so in love with you // sirius black

chapter 26

   Sirius was dozing off, his head resting on my shoulder, as I paged through a book. It had just stopped raining and Lily and James had headed out of the house about twenty minutes ago. My fingers were absentmindedly running through Sirius's hair as I finished the last chapter of my book. 

   "Sirius?" I whispered. "You awake?"

   "Hmm? What?" He sat up and pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Yeah, I'm awake." 

   "Want to head into town?" 

   "Sounds great," He responded. Within a few minutes, we had gathered our things and were headed towards the front door. 

   "Mom we're heading into town!" I called out as I pulled my jacket on and grabbed my purse.

   "Sounds good honey!" She shouted back from the kitchen. I grabbed Sirius's hand and stepped out into the cool spring air.

   "It's only about half a mile into town, I was thinking we could just walk."

   "Sounds good" He responded. 

   The streets were relatively empty and a light fog had settled in. Sirius's arm was draped around my shoulders as I pointed out various landmarks from my childhood.

   "That's where I went to primary school," I pointed to a stout brown building. A few young children were playing on the swings in the courtyard.

   Sirius opened his mouth to respond but we were interrupted by a grating voice. I turned to find myself face to face with my childhood nemesis.

   "Maude! Oh my gosh, how are you?" She said in an overly bubbly voice. She failed to meet my eyes and instead I watched her give Sirius a slow once-over. 

   "I'm Victoria," She flashed her bright smile at Sirius. She held a hand out to shake and to my great dismay, Sirius took his arm off of my shoulders and grabbed her hand.

   "Sirius," He offered. I felt an unreasonable wave of anxiety wash over me as I watched the two interact. I couldn't read the expression on his face as Victoria welcomed him to town. Even though I disliked her I couldn't help but admit that she was drop-dead gorgeous, and exactly the type of girl Sirius used to go for.

   "So Maude," She finally made eye contact with me. "Is he your cousin? Family Friend?"

  "Oh uh-" I started.

  "Actually I'm her boyfriend," Sirius said loudly, wrapping his arm back around me and giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. Victoria face dropped for a split second, but she immediately plastered her grin back on.

   "Wow, Maude I never saw you as the boyfriend type. But that's great for you!" It was such a backhanded compliment that I was ready to leave the conversation right then and there. I felt Sirius tense up beside me. 

   "Thank Victoria," I forced a smile. "We've got places to be," I was lying "See you around!" I really hoped we wouldn't.

   "Of course," She smiled right back at me. 

    I dropped the smile the second she turned away.

   "I'll hex her right now, secrecy be damned" Sirius muttered under his breath.

    "It's fine Sirius," I said, putting my hand on his arm. But I grinned at his protectiveness. 

    "What's her problem anyway?" He asked as we started walking again.

    "She's just always like that. We used to be friends but then she decided I wasn't good enough for her, it's whatever I only have to deal with her when I'm home, which isn't often."

  "James and I turned Snape's hair neon green once. How do you think she'd feel about a new hairstyle?" 

 "I'm sure she would love that." I was smiling even harder now.

"It would be quite the style statement"

"Oh yes," I said laughing. We finally made our way into town and I pulled Sirius towards my favorite coffee shop.

I heard a soft ding as we pushed the door open, the whole place smelled of freshly ground coffee, and there was soft music playing. Sirius and I walked up to the counter, I ordered a hot chocolate and he got a coffee. He offered to pay but then tried to give the very confused cashier galleons, so I pulled out my muggle money. We then decided to continue on our walk instead of sitting in the coffee shop and headed back onto the street.

"Sirius! Maude!" I heard someone calling my name for a second time today, but this time I was much happier to see who was talking to us.

"Hey, guys!" I said, smiling at an approaching James and Lily. James was carrying an oddly shaped package, and I could tell Lily had found the bookstore.

"Prongs did you buy a skateboard?" Sirius asked, looking at the object in James's hand. He was grinning like a little kid with candy.

"Yeah." James looked just as excited. "I'm almost 18 and I've never skateboarded. Ever. I mind well learn right now." 

"Can I have a go?" I asked. 

As James handed me the board, I momentarily doubted the skills I, at least used to, have. I tossed the board down and managed to at least skate down the road and back. When I was younger I had skated everywhere and had even taught myself a few tricks, but it hadn't been very practical to bring my pink penny board to a magical school, so my limited skills were rusty.

"Please teach us!" James and Sirius exclaimed at the same time, I was grateful my lack of skill wasn't obvious.

"Who's first?" I ask, laughing at how excited the two of them seem.

Both boys caught on quickly and Lily caught on even quicker. The four of us spent the rest of the day skating around the streets. The boys were yelling and Lily and I laughed until our stomachs hurt. It was wonderfully childish and I felt the constant stress and anxiety of The Order ease at least a little bit.

•••

The rest of our visit passed quickly and before we knew it we were heading back to Hogwarts.

"Thank you so much for letting us stay with you, Ms. Collins!" Lily embraced my mum.

"All of you are welcome to stay with me anytime. And I mean that. Now enjoy your last couple months of school, before you know it you'll be in the real world." My mum wrapped all four of us in tight hugs before we headed onto the train.

We entered our usual compartment to find our three other friends already waiting for us.

"Hey!" James said as he plopped down next to Remus.

"How was everyone's holidays?" Lily asked. As the train pulled out of the station everyone recounted the events of their weeks.

"I can't believe this is the last time we'll be returning to Hogwarts as students, it feels like we were first years like yesterday," I said, looking around at my six friends. "It's going to be so different after we graduate." Despite the happy atmosphere on the train, the words felt ominous.