Black // Marauders

28. I Promise

Persie sat on the train, resting her warm head against the condensed, foggy, cold window. She sighed, opening her eyes again to reveal countryside almost identical to that which she had seen hours before. She couldn't understand why they had been forced to take an almost empty Hogwarts Express back to the castle the day after the events of yesterday and her head was still pounding from it. The small cut on the side of her head from a falling piece of plaster was only hidden by the small strand of hair acting as a fringe as the rest of her hair was tied up, her split lip, swollen and purple, on full view still to the whole castle. She didn't know why she was worried, they'd probably heard of the attack in the Daily Prophet that very morning. She could tell that Lily was worrying, Ava was worrying, Miranda was hoping she was dead, Justin was hoping she was dead, Remus was trying to calm everyone down and Peter would be sat there quietly, just absorbing everyone else's feelings and trying not to explode.

The door to her compartment slid open, revealing a slightly worn looking Sirius, the long cut along his jaw on full show, his hand still bandaged up from where he'd thrown them both to the floor.

"Hey," He said tiredly, shutting the door again, before sitting opposite her and staring, "What's up?"

"What isn't?" She replied, letting out a breath of annoyance as she placed her head on her hand, being careful of the cut she wouldn't like to annoy.

"Well, you still have friends?" Sirius suggested after a few minutes of silence passed between them, giving her a look of a shrug.

"Not for long. They'll all hate me when they find out what's been going on here." She said, putting her head in her hands, "Why is everything about me so bloody complicated?"

"It's not. When summer comes, everything's going to be great and there will be no more worries. No more exams, no more hiding, no more trouble. Nothing." Sirius comforted her, hopping over to sit beside her, wrapping an arm over her shoulder, "I promise."

"Right." Persie said sarcastically, rolling her eyes, but snuggling into him regardless, "I just want everything to be simple. And if your family could stop attacking me that'd be great."

"I still think you look pretty." Sirius laughed, kissing the scar on her forehead gently, "Then again, you always look pretty."

"I'd better be if you expect to stick around with me much longer. The amount of scars I've gained from loving you is ridiculous." She replied, shaking her head a little.

"No, the second last one was Peter's fault." He frowned, "Plus, stop talking like that! You're making me feel awful."

"Yeah, well, you deserve it, Black." She replied, before they just sat in each other's company for the remainder of the journey.

**

"PERSIE!" Lily cried, almost jumping on her friend when she walked into the Great Hall that night for dinner, not expecting to see anyone she knew until she reached the Gryffindor table, "Oh my gosh, are you alright?"

"Yeah. Fine." Persie replied, snapping out of her slight daze a little, shaking her head before she was dragged over to where Remus, Ava and Peter were all sat, "Where's Bird?"

"Oh, have you not heard?" Ava asked, raising her eyebrows, before nodding over to the Ravenclaw table, where Persie found Justin and Miranda sat together eating their dinner. When she noticed her looking over at them, Miranda adjusted her stance towards Adams before planting a wet kiss on his cheek and acting all cutesy whereas Justin just looked back in Persie's direction, meeting her eyes for a second before she span back around and rolled her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Lily questioned, looking a little concerned as Persie looked up to face her, "Yeah, I'm fine. I don't like either of them so I suppose they can do what they like."