What if they all lived?

Chapter 22

Saturday  2nd January 1972

Athena Black

"And then my stupid sister ruined Christmas-"

The girls kept on exchanging Christmas stories and Athena was gladly listening, it was fun seeing the girls get so excited over nothing.

"Athena, I saw muggles ride these things, they say it's like our brooms but they don't fly" Marlene was saying "That's a bike idiot" Mary replied.

"Did your brother write?" Lily asked after they were done talking about how horrible her sister was for no apparent reason. "No, but that's definitely my mothers fault, with Christmas and all he was probably busy playing the perfect son"

They all nodded and continued their conversations, after Mary and Lily started talking about things, neither Marlene or herself knew about, like Christmas carols, the two girls sat in Marlene's bed.

"And so my brother and I took butter and put it all over the stairs and then Flitch came to try and get us detention but he tripped before he saw us and we ran away laughing" she said, holding her sides because laughing so hard was beginning to hurt.

"Merlin! Wish I was there, my brother kept on talking about all the professional teams that are begging him to join them, and don't get me wrong I'm happy for him, but he could honestly shut up from time to time." they kept on talking and then with a flick of the blondes wand the curtains around her bed were drawn

"Listen, I have to tell you something" she said, casting a silencing spell that she taught her.

"I think, but maybe I'm wrong, that Mary has the biggest crush on your brother, '' she said with a big smile on her face. She could tell that the girl was fond of Sirius but she didn't think it was a crush. It didn't bother her though. If they were to date there couldn't be a better person than Mary.

Marlene kept on going about all the reasons she thought her theory was right and Athena couldn't help but stop listening after a while and look away because she found that she couldn't look the girl in the eye without her stomach waiting to burst out, she didn't know why but it wasn't exactly an unpleasant sensation, just weird.

Sirius Black

"So wait, explain it to me again?" Peter whispered, speaking in hushed voices. "It sounds complicated."

"It isn't," Sirius assured him, "I reckon it's easy. Weather spells are hard on a grand scale, but this only needs to be a cloud the size of this plate."

"Would it be like the ceiling?" he asked, boy was he thick.

"A bit," Sirius replied, "But smaller. And without whatever charms are stopping us from getting wet."

"But...couldn't he just step away from it?" James Said. Good point but Remus already thought of that

"Not if we combine it with a binding spell!" the boy said, as if on cue

"But...we can't mix spells yet. Well, I Can't. Can you?" He was so close to punching Peter, why did he have to put stops on pranks as exciting as this one? Remus never does that.

"Yes." he said in something that sounded more like a threat than a response

"Well, maybe you can but I'm not that smart, in case you didn't notice"

"Oh, don't say that Pete." James offered.

Sirius had to recognize that he wasn't the best at everything and so he couldn't be condescending.

It was getting easier, admitting stuff like that. One side effect of spending all his time around James and Remus was that Sirius had to accept that he simply wouldn't be the best at everything any longer (they were much tougher competition than Regulus, maybe not Athena, but he never did saw her as competition it was more like his right hand in mischief).

But he found that he enjoyed the challenge of competing with James, who—regardless of whether he won or lost—always concluded the competition with a broad grin and a friendly pat on the back. And he could hardly hold it against Remus, who was so shy about his own talent with magic that he acted baffled anytime he came first in something.