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pregnant-piggy · 4 years ago

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A place to call home - part I

Sirius Black x reader

This is part of All I want for Christmas is fanfiction

Words: 2.9k

A/N: this is one of the first fic ideas I had when i started writing fanfiction a year ago. I wrote it last year and have now spent months rewriting it. I hope you like it!

‘Here have some tea.’

A voice behind you woke you from your haze. A hand placed a steaming cup of tea in front of you on the dark wooden table. The sound echoed through the room. All the gazes were pointed at you. There was a lump in your throat as you swallowed down the hot tea, not even feeling the burn.

‘What happened?’ a voice on your right asked.

Wrapping your shaking hands around the mug, you took a deep breath and forced yourself to tell what happened.

You had a tiring day at the bookshop you worked at. At closing up the shop after your boss left, three men walked into the space. You were the only one left and as you glanced over your shoulder, you realised that these men were not normal customers. They were wearing black cloaks and masks and when their eyes focused on you they took their wands from their cloaks. You saw the mouth of the left guy move and you jumped behind a bookcase. Just in time; the scream of the man blew up everything on the right side of the shop.

Hidden behind the bookcase you could see the damage. It was the shop that you had been working at for years now. It was your second home. It hurt to see the place that you loved in a mess that would take a lot of time to repair. The men were walking around the space, looking for you.

You knew you had to get back to your apartment, but you had left your wand at the other side of the space, when you were closing up. You had to get to the other side, without being seen or hit. Your heart was beating in your throat as you were listening to the sounds the men were making while they walked towards your hiding spot.

You had to move. Quick because the men were coming at you. You jumped up and, figuring you probably had to clean up the whole store after this anyway, you pushed against the bookcase you were hiding behind and it fell down on the man on the other side. That gave you some time. Enough time to reach the other side of the shop and grab your wand. The man who casted the first spell was running towards you, firing spells at you. You disapparated but you were too late; the man had grabbed your arm and was being sucked into the air with you.

The hard-wood floors of your living room hurt your knees when you fell down. You apparated into the cosy room you had worked years on to decorate. The room with the lilac walls and the photos of you and your friends, that you hadn’t seen in a long time. The room you had spent so many nights in; happy nights and sad night. The night you and your best friend got really drunk and told each other all the secrets you had about other people and all the nights you spent talking on the phone with your mother. But there were also sad nights. The night you had to say goodbye to your best friend because she was leaving the country and the night you had heard about your parents’ death. As you scrabbled up from the floor all those memories were flying through your head.

The man with the mask got up with you and he looked around the room in a second. You took your wand. The man took his wand. You stood there looking at each other for a few seconds. Two dark blue eyes stared at you through the mask. Two blue eyes filled with hate, a blue as dark as the deepest parts of the ocean, that no one dares to go to.

He screamed something and you dove away. Your couch burst into flames. The man screamed another spell. Again you dove away and now your side table exploded with a loud bang. From outside your apartment you could hear your neighbours talking to you through the door, asking if you were okay. The man casted another spell and another and another. The whole living room was destroyed. The filling of your pillows was flying around in the room. There was a small fire in the place your sofa had been. The air was filled with smoke and you only saw the silhouette of the man.

The voices outside your apartment were getting louder. The man looked at the door and you saw your chance. You screamed a spell and hit the man right in his stomach. He fell down with his head against the wall and a sigh escaped his mouth as he drifted into unconsciousness.

The neighbours had almost taken down your door. You walked to the man and took his mask. Behind it was a horrible face. It was full of ugly scars and his teeth were rotten. He even missed some of them. Only one eyebrow was on his face. You shivered. Slowly you brought up your hand was with trembling fingers you pointed your wand at the man’s face. You erased his memory.

Right before the neighbours broke down your door you disapparated to the first place that came to your mind.

Grimmauld Place.

‘And I got here,’ you ended your story while your voice got softer.

From behind you, two hands were placed on your shoulders. You turned your head and saw Molly Weasley. She smiled reassuring at you.

‘You’ll be fine here,’ she said. ‘I am sure Sirius will let you stay here. Right Sirius?’

You turned back to Sirius, who was sitting next to you. He stared at you and as he noticed that everyone was looking at him, he snapped out of his stare. ‘What? Yeah, absolutely. I could use some company.’

You smiled at Sirius as he took your hand over the table and squeezed it lightly. At the same time Remus and Arthur walked in. Remus sat down on the other side of you and sighed as he rubbed his face in his hands.

‘Memories of your neighbours have been cleared, but that man was gone. His friends must have picked him up,’ he said.

‘The bookshop was empty too. It was a complete mess,’ Arthur added. He sat down next to Remus and took Molly’s hand as she placed it on his shoulder. ‘Are you sure you didn’t recognise the men? Maybe from earlier missions?’

You shook your head and a shiver ran down your spine as you thought back of the man’s face. ‘I’m just not sure if my spell was strong enough. I wasn’t really there with my head,’ you admitted.

‘That’s nothing to worry about now, dear,’ Molly reassured you. ‘You should get some sleep.’

Molly helped you up from the chair and wrapped her arm around your shoulder. She took you upstairs where she showed you a room.

Though the room was dark and uninviting, the bed was all you wanted to be on right now. You thanked Molly for her kindness and when the door closed, you stumbled to the bed, where you fell down and into a deep sleep.

-+-+-+-

Squeaking of the stairs woke you up. The dusty scent of the sheets reached your nose as you took in a deep breath. All the incidents of yesterday rushed back to your mind and a wave of sadness and unease washed over you.

You got up from the bed and looked at yourself in the mirror. You had bags under your eyes even though you had slept for a long time. There was a nervous pang in your stomach that only got bigger with the time passing.

There was a bag on the floor in front of your door. You opened it and found your clothes. Someone must have gone back to your apartment to get your clothes. Quickly you got changed into clean clothes and you felt a little relieved at the new imagine in the mirror.

You walked down to the kitchen, where you found Remus and Sirius sitting softly talking to each other. They stopped talking and looked up when you entered.

‘How you’re feeling?’ Sirius asked over his coffee, while he made room for you.

‘Could be better, could be worse,’ you mumbled, accepting the mug with coffee Remus gave you.

‘Found the bag with clothes?’ Remus asked and you nodded. ‘I went back to your apartment this morning, trying to find somethings that hadn’t been shredded.’

‘Thank you, Remus.’

As Remus turned his attention back to the newspapers, you stared into your coffee. It was weird to not wake up in your own apartment. Not to get ready for another day at the bookshop. Not to be worrying about what you were going to have for dinner tonight. Instead of that you were sitting in the last place you had ever imagined yourself waking up in, while hiding from death eaters that apparently wanted to do something to you.

While you were lost in your thoughts, Molly and Arthur entered the kitchen. It wasn’t uncommon for the kitchen of Grimmauld Place to be filled with people in the morning. Visitors that came by to drop something off, say hello to Sirius, ask about the next Order meeting.

‘Any news?’ you asked Arthur, hoping they found something on the death eaters.

‘No, not yet. But those things take time, don’t worry,’ Arthur answered and he patted you on your hand.

You flashed him a smile and your gaze dozed off to the back of Remus’ newspapers. Reading a little piece on this week’s weather, you listened to the others talking around you. About the next meeting;

‘Next Friday sounds alright to me. I might be later, it’s my aunt’s birthday.’

About the Christmas break;

‘I asked our kids to come here and bring Harry and Hermione.’

About work;

‘Turns out that she had thrown out the documents!’

And about Sirius’ trial;

‘With a little luck you’ll be a free man before Christmas!’

After some time everyone went to work or home and you were left with Sirius. To kill the silence in the room you decided to ask Sirius about his trial. You knew there was something going on, but you didn’t know that it was already this far.

‘I didn’t know there was such a progress in the trial,’ you said while you picked up the dirty plates and started to clean them in the sink.

‘Well, it’s not that far, but there might be a small chance everything is cleared up before Christmas,’ Sirius answered behind your back.

‘I will hope the best for you,’ you said and smiled over your shoulder at Sirius. He smiled back and then put his head in his arms on the table. It stayed silent for a while.

‘You’re as much trapped here as I am. But you’re new in this; do you have any ideas on what to do?’ Sirius broke the silence, lifting his head from his arms.

‘I don’t know,’ you shrugged. ‘When I am alone I usually read or watch a film or some- Are you okay?’

Sirius had gotten up from his place when you said films. He walked over to you and you chuckled at his excited face.

‘You think we can watch films here?’

Sometimes you forgot how different the wizarding world was from the muggle world. You were a muggle-born. Your parents were muggles, such as the rest of your family. Your mother had been out of her mind when you had gotten your Hogwarts letter, while your father had been a little less enthusiastic. Luckily your mother had convinced him to let you got and at September first you stood proudly on Platform 9¾.

Ever since that day the muggle and wizarding world kind of flowed together for you. So much that you often forgot the differences. But you were remembered enough, in moments like these.

‘Sirius, you don’t have a TV,’ you pointed out and Sirius’ smile faded a little. ‘And if you had, there are no films here.’

Sirius sighed and sunk back into his chair. You felt sorry for the man, but there was no way to change it. ‘We could clean the house,’ you suggested instead.

Sirius flashed you a small smile before he nodded. ‘Yeah, we could do that.

-+-+-+-

The next days you spent cleaning the house with Sirius. First to be handled were the bedrooms. There were seven of them, so you decided to first clean the four guestrooms. Sirius’ room would be left like it was now and same for his parents’ and his brother’s room.

The bedrooms did not need very much cleaning. All there was to do was clearing the thick curtains from dust and any doxies, making sure the closets were no home to any creatures and dusting off every corner in the room. Cobwebs that hung in the darkest corners held home to the biggest spiders you had ever seen. Every bed was covered in a layer of dust and the sheets were moth-eaten. The curtains had been closed for decades and they hid the room in darkness. The side that faced the windows was coloured by the sunlight, while the other side was the same colour as when the curtains had been new.

After the bedrooms were cleared from the depressing darkness that had been cast upon them by the last resident of the house, the bathrooms were next. Where the bedrooms had mostly been dust, the bathrooms really needed a good clean. The bathroom on the ground floor had been cleaned already, since that was the only bathroom in use when people came over for Order meetings. The first bathroom you did was the one closest to Sirius’ bedroom. A whole day you spent on your knees, scrubbing the tiled floor. Though you could have done it with magic, there was something relaxing and rewarding after seeing a cleaned room and knowing that you had done it yourself.

Cleaning the bathrooms proved to be dirtier work than the bedrooms. The unused bathrooms were not only covered with dust, the floors were sticky, the sinks rusted and whatever was left in the cupboards, was too gross to even look at.

Sirius took care of the things that gave you the creeps. You had found a tube with crème that started to run away when you tried to reach for it. It jumped from the cabinet onto the floor and ran out of the bathroom. You and Sirius had to chase it around the house before Sirius could disarm it and throw in into the garbage.

Grimmauld Place proved to be a home owned by dark wizards. The mirror in the bathroom on the second floor was enchanted to offend whoever was looking in it, the tap in the bathroom on the first floor bit at you when you tried to turn it on and there was a mysterious cabinet in one of the bathrooms that didn’t open. The cupboards were filled with crèmes, lotions and other liquid that had passed their expiration date about three decades ago.

Two weeks passed with cleaning out the bedrooms and bathrooms alone and if you had had anything better to do you might have thought of it as a waste of time. But since there was nothing else to do in the old house, you enjoyed cleaning the rooms.

The cleaning worked therapeutic, Sirius found out. It was nice not to have to worry about anything for a while and just focus on one thing. It also helped that you were there to guide Sirius through cleaning. Many times before Sirius had thought of cleaning the house but never did he do it, because he just didn’t see the benefits of it. But now you were as a push in Sirius’ back, comforting him when he stumbled upon something that threw him off and helping him with more difficult tasks.

Sirius enjoyed spending time with you. You brought a different energy to the house that before had just been a silent and dusty hole. Sirius liked your energy, though he could see that it was difficult for you to maintain your happy smile the entire day. Your enthusiasm wasn’t a hundred percent real; you kept your emotions to yourself and although you told Sirius about your life, you told very little about yourself. You were happy during the day, while you were cleaning, but at dinner you were silent and after dinner you disappeared to your room. At the two Order meetings that had been, you were distant.

Sirius wanted to comfort you in any way, but he couldn’t think of anything. He was growing to you. He liked your presence and the happy side that you brought up in him and he wanted to give that back to you. Many nights he had stood at your door, his arm in the air to knock, but every time he scared away, afraid to break the bond you were forming.

Sirius had talked to Remus about it.

‘She’s just going through a rough time,’ this one had said. ‘if she wants to talk about it she will and I think you are the first person she would come to.’

That had reassured Sirius for a while, but when he had heard you crying in your room that night, that feeling had gone.

- - - - - -

Taglists:

general HP: @kitkatkl @girllety @yuptha-tsme @sleep-i-ness @iamak20 @thefuturelawyer @weasleydream @missmulti @deafgirltingz @moonstarrnghtsky @mytreec @lilulo-12fanfiction @emmaloo21 @kashishwrites @ananad1 @figlia--della--luna @kylosleftbuttcheek @mrs-malfoy-always @thefandomplace @magicwithaknife @mt2413 @aesthetically-hailey @superbturtlemakerathlete @the-natureofme

Sirius Black: @treestarrrrrrrr @bumbelbeeesblog @with1love1anu @transparentttttttttt @sirius-satellite @cheoco @malikinglove @alwaysinmydaydreams @eateraa @bi-andready-tocry @fangirlofbooksandpasta @littlemissgothgirl @always394patronus @heavenly-ascended-melodies @coldlilheart @fific7 @april-showers-and-flowers @susceptible-but-siriusexual @classicrocketqueen

Marauders: @secretsthathauntus @ronniethelost @sognatrice-as-a-hobby @hxrgreeves @wecouldbreakthedistance @valentina-007

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#a place to call home #all i want for christmas is fanfiction #sirius black x reader #sirius black imagine #sirius black #sirius x reader #marauders x reader #marauders #harry potter #harry potter x reader

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siriusheadspace · 4 years ago

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august - sirius black x muggle!reader

Warnings: I guess it's a bit angsty? But it's also cute, summer love fluff, so idk

Pairing: Sirius Black x Muggle!Reader

Summary: You meet a cute boy in your summer job. You share secrets and live a beautiful summer love, but will you still see each other once school starts again? Inspired by "august", by Taylor Swift.

A/N: Thank you so so so so much for liking my last fic, illicit affairs! I guess I'll have to create a master list here lol. This one's a bit less gloomy and there's *sequel potential*, so please tell me if that's something you'd be interested in! Also, should I open requests? Do you guys have any? lol. I'm taking too long in this A/N, so lemme shut up. Enjoy the fic!

Words: 3.5k ish

Salt air And the rust on your door I never needed anything more

You were chewing the pen cap while at an especially tedious English Literature class. A head full of luscious black hair poked through the door, and you jumped in your chair, thinking for a second it could be the person you missed the most. But, of course, it was just a girl asking the teacher to make a class announcement. You tuned out immediately and let the memories flood through your mind. It was just the beginning of summer and your first day at an ice cream parlor in the middle of London. It was a funny neighbourhood - you didn't know why, but it always had a couple of people wearing the weirdest outfits, like weird flowy capes and tunics. But that wasn't really important - you just wanted to make a little money of your own this summer, and the ice cream gig was supposed to be easy. You quickly found out it wasn't as easy as it should be, since the owner decided to leave you to be cashier and server from the start, leaving you alone on your first day after little training. You were stressed, trying to guess if the ice cream machine was supposed to be that noisy or if you already broke it after only a few customers, when someone got in. Sirius regretted everything about spending the summer with his family. He was fifteen going on sixteen and decided to spend most of his days roaming through London, looking for a way to have a halfway decent summer, sending letters to his friends every day. He was about to go spend the day at the Diagon Alley, but he figured he could actually try to see different stuff for the day. Muggle stuff. Perhaps get a couple of new posters for his bedroom? That would piss off his mother. He smiled at the thought. But it was too damn hot for the beginning of summer, and he definitely wore too much black for his comfort under the scolding, rare sunshine. His locks of dark hair were starting to get wet with sweat, and he decided to put his muggle money to good use when he went by an ice cream parlor. He was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by one of the most beautiful girls he'd ever seen, her hair in a lazy, long braid, her skin tanned and glowing, and her brows frowned as if she was bothered to see him. And you'd never forget how pleasantly surprised you were to see the tall guy that just went inside the store. You'd never be able to forget the way that there was something else about him - he was gorgeous, his long strides revealing from far away how tall he was, his hair pulled back in a makeshift bun - but there was just more, an aura that made him magnetic; magic, you first though instinctively, but shook the thought. Charisma, perhaps. But you'd soon found out it was his own particular mix of both. The bell started ringing and pulled you away from your memories.

Whispers Of "Are you sure?" "Never have I ever before"

While you walked through the corridor, you felt the rush of excitement you'd always feel when you remembered you knew a secret, one so special no one would believe you, even if you told them. "You must know something about me, doll", he said, cuddling with you on your bed in the middle of the afternoon, your parents still away at work. You ended up quitting the job pretty quickly after your first day, but you were making good use of your free afternoons. "What, babe?", you said, and you felt his smirk against the top of your head, where his lips were, him breathing in your scent. You liked to use gauche pet names as much as he did. "That you're not the smartest, since it's very stupid for us to cuddle in the middle of a hot afternoon? Or that you're actually really smart, but just enjoy being around me anyway?", you joked. "How very funny of you. I am actually kind of smart, I swear", he said, jokingly, but you felt him tense up as he started talking again. "It's sort of a serious thing, actually", he said. "A… Sirius thing, you mean?", you joked again, but he brushed it off with a quick laugh. "You would know if you'd let me finish speaking", he said, and you waited. He got up and seemed nervous, not sure what to do with his hands. You never saw him like this. "Do you know how you always ask me how do I do a few things? Like, how did I fix the vase I broke the first time I came here so perfectly?" he asked, and you nodded. "You said you got another one", you squinted your eyes, trying to guess where he was going. "On the same day? Y/N, I want to be close to you, to be truthful to you. And I can't do that if you don't know about such a huge part of my life", he said. "I have… certain… habilities. And my family does, too. And my friends, as well. The school I go to… Everyone has these abilities", he completed, and pulled out a stick from his backpack. No, not a stick - not by the way he held it, with purpose. You looked for the right word in your head. A wand. "Can I trust you with the biggest secret humanity has?", he asked, and you nodded. "You can trust me with anything and everything", you said. And nothing was ever the same.

But I can see us Lost in the memory August slipped away into a moment in time

You missed him so much your entire body ached; the feeling of his callous fingertips against your cheeks, the pressure of lips on yours, how his tongue felt against yours, his laughter tickling your skin… You had to stop thinking about him. It was no good and absolutely useless. It was good while it lasted, but it was over. Still, walking home, you couldn't stop thinking about how it was once you were in on the secret, how he'd do magic in front of you, how he would tell you all about Hogwarts, about his friends… And you knew back then that there wasn't a place for you in that world.

'Cause it was never mine And I can see us twisted in bedsheets August sipped away Like a bottle of wine 'Cause you were never mine

You could remember the warm nights you spent together, once your parents decided to spend a weekend away, visiting friends or your grandparents, and how you had to pretend to be sleeping over a friend's house while you had Sirius over. You would meet at a pub, and he'd charm someone into selling you beers, so you would drink together, just enough to feel buzzed. Sirius loved teasing you. He would start by just brushing his knee against yours, but as the alcohol got to the both of you, he would get bolder, running his fingers up and down your thigh under your flimsy summer dress, whispering sweet nothings against your ear, kissing your neck. You felt so much joy, basking in his attention and his carresses. The walk to your house would always take longer than it should. He was the most sociable creature, making quick friends with everyone that grabbed his eye. He would help an old lady carry her groceries to her apartment, completely out of your way back home, while charming her; there was the time where he joined a deep conversation about bikes with a guy that had one, this huge black Harley Davidson, convincing the guy to let the two of you, clearly tipsy teenagers, to have a ride on it. It took Sirius five minutes to figure out the basics of riding that bike and convincing you to join him. "Don't you trust me, baby?", he pouted, and you gave him a quick peck - you couldn't resist his pouts and pleading. "Not with that bike, I don't", you said, watching him already seated at the bike as if it belonged to him. He looked the part, his muggle (the word always bothered you) clothes made him look like the hot, moody guitar player in a rock band, the wind flowing from his side making his hair fly in front of his face. "Then take a little risk", he chuckled, pulling you closer to him. "You can use it as an excuse to feel my abs", he said, and it was your turn to laugh. "Ok, I'm sold", you sighed dramatically, and sat behind him, your hands creeping under his shirt for a moment when you wrapped your arms around him. The speed was more intoxicating than the few beers you had, the wind whipping your exposed skin, the noise violent on your ears, the warmth that came from Sirius' back being the only thing that made you feel safe. Once you gave the bike back to its owner and were back on your foot, you would still take your time on the way there, Sirius listening to stories about your friends, the books you were reading, the movies you were watching - you promised to take him to the movies, shocked to hear that he never set foot on a movie theater. And sometimes, since you would take that long on your way home just to tease each other, he would push a loose strand of hair behind your ear and pull you in for a kiss, your back quickly meeting whatever wall was closer and spending a few minutes against the texture of the tiles while Sirius gave you long, slow kisses, trying to make the most of the night. Once you got home, you would barely have the focus necessary to find the keys and open the door, and Sirius oftenly used magic to make your life easier. "Alohomora", he said, opening the door soon after, and you chuckled. "You sound so hot when you speak fake latin", you said, and he laughed while he followed you inside, quicky going back to kissing you while you tried to guide him to your bedroom. On those nights, after he was fast asleep, his smug expression erased out of his face by sleep, you never thought about how it would be between the two of you once summer was over.

Your back Beneath the sun Wishing I could write my name on it

One week, you decided you would both spend a couple days in Brighton Beach, counting every penny that you had so you could afford two nights in the middle of the week in a cheap bungalow. Sirius had exchanged magical money for muggle money and it wasn't as hard as you thought it would be to get the amount necessary. "Well, my family sucks, but at least my allowance is halfway decent", he smirked, but the smile didn't get to his eyes. "It does help that muggle money is so devalued. Shouldn't you guys complain with your prime minister, or something?", he said, expecting you to go along in the joke as you usually would. But he touched on a subject that you felt it was taboo: he never talked about his family. You knew something was wrong - all the time you spent together was outside or in your house, and he never seemed too keen in having to go back to his parents place. "Is this the moment where you tell me more about your family?", you asked, and he sighed. "It didn't go unnoticed that you felt more comfortable to tell me about actual magic before taking me to meet your mom", you joked, but he knew you meant it. "Oh, Y/N… You could never meet my family. They'd never be able to appreciate you", he told you, and then went on to explain how there's a side of the wizarding world that despises muggles, that values purity of blood before anything else, and it killed you inside, a bit. That you were right in that gut feeling that you tried to ignore. He was too good for you. You didn't belong together. There was a whole part of his society that focused on that. And his family was totally on that side. But you avoided thinking about that in those two blissful nights away. You were close before, but that routine - waking up together, cooking breakfast for each other, seeing him getting letters from his friends delivered by owls that came inside the kitchen of the bungalow as if that was normal. He bought a polaroid in the beggining of summer and tried to adapt it to take magical pictures - according to them, they were supposed to move - but it didn't work. Still, you documented those days in normal polaroids, from candids of him drinking tea in the morning to pictures of you at the beach, and he sent one of you two together to his closest friends, and your heart ached at the thought of part of his world being even the least bit accepting of you. You'd trace random patterns on the skin on his back while he tried to tan, writing your name on him and hoping there would always be a part of him that belonged to you, that would be able to return to you once you were apart, like you did with your favorite toys when you were a kid. A childish desire to keep him with you. You loved your nights out, holding hands while going on rides that were probably unsafe and operated by other teenagers, convincing Sirius to try to win you prizes, and actually getting him a teddy bear - you were a better shot. And he would try to do magic discreetly when you asked him to cook or clean something, and you messed with him for cheating on those chores. It felt like you could absolutely live together forever, making that little bungalow home for those magical hours. You even held his wand, felt the texture of the wood against your fingertips, noticed how it was well used, the parts of it where you could see that his hands touched more oftenly, the worn wood reminding you how he was a part of something that you could only imagine for way longer than he was part of your life and your world. But he soon joked that you were "taking too long playing with his wrong wand", and you'd laugh and kiss him and forget your concerns.

