Serendipity (S. Black)

NINE

"and i might be okay, but i'm not fine at all"

*

James Potter woke up to the smell of smoke.

Considering the people he shared a room with, he didn't really think much of it. Once in their second year, Peter's bed caught on fire. Every Marauder had learned to ignore the antics of their friends. When Peter spilled powdered sugar on the Invisibility Cloak and a weird white thing seemed to be wandering around at midnight bumping into bedposts, they just went back to sleep. When James decided that he wanted to try and sing opera, Remus just bought the boys earplugs and that was that.

So that night, James just yanked the blanket over his head and closed his eyes again, trying to block out the stench. Then he realized the smoke was not a normal, catch-on-fire-from-a-prank smoke. It smelled like cigarettes.

James poked his head out from under the covers, his eyes flitting around the room worriedly. He actually had to put on his glasses to take count of everyone. Once he slid them on, the world came into focus. Peter lay in the far bed, snoring lightly. Remus has fallen asleep with a book on his face, and Sirius-

Sirius was nowhere to be found. The clock read well past ten at night, and he had completely disappeared. The cloak and the map still sat on the table, so he clearly hadn't snuck out anywhere or with anyone. Briefly he wondered if Sirius was wandering around the castle with Eva, but that seemed unlikely.

James jumped out of bed as quietly as he could and slid on the first pair of shoes he could find before running out of the dormitory and into the common room. To his immense relief, Sirius stood in front of the fire, feeding a paper of some sort into the flames with the precision of a Muggle surgeon.

"You're up again, mate."

Sirius flinched at his friend's voice but quickly covered his surprise with a smile. "I guess."

"What're you doing?" James asked and Sirius shook his head. He didn't want to admit what had him so worked up, not to anyone, even someone he considered his brother. "Come on, you can tell me."

"I'm fine, really. Just couldn't sleep. There's too much on my mind, I guess. I'm going to take a walk, see if that helps. I'll see you later."

"Sirius!" James called, but he left without another word. "Sirius!" Then he realized it was late and everyone else was asleep, and therefore yelling probably wouldn't please anyone.

James sighed and plopped down on the couch. He knew all too well that his friend was a complicated individual, but every time Sirius got into one of these moods, the morale of the entire group took a turn for the worse. Eva always teased James about being the mother of the Marauders, but while he didn't know that, it was completely true. He always made sure that Remus was eating, Peter knew that he was valued, and Sirius felt supported. Because out of all of them, James grew up the most fortunate, and he knew it.

"You okay?" Eva attempted to summersault from behind the couch down next to James and ended up crashing into the coffee table. "Ow."

"Are you?" He pulled her up, chuckling slightly. She rubbed her head and brushed off her bell-bottom jeans, hand-painted with red and gold flowers. In fact, she still smelled like paint, leading him to believe that the project had occurred moments before she came down.

Sometimes he wondered how the girl hadn't ended up in Ravenclaw. Intelligence, creativity, and an open mind - it was all there. And yet, when Professor McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on her little blonde braids in their first year, the Hat saw her true nature. It sat on her head, debating whether her brains outweighed her bravery, when it realized something. All of her logic and rationale disappeared completely when someone threatened the ones she loved. And it claimed her as a Gryffindor.