If we were lovers|Sirius Black

Bated breath.

*trigger warning-blood*

"Morning Lily." Bexley had arrived at the Great Hall a little earlier than Lily as she was busy preparing for the plan tonight.

"Morning. How comes you're up so early? Usually, I have to bribe you out of bed with food." Lily rubbed her eyes and settled in front of a plate of toast.

"I just wanted to get some extra reading done." Bexley's answer was far too innocent and Lily gazed at her suspiciously.

"Hm okay. Oh, I forgot to say, Sirius took back his parchment." Bexley turned to Lily with a look of confusion. "You know, the one you stole, that big bit of parchment."

"Lily! Why didn't you stop them! It wasn't parchment." Bexley huffed.

"Stop sulking. If it wasn't parchment what was it?" Lily took a bite of her toast.

"I think it was a map of some kind. I tried some spells on it to reveal  the true purpose. I only got so far to make out the word 'map'. It's covered in enchantments." This news seemed to have perked Lily up as she chewed thoughtfully on her toast.

"Maybe it's how they always manage to sneak around the castle undetected."

"My thoughts exactly Evans." Bexley sipped her coffee and the two of them fell into a comfortable silence, pensive faces matching each other. A loud ruckus erupted from the other end of the Hall and to no ones surprise it was the Marauders. James paused for a moment when he caught sight of Lily but was bustled on by Remus.

"Are we still on for our study date?" Bexley drew Lily's attention back.

"Of course, we have to work on our essay."

"Thank you for reminding me." Bexley grimaced, but her mind was decidedly buzzing with excitement for the evening that would follow.

***

The first half of the day went by as expected, Lily and James made awkward eye contact throughout every lesson and Sirius and Bexley could not for the life of them stop beaming. However, regularity was disrupted when Bexley headed to the bathroom just before the end of lunch. As she skipped down the corridor, she felt a hand grip her arm and pull her into a vacant classroom. Instantly she reached for her wand and pointed it at her attacker.

"I just want to talk." Severus spat with his wand pointed at Bexley too.

"Severus you scared the pumpkin juice out of me!" Bexley stuffed her wand back into her robe and smiled gratefully as Severus did the same. "What do you want to talk about?" But she had a funny feeling she knew.

"Lily." Bingo Bexley thought.

"Look, Severus, she's upset with you right now. She tries to be your friend and then you call her that! Not very friendly if you ask me."

"I know all right!" Severus ran a hand through his slick hair, regret brimming in his eyes. "It's just the way I was raised, my default is-"

"Severus get a grip!" Bexley interrupted. "Yes, I understand you had a hard childhood, but you aren't at home anymore Severus, you're at Hogwarts. If you were going to shame all the 'Mudblood' students, you wouldn't have time to go to class! So why Lily, you guys are friends, what's going on?" Bexley's tone softened. She knew just how much Lily meant to Severus but she could never truly understand why he chose to isolate her, to block her out. Part of her thought it was jealousy, James had always been in Lily's sight, despite her protests, she couldn't deny that there was something there, an invisible force just pulling them together, well invisible to them, everyone else saw it.