Will you call when you're back at school? I remember thinking I had you

You felt the nervousness as the summer approached its inescapable end. As Sirius went out to buy school supplies one afternoon, you couldn't escape the anxiety caused by the uncertainty surrounding your relationship. You just spent the most amazing few months of your life with this guy you absolutely Loved, with a capital L, and you weren't even sure you'd meet again after a few days. You didn't know his address and you couldn't send letters there anyway. You had no idea how to send a letter to Hogwarts. Once you met him at a park near wherever he would buy supplies for a magic school, with him excited to show you what he got and hear about your day, you were already unable to hide the change in your mood. "What's wrong, sweetheart? I was just talking about you with James and..." he said, and he noticed he chose the wrong words when you winced at him. "So you can't even introduce me to your friends that are supposed to be tolerant that you're dating a muggle?", you asked, trying to sound mean, but he could hear how much you were hurting under the façade of anger. "It's not like that, Y/N. There's too many people from Hogwarts there now, people that don't like me or my friends and despise, hum, people like you, and it would be dangerous for you if they knew they could hurt me by messing with you", he explained, but it didn't soothe the pain in your chest. "What is it gonna be like once you're not here, Sirius? Is there a way for us to even talk? I don't own a magic owl, and I don't think the postman is going to able to find Hogwarts", you said, spiteful. "Do you even want to continue this, us? Or are you going to be with people your friends and family can actually know about and meet, that can defend themselves instead of just being a source of weakness for you?", you asked, your voice trembling, all the thoughts you avoided for months taking space and energy, growing inside of you and blurting out. "Y/N..." Sirius started, but you were done for the day. You got up and went home.

But I can see us Lost in the memory August slipped away into a moment in time 'Cause it was never mine

You liked being with him too much to waste your last few days together, so you accepted his apologies for not taking you to meet his friends or more of his life, but you couldn't help but notice that he didn't have plans to do what he apologized for not doing. Still, you enjoyed your last few days, the picnics under the last few sunny days of the year, taking him to the movies to watch silly horror movies that Sirius fell in love with, making out with him under the soft movie lights that reflected beautifully on his gray eyes.

And I can see us twisted in bedsheets August sipped away Like a bottle of wine 'Cause you were never mine

The last night you had together made you nervous. Sirius had prepared himself to go straight from your house back to the station, hiding his luggage on your parents garage and climbing to your window. You drank wine you stole from your parents cabinet and talked in a low voice the entire night - you thought that was what you'd miss the most, just being near him and listening to his voice, to the varying inflections, to the fancy words thats would slip and denounce him as someone from a rich family, to his excitement at the perspective of being back with his friends, and to the low energy tone that followed once he said how much he would miss you. "Hey, I figured out how to keep in touch", he said, a coy smile creeping on his lips. "But I need to know at what time do you get home from school", he completed, and you quirked up a brow. He explained that his owl would bring you a letter from him and wait for you to answer with one of your own, since you didn't have another way of getting to him. You were happy that he found a solution, but it didn't go unnoticed, again, that it seemed like a simple solution that maybe he though about before, but wasn't sure he wanted to go through with you. Also, you'd always be at his mercy and will, having no way of contacting him besides when he wanted to hear from you. But at least there was a way, a chance…

Back when we were still changing for the better Wanting was enough For me, it was enough To live for the hope…

The next morning, he woke you up at dawn with a quick kiss and said goodbye, promising to contact you again. That was three weeks ago. I mean, you couldn't really blame him. He was beautiful, talented, smart, and everyone knew summer loves weren't forever. He was probably met by a swarm of beautiful witches that would do everything for him. It would be easy to forget about you, your normal, common life. But you felt resentment towards him. He could've just been honest, you thought. He shouldn't have given you hope. He should've been honest about your intentions. He shouldn't have made you act like a fool everytime your classes came to an end, always running home and looking for an owl in the sky, only to be greeted by the emptyness of your silent house. You were getting tired of feeling angry, though. It tarnished your beautiful memories of a perfect summer. You just had to say goodbye to your hopes of getting to see Sirius again, to hear his perfect laughter, always laughing with you and never at you, the ringing in your ear that would send a shiver through your back, or that you'd never feel the silky perfection of his hair tangled between your fingers again… You were trying to come to terms with that, distracted, once you got home. There was an owl on the front window, standing on the window sill. Your heart skipped a beat.

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arianajbb · 4 years ago

Text

FIC RECS - 2

💕 stay by @you-are-my-sanctuary

A road trip to Arizona goes wrong when you catch the attention of a familiar looking dark haired man with steely blue eyes.

💕 Tell Him, Not Me by @zsiopao

here y/n l/n lands a role in a new television series that will put her relationship to the test.

💕Stalker by @you-are-my-sanctuary

In which Bucky has a crush on the new PR manager and is being an adorable stalker.

💕 What Could’ve Been by @you-are-my-sanctuary

Steve stays in the past when returning the stones, leaving you behind and erasing everything you two were to each other. Decades pass and he wonders if he made the right decision. Especially since the memories of you still lingers in his mind years after.

💕 Let Your Spirit Fly by @starlightcrystalline

At the end of a long week, all you want is to get home. Fate has other ideas.

💕 painted with bruises by @harryspet

In which Bucky kidnaps you in order to get close to his enemy, Steve, but realizes that Steve isn’t the hero he used to be.

💕 Wolf, Partner, Gloves... by @revengingbarnes

HYDRA’s words make Bucky go into Winter Soldier mode. Then he meets you, and you make for him words that will bring him back to normal.

💕 Sleeping With A Friend by @wkemeup

You wake up in Bucky’s bed after a night you’re certain will only break your heart.

💕 An Unpredictable Reunion by @head-always-up-in-a-dreamworld

💕 American Boy by @quarantined-with-bucky

Request: So basically buckyxreader where she is a super successful businesswomen and awfully confident but when she’s with bucky she feels insecure as many women want him and she’s insecure of nat. Based on “American Boy” by little mix where bucky is her american boy and the other girl in the song is nat. So like angst with a happy ending (maybe smut if you’re comfortable idk idk).

💕 Uptown Girl by @brooklyns-boys

You’re a spoiled, shallow party girl who enjoys pushing any button you can find. When your parents put their foot down, giving you the choice between marrying a suitor of their choosing, or being cut off from your money, you’ll have to decide between luxury and the only person who’s ever given a damn about you.

💕 pictures of girls by @subtlebucky

you’re prepared for a fun-filled weekend with a friend you haven’t seen in a while. instead, you get a weekend with the guy who sort of rejected you and a camera. what could go wrong?

💕 don’t forget to sing by @sunmoonandbucky

You meet someone new in the most unlikely of ways during the quarantine in New York City. An alley is six feet apart, right?

💕 bloody by @buckycuddlebuddy

he looked feral; his eyes black, face contorted in something devilish, lips blood red and shiny and the smirk on his face was promising more than he already had given.

💕 Home by @softlybarnes

Bucky comes home from his second tour overseas, after a long time away from the reader.

💕 Kiss Me Better by @blissfullylostinarabbithole

Bucky has your heart, but he seems to despise you. Loki comes up with a plan to make him realize just what he’s missing.

💕 x by @blissfullylostinarabbithole

Bucky receiving his first piece of fan-mail.

💕 My Roommate’s Boyfriend by @angstysebfan

Your roommate’s boyfriend and you do not get along. You don’t even know why anymore. When your roommate has to move unexpectedly across the country, you both begrudgingly drive her car to her new home. Adventure, angst, and secrets come alive.

💕 life with tiny and beefy by @wiensrsoldier

💕 Safe Place To Land by @sunlightdances

You and Bucky are both standing up for Steve and Peggy’s wedding. Checking in at the hotel for the weekend, you’re horrified to realize there’s been a problem. A big problem.

💕 A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes by @green-eyeddragonfanfiction

Female!Reader is an Omega. Alphas and Omegas are rare, and Reader’s been able to avoid alphas through sheer force of will and luck in equal parts.

💕 we’re up all night to get lucky by @nsfwsebbie

Your soldier comes home after his prevailing victory.

💕 Jealousy Looks Good On You by @tinymalscoffee

You go to your favorite coffee shop after your date from the morning before never shows up.

💕 x by @sinner-as-saint

uni!seb having a thing for boobies.

💕 Everything by @mariessecretfantasies

💕 Stardust And Starfish by @i-am-a-closet-fanfic-fiend

“Hey we kissed once in kindergarten but I haven’t seen you since and I couldn’t remember why you were so familiar.”

💕 The Flaw Of Belief by @winterdaybreak

Y/N and Bucky fight over who can be more spiteful, who hates who more. Neither really mean it, but Bucky might just win.

💕 dear... whoever by @whistlingwillows

a mandated series of long and short diary entries from the new head of R&D for Stark Industries.

💕 starring role by @baezen

in which Hollywood’s former hottest movie star faces his biggest challenge yet – proving that he’s still worth the starring role

💕 Mr. and Mrs. Barnes by @cherrypickertheory

You and your husband, Bucky, live a normal life in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Or you did, that is, until you both realize that the other is a spy.

💕 kitten by @buckycuddlebuddy

“you know,” bucky started, voice low and raspy. “i think i have spoiled you too much lately.”

💕 Summer Days by @sleepypanda27

You meet a handsome stranger at the beach.

💕 Power Over Me by @sinner-as-saint

CEO James Buchanan Barnes is a dominant. And he’s spent the last 5 years searching for his perfect submissive. Then one night, he finds you. He thinks everything will fall perfectly into place now; but he thought wrong. Turns out your unfortunate past which still haunts you to this day, and some of his enemies are, well, connected. Things go wrong. And your bond with your dom is tested in many ways…

💕 Bucky & the Beast by @thejamesoldier

💕 House Pride by @delusionalwriterr

After encountering Bucky during a Quidditch game, both of you grow attached to each other. But is the attraction enough to overcome the disapproval of your brother, Tony, and the messy past between your families?

💕 Meet Me In The Hallway by @yikeswtfmate

Y/N and Bucky have hated each other since they were children and now they’re forced to live together, whether they like it or not.

💕 Postcards by @sebbytrash

Takes place after Civil War. Bucky is your best friend but of course you’re in love with him. He goes off to travel the world and rediscover himself, sending you Postcards along the way, whilst you struggle with your feelings.

💕 x by @moteldwelling

(this isn’t a fic but it’s amazing omg)

💕 Helpless by @prongsies

Sirius loved you. Loved you enough to let you go. Loved you enough to selflessly step back, allowing you to love someone he knows could give you the love you deserved - even if it hurts.

💕 What Is, And What Should Never Be by @whoisbxcky

You wake up one morning to find yourself in an alternate reality, in which the Avengers never came to be, and your friends are living perfect civilian lives. However, things are not all they appear to be, and you find yourself facing the worst fear you never knew you had.

💕 Impaled by @revengingbarnes

You’ve been pining after Bucky for months. A compromising situation during a mission brings you a lot closer to him than you expected.

💕 Helpless For You by @sgtjbuccky

A blind date has lead you and Bucky to the fourth date. Each one proving that you’ve got it bad more than prior and it doesn’t quite matter what will happen - you will keep on falling for that handsome devil and you don’t even mind.

💕 Flowers by @bucky-the-thigh-slayer

Love can take a while, but the right love is always worth time, and some old fashioned gestures.

💕 The (not naked) pin-up calendar by @bitsandbobsandstuff

When you ask for a favor, Bucky (very) grudgingly agrees. What can you do to thank him? Return the favor, of course.

💕 Rogue Angel by @harryspet

Bucky tasks himself with deprogramming you, a former hydra soldier. Will he be able to show he cares for you as his Daddy or will your training stop you from seeing the truth.

💕 Saving The Day by @jbbmoved

On your way back home, you are being followed by a couple of creeps. When your eyes fall on the most impressive and handsome Avengers, you don’t think twice and find yourself a fake boyfriend and savior.

💕 Hidden Lagoons and Seashells by @after-avenging-hours

💕 my heart, my angel by @paintedface

valentine’s day candy grams basically show how popular you are in the school, so you expect to get none, however, one, extremely sweet one, turns up on your desk. except you have no clue who it’s from.

💕 Like Silver Glass by @thejamesoldier

Out of all the things you have seen so far in your life – a colorful plethora of alien species, artificial intelligence, an imaginative array of mutants and their abilities, cyborgs, superhumans, assassins, geniuses, etc. – merpeople fell actually pretty low on your ‘Shocking Things That Exist’ list.

💕 Holiday Heist by @avengerofyourheart

When the art gallery you manage is robbed on Christmas Eve, you suspect the handsome stranger who flirted with you earlier in the day, but instead of involving the authorities, you take matters into your own hands with surprising consequences.

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weasleydream · 4 years ago

Text

dreams are my reality - part 3

it’s finally here! This part is what happened during that fateful night and only that. Also i messed with the timeline but nothing too bad.

This may be a bit violent, mention of death and blood.

As usual, feel free to like, comment, reblog and enjoy!

Masterlist

~ i’ll see how the real thing can be and it’s not pretty ~

The muggle village - August 1983

“I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have left us, just that a good friend wouldn’t have cleared out just because McGonagall was walking in the same corridor.”

“Sirius, would you shut up?” I hissed, ready to break his neck if he added one word that wasn’t a yes.

“Of course I’ll shut up, as soon as you admit that quitting on us was a bad thing to do.”

I didn’t need to look at him to know he was smiling goofily, seemingly unaware of the fact that we were walking in an empty alley just because we were looking for a dangerous death eater.

“First of all, you could have run away too if your arse wasn’t glued to the floor. And McGonagall wasn’t just walking in the same corridor, she was coming for us! And Sirius, we were in first year and James and you had dragged me there against my will. Remember?”

And it was true; the memory of Sirius claiming I would be the coolest girl of the school was still fresh in my mind, and with the terror brought by the sound of McGonagall’s steps, I knew it would stay engraved in my brain for a very long time.

“Dragged you?” Sirius made a clicking noise with his tongue. “I’m not even sure one of us grabbed your hand.”

“Oh, not only my hand you idiot, my bag and my wand too!”

“And? You’re clearly not traumatized so-”

Sirius’ voice had died in his throat as soon as the explosion had echoed, yet my blood froze in my veins at the thought that maybe he had gotten us spotted. With the discretion of a cat with soft paws, he crossed the short distance that was separating us and placed himself ahead of me. A glance in my direction - Are you ready? - and a firm nod later, we were running silently toward the place of the village, hoping with all our heart that no one was hurt.

Obviously, the death eater had already left the crime scene. Sirius and I were the last of our group to get there. Remus and James were turning all around the place like caged lions, probably looking for any clue of where the responsible had disappeared. Lily and Peter were struggling in front of the burning church, trying to get the fire to stop and to get the survivors out of this hell. A woman ran into me and my arms wrapped instinctively around her; hers were trembling and her covered in soot hands were slipping on my skin. She was mumbling incoherent sentences in which I didn’t understand anything, and I was sure she was speaking another language. However, her frantic gestures toward the fire lighted something in me, an urge to get in the furnace without even knowing why. I looked up a second to see Lily fussing over a wounded man and Sirius and Peter still trying to control the fire. No one could help me with the poor woman.

She cried out something, a word I didn’t understand.

“Nena! Nena!”

“I don’t know what it means!” I screamed, cursing myself for not being able to understand a single word.

She pointed the finger at her belly, at her heart and finally at the fire. Slowly - way too slowly - I understood what it meant. A baby was in there. I nodded frantically and the woman fell on her knees. I didn’t have the time to check on her; instead, I went to Sirius and tried to get him to help me. He was totally freaking out, and his panic only increased when he realized what I was telling him.

“With me!” he yelled, and we joined forces to try and extinguish the fire once and for all.

Finally, the last flames died, the last proof of its presence being the ashes flying in the air. The woman rushed between the smoldering ruins and I was ready to follow her, but Sirius grabbed my wrist. A split second later, a terrible cry echoed, and Sirius shook his head.

At the very same moment, something exploded a few streets away.

“James!”

It was Lily, and she lost no time in running toward the root cause of the noise. We followed her and found a half fallen house in front of James and Remus, the both of them looking infuriated.

“The bastard!”

Through gritted teeth, Remus told us how they were sure someone had led them there before making the batiment explode and James added the death eater - because it was obviously him - had been careful to stay well hidden.

“So that means we’re running blindly behind him?” asked Peter, his voice still hoarse from the smoke of the fire.

“Running blindly and doing whatever he wants us to.” I added darkly.

Even James and Sirius knew it had been a bad idea to accept this mission, now. Both of them had their eyes wild and were glancing frequently at each other.

“So? What do we do now that he’s disappeared and we don’t know where to look?” muttered Lily before hiding her face in James’ neck, probably having a bout of nausea after everything we had already gone through. To be honest, I was still feeling sick thinking about that poor woman and her baby.

I was observing a stone on the ground and wishing it could tell us what we needed to know when Peter stiffened.

“Guys,” he whispered. “Act natural, but I think we didn’t have all the information.”

“What makes you think that?”

If Remus was sarcastic and obviously didn’t understand where Peter was going with this, something caught my eyes and the realization hit me.

“An animagus?” I questioned quietly, and Peter nodded.

I almost missed the black feathers, but I still caught the bird flying from a rooftop to another. Then the bird dropped to the floor, and it happened so fast that none of us had sketched a movement when it turned into a massive black silhouette half hidden in the shadows.

“You could have gotten out of here alive if you had just ignored me.” The voice was raspy, the tone aggressive. “Too bad you didn’t.”

This last affirmation sounded like a signal; as soon as the sound of his voice had died, the death eater drew his wand and we did the same, Sirius and Remus taking a step forward. I hadn’t seen his face, yet I was picturing myself the man with a crooked rictus and with the eyes so dark that you knew just by looking at him that his soul was rotten to the core. For some unknown reason, he didn’t attack; instead, I was feeling the weight of his eyes on us. I could imagine him looking at Sirius and Remus first because they were just in front of him, measuring the trembling of their arms - not caused by fear but by fury, which he probably was aware of; then his eyes passing from them to James and Lily, just close enough for him to guess the nature of their relationship, to Peter with his wand as high as ours and finally to me. Did he know I was looking intensely in his direction? That we were all looking right at him, our muscles tensed to make sure we would react quickly enough when the attack would come?

If he did, he didn’t care the least. It was with something that could be qualified as nonchalance that he muttered the first spell. The green light illuminated for a second his face, and his eyes were fixed on us. The curse almost hit James, and that’s when the riposte began.

The first counterattack spell came from Remus and missed the death eater by a hair. At the same time, Sirius rushed to the enemy, followed closely by James. Lily helped Remus to get up; he had dived to the floor to dodge a curse. Peter and I were making a detour to reach the death eater’s back, counting on James and Sirius to occupy him enough. It seemed like a mess, yet it was a manoeuvre well established because of years of service in the Order. It had always worked, more or less depending on the case, but it had never failed us. Never until then, at least.

I realized things were going to get even more dangerous when the man turned his gaze to me, plunging his eyes in mine and with his lips slowly twisting in a sickening rictus whereas he was being assaulted by James. A move of the wrist had sent James flying a few meters away, hitting Sirius and bringing him to the ground in the process. He lifted his hand, and as the terror was invading me, the only thing my brain was capable of was wondering if the movement was really as slow as it seemed to be. I drew my wand but like in dreams, it felt like something was stopping my arm. A glare was burning in his eyes, it was so intense that I felt it in the depths of my body. If the thought that he was doing some wandless and wordless magic on me crossed my mind, I found myself unable to express it.

His wand was now pointed on me, his eyes fixing me to the ground and his power keeping me defenseless. Second by second, I saw his lips moving, forming a word I didn’t recognize, his arm got more stiff, his rictus wider. And behind my back, second by second, Sirius was getting closer to me.

The collision caught me by surprise, not so much because it was unexpected but because of the violence of it. Sirius’ shoulder hit my lower back which sent my hips forward, and my head followed one second late. Our bodies hit the hard ground, and the scream of the death eater covered our grunts of pain. He didn’t give us a moment to recover and I heard his steps before I saw him taking great strides. Sirius was already getting up, his wand firmly held high to protect the both of us, but he didn’t need it to counter the first attack. The arm of the death eater was trembling with what I thought was rage, and he missed Sirius. Instead of its initial target, the curse flew to me and scratched my skin just underneath my neck. The shock stopped me dead in my tracks. A few centimeters higher and it was over for me; the realization erased everything else in my mind, even the painful burning sensation where my blood was now flowing.

This time, the death eater didn’t mutter the curse. He yelled it, angrier than before, and the sound of his voice masked the noise provoked by Remus, who I saw approaching in his back. A green halo surrounded the death eater and disappeared in a heartbeat, barely illuminating the scene enough for the lifeless body of our enemy to be seen falling. However, I saw perfectly well his last curse making his way straight to Sirius’ torso.

Sirius’ facial expressions changed from relief to shock and then to pain, to agony. His hands reached to his shirt, and when he removed them, they appeared red, bloody. His fall began with the buckling of his knees. They hit the floor, and his body, drained of all its strength, tilted forward. His arms had gone limp and his face crashed to the ground.

It had all happened in less than a second.

I was unable to move.

Somewhere at my right, several grunts escaped Peter’s mouth as Lily and James were helping him. I didn’t process his bloody leg, nor did I realize Lily was using only her right hand. Remus was already at Sirius’ side, and it’s only when he looked up to me with wet eyes that something clicked.

“Sirius!”

To be continued...

#Harry Potter #harry potter imagines #harry potter imagine #Sirius Black #sirius black x reader #sirius black imagine #sirius black x you #sirius black x y/n #blood

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futurewriter2000 · 5 years ago

Text

If we are not this, then what are we? - pt. 9

A/N: I didn’t expect this to be like this but I’m glad it did because it makes more sense in my head now, I connected the A, B and F. Hahaha.

James was laying down on his bed with an icepack on his face. He didn’t say a word since he had laid down.

He was tired.

He had a headache.

He and Sirius had just been beaten up by Hufflepuffs. It was a big ego bruiser.

Sirius was already asleep, since he already took a few painkillers too much and maybe his snores were exactly the cause to keep James awake.

‘ “And the only slag I see is the abused, little puppy I see.” ‘ - The memory echoed in his mind. Why would he say that to you? He shut his eyes but the scene continued to resolve in front of him. Whether he opened them and stare at the ceiling or shut them close so hard that the headache only got worse, he could still see you hurt. It was if he could physically see the scars he caused you.

It wasn’t just the fact he said it but he feels it- he feels so much tightness inside his body when he thinks of last night; because he cannot remember anything and it feels like that today, the happily you walked to him, smiled, started a normal conversation before he turned it into chaos, the more he thinks something happened between the two of you at that party.

