Between Coffee And Cigarettes

-26-

When Lenny woke up, Remus was gone. He placed a pillow in between her arms where, just a few hours ago, he laid. Blinking the fog out of her eyes, she looked around. Just a few feet away there was a piece of paper on the floor, held in place with a cigarette and when she moved closer she could identify the piece of paper as a note.

Lenny picked it up and saw a messy looking, yet very readable handwriting.

Got out of the window. Didn't want to wake you.

See you at school.

Remus

P.S. Looking forward to hearing the end of that story...

She smiled at the short note and picked up the cigarette that still laid in front of her. Lifting it to her nose, she closed her eyes and smelled the tobacco. It smelled different from hers. Woodier and with a darker aroma and as she was about to light it to even taste the differences, someone began hammering onto her door.

"What are you doing in there?! Why did you lock the door?! Lenny!!! Open up!", she heard Sirius muffled demands. He probably is dying out of curiosity, she thought. She tucked the cigarette neatly behind her ear and covered it with her hair, as she got up, picked up her wand and made it to the door.

The hammering hadn't stopped, not at all, if anything, Sirius even got more aggressive. As she faced the door, she muttered quickly 'Alohomora' and opened the door so that Sirius stumbled in. When he caught himself again, he straightened his posture and looked down at her with a cocked eyebrow. "Why was your door locked?", he asked as a smile played around his lips. Lenny huffed, not really taken aback as she answered with some sassiness in her voice: "I was wanking off".

Sirius' face fell blank in such a funny way that she had to control herself really hard not to burst into laughter. He blinked several times in an attempt to get his composure back as he stuttered: "Y-Your a girl, you can't wank off", in the end, Sirius was more sure of himself again. "Of course I can", Lenny countered in a played offended way, "I can wank off in a girl way", she smiled at his puzzled face before she strutted past him to go out, smoking Remus' cigarette.

"Wanker!", she heard him call after her and she noticed a smile in his voice. Lenny couldn't hold back to also give out a loud laugh at his comment.

The next few days were rather eventless. Some were more cheerful, everybody enjoying their time together and on some, the mood was more pressed, because of articles in the Daily Prophet about disappearing people, muggles and wizards.

Lenny read a lot these past days. She finished the first book of The Chronicles of Narnia in less than two days, sending Remus an owl, requesting the title of the following book so she could purchase it somewhere, but she didn't get a response. So she began reading the book Sirius gifted her for Christmas about advanced potions.

When Lily came over, because Lenny had asked her to dye her hair with the new colour, they sat in the bathroom, Lenny on the edge of the tub.

"How's James?", Lily asked her, acting casually, as she brushed and sectioned Lenny's hair. She tried to turn her head around to give her friend a knowing smirk, but Lily was quicker with holding her head in place, so Lenny just shrugged in a calculated move. "Good", she answered shortly, "Didn't tell him though that you are coming", she pulled her lips into her mouth to suppress a smile.

She could feel how Lily stopped and slowed down in her movements for a second before she cleared her throat and asked: "Why?" Lenny now finally could turn her head around and grin up at the redhead. "Because then I had to watch you two flirting and making a fool out of yourselves and I just couldn't do that to myself". Lily flicked the back of her head playfully and then returned to sectioning the rest of her hair.

And then, as Lily was about to apply the dye, Sirius and James casually walked past the open bathroom door, but quickly stopped, when they saw the two girls. Sirius expression changed instantly into suspicion, eyebrows furrowed and mouth corners twitching downwards, while on James' face the expression turned into pure bliss, lips curled upwards and adjusting his glasses on his nose.

"What are you doing?!", Sirius asked appalled, mouth gaping open. Lily looked at him over her shoulder, raising her eyebrows. "What does it look like?", she asked sarcastically, but as soon as she laid eyes on James, her cheeks reddened and she quickly looked back, hardly concentrating on Lenny's hair. "It looks like you are destroying my sister's hair unnecessarily", Sirius crossed his arms over his chest, "You know that there is probably a spell that doesn't make the result so... permanent", his frowning didn't fade.

"Yeah, probably", Lenny tried to turn her head to look at him, but Lily yanked it back with a short 'don't move'. Now staring at the white marbled tiles, Lenny spoke to Sirius: "But you know what's fun about doing it that way? The process. And anyway, why do you bother so much about the state of my hair?"

Sirius looked down at his feet, shuffling, arms still laying crossed above his chest. After a pause and a moment of silence, which was filled by James' intense staring at Lily's handiwork, the raven-haired boy murmured: "Because then you look nothing like me anymore", the words were hard to understand for all of them, so quietly he had said them. Sirius' gaze still remained on his feet, trying not to look up.

Everybody was staring at him now, nobody daring to say a thing. Lily stopped her movements, the brush still in her hand and James's jaw fell to the floor before he stepped to Sirius and padded him comforting on the shoulder. Lenny turned around on the edge of the tub, her elbows pressed into her knees, her hand dangling between them. She looked at him, calculating and compassionate. "You are scared that we won't look like twins anymore?", she asked him in confusion. Her hair wasn't her natural colour for over a year now, but she never thought that he had a problem with that.

He nodded, slowly looking up at her slouched over, her weight resting on her elbows. "Nobody will associate you with me as your sibling and even though I have to admit that the colour", he gestured to her head, "suits you quite well, you do not look like a Black anymore". The words hovered heavily in the air.

Lenny's chest expanded visibly when she took a deep breath in. The name Black. A name that connected her with Sirius and Regulus, but never gave her a home. But now Regulus had become a death eater as well and she wasn't sure about his connection to her anymore. She slowly stood up and walked towards her brother. She had to look hideous right now, with her hair laying weirdly ordered on top of her head and with a towel around her neck. Her two hands, she placed onto his shoulders before she searched with her brown, warm eyes for his grey, cool ones.

"The only reason why I wear the name Black proudly is because of you and was also because of Regulus. I'm not wearing it for the heritage or the social status let alone our parents.", her words sounded clear and strong, not any hint of doubt was found in it. Her expression grew softer and a gentle smile began to spread on her face. "I will always be your twin sister no matter how I look and that's not gonna change.", Sirius looked at her with wide eyes, but one corner of his lip tucked slightly up. "And fuck everybody who doesn't know the iconic Black duo just because we don't look the exact same", Lenny finished with barking laughter and threw her head back. The others joined in.

Suddenly Sirius hugged her. "Thank you", he said, still shaking with laughter. She drew back and a glint of amusement shimmered in her eyes. "Do I now have the permission to dye my hair?", she asked him mockingly. "As if you would care about it. You do what you want anyway", Sirius answered still a smile in his eyes. She shrugged: "You're right", and with that she turned around and walked to the bathtub to sit on the edge of it again.

Lily continued her work and the four of them shared a good time between jokes, conversation and laughter with each other while they waited for Lenny's new hair colour to develop. 

When the time was over and her hair dry, they all looked in the mirror to admire the reflection. Lily charmed the once bland muggle dye so that although Lenny's hair looked lilac most of the time, in a specific light it shimmered, almost glittered silver.