good things fall apart • sirius black

Gone

Lily Evans sat herself in the seat next to James Potter in Charms. Never did the red head think she'd ever willingly sit next to him, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"What have you done to her?" She demanded immediately.

Lily had seen what had happened in the Great Hall at dinner last night, and when she confronted the Marauders about it in the common room later, they wouldn't give anything away. Sirius had stormed off at the mere mention of Ellie Gryffin and the other boys weren't too far behind him. It was fair to say the dance party didn't go ahead, but after watching her friend rush out of the Great Hall, Lily had expected Ellie to return to their dorm last night. By the boys' reactions, it was clear something had happened, and Ellie never slept in their dorm if there was any kind of conflict, but the brunette hadn't returned.

She hadn't returned, and then she hadn't been at breakfast either.

"Evans?" James was taken aback by seeing his favourite red head so close, and he ruffled up his hair as his mind caught up, "Evans, um, what have I done with who?"

"Not just you. All of you I suspect." Lily was starting to turn the same shade as her hair, "Or at least Black."

At his name, the handsome boy leaned around James to scowl at Lily. He was running on no sleep, no food and no patience - riling him up was a dangerous game for anyone. One that Lily was clearly prepared to play. James however, held a hand up in front of Sirius' face before he did anything rash.

"I'd be careful, Lily-flower. Sirius is in a delicate state today, so as thrilled as I am to have you here with me, please don't say anything to upset him."

"Why should I care about his feelings, when clearly he's done something to make Ellie run off." Lily spat in reply.

Sirius scoffed loudly, drawing the attention of Professor Flitwick briefly. They all pretended to be discussing the spell momentarily, and then he was satisfied and looked away.

"Oh, boo-fucking-hoo, she won't come down from your dorm. Did Regulus decide he was too much of a Slytherin for her?"

James would've said something to Sirius about his tone, and the way he was speaking of Ellie too, but he didn't think it would help the situation. He'd already tried last night to get him to talk through his anger, but no one could get him to talk like Ellie could, and she was the last person Sirius wanted to see.

"Regulus? What about Regulus?" Lily screwed up her brow in confusion, "I'm talking about Ellie not coming and sleeping in our dorm last night. I thought maybe you guys had reconciled or something, fixed whatever happened at dinner last night, but then she wasn't at breakfast with you-"

"What do you mean she didn't sleep in your dorm last night. She didn't sleep in ours." A panicked washed over James in an instant.

There was nowhere else she could've gone, nowhere else she could've slept at least, all the boys had expected her to be with Lily. None of them had noticed the beautiful girl's absence at breakfast, for they'd all thought she'd sit with the girls, and they were too busy trying to make Sirius promise that he wouldn't lash out at her. James would admit that he felt deflated about Ellie running off to find Regulus yesterday, but he could also understand the point that Remus kept trying to put across about how Sirius shouldn't have made her pick like that. It wasn't fair, and it was definitely unreasonable, but he'd said it now and all that could be done was damage control.

However, Ellie's potential disappearance had put a spanner in the works, and they were all growing panicked as to where she could be - even Sirius.