Too Little Too Late

Chapter 13 | Edited

"So where did you disappear to?" Was the first thing Layla heard when she woke up.

"The real question is 'how long did it take you two lovebirds to notice?'" Layla countered, watching her friend's face turn as red as her hair.

"Not too long..." Lily trailed off unconvincingly.

"Mmmmhmm now tell me all about your date! How do you feel about him? What're you going to do next? Another date?" Layla exclaimed all at once, excited to hear all about Lily's date. Especially as she had 'sacrificed' a perfectly good hogsmede weekend to go on a date with Black, only to make Lily finally agree to go out with James Potter. You could say that she was invested in this date.

Lily, if possible, turned a brighter shade of red. "Well... he was such a gentleman, and he listened, and he made actual conversation, and his jokes were funny, he wasn't mean at all to anyone, and he seems so much more mature! I don't know what to do, Layla. I think I may actually like the boy." Lily rambled, finishing with a loud sigh.

"YOU MAY ACTUALLY LIKE HIM?" A voice, belonging to the loudest of all the seventh year girls, Marlene McKinnon, shouted from the doorway.

"Shush Marlene, James may hear." Alice chided from next to her friend. "Is it true? Do you like him?" She then directed to her other friend, who was an inhuman shade of red by this point.

"I think so." Lily whispered, seemingly unsure of herself and her feelings.

"Well," Alice responded diplomatically, "don't go rushing into anything in case you don't actually like him. That would break the poor boy's heart like nothing else. We all know how head over heels he is for you."

The other girls agreed, and thus they spent the entire evening discussing Lily's further actions, how her date went, why she thinks she may like the boy, and so on. The others seemed to forget that Layla also had a date that day, and so she was left to stew on her emotions and what she should do next herself.

When breakfast time came Layla had still not decided what to do about her Sirius problem.

What's the worse that can happen? She reasoned, ignoring the fact that she was currently residing in Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, where the worst possible result is often the one that occurs.

All eyes were on Lily and James when Lily chose to sit down next to James at the breakfast table. Gasps could be heard all over the great hall, and even the clanging of golden coins being exchanged (it seems that some students had placed bets on the outcome of the head girl/boy team's date). Layla, Alice and Marlene dutifully sat with the marauders, as moral support for Lily.

Sirius spent the whole of breakfast trying to catch Layla's eye. Layla spent the whole of breakfast trying not to catch Sirius' eye. Lily and James spent the whole of breakfast trying not to be too flirty, and failing.

When a great sigh from the student body was heaved, the knowledge that they would have to get up and begin their school days' evident, Layla leaned closer to Sirius and whispered, "may I have a word outside?" Sirius immediately nodded and grabbed his bag.

The two walked in an awkward silence for a short time, neither wanting to wander too far outside into the biting cold. Nearly as soon as they had both stopped they said, "I'm sorry." simultaneously.

Realising what had happened, Layla began to chuckle while Sirius let out a loud, barking laugh.

Layla, who stopped laughing before Sirius had, continued, "I am sorry though. Really. I shouldn't have run away, I was surprised and honestly quite scared, but that was not the reaction that I should have had and you didn't deserve that."

"Are you kidding? You can't apologise when I shouldn't have tried to kiss you when you obviously didn't want me to. You wouldn't have had that reaction had I not been an idiot. I'm really sorry, Layla." Sirius rambled, incredulously.

"But still, we should have just talked it out yesterday and..."

"Hey, hey. How about we just move on. I understand that you don't want anything romantic but I think that you need to know that I really like you."

Layla could feel the blush spreading across her cheeks. She hoped that it could be explained away by the biting cold of outside. It couldn't. Sirius was very, very aware that he had been the one to make her blush.

"How about..." Layla paused for a split second, "friends?" She extended her hand.

Both knew that this was the step forwards they needed to bridge the gap between them.

"Friends." Sirius agreed, shaking her extended hand. "How about we bunk today and I show you this room that the boys and I found?"

Layla considered this, "what type of room?"