Chapter 3
James used to think that he was the one who understood Sirius best.
Since freshman year, they have been best friends. They always hang out together, share everything in life, and know each other's secrets. They were inseparable, understanding each other so well that they could easily guess what color underwear the other was wearing today.
But James didn't expect that his best friend was hiding a secret, a shocking dark secret that he would probably never reveal to anyone.
James began to discover this while talking to Lily, the girl he had a crush on for a long time and now became his official girlfriend after many years of pursuing.
It was a Hogsmeade weekend, on a date, or rather what was supposed to be a double date, between two pairs of best friends.
“Lily,” James kissed his girlfriend on the cheek, amused to see the blush on her cheeks, “Have you been waiting long?”
The redhead glared, crossing her arms, "I just got here, since you started flirting with those Hufflepuff girls over there."
The Gryffindor Chaser grinned at his girlfriend's glare. Merlin, he found the beautiful girl's anger and jealousy amusing, definitely if her outbursts weren't too intense. He wrapped his arms around her waist, kissed her rosy lips, and whispered flirtatiously into her ear, "Don't be mad, my love, you know I'll always be yours alone."
This did not appease the hot-tempered redhead in the slightest, she pushed the person who was leaning all his weight on her away, glared at him with disgust, and said derisively, "I'm going to go find Marlene now, during which time you can have more time to hug, kiss, and whisper cheesy things to more girls besides me."
“Come on, honey,” James sighed, trying in vain to calm Lily's anger, but then realized something, “Isn't McKinnon dating Sirius?”
Lily rolled her eyes and looked at him mockingly, "I didn't expect you to not only be heartless towards your girlfriend, but also indifferent towards your best friend. Don't you know that Sirius didn't come to Hogsmeade today?"
Really? James frowned, didn't Padfoot ever miss a weekend date with his girlfriend? He was always so excited about every opportunity to be with the blonde and even planned dates with her months in advance, Peter and James took turns teasing him about it. As far as he knew, Sirius didn't have any plans on the weekends.
But James decided to put this doubt aside and continued to comfort his girlfriend, after all, this was not a matter of concern, he would still see Sirius wrapped around his girlfriend like a vine and kissing her as if he wanted to swallow her tongue the next day.
Things did not get any better as James expected, but instead got worse in the following days.
Sirius changed strangely quickly, in a direction that no one expected.
From the outside, others would not have noticed this miraculous transformation. Sirius was still the Gryffindor prince, handsome, generous, and charming. But as a close friend, James noticed the difference in him. His friend seemed to have become quieter, less talkative, and often absent-minded, and although he usually hid it behind his usual mischievous smile, James knew that something was wrong.
James decided to follow his best friend's every move, determined to find the reason for this erratic change. At first everything was still normal, Sirius behaved cheerfully as he always did, until the appearance of Snivellus.
Whenever that slimy bat appeared in his line of sight, Sirius would become absent-minded, dazed, and silent. He would stare at Slytherin as if he were the only person left in the world, and would not move his gaze even if the world turned upside down. James initially thought that Sirius was just planning some kind of prank on his sworn enemy, but no, he saw no malice in his eyes, but instead sadness, despair, and desire.
And it all came to a head during the Slytherin and Gryffindor History of Magic lesson, where Sirius, as usual, was staring at the raven's skinny back. James was curious, and decided to observe Snivelly to find out what it was about him that attracted Sirius so much. But, to his disappointment, there was nothing interesting about him, he was still the same greasy, book-obsessed as usual.
Shaking his head in frustration, James decided to give Sirius an interrogation, things couldn't continue in such a strange way anyway, when Professor Binns ended the lesson by assigning a bunch of homework that no one would do, except perhaps the two best students in the class, Lily and Snape, James was about to chase after Sirius to ask for the truth when he saw Sirius suddenly become strangely impatient, silently following Snape from behind, feeling worried, he followed both of them.
And there, right in a hidden corner at the turn, James witnessed with his own eyes Sirius pressing Snape against the wall, kissing him madly on the lips.
James felt like there was an explosion in his head, he thought he was going to pass out, and he had to cover his mouth to stop himself from screaming like a Mandrake that had just been plucked from the pot.
That night, James was completely sleepless, tossing and turning in bed, trying to force his mind to fall asleep, but after a few hours, he was still awake.
He spent hours coming up with plausible explanations for the scene he had seen, and eventually concluded that the evil and filthy Snivellus had cast some sort of horrible curse on Sirius, driving him insane and obsessed with that slimy snake.
Yes, it had to be, there was no way Sirius would abandon Marlene McKinnon, the second most beautiful girl in Gryffindor, the first place definitely going to Lily Evans, to secretly date an ugly and dirty Death Eater like Snivellus. And as Sirius's best friend, he had to make that evil man pay for having the audacity to harm him.
With that burning determination, the next day, when he saw Snape in the hallway, James covered his mouth and dragged him into the room of requirement.