Did something happen?

He didn’t say anything stupid, did he? Or said something as if he loved you... because he didn’t.

James opened his eyes wide and hugged the small red pillow in his arms. He burried his face into it and shut his eyes.

‘ I don’t love her.’ he told himself before his stomach started spinning inside of him. ‘I am not in love with her! We bicker all the time! She hates me. I hate her. And what happened today? She went all mellowdramatic on me. Just because I told her that her boyfriend is nothing but a man whore- which he is. I do not know what she sees on him. She doesn’t know the guy as I do- and she couldn’t stop shouting, knowing I have a headache and that I really wasn’t in the mood.’ he turned on the other side and opened his eyes. ‘She knows when to poke me and she thought she would win an argument yesterday just because I was hungover.’ he turned back on the other side and felt a smirk appear on his lips. ‘ Well, joke’s on her because...’

He thought back on the whole morning and just felt his eyes tear up. He could feel the tightness in his chest as he continued to hear the awful words he spat at you. He knew if the tightness grew... he wouldn’t be able to hold it in anymore. He brought the pillow up to his nose and took a deep breath in. As soon as he did, he could remember you, your childhood, your laugh and your tears. Every year replayed in his head like a movie and he? He cried.

He couldn’t keep it inside himself anymore.

He tried to ignore it.

“I don’t love her.” he kept saying, sobbing into the the pillow before crouching over and continuing to wipe his nose into it.

‘Even if you wouldn’t love her, you still shouldn’t have acted the way you did.’ - someone in his head whispered and he could feel the pressure in his shadow expand to his full head.

He couldn’t hold it in. He kept trying to push it down but the more that he tried, the more it came up.

“Why do I have to fuck up everything!” he bawled, not even caring if he woke up the poor, drooling Sirius next to him. “Why do I fuck up everything that I love?”

All he felt at this moment was a wish to be alone. No Sirius, not anybody... he just wished to be alone.

---

You walked into Astronomy class and saw him sitting behind your desk, alone. You felt your feet melt into the ground until you couldn’t move.

There was something inside of you that just screamed something wasn’t right.

“Come on.” Will took a hold of your hand and pulled you to his desk.

All four James, Sirius, Will and Will’s best friend Davie were called to the office because of the fight. Will explained the reasons why but tried to leave you out of it as much as he could. James was quiet from what Will told you, as well as Davie, who stepped on Will’s side. Sirius, however, did not leave you out and that was why you were called to Slughorn’s office this afternoon.

The professor entered the class and looked at all five of you. “Glad to see the three of you decided to keep your distance from each other. Wouldn’t want another disrespectful assult in my class.” he glared at you, then Will and later at James, who only turned his head to the empty seat beside him.

‘I wish I knew what he was thinking...’ - you caught yourself say in your mind before looking forward and ignoring that same thought.

He hurt you.

He disrespected you.

He embarassed you.

Why do you still care?

But your eyes couldn’t stop glancing at him from time to time. He held his head with his palms, massaging the sides of it and ruffling the hair on top.

He usually did that when he had a migrane and usually, they could get quite bad.

Again, why do you still care?

‘I don’t.’ - you answered yourself, shaking your head and trying to focus on the class.

“Professor?” James raised his hand and leaned back on his chair.

“Yes, Potter?”

“Can I go to Madam Pomfrey? I’m really not feeling quite chipper this morning.”

Chipper. He used that word every time when he had a migrane and the two of you couldn’t hang out because of it. It must have stucked and he must have realized it as well, since he hated the word chipper and he glanced over his shoulder to see you.

His eyes were completely swollen. The glasses might have helped to disguise it but you couldn’t ever not notice James not being himself.

“I don’t remember you having migranes before, Potter.” the professor whipped his voice.

“I haven’t had them for years. I used to have them a lot when I was a kid.” James kept looking at the professor. “I don’t even know why I’m asking you this!?” James snapped and stood up. “I am going to be nineteen soon. I surely do not need your permission to get out of class anymore.” he started gathering his stuff.

“Potter! Watch your mouth!”

But James didn’t much care for what anybody said because his migrane kept increasing by every passing second. The light was only making everything worse and he stumbled across the classroom, holding himself up by the chairs and the desks. “Shit- sorry- pardon me-” he kept saying to anybody he bumped into. He hit his toe into the foot of the desk and cursed under his breath. “Bloody- urghhh!” he grit his teeth, feeling Sirius take his arm and help him up.

“I got you, mate.” said Sirius and tried to lift him up.

James kept his eyes half-closed due to the light but was thankful for Sirius who was there to pick him up as he was falling down. He smiled at him just before locking his eyes with you as they passed your desk.

He could see something inside of them... almost as you were worried for him but he quickly looked away becuase of his guilty conscience.

You hate him. Period.

He knew he messed up. There was no chance anymore that the two of you could ever reconcile and burry the hatchet.

What he forgot to remember wasn’t only the night of your kiss but also the fact that you were a person who cared so much more than she should. Even when people stomped on her, beat her down, made her feel the worst of herself, she could never do the same.

That’s who you were. You were that person who could never be cruel to anybody, no matter how much they have hurt her.

And at situations like this, you felt most naive.

---

James was laying in bed, his head thrown back as the tears kept coming out of his eyes.

It hurt. He almost forgot how much these migranes hurt but as soon as Madam Pomfrey came to the rescue, she numbed the pain and let James rest.

Sirius hasn’t left his side. He sat by and waited for his best mate to get well. His eyes kept watering, his leg kept jumping.

What was happening to him? What was happening to James?

“You look like I died or something.” James smiled at him as Sirius quickly looked up at him, smiling.

“Just planning to take your spot in the Chaser postion- become the only bachelor in Hogwarts.” he joked and James laughed with him. “How are you mate?”

“Like someone threw a boulder at me.”

“Your eyes are completely swollen. Do you think it was an allergy or something?”

James thought of the night he spent on crying but quickly shook the feeling off. “Yeah... maybe... I dunno.”

Sirius knew he was lying to him. He heard him cry all night but he couldn’t bring himself to do anything about it. He didn’t know how to approach someone as much as James did. He wanted to try but he just couldn’t. He didn’t know how to. That was James’ area of expertise.

“Well, Potter. That must have been quite a terrible migrane but it also must have been quite the party.” she looked up at him with a smirk as James flushed red.

“I- uhm- I don’t know what you are talking about, Madam Pomfrey.” James spoke loud and clear.

“I don’t like liars, Potter.” she scolded him. “Whatever you wished not to remember, you should deal with it like Muggle, not take a rememberance potion like an ungraduated witchcraft student.” she continued to scold meanwhile James and Sirius only exchanged a confused look.

“A rememberance potion?”

“Madam Pomfrey, we barely passed Potions. “

“Doesn’t mean you can’t make someone else make it for you.” she continued to say.

“Are you saying it caused a migrane?” James asked, leaning forward as he remembered the night he forgot and the morning that followed.

“I’m saying that it was a memory that became powerfully connected to your emotions. However horrible, erasing a memory that powerful can be more dangerous than just a migrane. It could end in you losing all your memories but becuase it was a poorly made potion, that did not happen. Those can usually just cause irritation, aggression, nasusa, complex of emotions and migranes. Reckon, from what I heard Potter, that it might have been a great possibility for your outburst yesterday and your migrane today. I think, whoever made this potion-” she looked suspiciously at them before giving James two compress, dipped camille tea, on his eyes. ” This is for the swelling but as I was saying; whoever made this potion must have mixed the linden root with the pine root- which is the impossible to do since those are two completely different roots...” she kept talking to herself, moving away from the boys who kept staring at her.

Sirius looked at James, who was lying flat on his back with two compress on each of his eye. “Pads... someone tried to erase my memory.” he said seriously but heard a laughter beside him. “Pads! I’m serious!”

“It’s hard to take you seriously when you look like a woman on her spa treatment.” he continued to laugh as James sat up and threw the camille tea dipped compress out of his way, glaring at him.

“Something happened that night, Pads! And someone doesn’t want me to remember it!”

#james potter #sirius black #james potter imagine #james potter x reader

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halothenthehorns · 3 years ago

Text

TLTNL- NUMBER TWELVE, GRIMMAULD PLACE

"I'm sorry," Harry said at once, dying to know the name of this brother as he felt entirely sure he'd heard of for some strange reason. It was odd though, as he was confident he'd never even met another Black besides his godfather, but there was something he was missing in that connection-

This was clearly the wrong response though, as Sirius snorted softly and shook his head, waving the apology off and muttering, "nah, just surprised me a bit. We were only close before I started school, then I think we never had more than one proper conversation." His face twitched for a moment as 'conversation' was not the right word to describe his last real meeting with his brother.

Quickly forcing himself to stay on track he smirked, "Thinking about making a toast my deranged parents have finally gone beyond the veil though. Just, you know, thought my brother really was smarter than what I knew he was going to do." Really, the blow wasn't hitting anywhere close to him finding out he was going to lose James. It wasn't even that hard to imagine, as Sirius had told Regulus this was his fate when he went to join Voldemort's crew. Still, the thought wouldn't quite hit the smug feeling he thought he'd have at being right. He'd said a lot of harsh things to Regulus during their last meeting, and he had in return. Now there was a highly likely chance they'd never even make up for it.

What he was really left wondering was how soon until it happened? Had someone in the Order already done him in without even realizing it? They didn't always take off those Death Eater masks when they did a body count as more often than not they were in a hurry after those kinds of fights happened.

Remus wouldn't let him linger on the thought long though, an odd twisted smile in place as he said, "I'm trying to figure out how this even came about? The last place on earth you'd have a poke around after you got out was this place to even realize you were now the only heir.”

Sirius could only shrug for that, almost wishing Remus was joking, but even now he couldn't imagine the point in looking up where his Death Eater of a brother was staying, Sirius couldn't imagine he'd have bothered looking him up after twelve years in Azkaban.

James was watching Sirius' face become steadily more drawn with confusion as he kept thinking about this, so he butted in saying, "no offense Sirius, but I still can't imagine why the Order wound up there. Last I heard, you weren't even in line to posses such a treasured object as the Black house." The way he said treasured object made it sound like a bomb about to go off.

"I've no clue," Sirius shrugged. "She may have disowned me and blasted me from that stupid wall, but maybe the blood magic binding that house never left, or she couldn't figure out how to erase me from it." Then his eyes brightened as he truly grasped what he was saying, and he full out laughed. "Merlin's Holy Socks, that place is the Order of the Phoenix's Headquarters! Oh this is brilliant! That woman's surely having fits in her grave!" He dissolved into insane giggling that James quickly joined in on.

Remus passed Lily the book and Lily quickly gave her child to James as she went to start, trying to ignore the boys while Remus still had an unfocused gaze. Sirius may enjoy the irony for now, but he'd seen his friend the last time he'd been at that place, and he wasn't looking forward to hearing how Sirius was going to be acting inside that house. He found it funny from the outside, where the description had fallen so far none of them would have even guessed it as the same grandeur place of Sirius' childhood home, but even knowing what it's usages were, he was sure old Padfoot was trying to spend more time out of that place than in it. He probably wasn't even there now when Harry arrived, or maybe he would brave those dank walls again to see his Godson. It was an honest coin toss.

Harry began to ask what the Order was, but Moody cut him off to wait till he was inside.

"Which reminds me," Lily butted in before they could go too far into the story and she could question this now after Sirius had gotten over his shock. "What even was the point of Dumbledore writing you that note just as you were outside the house? Surely if he wanted you to know the address they'd have just given it to you at the Dursleys. What's the point of the note at all?"

"Hope I ask Dumbledore," was all Harry could say.

Moody took the parchment back and set it on fire while Harry reexamined the houses. There was an eleven to his left, and a thirteen on his right, but no twelve in sight.

Sirius blinked in confusion as he again recalled such a disgusting neighborhood that seemed to have fallen well out of shape from his time there. Surely that had all happened after everyone was dead, but what on earth was happening to make the house completely not there? There was already a ton of enchantments set in place so that no one could enter unless they were invited in, how much more had Dumbledore done to the place to make it safe?

Harry again began to ask where this place was, but Lupin whispered for Harry to think of the note he'd just read.

Just as he finished, a battered door appeared from nowhere right in between the two existing places.

"What in the world?" Remus demanded as he studied the book like it too would suddenly grow its own house.

"That sounds like the Fidelius Charm,"* Lily wrinkled up her own brow as she tried to understand this magic she'd never seen used. Her hand automatically sought out her husbands and they held tight to each other for a moment as they remembered all that spell would lead to for them.

Sirius' face had screwed up with the force of his trying not to automatically start screaming and shouting at the mention of that Charm again, what he'd lead his best friend into all because of his mistake. He couldn't fathom a second how he'd ever worked out that rat was in any way a better option than Remus or even himself, this is what he got for trying to be clever with some decoy, his friends death. Merlin they should have just used Harry since he couldn't have given the location to anyone!

Remus gave Sirius' shoulder a sympathetic squeeze, whispering some words of comfort, but still waiting for Sirius' terse nod before waving Lily to continue.

Like someone was inflating a house, walls and struts began spanning into sight, pushing the other two houses away to make room, but the stereo in elven kept thumping on, not a light flickered anywhere, no one seemed to notice such a thing but him.

Then Moody was prodding Harry in the back to get him moving again.

Sirius was now in far less of a good mood as he imagined going back into that house for even a second, not even the thought of his old hag of a mother's angry face could make this amusing anymore and now he hoped he'd just spot Harry coming in and drag him right back out for some quality time.

Harry uneasily followed up the crumbling steps to the shabby black door that only had a serpent doorknocker with no other decoration.

Lupin pulled out his wand and tapped it to enter, and then Harry was pushed inside while being whispered at not to touch anything.

"You guys were starting to freak me out." Harry hadn't meant that to come out as a whisper, but the mention of that charm had seemed to sap all life from the room and he couldn't think of anything better to say.

"That's sound advice though," Sirius ground out for Remus. "That place is a walking death trap if you don't know what you're doing." It wasn't even entirely the house's previous occupants, there were a lot of objects in that place even Sirius had never fiddled with too much after he'd once seen Regulus stick his nose into a box and come back out with it almost scale covered. His mother had fixed him right and then scolded Sirius for letting his brother play in that room.

Sirius couldn't help it, his original good mood on the subject had vanished, and the more he thought about it the more he realized he didn't care of how much good use it was being used for, he really didn't think it was worth it just for all the memories that were sweeping him he'd thought he'd repressed because of this place.

Harry stepped over the threshold into the almost total darkness of the hall. He could smell damp, dust and a sweetish, rotting smell; the place had the feeling of a derelict building.

Harry was watching Sirius growing more and more agitated as this carried on, and Harry was starting to feel the same way. Harry could just feel the emptiness and hatred pouring out of the walls of that house and something of thinking about Sirius in there cut him deep, which was odd when he blinked again and felt like he'd grown used to the old building...

The rest of his guard piled in behind him, though none moved past towards the stairs or the entrance to a lower set of stairs. Instead they waited for Moody to release all of the lights back to the street, and come back inside to break his Disillusionment charm. Then they all still remained quiet and still while Moody got some light going.

"Why are they still whispering when they're inside?" Lily asked in confusion, her own voice sounding a little loud in the suddenly eerie quiet of this room, but she wanted to at least try and keep some level of normal about them.

Sirius wasn't helping, for once he seemed to have no need to voice his opinion about anything as he just shrugged and kept his eyes on the fireplace instead of that book.

The others hushed voices were giving Harry a feeling of foreboding as he kept trying to pick out details in the gloom, from the dusty creaking floorboards do the dust covered chandelier above and the multiple picture frames that hung crooked on the wall.

James watched a smile creep back across Padfoot's face, but it was a twisted looking thing full of mocking hatred that his mother's precious house had clearly fallen into such disrepair.

He could also detect soft scuttling of little feet just out of sight and more serpents shaped into legs of tables.

Then he heard distinct footsteps, and Molly Weasley arrived from the bottom hallway.

Harry at first felt a smile flash across him at her reappearance again, then he blinked and all of those feelings he'd felt over that summer began simmering just under the surface as he muttered, "so Ron's really there, right at Headquarters."

Remus gave Harry an uneasy look for that tone, but had no real response for him. He wanted to say more than likely that their kids were all old enough to be home alone at the Burrow, but even that wouldn't have felt like much comfort to Harry as he could have just as easily been there with them as well.

She beamed at the sight of him, though Harry noticed she looked much more pale than the last time he'd seen her.

Lily sighed in sympathy, she knew she often looked just as strained after Order meetings.

She greeted him at once with familiar kindness, already saying he looked too peaky,

"He always looks peaky after he leaves that place," James grumbled.

after releasing him from a forceful hug, but he'd have to wait for dinner. Then she turned to the others and said that he'd arrived, the meeting had started.

"Finally," Sirius muttered, "I'll consider this whole place worth a visit if you go give Dumbledore a good telling off for your summer."

Harry made some frustrated little noise both in agreement, and depressed that he wasn't even a little convinced this happened.

The trope began heading down the hallway, but when Harry tried to follow Lupin Mrs. Weasley caught him.

"Hey," they all suddenly pouted. Harry'd been left with nothing for a month, how long was he going to keep being held back?

She told this was for Order members only.

"You mean Harry isn't automatically one?" Sirius began glaring at once. "I mean, he's kind of the whole reason the Order exists again, I think that automatically qualifies you."

Lily watched the boys around her automatically agree, but suddenly some of her protesting dimmed as she glanced down at her infant. She of course would be going crazy not knowing what was going on, she certainly was during school with no way to help. That didn't mean she wanted to toss her son into this though, she was fighting now so her little infant never would have to. She couldn't claim she was really against him sitting in on this either, but she just wished he didn't have to.

Ron and Hermione were upstairs and he would wait with them. She'd show him the way, and insisted he keep his voice down.

Harry asked why, and she said she didn't want to wake anything up.

"I meant why can't I come, but that's odd too," Harry rolled his eyes.

He tried to ask what, but Mrs. Weasley said she'd explain later, she was in a hurry, she'd just show him to the rooms.

"So he's going to stay there the rest of the summer?" Lily blinked in confusion, not really wanting to imagine her son sleeping in that place, couldn't he just Floo to the Burrow from there?

Her question was drowned out by Sirius' louder one though.

"Why is Molly even the one doing this at all?" If Sirius' face got out any more sour, he'd have that puckered expression made permanent. "I should be the one up there greeting my godson, and I'd let him down there. What's she think she's doing?" No meeting should be important enough it would stop him seeing Harry again.

Remus could only offer his original idea, "Maybe you're not even there, even now imagining trying to get you inside there would be a living nightmare. It would be easier to train a niffler."

Sirius just huffed and grumbled something as he didn't find this a better answer.

Pressing her finger to her lips, she led him on tiptoe past a pair of long, moth-eaten curtains, behind which Harry supposed there must be another door,

James blinked in confusion at that as he told, "I don't remember that." True he'd only been over once, but it had been vivid enough the place had lingered and that object hadn't.

Again, Sirius only shrugged without a trace of care.

and after skirting a large umbrella stand that looked as though it had been made from a severed troll's leg they started up the dark staircase, passing a row of shrunken heads mounted on plaques on the wall. A closer look showed Harry that the heads belonged to house-elves.

Lily's face squished up in disgust as she glared at the book, trying to resist the impulse to turn the same look on Sirius as it's not like he'd been the one to do this, but suddenly she realized that Sirius may have taken something from his parents though he'd never claim to. If this was how they treated their old servants, than she suddenly wasn't as surprised if Sirius learned to treat them that same way.

All resembled each other through the same nose.

Harry's confusion for the place grew, what were they doing in a place that look as if it belonged to the darkest of wizard dwellings?

"Well you've got that one right Harry," Sirius huffed.

Harry tried to ask another question, but again Mrs. Weasley cut him off saying Ron and Hermione would explain. She left him at a door on the second landing, and he'd only just turned the doorknob, again a snake heads, and got a glance and more dim walls two twin beds and two owls fluttering overhead before a mound of bushy brown hair tackled him.

"I missed hearing about this," Remus managed to find a smile again at the mention of Harry's friends.

"About time," Sirius seemed to be refusing any good mood right now.

Hermione was squealing in delight, shouting at Ron that Harry was here! Already babbling on about how furious he was with them? She knew he would be, there letters had been useless,

"Well at least she admits it," James actually did get in a grin for this.

but they'd sworn they wouldn't tell him anything because of Dumbledore, and oh those dementor attacks and the Ministry hearing! She'd done her reading on it, and they just couldn't expel him, he was allowed to use magic under the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction-

"I've missed hearing about Hermione like this," Lily grinned again for that little first year who'd babbled herself silly about books on their first train ride.

Ron cut in to let him breath. Harry at once noticed he'd gained a few more inches in their month apart.

Hedwig landed softly on his shoulders from the wardrobe above.

"And just where has she been?" James demanded with an eyeroll.

Sirius though narrowed his eyes as he insisted, "no, that's a good question, did someone there really lock up your owl and not let her back? Why! It wouldn't be that big of a difference just to allow Hedwig to come back so at least Harry-"

"Sirius," Lily cut in.

"What?" He barked back.

She met his scowl with a sad little frown before telling him, "it was wrong of them to keep Hedwig away, but I don't know what you're yelling at us for." She thought she did though, when she noticed his eyes tighten at the 'them.' He was clearly wanting to strangle someone for whoever kept messing with his godson, even himself as he clearly wasn't doing any good.

Ron watched the snowy owl with unease as he told his best friend she'd been in a state since she'd been here, pecking their fingers off.

Harry was ashamed to see a deep cut on his index finger.

"Ouch," Lily winced in sympathy. She hadn't actually expected Hedwig to follow through on Harry's threat, but at least was relieved to see Harry looking just as repentant.

Harry began to apologize for that, explaining he just wanted some answers.

Ron agreed at once they wanted to give them, Hermione had been going spare saying Harry would do something drastic if they held back news,

"She was almost right," Harry sighed, knowing if those dementors hadn't attacked he still wouldn't have lasted there much longer.

but Dumbledore had-

made them swear not to say, Harry finished coldly. Suddenly the happy warmth at seeing his friends again had been dumped right out again.

"So I'm guessing this won't be your next Patronus memory about them," Remus muttered uneasily as Lily flipped the page.

All of a sudden - after yearning to see them for a solid month - he felt he would rather Ron and Hermione left him alone.

"Well I get that you're pissed at them," James cocked his head to the side, "but that was just a little cold. They explained themselves in the only way they could."

"Yeah," Harry grumbled, "that didn't make me feel better."

There were all starting to watch him in a way they hadn't before, but they'd never seen this bubbling anger before either. They'd only gotten a hint of it when he was arguing with Dudley, now they were all getting a bad feeling it might make a reappearance, maybe worse if that look on Harry's face was any indication...

There was a heavy silence before Hermione kept trying to say Dumbledore was doing what he thought best.

"And everyone always does what Dumbledore thinks is best," Remus murmured as he watched Sirius already growing as angry as Harry, though still at himself for not having disobeyed Dumbledore already and thinking his pup deserved far more than the Headmaster seemed to think.

Harry gave a snappy agreement as he kept petting his owl and now looking anywhere but at them. Suddenly he looked at the marks on both their fingers again and didn't feel as sorry.

"Harry!" Lily snapped at once.

Harry felt like he'd just been snapped between two worlds, the anger he remembered feeling so vividly at his friends suddenly drowned out by the sound of Lily's voice and now replaced with plenty of real shame for that nasty little comment.

