarts has ever seen."
~~~
Lily Evans was angry. And when Lily Evans was angry, the world was sure to know of it. It had been a few days since Halloween and Sirius' birthday was soon but the redhead had yet to utter a single word to Eloise and the brunette was getting worried. It wasn't the longest the best friends had gone without talking, that was for a week in Second Year when Eloise insulted Severus Snape and Lily leapt to his defence but even then, Lily was never that angry.
Eloise was sat in the Gryffindor Common Room on Sirius' lap when she saw Lily walk in, nose in the air and blatantly ignoring Eloise and the boys. Eloise leapt off of Sirius and ran after her, following her into the common room and locking the door so she couldn't leave,
"Lils, please talk to me." she pleaded but the girl didn't listen, she sat down on her bed with a book, picking up her wand and closing the curtains. Eloise groaned and walked over, pulling the curtains apart and not missing Lily rolling her eyes, "Lily, I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry. I don't know how else to say it." Lily merely continued to read her book, frowning, "I know it was a horrible prank, it was too extreme, I won't do it ever again. I promise." Eloise waited for a response but was met with silence. She sighed and ran a hand through her black, straight hair. "Fine then." she whispered, "You can't say I didn't try." she left the room, eyes cast downward. She flopped onto the sofa next to the Marauders and leant her head on Sirius' shoulder,
"No luck then?" James asked and she shook her head, a single tear escaping her eye,
"I don't know what else to do." she was met with upset looks from the boys, "I've apologised countless times and she's not even looking at me." she sniffed and Sirius wrapped an arm around her,
"She'll come around, love. Just give it time."
~~~
Eloise was sat in Defense Against the Dark Arts, eyes narrowed and trained at the front where Professor Laurent was telling the class about how to identify an inferi.
"Eenferi are dead bodies used to perform a dark weezard's bidding." she paced the front of the classroom, eyes dotting around the student's faces. "Zey can be identified by zeir white and cloudy eyes." Someone put up their hand, "Yes, Meester Seempson?"
"Is it true that the Dark Lord is using inferi?" the boy asked and an eerie silence was cast over the class. Eloise breathed in sharply and Sirius put a hand on her knee.
"I do not know, Meester Seempson, I am not the right person to ask zis." Professor Laurent carried on with her description but Eloise had stopped listening. The topic of the so-called 'Dark Lord' was cropping up everywhere. Everyday there was something on the Daily Profit about another muggle family murdered by his cronies and it made Eloise feel sick to her stomach, fearing for not only Lily, but every muggle born at Hogwarts and the world.
James noticed his sister's distant look from his shared desk with Remus next to her and Sirius,
"Psst." he tried to get her attention, "Belle." she snapped out of her trance and met his eyes, "You alright?" he whispered and she sighed,
"I'm scared, J." she told him, "We're on the brink of a war," she looked to her best friend who was writing notes, her red hair flowing over her shoulders and her bright green eyes wide in concentration, "and it's not me who I'm scared for."
~~~
It was the beginning of November and snow had begun to fall. Spreading like a blanket over the Hogwarts grounds, freezing the water in the Black Lake and bringing the leaves of the trees with it as it fell to meet the frosty grass. Eloise and Sirius had been snuck into Hufflepuff Common Room to meet with Nathan, Regulus and Evan. There was still clear tension between the Black brothers but at least they could be in the same room without a fight breaking out, although it was only because Eloise had threatened them both for if they were to misbehave.
"So, Berry..." Nathan began, stretching out on the sofa, his legs resting on Evan's lap (when he put them on Eloise didn't miss the brief flush of the Slytherin's cheeks).
"Yes, Natey?"
"Are you a virgin?" he asked simply and Eloise blushed at the bluntless of the question. Sirius straightened up slightly from behind her, his back was leaning against the arm of the sofa and Eloise's back against his chest. Evan snorted and Regulus raised an eyebrow, turning to Eloise with an inquisitive glance,
"I wonder the same thing." he said with a tilt of the head, playing the perfect protective older brother role, despite being younger,
"Fuck off, Reginald, James is plenty protective enough without you joining in." she gave him a look and he winked with a cheeky grin, "But no, to answer your question, Nathan, I am not." at her words Regulus crossed his arms,
"Sirius, I swear to Merlin-"
"It wasn't Sirius." Eloise said and the three boys in front of her looked surprised,
"What? But...Then who? And when?" Evan asked and Eloise ran a hand through her hair, meeting Sirius' eyes who looked curious as well,
"End of Fourth Year." she told them and they leant forward,
"And with who?" Regulus asked, eyes narrowed. Fortunately, at that moment Eloise recognised a familiar pair of pink, heart hair clips,
"Maisie!" she called out to the first year coming down the stairs and waved with a smile. Maisie smiled back and walked over,
"Eloise! What are you doing here?" she asked and Eloise gestured to Nathan,
"Meeting with my friends," she began to introduce them, "You probably already know Nathan," the curly haired bow saluted at the small girl, "this is Evan," Evan waved with a small smile, "that's Regulus," the younger Black flashed her a grin, "and this is my boyfriend, Sirius." Sirius winked at Maisie with a cheeky grin.
"So this is Sirius Black?" Maisie looked excited, "The executor." she remembered and Eloise laughed,
"Exactly."
"So how do you know Elle, Maisie?" Regulus asked and the first year smiled,
"I had to escort her to Professor Dumbledore's office and we started talking about her pranks." she grinned at Eloise and Sirius cleared his throat,
"I'm sorry, her pranks?"
"Sorry, your pranks." Maisie corrected herself, "Eloise was talking me through what each of you do to pull them off, apparently you get people in the right place in the right time with a mixture of natural charm and blackmail." she giggled as Sirius gasped dramatically,
"Blackmail!?" he questioned, looking at Eloise, "How very dare you, I do nothing of the sort...most of the time."