The Common Room
September 14th, 1972
The Gryffindor common room was always a source of comfort for their group. They just couldn't resist joining the two small friend groups, ( no matter how hard they tried.) Their days were often spent by the cosy fireplace. Peter sat on the large maroon rug and would challenge someone to a chess game (then, of course, win yet again). Lily and Remus would work on their homework or get lost in books, later discussing them at the table. Marlene, James, and Sirius would squeeze onto the sofa, engaging in conversations about the most random topics they could come up with.
These past two weeks, Mary's usual routine of joining Peter or even Lily and Remus has changed. Instead, she's been fixated on sitting in one chair, gazing out the window. One day she discovered that the window overlooks the yard where Emmeline and her friends often gather. It might seem a bit obsessive, but Mary has managed to gather an impressive amount of knowledge about Emmeline. She knows her name, Emmeline Vance, and the names of her friends: Emma Vanity, the Bones twins Amelia and Edgar, Caradoc Dearborn, Benjy Fenwick, Hestia Jones, and Dirk Cresswell. Although Mary can't quite explain her fascination with this random girl, she has to push past it and not let it consume her every thought.
“Why can't we try one of my ideas?” whined Sirius lying upside down on the sofa.
"Because your ideas are a right load of rubbish” said Remus from across the room, not looking up from his book. Lily, who was sitting next to him, gave him a strong nudge in the ribs and hit him with that Lily Evans face.
“Be quiet, Remus. You’ve got no idea what we’re even talking about” replied Sirius as he looked up around the back of the sofa staring at Remus.
"I know you, that's more than enough," he said, looking up and giving Sirius a snobbish grin. Sirius let out an exasperated sigh, rolled his eyes, and strolled over to the table where Lily and Remus were seated. He leaned on the table, setting his elbows down, and glanced at their papers.
“So what class is this for?” he started flipping through the papers. Before Remus or Lily had a chance to tell him to bugger off, a 1st year gryffindor came running in the room and looking around.
“Oi, Black!” he screamed with a scared look on his face. “There’s a Slytherin outside, she said she wants to see you!”
Marlene and Lily turned to Sirius then to each other, “she” they wondered, if he had said “he wants to see you” they would've known who it was but Sirius didn't know any girls. Let alone a slytherin girl. Sirius, however, got up and immediately walked to the entrance. Seemed like he knew exactly who he was about to go see.
“Two days ago” James started the moment Sirius walked out.
“What?” asked Marlene, tossing a small ball up and down. Then groaning when it fell on the ground.
“Two days ago a slytherin girl came to our dorm room to tell Sirius something. Apparently she's friends with his brother.” replied Remus, closing his book.
“How did she get in your dorm room?” asked Mary as she turned around her chair, still sitting at the window, but finally engaging in conversation with everyone.
“And since Regulus and Sirius aren't exactly on speaking terms she came to give him a letter from Regulus and said she’ll be back in two days if he wants to give her a reply” James continued completely ignoring Mary’s question.
Lily was about to ask something else, you could tell when she wanted to know something. She had that face in class all the time whenever something was interesting to her. But then Sirius walked back in and all of them stopped talking, he acted like nothing just happened and walked back up to Remus and Lily - he just stood frozen.
“Potions” said Remus.
“Eh?” replied Sirius with a confused expression.
“You asked what we’re doin’. Potions homework.” spoke Remus lifting up his book.
“Oh. I haven't done mine yet.” Sirius replied.
“Same here!!” said Pete jumping up as he grabbed some papers that were sitting on the table. That prompted Marlene and James to get out their papers and walk over to the table with Peter. Mary got out her book bag and walked away from the window.
“Think you guys can help us out?” Mary asked Lily and Remus who just smiled at their eager friends. Lily gestured for them to sit down and they all ran and sat smiling and opening their books. She looked up at Sirius who was still standing at the side, just far enough from the table that he wasn’t included but still close enough that he could see their smiles.
“You comin’?” she asked, and they all looked up at Sirius with their huge childish grins. He sighed and laughed sitting down between James and Marlene and just across from Remus.
“Cheers mate! I wasn’t gonna be able to deal with them alone, I need ya here.” said James as he threw his arm over Sirius's shoulder and looked at Marlene sticking his tongue out at her.
“Deal? With us?? I’m a sweetie.” sobbed Marls. “Petey is the one that needs to be dealt with’
James burst into laughter seeing Peter’s reaction, he gasped so loudly the entirety of Hogwarts probably heard him.
Peter pouted but he had to retaliate, it was only fair he thought. “Laugh why don’t ya! Don't get mad at me when I tell Effie what happened here.” The other two groaned and fumed with anger and they all started arguing. Peter and Marlene were yelling and insulting each other. Mary was trying to calm down while Lily burst into laughter and James was just staring at her, her laugh might be his favourite thing about Lily, although he could never choose. Making a choice was always quite complicated for him.
Remus on the other hand didn’t hear the comment made about him, he was smiling at Sirius across the table. Sirius softly smiled back, and mouthed the words “thank you”. Remus had no idea why Sirius would thank him, but did it matter? All that mattered was that Sirius Black was smiling and happy, and in that moment it was all Remus cared about.
