Love You In My Mind // Sirius Black

Chapter 36

The next week went by without any remarkable events, and I was relieved to say that Marlene and Sirius weren't big on public displays of affection.

Whereas I saw them together very often, I'd never seen them kiss. They were only spending a lot of time with each other, smiling and sometimes holding hands.

When it came to Sirius and Marlene being together, I was glad to be a Ravenclaw.

According to what Peter had told me once in Charms, when I'd gotten assigned to help him, the two weren't too bothered by eye witnesses when they were kissing inside the Gryffindor common room.
I'd felt a painful tug in my stomach, but put on an amused smile.

The train of uneventful days was broken, though, when my birthday came up. I think I was the last one to turn 17 years old, because I'd been sent to school very early.

Still, that Wednesday morning, I was woken up by Aleya, Lina and Valerie simultaneously screaming 'Happy Birthday' at the top of their lungs, and jumping on my bed to hug me.

For the first time in weeks, I didn't have to fake my smile. "Thank you, girls!"

"Oh, you're welcome," Aleya beamed and pulled out a little envelope from what seemed to be out of nowhere. "Open up!"

I curiously did as I was told, taking my wand from my bedside table to cut the envelope tidily.
I pulled out the paper - yes, paper-  and read over it. My smile widened at the sweet gesture.

"We're going to spend loads of quality time together! Those are ten movie tickets, and I'll join you for each and every single one, whether I like the movie or not."

I leaned forward and brought her into a hug. I remembered telling her how my father always occupied the television, so I'd never gotten to see something I liked. And I'd never wanted to ask my mum for money for movie tickets, so Aleya's present, as simple as it was, was really thoughtful and I loved it.

Valerie proudly presented us her newest piece of art; a drawing of all of us in our Ravenclaw uniforms, standing in front of Rowena Ravenclaw's statue. We were eleven years old in that painting (ten years old in my case), all very proud and happy to be Ravenclaw's newest addition. It was a really beautiful painting, and for the first time (or at least as far as I knew), Valerie had dared to bewitch the painting, so that we were all moving, jumping up and down and waving excitedly.

"Oh, Val, it's beautiful," I whispered in awe.

She smiled at me. "I'm glad you like it."

When I carefully set the painting down next to my bed, Lina handed me her presents.

Inside were books. One about very advanced charms that we probably wouldn't cover at school, and a fictional muggle book.

I was really interested in that Charms book, but didn't have the heart to tell her that I already owned a copy of the muggle book. I didn't mind having it twice though; one here and one at home, and since Lina was a Pureblood, she'd really stepped out of her comfort zone, which I knew to appreciate.

I brought them all into hugs again. I was really moved by how much effort they had actually put into making my birthday a nice day.

I opened my mother's and sister's letters that I'd received over night (and almost cried at their sweet words, and the fact that I was now officially off age) and opened a large parcel from them, full of sweets, fluffy socks, pretty clothes and a photo album of our family, which I decided to look at after class.

In front of the Great Hall, I was stopped by Julia, Miriam and Beatrice, who hugged and congratulated me as well.

And inside the Great Hall, the marauders were already standing in front of the Ravenclaw table, ignoring the odd glances thrown at them.