Liquid Luck [Sirius Black]/editing

chapter 42

Dad comes walking through the hall when I catch his attention with a whine, "Dad, make Benjamin give me my wand back. He's being really annoying." Benji gasps and yells back, "I only took it because she called my eyes tiny!" The younger boy frowns. Dad retreats back upstairs, clearly not having any of this.

"You have tiny eyes! What do you want from me?" I raise my arms in surrender with a smirk playing on my lips.

"I do not! You just have the biggest eyes in the world...ugly troll." He mutters the last part under his breath.

"Now I'm being bullied!" I throw my arms into the air. "I'd never call you a troll – it would be an insult to trolls everywhere." I say the last part loudly making him respond by slapping my arm. I return that with a slap of my own and soon we're in a full-on wrestling match on the living room floor.

"Greetings Holland family, it is I, James!" James exclaims happily, dragging his trunk in behind him with a bright grin which falters at the sight of Benjamin on top of me trying to push my hands away as I slap at his face mercilessly. "What the...what's happened this time?"

Everliah sets her book to the side on the sofa and her blue eyes meet James' hazel ones. "Something about trolls. I honestly wasn't paying them much thought."

"Bets?" James asks with a smirk. This is a regular occurrence with them, betting on me and Benjamin's fights. It's all in good fun of course, we love each other really.

"You're on. I'll put five Sickles on Benji winning."

"I'll put six on Chiara." He fishes into his pocket and pulls out a handful of change before setting it in the table along with Everliah's five Sickles.

*

"Oh, Jamie, get over it." I roll my eyes and nudge the taller boy beside me. He pouts and turns his head away from me.

"What's with him?" A familiar voice asks, making my head whip in the direction of his voice and my eyes widen brightly. "REMY!" I rush forward to envelop him in a tight hug. He lifts me up off my feet and carries me further into the compartment before placing me down on the seat with a chuckle.

"I've missed you, Keeks!" He grins. I stare up at him for the first time in two months and take in how much he's grown in height and how handsome he's getting as he goes through puberty. His sandy hair's gotten a little longer and is messed up adorably while his eyes remain shining kindly as they normally do.

"You've grown." I state bluntly.

"Wish I could say the same about you." He replies with a smirk.

"Hey! I've grown." I cross my arms over my chest and pout dramatically.

"Sure you have, love." Another voice says from the compartment door. I whip my head around to find Sirius standing there coolly wearing his signature smirk.

I get up off my seat to greet him but James shoves me aside and runs forward instead, cheering, "Sirius!" I topple over and groan as I skin my elbows and knees on the rough carpeted floors. James and Sirius just continue to hug as if they're the only two in the world.

Remus leans over and offers his hands to help pull me off the floor, laughing as he does so. "You okay?" His fingers graze my hurt knees and he mutters an incantation to heal it. It's unnecessary since I was barely hurt but kind of him all the same.