"I really am sorry," he whispered, but it seemed more to himself than her as an aching stronger than ever reared up in him and he wished he had his friends here with him now instead of having no clue where, or even when, they were.

Ron began to say Dumbledore had told them he was safer with the Muggles, but Harry snapped back didn't do him much good when the dementors had showed up.

Ron agreed that's what the Order following you had been trying to stop,

"They knew I was being followed!" Harry suddenly barked, then he groaned in misery as his emotions were leaving him feeling torn in half. At fifteen and angrier than he ever had been in his life at them, and now with a longing so deep it hurt more than he ever would have believed.

"Harry," Sirius sighed at his side. He forced himself to concentrate on his godson rather than his own equally foul mood and instructed, "take a deep breath pup, and just remember it all does work out for you. You'll get your grievances with Ron and Hermione out and then everything will be fine."

Harry struggled for a moment to get his lungs working normally again, but the confident tone to Sirius' voice truly did ease him back and he forced himself to concentrate on one mindset only, this time here and now, and push down the anger for his now absent friends. Then he gave Sirius a winning smile for the reminder.

Sirius returned the grin at once and waited until Harry looked away to throw a guilty look at James, knowing the father would have much preferred to have been able to do this, but then James surprised him by smiling right back with only the smallest bit of tightening around his eyes for having to watch. James had forced himself to come to terms at watching this for some time, and it honestly warmed him seeing Sirius was good at it.

Harry felt a jolt shock him as he realized everyone knew he'd been followed! He had to fight every bit of him to stop from yelling the words that it hadn't done any good, he'd still had to look after himself.

Hermione whispered how angry she'd seen Dumbledore when he heard, it was scary.

Harry blinked in confusion as he remembered back to how Dumbledore had looked at the end of last year, both at the realization of what had been done to his friend and when he'd defended Harry from Fudge. At the time he'd been warmed beyond belief to see his headmaster come to his defense, now it wasn't computing with the same cold man who'd abandoned Harry all summer. What had he done so wrong to change his headmaster's opinion of him?

The others didn't notice Harry's burning silent questions, they were too busy shivering as they easily pictured their anger quantified to Dumbledore's levels over that instance.

Harry snapped back he was happy Mundungus had left, otherwise he'd have probably been left there all summer!

"He, he wouldn't really," Remus tried to protest, as Dumbledore must know how miserable Harry was at that place, surely Sirius would have been vocally against that enough...but there just wasn't anything in him to say any of that was true. He could easily picture Dumbledore doing this if he thought that was what was safest, and if he was using that argument to keep Sirius quiet, well that could actually have worked.

"That's not what happened though," Lily tried to pacify for everyone around her, even herself all going grim at the statement.

"Only because I did what I wasn't supposed to," Harry raised a brow at her, "that hardly makes it any better."

Lily made a disgruntled face at him for the tone but couldn't argue that point.

Hermione's voice lowered significantly as she asked if he was worried about that Ministry hearing?

"Was that an attempt to change the subject?" James cocked his head to the side as he gazed at the book. "Hermione truly needs to read a book on how to do that."

Harry instantly lied no, as talk of that would not put him in a better mood.

He began examining the rest of the room, but the only stand out was an apparently empty painting that Harry swore he heard snickering as he walked past.

Sirius made a noise of disgust, so quickly trying to find any excuse to put off what Harry could just feel pounding through him Harry asked, "what's that?"

"His name's Phineas Nigellus," Sirius rolled his eyes, "you might have spotted him in Dumbledore's office at some point, cause he was once a Headmaster of Hogwarts. There's also a portrait up of him in that house in one of the guest rooms."

Topic of the inside of that house hadn't seemed to make Sirius feel a lick better so Harry let it go, but he still wondered why he felt something significant about a painting of all things.

Harry demanded why Dumbledore had thought he should be kept in the dark? Did they bother to ask?

He glanced over at them just in time to see them exchange a look.

"Wouldn't make anyone feel better to feel looks behind your back," Lily sighed even as she was gazing wearily at the next page where she saw a lot of capitalized letters. She forced her eyes not to skip ahead and tried to pretend like she didn't know where this was going.

Ron insisted they'd told Dumbledore they wanted to tell him, but he's been busy and made them swear not to write anything important in letters because the owls could be intercepted.

"A very real threat," Remus tried to say in hopes to keep the logic up front for them all, but clearly no one agreed as it shouldn't have even been needed.

Harry snapped back owls were the only way to talk to people now?

Sirius wanted to snark that had been his point all along, or even messages shouldn't have been needed and Harry should have properly been with him, but further grumbling of that just wasn't going to do anyone any good.

Then Harry decided no one had trusted him,

"Now you know that's not it," Lily said at once.

"Sure felt like it," he grumbled back.

or that he couldn't take care of himself.

"I still don't see what that has to do with anything," James sighed. "He won't be sending you out on any missions that you're thinking of while you're still in school."

Harry sighed with frustration as his school was mentioned again, so many feelings for that place all jumbled into one a migraine was already threatening to break again.

Hermione tried to interrupt no one thought that, but then Harry blasted then how come he'd been left at the Dursleys while they'd been here all along?

Ron insisted they didn't know much of anything, his mum kept them out because they were too young.

Ironically they might have agreed, fifteen was too young to be dealing with anything involving Voldemort. They hadn't really even known there was anything to do against him until they'd left school, and hadn't started questioning it until their sixth year. Problem was, Harry would be involved, and so would his friends by default. It was just sad all around to realize both how young they were, and how it couldn't be avoided.

But before he knew it, Harry was shouting.

Lily sighed as she looked at what Harry was fixing to belt out, but she just couldn't bring herself to shout that all out. She couldn't even bring herself to raise her voice that much, she knew the others already grasped what level Harry was at by the boys sheepish look at all the feelings pouring out of him at once on his friends.

Every last thing he'd ever been thinking over the past month about how much he'd handled, like the Philosopher's stone, and the basilisk, and the dementors!

"Harry," Lily groaned as she rubbed at her temple, letting the book dip slightly so she could eye him better.

"I know," Harry mumbled without being able to meet her eyes. First his dad, now his mum, he just kept disappointing everyone lately.

She kept staring at him though until he looked up and met her eyes while she told, "it's not as if I can blame you for your temper snapping, no one can control that, I just wish you weren't taking it out on the ones who don't deserve it."

Harry gave her a bleak smile as he still forced himself to concentrate on his every breath, on Sirius at his side shaking his head at Harry's display even while he wanted to do a bit of shouting of his own, to absolutely not think about how angry he'd been at the time so he wouldn't get lost in his mind again.

Every bitter thought that had lingered in him came pouring out now at his loudest volume, causing Hedwig to take flight in shock and Pig to begin zooming around the room even faster.

"You have a knack for scaring your owl away, don't you?" James muttered like he hoped that would stop Lily from continuing for a moment, but it didn't.

He'd been the one to get past every foul thing in that tournament last year, he'd escaped from Voldemort with his life!

Lily's voice hitched as she once again was forced to remember all that Harry had been through, all on his own, always with no one there to help him. It really was no wonder he lashed out because of the summer he'd had to suffer after all that.

Ron was standing there with his mouth half-open, clearly stunned and at a loss for anything to say, whilst Hermione looked on the verge of tears.

Harry kept sinking farther and farther into his cushion as shame managed to burn out any ill will he'd once held towards his friends, for now at least keeping his mind level in the here and now. His mum was right, this really had come out on the wrong people, he couldn't believe he'd done this to his friends.

But why should he be told what was happening!?

Hermione tried to cut in she'd wanted to tell him,

"Brave little one," Lily murmured, it took a lot for someone to interrupt someone else's shouting.

but Harry wasn't done as she howled back that Dumbledore had made them swear! Four weeks he'd been on his own trying to find out anything, and they'd been having a laugh without him!

Hermione tried one last time to cut in how sorry they were, she understood he was furious and she'd be as well if it were her.

"I think I'd fear for my life to hear of her in a furious state," Lily sighed in relief before telling them, "least you seem to be done shouting for now."

Harry hardly looked over at her as he kept flattening his hair and trying to vanish from sight, or more preferably go hunt down his friends and properly apologize to them.

Harry continued glaring furiously, his chest heaving while Hedwig hooted glumly down at him.

When the silence rung though, he demanded what this place was?

"A torture chamber," Sirius grumbled, which seemed to be true even for Harry. He hadn't been inside there five minutes when he was already showing his worst. Sirius had often wondered if that place was enchanted to bring out the worst of people, and this wasn't disproving his theory.

Ron instantly answered Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix.

Harry began tartly that no one was going to bother explaining to him what the Order of the Phoenix was.

"Well you've hardly given them the chance to do that," Lily couldn't completely stop her rebuke. "You did just walk in there and start this up."

Hermione cut off his sarcasm by explaining it was a group founded by Dumbledore to fight back against You-Know-Who.

Harry demanded who was in it, and she returned a lot of people, probably even more than they'd seen around here.

Then Harry just stood there glaring at them, demanding 'well?'

Ron hesitated before asking hesitantly, well what?

"You really can't start so open ended Harry," James at least tried for a smile while he corrected Harry in a less harsh tone than Lily had managed. "Even I'm not sure what you're asking for and I'm following your head."

"Thought it was obvious," he rolled his eyes at James, honestly wanting to make the father laugh for a moment as just days ago Harry had seemed too afraid to speak to him, now he was literally mouthing off. It was quite a turn to see such a change coming through him so quickly, though it just made him all the more sad this was the closest he'd ever seem to get to watching his son grow up, years taking place over days.

Harry shouted Voldemort at once! What was he doing, what had he been up to?

Hermione reminded they didn't know, the Order was keeping them out, but she had some ideas she finished quickly at the look on Harry's face.

"You weren't really going to start shouting at them for that?" Lily couldn't stop a frown at him now. "It's not their fault they aren't allowed in."

"They certainly made their letters feel a lot more obnoxious than for 'we don't know.'" Harry grumbled back, still not entirely able to replace the bad mood this book was reminding him of it seemed.

Fred and George had invented some Extendable Ears,

At the word invented, everyone finally felt their spirits lifting again. The twins had always been a foolproof way to make them feel better, and their adventures in inventing was the most entertaining thing going on in the background of Harry's life.

and they could be used to eavesdrop on conversations. Only problem was their mum had found out about them and went berserk on her twins, tried to bin the lot of them.

"Really?" Lily demanded, finally turning her sharp eyes off of Harry and onto the book in disapproval. "She's still doing that to them? Mother yes, but I can't really say she has a right to be trashing their things like that."

"I can't believe she's still trying to," James sighed. "At some point it really does boggle the mind how she's still fighting them on something they so clearly want to do, I'd like to think she'd start encouraging them when she realized how badly they want this."

Harry had to resist the temptation to tell them both to knock off Mrs. Weasley, instead he put as much conviction into his voice as he could, "I'm convinced she'll ease up on them in no time." He truly felt it in him the mother would be proud of her boys, but he was weary of saying that in case it caused another spur of pain. He'd managed to keep anyone else from continuing on this for now though.

But they'd gotten some usefulness out of them before they'd been found out, like how the Order was following some known Death Eaters keeping tabs on them, some were trying to recruit more members to the Order, and they talked a lot about guard duty, though they weren't sure what exactly.

"I guess I should be flattered I get discussed at these meetings," Harry scowled, even as deep down he could feel something about that was off...

Harry snidely said that last one couldn't be about him?

Ron agreed that made sense with a look of dawning comprehension.

Sirius couldn't help a mean little laugh Ron really hadn't put that together? What exactly had he really been thinking about all summer for not having realized that? Had he and Hermione been that cozy?

Harry gave him a hard nudge to get him to stop, he already felt bad enough for how he'd reacted to seeing his friends, he didn't want to hear the others picking on them now.

Harry just snorted at him as he resumed his pace, still demanding answers that if that's all they knew, what had those letters been about with them being so busy?

Lily was still frowning at him, wishing he'd drop the tone already.

Hermione insisted they had, they were trying to make this place livable again. It had been empty for ages and now they were trying to decontaminate all the things that had been breeding in here.

Sirius snorted in surprise before starting to giggle like a maniac as he imagined the look on his mother's face if she heard that. It seemed Kreacher had passed away, a blessing he was more than happy to hear as well.

They should be starting on the drawing room tomo- she cut off with a squeal of surprise.

Lily hadn't meant to shout that so loud, but she'd yelped it more in surprise than anything causing the others to jump as well.

With two loud cracks, Fred and George materialized out of thin air in the middle of the room.

Harry just couldn't shut off his spikes of annoyance lately as he grumbled, "is it just me, or is the system really unfair towards Muggleborns? Just because you've got magical parents they can't tell you're doing magic during your summer holidays, but when I do it," he finished with an obvious enough look.

"To be fair," Lily tried, "it is intentionally biased. There's just no way possible to detect a single person's magical energy, though studies have tried. The trace is only set to detect that of magic for underage people, not even individuals. So instead they have to do it by location, and just trust that parents aren't allowing their kids to do so during holidays."

Something of what his mother said tickled in Harry's mind, and suddenly he snapped his fingers and said, "that's it, that's why Tonks and Moody could use magic at my place. Lupin was talking about that to Kingsley when I was coming back into the kitchen, but it didn't make any sense at the time. He said something about how because Mr. Weasley had been using magic before at my place it was going to be overlooked. I didn't know what he meant because Mr. Weasley wasn't even there."

Remus blanched and avoided all eyes for a moment to pretend he hadn't just heard Harry automatically slip back into calling him by his last name again, now right in this room.

"That, kind of makes sense," James frowned in thought, "he was there to pick you up last time, and so long as he forewarned the Ministry again he was going to pick you up, they'd just ignore magical energy at your house for that time period because they'd just assume it was Arthur doing it."

"I wonder why Arthur wasn't there?" Sirius frowned, "he couldn't have been at work, otherwise that wouldn't have worked."

Harry just shrugged for answer, though something of what Ron said tried to bubble to the surface. Guard duty? Had Harry been watched even more closely after the dementor attack? No, that didn't make sense, there wouldn't be a guard on the house while he was being picked up, so what-

"Well I'm just happy you won't be in even more trouble for that," Lily sighed in relief as she went back to the book.

Hermione clutched at her chest in surprise as she snapped at them to stop doing that!

She was ignored as George grinned at Harry, saying he'd thought he'd heard familiar dulcet tones.

"I'm sure it was hard to miss," Sirius grinned.

Fred agreed it wasn't good to have all that bottled up, and be sure to let the rest out. There might be people fifty miles away who hadn't heard him.

Harry gave a sheepish smile while everyone around him laughed, though it did make Sirius wonder if the Order had heard this and no one had come up to check? They might have blocked out the noise outside of the room though in an effort to keep the kids out.

Harry just grumpily surmised they'd passed their Apparition tests then.

"You've been saying everything grumpily lately," James told him pleasantly.

"Can't seem to shake it off when I keep getting annoyed," he snipped.

Fred agreed with chipper, while Ron grumbled at them it only would have taken them thirty extra seconds to walk down the stairs.

"I would just like to take this moment to remind that they were complaining of Percy doing this last summer," Sirius grinned.

"I'm positive the twins have flamboyant answers for that," Remus snorted.

James suddenly blinked as he eyed his two friends, before cracking up laughing.

"You going to share the joke?" Sirius demanded when he'd subsided enough but the baby was still giggling in his arms.

"I'm honestly just picturing their reactions when they realize who they're in the same house with," James stated with a stupid smirk in place.

It only took them a minute before they exchanged impish grins with each other, but Harry shot down the idea at once as he said, "well I never told them that I knew who the Marauders were, so unless Ron did, I don't think they even know."

Sirius was suddenly pouting at him as he demanded to know why.

Harry answered simply, "when would it have come up?" The only scenario he could see was if Sirius or Remus had referred to the other as their nicknames, and while they swapped between the two often enough in here, Harry hadn't once heard Sirius or Professor Lupin do the same in his time.

Sirius and Remus were starting to look disappointed now, after the twins had gone on about them when the Map had first been introduced they'd love to think they got a chance with a real chat to their follow up pranksters.

Harry grimaced as he realized he was just killing everyone's mood of late, and insisted to his brain to cut it out already at least in here. What was it about this year that was putting him in such a foul mood no matter what?

Fred waved that off as he turned to Harry and scolded he was interfering with their reception.

"Harry, how dare you!" James mock outraged as he wagged his finger at him.

Harry forced a smile he didn't really feel at the picking, now struggling with himself to understand why he couldn't just laugh along like he had in the past. This couldn't all be because of his rotten summer and lingering shame for what he'd done to his friends. What on earth was happening to him this year to cause such a resurgence of these bad feelings he was having so many problems shaking?

He showed Harry a long, flesh colored string and better described their new Extendable Ears, that they were trying to use to hear what was going on downstairs.

Ron warned they should be more careful with those, if Mum caught sight of them again-

Fred waved his brother off, saying it was worth the risk as they were having a major meeting.

Sirius sighed in disappointment Fred had skipped a perfectly good opportunity to use his name. Harry clearly needed the laugh he was sure it would have given.

The door opened and a long mane of red hair appeared.

Harry suddenly smiled for what felt like the first time in hours as he chuckled at his own description for seemingly no reason, and the others didn't even care enough to question it, they were just happy to see him fighting to get past whatever mood he was in.

She greeted him casually enough, saying she'd thought she'd heard his voice.

"Apparently everyone could." At least this time his voice had come out more self deprecating than angry. Then his face managed to brighten even more as he said, "I think that's the first time she's outright said hello to me like that."

"Only took her three years to do so," Sirius grinned, "maybe by next summer she'll carry on a conversation."

Then she turned to Fred and George and told it was pointless with the Ears, Mum had put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door.

"Darn mothers who think ahead," Remus pouted.

George pouted as he asked how his sister knew that.

Ginny explained Tonks had told her how to tell,

"Tonks keeps getting better and better though," Sirius smirked at the idea of that little kid growing up to teach kids such valuable things.

just throw stuff at the door and if it bounces off the Charm's in place. She'd flicked a few Dungbombs around but it was a no go.

Fred gave a disappointed sigh as he said he'd wanted to know what old Snape was up to.

"Snape?" They all chorused in disgust. Lily broke free of that first though as she thought back to wondering just what Snape did for the Order, and Dumbledore's rather interesting instructions to him at the end of last year. She remembered distinctly Dumbledore's words in saying Snape had turned spy for them and that's what had kept him out of Azkaban, and while the boys had initially dissed the idea as they refused to trust anything by him, Lily could almost feel hopeful for it even if it didn't make sense. What reason did he have to do this that hadn't been there when he joined in the first place?

Harry yelped his surprised while George agreed that he was downstairs giving a report now, while Fred added on he was a git.

Hermione reproved them, saying he was on their side.

"Doesn't make him not a git," James scowled.

Ron snorted that didn't stop him being a git.

"Here I was wishing Ron would appear here," Sirius smirked, "now I don't have to miss him."

James just chuckled as he agreed, but also said, "honestly though, any sane person but Hermione would say the same."

Ginny agreed Bill still didn't like him like that settled the matter.

"I wonder which brother Ginny looks up to the most," Remus snorted.

Harry wasn't sure if he was still angry or not, but the thirst for information was keeping his continued shouting held back.

"Whatever works love," Lily sighed, still wishing he'd apologize rather than just deciding to blow the matter over.

Harry asked if Bill was around, and Fred agreed he'd officially moved back from Egypt to get a desk job, with benefits.

The grin on his face made Harry question what that meant, and Fred asked if he still remembered Fleur Delacour?

"Oh?" They all muttered with intrigue, having thought nothing of the casual flirt mentioned in Harry's last year.

Well she'd gotten a job at Gringotts to eemprove er Eenglish, George mocked in a fake French accent, while Fred snickered along that Bill had been giving her private lessons.

"Well congratulations to the two, I hope they enjoy those lessons," Lily smirked while the boys outright began giggling as well at the news, or at least the way the twins had delivered it.

Charlie was technically in the Order to, George added on, but he was still in Romania as Dumbledore still wanted some foreign wizards out there and Charlie was making contacts when he could.

"I don't see why Bill couldn't have done that?" Remus said innocently enough, "I don't see how he needed to come back for just a little desk job."

"I'll explain it to you later Moony," Sirius smirked as he patted his friend's shoulder.

Harry asked wouldn't Percy be better for that job.

"Oh yeah," the three Marauders muttered, seeming to forget about him more often than not.

Harry though tensed all over again, a sudden blackening trying to shroud all memories he had of Percy.

Harry had last heard of that Weasley working for the Department of International Magical Cooperation at the Ministry.

"Well I'm happy you brought him up," Lily smiled, "I was curious if he got to keep his job in the department, I'd be really happy for him if he got something so young."

Harry just gave her a sad little frown as he resisted the impulse to start bracing himself for some very bad news.

At Harry's question though, all the Weasleys and Hermione exchanged darkly significant looks.

"Uhoh," James frowned in confusion as he tried to lean around Lily and see what that reaction was. He was no fan of Percy's but that hadn't been a pleasant start.

Ron at once told Harry not to mention him around his parents, while Fred told it was because Dad broke whatever he was holding and Mum started crying.

"What did he do?" Remus struggled to get out in a non-accusing voice, but it was hard to imagine him doing something to cause that reaction in his parents that wasn't terrible.

Ginny sadly agreed it's been awful to watch.

"Look Sirius, she is technically having a conversation with me," Harry muttered just to try and keep that bad feeling from washing over him any second.

"One on one then," Sirius corrected, his eyes still trained menacingly on the book and not to be distracted, even by this.

George agreed they were all shot of him now.

Harry insisted what had happened? Fred explained that his brother and Dad had a row, it was pretty out there, since Mum was usually the one who shouted.

Lily's eyes flipped wide in shock, she couldn't imagine having such a terrible fight with her child it caused that kind of reaction.

Ron went back a bit and said this was during the first week of their vacation, and they'd just been fixing to head over here. Percy had come home all smug because he'd been promoted.

"Wouldn't that be a good thing though?" Sirius' tone was still more icy than confusion, he'd never liked hearing about Percy and he wasn't at all liking how this was starting considering the last thing he'd heard about the Ministry hadn't been a good thing.

Harry was stunned at the news, since Percy's first job hadn't gone over well since he'd managed to neglect the fact that his boss was slowly going insane. (Though the Ministry and Harry differed on why that was.)

"No one noticed, I'd hardly think Percy had been blamed for that," Remus huffed.

George agreed they'd all been surprised since Percy had gotten in trouble for not reporting what was going on with Crouch, he'd gotten a hearing saying he should have told a superior.

"I guess I can kind of see that," James sighed, though he still didn't see how this had to do with having such a terrible fight with his parents.

Harry was still confused why he'd been promoted now, and Ron was almost eagerly explaining this to Harry just to stop him continuing shouting it seemed.

Harry winced with renewed chagrin at what he'd done to his friends, now realizing how his friends had felt all the more because of how his dad had shouted at him this morning.

Explaining he'd been all pleased that Percy was now working right in Fudge's office,

"Oh bollocks," Sirius groaned as he ran a hand miserably down his face. "Fudge didn't really try to do this did he?"

"Percy didn't really fall for this," Remus countered with a calculating look. "It's been made obvious Harry favors the Weasley's, and if Fudge really hates Harry now, then doing something like this for a Weasley doesn't make any sense."

Lily was fidgeting uneasily with the pages before she pressed herself to go on, now sincerely hoping this fight hadn't really been about what she was thinking.

as Fudge's Jr. Assistant.

