2
When James made his way further into the common room, he noticed that he was not the only one there. A certain redheaded girl was sitting on the floor, pouring over her school books.
James smiled slightly, walking up to the girl and collapsing onto the floor beside her. Lily startled, looking over to him before rolling her eyes and closing her books.
“What's wrong now, James?” she grumbled, moving over so he could properly sit.
James sighed. He didn’t know how to tell her without openly outing him and Regulus’ relationship. While James didn’t have a problem telling Lily, he didn’t know if Regulus did.
“What would you do if, hypothetically of course,”
“Oh yes, hypothetically 100%.”
“Yes, hypothetically. What would you do if you were dating someone, but your afraid to tell your friend because you're scared of how they’ll react?” James sighed, running a hand through his hair and closing his eyes.
Lily considered the question for a second, before setting her book down and laying down beside the stressed boy.
“Why is it that you're afraid to tell Sirius?”
James’ head snapped towards her, his eyes immediately opening.
“How did you?–”
“Know it's about Sirius? Please, who else would you be afraid of telling?”
“Well, there's everyone else, not just–”
“But mostly Sirius, right?”
Both heads turned to the right as Marlene McKinnon plopped down on the couch above them.
“When did you get here?” Lily shook her head, resting her head back on the floor.
“How much did you hear?” James said anxiously, looking around with fake desperation as if there were any others lurking in the dark and quiet common room. There probably were, honestly.
“Like, two minutes ago. Anyways, I think you should just tell him, rip it off like a bandaid, y’know?”
James sighed, closing his eyes and dramatically shaking his head.
“It’s not that simple, Marls.”
“I’m pretty sure it is,” Marlene said, huffing and picking at her nails.
“But what if he gets mad? What if he’s upset, really upset. He’ll kill me,” the boy fretted, holding up his hands.
“Damn, I didn't realize it was that deep. Who the hell is it that would make Sirius quite literally murder you, and why?” Lily’s eyes widened as she turned to look at James.
He sighed. The who was exactly the reason he couldn't tell Sirius.