Everything to Me

42.

"What is the matter with you?" Lily shouted at Sirius as soon as the door was swung shut behind them. "You claim you love Emily, go around kissing her and on dates but not a few months back, you wanted Juli! Now you are with someone else..." She was taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

"Is that what this is about?" He asked, clearly annoyed by her words. "Juliette and me?" He didn't know why he called her Juliette and ignored the tugging at the back of his mind when he heard her name. "Me not being with your best friend? Because if you don't remember, it was last Halloween!" He was now shouting, too.

Lily took a step towards him, "It is not about being with her. It is about how you have changed completely in the past few weeks. You are not the same Sirius who cried because he was so in love with someone and didn't know how to express it."

"Change? What are you talking about?" He asked, not knowing where this conversation was going.

"When was the last time you spent time with the boys? I don't mean classes and meals. I mean, sat with them like always and planned your dumb pranks, laughing along. And when was the last time you spent time with... me? It has nothing to do with Juli at all, Siri. This is solely about you." She saw Sirius looking for an answer.

"I-I have not changed and now that I am happy with Emily, you should be happy for me." He defended himself and walked back into the common room.

Lily sighed as she saw him going back in and swore to herself to find out the real deal. Sirius would lose his friends if he continued this any further. He couldn't afford that. Not after everything.

* * * * *

Lily sighed loudly when Emily joined them in the common room. "Can't even do homework in peace." She mumbled angrily to the person closest to her. Not to her utter dismay, it was James.

The pair had grown quite close after their Potions class and had been spending a lot of time together doing homework, either in the library or the common room.

He snorted at Lily's expression and shaking his head, went back to reading a muggle magazine.

"I tried talking to him, you know?" She said softly. "About how he has changed but he didn't get it. Juli has been spending most of her time with Regulus because she can't stand Emily and Sirius."

James looked at her soft expression and could clearly see that she seemed genuinely upset. "It's not your fault you couldn't convince him. He's the one doing this."

"We haven't even had a proper meal with him yet. She *ahem* is always there."

"Wait, she is present at every meal time... and rarely ever leaves... Lily, I am a genius. I figured it out!" He exclaimed and ran out from their common room.

She contemplated following him but decided to stay back and focus on her essay instead. James would tell her later, she thought.

She snapped her head up in annoyance after a few minutes when she heard Emily giggle again and saw the pair kissing. Lily tried to drown out that sound by the scratching of her quill on parchment but the smooching lovebirds were making far too much noise. She instantly got up and gathering her books and parchment, left for the library.

If she was being honest with herself, she missed Juli and Sirius. She missed how Juli could make anyone's day with her big, heartwarming smile and how Sirius made everyone around him laugh. When together, Juli and Sirius were the best company anyone could ask for. She also missed how Juli and her would gossip about everything. She missed her deep conversations with Sirius and how she was the only one allowed to call him Siri. She missed her best friends.

Reaching the library, she saw James, Peter and Remus crowded over a book.

"Hey. When did you meet James?" She asked the other 2 boys.

"About 6 years back." Remus replied, without looking up from the book.

Lily stiffled her laugh, not wanting to give Remus the satisfaction. "Peter?" She asked.

"We were throwing pebbles in the black lake when he dragged us here."

She nodded in acknowledgement. "What did you find, James?" She said.

He pushed the book towards her so that she could read herself. Her eyes scanned the page and she took in the words written on it.

"This seems plausible but... are you sure?" She looked at James who was quite proud of himself.

He nodded in agreement.

"This makes sense and explains a lot of his behaviour." Remus added.

"Do we tell the professors?" She asked.

"They won't believe us." Peter replied. "What do we do about it?"

James smirked and rubbing his hands, he replied, "We kidnap Padfoot, of course."