"Really?" James demanded. "That, that's just so-" he cut himself off as he seemed to run out of words for how idiotic that felt. What was Fudge's game here?

He'd thought his parents would be proud.

"Well yes, if he'd earned it," Lily sighed.

"I don't get it," Harry frowned at them. "Yeah it's weird, but what's so bad?"

"If Fudge's attitude is anything like we last saw," Lily patiently explained, "than Percy getting something at a time like this should raise a red flag for him and his family that the Minister's up to something, putting someone so close to Harry Potter in his office."

"What?" Harry wanted to laugh, though his sinking gut was confirming she was right on point. "You think Fudge wants Percy to spy on me and report my favorite dessert?"

"Not in so light of questions though," Remus agreed grimly while Harry looked back to the book with worry.

They weren't, because Fudge had already been going around the Ministry telling anyone who was in league with Dumbledore to clear out their desk.

"Oh, and now Dumbledore's involved to," James groaned, this going from bad to worse.

Dumbledore's name had been tarnished in the Ministry lately because he kept trying to convince people that You-Know-Who was back.

"I can not believe any sane person would think like that," Sirius sneered.

"I don't understand why they wouldn't believe this," Harry ground out, trying his best not to shout another grievance that had been plaguing him that summer. "Ron said they were all ready to believe it when the Philosopher's Stone was nearly taken from Gringotts."

Lily looked at him sadly as she explained, "The concept is a bit skewed. There's a difference between people speculating and fearing, and outright saying it. I'm sure that if Dumbledore had declared that yes, Voldemort had been the one to do this, then people would have reacted the same then."

Harry still didn't think that made any sense, but stopped arguing the point.

George told how their dad explained Fudge was making it clear Dumbledore was just trying to destabilize their life, and anyone who was in league with Dumbledore could join him in not being welcome here.

"In league with him?" Lily demanded. "He's not the one trying to destabilize life!"

Fudge suspected Arthur of being close to Dumbledore, he always had been friendly, and that dad was a weirdo because of his obsession with Muggles.

"Which really shows more about Fudge than anything," James snapped in outrage, he found Arthur's fascination perfectly understandable and honestly compelling when Lily and Sirius treated him to Muggle education. It really showed how a person thought though when they'd hear the same things and look down on the whole civilization for not being as good as theirs.

Harry still didn't understand what this had to do with Percy, and so they told that their dad thinks Percy was only promoted to spy on the family and Dumbledore.

Harry gave a low whistle as he muttered about how much Percy would love that.

"But, Percy should know that?" Sirius forced himself to phrase it as a question. "He's smart enough to know when he's being played."

"The twins would have done it to him enough," James agreed.

Lily was just blinking slowly down at the pages now, she didn't even want to continue to what she now truly knew the fight had been about, she didn't want to hear about Percy fighting with his parents about this because she knew without a doubt Percy was wrong. The saddest part was though, some part of her still pitied the poor boy. She'd long since noticed he'd always felt ostracized from his family, and earning a promotion like this and going off his past experiences should have taught him his parents would praise him for this like always. Then they went and dismissed him, and Percy would feel shunned. It didn't excuse such a fight it left his parents in the mess they were at all though.

Ron gave a hollow laugh as he agreed, that Percy had started shouting at their dad all sorts of terrible things like how his dad had been holding him back in the Ministry.

"That sounds like completely the opposite though!" Sirius snapped. "Every time we've heard of Arthur he's out there helping someone out and on first name terms with a lot more people than Percy when his own boss didn't even know his name!" Sirius was breathing rather hard at the end, but he couldn't help it. Percy wasn't his family, but he could still feel the reminding sting of betrayal that rat had caused him as he heard of this. It was a different kind of betrayal, but choosing that Ministry over his family could not be worked out in his mind!

Harry was having trouble picturing Percy shouting such a thing when he could far more easily recall Percy splashing into the water just last year in concern for his brothers welfare. What had changed in that time to make Percy like this?

That Arthur was going to go down with Dumbledore's bad name and Percy was going to make it known he was no longer associated with that disloyalty to the Ministry.

Harry wasn't the only one scowling by the end of all that, no one could believe what they were watching Lily spit out in frustration. Of all the times they'd been agitated of hearing about Percy, they still would never have called this!

So now he'd made it clear he no longer belonged to their family.

"It's a good thing they don't know your real last name then, Weatherby," Remus sneered in disgust.

He'd packed his bags and left that night.

Harry swore under his breath at the end. He'd always liked Percy the least of the Weasley's, but even he wouldn't have called this.

"I still can't picture it," James whispered. He'd never imagined that Voldemort's return could manage to pull yet more families apart like it had his own. His eyes flickered to Remus briefly, unable to think yet again what it had implied they'd all be thinking about him in the coming year, and forced himself to listen to Lily go on.

Ron sighed as he explained their mother had been crying so much lately because of it, she'd tried going up to his place but all he'd done was slam the door in her face.

Lily couldn't stop a little hitch in her throat, even with Ron describing it she couldn't force the image into her head of any child turning on their mother like that. Molly did not deserve that for anything, especially as she was most likely only there to let him know she still loved him despite this decision.

Harry still couldn't understand why Percy would do this, he must know Voldemort was back and his dad wouldn't talk like this without proof.

"You would think," Sirius agreed nastily, "but I've never met someone so ignorantly stupid they wouldn't understand the word's Voldemort's back either."

Ron winced as he said Harry's name had been dragged in, that all the real evidence was what Percy had said, and that just wasn't good enough.

Harry watched those around him yelp furiously on his behalf again, making him smile just slightly at the defense.

Hermione sniffed Percy took the Daily Prophet seriously.

Before Sirius could even open his mouth to make his recurring joke, James suddenly half screamed, "how much was Percy told!?"

The baby in his lap let out a wail of protest at something so loud, but even while James began soothing him he had worried eyes on his best friend.

It only took but a moment for the others to realize what that implied, and Sirius lost a shade of color before he got out, "I'm sure if Percy knew anything new about me he'd have gone badgering that right to his new master."

Harry was saddened to see them all so easily flip on Percy, Sirius instantly resorting to those kinds of insults, and then confused at his own confusion as Harry was very sure Percy deserved it for the rest of his life. He was still trying to recall the time Percy had weaved himself through an angry crowd to fight back against those Death Eaters last year as the same guy who'd done this to his family. Something in him was trying to insist Percy must regret this...

"No, most likely it would have been an introduction type thing like what happened with Molly, so if I hadn't been around to their place yet, I'm sure he knows nothing about me."

It was comforting at least for the moment that Percy hadn't gone so far into the Order he would likely know more current whereabouts on Sirius at least. Did he know anything about the Order? Ron had said this had happened right before they'd been going to Grimmauld place, so surely Percy knew his family was fixing to relocate out of the Burrow and where they were headed? Maybe it had been like Harry though, and they'd only been told of the location right before they'd entered, so Percy had no clue of anything.

Harry asked what she meant by that?

Lily had to go back and reread what Hermione had actually said to set her husband into a panic, and then they were all just as baffled as Harry by the comment enough no one interrupted her in hopes Hermione would just explain.

Hermione's anxiety grew as she kept watching Harry, asking how thoroughly he'd been reading the paper?

"Why would he?" Remus began with his eyes narrowed.

Harry defended not cover to cover, just the front cover where any good news would be.

Hermione flushed as she tried to say that once a week they slipped in his name.

"Mention him how?" The others could already hear a growl beginning in Sirius' throat.

Harry tried to protest he'd have seen that, but Hermione corrected not if he'd just been glancing at the front page. They weren't big articles, just little things they'd slip in like he was a standing joke.

"A standing joke about what?" Lily began nastily, but forced herself to continue as she didn't even want to imagine what all was being said about her baby, what was being said would be bad enough.

They were all building on what Rita had said.

"Oh no," James began furiously ruffling up his hair at once. "Please don't tell me-"

Lily cut him off as her voice continued rising in sharpness.

Harry was confused, as he'd thought she wasn't writing anymore.

Hermione had a satisfied smirk in place for that, saying she was keeping to herself for now, not that she had a choice.

"I want to know if she's mentioned that to the twins, earn her a lot of respect in their book," Remus muttered bleakly, looking for anything good for just a moment.

But Skeeter's work was the foundation for what the Prophet was doing, which was how his scar had been hurting and he'd been collapsing last year.

"Could hardly forget," Harry muttered as those articles still stung him now thinking about.

She began saying all of this very fast, like hearing this quickly would hurt less,

Harry felt some distant part of him want to laugh for his friend which was not coming to him now at all of the grim, wide eyed faces.

that the Prophet was taking those old stories, and now every time someone got hurt, they'd make the snippy comment they hoped he didn't have a scar so they'd have to worship him next.

Harry really had been trying to keep himself under control, so it surprised him when his Mum didn't and she exploded a mountain of diatribe on that Prophet and what they were doing to her Hare Bare. The boys watched her vent like they just had about Percy, agreeing with every word she said so much they were just a bit disappointed when Harry gently cleared his throat and tried to cut her off.

"Really Mum, it ticked me off too, but-"

"It's disgusting," she insisted like she thought Harry was trying to argue that point. "The Ministry I work for would never force the Prophet into pulling these stunts, but clearly the editor's right in Fudge's back pocket and I can't believe anyone would do this to you!" She wanted to keep pressing her point right up into Fudge's face, but as Harry continued to look sadly at her she instead turned burning eyes back on the pages.

Harry half began shouting at once he didn't want anyone doing that!

Hermione quickly cut him off, saying they knew that, but the Ministry was telling the Prophet to say all that to keep Harry as a discredited little boy who just wants to keep being famous.

"Has he completely lost whatever a mind he had!" James gaped. "He's only famous because of what Voldemort did to him," clearly the act of saying his own murder still couldn't really get through his mouth, "what possible reason could Fudge think Harry would make that up for!?"

"If I find out, I'll be sure to let you know," Harry sighed, now feeling even more guilty for his earlier anger as he kept trying to curb theirs without success.

Harry spluttered with pure indignity that Voldemort had killed his parents!

Lily too couldn't manage to quite get that out in her tempered voice, but it hardly cooled her either as she kept going venomously.

Ginny cut in saying they knew that, and Hermione flipped to mentioning she was surprised they hadn't mentioned that dementor attack yet.

Remus' brows shot up in surprise at this turn of circumstances.

Some thought they would, because not only were out of control dementors a big deal, but Harry's doing magic would tie in perfectly with this whole image they were painting of him being so above it all. They were probably just waiting until after the trial though so they could really go to town with the scene.

"But he's not going to be expelled," Sirius snarled at once. "So apparently they're just going to sit on that story forever, poor them."

Harry managed a smile for his godfather's utter confidence in that, managing to increase his own in that outcome and increasingly improving his mood about that at least.

Then she corrected herself that's what would happen if he was expelled, but he wouldn't be, the law was on his side.

"If they abide by their own laws half the things I've heard them doing lately wouldn't be done," Lily snapped.

Before Harry had to think of a response to that, conversation was cut short by soft steps on the stairs, and the twins instantly vanished with another crack, their Extendable Ears in hand.

"Because Molly wouldn't be at all suspicious why the twins would choose to vanish as someone approached," James sighed as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose, wishing he could put more energy into the comment but already feeling strained from so many stressful chapters in a row now. How was this one already worse than the last?

A second later and Mrs. Wesley poked her head in, saying dinner was almost ready and the meeting was over.

Harry still huffed with one last tick of annoyance he'd been left out of that.

They could come downstairs now, though she did ask why there were Dungbombs all across the door?

Ginny said Crookshanks at once.

"I'm so proud," Sirius blinked more in confusion than actual pride though. "She's come so far already."

"Ginny's getting more interesting as time goes by as well," James agreed at once, hoping to stay on a pleasant topic for just five minutes now felt like a miracle.

Mrs. Weasley instantly bought it, though she at first thought it had been Kreacher,

"No!"

The sudden outburst from Sirius had Harry and Remus nearly leaping from their seats in shock, which he clearly took no notice of as he kept going hatefully.

"Of all the rotten luck! My parents kicked the bucket but that nasty little blighter couldn't have gone with them! Just what did I do to deserve having that thing in my sole care!"

"I'd think you'd find it a good thing," James tried to offer up some happy suggestion for this. "Now you can clothe him and just have him out of your life for good." The odd part was though, if Sirius was going to do that he'd have done it already.

Sirius didn't offer up any more suggestions though as he huffed and grumbled a bit more under his breath while Lily tried to ignore the outburst she found uncalled for.

he kept doing odd things like that. Then she reminded they all keep their voices down in the hall.

"Still haven't explained why they have to do that," Remus grumbled as he massaged his ear and glared at Sirius, at least he understood his friends consternation a little better, but now his ear felt like it was starting to ring from all the shouting going on so recently.

Then she spotted Ginny's hands and how dirty they were, and commanded she go wash up before eating.

She made a face at them as she left behind her mother, and then Ron and Hermione exchanged an uneasy look, as if fearing Harry was going to start shouting again now that they were alone.

Harry's mouth went dry as he ducked his head all over again for causing his friends to ever look at him like that, now wishing he could give himself a good kick in the rear.

"At least you clearly regret it," James tried to pacify him, Harry had suffered enough guilt it was time he be comforted at least a bit. "I've only ever had one really bad row with Sirius, and we didn't exactly hug it out when all was said and done. You apologize to them, I'm sure they won't think on it any more."

Harry looked up towards the book hopefully.

The sight of their unease left him feeling ashamed, and he tried to begin saying something, but Hermione cut him off saying she'd expected him to be angry, but they'd only been doing what Dumbledore had thought was best, even though they did try to tell their headmaster-

Harry cut her off shortly.

"Well that could have gone better," Remus chuckled.

"But at least you seem on equal ground again," Sirius sighed as he tried to get that old problem out of his head.

He looked around for something else to say, as talking of the headmaster only made Harry want to shout some more.

"Not a good thing to be lingering on for now then," Lily muttered as she knew that if Harry's temper did break again, it really should be on him.

Then asked who Kreacher was?

"Well that's not helping," Sirius grumbled, wondering what he'd done to have so much of his family being pushed back into his mind all of a sudden.

Ron explained he was the house-elf of the place, a nutter.

Hermione tried to correct he wasn't one, but Ron said back that his life's ambition was to have his head on a plaque with the others.

"At least Walburga taught him something then," Sirius' teeth flashed with that grin in an almost predatory way, "I'm sure I can help with that."

"Sirius, you're disgusting me," Lily snapped at him before reading loudly in hopes he was kidding.

She tried to defend if he was a bit strange it wasn't entirely his fault.

Ron rolled his eyes and told Harry she still hadn't given up on her SPEW stuff.

"I think I'd be worried for her if she had though," Remus chuckled. "Little fighter that she is, I can't imagine she will until she gets what she wants."

"Least she could do is leave that elf out," Sirius huffed.

Hermione at once began defending her Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. Even Dumbledore said they should be more kind to Kreacher.

Harry suddenly felt an alarm bell going off in the back of his head, leaning just that little bit closer to Sirius and suddenly very worried for his godfather's behavior towards his house-elf...

Ron brushed her off and lead the way downstairs.

Then he held out a hand on the landing, stopping them all in place as they spotted the crowded hallway below, they might be able to hear something.

Finally they all felt themselves focusing on something they all wanted to hear about again, even the current Order members were insanely curious what was going on in this future.

The three peeked over the banister to see Snape leading towards the door.

James suddenly realized at the beginning that it had in fact ben Snape Molly must have been referring to as having arrived, and his agitation only increased as he realized Dumbledore really wasn't there to give some kind of explanation to Harry for leaving him like that for so long?

Harry leant further over the banisters. He was very interested in what Snape was doing for the Order of the Phoenix . . .

"Well all are," Sirius begrudgingly agreed, his mind still trying to work out just what exactly that was and when it would start taking place. If he started seeing Snivellus at his meetings, Sirius wasn't going to be a happy camper with his Order much longer.

Trickling down in front of their face was a flesh-colored bit of string, and Harry glanced up to see the twins had the same idea and were trying to listen on the whispers.

"Have I mentioned how brilliant those two are?" James' eyes brightened with excitement as he fully appreciated this fascinating device. "As if I needed any more proof they're set for life with all we've heard so far, this is such a cool idea I'd buy a dozen!"

It did not work though, as just as they were in range Snape and most of the others exited out the door.

Ron muttered that at least Snape didn't eat here as he grudgingly took to the stairs.

"As if there isn't enough filth in that house," Sirius sneered even as his mind tried to boggle Snivellus in his childhood home. Well the two did go hand in hand with how filthy they were.

Hermione hissed another reminder at Harry to keep himself quiet as they reached the landing where the drapes were.

"Is anyone going to explain that?" Lily grumped as it just kept being mentioned.

Mrs. Weasley, Lupin, and Tonks were bolting the door shut after the left members and were turning to head towards the kitchen with the younger ones, when CRASH.

"So that quiet thing didn't seem to work out," Remus blinked in confusion.

It was Tonks, who instantly started apologizing she kept tripping over that umbrella stand from the ground.

"She really is a clumsy little one," James chuckled at the thought.

"Best use that troll's foot ever came to, getting knocked over by that girl," Sirius smirked.

The rest of her words were drowned by a horrible, ear-splitting, blood-curdling screech.

Lily suddenly recoiled into the cushions in shock, and some honest fear as she glanced at her boy and back to the pages with concern. Before anyone could demand, she kept reading anyways.

The curtains behind them had flown open, and the noise was coming from a life size portrait of a horrifying looking woman.

"Oh she didn't," Sirius began, looking almost faint from the overwhelming disgust he could feel at such a thing existing.

Her skin was yellow and stretched tight, with rolling eyes and flyaway black hair, and all along the hall beside her more drapes were flying open to reveal other portraits that began shouting just as loudly.

Mrs. Weasley and Lupin jumped forward at once to try and close the curtains back around the screeching noises and multiple insults.

Remus was almost concerned this didn't seem to be new to him, how many times had this happened? He had a horrible idea who this vile woman was actually a portrait of, as he kept watching Sirius' face as he seemed to be in a living nightmare.

Such things as scum, half-breeds, mutants befouling her father's house!

Tonks was apologizing incessantly behind them, while Mrs. abandoned the large one and began trying to stun the smaller ones instead, while a dark haired man came charging up the stairs behind Harry.

"I think I found Sirius," James whispered to no one as Sirius' mouth was starting to drop open with horror.

He began howling right back at the portrait to shut UP!

The woman's face blanched when she saw him, doubling up her insults to blood traitor, and abomination of her flesh!

Sirius began opening and closing his mouth wordlessly, apparently too appalled for words back, for now.

He roared again for her to shut up, as he and Lupin finally managed to get the curtains closed. Now that her noise had been cut off, the others began silencing as well, as Harry's godfather turned back to face him as greeted him grimly, saying at least now he'd met his mother.

"Chapter's done," Lily sighed as she passed the book to James and took her baby back, all of them still braced for Sirius to crack and some kind of reaction to burst out.

HPHPHPHP

I did not mean to dramatically end with Sirius twice in a row, but I can't resist cutting these chapters off either because I'm a terrible person like that.

*I've had a few people ask me to explain why Lily and James weren't their own Secret Keeper, and I promise I'll bring that up in book seven when Bill mentions he's his own, but for now I couldn't think to make the same rules apply to an empty house that didn't belong to Dumbledore in any way.

#Harry Potter #The Life That Never Lived #HP #fanfiction #reading the books #The Marauders #Jilly #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Lily Potter

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writingwitchly · 6 years ago

Text

A matter of… toe?

Can I ask for a oneshot with Sirius with the convo: B: You got a new lip balm? A: Yeah. It smells like strawberries too! Want to smell? B: Sure! *walks closer to kiss her/him* A: *just as B is few inches away* *pulls out the balm in front, making it cover B's nose* Please!! Love you😘 ~ @miss-nerd0905

Pairing: Sirius Black x reader

Word count: 4,1k

AU: Where the biggest concern sare late Xmas shopping and love. So no war, but still wizards.

A/N: I will not rant about my writing bc it’s Xmas… Vase Darling, I hope you like it!! I wanted this to be vv Christmassy for you!! tbh, I didn’t fully stick to the prompt (this might be veryyy different from what you expected), but the lip balm’s there lol. Have a jolly holiday!

***

Like every December 23rd, you type Lily’s number on the phone, and hum a jolly tune as the dial tone echoes in your ear.

Ever since you’ve moved on your own in London, going late Christmas shopping with your best friend has become a tradition. Together, you go from shop to shop, searching even the most unknown and hidden ones, to get the most perfect gifts for your friends. And, modestly, you nail every single one, to the point where everyone in your circle of Christmas guests call you the “jingle bell rocking team.”

You let your eyes wander on the gray sky outside through the window, and make a mental note of bringing your scarf along, right as a click announces that someone has picked up the call.

“Hello?”

You were going to scream at your friend in excitement to hurry up, but something in the voice that answered makes it… not hers. It’s deep and raucous.

“Lily?”

A crack, then a pause. Some air faintly blows in the mike, and you perceive that the phone must be moving.

“Y/N?” Now, you do recognize Lily’s voice. Although it still sounds off. And nasal.

“Lily!”

“Y/N…” A cough echoes in the background, so the owner of the other voice must still be in proximity.

“Um… Are you okay?” You risk the stupid question, dreading the obvious answer.

“Well,” She tries to laugh, but her lungs seem to resist the act. “Not really. I… James managed to pass me his flu, this year. But don’t worry, I’ll wear some additional coat and we’ll still go, I’ll be there in-”

Her boyfriend protests in the back, but is stopped by another wave of coughing.

An “oh” escapes your throat, longer than you wanted it. “It wouldn’t be wise to go shopping, if you’re in that state, Lils.” For a moment, she seems to hesitate, so you add, “We want to have you guys whole and in perfect shape for the Christmas Eve party.”

You hope your regret isn’t too evident in your tone.

“James wants to make it alive until then, he’s planned a little fly dressed all in red and whi-”

The raucous voice resounds in the background, clearly irritated, and Lily laughs again, “Seems like I’ve ruined the surprise. Don’t tell anyone,” She giggles again. “Um- Sorry to leave you alone on that.”

“Uh?” Imagining James flying, dressed as Santa Claus, has made you forget anything else for a couple of seconds. “Oh, you mean the shopping. Don’t worry,” You’re not sure the last two words sounded very convincing, but you still continue, “I’ll ask someone else to come. Maybe Dorcas.”

“Er- Her and Mary have choir rehearsal for the fundraising,” Lily reminds you.

The sky outside seems to become a little darker.

“Shoot. Remus then.”

“You know that today-”

“He works until late. And Marlene’s at her family’s until tomorrow.” You bite your lip, “Peter?”

“Is it grocery shopping you plan to do?”

Peter and his love for Christmas sweets… He’d stop you at every corner to get a new type of candy.

“Kingsley?”

But you erase that possibility on your own: he isn’t one to walk the whole day around looking for funny socks or the perfect make up set.

You sight in exasperation. This is why it’s always Lily and you who take care of the holiday shopping.

Half as a joke, half out of desperation, you suggest, “Dumbledore?”

There is a loud snort -- which sounded more like a snore -- surely from James, and then Lily mutters something that you can’t hear.

“Lily?”

Shuffling in the background.

“I- James says- He says that you should probably ask Sirius to come.”

“Sirius?” you repeat, not convinced to have heard right. You hope you haven’t.

You’re not 100% sure, but you heard James repeat his mate’s name at the same time as you, and in the exact same surprised tone.

