As summer crept upon Hogwarts, Lily knew that the time had come to go back home for break. Exams were over, classes were finished, and everyone was packing up their trunks in the dormitories to catch the train the next morning. She was excited to see her mum and dad again, but sad to leaver her second home and all her friends. She and Aaron had promised to write each other and made arrangements to get together sometime during the break. Lily was ready to take a break and get ready for her last year at Hogwarts, which she had a feeling was going to shape up to be her best yet.
As she walked from her last class of the year up towards her dormitory to begin packing, Lily passed James Potter. However, instead of the usual greeting, she received the cold shoulder- he was too busy to bother with her now.
“Oh, Merlin, James, you and Sirius are an absolute riot!” Rena O’Reilly giggled, her hand intertwined with James’s.
“Yeah, we try,” he replied pompously. “Anyway, that wasn’t the half of it. The rest of the story happened when...”
Lily walked quicker to avoid being around the new, happy couple. They were really obnoxious, Rena with that long dark hair that she always swayed around and James with his “charming” jokes. They were the golden couple of the school, and unlike everyone else who wanted to be their friend, Lily avoided them like the plague.
“Miss Evans!”
Lily turned around to see Professor Flitwick peeking around a corner. She walked up to him.
“Yes, Professor?”
He smiled. “I just wanted to tell you, Miss Evans, that you scored the highest out of anyone in the year on the charms exam!” he said. “Just, uh, don’t mention that to anyone else, will you?”
Lily smiled and walked to her room with a decidedly more positive outlook on life.
***
James and Sirius had just said goodbye to Remus and Peter, whose parents had already picked them up from the train. He was rather excited that his parents had invited Sirius to stay over break, and even more excited when Sirius replied by asking if he could be adopted as well. It was going to be some summer.
Hauling luggage around with no magic was getting a tad old now that they were in the vicinity of muggles, and James was wondering what was taking his parents so long. He turned to apologize to Sirius for the wait when he spotted a bunch of Slytherins walking towards them. He knew that it could mean nothing good.
“Why hello, cousin, not off home with your brother this summer?” Bellatrix stepped forward. She smiled in a falsely sweet way.
Sirius obviously didn’t feel like dealing with her. “Shut up, Bella.”
Regulus, who looked a great deal like Sirius, put up his hand to quiet her before she could speak again. “It’s okay, Bella. Sirius, I want to talk to you- alone, if that’s okay.”
Sirius nodded awkwardly as Bella and the other Slytherins walked away. James took a couple of steps back to give them some privacy, but not far enough so that he couldn’t hear.
“Look, Sirius, I know that Christmas didn’t go too well...”
Sirius laughed sarcastically.
“...But I’m disappointed that you’re not coming home for break.”
“Me too,” Sirius said. “But, sorry Reg, I’m not setting myself up for that again.”
“For what exactly?” Regulus asked. “I know mum and dad sometimes get a bit carried away...”
James thought Sirius‘s eyes were going to pop out of his head. “Carried away? Are you serious? They all off their rockers, that’s what they are!”
Regulus pensively thought of how to put his words without getting Sirius angry. “Look, it’s just that they’re worried about you. It’s not your fault that you were sorted into Gryffindor, but...”
“Not my fault?” Sirius repeated incredulously. “You make it sound like there’s something wrong in it! You’re just like them!”
Regulus seemed angry now. “And so what if I am? We are Blacks, Sirius! We can trace our heritage back for generations and generations, we have a noble blood line--”
“Don’t give me that ‘pure-blood’ rubbish,” Sirius spat.
"Why have you turned against your family?" Regulus asked angrily. "Don’t tell me that it’s true what I’ve heard, that you’re spending the summer with the Potters? They‘re the biggest lot of blood traitors around today, that friend of yours the worst of them! That girl he chases around, Evans... why, she's a Mudblood, isn't she?"
James felt a surge of rage and turned to see Sirius’s face twist in anger. "Don't ever call Lily, or anyone else for that matter, that foul name again..."
“You act like you’re not even proud to be who you are!” Regulus shouted. People, including a few rather confused muggles, were beginning to stare.
“I used to be!” Sirius retorted furiously. “I used to buy into all the crap that our family has been feeding us since we were born, but then I came here and realized that it’s all just old- fashioned rubbish! They’re all a bunch of idiots, thinking that they’re better than everyone else just because they’ve all married their cousins! I don’t want to be a part of it anymore!”
Sirius watched the friendly gray eyes that he shared with his brother become cold. “Then don’t be.”
Sirius said nothing. From a distance, James saw his parents beginning to walk over with smiling faces. He tapped Sirius on the shoulder and awkwardly watched as Regulus silently walked away. James couldn’t imagine what Sirius was feeling, and he felt absolutely terrible. But later, as James sat at dinner with his parents and his smiling best friend, he could tell that Sirius was feeling the most at home that he had been in a long while.
All Right, Evans? by anglophile
Chapter Notes: I've been trying to post this for like 2 months, sorry.. it's not much but it gets us going for year 7, which is where all the good stuff happens...