Something Worth Losing | S.B

27: Letters Again and New Years

"How was it?" Remus asked, blowing out the match that he had used to light the fireplace as James and Sirius came back into the living room, their parents having gone straight up to bed.

"S'alright." James slumped into the sofa. "Same as last year." Sirius smiled privately at that.

"So your mum didn't catch you then, Padfoot?" Peter asked.

Sirius shook his head. "No. Prongs is right, nothing exciting happened." This, of course, was entirely untrue. 

Sirius hadn't stopped thinking about the conversation that he had had with Beatrice since it happened about two hours prior. The rest of the night had been fairly boring, and he ached to go back outside and see if she was still there. He wanted to talk to her about trivial things. To get to know each other the way normal people do. And he wanted to know what she had decided with regards to the whole engagement thing. Nonetheless, the boys company would have to do.

"Aren't you cold, Pads?" Remus asked as he stood up, and Sirius remarked at the difference in their clothing choices. Remus in one of his mother's old jumpers, fraying at the sleeves and the hem, and Sirius, still in his dress robes. "Where's the rest of your robe?" He lit up a smoke, going to open the window on the other side of the room.

Sirius looked down at his arms and, of course, he was lacking the part of his robes that he had leant to Beatrice. She can keep it, he thought, and smiled. "I don't know." He lied. It was always easier to lie. "Must have left it there by accident."

***

Sirius,

I still have your dress robes. Well, part of them. I'll send it with the owl, consider it a Christmas present.

I just wanted to thank you for what you said to me at the party. I don't know how helpful any of it was and I'll still probably get married, but I've thought a lot about what you said about being more than what people think. I don't know if you're right but believing it can't hurt. I've started to look at career options. I just thought you should know.

I'll see you at school,
B. A. Dupont

Beatrice, (it felt like the right thing to say)

Thanks for the dress robes. The boys were wondering what had happened to them. 

You're welcome for the advice. It seems to have become a regular thing between us, don't you think? Next time I might have to start charging you. 

I'm happy about the career too. I think that's a good choice.

Sirius.

Sirius thought about a million different ways to sign his name at the end, trying to find the balance between formal and friendly. He had tried to find that balance in what he wrote too, and quite frankly he wasn't sure that he had nailed it, but sent it off nonetheless, trying not to think about it too much.

He was shocked that she had written to him, having not expected it at all, but he liked it. It was like she was a marauder, or something. Like she was a real friend, not just someone that wanted his advice or popularity or anything like that.

***

As was usually the case in the Beaumont manor, emotions were bottled up and life continued without much discussion. 

Regulus stayed with the Duponts for the rest of the holidays, giving Beatrice the excuse to avoid her family and their questions. They were at least happy that she was still on speaking terms with the boy. 

Evie had also stayed with them as she had been at the party and would be with them for New Years, and so the week in between the two events was filled with trips into muggle areas of London (behind their parents backs, of course). They had found a cinema that showed old muggle movies, and had been so excited by trying to figure out how the projector worked that they had been asked to leave by the lady working there, because they had distracted the other people in the screening. Once, Evie had even managed to get them into a bar and been flirted with by several muggle boys before Regulus had accidentally let it slip that they were not really the right age to be flirting with. This had earned him a thump on the head and the silent treatment until lunch the next morning.

On the 30th, Ruth, Freddie and Grace all flooed in to the Dupont's living room with large suitcases, bright smiles and cheeks flushed with the cold.

***

"Freddie, did you bring that little blue dress like I asked?"

"I was gonna wear my little blue dress!"

"No, you said you were gonna wear your gold top with your new Levi's."

"No, that's what Ruth was gonna wear."

"Well what the hell am I supposed to wear?!"

"Grace, you own like a million dresses."

Beatrice held up a pink slip dress to her body, seeing if it would fit her. "You can borrow one of mine, G." Grace opened her mouth but Beatrice got there before she could say anything. "But not this one." She pulled her jumper off over her head and Grace pouted.

"I'm so excited." Evie could barely contain herself. To be fair, however, neither could anyone else. They had decided to go to one of the bars that Beatrice, Reg and Evie had found earlier in the holidays. 

"I'm just gonna go through your wardrobe, Bea." Grace stood up from her spot and the vanity and clambered her way over the piles of rejected clothes on the floor.

"Bea," Evie began slowly, and Beatrice turned to face her at the suspicious tone of her voice. "What is this?" She was waving around the letter that Sirius had sent her, after she had so carelessly left it poking out from underneath her jewellery box.

Beatrice shrugged, fighting to remain as nonchalant as possible. "Nothing. Just a letter." She fastened her earrings and turned back around, hoping that her disinterest would cause the topic to be dropped. 

"Yeah. From Sirius Black." Evie continued.

"Since when are you sending letters with Sirius Black?" Freddie asked, getting up to go and read it. 

Beatrice racked her brain for anything in the letter that she wouldn't want them to see, but what  could Sirius have possibly said that was so bad? Regulus smirked at her (though Beatrice knew it was all good fun) and Beatrice rolled her eyes at him, indicating her objection to the dramatics of her dorm mates. "That's the only one." She insisted.

"Well, it's not very romantic." Ruth furrowed her eyebrows.

"Huh, well I wonder why that is." Beatrice said sarcastically, marching over to take it from Evie's grasp.

"Yeah Bea," Regulus started, gleeful to have to opportunity to tease her about her relationship with his brother, "first Lupin, now this?" He joked.

"You can shut up, Black."