𝕎𝕙𝕠 𝕀'𝕕 𝔹𝕖 | 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐒𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤

T h i r t e e n

"June! Can you take over for me! I'm dying for the bathroom!" Lily groaned, clutching the end of her skirt before hiking quickly up too her dorm room. It was study night - the girls, Remus and now the other boys (after a lot of shunning from Remus) would all do practice papers for an hour in the common room then Remus and Lily would grade them, including each other's. Getting up from Alice's lap, half her hair in a pigtail, she took a seat next to Remus, pleasant smile on their faces.

"Hey sweet." Tying the rest of her hair up, June looked down at the paper Lily was just about to grade. It was Remus' "urgh, you have such neat penmanship! So swirly!" Remus grinned at her, dipping his quill in ink again.

"Thank you! My dad has great handwriting, very similar to his! Your brothers is so hard to read- hmm"
They chuckled together as they looked at it, trying to ignore all the noise around them: Sirius was asleep on the couch, the book June gave him covering his head, James stacking items on top of Sirius' sleeping self, Peter went up in the boys dorm to change and the girls were chatting animatedly amongst themselves.

"You should see Sirius' writing!" Remus snorting, holding the paper in his hands. Lily came back down, standing behind them and leaning over with June to see.....

His notes in her book, the same way the S curled as well as the F's, P's and J's.... the letters. Lily gasped so loudly it shook the room, snatching the paper and looking at June and Sirius, frantically back and forth.
James jumped to Lily's aid, trying to be the idiotic hero, Sirius jolted awake but drowned quickly in various items and the girls frowns were perplexed.

"What! What happened!" James leaned over also, connecting the dots. Watching his sisters face fall dead, he was too nervous to look at Sirius "shit..."

Slowly and quietly rising from her seat, June's breath tight and still. Sirius moved the crap laying on him away, tying to see what was happening. With eyes now locked onto each other, he went to give a smile but felt his insides turn inside out. He wanted to crawl away suddenly.

"Juniper.." James went to step in, he was unsure if he needed to do damage control.

"Shh. I'm going to get them...." she was monotonous and wary, her feet slowly trudging up the stairs.

"What the fuck is happening? Has she taken something?" Sirius finally clambered to his feet, watching the stairs. Arms grabbed him, pulling him towards someone's chest. His head whipped around and he knew then....

"Either you go get them as well, or run. I can't get a read on how this episode is going to go. I warned you to tell her!" James' teeth were gritted but he was worried for him. After the week of unsubtle 'secret' neediness towards each other, James thought it over and he was already planning their wedding but only to have him selfishly as a brother in law of course.

"Explain. Now!!" a suddenly growl rippled next to Sirius, snapping the boys back to the reality. Wide eyed, James wrapped his arms around Lily's waist to keep her still, a stream of angry ranting appearing from every direction and arms waving around. James pushed Sirius up the stairs before trying to calm the room down.

Scrambling up the cold cobbled stones, the pulse rose in Sirius' neck, the adrenaline so furious that he was ready to burn out and crash. The door slammed open as he dived for his bed, Peter jumping at the sudden presence.

"Y'alright?" The blonde small boy leaned over to see what his friend was searching for.

"Will explain later" Sirius pulled the tied stack to his chest and froze. He was an idiot, he was scared and he wanted to be swallowed hole by a black hole. He looked down, his breath rapid and uneasy.

"Forgive me darlin..." he quickly begged, hoping that this wasn't going to be brutal. Nodding to Peter, Sirius made it downstairs and stood frozen on the last step, other students over looking the theatre production that they didn't expect nor pay for. June stood by Remus, not daring to look up as she looked at Sirius' practice paper and the last letter she got.

She was trying her hardest to find an explanation that didn't match what she was looking at, she was wanting a different answer yet the same. She was lucky that it wasn't some creep that was playing tricks or fell in love with her yet at the same time it was. But she didn't feel that; oddly, she was relieved.

Finally looking up, the room went quiet. Neither of them knew who should make the first move. So, instead they slowly and with strong hesitation met at the couch, Sirius behind it and June before the pillows. Her small hand outstretched for what she needed to see. He looked at her hand, a sickly curdle rolling in his stomach again for the first time since the letters started. That sweet hand he would try to grab in secret, the hand he kissed, the girl he was gifted from fate. Pray to Merlin that he was going to help the boy.

He looked into her eyes, his breath increased a fraction as he saw the fire behind them, the gloss of unsure tears possibly surfacing - they were conflicted. He lifted the stack and placed it in her hand before he slowly stepped back. She looked down and of course she didn't need a second to confirm. She bit her lip and nodded slowly. It was him.

He was the one that unlocked every emotion inside her and lit her furnace, giving her excitement she never knew possible and so out of the blue too and yet this is how she was to find out. By second hand instead of his words. He should be good at it considering he was practically courting her for 4
months. She was at a loss. For the first time, she didn't know how to answer this life question.

"I never thought this was how it was going to happen..." there was an awkward chuckle to his voice. "Now if everyone would like to fuck off away from this show, we can settle this." His voice turned cold, regressing back to his previous attitudes - scared to handle another rejection. He kept his eyes locked on his shoes as various students left. Their friends, including Peter who came down to view the commotion, were still remaining.

"Before anyone even tries to jump in, you're speculators in this situations and that's it. Juniper would you rather talk in private or would you feel more comfortable having our peers with us?" He was very formal, a habit of social interactions with the 'kind' his mother forced him into at a young age.

"Private." She let out a breath, walked around the sofa and took his hand. He pulled it away out of habit, jumping a tad. June was still, worried of what was to play out. His eyes grew; even in the face of discipline, she was nothing but kind.

He took her hand as it remained out stretched for him, her eyes looking towards her brother. It was silent language between them. After it all paired together, she knew that James was acting like that because of it. Although she was pissed, just like her with James and Lily's lover quarrel, he was caught between family and his best friend. She understood.

Walking out of the common room, they silently ventured down to the nearest empty class room to duel it out.