After a second, the man’s laughter is muffled by Lily’s hand on the mike. She tells him something, and he answers back between two sneezes, but you can’t understand anything except for ‘-toe.’

“Toe?”

Lily’s voice comes back, “What?”

“Nothing,” you mutter, this time convinced that you have heard wrong. “So, you guys say, Sirius?”

No, no, no.

“Well, yeah. Usually, he can’t go because he takes care of James’ seasonal flu, but now I can do that…”

“Mmmm…”

“Call him, Y/N, he’s your last hope. I’ll manage to take care of my boyfriend and resist the urge to hex him.”

“Are you sure that Sirius is the right guy to give advice on Muggle shopping?”

And that I won’t make a fool of myself around him?

“I- Uh…” Lily stutters, and pauses a second to hear what James has to say. “Well, if you say so, Potter.” She focuses back on you, “James is positive about it, Y/N,” Which one? The shopping thing, or the fool thing? You’d like to be sure about the latter. “And- I left some soup on the stove, so- we don’t want the house burning down, do we. Gotta go!”

Is it you, or does her voice sound much healthier than before? “Wait, Lily-!”

“We’ll see you guys tomorrow!”

Before she hangs up, James’ voice reaches you, but very confusedly.

Again, did he say toe?

***

Getting Sirius to come shopping with you was easier than you thought. A call, and he apparated on the front step before you had a chance to put your boots on. Even keeping your composure in his presence is revealing itself quite easy, despite the fact that you’re alone with him for the first occasion in a very long time.

The tough stuff is making him follow you through Muggle London without losing him in the crowd.

“What about that?” you ask, eyeing a novel with a bright blue cover. It reads ‘In Love With an Idiot’, and Lily would absolutely wheeze only at the title. “Do you think that James would be offe- Sirius?” You shoot a glance behind your shoulder, only to discover that the man has disappeared again. “Oh, for Merlin’s sake.”

Struggling to hold the multiple packs under your arms, you move to the side of the pedestrian street, and climb on a bench, under the glare of an old lady. Feeling dizzy because of the bright passing scarves and hats, you lose one good minute in finding the mane of black locks that towers above the surrounding passerbys.

Completely obvious of the world around him, the boy’s observing the vitrine of a toy shop, whose sign’s colorful light reflects on his recently shaved cheeks.

“Sirius!” Your cry of frustration scares the glaring old lady away, but at least it’s successful in making your friend come back to reality.

Smirking, Sirius makes his way back to you, pushing people aside with the dozens of bags he carries, and attracting himself many dark looks.

“Afraid I’d leave you, Y/N?”

“No,” you sigh, wondering at what age Sirius has stopped growing up mentally, “Afraid to lose half of the gifts. What were you looking at?”

“Crazy how the Muggles manage to make things move without magic. There was a small train riding on its own!” His grin widens, and you have to tilt your head up to have a good sight of his childish expression.

Godric, he’s so tall. And so handsome.

Shut up, Y/N.

“But it looked quite unrealistic,” he continues, unaware of your internal dialogue, “There was no smoke.”

“It’s normal,” you say, “It works with batteries, a clever way of producing energy without-”

But Sirius craning his neck in direction of another shop stops you mid-sentence. It won’t be long until he goes off your sight again.

Merlin, he’s worse than Peter.

“No, Black, no such thing again. We’re almost done, I don’t plan on spending the night here.”

To prevent him from going away again, and prevent the lost of the dozen of bags he carries, you link an arm with his. And immediately feel your cheeks lighting up.

Thankfully, he looks away. And you badly hope it’s not because he saw you blushing.

“Nice weather,” he mutters, right as you say, “It’s freezing cold.”

Had it happened earlier, you would have laughed and argued, but now a strange tension seems to have fallen on the two of you.

“So er- those… baggeries,” he says hesitantly. “Do Muggles use them only for tiny trains or-”

You smile shyly, relieved by his clumsy attempt at building a conversation, but suddenly find yourself unable to explain anything about bagge- batteries. So you just correct his pronunciation and laugh the question away.

Something in the way Sirius looks and behaves has changed since your Hogwarts years. He is much more mature, and much less of a troublemaker. He hasn’t lost his mischievous sparkle, of course -- not even after death will he --, but he uses it more consciously.

The last time you two have been alone together before today was… three years and a half ago?

During the graduation party, you had found yourself sitting alongside the dance floor, immersed in nostalgic flashes of your school years, when Sirius had come to ask you for a dance. He saw it as only another moment of fun, but something clicked in your head when he grabbed you by the waist.

You saw memories of how you had started liking him in first year, how his sarcastic remarks were actually something you looked forward to get angry at everyday, how his lousy humor and deep sense of loyalty were his most attracting traits, how his hair falling on his eyes made you daydream.

You also saw the fact that you were about to step in the adults’ world, and maybe part ways.

So, drunk in melancholy and honeywine, you were about to tell him what you had hid for seven years in a row.

But, right at that moment, a group of girls passed by, eyeing him shamelessly and giggling like three-years-olds. It was already hard to swallow the fact that you were infatuated with the most popular guy in a range of ten kilometers, but when he asked you, in the middle of the song, if you’d mind if he invited one of them to dance, you lost your breath.

“Of course not,” you answered, surprising yourself at how easy the lie had come out of your mouth.

He had paused, looked at you for a second, and left you alone in the middle of the room to join the group of girls.

At that moment, lost in your feelings, you had seen through his: you were nothing more than a friend to him.

Some heavy darkness had engulfed you, and that had been the last time you’d accepted to be alone with him. Until today.

You have spent three years muffling your heart’s complaints under tons of good will, in the name of your friendship, and in respect for his opinion.

Caught in the worry of not being able to buy your friends their gifts, you did not think twice about it, earlier, but now…

It seems dangerous to walk next to him.

Around you, the street is getting busier of other people who, like you, have opted for a last-minute gift-search. Fake Santas shake their bells, making teens giggle, and women with babies look in adoration at them. A couple of parents hold their children by the hand, dragging them toward a house shop, while the kids clearly feel like stopping in front of a cozy bar. There is a Frank Sinatra song playing somewhere near the place at the end of the way, and the crispy notes of his deep voice fill every corner of the jolly atmosphere.

A draught of winter air caresses your face, making you shiver.

“About time to go, don’t you think?” you suggests, tightening the scarf around your neck.

“Well- De we have everything we need?” Sirius hesitates, so you start recounting the bags,

“We’ve got Marlene’s sweater, Alice’s scented candles, Kingsley’s sock set-”

“A complete,” Sirius interrupts you “collection of Queen’s best hits for James - that sucker better repay me later, this costed like one of my eyes - a maxi sized pot of skittles for Dumbledore, a horrible pair of socks for Frank, and some catnip for Minnie. Remus’-”

“Catnip?” you raise an eyebrow. “Oh please, don’t tell me you’ve-”

“No, I haven’t left the tea behind, we have that too. I just thought it’d be nice to add some catnip,” he finishes, with a big grin stamped across his face, and you roll your eyes.

“I checked everything on the list that Lily and I have made, so we have everything. I think we can stop.”

“Are you sure?” Sirius asks, and you think you discern some deception in his words. Is it really possible that-

But your running imagination must be tricking you.

“Quite sure, I-” You slap a hand on your forehead, attracting a curious look from a seven-years-old passing by. “I was forgetting, as always!” you claim, “We’re not done yet.”

Sirius eyes you, and you see a reflection of the little boy’s expression on his face. And maybe a brighter twinkle in his stare.

“We were forgetting about our own gifts,” you explain, to which he breaks into a snort.

“What’s the plan, then? We choose our gift, and we’ll act as if it’s a surprise on Eve’s dinner?” he asks.

You shake your head. “You choose something for me, I’ll pick something for you. No right to show the other, so-” You realize what you’re going to say, and regret it a bit. “So- It’s better if we part ways now, anyway. I have- I have to meet Mary and Dorcas for a trip to the library,” you say, raising your stare from the floor to look at him straight in the eyes.

Sirius’ lips purse in a thin line, and he nods in understanding.

You slow your pace down, and come to a halt. After a second of uncomfortable pause, you unlink your arm from his, and, for a moment, you face each other, unsure of how to say goodbye.

“See you tomorrow, then,” Sirius half-heartedly says.

“Yeah,” you respond.

The crazy thought of a hug crosses your mind, but you turn on your heels before giving in to the temptation.

You’re already a good fifteen meters away, when his voice flies to you, “It was a nice shopping session, Y/N! Thank you!”

You swing around, and smile before the crowd swallows him.

***

“You tricked me.”

Zipping her golden top, Lily doesn’t deign you of a look. “I don’t see what you’re talking about, darling.”

“Spare me your terrible lying capacity, Lily. Just- Let’s set aside the fact that you’ve broken our tradition, and that I felt treasoned, but-” You run a hand on your face, looking for proper words to make you sound less lame than what you are. “You know that it’s hard for me to be in the same room as him, and you made it more awkward by setting this up.”

“I didn’t s-”

“Oh come on!” you cry, frustrated. “He was ready when I called! And you do sound like you healed very quickly.”

The decorations on the walls and the snow falling outside make Lily and James’ living room look like a gigantic snowball.

“I- Ok, I’m not as sick as I was yesterday morning, but… I th-”

“You have no right to play the matchmaker, Lily... You know very well how much I struggled to make the pain go away!”

“The both of your are so much more mature recently.”

“So? I can’t make him fancy me, if he doesn’t want to! No matter if he gets as mature as Remus.”

“You’re so stubborn, Y/N! If you don’t try, you’ll never get anything!”

From the doorframe, James chuckles, “Take me as an example: I managed to date my fierce redhead after seven years of-”

“James!” you both scream, and the man raises his hands in defence, going back to drinking his medicinal tea. He can barely stand up, wrapped in the tons of coverts that are supposed to protect his fragile health from yet another cold, but he wouldn’t miss your discussion if he got paid for it: you get better than his favorite telenovellas, when you’re in that mood.

“If you ever tell him any of this-” you look at him, menacing.

With his mouth full of the infusion, James mimics somebody promising, and then walks out of the room, in look of a more peaceful environment. He does that every time he senses the storm going toward him.

“All I want is you to be happy, Y/N. I swear you need to be blind not to notice that Sirius likes you.”

“I’m- Please, don’t make it harder, Lily. I appreciate your encouragements, but I worked hard on making these feelings disappear, and-”

“We both know you still like him, Y/N. How many times will I have to tell you.” She rolls her eyes. “I am going to get you two together before this New Year, or I’ll rename myself Gertrudis. And you can’t change my mind.”

With nothing to answer to that, you sigh, only waiting for the moment when you’ll get to call your best friend Gertrudis.

***

“Nothing better than a sweet gathering with friends for Christmas,” Remus says as he pops the bottle of honeywine open. Behind him, the fire cracks in the chimney.

From across the living room, Frank, his arm around Alice’s shoulders, laughs, “You say that every year, Rems.”

Kingsley comes in the scarred boy’s defence, “It’s worth repeating, Longbottom. Anyway, I’d rather hear Remus say it a thousand more times than to have to listen to James’ drunk jokes at the end of the meal.”

The mentioned boy fakes a pout, and Sirius, who’s lying on the floor at his feet, plays with a red cap, that will be useless this year: Flying Santa Potter Show has been moved to next year, because of ‘health issues’, to Peter’s great regret.

“I wonder how you’re still sneezing enough to make that whole building fall down, James, while Lily’s wearing a mini skirt.” The bitterness in your voice can only be understood by James, and by his girlfriend. “From how she sounded on the phone yesterday, she was about to die.”

At those words, Lily gets out of the kitchen, followed by Dorcas, and shoots you a smile, “Onion soup does miracles on me,” she winks, and turns toward the man spread on the carpet, “Sirius, please be a sweetheart, and give Y/N a hand to bring the rest of the starters on the table.”

And here we go again.

Noticing your annoyed groan, Marlene slightly smiles.

“I hope the floor’s clean,” she murmurs to Lily, “Because I have that feeling that we’ll have to pick the starters up from the tiles. What did you do to piss her off?”

“Just wait,” the redhead whispers back, “And you’ll see.”

***

In the background, Celestina Warbeck threatens to drown you all in a cauldron full of hot love.

Sirius is handing you some plastic plates, on which you lay tiny canapes. The only reason that prevents you from dropping them on the floor in vengeance is their very appetizing look. And the fact that you’ve spent hours dressing them.

The soft buzzing of conversation coming from the living room warms your heart: having friends like yours is the highlight of your life. Ruining the mood by confronting romantical feelings to just friendship would be… awfully wrong.

“Any plans for New Year’s Eve, Y/N?”

“Uh?”

Sirius smiles at you from the other side of the table, a plate full of mini croissants in each hand. “Do you have plans for New Year’s Eve?”

You tilt your head. “Just- our usual gathering. Why?”

The man shrugs. “Maybe you wanted to do something different, I don’t know.” And he grins again. “You tell me, if you want some change, okay?”

“Sure.”

Perplex because of his strange request, you come back in the core room of the party a little distracted, sensing that something is weird.

You scan your friends’ faces, but don’t notice anything out of place, so give up your strange presentment.

***

Soon, it’s time to unwrap.

As everyone discovers their gifts -- and shares drunk jokes, much to Kingsley’s dismay -- you step in a corner, holding a pink package in the palm of your hand. The ribbon itself is bigger than the box.

“What is it?” Sirius’ sudden presence behind your back makes you start.

“What do you mean, what is it?” From the corner of your eye, you notice Lily staring at you, and then whispering something in James’ ear. “Didn’t you buy it?”

The man scratches his neck. “I’m not the best at choosing Muggle gifts, let along for a girl. So I asked the salesgirl to give me the cutest item she had and-” He points to the half-unwrapped box in your hands. “I’m about to discover what it is at the same time as you.”

His breath on your neck makes your fingers tremble, but you rip the remnants of colorful paper off the present, and reveal a-

“Lip balm?” you ask, surprised.

Sirius only nods, with half a smile. “Looks like it.”

Carefully, you extract the round container from the wrapping, grinning at how cute it is, indeed. You delicately brush a finger on the surface, and press it to your lips.

“Mmm… It smells like strawberries!”

“Really?” Sirius casually steps closer to you.

“Uh- Want to smell?” you ask, trying to remain composed.

“Sure!”

You were about to pass him the container. You were about to.

But, under your unbelieving stare, Sirius leans forward, until he’s only inches apart from your mouth, and closes his eyes.

A little lamp lights up in your head: that something that was wrong when you exited the kitchen, James’ repeated mention of a ‘toe’ during yesterday’s call… Right above your head, you see it.

It happens all so fast, that you can barely register your own movements.

***

“You what?”

Lily, shivering in her skirt, is gaping at you. She ran after you as soon as you left the apartment in a hurry, and managed to catch you right as you were exiting the building.

“I panicked” You cry, still shocked yourself, and starting to feel like the dumbest person ever, ever, ever.

Your best friend blinks very slowly. “You- Are you doing this to make me lose the bet? Because that’s the only explanation I will accept, Y/N!”

The scene repeats itself endlessly in your mind as the snowflakes sprinkle your hair. Sirius, centimeters away from your lips. The balm suddenly put in front of him, covering his nose. His surprised look. Your run away.

“I don’t know, I-”

“You don’t know?” Her eyes clearly say ‘I’m about to kill you if you don’t give me a good reason for leaving the perfect romantical scene out of the blue’.

“Listen! If I wasn’t sure that he now thinks I’m the most idiotic fool in this world, I’d run back upstairs and kiss him right where I left him!” you scream.

You hope that none of the neighbors had planned to go to bed early.

“Glad you would-” A voice comes from an open window, three floors above. A pair of large glasses is looking down at you, surrounded by all your friend’s faces.

“James! Fucking get inside, don’t make your flu even worse!” shouts Lily.

“- because,” her boyfriend ignores her, “I doubt he’d be happy to have ran down the stairs for nothing!”

Right as he finishes his sentence, the building’s door opens, and lets out a very confused Sirius. Quickly, Lily disappears inside.

The world stops spinning, and you lose the capacity to breathe. Your knees threaten to give up under the weight of the tension that installs itself on your shoulders.

Merlin, if I could die right on the spot.

“I’m sorry if I-” Sirius takes a step forward, but stops right away, and lowers his head. “It was stupid of me, I’m very sorry.”

Seemingly unable to distinguish between what happens in your head, and what you’re actually doing in this moment, you walk toward him.

“What do you mean, you’re sorry?” The temperature of your cheeks climbs up vertiginously, and it costs you an incredible effort to articulate. “I’m the one who ran away.”

And you’re standing in front of him, close enough to see the grey of his eyes reflecting the streetlamp light.

“I like you a lot, you know.” His soft whisper knocks the air out of you. “I think I’ve liked you since Hogwarts, but I was too busy being a jerk to notice it.”

Before the moment has a chance to vanish, like a dream, you reach for his lips with yours, standing on your tiptoes.

As Sirius wraps his arms around your waist and deepens the kiss, you can hear the dance of the snowflakes, chorusing with the beating of your hearts. Your breaths become the same mist, and your bodies tell the same story. The story of two young people in love.

Above your heads, a green branch has been fixed with some tape from a windowsill of the third floor, and is gently being hugged by the breeze.

“Look at those two,” Winter seems to whisper, “Finally kissing under the mistletoe.”

***

Permanent tag list: @miss-nerd0905 @funnymrspotter @daytodayfun @electraheart-isdead @laurenslines @rochelle-the-ravenclaw @wildfire-whizbangs @beaubcxton @reggieblck

Sirius tag list: @glitteryfreakslimeegg @janhvi11

#sirius blacksirius x reader #sirius black fanfiction #sirius black fanfic #sirius black x reader #hp fic #reader insert #marauders #***writingr #VAN. THIS IS ALSO A LIL FOR YOU... THE MISTLETOE MOST OF ALL #can y'all believe i'm even posting this mess #scheduled #kill me bc of that title

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rollercoasterwords · 6 months ago

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hi, good evening or whichever,

so i started reading as the worm moon dies like a year ago, when u started posting i think, then left it at regulus’ interlude because of life i guess, i had a no reading streak, but then i started reading again yesterday and binged it in 6 hours because… yes. it’s fucking great. like, you’re really an amazing writer. and i’ve just come to compliment the shit out of your fic and your choices for this story. i beg your pardon for the intrusion and this long ass ask.

1. the action. as a writer myself it’s so fucking hard to pull of action scenes and fast paced moments. i never got confused on how they went to point A to B, what happened was clear but still rushed and fast paced. especially the chamber of secrets dude. i was at the edge of my seat, almost screaming at the laptop. SO GOOD.

2. james. gosh dang it. you fucking nailed it. such a hero, such a self sacrificial guy. he intrinsically believed he was good, that he would vanquish evil. and then. HE FAILS. it hurt so bad, it felt all so wasteful. and then. HE’S KILLED BY THE SISTER OF SOME MISTAKE HE MADE. he just so carelessly and accidentally killed peter, and then he can do nothing as his sister kills him. it was so fucking good. i love when every sacrifice he made was all for him not to reap any of the fruit. christ. i still get chills. i love him.

3. remus and sirius. like, your characters in general but they killed me. i love that at the start remus was hellbent on the cause, all rationality, every sacrifice was necessary. he even suspected sirius of being to cowardly for the fight but THEN. remus is angry at sirius because he went too far in his sacrifice. how cowardly am i now remus. delicious fucking food.

and yeah i could say many more things but this is your blog and i can go insane in my own head about this fic so i will.

thank you for this story, the work that you put into it, and your generosity for sharing it. i am eagerly waiting for the last two chapters :))

hi!! responding a bit late lol but no need 2 apologize i love long asks <3 so glad ur enjoying the fic!!

action scenes can def be tricky 2 write but they're also so fun <3 helps that i usually have a little movie playing in my head while i write them so i just picture what's happening + describe that lol

& james!! yeah i knew from the beginning that i wanted his character to serve as a sort of deconstruction of the whole 'chosen one' trope in the fic, so i really wanted to write someone who embodied that figure of The Hero Destined for Greatness and have his entire life build up to that & then very decidedly have him fail!! so that ultimately what kills him is sort of like a reflection of himself: not a hero, but a kid seeking vengeance. love a tragedy etc

r&s have been very fun 2 write in this fic as well...i do love a bit of irony & u hit the nail on the head w ur summary lol. i was talking to a friend abt this as well tho to give remus a bit of credit technically sirius DID do more than he strictly had to--like he could have just erased his memory up to the point where he & r got captured by poachers & still think he'd been captured by the order rather than that he was working with them when he went back w his memory erased, bc up to that point he really hadn't been working w the order! but he knew if he only erased the 6 months he was actually w the order he'd be putting a huge target on remus's back; so really the only reason he went back further & completely erased all his time w remus was to protect him. & that's part of why remus is so angry! sirius didn't strictly have to erase literally every part of their relationship, but he did it to protect r...i love when love makes everything worse <3

anyway ty 4 ur message + the kind words etc! <3

#ask #wfrau

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fireeaglespirit · 6 years ago

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@beyond-far-horizons as promised, a short summary on my Orion, he takes a lot after the mythology of the constellation but not completely as you’ll see... I’ve done some homework ^^

I’m writing a larger post for one reply to Vivi concerning this all and it involves much more characters so I summed it up here for yah:

There’s probably some new things here so I’ll try to be slow.

Basically, Orion is a legendary guy who originated an entire dynasty under his name, the Orionis. In the story we have two main characters with this surname: Lyra and Procyon the sibling dragon-slayers and their dad, the King Sirius. There’s also another character with this surname in prequel timeline, called Adhara, so you can see he is quite important as ancestral figure for all these people...

Basically my Orion is the archetypal heroic figure and a legendary human warrior. He was the first king and one of the founders of the kingdom of Novencia. He’s quite the dude!!

So, this is my dude Orion (made on Azalea dolls):

I meant for him to look a bit like an older rugged version of Procyon, he’s more buffed and I kinda imagine him like early 2000′s long haired Hugh Jackman with gray eyes, lmao. The creator is limited but just imagine that.

This is his tale, more or less:

“The legend tells that Orion was a common man born in Vraen’dur, yet he managed to led humanity to their uprise against their dragon lords.

Orion grew up as a Zunak (some sort of dragon servant) and witnessed the heart of Balauria from inside and vowed to protect humanity from the dragon’s cruelty, even if at the cost of his life. It is said that the goddess Astraea heard his prayers and saw his bravery, and she wept… observing from the skies she judged him worth and sent one of her own stars to aid him in his quest… from the fallen star’s material several weapons were forged, powerful like no other and said to even surpass the avian mythical swords according to the lore of Novencia.

Orion managed to fulfill his dream and free his kin, even so, with all that power, he paid a great price to his deed. The legendary warrior died a few days after taking down Antares and namely founding the new city of Lindefal upon the ruins left from their battle. The great dragon managed to rip the hunter’s abdomen with the tip of his enormous tail before going down, like the iconic scorpion of the greek legends… despite the dragon’s size, the wound was minor, but it somehow festered as if he was poisoned and not the best healers of the time could intervene. Fate seeming claimed the hunter, ending the cycle..”

From an old post to Vivi.

Note that the story completely erases any interference from other historical figures on Antares’ downfall, so its certainly not reliable… but Orion is nowadays seen as a savior among Novencia and his descent is widely respected and loved, not without a reason… but its not the complete story.

And this is Antares, the big bad red dragon. His arch-enemy:

First of all, I choose Antares name because he is a huge red dragon.

