The news that James Potter had finally won the heart of Lily Evans had spread throughout the castle by dinner that night, but that didn’t stop the volume level from tripling when they entered the Great Hall together, hand in hand.
“It’s no more than I expected,” sighed Lily in resignation as heads turned to follow their progress to the Gryffindor table, but James didn’t seem to mind. He was positively strutting.
“It’s about time,” said Remus quietly with a faint smile as they passed him. Peter simply looked awestruck.
“Congratulations,” said Jocelyn, smirking, as they sat down opposite her.
Lily smiled sheepishly. James, however, was looking at Sirius, the only person in the Great Hall who wasn’t saying anything, and the only one whose opinion he cared about.
“Er “ Sirius mate,” he said uncertainly, because suddenly he wasn’t sure Sirius was going to be happy that he, James, had finally achieved his dream of six and a half years, and was going out with Lily Evans. The atmosphere at the table changed instantly. Remus froze halfway through lowering his goblet, Peter’s eyes darted uncertainly between James and Sirius’s faces, and Jocelyn suddenly looked very tense.
There was a silence while Sirius and James looked at each other, but Sirius wasn’t really seeing James at all. Six and a half years of memories were assailing him; six and a half years of adventures, and pranks, and fights, and loyalty. Six and a half years that were drawing to a close. The end of an era. He took a deep breath.
“Well done, mate,” he said, smiling, and James grinned. The tension at the table broke. Everyone began laughing and talking, and they were just getting to the point of hysteria when Lily suddenly jumped up.
“What’s with you?” James questioned, frowning at her.
“I’ve forgotten!” she said anxiously. “I’m supposed to be at the Slug Club Christmas party!”
“Sit down,” yawned James, grabbing her hand and attempting to pull her back down. “Tell Slughorn you got sick or something.”
“No, he’ll be so disappointed, but “” Lily’s face suddenly lit up. “You can come with me!” she said with obvious delight.
“No I can’t,” replied James, bemused. “That’s by invitation only, and I didn’t get one. Sirius here did, though,” he added, nodding at Sirius, who glowered at him.
“Don’t be stupid, we’re allowed to bring guests!” said Lily brightly. “So come on, then!” She yanked on his hand.
“All right, all right,” sighed James, standing up, and making to follow her. “Wish me luck,” he added to the rest of them.
“Good luck!” beamed Jocelyn.
“See you!” said Lily brightly, and with that she and James disappeared.
“Sirius, are you okay?” Jocelyn questioned, for he had suddenly become very sober.
“Oh yeah,” he replied without looking at her, his voice sounding unnaturally hearty. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You sure?” she said tentatively.
“Yeah,” said Sirius, in that same horribly hearty voice. “Good about James and Lily, isn’t it?”
“Is it?” said Jocelyn, very quietly, and Sirius’s face fell.
“You told me once that I couldn’t spend the rest of my life playing pranks,” he said, looking up at her. “But I don’t think that’s the reason I’m not entirely happy about it.” There was a long pause while they looked at each other. “It’s just… hard,” he said finally, looking back down at his plate.
“I know,” she answered. “It’s like you can’t decide if you want it to work out or not, because if it does, you’ll be happy for them, but you’ll hate them, and if it doesn’t, you’ll be happy for yourself, but you’ll “”
“Hate yourself, yeah,” Sirius nodded, still staring at his plate. “And, you know, it’s not like things won’t go back to normal,” he muttered.
“But they’ll never be the same,” Jocelyn whispered.
“Yeah,” he said, looking up at her. “Yeah, exactly.”
Jocelyn looked at him contemplatingly.
“Lily never told you why she invited you to Hogsmeade, did she?” she asked quietly.
“Sure,” Sirius shrugged. “She said it was to find out about James. Why?”
Jocelyn shrugged.
“No reason. Just… wondering, I suppose.”
“Wondering what?” Sirius questioned.
“Lily’s funny, that’s all,” said Jocelyn vaguely.
“Well, that cleared that up,” said Sirius sarcastically. “I’m glad you explained, I was getting really confused.”
Jocelyn gave him a cold look.
“Give me a moment, all right,” she said impatiently. “I’m thinking.”
Sirius turned to Remus and Peter, looking incredulous.
“Can either of you follow this?” he asked them.
Peter shook his head. Remus smiled.
“I can rarely follow your conversations, Padfoot,” he said mildly, “so I wasn’t trying.”
“Well I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets confused,” said Sirius.
“Shut up, Sirius, you made me lose my train of thought,” snapped Jocelyn.
“Well maybe if you’d have said what it was!” Sirius snarled.
Sirius and Jocelyn bickered throughout the rest of dinner, and all the way to Gryffindor Tower, where they, Remus, and Peter settled down to do homework.
“Jocelyn, look over my Defense essay, will you?” Sirius requested after half an hour, yawning.
“Not that you deserve it!” snapped Jocelyn, sounding irritable, as she snatched it away from him. “Sirius!” she said angrily a moment later. “You’ve only written the introduction!”
“I’m not in the mood to write anything else,” he shrugged.
“Well I’m not writing it for you!” she told him, thrusting it back at him. “I’m still writing my own!”
“You wrote three Defense Against the Dark Arts essays last month!” he protested.
“Yes, and you still owe me for that!” she pointed out.
“It didn’t get me out of detention,” he said sulkily.
“That was not my fault,” she said shortly. “I’m not doing your homework for you, and that’s the end of it!”
“Would you two shut up?” sighed Remus. “I can’t think with you two going at each other.”
Sirius and Jocelyn fell silent, and contented themselves with sending each other dirty looks over their parchments. Slowly the common room emptied around them. Remus and Peter went off to bed after awhile. Soon only Sirius and Jocelyn remained, sitting together in silence, except for the scratching of their quills. It was past midnight before Sirius realized it.
“James and Lily never came back,” he said suddenly, looking up at Jocelyn. She giggled.
“I know,” she said, grinning. “I guess they’re making up for lost time.”
Sirius was not sure whether he wanted to laugh or be violently sick, and compromised by making a large blot on his parchment. He swore quietly, and Jocelyn looked up.
“Oh, give that here,” she sighed, holding out her hand. “I’ll clean it up and correct it for you.”
For a few minutes there was silence while she read over it, occasionally scratching out a sentence and writing a revision, and Sirius stared at the fire.
Tap, tap, tap.
Sirius’s head snapped up.
Tap, tap, tap.
“Sirius, would you stop that, I can’t concentrate,” snapped Jocelyn irritably, but Sirius wasn’t listening to her.
“Jocelyn,” he said in a strained voice.
“What?” she snapped, looking up at him.
He pointed across the room.
“What?” she said again, a bite of impatience in her voice.
“It’s here,” he said quietly.
Jocelyn followed his hand, and saw it. There, outside one of the windows, was a medium-sized brown owl. Jocelyn’s eyes widened in horror, and she rushed across the room to open the window. The owl fluttered in and dropped a letter on the table before swooping out again. Jocelyn opened it with trembling fingers. One glance confirmed her worst fears.
“Is it “ is it “” said Sirius jerkily. She nodded.
“My father died this afternoon,” she said quietly. “We’re to go up to London on Saturday to sort out his possessions.”
A/N: Yay, James and Lily are together! So now Sirius and Jocelyn can be to! So said you in the reviews. Er, sorry to burst your bubble, but no… not quite…