good things fall apart • sirius black

It wasn't that type of trip

James and Lily had been sat on a cold metal bench waiting for nearly an hour. They'd gone outside prepared, wrapped in their thickest winter coats, hats and scarves, and even thrown a blanket across their knees as they huddled side by side - Marmalade had long curled up in between them as he sort warmth too. Euphemia had brought out hot chocolate and now they both hunched over steaming mugs, warming the ends of their noses whenever they stole sidewards glances. When they were talking, everything was great, but there was still some jittery awkwardness otherwise.

"Still no sign of them?" Cyrus' voice called from the direction of the Gryffin house, his crunching strides heard before he was.

"Do you think we start to worry yet?" Lily pursed her lips, running an anxious hand through Marmalade's fur and making him purr, "I mean, who knows where that pair have actually decided to go."

"They'll just be faffing around." James shrugged as he shifted his gaze to Cyrus, noticing the woman at his side for the first time. With her lips painted the same shade of cherry red that Ellie liked to sport these days and lit cigarette in hand, she was undoubtably Camille Dubois. The messy haired boy shook his head back and forth as he started to smirk, "Cubby's gonna piss herself."

"It's nice to see you again too, James." Camille replied, taking one last drag of her cigarette before stubbing the end out on a nearby plant pot, "And let me see what I can remember from what Ellie's told me..." She began, smiling brightly at Lily, "Red hair... If it wasn't for the fact that you were willingly sat next to this fool, I'd say you must be Lily Evans."

"I am." The girl in question turned slightly pink, giving a wave, "It's lovely to meet you. Ellie talks about you a lot."

"It's 'cause Camille's a legend." James told her.

"Your reputation proceeds you." Cyrus chuckled, turning on his sister-in-law, and Camille raised her eyebrows confidently.

"I'd hope that it would. I'm not too old yet."

Just as James went to ask if Camille was here to spend Christmas with them, a rumbling of a raspy engine cut him off. Into view came a motorbike speeding too fast up the driveway, kicking white gravel everywhere and looking like it might not stop in front of the Potter's and continue straight on to the lawn. But instead, it came to a skidding stop as Euphemia and Fleamont came rushing out of the house.

"You didn't say they'd gone on his motorbike." Camille smirked at Cyrus, "Were you not worried? Shouldn't you be saying that Sirius is 'bad news' for your daughter or something?"

"I either let her do this and worry because she's spending nights away with him and she's not even of age yet. Or I don't let her do this and I worry because she's spending nights away with Godric knows who, Merlin knows where, getting herself into all kinds of trouble."

Camille's smirk stayed in place.

"And Sirius isn't trouble?"

"I trust Sirius and I respect him as an individual. He's a very important part of Ellie's life regardless of what comes of their relationship."

"You give them your blessing?" Camille teased.

"If you want to be old-fashioned about it, yes, I do."

Before Camille got the chance to scoff and say that out of the two of them, he was far more 'old-fashioned', she was almost barrelled over into a tight hug. Ellie had flung her arms around her, having ran at her at top speed, only interested in greeting her Aunt that she'd missed so much.

"You're here." Ellie breathed, hardly being able to pull herself away from their hug.

"I've been assigned big things by the Order." Camille wiggled her eyebrows, "But I thought I'd stick around for Christmas to see you. If that's alright?"