The Other Side {Sirius Black}

CHAPTER 9

[1977]

POV VIVIAN RUE HOLLAND

Our N.E.W.Ts should be all that is on our mind. They're stressful enough without anything else.

But here we are. Worrying about a war.

And that brings us into Dumbledore's office.

The man just told us that we might join the order, if we wanted to. Well, he technically urged us to join, but that's absolutely not the point.

I look at Sirius. I see James and Lily look at each other and even Dorcas and Remus share a look. And all of them mean the same. What are we going to do?

"Can we have time to think about it? Discuss it with each other?" I ask, wanting to leave the room and discuss this by the water, while everyone has a swim.

"You may. You can go. Let me know when you decide." I nod and am the first to walk out, quickly followed by all the others.

"We absolutely shouldn't do it." Peter says.

"I agree." Mary and I say.

"This is ridiculous. We're eightteen. He can't expect us to give our lives to fight against Voldemort." I reason.

"I don't know. Maybe we should join. I mean, half of us were going to become Aurors anyways-"

"James, you and I were reasoning why we should not do that. We wanted to play quidditch." I argue.

"Well, maybe I want to become an auror after all." He mumbles.

"James, you're so stupid for giving up your dream like that." Lily says.

"Can we discuss this by the lake, while we pretend to study?" Dorcas proposes.

"Also, I don't think we should join. We're not powerful or anything. We're just out of school, when we join." She adds.

"I heard the Prewett siblings are in the order, together with Arthur Weasley." Sirius says, as we're dropping down by the tree and James and Marlene start readjusting the still hanging rope, until we can all jump from it.

"How about we join? We'll see how it goes, in the end. We're going to be fighting in this war anyways, better be secured by something like the Order of the Phoenix." Remus reasons. I shrug.

"It doesn't sit right with me." I say. "It's all directed at us."

"I'm sure other people have gotten this talk." Marlene says, climbing down from the tree.

"But then why is it all so secret?" I ask, sitting down.

"I suppose he doesn't want the slytherins to know." Lily says.

"That's discrimination." Sirius says.

"But we know Dumbledore is like that. He favours us because we're in the almighty house of Gryffindor. Worst kept secret within the school." Mary shrugs.

"True." I say.

"But that means he trusts us, right? He wants us to do it. So why wouldn't we join? It's not like it feels good to me, but I can't think of reasons why not to." Dorcas sighs.

Sirius still looks uncertain with it all. And I think I know why.

"We'll pull Reggie in later, Sirius." I say, scooting over to him and laying my arms around him.

"Unless the 'Noble House of Black' first draws him into the Death Eater circle." He answers.

"I'm just scared of what happens in that house now that I'm not there to protect him anymore. Maybe I shouldn't have left after all."

"Sirius Potter! You know as well as I do that what you did is the best for you. The worst kept secret isn't the favouritism, it's the fact that you weren't going to survive any longer within that household. And we're trying to protect Reggie. We really try to. But he's going to need to survive on his own, now. He's fifteen. And besides, he knows he can always come to us." I say. Sirius nods and smiles because of the surname I gave him.

"Promise me we'll get Holland as our collective name when we marry." He whispers in my ear.

"Promise." He smiles and holds me closer, smelling my hair in the process.

"Can't you two already get together?" James asks, when he sees us.

I give Sirius one look.

"James, you're so fucking blind." Dorcas says, smirking.

"What?" James, Sirius and I ask.

"You've been together for the past three years. We figured you didn't want to tell us so we shut up about it. It was a collective understanding to not point it out. But James didn't notice, apparently." Remus says, laughing.

"Come on, sneaking away in hogsmeade, darling and sweetheart at every possible moment, matching Freddie Mercury tattoos, getting lost with each other, the looks you two give each other when even the smallest decision has to be made, we can see it." Lily says, laughing very loud now.

"Oh and let's not forget the 'fuck you', 'later' quotes. All the time. James is just damn oblivious." Mary says, before climbing into the tree and swinging into the water.

"Well, I guess that makes this okay then." Sirius says, before kissing me.

"We get it now! Go live your lives." Peter says, laughing very hard.

"Returning to our topic. How about we join and lay low for a bit, try and figure out what the hell we're going to do with our lives while being in the order? I mean, we can step out of it when we want to." Remus continues our previous conversation.

"You know what, sure." I say.

"This is going to be the death of me. But I'm in." James says, as Lily also agrees.

Soon after, everyone has agreed and we continue our lake day, forgetting about studying or the order again.

But the order is going to haunt us. And I feel like James is right. This is going to kill us.

But for now, we need to study for our N.E.W.Ts. We still want to pass those.