A Sliver of Change | S. Black

Part 2: Chapter 18

Chapter 18 –

June 1st, 1976

"You know," Lily muttered as she swallowed the piece of haggis in her mouth, "you really should be studying harder for the OWL's, you don't want to end up with less than five."

Marlene sighed at her friend, playing around with the food on her plate.

"I'll do fine Lils, your study schedule for me has been going great," she mumbled.

Lia felt bad for her blonde friend as she was currently getting the backlash from a flustered Lily. The girl had been going crazy for the past few weeks, shouting at, at least one of them every day for something different and Lia was starting to get annoyed with it, as was the rest of them.

"Lily flower," James butted in from beside her, "I have been studying every day, just for you."

Lily glared at him before saying, "I don't have the energy for you today, James, so please just be quiet."

Her words ruffled Lia's feathers, especially when she saw the sad expression from her brother.

"Lily, I love you," she groaned, "but you need to tone it down. We can't handle this every day."

Lily's fierce expression softened, guilt falling on her face.

"I'm sorry guys, I don't mean to take it out on you all, I'm just stressed," she admitted before turning to James, "good job James. I hope you do great on your OWL's."

James's face lit up and he happily ate the rest of the food in front of him, the smile never leaving his face. Lia smiled at her brother before sending a silent thank you to Lily who nodded her head.

As the four finished the rest of their meal, Sirius plopped down across from them, a frown on his face.

"What's up Pads?" James asked, staring at his friend with concern.

Lia followed his actions, waiting for the boy to answer.

"Fucking Snivellus needs to learn to shut his bloody mouth," Sirius growled out, ripping a piece of bread off with his teeth.

As he chewed on it angrily, Lia glanced towards her brother who shrugged his shoulders as if to say that he didn't know what happened. She nodded her head, already knowing that him and Peter had spent the day helping Remus who was feeling quite sick before the full moon tonight.

"What happened Sirius?" Lia whispered gently, grabbing his hand across the table to give it a reassuring squeeze.

Sirius sighed angrily before continuing, "he ran straight into me after class this afternoon, and then he acted as if it was my fault. We got into it, calling eachother names before he fucking hexed me! Look at this!" Sirius lifted up his sleeve to reveal a small scratch on his forearm, "bloody idiot should be glad that Flitwick walked around the corner the next second or I would've done much worse than he did."

Nodding her head in understanding at his anger, Lia went to say something but was cut off by Lily.

"You should give him a break Sirius," she said, "he's not usually a bad guy."

Despite all that had happened, Lily was still giving Snape the benefit of the doubt, even if the two hardly spoke to each other anymore. Lia didn't understand why and whenever she asked, it was the one conversation that Lily deemed off limits.

"Leave him alone, are you being serious Evans?" Sirius turned his glare on her, "he called you a dirty mudblood. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Lia watched as Lily's face fell, tears misting her eyes. Before she could comfort her friend, Sirius continued with his rant.