lovely lady may • sirius black

Chapter 28

Nothing terrified Sirius more than reading the article in the paper about what had happened in New York. It was the morning they were supposed to get on the train to Hogwarts, and as soon as they were on the platform, he began to search for Octavia. What if she wasn't even coming to school? He wouldn't blame her if she laid low for a while, but he needed to talk to her, and didn't want to wait until he got a letter—if she'd ever write one. It probably wasn't something she wanted to talk about to begin with. When he finally found her sitting alone in a compartment, he rushed to give her a hug.

"I heard what happened," he murmured, cupping both sides of her face with his hands, "are you okay."

"I'm fine," she replied quietly, "can we talk about this privately later? I don't want to start crying about it on the train."

"Of course," he pulled her into another hug, still deeply concerned for her, "I'm just glad that you're okay."

"I don't even feel safe in my house anymore," she whimpered, burying her face in his chest to hide it from any onlookers. It broke his heart to see her so scared.

"I'm sure Dumbledore will make sure nothing happens. If anyone tries to mess with you, just tell me and I'll take care of it."

"I'm sure you will," she mustered a small smile, "and I was given permission to go to Gryffindor tower, so you won't have to sneak me in anymore."

"See? Things aren't so bad."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Come on, why don't you come sit with me and the others? They're all worried about you."

She shook her head, "I think I'd like it more if it was just you and I for now."

Sirius immediately understood, "That's fine. I missed you anyway," a tiny part of him wanted to ask about the guy Octavia has been with when she was attacked, but decided that could probably wait for a better time.

"I missed you too," she leaned her forehead against his and kissed him softly. "I don't want to spend any more summers apart."

"Me neither. I'm sorry I went and screwed this one up."

"It's not your fault. You needed time."

"And you needed me."

She leaned her head on his shoulder with a sigh, "I did alright, and I still got to see you at the Potter's a few times, it's just the past few days that have been shit."

He pursed his lips, "I really wanted to do right by you this summer—step up to the plate, be a proper boyfriend, and none of that happened."

"Don't worry about it. You had other stuff going on, and there's still plenty of time for you to prove yourself worthy of my affections. It's not like I expect to be married any time soon."

"I don't know what you're talking about, I was planning on proposing by the end of the school year."

To be honest, I can't tell if he's actually joking or not, "You're insane if you think I'm going to marry you before we're done with school."

"Why is that?"

"Because it's some trashy pureblood shit that your family would probably do, that's why," I smirk slightly, "I'm going to have the classiest muggle wedding the world has ever seen."

He smiles at that, "You make a fair point. I guess I do have some time to clean up my act then."

I'm so exhausted from the recent events that I find myself beginning to fall asleep on his shoulder. "Don't worry, there isn't much cleaning up to do."