Coming Together ༄ Sirius Black

Chapter Forty

Lily rolled her head back, giggling wildly as Asteria stifled her own laughter behind her hand.

"You can't say stuff like that!" Lily panted, "What if somebody heard you?"
Asteria rolled her eyes playfully, "Please."

The two girls sat together in their usual train compartment, perfectly secluded from everybody else. Thankfully, the stress of OWL exams had faded from their minds and now the only worry was what their results were going to be. Neither girl was occupied by this thought at the moment as they simply enjoyed the bliss that was each other's company at the end of the school year.

"I should probably head down to the prefect's carriage. They're going to want me to patrol at some point." Lily sighed, dragging herself to her feet.

Asteria tutted, "Guess I'll just wait here then."
"Well, where's Sirius?"

Asteria sucked in a deep breath. She'd discretely been avoiding Sirius over recent days as she tried to conceal what had happened after her Ancient Runes OWL exam. Remus has kept his word and not told anyone about the damage done to her book, although they hadn't been able to find a spell to fix it. Truthfully, Asteria knew she should have told one of the professors about it. Although she didn't want the attention and she still wasn't entirely certain who had done it, this act of seeking help would inevitably result in nothing happening. She also knew that if she told Sirius, he would most likely be out for blood in revenge. She didn't want him causing a commotion by harassing half of the Slytherins in the school as this would most likely backfire on her as well.

"Haven't seen him round." Asteria shrugged, "Better check he's not pranking Snape one last time?" She suggested.

Lily shook her head, she knew full well something was up with her friend but she didn't particularly want to pry and risk upsetting Asteria further.
Almost as if on cue, Snape pulled open the compartment door.

"Lily, are you coming to the prefect's cabin? Everybody is waiting." Snape narrowed his eyes at Asteria, almost as if he were suspicious of her.

"Sure thing, you alright here? Won't be long." Lily turned back to Asteria and flashed her a warm smile.
"I'll be waiting." She replied.

"Don't wait too long. We might be a while." Snape hissed, allowing Lily to pass out of the cabin before quickly shutting the door behind her and leaving Asteria alone once again.

It had been a long time since Asteria had truly been alone. Her entire life had been turned upside down in the space of one school year and she hadn't had time to fully realise or appreciate what had happened. Whilst she did enjoy the peace of her own company, Asteria finally had a group of friends. Sure, they were loud and crazy and mildly annoying at times, but they always made her laugh. She had friends that would stand up for her if she asked, or back down if she needed them to. That was something she had never expected and that she would never stop being grateful for.

This sudden, somewhat epiphany led Asteria to decide that she needed to find Sirius. Even though she didn't want to confess what had happened, she couldn't lead to him believe he had done something wrong. That would be terribly unfair. She was thankful not only for Sirius but for everything he had shared with her and she didn't want to end the year alone.

"Padfoot."

Sirius folded his arms tightly and kept his gaze focused out of the window.

"Padfoot."

Remus sighed and glanced between his friends.

"Padfoot."

"James, I-" Peter began but was abruptly cut off.
"It's Prongs now. You know the rules." James held up his hand in an attempt to silence the boy.
Peter shook his head, "James, you're crazy. Full on insane. I'm not going to be called Wormtail because you couldn't come up with anything better."

Sirius finally turned to look over at his friends, "At least you aren't called Padfoot. I mean, seriously, James? There's so many other defining characteristics of a dog and you go with it's feet." He raised an eyebrow.

"Nobody else was coming up with any nicknames." James frowned, "Besides, I nearly went with Wetnose but thought you might not like that."
Sirius rolled his eyes and turned away from the scene again.

"Put it this way, at least your nickname isn't after the thing that turns you into a murderous monster every month. That's a kick to the back of the knee." Remus pointed out.

There was a small knock at the compartment door before it quietly slid open and Asteria stood in the doorway with a sheepish smile on her face.

"Escape while you can, James hasn't given you a nickname yet." Remus warned as she stepped inside and sat beside him.

"Prongs. It's Prongs." James repeated.
"My nickname is Prongs? Why?" Asteria frowned.
"No, not yours. Mine." James reiterated, "Pete is Wormtail. Remus is Moony, and Sirius is Padfoot."

Asteria laughed, "You really missed a trick though."

James looked over at her, "What?"
"I mean, was Padfoot really the best you could come up with?"
"I thought about Wetnose. That sounded kind of gross though." James explained.

"Should have called him something really cute. You know, something to annoy him a little." Asteria smirked as Sirius threw her a warning glare.

Peter's eye lit up, "Like what?"

"Fluffy?"

James clapped his hands together and leapt to his feet, "Sirius, how quickly would you stop talking to all of us if we started calling you Fluffy?"

Sirius let out a long, controlled sigh and lifted his eyes to look up at James. "James, I might just have to kill you."

"It wasn't me who came up with it!" James held his hands up, still trying to contain his laughter.

"Come on, Ri." Sirius moved past James towards the door of the compartment, "Let's leave before I strangle one of them."
Asteria took his hand and flashed the other boys and apologetic smile before following him out of the compartment and down the carriage.

"Where are we going?" Asteria asked as they quietly walked down the train.
"I fancy a Pumpkin Pasty." Sirius replied shortly, "Oh, and I got you something."

"Wait, what?" Asteria stopped and pulled her hand free from Sirius'.
He smiled at he pulled a coin out of his pocket, "Remus said something about one of your books falling apart. He said he didn't know what book it was though. Anyway... I just got you a book I figured you hadn't read because... Well, you like to read... So..."

Asteria finally understood what an emotional rollercoaster was as time seemed to slow whilst Sirius spoke. She didn't get to truly appreciate the light in his eyes or the faint redness of his cheeks as she feared Remus had let slip what had actually happened with her book. But as Sirius finished and waited for her to respond, the brightest smile he'd ever seen grew on Asteria's face.

"You really? Really?" She tried not to laugh.
"Well yeah... I'm trying this new thing where I think about other people rather than myself." Sirius shrugged and smirked his usual smirk.

Asteria laughed properly now and swatted at his arm, "You almost nailed that until the very last second."

"Guess you don't want the book then?" Sirius tossed the coin into the air so he didn't have to stare at Asteria and make himself feel more nervous.
"Of course I do, you idiot." She leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

"I go out of my way to be nice and all I get is an insult." Sirius shook his head disapprovingly, before another smile crept onto his face and he laughed at Asteria's expression before kissing her again.