good things fall apart • sirius black

Curly haired boys

Christmas seemed to pass in a blur after the party. Days filled of dancing wildly to music and racing around the gardens; hysterical laughter and copious amounts of chocolate consumed.

Sirius continued to wow all of Ellie's French side of the family with his fluency in the language, and the others were always left behind when he started blurting it out - Ellie's grandparents in particular were extremely impressed.

There had even been one occasion that her grandfather, Corentin, had been in a long conversation with the handsome boy, one Sirius looked slightly flustered about for a while. Corentin then went onto say something as he clapped him on the shoulder fondly, gesturing to his granddaughter in the process, sending Sirius a furious red colour. At the time Adelaide had seemingly scolded her father (also in French) whilst Camille laughed in hysterics. None of the friends could get Sirius to repeat what had been said to him, but for a while, every time Ellie caught his eye, he darted his gaze away and returned back to the same beet red shade. It was quite hilarious, for Sirius Black was never one to blush. Even if James was desperate to know what he'd been told.

Never once did they lull into any sense or boredom, for there was far too much to explore and far too much mischief to be had.

Henri ended up on the receiving end of a particularly messy prank they tried to pull on Camille, which involved the left-over gravy from both the Potter's and the Gryffin's Christmas dinner and lots of flour. Ellie's second cousin had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, ending up covered in both of the substances, for Camille was clever enough to realise the four friends were planning something against her. Apolline and Clovis had been furious when they discovered their son, coated head to toe in cold gravy and coughing out white clouds, but of course the four Marauders were trying to stifle their laughter from their handing spot regardless.

When neither the Gryffins, nor the Potters, could get any form of apology out of the children, Clovis had suggested that they stay in a hotel for the rest of their visit.

Ellie wasn't upset about this at all.

However, it did result in Camille retaliating back, knowing that she was supposed to be their target. With magic on her side, all four of the children ended up with vibrant purple beards - something none of them could get rid of. It wasn't until the day before they needed to return to Hogwarts that Camille finally sorted them out, and they had her tell them the spell so that they'd be able to use it at school too.

With huge hugs from all four parents, and Camille too, the children now stood on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters ready to return to Hogwarts. Excited to be reunited with Peter, but disappointed their days of freedom were coming to an end. The event was sort of bitter sweet.

Sirius was desperate to get on the train as soon as possible, wanting to avoid seeing his mother drop Regulus off, for he had never told his parents that he wouldn't be joining them for Christmas. Instead, he just didn't turn up on the platform, and that would get him into all sorts of trouble the next time he was home. Disrespect was one thing the Blacks truly couldn't stand. He was lucky though, for James was impatient as ever to get on the scarlet steam engine, waving the adults goodbye as he rushed off first. Remus trailed behind him after thanking the Potters and Gryffins for welcoming him for the hundredth time and receiving a kiss on the top of the head from Euphemia.

"I'll miss you, sweetheart." Adelaide wrapped Ellie up in one last tight hug, squeezing her as humanly possible, "Be good, and stay safe."

"Good isn't a word in our vocabulary." Sirius cut in with his signature smirk.

"I know it isn't." Pulling away from her daughter with a knowing smile, she beckoned Sirius for one last hug too, "You know you are welcome to stay all summer if you need to. Nous vous garderons toujours en sécurité."