Everything to Me

37.

Lily visited the Manor 2 days after receiving the letter, knowing that her friends needed her.

"Good evening, Euphemia." She greeted with a smile.

"Welcome dear." Euphemia allowed her in. "It's good to see you."

"You, too. Where are they?" She asked, without wasting a moment.

Euphemia sighed and glanced towards the stairs, "Sirius and James are in James' room and Juli is in hers. James is talking to her again but the only time we see the three together is at meal times. It is horrible."

Lily nodded and went upstairs, deciding to meet Juli first. Her door was open and the setting sun was making her room look beautiful shades of red and orange. She was playing with the items of her unpacked trunk absent mindedly.

"Need some help?" Lily asked.

She turned around and saw Lily smiling at her. "Sure." She shrugged, not returning the cheery smile and went back to looking at the contents of her trunk.

Lily moved closer and saw her fidgeting with a necklace in her hand.

"I'll return it." Juli declared. "No point in keeping it now."

"It's beautiful. And no, you won't."

She looked at Lily questioningly.

"He gave it to you as a gift. It is not good to return gifts." Lily clarified.

"Right." Juli agreed. "You should go and see him, too."

The Ginger realized that her best friend needed space and won't tell her if she was upset, but the truth was that she was done crying. She didn't have second doubts about the break up because James was talking to her again. They were almost back to normal. She put the necklace in a small, blue box and laid down on her bed, staring at the ceiling.

Lily made her way to James' room. He was sitting at the table going through a book. Sirius was rotating his wand between his fingers, sparks occasionally flying out.

"Hey."

James closed his book instantly and stood up, "Hey Evans."

Sirius, on the other hand, got up slowly and looked at her. "Are you still angry?"

"How could I ever be mad at you, Siri?" She put her arms around him. "Are you okay?" She said so only Sirius could hear.

Lily pulled back and saw his smile falter. "I don't want to talk about it."

She could see his grey eyes full of sadness. "I get it. Juli is like this, too, but you live in the same house. You will have to talk at some point."

"Well," James started. "We are going over at Remus' tomorrow and then to Peter's. We'll come home after two weeks. So not really."

Lily glared at James. She blamed him for what happened between her best friends. "What about Juli?"

"She chose to stay here." Sirius said, eyes still on the floor and voice filled with melancholy.

"Okay, that's it!" Lily exclaimed. "Get dressed. I am taking you out. You, too, Potter. You have 15 minutes." She turned around on her heels and left before the boys could ask her anything else.

20 minutes later, Lily came downstairs with Juli and saw the boys waiting for her at the table.

"Be safe. Don't take any chances." Fleamont implored.

The children nodded and left the house, led by Lily.

"Will you tell us where we are going? And why do we have these 2 with us on our date?" James asked.

"Listen to me, Potter! This is not a date. Actually," She paused and smirked. Linking her arm with Sirius', she jerked him forward. "It is a date for me and Siri."

James' mouth dropped and everyone laughed, as Sirius clapped his back. "Next time, mate."

"Where are we going, Lils?" He asked.

"Since all of you are purebloods, and Juli is technically a half-blood, I am taking you to Muggle London. My Mum told me places we can visit" She was now practically jumping and running and Sirius had to take long strides to keep up with her.

Juli and James followed as Lily took them to Muggle cafes, gardens and London Bridge. It was getting dark while they were on their final destination for the night, Tower of London.

"How beautiful would the night sky be from here." Juli said, catching Sirius' eyes and smiled. This was the first time in 3 days that Sirius and Juli had laughed and joked whole heartedly with their friends.

"We need to come here again with Remus and Peter." James added and for the first time, Lily actually agreed with him.

"I asked Euphemia and Fleamont to pick us up here." She told everyone.

"Mum and dad? How do they know?" Juli questioned.

"I told them our plan and they agreed. We will be apparating."

"Smart move, Evans." Sirius laughed.

They heard a distant crack and followed the direction of the sound, to find Mr. and Mrs. Potter waiting for them.

"Thank you for this Lily." Juli said, hugging her.

"Yeah, we enjoyed a lot." James added.

She smiled at them and went to talk to Sirius. "Write to me, yeah?"

"Okay." He smiled.

James and Sirius apparated with Euphemia and went to the Manor whereas Fleamont took Lily with Juli to her house. The girls made plans to stay when James and Sirius would be at Remus'.

The children felt sick due to apparition but were glad to be safely home. It was only when they had settled in James' room to reminisce the day's memory they realized how tired they were and decided to sleep then and there. Juli laid down on the small couch, sleep taking her the moment her head touched the pillow.

Sirius walked up to the couch and pulled up the duvet so that it reached her chin.

"Good night, Juliette." He whispered, voice choking on the last word. His heart was now too heavy and he finally allowed his tears to spill.