honey | sirius black

four

Elodie didn't get to return Sirius' leather jacket for quite some time actually. Of course, they saw each other slightly more often as Elodie had mostly migrated into the Marauder's friendship group, but they mostly hung out in uniform, so there was no need for her to be carrying the coat around, and the two barely talked one-on-one. Something was off between them. She hadn't been angry since the day at Hogsmeade, but there was tension so thick they couldn't even sit next to each other when the group was studying or hanging out. If they talked it was forced and unnatural, small talk so stiff it was worse than a muggle talk show. Remus had apologised on Sirius' behalf many times, and Elodie forgave him, but she didn't know what to do to get them to at least distant friends. She supposed she should apologise too, but she wouldn't know how to; it wasn't something she had to do much.

It was two weeks until the tension between Elodie and Sirius began to dissolve. Elodie was walking alone down a corridor to Charms, unable to find any of her friends from her class. Her books were tight against her chest and she was humming a tune she'd heard play on the radio in the common room the night before. It was relatively quiet until she heard a heavy pair of footprints running in her direction. Elodie ignored them, it wasn't uncommon for someone to be running somewhere around; the staircases were a huge setback. She didn't expect, however, for the footprints to slam into her and her books to scatter around her on the tiles.

"Oh shit, oh fuck." Elodie heard the voice say and pushed herself up to face it. None other than Sirius Black was looking down at her, a very concerned frown contorting his face. After a moment he snapped into motion and held out a hand for her to take. He pulled her up to her feet and they both scrambled around to pick up her books. Looking down at the cover, Sirius' eyebrows furrowed.

"Arithmancy? I didn't know you took that?"

"I don't," Elodie stared at her feet, "But I'm pretty interested in it so I borrowed the textbook from the library to learn." Sirius chuckled despite his nerves.

"Anyway," She took the books back, looking down at the stack in her arms. "I should go. Have a nice class." Elodie turned to go when Sirius grabbed her arm, pulling her back.

"Wait." He pulled her to the side of the corridor, facing out towards the grass. "I'm sorry for being an arse lately."

"What?" Elodie was taken aback. Where was this coming from?

"I'm sorry for being a dickhead and insulting your friends without even knowing them." He took a breath, "I've been thinking about what you said and you're right. I've never bothered getting to know anyone outside of Gryffindor and it was wrong of me to assume that my friends are better than everyone else." Elodie took a moment, processing what Sirius said.

"Was that rehearsed?" Was what ended up coming out, and Sirius gave her a tightlipped smile.

"A little. Moony and Wormy helped. Prongs would have but Evans rejected him so he was useless," Sirius confessed, smiling a bit at the end. Elodie smiled too.

"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have blown up at you, I don't usually get angry, never, really. I don't know what came over me, but I'm really sorry." Elodie looked up at Sirius to see a soft smile on his sharp features.

"No, you were right. About everything. About being self-obsessed and how I treated Katy."

"Can we be friends now?" Elodie asked, nervously fidgeting with a long strand of hair, twirling it between her fingers.

"Of course, Baby," Sirius replied and Elodie beamed, throwing her arms around Sirius, her head reaching up to sit on his shoulder, inhaling the scent of his shampoo.

"Um, I really have to get to class now, but I'll see you around?" She was already retreating down the hallway, when Sirius nodded, yelling out a goodbye; a Gryffindor trait.

Claudia agreed it was weird when Elodie recounted her day at dinner, whispering to keep their conversation private.

"I didn't know Sirius Black had it in him to apologise," Claudia had laughed, covering a snort with a dodgy sip of her pumpkin juice.

"I suspect it was Remus who urged him to, he's been apologetic all week," Elodie replied, cutting neatly into her food.

"I still can't believe he called us boring! I mean, come on. I'm far more interesting than him and he knows it," The ginger scoffed.

"Of course, Claud. I think he has vulnerability issues is all. Can't help but put up his walls. Explains the revolving door of girlfriends, too." Claudia let out a loud cackle of a laugh, drawing attention from the surrounding Hufflepuffs. She smiled sheepishly until they went back to their respective conversations.

"You are not psycho-analysing a boy you know nothing about."

"Why not?" Elodie whined playfully, "It's so fun!" Claudia rolled her eyes.

"He's a sixteen-year-old boy, El. He might just be a dick," She said before changing the topic to Aatifa's latest quidditch injury, a dislocated shoulder.

a/n short chap today sorry :)