Everything to Me

38.

Remus and Lily led the way to a park in London as their friends followed. James lazily had an arm around Juli's shoulder while Peter and Sirius were engrossed in joking.

"You seem awfully quiet, Lils." Remus pointed.

"Because our list of school supplies will arrive soon and so will our OWL results... I think I did nicely in Charms and Potions but I don't know..."

Before Lily could ramble, Juli walked in front of her and placed her hands on her shoulder. "Lily, Lily, take a breath. You will do great. Now let us enjoy the last few days of peace before 6th year."

Peter huffed, "We were supposed to get peace once OWLs were done. This is not fair."

Sirius patted his back in sarcasm and everyone burst into laughter.

They entered the park and Lily found a spot which was away from all the people and dimly lit. She took out a quilt from her bag and laid it on the grass.

"Can't believe you carried that with you." Remus chuckled.

She looked at everyone and gestured towards it. James was the first one to take off his shoes and lie down, facing the sky, followed by Juli and then everyone else. They laid there in peaceful silence, feeling the cool air and soft grass from under the quilt.

James observed Juli and Sirius who were on either side of him. He figured that Sirius was trying to mentally name all the stars while Juli had her eyes closed, enjoying the moment. He would be lying if he claimed that being with each other did not make them happy. He felt bad for the way he had treated his own sister. She was there with him and for him for as long as he could remember. Him, on the other hand, had returned the favour by blurting out a life changing truth in anger. He owed Sirius an apology, too. He had already gone through enough.

"I need to talk to you both." He said and sat up. He walked over to the side under a lamp where they could see each other properly. Choosing to ignore that, the rest of the people went back to relaxing.

Juli and Sirius sat up, too, and gave each other a confused look. Truth was, Sirius' heart still broke a little every time he looked at her and she tried her best to not show her sadness at the eye contact.

"What is it, Jamie?" She asked, as they reached him.

"I...I" he started. Taking a deep breath, he looked at Juli, "I am sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you by telling you about adoption. If that wasn't bad enough, I indirectly claimed that you were not my sister. I was so wrong about that. I am so sorry. You are my twin no matter what anyone, including me says and I love you. I am grateful for you."

She took a moment to process everything James said and chuckled softly. Pulling him into a small hug, she said, "It's okay, I understand."

He smiled in response and looked at Sirius. "Padfoot, I want to tell you the truth about why I reacted the way I did."

He nodded and encouraged James to go on.

"When I found out that you and her were-"

"Sirius? Is that you?"

James was cut off when they heard a high pitched voice shout. They turned their heads to see Emily, a Gryffindor in the same year. She had shoulder length brunette hair which she had allowed down.

She flung her arms around Sirius excitedly when his face came into light as the twins backed away in surprise.

"How have you been? I didn't expect to see you here!" She exclaimed.

After recovering from the shock, he hugged her back awkwardly and pulled away sooner than Emily liked.

"Yeah, well, I am here with my friends. Lily wanted to show us Muggle London." He told her.

"I have been exploring it, too. It's beautiful, isn't it?" She asked.

"It is." James replied instead of Sirius. He didn't like the way she was being loud and ruining the peaceful night.

Emily finally noticed the twins standing their and frowned. But it disappeared and she said in her pretentious, sweet voice, "Oh, Juli. I am so sorry to hear about you and Sirius. Are you okay?"

It wouldn't take a genius to know how sorry she actually was not. Juli nodded in response, not wanting to discuss her dating life.

"And you, Sirius?" She asked him now, touching his cheek with one hand and shoulder with another.

"Yeah, thanks." He said and backed away from her touch.

"Where are your other friends?" Emily asked the boys, not even looking at Juli. She took this as an opportunity and slipped away to go to the others.

"Emily is here. She is coming to meet you." She warned her friends as they got up. A groan was heard from the boys as Juli and Lily laughed.

"Good luck." They heard Peter whisper to Remus as 3 people came towards them.

Emily was between the two boys, holding hands with both and swinging it. She was giggling in a flirting manner while the other two were fake laughing. They reached their other friends and Emily broke away from James and Sirius to high-five Peter. To everyone's surprise, she moved on to hug Remus.

"How are you, Mr. Perfect? I mean, Mr. Prefect?" She flirted.

"I am g-good." Remus replied, not used to this way of treatment.

"Oh, hi Lily!" Emily exclaimed and pulled her into a hug, too. "I am sorry to hear about Severus. The boys did him good." She giggled in high pitch again, hitting James and Sirius on the arms.

Juli watched as her friends made small talk with Emily for the next 10 minutes and did her best to hide her laughter.

"You know what would be awesome, Sirius?" She asked.

He contemplated not answering her. But thinking that it is not wise to leave her hanging, he finally did. "What, Emily?"

"Please call me Em." She giggled. "Now that you are not going out with Potter, we should go for butterbeer once school starts."

Lily snorted at Sirius' expression and saw that everyone was trying to hold back their laughter. Everyone but Juli.

"Oh, um... well" Sirius fumbled.

"I made you speechless aw," Emily said before he had the chance to clarify. "Can't wait for that butterbeer, Sirius." She got up to leave. She winked at Sirius and walked away. Hips swaying with every step.

"Oh, help me, Merlin" Sirius sighed the moment she was out of ear shot, laying back on the quilt in exasperation. Everyone burst into laughter. This time, too, everyone but Juli. She couldn't help but think about what would happened if Sirius went for butterbeer.

He would say no to her in school, wouldn't he...?