Just to place you what exactly Novencia means, it was the first human kingdom founded after an uproar against evil dragons (the old empire called Balauria whose ruler was Antares, the eldest, most powerful dragon and asshole in charge). This uproar was historically attributed to Orion as he was a central figure in the war and he died tragically little after that so everyone remembers him as the savior of mankind, but actually tons of people fought in this including some avians and early draconians, such as Galatea (Eltanin’s younger sister) and even dragons such as Antares’ own siblings Polaris and Ishanur were fundamental to the red dragon’s downfall... anyway.

Orion is the spirit of mankind and their pride, no less, this is why people are so proud of him and they love his descent. Antares is the heart of the Scorpio constellation, which was faced by the hunter, Orion, this isn't very different in my story, because my Orion kills Antares but he dies afterwards from a wound in his chest caused by the dragon’s tail striking him slightly as he fell to his death... kinda ironic and scorpion-like, I did as a homage to the ancient tale.. so they kinda destroy each other.

The Scorpio kinda represents the monster defeated by mankind, also which is very interesting, as Antares wasn't originally a monster.

Its impossible to talk about Orion without talking of his arch enemy. I don’t know how much you know about this all, so just for refreshment: my dragon Antares is the elder brother of both Ishanur and Polaris, the black and white dragons respectively.

To sum it up, Antares was magnificent and the most powerful dragon that probably ever existed, he challenged his predecessors with the intent of freeing himself and his siblings, however he eventually got addicted to POWAR and control and he left it corrupt it badly, he was overly proud and unbearable. He basically became which he swore to destroy, a tyrant, and the ancient kingdom they founded became hellish, so someone needed to take him down.

Anyway, random facts about Orion:

Orion was born and raised in Vraen’dur (the old dragon city), I don’t have details but I imagine he was born among the Zunak (dragon servant family) and his father was serving directly under Antares himself so Orion must have had a closer look at the injustice of this system and he certainly had personal beef with the dragon Antares. The zunak are early ‘dragon priests’ but they didn't commune with the dragons power as Antares would never share it so they had just political advantage..

Orion’s lineage is called the Faelany, they could trace back to Astraea herself (the human turned goddess). Eltanin and Galatea belong to this too, they’re likely his cousins. All Faelany have black hair and gray eyes and ability to withstand colder climate easily, they also have the dreamblood (innate ability to access magic and use astral weapons (’weapons forged from stars’)), however this is not very important for now.. just linking this together to the draconian ancestors so you get an idea of the timeline, nowadays this name is mostly forgotten and everyone calls them the ‘Orionis’;

Orion’s legendary astral weapon was named Rigel. It even has the blue color of the real life star but I haven’t decided if it is really an arrow-like weapon as the mythology suggests (you can help me on that);

The astral weapons are thus human weapons unlike the solar/lunar weapons who are always meant for avians and draconians.. I always name them with names of stars belonging to constellations I align with my human people, such as Orion itself;

Rigel and most of his weapons were lost forever and they’re holy grails to the dragon slayers as it was told they have been forged from the heart of a fallen star, and so they’re regarded as one of the few things in existence able to kill or seal a true dragon… even if temporarily (they can be revived but it corrupts them). Dragons are known as creatures of the stars and only similar power can harm them properly;

Orion had a friend called Regulus, the founder of house Leonis and he was king after him. The meritocratic ruling system and laws of Novencia were established by Regulus, actually. One way or another, Orion was a cool guy and he wanted to free humanity from the shackles of slavery, there’s was never an intention to rule or anything but he still ended up as the most famous king ever even if technically he barely ruled at all, Regulus honored his memory afterwards;

He was the one to give the final, decisive blow to Antares. I choose this for several lore reasons but he wasn't alone in that feat;

The Orionis dynastic name was not created by him or Regulus either, it was Adhara, his young kin who crowned herself after his name as Adhara Orionis, giving birth to the tradition of human houses naming themselves after the founders... p.s.: she is something else as she caused a lot of problems for early Novencia which would make Orion cringe, but that’s for another story.

I think this is it! This is all I know about him right now.. I’m writing a complex post on early Novencia so this will cover some of Orion’s story and how he rebelled against Antares and his friendship with Regulus, etc.. I love that guy, he is great!

#orion #novencia #fantasy #lore

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bluerosesburnblue · 6 years ago

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Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Chapter 5, Part 2/2

And now for the actual story of Chapter 5: This is Our Coup de Gravy!

There were... so many Coup de Gravies in this chapter. Too many. It seems like everyone had one

You know, thinking about the Sidequest Roundup last time, I don’t think I’ve ever said how much I love the way Bravely handles obtaining jobs. It would be so easy to just hand you a magic job crystal at different story beats, but no. You have to fight someone using the job you wish to obtain. You have to figure out how it works and overcome its abilities at their most powerful before you can use them against others. It serves as both a neat tutorial for how the job works, since you’re on the receiving end of most of its attacks, and proof that you deserve to have the job since you overcame its user. It feels earned every time you get a new job. It’s kinda like how I feel about the Island Trials in Pokémon Sun and Moon, where you have to fight a difficult boss of a specific elemental type, and once you do you gain the ability to use the strongest move of that type. I dunno, I just really like this trend in games of proving your worth for the skills you gain by besting them in combat

Anyway, let’s head on to the Harena Sea Caves to stop Geist from performing his heist

You could absolutely stab a man with that compass

Oh, come on, Edea. When did you get possessed by Rev? Just now? When we walked in? How long have you secretly been a ghost child?

Heyyy Templar Braev to the rescue! TBH, I’d stop running if Edea’s dad was staring me down

Wait... Geist didn’t recognize him until he said his name? Dude, like, even NPC #67 knows Braev, get with the program!

I wonder if the exploit I used to insta-kill Rev the first time will work again. I also wonder if Geist might be able to undo that

Oh, it’s backstory time. Geist left his ill son because he got called to do an exorcism in a foreign country. I guess he was probably a priest, fitting with the Bestiary tidbit of his name, Grace, being given to those respected by the Orthodoxy. But the girl wasn’t possessed, she was sick. Patient Zero for the Great Plague. And she was taken onto his boat because she wanted to go home one last time. But she was used to spread the disease around. He still blames himself for what happened and wants to make up for both spreading the Plague and his botched attempt to revive his son

Geist may be the bigger problem with his Undo abilities, so I’m gonna focus on him

Rev actively refused to move on because he loved his daddy and didn’t want to go without him. Ohhhhh my god, kiddo, that’s so sweet in a morbid way

Stop being dramatic, Geist. Best timeline rules dictate that we’re keeping you alive. You’re not dead. Relax

Undo HP after Rev possessed someone does work, it just took him until he was about halfway down to start possessing people

This poor kid’s in a tough spot. I don’t expect him to understand the full implications of “rewrite time to fix things.” He just thinks they’re gonna make everything better. He doesn’t understand the Butterfly Effect, and how it’ll erase the future. He just thinks what he’s doing will make his dad happy, so he’s gonna do it

At least we got through to Geist. Changing the past could wipe his son from existence. A second “death,” if you would. And harming Rev is the one thing he could never do

Now that is a cute hug. even if it’s between a man drenched in blood and the ghost of his son possessing armor that’s a full head taller than him

And Geist does know Braev... but on a personal level. Braev was a young priest back when he worked with the Orthodoxy

And there it is. Geist sent a warning back, which allowed them to gather a team of physicians to find a cure. The Plague would have been much worse without that warning, but all Geist can see are the people who died in the first place

And he finally gets some closure. His son doesn’t care that he’s a ghost in a suit of armor, he’s just happy that he can stay with his dad. And his actions did save plenty of people. It’s just that the guilt has been crippling him for years. Now that he’s free, he’s allowing himself to be arrested for crimes of the present, and no longer for assumed crimes of the past

I really appreciate Edea’s speech to Rev here. She talks about how she used to blindly believe everything her dad told her until the events of the last game. It broke her heart to fight him, but ultimately, in doing so, she started to actually understand him instead of just parroting what he said. And when they met again? It was as equals, and their bond was stronger than it had ever been. So she encourages Rev to come up with his own ideas, try to understand his father’s, and then come together as equals. Truly understanding each other, instead of blind faith, because that’s the best way to support your loved ones. And she says this all in front of Braev, too, and the pride he feels towards her is so evident. It’s moments like this that make this game a great sequel. Edea’s come so far from the person she was at the start of the last game, but she’s still not flat in this one. Sure, the focus is more on Yew and Magnolia’s development, while Tiz and Edea had the brunt of it in the last game, but our returning party members are still growing, too, and it’s nice to see them in a mentor role

Phase 2 of Magnolia’s plan: use the compass to lure out the Kaiser. Unfortunately, it seems something’s come up on Kamiizumi’s end of this plan, so now we’re off to Florem Gardens to help

Also, I love how Kamiizumi is so useless with the pendant call. He can’t work the thing at all

On to Florem Gardens. Good to see my old grinding grounds are doing well. I’ll be back for more next chapter!

Aww, they called Edea’s dad with the pendant. It’s really nice to see them getting along in this game

Yew’s call to Norzen didn’t go half as well, though. Turns out Norzen, Braev, and Kamiizumi have a shrubbery group chat

Altair is now telling them about how he and Vega would call each other using cell phones and video phones. The more things change, the more couples keep talking forever on the phone playing “No you hang up”

Chill, Kamiizumi, I’m like, one screen away. We’ll be there in two minutes

Oh dear lord Angelo set up shop in the forest. And Aimee’s here, too. Time to beat her down using her own job I guess

So they think the last timeline was a dream, but Angelo’s memories of Aimee’s dying words spurred them on to being an actual couple. Also, they’re still gonna fight us, because definitely fight people who made you mad in (what you assume are) dreams?

Also, Aimee is literally from Florem Gardens. They met there. That’s why the shop’s there

Some neat tactics going on with them, with Angelo inflicting the party with fire weakness and then having Aimee use Firehead to give all her attacks fire damage. Not much else of note though

And Yew just totally hired them to open up shop in Gathelatio. Not... sure they deserve it, but I guess they were the least attached to the Kaiser’s plan in the first place

...thanks for all the help, Kamiizumi

Oh good lord there’s so many cats here. I see where this is going. We’re gonna have to take on Minette, aren’t we

Kamiizumi’s cat’s here. Forgot that was a plot thread

Hide the compass in Sagitta? With how easily Geist got in? I don’t know if that’s the best plan

Ah, I see. We’re feeding the cats false information to report to Minette, who will lead the Kaiser right into our SP Cannon’s blast. Not a bad plan

Of course Tiz is “all catted out.” He’s been my dedicated Catmancer for a long freaking time

Alright, Elder Sirius. Time to shoot that Skyhold out of the sky

I appreciate Yew’s conviction in stopping Denys. He may be his brother, but he’s also gone (or about to go) too far. And I’m sure Yew feels responsible for it, since this all started after Denys lost his hand due to Yew’s mistake

Making Yew be the one to fire the cannon seems a BIT cruel to me, though

I can’t believe that plan actually worked

Minette’s gonna buy time for Denys, Janne, and Nikolai to escape, and they’re all treating it like she’s gonna die, but guys. We haven’t killed a single person this timeline. We have fought six of your people and the worst they got is prison! You really think we’re gonna kill the kid and only the kid?

You can see Denys actively fighting with his Big Brother Instinct to protect the kid. But he renounced that to be the Kaiser. Best he can do now is send the lion with her, just in case

Please. Child. Just stop the cat puns. You keep making it so tempting to actually kill you

Okay, I know this kid was experimented on and crossed with cat DNA or something equally ridiculous, but her backstory and mannerisms REALLY say “I’m a cat who was turned into a human”

She became a cat to... please her mom? What? Why would her mom be upset her daughter WASN’T a cat? Did the experiment fail? Or did she just have a kid and go “you know, I should’ve just adopted a cat instead”

Holy shit, I was gonna say “not a hard fight” but then Minette got off a lucky full-party Catnap+RIP combo and totally wiped the team

Definitely sticking a Clothespin on Yew this time

I probably went about that in the dumbest way possible, but we beat her

Child! I will take you in if you just! Stop! The cat puns! That’s it! That’s all I ask of you! Maybe people are abandoning you because every time you open your mouth you make yourself as insufferable as possible!

Oh no Kamiizumi just adopted her. Dude... dude please break her of the cat pun habit

Hey! She’s not a cat! She’s a human who thinks she’s a cat! Stop telling her she can sleep in front of the fire all day every day! How about you freaking rehabilitate the kid and then send her to school like Gho

You are adopting a daughter, not a pet

Minette is one of the worst characters in this whole series. I can’t even muster any sympathy for her because all she is is a GIMMICK with a cute face. She isn’t even a character! She’s just the human embodiment of cat puns! And I hate it!

So Norzen, Rifa, and Pudgius just enchanted a crystal to trap the Skyhold. Guess we’re storming it again already, huh? I’ve gotta say, after the Empire being constantly one step ahead last timeline, it’s nice to be the ones in control for a change

And Norzen knew Minette’s mom. He was working to make a cure for the Plague. It killed so many that it mostly died down, but they saw that it was going to make a comeback, even worse than before. Minette’s mom noticed that no cat got infected, so she used them as the base for her vaccine, and tested it on herself. And died. But not before giving the vaccine to Minette, who the scientists took in and studied, and in doing so found the cure they needed to stop the Plague for good. Nope. Still feel nothing for Minette. This is a half-assed justification for making a Walking Gimmick. Minette could be deleted from existence and I would not care and it is entirely to do with the fact that her entire character is Cats™ and Abandonment Issues™ with no further substance

Back to the Skyhold. The big diamond in the center is looking quite a bit worse for wear now that the SP cannon landed a direct hit on it

I hate this stupid dungeon and its useless map that does a really awful job of showing how platforms overlap

On the way back to where we fought Anne. Everyone’s treating this as a point of no return, but I’ve gotta wonder about that considering there’s three jobs, one summon, and several more Catmancy skills left in locations that I can’t access yet

“Regrets... are like rutabagas - far better overcooked than left untouched in the pantry.” Altair I have never eaten a rutabaga in my life, your metaphor is lost on me

Oh, we’re finally going to hear about Vega. Good, I was looking for a reason to be invested in Altair and his story

Wait... Altair’s from the Celestial Realm? Does that make him a Celestial? Does he know the Celestial/Player from the first game (and probably also this one, since I’m assuming it’s the same Celestial guiding the party both times)? ...is he aware that I’ve been making fun of his metaphors and the way he pronounces his name for a while now?

Vega was his wife. A great Calamity befell the Celestial Realm, so they planned to take a ship and flee to Luxendarc... but Vega never made it to the ship. Altair didn’t realize she wasn’t onboard until after the ship had left on its one-way trip to another dimension. He doesn’t say it outright, but he probably doesn’t even know why she never made it or if she’s even alive anymore. He never said goodbye to his wife. He wasn’t expecting to need to. The last time he saw her was never supposed to be the last

Since a female voice narrates the ends of chapters, and what seems to be Altair’s theme plays there, I can only assume that that’s Vega. I don’t think she’s THE Celestial that guides the party, but I do wonder if the two know each other and The Celestial/Player is showing her what they’re seeing. Or maybe just intercepting messages from her

Yeah, I’m sure this is a “final” battle and your backstory is entirely irrelevant, Altair. The Kaiser is definitely the Big Bad, just like Braev was last game. Definitely

So I have Magnolia as a Black Mage and the brim of her hat is just barely covering her eyes. It almost looks like she’s trying to hide tears behind it, which is especially noticeable since she had the biggest reaction to Altair’s story

“With the right dressing, a simple piece of lettuce can become a salad.” Have you ever even eaten a salad before because it takes more than one piece of lettuce to make those. Otherwise it’s just lettuce with some sauce on it

Altair, we both ship Yew/Magnolia, but maybe lay off the kid a little? I know your romance went poorly, but I have no intention of letting these kids die. That only ever happens accidentally

“Give Tiz the pendant. ...I believe he has something to tell someone.” Agnès probably already knows... but I think they both need to hear it spoken. Two years can be a painfully long time to wait just to hear someone say “I love you, too.”

And all I can think of during this is poor Edea. I think she loves Alternis... but as a brother. The Alternis that she’s in love with, the one who grew and changed, the one she shared an adventure with, who she came to care for beyond their shared history but as an equal... well as far as she knows he isn’t in this dimension anymore. She’s already had her Altair/Vega situation, a goodbye that never was. Of course, if my theory’s right and one of the Alternises running around is Ringabel, then she may have another chance. But as for now... she just has to sit here listening to her new family get resolutions that have been lost to her

So I did end up grinding out the Bestiary entries for Skyhold just on the off-chance it was a one-time location and let me just say: Ranger Edea is terrifyingly strong and I love her

Dammit, Denys, just stay still so I can fight you, rip your sword out of your robot hand, and then steal your job!

Oh fuck OFF, Janne!

“In the end, you understood me. You’re a true friend, Yew.” Yeah, he’s a much better friend to you than you are to him. It’s a two-way street! So kindly take that newfound modicum of introspection and use it for something, you brat

So it’s a Janne/Nikolai dual boss as they cover Denys’s escape. My team’s level 65 and pretty damn tough at the moment, though. Nikolai’s gonna have a hell of a time trying to out-heal Tiz’s Exorcism HP Undos and Janne’s barely gonna make a dent with Yew’s Spellcraft-boosted Healing

“Now isn’t the time to wallow in sentiment!” Sure, Janne. “Stop thinking about the past!” Yep. Sure. You fucking hypocrite

Whaaaaaaat the fuck was that rumbling. What did you three idiots doooooo!?

Don’t know why Nikolai thought using Sacrifice was a good idea. Janne’s really useless on his own

Guys. We haven’t killed anyone this timeline. Stop being dramatic! We aren’t going to kill you. ...but you are going to prison for Mook #4′s death, Janne. You brought that one on yourself

“Only death can stop us” or some really good chains, you know

Atta boy, Yew. Don’t compromise your own morals for these idiots

“You can still change the world without destroying the past!” And that’s the crux of this whole game, isn’t it? What’s done is done. We’d all like to go back and change things. It seems like it would be so easy to erase the mistakes of our lives... but things aren’t that simple. How much good can come of the bad? If the Plague hadn’t happened, a cure never would have been developed, and the technologies and medicine that arose from it can be used to great benefit in the future, and so on. This is a game about accepting the bad and moving on. Working not to undo your mistakes, but fix them and be better the next time similar situations arise. And as someone who struggles a lot with self-blame, that’s really powerful to me

“But... what about my revenge!?” Oh. MY GOD!!! I get that you’re 16 and moral complexity seems to fly right over your head, Janne, but have you listened to nothing this entire game!? I actually hate you more than Minette, and she makes insufferable cats puns every. Fucking. Sentence. I swear you two are the worst goddamn characters in this game. Give. It. A. REST

Oh, so Janne’s motives are entirely selfish, too. Because according to him, he’s not looking to see his family again. He’s not looking to bring back his parents because he loves them and thinks they deserved better. No, he just wants to undo the years of emotional suffering and living on the streets he had to go through in the aftermath, and he’s taking it out on everybody else

God, fuck, why do people like this character!? Is it because he falls into the “tortured-but-physically-attractive character with a tragic backstory, so even if they do awful things they’re sympathetic so I can change them (or have the other participant in a ship with them do so)” archetype? Because fuck that archetype, it’s been romanticized to hell and back and I have literally always hated it. I’m not shy about my distaste for Kylo Ren in the new Star Wars films, a certain villain from Pokémon Sun and Moon, Merula Snyde in Hogwarts Mystery, and I’m certainly not shy about my distaste for Janne Balestra, the most self-centered brat in existence still trying to pretend that just having a tragic backstory somehow justifies all of the shitty things he’s done in this game, with no effort to make amends on his part. People don’t deserve to get off with no consequences like that!

“What am I supposed to do!?” How about you grow the fuck up, listen to what we’ve been telling you this whole game, and stop taking your frustrations out on everybody! Get a therapist! Open up an orphanage or something so other kids don’t end up on the street like you! You’re the one who decided that rewriting time and killing anyone with even the slightest connection to the Balestra deaths was the way to handle this. Honestly, your lack of direction is not our problem to fix now that that’s out the window. The only thing Yew’s obligated to make right is his relationship with Denys

Oh, nice! Yew’s gonna hand control of the Crystalguard from House Geneolgia to the Orthodoxy. That won’t stop corruption entirely, but I’m sure Agnès will make good use of being able to control the knights sworn to protect her and her faith

And the other Houses in control of the guard are in agreement. Enough of using the Crystalguard as a tool against each other, now we’re letting Agnès decide. One, unified voice in the organization, instead of the warring factions it’s been made of

And Braev, Goodman, Norzen, and Lotus will help out, as counterbablances to Agnès, representing the needs of the four Continents (with Crystals on them. Sucks to be Caldisla, I guess)

Yew’s finally figured out who he is and what he wants out of life. He’s not just the kid following Crystalguard orders or filling in for Denys out of a sense of duty. He’s seen the corruption and he’s going to work to change it. To make the organization he was told was his to inherit into something worth inheriting. Something to be proud of. And now, he’s not doing it alone. He sounds just like a certain blonde in our party...

And Nikolai and Janne agree to help us... without even the slightest hint of an apology from Janne. Fuck you, just leave the story already

And Denys’s in the Geneolgia mausoleums beneath Gathelatio. Time to kick some sense into big bro’s ass while surrounded by the corpses of our ancestors?

I can’t help but notice the game’s letting me walk around but still hasn’t addressed the shaking during the fight. I get the feeling there’s another boss coming and it isn’t Denys

I got off Skyhold and literally nothing happened, but I don’t think that’s the end of the rumble shenanigans

Ah, making use of that tiny door next to Yew’s house. Down into the Crypts we go!

I love how Alfred’s first thought upon seeing Nikolai and Janne is “Hey, it’s you jerks who betrayed Yew! Get lost!”

And we didn’t even need Alfred, because Denys left the door open instead of locking it behind him, as would be smart. Though in his defense, the only people he’d want to stop could just use Alfred’s key, and Denys doesn’t seem like he wants Alfred to know who he is just yet so it’s safer to leave his old butler alone than sneak in and grab the key

Denys has the other key because he told Alfred he wanted to lay flowers on his mother’s grave before he was exiled. So even if her son wasn’t the favored heir of House Geneolgia, they still had the decency to bury her with the rest of the family

I love how Alfred really loves the Geneolgia kids, more than even their father. He doesn’t want to believe that Denys is the Kaiser, it seems so out of character for the boy he knew, but when it’s Yew saying it... how could he not believe?

No, Yew, let Nikolai and Janne turn themselves in to the police. I know you still hold some affection for them (despite how much Janne doesn’t deserve it) but they totally committed some atrocious crimes and need to atone in some way

“A crime is a crime. How can we hope to reform others if we cannot admit our own trespasses?” And that, right there, is why I have sympathy for Nikolai and not Janne. He’s willing to admit he did wrong, and willing to attempt to make it right. Janne may be going along with him, but he still hasn’t apologized and is throwing a minor fit about explaining himself. His behavior is beyond unsympathetic, no matter what his backstory is, and his “reformation” comes across more like he’s just doing it to please Nikolai. Like when a child begrudgingly apologizes because their parents told them to, but you can hear it in their voice that they don’t mean it

The Geneolgia Crypts. The location of the final summon, one of two remaining places with Catmancy skills... and the last story-mandated asterisk. Time to find Denys

I know it plays in a lot of locations, but I love the music in the Crypts, “Dungeon of the Nature.” It’s somber, but grand. Soft, not bombastic, but still powerful. It’s great, I’d recommend people look it up if they haven’t heard it yet

Why are there instant-kill rabbits in here

Also can’t help noticing that the other enemy types are female mummies and ghost knights. Doesn’t seem like the Geneolgia family is really at rest, does it?

