No Shrinking Violet

Stress and Honesty

It had been far too long since I had indulged in art, after losing my place at Beauxbatons my passion for art had disappeared, and of course Lily had hidden my supplies away for "the good of my social life". She had gladly returned them to me while her and the boys had been doing their NEWT's when she had seen how the stress was tearing at Sirius and I, especially after the argument we had had after his Potions exam.

I squeezed my eyes shut as my mind travelled away from the sketch of the Common Room's beautiful fireplace and back to the day of the argument, I had been sitting on Sirius' bed while he and Peter agonised over whether they had gotten their potions right during the exam and the others were scattered throughout the room studying. I smiled as Remus struggled to turn his page with Cassie sleeping on his shoulder, Marlene reached over to flip the page for him and he murmured a quiet thank you. Lily and James were sharing a book and I heard Lily huff as James read at a slower pace than her before finally summoning a second book, James smirked to himself as she sat up against the headboard to continue taking her notes.

'Hey Violet, could you pass me a piece of parchment?' Peter asked politely.

Nodding my head, I picked up the nearest roll of blank parchment and threw it at him.

'How does it feel to be almost finished?' I asked him with a smile.

'Scary, Hogwarts is like home now, I have no idea what I want to do after this, the thought of not seeing all of you every day is weird.'

My smile faltered as I remembered that next year it would just be Cassie and I, our friends would be Merlin knows where living their lives while we were here. Forcing a smile back on my face I tired to cheer him up.

'Don't be so glum Pete, it's not like you'll be moving to another country! You guys will be on the outside, free from Filch and Professor Binns and Cassie and I will visit you on the holidays, we'll write all the time, Lily's never going to be free of me anyway.' I finished with a laugh.

'No matter how hard I try.' Lily added with an exaggerated eye roll.

I threw Sirius' pillow at her and it smacked her straight in the face, she jumped up from the bed and threw it back at me with more force than I had anticipated, it soared through my waiting hands and hit me in the face, knocking me from where I had been perched on the edge of the bed. Despite my best efforts I landed on the floor and my elbow knocked Sirius' ink pot all over his notes with some splattering onto his new grey top, he leaned back with an angry huff as I tried to catch my breath after landing on my back.

'For fuck sake Violet!' he yelled.

I carefully pulled myself up and finally managed to take a solid breath as Sirius glared at me.

'Sorry, I didn't mean to.' I apologised as I whipped out my wand to clean it.

'It's fine, I'll do it, just go sit on the bed or something.' he said gruffly.

Rising to my feet I picked up the pillow from the floor and lowered myself onto the bed with my eyes on Sirius' back, I struggled to remember a time where Sirius had spoken to me like that without it being provoked by some silly argument, and even then it was usually when the argument had gone on for too long and we needed to separate for a bit to cool down.

For the next fifteen minutes we sat in silence save for the sound of pages turning and quills scratching against parchment, until an owl tapped its beak against the window.

'I'll get it, you guys just keep studying.' I murmured.

With the window open, the owl hopped in and dropped a letter into my hand, I gave it a treat and it flew off again letting me shut the window again, the letter was addressed to me and I squealed as I recognised Mum's handwriting, I hadn't had a letter from her in ages, my excitement dulled slightly as Sirius hissed at me to be quiet. A frown marred my face as I returned to his bed and sat back against the headboard with my knees pulled up against my chest.