Chasing Time (sirius black)

WILLOW

Lily's mind was reeling from what James was saying. Soulmates?! Sirius and Maddie were soulmates. Bonded through magic. Sirius explained how he could feel Mads's emotions and Mads grudgingly admitted that she'd felt it when Sirius was injured.

They'd come up to the common room after dinner and grouped around the fireplace to do homework. Ali and Mar had escaped after an hour, going to their respective significant others' common rooms to get away from the obvious awkwardness so it was just Lily, Mads, and the Marauders. Although, Ali and Mar had brushed off the morning incident as nothing, Remus and Lily had been feeling the tension build throughout the day and couldn't help trying to guess what was going on.

This was not on their Sirddie Bingo card.

Pressing her lips together tightly, Mads crossed her arms and watched them as they talked. Lily could tell she was upset at this development but she wasn't entirely sure why. Mads liked Sirius, even before the bite. This seemed like a confirmation of what everyone already knew. What could be upsetting her about being bonded to the boy she was in love with?

"I need to go to training." Mads said sharply, roughly pulling her bag over her shoulder. She made it two steps before Sirius was up and tugging on her arm gently.

"Love -"

"Don't." She spat, freeing herself. Her head turned away from him, purposely avoiding his eyes and Lily could see her struggling to keep her composure. "Just don't right now. I'll see you all later."

Without looking back, she swept out of the common room but left Tux curled up by Remus' feet. Dejectedly, Sirius fell back onto the couch, shoving both hands through his hair in frustration. Lily glanced at the others who watched him cautiously. Quietly, she spoke to Sirius. "I can talk to her when she gets back, see what's really going on."

"Thanks, Lily." He muttered, resting his elbows on his knees then propping his head against his hands. "This wasn't...I never thought this could even happen. I was trying to protect her."

"She knows." Lily reassured him. James gave her a grateful smile as she continued. "She's scared, Sirius. Being soulmates...it's something no one really understands. We don't know how it's going to...change the two of you. Give her some time, she'll come around."

"And if she doesn't?" He whispered sadly, his eyes focused on the fire. Lily saw both Remus and James winced at the tone while Peter watched Sirius intently.

She was confident that Mads would come around and not be scared of the bond. It was understandable though why she was. Mads hadn't been here long and so many things had happened. It had to be overwhelming to add in a soulmate on top of everything else. Hopefully it wouldn't take her long though. It was heartbreaking to see Sirius like this. To see Mads like this too. Lily answered as surely as she could. "She will."

—-

Everyone was thankfully upstairs by the time I wandered back to the common room. I'd spent the entire time during "training" exploring the castle. I hadn't had a good chance to do that alone and this was the perfect opportunity. The others didn't know I had changed the meetings with the professors to twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays, so I had the best excuse to escape from that extremely awkward conversation.

Slipping through the dorm door, I beelined to the bathroom and quickly got ready for bed. Although there was a bathroom door in the hall, my mom had this superstition that you had to go out of the same doorway you entered. So I couldn't go through the hall bathroom door then the dorm bathroom door, I always had to go through the dorm one to get to the bathroom. I had enough bad luck as it was, I didn't need anymore so I stuck to the silly superstition.