Mischief Managed || Sirius Black

20. The one with Sirius Coming to Stay

Julianna woke up in the mid afternoon with a groan.

She walked down stairs and made herself a cup of hot tea. James walked down with his hair messed up. He sent his sister a smile. "Hey. How're you feeling?"

"Good. Thanks for asking JP. I'm probably gonna head up and study for a bit." she smiled back at him before taking a sip of her tea. James walked into the kitchen, with a mirror in his back pocket, and out of sight. Since the Christmas ball, Julianna had barely been out of her room. And she hadn't wrote to any of her friends.

She wasn't doing it on purpose. She was just spending the day studying. Sirius was admittedly the most worried about her. He was having a rough day at home. Walburga and Orion were being awful, Regulus was listening to what they were saying. So to distract himself from his home problems he was speaking with James through the mirror.

"She's still studying?" Sirius asked as James took the mirror out of his pocket and sat down.

"It's 5 in the afternoon and she just woke up." James groaned.

Julianna and James sat with their mother at the dinner table. Their father was in the living room doing some work for the ministry and Julianna and James didn't ask what. James was scarfing down his food, inhaling it and not really tasting it. Julianna however poked at her meatloaf, she never really enjoyed it but she always ate it. She always ate all of her food.

"You barely touched your food, Julianna." Euphemia noticed her daughter's weird behavior and pointed it out.

"I'm not hungry for meatloaf, Mummy." She responded, still digging through her meatloaf with a spoon.

"Well it is left over night. We got steak. Pasta. What are you hungry for." Euphemia asked her daughter.

James smirked and responded teasingly,"Sirius Black."

"shut up." she glared at him.

"What? You are." James said in his defense.

Julianna stabbed her meatloaf and leaned forward and towards him,"I said shut up you little insect."

"James." Euphemia said warningly.

"Well she is!" James defended himself once again, loudly to make his point more known.

"no yelling at the dinner table! Honey." she called out to Fleamont for some help.

Fleamont called back instantly without looking away from his papers,"Kids listen to your mother."

"She'd eat more if we were having a Sirius-loaf" James said to himself, Julianna, who had heard him threw her fork onto the table and narrowed her eyes at him.

"That's it!" Julianna jumped over the table and attacked James when the door bell rang.

"Julianna would you please go and get that." Euphemia said plucking her daughter off of her son.

When she opened the door she had seen Sirius, standing in the soaking, pouring rain. His hair was drenched and hanging wet around his face, still quite elegantly and handsomely.

Her eyes fell to his trunk, his fingers wrapped around the strap so tight his knuckles were turning white. She had instantly knew what had happened. Sirius seen the look of recognition in her eyes as she looked back at him before pulling him into a hug. Sirius let go of his trunk and wrapped his arms around her waist tightly. His face was buried in her hair that smelt warm. Like hot soothing tea and pumpkin spice. Her skin smelt like violets. Euphemia had gotten her essential oils to put on herself, the violet one was her favorite she was always wearing it.

Julianna however smelt the cinnamon that not even the pouring rain can diminish. One of her hands rubbed his back in a comforting manner while the other one stroked his dripping hair. Julianna grabbed Sirius's arm and pulled him into the manor. She couldn't tell if he had been crying or if it was the rain sticking to his cheeks.

"You must be freezing. You can use my room if you want to take a shower." Julianna said to him softly as she shut the door. "My shower has the best water pressure."

"To be honest it's always been that way, Annie." Sirius said smiling charmingly. "Can you keep this a secret for tonight?" he asked. Julianna nodded.

Julianna went upstairs to check on Sirius. He was taking a shower in Julianna's bathroom since it was the closest to the stairs and he was still soaking wet, plus her shower had better water pressure. He was wrapping the towel around his waist when Julianna walked in.

"Oh my Godric!" she gasped as she covered her eyes and turned away,"I didn't see anything... Much. Okay I seen everything. It's a lot- I mean- I don't know anymore."

"Are yo-"

"I came in to tell you we should probably talk about... uhm... I just wanted to let you know that there are extra towels over here...." she started feeling around the wall in search for the towels as Sirius pointed confusedly at the wall with the towels on it,"They're not over here, they're right there." she said pointed at the correct wall this time.

"Yeah." Sirius nodded awkwardly as she stood there for a few seconds.

"Okay." she before turning around with her eyes still covered and smacking her face into the door,"Oh-"

"Are you alright?" he asked her worriedly,"We should probably check that-"

Before she could leave the room, Euphemia had walked into her bedroom, Julianna had practically forced the towel off of Sirius and threw him back into the shower. "Julianna? Where are you?"

"Uh I'm in the shower mom!" Julianna said. She seen the door knob twisting so she quickly got in behind Sirius. She had put his hand over his mouth so he wouldn't say anything.

"I was wondering if I should cook hamburgers for tomorrow." she said. "maybe we should invite Sirius. Since James said you like him and all."

Julianna's eyes had widened,"Uh I can't really talk right now mom. I'm getting shampoo in my mouth." She could feel Sirius smiling against her palm.

"Alright well I'm going to bed. Love you."

"Love you too, Mom." Julianna said. She heard the door click shut and removed her hand.

"Fancy seeing you here." Sirius said with a smirk before he turned around. Julianna's eyes had fell to his ass Immediately. She shrugged her eyebrows in satisfaction but suddenly she wasn't looking at his backside anymore because he has turned back around. Julianna quickly averted her eyes.

"Right" she mumbled. "Right." She quickly got out and left.

Sirius of course wasn't going to let her off that easily. So he had followed her. "You're right. We should definitely talk about the ball. And that night at Hogwarts." he said.

"Now isn't the time.. you just ran away from home." Julianna said softly.

"All in all. That was a house not a home. And the only thing I regret is not forcing Reggie to come with me." Sirius said to her. "Besides me and James have been planning it. I couldn't stay any longer. Especially if I wanted you."

"What if we ruin this? Our friendship?" Julianna asked him.

"I can love and like you at the same time, Julianna Potter. I love you as my best friend. I just like you in a different way now." he said.

That has made Julianna smile. "Can I think about it?" Julianna asked him.

Sirius smiled,"Of course, Annie."

Julianna kissed his cheek before resting her head on his shoulder.