fatal love

chapter 144

Sirius put down his quill as the examiner called time on his final NEWT. It had been a hellish month - he felt like all he'd done was revise, sit exams, and sleep. The rest of the Seventh Years were all in strong agreement, and they had been waiting for this moment for so long. No more exams, no more stress, no more school; instead, freedom.

As soon as his parchment had been summoned from his desk, Sirius stood up, practically running out of the hall in his eagerness. Almost everyone else had finished their exams yesterday, but he and Evans had still had Ancient Runes. He'd stayed up with her until one in the morning last night revising, while the rest of the Gryffindors had gone off to the Three Broomsticks to celebrate, the lucky gits.

"How did you find it?" Evans asked nervously, appearing at his side.

Sirius shrugged. "Not too bad. That last question was a bit confusing, but I used an Agrarian System of Development to create an eighteenth century translation and went from there. Is that what you did?"

"Yes! Oh good, I felt like it was definitely wrong while I was doing it."

"Eh, nevermind. Even if we're both wrong, there's not much we can do about it now."

Lily smiled up at him. "God, I feel so weird. It's all a bit anticlimactic, isn't it? Felt like there should've been fireworks or something when he finally called time."

"I know right," Sirius laughed.

She linked her arm with his, and started walking them up to Gryffindor Tower. Sirius stiffened at first, but then relaxed. If Evans wanted to be all affectionate, then he supposed he was okay with that.

"I'm going to miss this place," she said conversationally.

Sirius hummed. "Reckon it'll miss you too," he said, "lots of students'll be sad to see you go."

Lily shook her head modestly, smiling.

"It's true," Sirius said. "The younger kids, they really love you. Always have, you have that whole caring shit going on."

"... Sirius Black," Lily murmured, leaning her whole body against his for a second, "you little charmer."

Impulsively, Sirius pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Screw it, he could be affectionate too. And Evans was pretty great, really. "I mean it," he said gruffly, "you were always nice to me or whatever. Talked to me about my shit with Reg and all that."

Lily was quiet for a moment. "Well, you've been there for me too."

Privately, Sirius thought Lily had done a lot more for him over the years than he had for her. But if she thought he'd been helpful, then that was something to be happy about. "Bet you never thought you'd be here back in First Year," he grinned. "Mates with me, dating James Potter. You hated us back then."

"I did," Lily said happily, "but it's funny how things work out, isn't it?"

"Never thought I'd be mates with you either. I thought you were a proper teacher's pet."

"And I thought you were a spoilt little twit."

Sirius barked a laugh. "I probably was," he admitted.

"And I was probably a bit of a teachers pet."

"But now you're a Marauder, accomplice in our greatest ever prank."

"And you left your whole family behind. So I guess we've both changed a lot."

Sirius smiled to himself. "You were one of the things that made me question it all, way back then," he told her, though he had no idea why. "You were so good at magic, I didn't think muggleborns could be that good. Made me see that what my family had taught me was complete bullshit."