September 14th, 1972
Outside the common room
As Sirius followed the other Gryffindor out, he checked his pocket for the letter. He had it, he wrote multiple different versions of that letter because he had no idea how to reply. The girl was standing eyeing the patterns on the walls, she gave Sirius a soft, simple smile. Pandora Lestrange. Her name made sense - she was so strange. Sirius knew her from somewhere he just couldn’t quite place it, but she was a very very interesting person to him. Her and Regulus grew awfully close really fast because there’s no way Regulus would trust her with such an important letter if she was just some random stranger.
“Hi Sirius. Do you have a letter or should I leave?’” she said. Pandora wasn’t smiling anymore but she also wasn’t mad she was just… serious.
“Yes.” he replied, handing her a letter.
That was it, she grabbed it and walked away. It wouldn’t matter if anyone read this letter, the one Regulus sent him burned up right after Sirius finished reading it. He was disappointed he really wanted to keep it. When he got back into the common room everyone stopped talking it was obvious they were talking about him. He didn’t really care, he stopped walking just frozen in his spot. He wanted someone to start talking before he started crying and as always Remus Lupin rescued him. They all started working on their homework and time went by fast. Sirius almost forgot about the letter, almost.
That night everyone went to their dorms and James was planning another prank with Peter and Remus was laying in his bed doing nothing. Sirius told them not to disturb him and he closed the curtains on his bed, he took ink and some papers and kept trying to re-write the letter from memory. The closest he got still wasn’t perfect, he couldn't remember the words Regulus used. He kept on re-reading it.
Dear Sirius,
I simply wanted to thank you for not telling anyone about me, I hope you didn’t.
I understand you grew close with that James Potter but I really hope you could keep it a secret? I told my friend Pandora but she won’t be telling anyone. I trust her. She’ll be the one that finds you and gives you this letter, I assume you don’t want to see me.
Thank you for cutting my hair and for standing up to Mother and father.
Regulus
It wasn’t exact but it was close enough. Sirius’s reply was simple, he wanted to say more and ask more but he knew he wouldn’t. He didn't want Regulus to know he cared, he didn’t want anyone to know he cared. A few minutes later Remus opened Sirius’s curtain.
“Come on Black! We came up with a prank idea” he said with an annoyed tone. Right then Sirius hid the letter under his pillow, Remus saw but he brushed it off. He wasn’t going to ask what it was, by this point he knew you could never force Sirius to talk about something if he didn’t want to.
“Alright, Alright” replied Sirius jumping off his bed.
“Who are we pranking?” he added.
“Slytherin, of course.”
Dear Regulus,
I won't tell anyone.
Sirius
September 16th, 1972
History of Magic was Mary’s subject, she loved knowing who did what and who invented which spell and why, the why was always important to her. It was always a perfect class - except today because she sat next to Marlene who couldn’t stop talking about quidditch tryouts. It wasn’t just her, the entire class was talking about them. Mary cared about it of course, she would be there after school cheering Marlene and James on but right now all she wanted was for everyone to stop talking.
She was the only one actually taking notes other than Lily and another girl in their class - Alice Fortescue. Mary didn’t really know Alice, she just knew her and Lily were friends. But more importantly - Alice was friends with Emmeline. Well she wasn’t sure if they were friends, she just saw them talking in the hallway the other day. Ever since their first interaction Emmeline has been smiling at Mary every time they passed each other. Her smile was so incredible.
“WOOOOO!!” The class cheered, the school day was over which meant it was time for quidditch. Before Mary could pack up everyone started running and screaming. Lily groaned very loudly and walked up to Mary with Remus following her, he had a huge grin on his face.
“Well” started Remus “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” and then he followed the rest of his friends as they cheered and ran out.
Lily and Mary packed up and walked out after everyone. “If only they cared this much about their studies” sighed Lily.
“I agree, Miss Evans.” They both quickly rushed out.
“Maybe this is why we’re friends with all the teachers”
Outside, they all stood helping James and Marlene prepare. “Are you absolutely sure you don’t want to try sirius?” asked James, practically begging him now. He was disappointed his parents couldn’t make it but it's ok he said not like this is a real game he said. Sirius didn’t want to play on the team, I guess it just wasn’t very interesting to him. Well, not until he saw who was trying out for the slytherin team.
“Alright” sirius said while heading inside to get changed. Remus and James looked at each other, confused then they saw Regulus on the grounds. The rest of their friends were already up on the stands cheering them on.
“Since when were first years allowed to try out?” asked James. Remus shrugged and patted him on the back while he headed to join the rest. I guess they both knew how, but at least Sirius was trying out and he was definitely making the team now. And they did, all three of them and a couple more gryffindors but so did Regulus. That didn't matter right now they were all celebrating tonight.
“Hi there” Mary froze. It was her, it was that sweet voice again it was Emmeline. She turned around and smiled at her but before she could say anything Marlene walked up to them.
“Hey you're that hufflepuff aren't you? What are you doing here?”
“Aliee invited me, congratulations Mckinnon” replied Emmeline, still maintaining eye contact with Mary. Lily and Aliee ran up and dragged the three of them to the sofa; they all sat thinking about how they would make posters for Marlene at her games. James and Sirius joined them wondering if they'd get some too but the girls refused saying that they have Remus and Peter for that.
“I am NOT making anyone any posters” stated Remus, hardly looking up from his book. He was always reading even at parties, even Lily didn't do that.
“Aw, not even for me?” whined Sirius with the biggest puppy dog eyes leaning closer to his face. Remus just ignored him and continued reading. Sirius could swear he saw him smirk which made Sirius sink into his chair. He just felt embarrassed, that's what it was.