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Sixth Year - 1976
ONLY ONE OF CORDELIA'S FRIENDS RECEIVED AN O IN ASTRONOMY LAST YEAR. Lily earned an E but chose to drop the subject. That left Cordelia and Sirius alone in the class, and thus far it was nice. Things changed when Cordelia climbed the Astronomy Tower to see a blonde Hufflepuff in her normal seat. Sirius sent her a grin and wiggled his eyebrows, subtly gesturing to his companion.
No matter how hard she tried, Cordelia couldn't swallow the resentment that tightened her throat. She was used to this. She should've been expecting it to happen. But today, with the stress of the full moon still muddling her brain, it was too much.
Cordelia turned on her heel and left the room. She didn't stop when she heard him calling after her. She didn't stop to think about the consequences of it or how irrational she might be behaving. She didn't stop when a prefect tried to give her a detention.
She didn't stop for a second. Not until she was standing on the quidditch pitch with a familiar weight in her shaking hands. Releasing a bludger, she spent nearly an hour batting it around the pitch. Her chest was heaving with exertion as she paused on her broom. The tears slowly rolling down her cheeks didn't even register in her mind until she turned her broom and was met with the sight of James Potter on a broom in his pajamas.
"What happened?"
Two words. He said them quietly and with such patience that Cordelia couldn't hold back the floodgates if she tried. She slammed her bat into the bludger one more time, crying out in a choked sob. They landed their brooms, and she watched James wrestled the angry sphere into its box from her place on the grass.
"Come on, Delia," he said softly and turned to walk towards the stands. They settled onto the hard bleachers, and she sucked a ragged breath in through her mouth.
"You know you can tell me anything, right?" James questioned slowly. He shifted closer to her. "Whatever it is... it's okay."
Cordelia's watery eyes looked at him, and she laughed pitifully. James watched her pull a cigarette out of her robes and light it with the end of her wand.
"It's silly. I mean, how dumb could I be to fall for Sirius bleeding Black?"
She had never seen James's eyes as wide as they were just then. His mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. Cordelia inhaled deeply and relished in the burn of the smoke filling her lungs. She couldn't help the chuckle that broke free at the sight of her friend floundering for a response to the bomb she dropped on him.
"Don't... don't tell anyone, eh?" She sighed weakly. James still hasn't said a word, but he nodded in understanding.
