Black & White - A Harry Potter Fan Fiction

Chapter 13-4

"Padfoot, man, you're going to wear out the carpet."

Sirius stopped halfway during the umpteenth crossing of the drawing room. For what seemed hours, he had been walking up and down the worn-out carpet his mother had ordered from the Weavers Wizards from the Far East to decorate the drawing room's floor.

"James, let him be." Lily's voice was muffled by the book she was reading. Or pretending to read. Sirius was pretty sure she had been on the same page for at least forty minutes.

Sirius dropped his limbs on the couch next to James and took his head in his hands. As usual, he had nothing to do but wait.

"You'll see, Remus is going to convince her." Lily had been repeating those words so often since Remus left that they were meaningless now. But the meeting of the Order of the Phoenix was beginning shortly. They were going to know, one way or another.

James was the only one unaffected by the wait. He was reading the Daily Prophet with enviable leisure. After all, that Sara accepted to join the Order or not was of no import to him. They had never been openly at odds with each other, but Sara and James had never sat well with each other either. Actually, James was probably hoping in a negative answer on her part, since what he had told Sirius. She changes you, and I'm not sure this is a good thing.

Sirius had never really understood why James resented Sara. However, he had learnt to accept that the two most important people in his life couldn't get along very well. Anyway, the display of disinterest James was putting up was beginning to get on his nerves. He was about to go back to the kitchen downstairs when Remus' Patronus appeared in the room.

The wolf coagulated at the centre of the room in a bright form, then spoke with Remus' voice. We're coming.

"He said we?" Lily finally put her book aside and stood from her armchair. "I heard it correctly? He said "we", right?"

Sirius felt a strange calmness spreading from his stomach to the rest of his body. He even managed a smile. "He said we."

"See?" Lily crushed him in a sisterly hug then throw herself in James' arms. "I told you he was going to convince her." She was smiling from ear to ear, and she was close to jumping up and down with joy. Clearly, the fact that Sara was going to join the meeting was important to her too.

"Let's go downstairs." James dropped the newspaper with a sigh. He looked more amused than annoyed, but Sirius wouldn't have cared in any case.

He was about to see Sara again.