Oblivion ━━ Sirius Black

𝟹 | ᴘᴇᴛʀɪғɪᴇᴅ ɪs ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇᴡ sᴇxʏ

EASTON GREENGRASS DIDN'T HAVE MANY FRIENDS. In fact, she really only had one, and hearing Penelope humming one of Celestina Warbeck's "hits" now made her wonder if their friendship had ever been true at all.

They were in the library, sitting on the floor between the Herbology and the Charms sections, killing time before the next period and eating the muggle candy Penny's mother had sent her the previous morning. Neither of the two girls dared disturb the blissful peace, each absorbed into their own thing: the cheery Hufflepuff was reading another magazine snuggled in the corner of the aisle, while Easton was mindlessly sketching Sirius's aristocratic profile in her notepad.

"Would you stop singing that bloody song," Easton grumbled, having had enough of her friend's screeching.

Penny smiled sweetly. "Sod off," she answered and casually flipped the page of the magazine. "God, Julie Christie is a goddess."

"Show me." Penny instantly turned the magazine around so that Easton could see the front page, "Oh, Merlin, Al Pacino is so hot," Easton whined.

"That he is," the blond nodded in agreement and continued scanning the page, "we should definitely see "Godfather" again."

"We could make it a binge," Easton suggested, her face instantly lit up by the idea.

"How about this Christmas? You can come stay with me, it'll be fun," said Penelope.

She couldn't see the way her best friend's face instantly sunk, and Easton was thankful for that. Ever since third year, she would sneak out to visit the Hufflepuff for Christmas despite her parents' protest because apparently, "meddling with a half-blood" was simply inexcusable, especially for a Greengrass. And if Easton didn't care about what her parents said before, now she couldn't shake off the eerie tightness in her chest that felt disgustingly like fear.

Easton Greengrass was afraid. Afraid of everything that was going on, afraid of what could happen, afraid of her father, who she was almost completely certain had a part in all of it. And she didn't want to leave her mother alone with him and her dimwit of a sister.

"You okay?"

Easton instantly looked up at Penelope. The Hufflepuff was regarding her closely, concern evident in her kind blue eyes.

"Yeah, I was just thinking," Easton mumbled and put the notepad aside, "my mother...she wanted to visit her family in France this Christmas, so we'll probably head there for the holidays."

Lying was one of the few things Easton was surprisingly good at. She could get herself out of any situation only by opening her mouth and letting her silver tongue do all the work. But if most of the time, or rather all of the time, it brought her exceptional joy, now Easton felt nothing but guilt and remorse. For she'd never lied to Penelope before and hated herself for doing it now.

"Oh, bugger," Penny looked genuinely disheartened by the sudden news, which only made Easton feel worse. "That sucks, Tony, but I promise to save you some of mum's pecan pie," she added and winked playfully. "That should heal all the horrors of your upcoming quality time with 'the fam'."

"And the Mars bars?" asked Easton in a small voice.

Penelope rolled her eyes and laughed, "And the Mars bars, now stop sulking and let's do this quiz."

Easton smiled and crawled closer to Penny to take a good look at the page.

""How to know if your crush likes you back"," she read dutifully, and it took a while for the title to truly register.

Penelope snickered.

"Ha-ha how very funny, Penny, congrats, truly," Easton laughed sarcastically and graced her friend with an unimpressed glare.