Lone Wolf | SIRIUS BLACK

Chapter Thirteen

| T O    M E N D |

October, 1975

I WENT to Lily first after the change.  I had left us on odd terms when I was figuring out what to do about my werewolf bite, telling her I had a make-out partner who didn't exist.

Oh boy was it going to be fun to back-track on that mess.

Knocking on her dorm room door, I was met with Constance. She eyed me cautiously and that led me to believe Lily had told her about my not so subtle lies.

"If you're looking to see Lily, she's not here. She's down by the Black Lake."

I thanked Constance, rushing away because I didn't really have much else to say to her. We were connected as friends through Lily and Rose but otherwise we didn't have much else of a reason to come across one another.

Maybe that would change as the year progressed but I didn't see much happening for our interactions of small talk currently. Usually, we were just passing messages for Lily or Rose, as was the case now. I didn't mind and it didn't seem like she did either.

I was racing down one of the main staircases leading to the front doors of Hogwarts, my Ravenclaw robes flying behind me, when Sirius approached me. My mind was only on Lily though.

"Not now, Sirius."

I wasn't looking to be insulted by him or persuaded into saying he was the most popular boy in school. He already acted like he knew it, so my validation wouldn't do much. It would only add a notch in his egotistical belt.

I carried on running until I was out of breath. Thankfully, that was when I had found the tree by the Black Lake, which Lily sat under. It was a nice tree, nothing like that horrific Whomping Willow. A hole sat snugly in the middle of the tree trunk, hollowing out the centre for use by wildlife.

Gnarled roots laid above the ground, spread out over patches of grass, some blades painted a vibrant green while others were losing their colour and turning pale. Lily sat in between the roots on the grass, one root on either side of her body and she rested her arms upon them as if they were nature's version of an armchair.

She was reading a book when I showed up. Her eyes flicked up to look at me before returning to the words on the book's pages. Her disinterest in me couldn't be clearer.

Of course, she had every right to play the disgruntled cousin. I had lied to her and it was worse that I had done it not only blatantly but badly. It was insulting.

"Lily."

She didn't look at me. I watched as she flipped one page, then another, then another still. I got the silent message she sent saying for me to leave but I stayed where I was, waiting.

"I'm sorry. That was stupid, lying to you and —"

"No." She stopped me, slamming her book shut. "What was really stupid wasn't that you lied."

"It was that I did it badly. I know, it makes you think —"

She interrupted me again and I let her go off on a tangent. She deserved to have the high ground between us.  "Do you not trust me? Because I get if you'd lie that pathetically for someone you hate, like Petunia, or someone you don't really know, like Constance. But me? What the hell was that, Cassie, we're not just cousins. We're sisters. So for you to lie to me...  I just don't understand."