𝙰 𝙳𝚘𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙰 𝙳𝚘𝚟𝚎 - 𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑢𝑠 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘

Chapter 27

Quidditch matches could not come along quick enough in the eyes of James and Sirius. With Gryffindor at the top of the leader board, James was in a flurry, training nearly every day with his team to ensure they stayed there. Aurelia and Lily often attended their trainings, welcomed warmly by the friendly members of Gryffindor's quidditch team, but whenever there was a crossover between Gryffindor and Slytherin trainings, typically they avoided, as more and more violence between pure-bloods and muggle-borns became prevalent.

Sirius always felt proud when he noticed Aurelia actively watching him train and had begun to wear her favourite blue ribbon around his wrist during matches as a reminder of her support when he got tired. Though she did not scream or chant as loudly as many other members of his own house did, her mere presence during each match gave the boy the drive he needed to do his absolute best, and some passing quidditch team managers were beginning to ask about him, looking to gain him once he graduated in a year's time.

For once, however, James and Sirius had decided to train on their own, and out of both love and concern for the two girls accompanying them, they insisted they stay on the field, rather than sit further away in the stands, where anyone could be. Lily, despite her recent loss of Severus' friendship, could not help but smile as James flew over her, landing a sneaky kiss on her cheek just as he had been doing since he stood up for her on that day.

It were as if something had finally clicked between the two, many noted, and James' protective nature had been dialled up to a thousand whenever he and Lily were together, more noticeably around the students who had always bullied her and Aurelia. Sirius stayed the same as ever, but whenever James was busy, he or Remus would keep an eye on Lily for him when she was with them, offering to escort her places if she needed to go.

Lily read one of her textbooks as Aurelia constructed a daisy chain from the end of her wand, intending on giving it to Wendy for her upcoming birthday. Sirius found himself unable to focus on the bludgers around him as Aurelia's precise attention to detail and skill with her wand created a perfectly formed crown, which would never die.

"Eyes on me, Padfoot!" James hollered from well above, as he zoomed around the pitch, trying out new forms to throw the quaffle he held. Sirius blinked, before racing after James, beating a bludger towards the Slytherin stands just seconds before it could hit his best friend. He'd always adored being a beater, using the role primarily as a stress reliever during his darker times in his younger years.

Quidditch ran through his veins, one of the only things that tied him to the family he'd left behind, but unlike the seekers his uncles, grandfathers and distant relatives had been, he liked to believe some higher power in the universe, perhaps a good however many greats grandmother or grandfather, had bestowed upon him the gift to be a beater.

Aurelia smiled at up James and Sirius as the smiles on their faces grew and shrank demanding on how serious their training became. It took no fool to understand Sirius' adoration for his sport, how focused he was when holding a bat compared to a wand. Lily's eyes trailed from her book to James, and a quaint smile lifted the corner of her mouth, not going unnoticed by Aurelia.

Though a mere smile from Lily Evans was more than enough to bring light into a room, Aurelia knew the red head was only truly happy when in the presence of her loved ones. She'd never been more grateful to be a part of that small few Lily cherished with all her heart, and hoped that once they were all grown up, with children of their own, that her and Lily's children would love each other just as they did. Perhaps they'd even be lovers, if close enough in age.

"Lia, you're blushing," Lily remarked in a sing-song voice, snapping her book shut. Aurelia glanced down at Lily, her cheeks indeed red from her whimsical imagination, and Lily beckoned for Aurelia lay her head in the red-head's lap, to which Aurelia could not say no. Lily's fingers entangled themselves through Aurelia's silk-like locks, and Aurelia shut her eyes, still imagining her future.

"Lily, darling, we'll be friends forever, right?" Aurelia asked, earning a content hum in reply from her best friend.

"You'd have to kill me to be rid of me, and I'm afraid there's already a long line of people waiting to do that, so you might have to wait a while," Lily replied with a laugh, beginning to braid a small section of Aurelia's hair. "But of course, Lia. We'll be best friends even after our dying breaths."

"I hope our children grow up together, whenever we may have them," Aurelia whispered, her eyes trailing the end of Sirius' broom as he sped after James, bat held high above his head.

"Well, if you and Sirius stay together, your children will be the most beautiful the world has ever come across. Immensely kind, smart, funny; the perfect little human, who will of course be named partly after their Aunt Lily," the girl said with a grin, weaving a daisy into the brown strands of hair threaded between her fingers.

A silence fell over the two girls as Sirius and James finally landed onto the quidditch pitch, brows drenched with sweat and wide smirks lighting up their faces. Lily's fingers stilled as James sat beside her, his hand hovering inches from hers, and in a movement of sheer boldness, she placed her hand atop of his, curling her fingers around his. Sirius' eyebrows raised, but he made no comment as Aurelia's left hand reached out towards him, empty of any kinds of jewellery, but crammed with small reminders here and there, about homework and dinner.

His thumb brushed over her ring finger as he clasped her hand gently, and goosebumps rippled under his sweater as Aurelia's eyes locked with his, the gentle blue of her irises coaxing his entire body to stay with her, a trap he wished only to surrender himself to at all times.

"Why don't we skip dinner tonight and have our own small one in the Room of Requirement?" James suggested, touching shoulders with Lily. Lily looked over to Sirius, who nodded before squeezing Aurelia's hand, the girl squeezing back with a lop-sided smile.

The four were quick to leave, but the echoes of their laughs strayed on the quidditch pitch in their absence, as well as the carvings of each of their initials on one of the posts holding up the stands.

J.F.P   L.E   S.O.B   A.H