So it’s a maze, where I have to light each crystal to unlock the door, huh? Not too complicated

Susano-o Obtained! He’s been changed from non-elemental to Dark, but it’s otherwise our same old friend from Default

I find it bizarre that Amaterasu is listed after Susano-o, despite unlocking earlier. I suppose most people would run into Susano-o first, since there’s literally nothing out by Amaterasu’s anchorite and no reason to go there

I also appreciate that the two “strongest” summons are named after sibling gods from Shinto mythology, though I do wish there was a Tsukuyomi to go with them, considering the abundant moon symbolism in this game

Ah, is Yew’s fear of ghosts from being down here as a kid? He says he came down to bury his father and pay his respects, but he doesn’t remember it well because he tried to forget. He didn’t want to remember how lonely his childhood was because of the emotional divide between Denys and his mother, Yew and his mother, and their father. Going off to school was his first taste of freedom

“It’s... perfect.” God, can we give Michael Sinterniklaas an award for just the delivery of that line?

Hey, Denys. Fancy seeing you in what is clearly a boss room. No hard feelings for what comes next, yeah?

OH MY GOD I put my 3DS down and the screen went black for two seconds. Scared the hell out of me I thought I was gonna have to play part of that over again

I can just leave the room. The stairs are right there. The game is letting me walk right past him and go... but that won’t solve anything, will it?

We stand at the grave of Foundar Geneolgia. Captain of the Crystalguard, first leader of the Three Cavaliers... and completely corrupt beyond belief, using his position to take out personal enemies by accusing them of being enemies of the Orthodoxy, all to keep his own power. Sometimes to gain more

This was the standard of House Geneolgia. Those who deviated, who tried to be better... what remains are unmarked gravestones. Still here, within the family, but shunned and forgotten. Even in death. Denied the opportunity to be remembered by the lives they touched and shackled by the legacy of a bloodline they were unable to escape. Lost to an underground cavern for eternity.

And that’s his goal. Denys, disgusted by his ancestors and bearing the weight of a bloodline he never asked for, planned to travel back in time and kill Foundar, erasing the entire Geneolgia line and their sins with it

He’s so caught up in his plan that he’s failed to see something that I think Yew’s already figured out: these brothers are the only members of the Geneolgia family left. They aren’t beholden to the laws of the family anymore, because who will enforce them? Each other? There’s no guarantee someone worse won’t spring up in the place of Foundar, but Yew and Denys together can take what their bloodline has been given and turn it into something worthwhile. Erasing the past is a gamble on a brighter present. Working together is a guarantee of a brighter future

*squints* There’s a single dead pixel on my screen right in the middle of Denys’s face right now and it’s driving me nuts

“So you, too, would slumber in an unmarked grave. We are more alike than I thought...” And you always have been. If you’d spoken openly to your brother, you would have noticed who he is deep in his heart. Someone who doesn’t care for money or power, who takes in and cares for others as if they were family, an idealist who wants nothing more than a better world for those they care for, even at the cost of their own life... You two make quite a pair.

This whole conflict probably could have been avoided if these two had the chance to be closer as kids. If Denys had a single family member to confide in... If Yew had someone to guide him away from the indoctrination of their father... The tragedy is that the only times they’ve been able to speak freely to each other... have been at the end of this game

It’s just a shame Denys wants to fight. He wants to be proven wrong, not just have his baby brother spout nice platitudes at him

Still, I warned this chinstrap-beard-sporting jackass. I’m going to RIP. THAT. SWORD. OUT. OF. HIS. DUMB. METAL. HAND!

(By which I mean I’m stealing the Chaos Blade, the only missable item as far as I’m aware, from him. I was just being dramatic about it so I wouldn’t forget)

No pretense of fighting “The Kaiser,” an untouchable force of nature. Now he’s just Denys. A brother lost to his own guilt. Flawed, human, and in need of a guiding hand to bring him towards a redemption I think he’s willing to start

Aaaaaand of course he has reraise

I mean... that’s a decent argument. If Denys goes back to change the past, he actually ruins the future because he’s given Anne access to the Holy Pillar

And now the party gets the Kaiser job. Almost like a spiritual relinquishing of the role from Denys

I assumed we’d be taking Denys home to rest. Can’t help but notice we took his coat, though. Really shows off the fact that Yew cut off his entire right arm, not just his hand

Denys was always going to try and make a martyr of himself. It didn’t matter what he did, how bad his actions were, his final act, erasing himself from existence, was supposed to be his atonement. Now what does he do, living with the things he’s done and no easy end to absolve him of it?

It’s like the game thought I wouldn’t recognize Agnès‘s voice immediately

Agnès is willing to give him the chance to atone. Not forgive him outright, but a chance to earn that forgiveness. And why wouldn’t she? Agnès was once the puppet of a fairy herself, nearly driving the world to ruin with the goal of its salvation. Killing countless Duchy soldiers (and I know the game’s gonna act like the random encounter soldiers didn’t exist, but they did) in the name of her cause. Denys really is in the same position as Tiz, Agnès, Edea, and Ringabel were just two years ago

Denys really thinks all of his companions are dead, huh? “The only mercy I need is a quick death, so I may apologize face-to-face.” “Then come with me to the Sanctum.” We’re just gonna arrange a prison meet-and-greet with the other Glanz Empire higher-ups that we didn’t kill, just stuck in prison, and Denys’s gonna have a change of heart and join us, I can already see it coming

According to the Bestiary, Denys met Anne when the Great Chasm “disappeared” (where... did it go?), captured the Ba’al Diamante and seized the asterisks left behind in the crater, and then created the Skyhold using Diamante. So the Ba’al that the Sagitta thought they were firing on, and the one sealed within... is Diamante, which I thought was just the official name for the Skyhold when it appeared on the location intro card. I... I think I know what those rumbles from before may have been

Yew makes sure to note that everything he wrote was told to him by Denys, presumably off-screen. And there’s a little note that makes a similar point to what I did during the fight: his Bestiary entry is listed as Denys Geneolgia, not Kaiser Oblivion, because should anything happen, Yew wants him to be remembered not as the leader of the Glanz Empire, but as his beloved brother

“To meet those who sacrificed themselves for your cause... This is what you truly wish? Then let it be done!” I see you trying to be dramatic, Agnès, but let’s cut the man a break, yeah? Faking him out like this is just a bit mean. The look on his face is gonna be great, though

Yup! And Minette even got adopted with no jail time. Isn’t that great?

“I-I do not deserve...” Maybe not forgiveness, but no one has given you a second chance to atone yet. It’s about time we do

Okay, I know Braev was cutting his restraints, but it still looked like he slashed Denys across the back. Could you imagine if he had! “Grand Marshall! I meant cut his restraints!” “Oh. OH. Oh no. My apologies. I thought this was going somewhere else! Oh dear... someone call a healer! Nikolai!”

Family dinner! FAMILY DINNER! FAMILY DINNEEEEEER! Aw man, get in here, Agnès! It’s the whole dang team! Magnolia, Tiz, Edea, Yew, and Agnès all sharing some down time together is what I live for!

Aaaaaaand Agnès made it sad by asking if Magnolia’s gonna go home to the Moon when her work is done. Now Yew’s sad. And Magnolia’s sad

Denys, get in here! If the team’s willing to forgive and forget, well, I’ve been willing to with you for a while! Family dinner! Estranged older brothers and adoptive extradimensional aunts and all!

I am desperately in need of a reconciliation hug between Denys and Yew right now

“What do you say we go for a bath, Brother?” Or... you can make it weird, Yew. I feel like that’s a few steps past a hug

Just two bros chillin’ in a hot spring, five feet apart ‘cause they’re estranged siblings awkwardly attempting to reconnect

This is good for both of them, really. Just finally getting to chat it out, maybe air some grievances...

Denys never blamed Yew for what happened with his arm. It actually gave him the perfect opportunity to walk out on their father and never look back. One of his big regrets was that he never got to tell Yew that before he was forced to leave. He’s just glad they even have the opportunity to talk again. That he had the opportunity to finally tell his brother that he doesn’t have to bear that weight anymore

And now he’s giving relationship advice to his little bro... awww, that’s sweet, but I gotta wonder what Denys actually knows about romance. Like... at all

Denys’s just sitting here like “Oh this dense kid. It’s so obvious they belong together. Come on, Yew, confess. That’s gonna be my new sister-in-law, I can tell.”

Nothing like a GIANT FUCKING DEATH LASER IN THE SKY to ruin your nice chat with your brother, huh!?

Dammit, I knew Anne was suspiciously absent and yet I still overlooked her. I bet she used Sylvie to overload the Crystals and form the Holy Pillar

MMMMMMmmmmm Skyhold again. I’ve got... a bad feeling about what’s going to happen to Denys. Please don’t go Redemption Equals Death, please don’t go Redemption Equals Death he has so much potential...

Yew’s apologizing to Magnolia because she helped him repair his relationship with Denys, but he still hasn’t returned the favor in helping her defeat the Ba’al and save the Moon. God, I love this kid’s sense of honor

Oh, hey, confirmation that the Moon and Appleberry are still okay. At least until Anne does something again

I knew it. The Matriarch and Sylvie are here

Anne you fairy fuck get over here! I know you’re aware of my existence, you’re the one who asked me to play the original game!

“You’re here already? Not bad! You beat my estimate by fourteen minutes.” Not bad considering I took a day’s break before getting here. That estimate must have been pretty generous

She pulled an Airy on Sylvie and the Matriarch and convinced them to help her. Where the Fairy Flies, am I right?

“Denied!” Denys you ham this is supposed to be serious

Oh... I forgot that Anne sent Denys to the future instead of the past and he still remembers that

You didn’t realize she sent you to the wrong time!? How do you not notice the technology and architecture being way off?

She had no intention of sending him to the past. Of course not. Why would Airy’s sister have you invalidate all the work she had the player/Celestial do last game?

...Master?

Here we go. The freed Diamante, Ba’al that destroyed the Moon civilizations. And Magnolia’s freaking out, but her new family won’t have it! We avenge her people together!

Diamante looks freaking awesome. A diamond unicorn with a skeleton rider, with butterflies in her long, teal hair and shredded wings for arms.

And don’t think I haven’t noticed the background. A woman with a ponytail kneeling behind a chain-link fence, reaching her left hand out towards what appears to be a rocket ship flying off into the distance. The ring on her finger glinting every once in a while

A married woman left behind, longing to reach a ship... Vega...

Diamante, the diamond ring

Health doesn’t look too bad, but I’m worried about the 100% Mirror. Seems it even reflects physical attacks

It’s gone down to 60% after a round of attacks. Maybe I’ve just got to wear its shield down

It did... something to Tiz that prevents him from doing anything besides Default and Summon and brings its Mirror up for one more hit every turn, but this seems manageable. Turns out attack items count as hits to bring it down, so if I toss one out per turn it can’t do anything

I love the effect of the diamonds on the unicorn breaking away to reveal an electric interior

Reraise was to be expected at this point

They only make you fight it twice and it still revives at the end, but I think it’s poetic that I beat it while I had Magnolia’s theme playing thanks to her special being the second-to-last hit on it

Do what you did to the Moon? “Let the cleansing fires cover the world, and burn for three days and three nights!” Why so specific, Anne? It sounds like you’re quoting a Bible verse at me

You sound ridiculous, Anne. Tone the formality down a peg

“Yes, it is time I atone for my sins.” Denys don’t you fucking dare

Yew, do not give him the compass.

You are not taking this Ba’al to the end of time, young man! No! You aren’t allowed to pull a Redemption Equals Death on me

“I trust you. My sacrifice will not be in vain.” You don’t have to do this! I can keep this boss fight going forever! We weren’t even struggling! I’ve got the resources to keep trying!

Denys, please. You could be Party Member #5. You could have a well-written, non-copout redemption arc. Let’s think about this

God...

...dammit.

#bravely default #bravely second #liz liveblogs bravely second

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fandom-imaginees · 7 years ago

Text

Everything I Gave You - Young!Sirius Black Imagine

Fandom: Harry Potter - Marauders Era

Pairing: Sirius x Reader (ft. James Potter)

~Third person’s POV~

The day Y/N found out that her, now ex, boyfriend James Potter had cheated on her with Lilly Evans, she had left him that moment. He tried to get her to forgive him but she never had, they were in love and he had betrayed her and she could never forgive that. James realized his mistake and tried everything to get back together with her...but she never wanted.

A year has passed since Y/N and James broke up, and with the help of her friends Y/N managed to get over James. She actually fell in love again. Her heart now belongs to someone else, and that someone is Sirius Black. Sirius was there for Y/N since day one, they were best friends from first year in Hogwarts, and now that their seventh year has arrived, they became something more. Sirius always loved Y/N, he was there for her when no one else was, and his heart broke when he found out what happened to Y/N. He was very angry at James for what he did. And as some months passed Y/N realized that Sirius was always the one for her, the one who loved her with his whole heart and who treated her like princess, not James.

Y/N sits in the common room alone, reading a book. Everyone else is at the quidditch game Slytherin vs Ravenclaw. Sirius would usually stay with her but he is in detention for starting food fight the other day. Suddenly someone walks into the common room and Y/N looks up from her book to look into the way too familiar eyes.

“Do you remember how we met?” James asks Y/N with a small smile on his face. She takes a deep breath and closes her book.

“I can’t do this now, James.” She replies and starts to head towards the stairs but his voice stops her.

“You ran into me in the hallway when you were hurrying to class in the first year. That’s also exactly the same way you left me, except you ran from me..not into me..Do you remember, or did you forget?” James speaks, his voice low and full of sadness and regret.

“I remember.” Y/N whispers taking one more look at him with tears in her eyes before running up the stairs to her dorm.

Do you remember Or did you forget How you left me Or how we met

Y/N went into Sirius’ dorm because she was feeling lonely and she was lucky that he was there alone. Soon two teenagers in love took most of their clothes off, leaving them both in their underwear. Suddenly James opened the door and saw Sirius kissing Y/N on her neck, her arms on his chest and his hands on her hips. The couple jumped away from each other and Y/N shrieked quickly taking the blanket to cover her bear body.

“What the fuck?!” James and Sirius yelled at each other at the same time.

“Mate get the fuck out!” Sirius yelled at James, putting on his trousers.

“Do you have to do that in our dorm? She was my girlfriend first!” James says pointing his finger at Sirius.

“WAS! Now she’s mine! You treated her like shit and I treat her as the princess she is, she deserves someone who will love her with a whole heart and not someone who will go around the corner and cheat!” Sirius defends himself and Y/N. James opens his mouth to shout back but Y/N stops them both before they kill each other.

“Stop! I’m gonna go.” Y/N says as she puts her shirt and shorts back on, fixing her hair in the end, “And Sirius is right, he does treat me as a princess, and he truly loves me.”

“I love you as well.” James says quietly.

“You should’ve thought about that before you broke my heart.” Y/N replies coldly, all she ever did was love him and in return he broke her. By cheating on her he gave her a complex, she thought she wasn’t good enough, since then she thought she was never good enough for anything until Sirius convinced her otherwise and showed her real love. Yes, Y/N does feel bad about James but he should’ve realized sooner that he loved her, not when he lost her, “I’ll see you later.” She turns to Sirius and after that leaves, a small tears escaping her eyes.

Walk through the doorway Just to find you there As he’s kissing your neck In your underwear

James sits in the courtyard thinking about Y/N and Y/N sits on the other end of it thinking about Sirius. Both of them have free periods and James is leaning on a trunk of a tree looking at Y/N across the courtyard and thinking about the days when they were together and happy.

On the other end, Y/N is doing her homework to kill some time before Sirius joins her, but she’s not managing to do very much because a long, black haired boy is all over her brain. She’s not aware of the eyes watching her from afar. She fell for Sirius even more when he defend her from James, after she heard him say those words she knew she has found the one.

James, however, has lost his one. He can’t get Y/N out of his mind, he knows it’s completely his fault that she broke up with him. He should have never hooked up with Lilly, she was a mistake, a huge one which cost him the love of his life. He’s blaming himself for everything, which is right because he was the reason they broke up. He’s never going to get over her, Y/N could love like no one in the world, and now only Sirius is getting the greatest love in the world, the purest one.

After the class ended Sirius run to Y/N and she got up to hug him. He picks her up and twirls her around, both of them laughing, happiness and love written on their faces. James watches from afar as they kiss, puring all their love and time apart into the kiss. Boy with glasses closes his eyes and leans his head back against the tree, not bearing to watch them together as he sits there broken.

I’m busy missing you While you’re busy Missing someone else You’re out there kissing him And I’m sitting here Blaming myself

Y/N and Sirius sit together in the common room, cuddled up by the fire. He has his arms wrapped around the girls body and she has her head leaned on his shoulder. Every now and then he kisses her temple with a smile, he couldn’t be happier and more grateful that she is his, and he intended to keep it that way.

In the meanwhile James is lying in his bed in the Marauders dorm throwing his golden snitch. He’s thinking that if only he could convince himself that Y/N left him on the side for nothing, with no reason, that then it would be a tad bit easier.

She’s giving Sirius everything that James once used to give to her. She’s giving him bear hugs.

Ohh tell me why (why) This ain’t the truth (truth) You left me on the side And gave him Everything I gave you

She’s giving him smiles whenever she sees the long haired boy.

Gave him everything I gave you

She’s giving him kisses full of love.

Gave him everything I gave you

She’s giving him her hand.

Gave him everything I gave you

She’s giving him all I love you’s.

Gave him everything I gave you

She’s giving him to brush her hair.

Gave him everything I gave you

James used to call Y/N’s name all the time whenever he saw her. She just pretended not to hear him and sped up her walk. She ignored them all, there was no turning back from what he did. A betrayal like that could not be forgiven. She loved him and he payed her back like that.

I gave attention Didn’t return my call Oh did I mention You just erased them all

Y/N saw James in the Great Hall looking all messy and tired. Suddenly some flashbacks stared attacking her brain. She just closed her eyes and for once let those memories attack her, for the last time. She remembered how she used to jump on his bed until he woke up. How he sneaked up on her and picked her up and started running around with her on his shoulder. She remembered how he used to look at her before they stepped into the relationship. Then she realized one thing, there were no butterflies in her stomach. Every time she used to think about all these happy memories she got butterflies, but not this time.

She opened her eyes with a huge smile on her face and turned to Sirius. She grabbed his face and kissed him so deeply and passionately that he was left in shock after she pulled away.

“W-what was that for?” Sirius asked stunned.

“I love you.” Y/N replied with a sparkle of love in her eyes.

“I love you too.” Sirius said back with a lovestruck smile on his face. And indeed it was, that memories attacked Y/N for the last time that day.

Showed you places Then you closed your eyes You get no butterflies

James is thinking about all the things Y/N used to like when they were together. He knows he’s only making it harder for himself but he can’t get her out of his mind. At least there’s some peace in the library to think about Y/N in silence. And then his eyes lands on her perfect figure, she’s looking for a book with a small smile on her face.

While Y/N searches for a book she can’t stop thinking about Sirius and how she made her feel like a complete queen, there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for her. And just as she was thinking about her boyfriend he wraps his arms around her from behind, burring his nose in her hair. She turns around and wraps her arms around his neck. He smiles back at her kissing her nose softly. She giggles making Sirius’ heart flutter, as well as James’. The couple lock their lips together as James once again blames himself for loosing the best thing in his life.

I’m busy missing you While you’re busy Missing someone else You’re out there kissing him And I’m sitting here Blaming myself

James wishes he could turn back time and make Y/N his again. Sirius is the luckiest guy in the entire universe. Y/N keeps giving Sirius everything that James once used to give to her, at least that’s what James is trying to convince himself.

Ohh tell me why (why) This ain’t the truth (truth) You left me on the side And gave him Everything I gave you

Y/N is giving Sirius her attention.

Gave him everything I gave you

She’s giving him little gifts.

Gave him everything I gave you

She’s giving him little cute pet names.

Gave him everything I gave you

She’s giving him her heart.

Gave him everything I gave you

But there’s one thing Y/N and Sirius are giving to each other that James never gave Y/N..and that is unconditional love.

Gave him everything I gave you

James Potter finally realized that he will never get back together with Y/N. He watched Sirius as he showered her with kisses, love and attention, something he never gave her enough. He listened as Sirius declared his love for the girl every single day. That memories haunted James in his sleep, the fact that Y/N is much happier with someone else finally getting to his brain. He never wanted to know how much more Sirius loves her, he never needed to know.

Let me go, let me go I never want to know Let me go, let me go I never need to know

James couldn’t get away from the stories Sirius was telling to Remus about Y/N, about his Y/N. Except that Y/N will never be his again. He lost her for eternity, she has found her prince on white horse, and that is not him. He’s still staring at her, silently praying that she will return to him, but his hopes faded every time she kissed, smiled or looked at Sirius. Another man captured her heart, and James couldn’t do anything about it, except watch and remind himself that it’s his fault they ended.

Let me go, let me go I never want to know Let me go, let me go I never need to know

All of James’ hopes that Y/N will be his again faded in one day, in one moment. Sirius has decided to do something for Y/N, something that never even occurred James’ mind. It was lunch time and everyone was in the Great Hall when Sirius walked in. He made his way to Y/N and took her hand gently and pulled her up.

“Y/N, ever since day one we met I knew you were special.” Sirius started with a smile on his face and Y/N looked at him confused. Everyone stopped what they were doing to see what’s happening, including James, “I loved you for a very long time and I still love you, now more then ever. You are so special, your love can never be replaced and I can’t tell you how grateful I am that your heart belongs to me. I love every single thing about you, and I never want to lose you. I can go on and on about how much you mean to me and how perfect you are but I’m afraid we’ll stay here another seven years. So Y/N...” Sirius spoke from his heart, every single thing he said was true and even more. At the end he took something from his pocket. A small box, and he opened it to show a beautiful diamond ring. Y/N gasped and covered her mouth with her hands, she was already crying from all the beautiful things Sirius has said to her, “I’m not asking you to marry me yet, we’re still a bit young for that but..this is a promise ring. I promise you that I will love you with my whole heart till the day I die. I will protect you and care for you and treat you like a princess, just as I did till this day. I promise you that I am yours and that one day, I will ask you to marry me.” Sirius finishes his heart-melting speech and puts a ring on Y/N’s finger. She pulls him in a deep and passionate kiss full of love as everyone around them claps, except James.

“I love you so much and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.” Y/N says to Sirius when they pulled away. She’s crying from happiness but she’s glowing. True love makes her glow.

And that day, James walked out of the Great Hall, not looking back.

Gave him everything I gave you

Y/N has never been happier. She looks at her ring with a smile on her face every day. That’s her happiest memory in her entire life. But for James..that’s the worst memory in his entire life.

Let me go, let me go I never want to know Let me go, let me go I never need to know

Y/N’s life is full of love and happiness. She has her friends and she has the best boyfriend in the entire world. Sirius is the one for Y/N, he’s giving her everything. Sirius loves her more than life itself. There’s not a thing they wouldn’t do for each other. Their life together is just starting.

James is trying to get over Y/N, but he’s not very good at it. Wherever he goes he sees some pieces of her. Y/N didn’t think about James, but he thought about her every day and night. He wanted memories to fade, to let him go. He never wanted to be this miserable, he never knew he could miss someone this much. But he knows it’s all his fault, he made a huge mistake that cost him something that can never be replaced. He had her love, and he threw it away.

Let me go, let me go I never want to know Let me go, let me go I never need to know

~Alex

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