Celestial | Sirius Black Love Story

Chapter Eight

It was now the 23rd of December, and I was packing some clothes into a duffel bag to bring with me home over Christmas. Everyone was going home for Christmas, Sirius seemed to grow more and more gloomy by the day, and now seemed downright miserable at the prospect of going home. I knew things weren't how they should be in his home, but I didn't know what I could do to help him. 

"Are you ready to catch a carriage down to the train?" Septima stood behind me, wearing a festive green and red striped knitted jumper with white baubles hanging here and there.

"Yeah, I think so," I paused, looking at her jumper, "You do know that thing really is quite hideous?"

She laughed, "That's the point! It's cosy, you know."

I chuckled silently, took a look around the room to make sure I hadn't left anything, then headed down with Septima. The others had gone down a bit earlier to secure us a nice compartment on the train, I'd accidentally slept a bit longer than I had intended to.

The ride down to the station was nice, we talked about how each of our families celebrated Christmas. Septima usually played card games all night on Christmas eve, and everyone was compelled to wear an ugly jumper every day of Christmas other than Christmas Day. Her family sounded nice, she had a younger brother called Alaric who sounded lovely.

We found the carriage everyone had saved for us soon enough; Lily was yelling at James for trying to look through her bag 'for girl things' while she had been to the toilet with Alice and Marlene. James looked rather sheepish, and everyone else was roaring with laughter. Soon enough everyone settled down, though Lily still looked daggers at James.

I soon drifted back asleep nestled in Septima's arms, I hadn't slept too well the previous nights. A while later I was shaken awake for a spot of lunch and we spent the rest of the train ride playing exploding snap, laughing all the way.

Before long, the train pulled into King's Cross, and I spotted my mum and Remus' parents on the platform, looking anticipated up towards the train. When mum caught my eye she beamed widely, and I felt my own mouth break into a huge smile. I looked away, and my smile faded as they landed on Sirius. He looked rather sick.

We gathered all of our stuff and walked down to the platform, promising to write to each other.

Before leaving to go to my mum, I stopped Sirius and handed him a piece of folded paper, "What's that?" He asked.

"My address. Come visit any time," I looked at him seriously, "And I mean any time. Let me know if you're okay, and tell me anything you want to. Keep me updated, I hope everything goes well."

Sirius nodded and put the paper in his pocket, "Thanks. It really does mean a lot." He hugged me, lingering for a bit longer than usual then pulled away, giving me a half-hearted smile before disappearing into the crowd.

I walked over to my mum, Remus, and his parents, giving each of them a hug, and we moved through the masses of people, chatting about how the school year was going so far. Before leaving the platform I looked back through the crowd of happy families and saw Sirius walking nervously towards an important looking witch with dark hair tied sleekly back in a bun and cheekbones so high and sharp they cut her face in two. She smiled at Sirius and took him in a one armed hug, though she seemed somewhat stiff, even from a distance. I caught Sirius' eye and quickly looked away, entering the muggle station. 

"Shall we find a quiet street and apparate home?" Asked Hope, Remus' mother.

"Oh, I drove here." Mum said, looking at the ground.

At once, regret spread over Hopes face and she put a hand on my mums shoulder, "Of course, but you better drive, I'll never get the hang of those bleeding carts."

Mum forced a little smile on, but relaxed before long. We all got into the car, a pink beetle. It was relatively new, mum and I had chosen it sarcastically - we weren't really the type of family to own a pink beetle - but it had grown on us. 

I got my eye on a bag of toffees, and quickly zoomed them towards me, holding the bag out to Remus.

"Olimpia! You mustn't do magic outside of school. I thought you would be able to control it better now that you are practising it properly."

"Oh, right. Sorry mum, it just happened."

"Oh well, just make an effort not to, I don't fancy getting in trouble with Albus."

Remus gave me a strange look, but his frown quickly turned into a smile as I grinned weirdly at him. 

The car ride was lovely, Remus and I told Hope and mum about everything that had happened at school, and they filled us in on the things that had happened at home. Apparently Ben, a boy who used to bully us both, had been expelled from his new school and was sent to a strict boarding school; St. Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys. I thought it was maybe a bit drastic, but I didn't object to the idea of him finally having his reigns pulled.

We dropped Remus and Hope off at their house, quickly saying a hello to Lyall, Remus' dad, and then drove home. We only live two minutes away by car.

As I walked in, a wave of heat washed over me, filling me up with warmth. The smell of mum's special chicken dish tickled my taste buds and my stomach growled in anticipation. I hugged my mum once more before bounding up the stairs to put my stuff in my room.

A/N 

So, I've not been updating much, no excuses really. But now I'm heading into exam time, which generally would mean that I don't have any time but in my twisted mind, it means that we have days off to study, which means days off to do what we want. And once exams are over, school will be rather pointless and homework a waste of time so I should have plenty of time to update. Hurrah!

Please vote, comment, and so on, I always love writing but do even more so when I know I have people looking forward to reading it!
Love y'all,
21stCenturyMarauder