Everything to Me

27.

Juli jerked back at James' voice and looked at Sirius in distress. He looked alarmed and scared at the thought of what would happen. They could hear James making his way down the stairs. Eyes sweeping over the room, he thought of all the ways he could escape when his friend would be running after him with a wand. His sight landed on the dying fire in the fireplace and he smiled at his genius plan.

"Juli, listen." He whispered hurriedly.

She was still clutching on to his t-shirt tightly.

"I want you to put your head down on the sofa almost on my shoulder and look sleepy."

She looked at him in confusion but obeyed nonetheless, not seeing a way out of this. She rested her head back, touching his shoulder and closed her eyes. This step was easy because she was already exhausted.

"James, is that you?" Sirius asked. "Keep it down, I think she is asleep."

James reached the common room but it was too dark to make out the figures properly. He lit up his wand and moved closer to the sofa. The light fell on the two figures as James realized what actually was the scene and how he had interpreted it.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Juli was too shy to give this album so the girls excused themselves and I was just looking through it. There is even a letter, look." He answered with an innocent smile and handed him the letter. "But she is almost asleep. What did you think?"

Guilt washed over James as he realized all the assumptions he was making. "Oh, uh- never mind." His heart filled up at Juli's kindness and could practically feel her love in her words. He looked at Juli fondly.

"Pads?" He asked.

"Yeah?"

"Juli's right. We are your family. I am sorry for assuming wrong"

"Thanks Prongs. It means a lot to me." He smiled.

James handed the letter back to him and made his way back to the dorm, giving him time to go through the pictures some more.

"Sirius?" Juli stirred in her sleep. "I hate lying to James."

"I know, Love. Me too." He replied, sighing sadly. "Why don't you go upstairs and get some sleep. We'll tell him the right way soon."

Juli forced herself to get up and made her way to bed, trying not to think about the guilt rising steadily in her stomach. She laid on her bed and went to sleep thinking about Sirius' reaction at the letter.

* * * * *

During dinner, Lily was over at the Slytherin table talking to Snape, trying to make sure that Sirius' prank was not on Slytherins.

"Does she really think that will stop us?" Sirius laughed.

James laughed but said sternly to Sirius, "Come on, Padfoot. Leave her out of it."

"You leave her out of it. She is my best friend, I cannot do it." He was now laughing loudly.

Remus looked over his book to see Lily sitting by Snape and looking around anxiously. "She will be sick due to anticipation if you don't do it."

"Oh hush, Remus." Sirius said, laughing. "Just put down the book and have the delicious pudding in front of you." Remus simply shrugged and continued reading. Seeing this, Sirius picked up his spoon and took some pudding.

James smirked and nodded his approval.

Sirius flung his spoon towards him but it missed him and hit Marlene instead.

"Oh, no no no no no...." Sirius was getting up slowly now, out of Marlene's fear.

"You are dead, Black. DEAD." Marlene took her own pudding and threw it towards Sirius. Unfortunately for him, it went straight into his hair.

"Marls, what did you do?" He said frantically, trying to remove pudding from his hair.

Juli was watching the scene from a distance but lost it when the Sirius' hair was ruined.

"He will kill me Juli! What are you laughing for?" She asked, scared.

Juli still didn't stop laughing and was joined by the entire Gryffindor table.

Marlene now had enough. She took some of the pudding and threw it at Juli, including Alice and Dorcas as well.

"Oh now it is on!" Juli laughed and did the same. No one knew how the entire Gryffindor table had gotten involved. Everyone was laughing having fun. Before anyone realized, friends from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin had joined in, too.

"Best birthday ever!" Sirius wheezed.

"Stop it, stop it!" McGonagall shouted and came down in between the tables. Everyone put their puddings down, still laughing.

The entire hall fell silent when they saw McGonagall's hat being hit with a small chunk of pudding. The entire hall burst into a larger food fight when they saw Dumbledore laughing uncontrollably, pointing at McGonagall's face.

"Oh, Merlin, this will be a long night." She sighed.

No one knew how tired they were until the food fight had stopped and Professor Flitwick cleaned everything with a single flick of his wand. Taking this as their hint, everyone left for their rooms.

"I'll be right back" Juli said to James when she spotted Regulas alone.

He saw her sprinting to him and greeted her enthusiastically, "Hey!"

"Someone is cheery" She laughed.

"Yeah, well, the fight was epic." He high fived her.

They started out together from the Hall, taking in the cool, night breeze. Juli saw someone walking a few metres in front of them but did not pay much attention, seeing as he turned towards the Gryffindor room.

"How is 5th year?" He asked. "And Sirius?" His voice was small and filled with concern for his brother.

"Well, the work is killing us but I believe we'll manage. And Sirius... is happy but he misses you."

"Well," He smirked, "It's a good thing he has you, then."

Her cheeks turned pink and she hit him on the arm playfully.

"See you around." She smiled at Regulas before he went towards the Slytherin common room..

The corridor was empty, the only sound was that of her feet. She cursed herself for not having her wand and increased her speed. She heard footsteps and turned around to see Muciber stepping out of a column.

He was grinning darkly at her. "Well, well, well. Is that Juliette? Without her Gryffindor bodyguards." He rubbed his hands and inched closer. "Think of all the things that I can do..."