so in love with you // sirius black

chapter 2

5 years later

     I glanced down at my watch. 10:55. I had five minutes.

     I ran through King's Cross, dodging left and right to avoid the crowds. When I finally made it to the platform and saw the scarlet train still waiting, I sighed in relief.

     I quickly dropped off my trunk and boarded the train. I felt a jolt and watched the station fade away as I started looking for my friends.

     I glanced into every compartment looking for Lily's telltale red hair. I felt like I would never find them when I finally heard James and Sirius laughing loudly. I pulled open the door to their compartment and six sets of eyes looked up at me.

     "Maude!" Lily and James said in unison. Lily glared at James and continued. "We thought you'd missed the train!"

     "We were coming up with all these explanations of why you weren't here," Remus said after giving me a small wave.

     "Peter guessed you had just overslept," Sirius grinned, "but I wondered if you had dropped out to be a-"

     "Oh shut up," Marlene cut him off and laughed.

     I smiled and sat down, glad to be back with my friends.

•••

      I felt as though my stomach might burst as we walked up from dinner. The Fat Lady was overjoyed to have an audience again and she was singing as we reached Gryffindor Tower.

    "Can someone please shut her up," Peter groaned.

    "Yes, please, someone, anyone!" Sirius pleaded.

    One of our prefects, Frank Longbottom, pushed his way through the throng of students and finally coaxed the Fat Lady into opening the door.

    "I don't think I'll make it if she sings like that all year," James complained.

   "It can't be worse than when she performed the whole first act of an opera in third year," I remarked.

    "Don't remind me," Sirius laughed.

   "She's not that bad," Lily protested.

    "Lils, you're too nice sometimes," Marlene joked.

    "Okay fine, maybe she's a tad annoying," Lily admitted.

  Laughter and soft conversation quickly filled the common room and the couches sagged as we settled down around the fireplace. 

     "I can't believe we're already sixth years," Peter remarked.

    "I know right," Lily said.

   "I swear to Merlin it was just yesterday that we were barging into your guys' compartment," Remus smiled.

  "We didn't barge in!" James protested.

  "Mate we definitely barged in," Sirius said.

    I laughed and looked around at my friends.

     The boys had all gotten much taller. James and Sirius had always been good looking but over the summer they seemed to have grown up quite a bit. Lily and Marlene looked beautiful as always, and Lily's hair had grown much longer over the summer. 

     A funny image of us compared to our first-year sleeves popped into my head and I had to stifle a laugh.

•••

     I woke up to light streaming through the thick curtains. Lily and Marlene were already bustling around the room, hair brushes. make-up, and robes were strewn across the vanity.

     I pushed my thick covers off and groaned, shielding my eyes from the sunlight.

     "Oh come on Maude, it's the first day!" Lily said, laughing at me.

     I gave her a death stare but started getting ready. 

     Twenty minutes later we entered the Great Hall.

     "Morning Boys!" Marlene said brightly, as we dropped down into our usual spots at the table.

     Sirius mumbled a response, and I got the feeling the boys had stayed up for most of the night, doing who knows what. James was so tired he hadn't even managed to flirt with Lily yet.

    Just as we started digging into our breakfast McGonagall came around handing out our class schedules. We all had the same potions class , but other than that our schedules were all over the place.

     I almost knocked over a group of first years as I rushed to my last class of the day. I let out of a sigh of relief when I reached the Dungeons before class started. 

     "Welcome to potions, students!" Professor Slughorn said grinning. The chatter in the room quickly died out. "Now, pick your seat wisely, because whoever you sit next to will be your partner for the rest of the year." 

    At his words the class quickly rearranged themselves and settled into desks.

     I paired with Lily, Remus with Marlene and James with Sirius. Much to Peter's disappointment, Slughorn didn't allow groups of three. He ended up with a rather scary looking Slytherin and I mouth 'sorry' at him across the classroom.

     Once Everyone had settled in, Slughorn took out a piece of parchment and recorded where everyone was sitting. When his eyes reached James and Sirius he muttered something about that not working out.

     "Ms. Evans, would you mind switching places with Mr. Black? I can't trust those two together."

     "Oh um I'm not su-" Lily started to respond, but Slughorn interrupted her "Ah wonderful! Move your things please."

     James was grinning like an idiot and Lily looked ready to strangle someone, probably James. But my amusement started to fade when I realized this meant I would be sitting next to Sirius for the whole year.

     "Hey, Maude," He smirked at me. I rolled my eyes in response.

     Don't get me wrong, Sirius is my good friend, and I hate to admit it but, he's rather good-looking. That being said he's also very annoying, flirts with anything that moves (sometimes even himself) and he's dreadful, and I mean really terrible, at potions.

     "I'm not that bad am I?" he questioned.

     "Sometimes" I muttered. He feigned hurt, and then gave me a playful shove, I tried my best not to smile but failed.

     Sirius and James spent the first half of the lesson throwing bits of paper at the back of Snape's head. I could hear Lily whispering angrily to James trying to make him stop. 

     Sirius spent the second half of class writing notes and tossing them onto my desk. One said I wish I was your mirror so that I could look at you every morning and the next said Hi, I'm Mr. Right. Someone said you were looking for me?

     I grabbed the next note he put on my desk and flipped it over to write my own message. Would you stop? I'm trying to focus.

     He read it, frowned, and leaned over, his dark hair falling across his eyes.

     "You're actually listening to this? It's the same bullshit he says on the first day every year." Sirius said in a low whisper.

     To be honest, I was not paying attention, but I wasn't going to tell him that.

     "Yes, I am listening" He looked at me like I was crazy, then started to write notes to James and Remus instead.

•••

     Lily, Marlene, and I were all sprawled across my bed. Lily was going on and on about something James was doing during potions. It was rather entertaining and Marlene and I were barely holding back our laughter.